# Tell us about the TV series finales that most annoyed you, and how you'd want them fixed. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050 "2013-03-15T22:06:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/121 "2013-03-20T01:01:17Z")
ISTM that bad finales are a product of not knowing if it _really_ is the finale. _Lost_ and _Sopranos_ being notable exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/122 "2013-03-20T01:43:56Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Is it? I thought somewhere in the mid seasons they established some kind of “evil leaper” who was doing just that. Other than that, I don’t recall a clear explanation of why Sam had to do what he was doing - a single reason why each of these people was out of tune with the flow of the universe. Just a vague “God needs you to fix some blown fuses” notion. As I recall, there was an implication in the early episodes that Sam’s initial leap had messed up time, and that Sam needed to repair the problems - this was why Sam couldn’t leap until he had resolved the situation he was placed into. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/123 "2013-03-20T02:05:29Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > **Married…with Children** ’s finale was also not a real finale, I think they decided to cancel it without giving the writers a chance to resolve it. I think Kelly gets married but ends up not marrying the guy somehow, right? I hated it so much I have chosen to forget about it on purpose, just like Enterprise. _Married…with Children_ could have only ended one way; Al murders his entire family, and the next-door neighbors, with an ax, and at his trial he is acquitted by a jury of twelve shoe salesmen. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/124 "2013-03-20T02:20:15Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > _sigh_ > > I really struggle with the idea that there’s people out there that don’t understand that they were only ever dead in the side story in the final season. I seem to have this discussion with my Dad every few months. It isn’t even a case of not paying attention, it feels like some people simply couldn’t have watched it. They were really damn clear about this. I think I missed a couple of posts, but doesn’t the fact that in the finale the people who are alive in one timeline/version are reunited with people who are dead in both mean something? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/125 "2013-03-20T02:27:13Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > I think I missed a couple of posts, but doesn’t the fact that in the finale the people who are alive in one timeline/version are reunited with people who are dead in both mean something? Off the top of my head (not having seen the show since it was initially broadcast) the “flash-sideways” scenes in the last season which initially appeared to be an alternate or changed universe, turn out to be a “distant flashforward” when all of the characters are dead (and are reliving different versions of their lives). But the non-flash-sideways scenes are really happening - and the characters in those scenes are not dead. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/126 "2013-03-20T02:30:19Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Off the top of my head (not having seen the show since it was initially broadcast) the “flash-sideways” scenes in the last season which initially appeared to be an alternate or changed universe, turn out to be a “distant flashforward” when all of the characters are dead (and are reliving different versions of their lives). But the non-flash-sideways scenes are really happening - and the characters in those scenes are not dead. Right, but take Hugo’s gf for example. Don’t remember her name. She’s dead in the primary story line and the alternate right? But she comes back in the finale. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/127 "2013-03-20T02:37:20Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > Right, but take Hugo’s gf for example. Don’t remember her name. She’s dead in the primary story line and the alternate right? But she comes back in the finale. Yes, that’s true - everyone in the alternate version was dead. But I’ve run into people who think that everyone died in the plane crash, and the whole series was about dead people in some sort of afterlife, and that wasn’t the case. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/128 "2013-03-20T02:53:01Z")
Not an actual final episode, but I would commit major surgery on the first six or seven episodes of the fourth season of Babylon 5. In broad outlines, the plot is great: After the Advanced Alien Race (the Shadows) that had been the Big Bad for the first 3 seasons of the show is dealt a major blow in the season 3 finale, it turns out the only thing that kept the OTHER Advanced Alien Race (the Vorlons, who had previously been helping Our Heroes) from being world-destroying assholes was fear of the Shadows. Our Heroes turn on both of them and ultimately drive them from the galaxy, leaving it to the younger races (such as we of Earth). Unfortunately, the execution was kind of bad; in particular, the final event that led the advanced races to leave the galaxy was a James T. Kirk speech given by the lead character. Here’s how I would have done it: 1 - Captain Sheridan survives the explosion, but he’s actually visibly badly injured, and has some creepy-looking high-tech alien tech all over him, holding him together. (He gradually loses the creepytech over about 5 episodes). 2 - The bit with the crew seeking out and contacting the remaining other advanced aliens goes ahead more or less as it did in the original; however, Sheridan wants them not to witness the big Jim Kirk speech, but to witness something else, to wit: 3 - A conversation with Mr. Morden, in which he offers to ally with the Shadows to destroy the big Vorlon mothership in return for the Shadows leaving the galaxy forever. (It having been established by some long boring expository conversation that the Vorlons will similarly leave and/or be destroyed if their toy is broken). 1 and 3, by the way, would go a long way to justifying Garibaldi’s suspicions of the captain and make that turn much better motivated. (Yes, I know, telepathic manipulation, but at least this way there would be some level of justification for it as well). 4 - The final battle takes place over Centauri Prime. I mean, wtf? Why not? 5 - Ideally, the final battle does NOT turn on someone going kamikaze with a capital ship. Also, no Season 5 apart from the last episode, and no other continuations. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050/129 "2013-03-20T18:16:04Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > ISTM that bad finales are a product of not knowing if it _really_ is the finale. _Lost_ and _Sopranos_ being notable exceptions. I didn’t specify it in the OP and it’s too late, but I’m not inclined to count unplanned last episodes, forced on the producers by cancellation, as “series finales.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-the-tv-series-finales-that-most-annoyed-you-and-how-youd-want-them-fixed/653050.md?page=6)