# Least satisfying series finales (spoilers likely)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 25, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208 "2006-05-25T17:58:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/1 "2006-05-25T17:58:26Z")
So…
I went into the last episode of _Justice League Unlimited_ with high hopes. Darkseid back and looking for vengeance–good. (Well, good to WATCH.) Apokalips invading Earth–VERY good. Every super-hero on Earth dropping what they’re doing to get into the fight–good. (Though I don’t think Mister Terrific should have had to bother saying “Omega Level Threat.” Wasted syllables there, super-brain; just say “Darkseid.”) Reluctance alliance between the League & the Secret Society–excellent.
But the execution sucked.
It comes down to four things, I think:
1. **Too damn rushed.** I’m sorry, but why wasn’t this an hour? You can’t tell me they couldn’t have sacrified one of the several place-holder episodes to make the finale longer, even if Toon wouldn’t give the creators an hour long sendoff, they could have made this a two-parter. (And the previous episode doesn’t qualify; it centers on the Society, not the League.
2. **No sense of continuity.** Darkseid wants revenge on Superman for killing him, but claims that the Big S barely held his own in the last battle? Dumb. Earth is the scene on a massive battle that must have killed thousands of civilians (hell, the Daily Planet building looks to be completely destroyed), but by the end of the episode, only hours later, the heroes are all in a good mood rather than quoting Pyrrhus? Idiotic.
3. **Making your heroes look like idiots.** Superman makes a big speech about not having to hold back for once, delivers some epic punches, but falls prey to another of Apokaliptan gizmo? Hell, he’s going to force Darkseid into a confrontation and takes BATMAN for backup instead of Wonder Woman or GL? Aargh.
4. **Lex Luthor saves the day.** Excuse me? Hello? The name of this show is JUSTICE LEAGUE. It’s the show’s last effort, showing Earth’s heroes against their mightiest enemy brought back by the insane machinations of their second-worst enemy, and the heroes get sidelined for the final confrontation? For that matter, why was Luthor even free? It’s one thing to let the Giganta and the other members of the society who want to help defend Earth do so. It’s something else to let roam free a guy whom you know deliberately set out to recreate a villain who’s tried to destroy earth multiple times, accidentally resurrects an even worse villain, and then declares that he’s come home so that you can help HIM get revenge, not so that he can help defend the planet. The second Luthor said “You’re here to help me get revenge,” you’d expect Batman to cold-cock him and tell GL to send him to orbit in a nice green bubble.
Obviously I wasn’t happy with the JLU finale. What other series finales have left similar bad tastes in your mouths, Dopers?
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/2 "2006-05-25T18:11:53Z")
_The X-Files_ inflicted a truly awful series finale on its fans. It reeked of creative exhaustion. And, worst of all, a considerable section of it was basically a CLIP SHOW. Instead of trying to serve as a rousing sendoff, it was wasting our time with "I remember that time when … " garbage.
Perhaps the blow was softened by the fact that Season 8 and Season 9 were fairly limp as well.
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### Author:  [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/3 "2006-05-25T18:45:53Z")
Before anyone decides to chime in with Enterprise, I’d just like to remind everyone that there never was a series finale. Especially not one involving TNG characters. The show just vanished off the air one day without a finale. No finale was ever made.
For those that have seen it, _Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon_’s ending bothered me too. Granted, the show wasn’t that good anyways, but I hate how they went with the usual ending for a Sailor Moon storyline. The live action didn’t manage to pull it off near as well as any of the times the anime did it.
If nothing else they should’ve left Minako dead, IMHO
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/4 "2006-05-25T19:04:00Z")
The ultimate, of course – **The Prisoner** It was a limited-run series with highly experimental and creative ideas. The finale was a real letdown for anyone expecting a rational end to the series. It was hard to make a case for a good symbolic end, either. It’s hard to avoid the thought that they didn’t know _what to do_, and just threw in a lot of bizarre, unrelated things and hope it would gel. It didn’t.
a friend of mine had an interesting take:
The entire series happens in The Prisoner’s Mind. Despite McGoohan’s claims that this is _not_ John Drake from Secret Agent/Danger Man, he acts so much like him that we may as well assume the identity. My friend posits that Drake’s superiors asked him to do sdomething that violated his personal code of ethics. yet he was a dedicated and sword agent. He went insane, and this series is his mind’s attempts to cope with the dilemma. There’s not a bit of support for this in anything McGoohan’s said or written, but it’s intriguing. Even though I hate the “it’s all in their dreams/heads” explanations for things like Minority report. It’s just too facile. You can explain damned near anything that way. at least in Total Recall they spelled it out as a possible interpretation.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/5 "2006-05-25T19:05:18Z")
I’ll head this one off at the pass… The Seinfeld finale is MUCH MUCH better if you watch it thinking the characters died when the plane crashed and everything else is them in the afterlife and on trial to see if they go to heaven, hell or purgatory.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/6 "2006-05-25T19:11:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I’ll head this one off at the pass… The Seinfeld finale is MUCH MUCH better if you watch it thinking the characters died when the plane crashed and everything else is them in the afterlife and on trial to see if they go to heaven, hell or purgatory.
Maybe they go to The Village.
“This Village is about _nothing_!”
