As an alternative to this thread, which asks the question, for which shows should one skip the last season? My question is, for which shows is that last season simply terrific and definitely unskippable?
My nomination is Angel, whose fifth and last season is widely regarded to be the best.
We should probably restrict this to shows with more than two seasons.
Dead Like Me. Of course, there were only 2 seasons.
I enjoyed that show very much! Pity it only had the two seasons. It starts strong, but ends even stronger, I agree.
While I don’t agree that Angel’s fifth season was its best (that’s the fourth), I will agree that it was superior in most ways to the first; its main fault was the lack of Charisma Carpenter.
Parks & Recreation, by far. The first season was terrible.
Seinfeld!
I could rewatch pretty much any episode from any season except the first. Not that it was =horrible=, just that it was the weakest, by comparison, with season 2 coming a close second. The writing for the show generally improved throughout its run, IMO.
I’m surprised you consider this a fault. David Boreanas eventually learned to act; Charisma Carpenter, for all that she was lovely, never did.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The first season was mediocre; the next few seasons showed promise, but were too hesitant to commit to a longer arc, always setting up something interesting during one sweeps period, then spending two months on half-assed technobabble-laden alien-of-the-week episodes, then neatly resolving the previous setup with a two-parter in the next sweeps month. Supposedly Paramount didn’t want long arcs because they make a show less valuable to second-run syndication.
For the final two seasons, the producers said screw being a half-assed sci-fi show, let’s just turn it into a soap opera in space. The final two seasons were amazing, and probably my favorite seasons of any Trek incarnation, even beating out the first 2 years of the original show.
But she is very, very nice to look at.
Kind of glad to hear this. I tried season 1 and it did nothing for me. Perhaps I need to stick with it for a bit.
I don’t think Charisma Carpenter is all that good looking, actually. I don’t find her face pleasing, and while she has nice legs (or did back then; I haven’t a clue what she looks like now), her breasts are too big for my taste. Yes, I know I’m a freak.
Anyway, perhaps I should have said the show was lacking Cordelia Chase rather than the actress.
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles
Nah, every single episode of that show was perfect. It’s a shame it got canceled. 
Isn’t it still ongoing? I didn’t think it’d had its last season, yet.
I haven’t seen that last season since it originally aired, but I seem to recall Cheers staying good until the end.
I dunno, it was a spectacularly good show while it lasted – but perhaps it was better to go out on a high note. It even wrapped up the second season in a pretty good place; it didn’t leave any outstanding story lines hanging.
If the third season would have been anything like the movie, I’m glad that’s as far as it went.
I agree. However, the follow up movie sucked.
I was taking “last” to mean “most recent,” not “ultimate.” I guess I posted too fast.
And Knorf, please do. I think you will be rewarded.
I think Law & Order with McCoy/Cutter/Ruberosa was better than Schiff/Stone/Robinette.
Cops were probably a wash. I liked Van Buren better than Cragen, but the cops Logan/Greevy were better than Lupo/Bernard.
L&O had some lean years in between with Farina and Bratt and Sutherland and Thompson. Orbach and Martin helped the average during many of those lean year.
Van Buren*/Briscoe*/Green/McCoy/Cutter/Ruberosa* would be my all star lineup with the * going to the all stars.
the shield.
South Park, especially in terms of artistic style and political messages. The early plots are classic and memorable, but not nearly as intricate or well-developed.