The Sopranos, Battleship Galactica, Seinfeld, Lost etc. are among some long running TV shows that had controversial endings. If the ending of a show you liked left you initially confused or dissatisfied, has the distance of time and reflection changed your mind about these finales over time?
I still feel incredibly cheated by Lost. I have no desire to ever watch any of the show again because of how it ended. I also feel cheated by the end of Quantum Leap.
I would like to re-watch Lost; I really enjoyed the first few seasons, but yes the ending was so horrible. It’s like eating really spicy, cheap Mexican food… at first it’s really good but you know that if you don’t stop you’re really gonna hate yourself tomorrow.
Seinfeld doesn’t bother me too much. I actually watched the very end bit just the other day and it only reminded me how much I liked the rest of the episodes.
Never saw Sopranos; gave up on Battlestar before finishing season one (way too preachy for my taste, plus spoilers said it wasn’t gonna get better); Quantum Leap was already well out of ideas by the time the finale came around and I didn’t care anymore one way or the other.
Babylon 5 could be said to have a controversial ending; they wrapped up most of the storylines in Season 4, and when they found out there was going to be a Season 5 after all they just kinda crammed whatever they could fit into it and called it a show. Doesn’t stop me from re-watching it, tho, because Seasons 2-4 were Gold, Jerry, Gold!!
I’m hoping Breaking Bad ends well; they’ve only got a half-season left, and we’ve all got our theories about how that’s gonna turn out!
Can’t really think of any other long-running shows with questionable endings.
I’m still not happy about the abomination that was presented as the Battlestar Galactica finale. Total cop out. “God did it” my ass.
I saw the Seinfeld finale in reruns a couple of years ago, and it didn’t annoy me the way it did when it first aired. It was fun to see a bunch of minor characters from past episodes return for the trial, kind of clever to set up a big happy ending (The pilot got picked up by NBC! We’re all going to Paris! Elaine still loves Jerry!) and then subvert that, and since I knew that the show already had and would continue to live on in daily reruns it didn’t seem disappointing.
I still don’t think it was great, but at least I see more what they were going for and it doesn’t really bother me. I do think it would have been better if their actual crime had been something from the past coming back to haunt them (maybe Susan’s death?) and not something totally new involving a character who’d never been seen before. I also still think it seemed out of character for them to stand around laughing as someone got robbed right in front of them. These characters were all capable of very bad behavior, but they normally had some obvious motivation like selfishness and weren’t just being jerks for fun.
The Sopranos - I like the final episode when it aired. My admiration for it has only grown since.
Lost - The finale worked emotionally, but not logically. I thought it answered a question that no one was asking. What happened to the characters in the afterlife? No one fucking cares.
I liked it when it aired, but the more I thought about it the more I disliked it. The show suffered for having such a bad ending.
Seinfeld - The finale was awful, but it didn’t ruin the show.
Battlestar Galactica - I didn’t mind the spiritual ending. The science versus faith theme was present throughout the entire series. I don’t see how it’s a cop out to have faith win.
Breaking Bad - It will end good. Every season so far had a great ending. They won’t screw it up now.
I heard this theory a few years ago, and I think it actually makes a ton of sense. Some fans wish Seinfeld ended with the trial as it was, but at the very end, the judge reveals himself to be Satan and the group is being judged for Heaven versus Hell. I think that would have been a pretty great end actually and made more sense than the real trial.
Sopranos - never watched it, but the ending sounded artsy to me, and, although perhaps not as satisfying as other choices would have been to fans, my completely unsupported intuition is that it was a suitable ending.
BSG - I stopped watching the show fairly early on. In part, because I had some issues with my DVR and never was able to watch the show in proper order, and in part because the religious stuff just rubbed me raw (religious themes do not always rub me the wrong way, but when they are gratuitous or poorly expressed, they do). So the ending didn’t matter to me either way, and I wasn’t surprised that they went that way.
Seinfeld - I thought the ending was perfect. Unusual, and it was a slight departure from the rest of the run of the show, but in a way that perfectly captured the theme of the show, IMO.
X-Files - I was really disappointed that the longer arcs of the story never panned out, but the individual episodes were so good, and the overall arc remained thematically appropriate (if nonsensical plot-wise, after a while) that the ending was simply a disappointment.
The Prisoner - I totally dug the bizarre, surreal, story-breaking ending. It was like, totally groovy, Man. Blast Off!
LOST - I am beyond bitter. If you hear that someone has assassinated JJ Abrams, you might get some reward money by mentioning my name to the FBI. I was totally sucked into the first few seasons, and followed the ARG (2nd season) devoutly. That combination meant that the treatment the series got in the last season was absolutely insulting and devastatingly disappointing.
Furthermore - and I don’t dare try to find the cites because I’m still clinically traumatized by this - I was absolutely appalled by some of the statements made by Abrams, Lindelof, and Cuse about their choices regarding the story. They explicitly and disdainfully rejected the notion that they should feel bound by any duty to storyline, and overtly ridiculed any fans who cared about such things.
Contrast this to Joss Whedon, who, in interview after interview, has expressed his reverence for story and character, and for the fans who love his shows.
When I see people defend the treatment LOST received, or even say they liked it… I know I’m looking at why our society is doomed. When Abrams’ projects continue to be greenlighted and, incredibly, manage to make money at the box office, I know I am looking at that portion of our population that would cheer for a Nazi resurgence (as long as it has explosions, because who cares about plot holes, or meaningfulness, or humanity).