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/7 "2006-05-25T19:14:40Z")
> [@Push You Down](#):
>
> I’ll head this one off at the pass… The Seinfeld finale is MUCH MUCH better if you watch it thinking the characters died when the plane crashed and everything else is them in the afterlife and on trial to see if they go to heaven, hell or purgatory.
How could there be any question whether George was going to hell?
Elaine was too hate to be damned, though.
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### Author:  [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/8 "2006-05-25T19:15:47Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#):
>
> _The X-Files_ inflicted a truly awful series finale on its fans. It reeked of creative exhaustion. And, worst of all, a considerable section of it was basically a CLIP SHOW. Instead of trying to serve as a rousing sendoff, it was wasting our time with "I remember that time when … " garbage.
>
> Perhaps the blow was softened by the fact that Season 8 and Season 9 were fairly limp as well.
Seasons 8 and 9? What are you talking about? I still haven’t figured out why they never came back from hiatus after the movie.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/9 "2006-05-25T19:18:06Z")
I’ll also point out that the **Twin Peaks** last show was not intended to be the final episode of the series, but a cliffhanger to be resolved the next season. If you assume it’s the former, it’s very disappointing, of course, but that is clearly not the intention.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/10 "2006-05-25T19:20:54Z")
> [@Homebrew](#):
>
> Seasons 8 and 9? What are you talking about? I still haven’t figured out why they never came back from hiatus after the movie.
Harsh! I really enjoyed Seasons 6 and 7.
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### Author:  [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/11 "2006-05-25T19:31:21Z")
I like my Scully a non-believer.
At first blush I was _very_ upset at the ending of _Angel, the Series_. Livid even. But in retrospect, I think the ending was great considering how it had to be rushed with the unexpected cancellation. The unresolvededness of it, the Butch and Sundance freeze-frame, and the completed redemption of Spike were terrific.
I think the real disappointment was the finale of _Buffy_. The last season was uneven but showed signs of the potential to be brilliant as it was before. But the writers never seemed to pull it together and then the Big Bad was just not so bad afterall. It was just anticlimatic in the end.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/12 "2006-05-25T19:51:04Z")
I think the last season of Angel is pitch perfect. Much MUCH better than the season before it.
Buffy season 7 was really a mess. I mean, when more people are excited about a Trogdor the Burninator reference than the world being full of Slayers, something is wrong.
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### Author:  [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/13 "2006-05-25T19:50:32Z")
_Quantum Leap_
And I will NEVER like it, no matter what the appologists try to dig out of that terrible, terrible non-ending!
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/14 "2006-05-25T19:55:11Z")
> [@Push You Down](#):
>
> I think the last season of Angel is pitch perfect. Much MUCH better than the season before it.
Are you mad? Season 4 Angel is not just the best season of Angel, it is quite possibly the best season of any television show period.
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/15 "2006-05-25T20:01:30Z")
I don’t know a single fan of **Carnivàle** who wasn’t outraged by the ending. This was much, much worse than the many TV series that just stop with a lot of loose ends dangling. This made people angry.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/16 "2006-05-25T20:06:03Z")
> [@Skald the Rhymer](#):
>
> Are you mad? Season 4 Angel is not just the best season of Angel, it is quite possibly the best season of any television show period.
Is that the season where a blue armored demon runs around, fire falls from the sky, Cordie is preggo, sleeps wth Connor, but its not really Cordie that’s preggo its a major demon, she gives birth to…um herself?..She unites the world in peace and harmony (or it is just LA? It seems to depend on the episode) also she eats people and has to be stopped.
God that season sucked. It started out well. “I’ll take away the bucket” is probably one of my top favorite lines from the series.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/17 "2006-05-25T20:20:50Z")
> [@Push You Down](#):
>
> Is that the season where a blue armored demon runs around, fire falls from the sky, Cordie is preggo, sleeps wth Connor, but its not really Cordie that’s preggo its a major demon, she gives birth to…um herself?..She unites the world in peace and harmony (or it is just LA? It seems to depend on the episode) also she eats people and has to be stopped.
>
> God that season sucked. It started out well. “I’ll take away the bucket” is probably one of my top favorite lines from the series.
[Stewie Griffin]
I’m afraid I cannot tolerate such insolence; when I am god-king, I shall have to have you terminated. But because of your recognition of the brilliance of the “bucket” line, your death shall be quick and painless.
[/stewie griffin]
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/18 "2006-05-25T20:23:27Z")
The last episode they aired of _Firefly_ just _sucked_ as a series ending. I mean, it’s like they’re trying to start a series going with all the introduction of new characters and plots and things, rather than tidying up loose ends!
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### Author:  [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/19 "2006-05-25T20:28:55Z")
> [@Skald the Rhymer](#):
>
> [Stewie Griffin]
> I’m afraid I cannot tolerate such insolence; when I am god-king, I shall have to have you terminated. But because of your recognition of the brilliance of the “bucket” line, your death shall be quick and painless.
> [/stewie griffin]
I have to agree 100% with **Skald**. That was my favorite season of any show ever.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-satisfying-series-finales-spoilers-likely/358208/20 "2006-05-25T20:38:40Z")
> [@Homebrew](#):
>
> I have to agree 100% with **Skald**. That was my favorite season of any show ever.
::sliding Homebrew his/her gratuity.::
Thank you for your support. When I am God King, your death shall ALSO be quick and painless.
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