# How would you rank these five series finales? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509 "2019-04-13T20:22:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/1 "2019-04-13T20:22:15Z")
[I read this article about series finales](https://tv.avclub.com/5-series-finales-that-had-their-work-cut-out-for-them-1833895112) and since Game of Thrones is ending soon, it made me remember how much I anticipated those. How would you rank the five in that article: LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Orphan Black, Twin Peaks, The Shield For Twin Peaks, we are using the last episode of season 3, which really does serve as a series finale; I actually hope it doesn’t come back after that. I would rank them like this: 1. Battlestar Galactica - It gets hate, but I absolutely loved it. 2. LOST - Also gets hate. I actually get some of the hate on this one, but I still found it very satisfying. 3. Twin Peaks - Haunting. Absolutely haunting. 4. Orphan Black - I actually like how they wrapped everything up in the first 15 minutes or so and then showed the aftermath for most of the episode. Not seen: The Shield Kind of like I did, feel free to leave out the ones you have not seen. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/2 "2019-04-13T20:26:37Z")
I’ve seen only _Lost_, so I guess it’s at the top _and_ bottom of my list. (Well, I did see _Battlestar Galactica_, but I don’t think you mean the late-1970s version.) ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/3 "2019-04-13T20:35:20Z")
I didn’t watch most of these (actually, any of them) to the end, so I’ll bow out of the actual rankings, but I think it’s bizarre that they didn’t include The Sopranos, which had literally ONE question to answer…and didn’t answer it (at least not to the satisfaction of most viewers). ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/4 "2019-04-13T20:48:59Z")
I hated the metaphysical aspects of the BSG finale. After the show went on and on about how Star Trek would hand wave away things with technobabble, they did it with religious babble. Also I felt that we should have learned we were the descendants of the Cyclons not the Humans. I really liked the Lost finale. In fact I went from a mostly lurker to poster on this board because I really wanted to write out my thoughts on the Lost finale. I didn’t watch the others. I never watched Twin Peaks or the Shield and I never saw the final two seasons of Orphan Black. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/5 "2019-04-13T20:55:04Z")
Like Siam Sam I’ve only seen one of this series, BSG, and i liked the ending just fine. It fit the rest of the series. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/6 "2019-04-13T20:56:05Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I hated the metaphysical aspects of the BSG finale. I assume you mean the metaphysical aspects of the entire BSG show, because its not like they pulled that stuff out of their ass in the last episode. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/7 "2019-04-13T20:58:09Z")
Only seen two. Rate _Orphan Black_ ending at “don’t remember” and _BSG_ ending as “a shit sandwich that has been soaked in aged donkey urine and sprinkled generously with alum and ipecac.” ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/8 "2019-04-13T21:58:39Z")
_Newhart_’s series finale still beats all of those, and tops _M_A_S_H\*\*‘s and _The Sopranos_’ too. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/9 "2019-04-13T22:07:08Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > _Newhart_’s series finale still beats all of those, and tops _M_A_S_H\*\*‘s and _The Sopranos_’ too. **Babylon 5** is also a top one. I was blown away by it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/10 "2019-04-13T22:16:08Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > _Newhart_’s series finale still beats all of those, and tops _M_A_S_H\*\*‘s and _The Sopranos_’ too. See, “it was all a dream” is as overused a cliche as “they were Adam and Eve”, but in the case of _Newhart_ it didn’t bother me because it was played (very well) for a laugh, instead of smugly acting like it was something profound. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/11 "2019-04-13T22:21:31Z")
There’s plenty of series with great endings, recently 12 Monkeys had a perfect ending. Spartacus: War of the Damned was amazing, so was another Starz show called Black Sails. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/12 "2019-04-13T22:24:58Z")
Of those, I’ve only seen BSG and The Shield – I thought BSG’s ending was terrible, and The Shield’s ending was great. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/13 "2019-04-13T23:05:29Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > _Newhart_’s series finale still beats all of those, and tops _M_A_S_H\*\*‘s and _The Sopranos_’ too. The article referenced isn’t really about series finales in general - it’s about finales of huge, sprawling series with lots of dangling plot threads that need to be tied off. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/14 "2019-04-13T23:13:07Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I assume you mean the metaphysical aspects of the entire BSG show, because its not like they pulled that stuff out of their ass in the last episode. Pretty much everything surrounding Starbuck’s return sucked and was a cop out. And yeah it was their version of technobabble all along. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/15 "2019-04-13T23:14:45Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > There’s plenty of series with great endings, recently 12 Monkeys had a perfect ending. Spartacus: War of the Damned was amazing, so was another Starz show called Black Sails. 12 Monkeys did do a great job. But Black Sails? Totally forgettable. I was so disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/16 "2019-04-14T03:48:58Z")
The only one on the list I saw was “The Shield”, which had a pretty satisfying ending. The last season was a mixed bag, though; I wasn’t a big fan of the “magic box of blackmail” plotline. One series finale I really enjoyed was “The Leftovers”. It was an interesting way to end the series, and I found it very satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/17 "2019-04-14T13:41:08Z")
Shield. Sopranos. The Leftovers. Breaking Bad. I can’t think of a fifth. Not Lost. BSG. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/18 "2019-04-14T14:15:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > **Babylon 5** is also a top one. I was blown away by it. I agree Babylon 5 had an amazing end. BSG ending was atrocious. I didn’t think the spiritual elements were that bad, but the luddite aspect was absolutely awful. Realistically most of the characters we followed for the duration of the series will be dead in 5-10 years. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/19 "2019-04-14T15:05:41Z")
All I can say is, the way this season is shaping up? I’m reserving the bottom spot for Big Bang Theory. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509/20 "2019-04-14T15:48:14Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > All I can say is, the way this season is shaping up? I’m reserving the bottom spot for Big Bang Theory. We could do a thread just for sitcom finales, which are definitely different. My favorite sitcom ones are: MASH Scrubs\* Cheers The Office(US) The Office(UK) 30 Rock Newhart [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-rank-these-five-series-finales/832509.md?page=2)