Does this seem to you to be hyperbole? It’s not. I’m being quite restrained.
There is an alternate universe in which JJ Abrams has been tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. In that universe I am a critically respected author of unbelievably touching and humanistic SF, usually mentioned in line with Ted Sturgeon and PK Dick. In this universe here… I merely seek to survive (via the distractions offered by alcohol, TV and video games) the horrendously evil culture in which I am imprisoned.
When I first watched it, I took it at face value. I quickly came around to the “judgement in afterlife” interpretation.
Hmmmmm. I seem to have changed my name around here. I wonder when that happened…
I liked the ending to “The Sopranos” at the time, and I like it just as well now.
I hated the ending to “Battlestar Galactica” at the time. Now, I hate only three-quarters of it. I have to concede that thematically it fit the show (for the most part, anyway). There were iffy plot elements though, as well as unsatisfying character resolutions. And the very ending, with the dancing robots, is still cringe-worthy.
As for “LOST”? Where to begin … Everyone involved in writing or producing this show should be horse-whipped. They should be forced to wear a scarlet “L” on their clothing, so that they may be properly shunned.
LOST has probably spelled doom for any similarly-themed big-mystery shows for a generation. I know I’ve avoided them ever since. Anything that seems to have a big mystery at it’s heart, I ignore. Christ, what a shitty ending. What a shitty, shitty ending.
Quantum Leap, I thought, had a somewhat legit ending. Painful and bittersweet, but not made up of paper mache and ass (like LOST), and it did line up with Sam’s need to help people. Plus, I love Bruce McGill.
Sopranos - I LOVED that ending. I might go so far as to say it’s the perfect ending.
Battlestar Galactica starting falling apart when they landed on the planet and left the Galactica in-orbit. Right about the time they started hearing “All Along the Watchtower”, I we pretty much leaving in on for background noise. If the show goes to hell, I don’t care how bad the ending is.
Babylon 5 - I pretty much pretend the last season didn’t happen. It’s well-known they wrapped up a major storyline early because they didn’t think there would be a fifth season, and it left them scrambling for story to fill the time - plus, no Ivonova 
. I think the last 2 episodes are about all that are needed from season five, and the series finale was pretty damn good.
I don’t think the problem with Lost was the last episode, or even the last season. It was that they didn’t actually have answers to any of the mysteries they presented that lived up to the awesomeness of the mysteries themselves. Which I guess you could argue wasn’t really certain until after the show was over, but I guess my point is that the flaws were already there and basically unavoidable after season 1.
Same with BSG, I didn’t like the way it ended, but that was the entire final third of the show, not the finale episode per se.
I’ve said before that the finale to Seinfeld was backwards. All those characters who came back to testify against Jerry, et al., would have been better witnesses for the defense. Whenever the gang tried to help anyone, they wound up ruining their lives. The best thing that ever happened to that mugging victim is when they minded their own business for once.
I’d have started the episode the same way. Then, when the foursome are put on trial, their attorney visits all the old characters to try to convince them to testify. They all turn him down and the gang are convicted. That would have been the perfect ending.
Just rewatched the House finale. I think it is up there with the Newhart finale for greatest ending ever.
I know that’s not what you asked for, but I couldn’t help myself.
The spiritual aspect of the BSG ending didn’t bother me nearly as much as the anti-technology luddite aspect. If they want to tie the ending to real world history, they must deal with the unfortunate implications. Farming and other technological advances they would have had didn’t come along until a hundred thousand years later. Most likely the entire cast died horribly of disease and starvation, leaving nothing but a few genes behind from the cylon baby. Apollo’s quaint notion of being “an explorer” with nothing but the clothes on his back is romanticising the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an absurd degree, and underestimating the knowledge base such a lifestyle requires.
They also did nothing to prevent future generations from making the same mistakes with AI, as history is repeating itself again at the end. BSG had the most inadvertently depressing ending of any series I’ve seen.
Lost ending was a mess, but the show was a mess in general, so that shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone.
Babylon 5 had an amazing final episode, but the last season was weak.
J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof are lepers as far as I’m concerned. I will see no movie they worked on, because I know it will offend me.
Ron Moore isn’t at that level, but I still think the suicide by Luddism is a good example of the sort of science fiction I hate.
I love the Lost ending if I don’t think too hard about it.
I understand the writers decision, given that Lost was primarily about the characters.
Battlestar Galactica, it seems like the series just wandered from place to place. Each individual episode is brilliant, but the overall story arc after season 3 just gets stupid with all the shifting alliances and goals.
I generally expect TV finales to suck plotwise simply because they usually have to be done without adequate planning. Shows run, they get renewed, they keep getting renewed, and then at some point they get cancelled or decide to retire the show. Usually with only one season, or worse, a few episodes left, to tie it all up. I think the writers recognize that it’s very hard to do a TV ending right, so they go for the emotional hit instead of making actual sense.
I’m excited to see how Dexter ends, but I don’t expect the ending to actually be good.
Given that a lot of “geek” series can continue in comics and novels these days, and even some non-geek series(like Monk), I just hope they don’t kill Dexter off unless it’s a brilliant ending to the story. If they just do it because they have to that would suck. If they can’t think of a perfect way to end his story, they should let the comic book writers and novelists continue it, as has happened with Jericho, Buffy/Angel, Star Trek, and Smallville.
JJ Abrams left the show very early, before the first season ended.