# Worst TV series ending? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435 "2011-05-19T12:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/121 "2011-05-20T17:28:17Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > “Let’s see. I am going to skip saving MLK from an assassination and instead save a random housewife in 1971 who was killed by her abusive husband. And after that I’m going to program in a couple hundred other fairly minor events that involved bad things to random nobodies. Sure, I could help with some big things, but, eh.” > > -Joe That sure sounds awful. So we can be really glad that the writers decided, instead, to go with “Let’s see. I am going to skip saving MLK from an assassination and instead save a random housewife in 1971 who was killed by her abusive husband. And after that I’m going to program in a couple hundred other fairly minor events that involved bad things to random nobodies. Sure, I could help with some big things, but, eh. I’m only God.” ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/122 "2011-05-20T17:33:00Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > That sure sounds awful. So we can be really glad that the writers decided, instead, to go with > > “Let’s see. I am going to skip saving MLK from an assassination and instead save a random housewife in 1971 who was killed by her abusive husband. And after that I’m going to program in a couple hundred other fairly minor events that involved bad things to random nobodies. Sure, I could help with some big things, but, eh. I’m only God.” Apparently you’re not familiar with how God is said to work. He tends to do things like flood an entire valley, but it’s actually evidence of his Unfathomable Love and Grace that one child managed to survive by floating on a raft made from its dead parents. So, yes, the God thing is even more believable now. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/123 "2011-05-20T18:28:49Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > I agree with BSG and Lost, but more than those it’s the non-endings of a dozen cancelled shows with potential that bother me. It annoys me when an interesting series ends on a season finale cliffhanger, and you know you’re never going to see what happens next. Like **Carnivale**. _shakes fist_ I will never get over that, never! ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/124 "2011-05-20T19:02:11Z")
Depending on your point of view the finale of [I Married Dora](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Married_Dora#Series_finale) was either brilliant or inane. I’m still not sure which way I fall on the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/125 "2011-05-20T19:12:10Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Like **Carnivale**. _shakes fist_ I will never get over that, never! Carnivale was frustrating because the showdown between Ben and Brother Justin was pretty epic. Two season’s worth of build up and we get a nice payoff, only to have this coda added to the end that’s pretty creepy and hacks up any satisfaction we get from everything that just happened. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/126 "2011-05-20T19:29:36Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > IIRC it showed that the Enterprise unknowingly caused an anomaly that would have prevented the creation of life on Earth. However, it turned out that the anomaly was a kind of puzzle created by Q to “test” humanity, humanity being represented by Picard and his crew. I don’t think so. The anomaly was created by Picard. Q, however, has come to regard Picard as a sort of favourite pet. He comes forward and tells Picard what’s happening. He moves Picard around in time, giving him the opportunity to close the anomaly. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/127 "2011-05-20T19:43:14Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Carnivale was frustrating because the showdown between Ben and Brother Justin was pretty epic. Two season’s worth of build up and we get a nice payoff, only to have this coda added to the end that’s pretty creepy and hacks up any satisfaction we get from everything that just happened. The only way I can stomach that coda at all instead of seeing it as the ultimate lame-ass Friday the 13th resurrection ending is to imagine four more seasons in the future, and think that maybe this confrontation between Ben and Justin wasn’t the epic confrontation the prophecies had been hyping but just a little skirmish to whet the appetite. Otherwise, it is stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/128 "2011-05-20T19:49:36Z")
Worst ending ever? That’d be _Life On Mars_. [spoiler] Sam Tyler really is from 1973 after all, his memories of living in 2006 are the dream. No, lets change that. He’s actually from 2006, and his life in 1973 is a dream. Also, he prefers his dream of 1973 to real life in 2006, so he kills himself trying to get back there. The first part of that would have been a great ending. Why didn’t they stop there? [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/129 "2011-05-20T20:16:39Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > It’s not exactly that the actual last episode was epically bad, although it was pretty bad. It’s that the whole series was bad, but people kept a small hope they’d somehow pull off something in the end to make it not terrible, and they didn’t. I hate to say “I told you so” . . . Aw, who am I kidding, I LOVE to say that. I gave up on **Lost** two episodes into the second season because it was painfully clear to me that the producers and writers were just making it up as they went along, and that the chances of any sort of satisfying resolution was nil. I said that a few times (even somewhere in here, I’m pretty sure) and got shouted down. So to all those who slogged through the entire series, only to find disappointment at the end: I told you so. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/130 "2011-05-20T20:38:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Nobody mentioned _MASH_? A huge build up, and then pfffft. > > The series went on about one season too long. The POV episode, the episode with the timer - end the series with that level of quality, and it could have been among the best TV ever. Instead, it was just using up characters and recycling the lame hijinks from the first couple of seasons. > > We expected more than meh. But that’s what we got. > > Meh. > > Regards, > Shodan That was my candidate, too–but I’ll go further to say that the finale totally perverted the essence of Hawkeye’s character, subsuming it into Alan Alda’s (as had gradually been happening for several seasons). I felt that Hawkeye’s whole reason for being was to show that being insane in a positive fashion was the only way to deal with the psychopathic insanity of war. To have him actually go insane obliterated that (to me) uplifting message. ---
**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:** [May 20, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/131 "2011-05-20T20:39:34Z")
The 80s tv show _Beauty & the Beast_ was notable for being virtually the only show my sisters & I could agree to watch. Its finale was awful–rushed, unsatisfying, boring. It wasn’t the creators’ fault – it was clear that they were doing their best to wrap up a storyline they had hoped to extend another season – but it was still unsatisyfing. Jo Anderson was v. pretty though. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/132 "2011-05-20T21:46:12Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > I hate to say “I told you so” . . . Aw, who am I kidding, I LOVE to say that. I gave up on **Lost** two episodes into the second season because it was painfully clear to me that the producers and writers were just making it up as they went along, and that the chances of any sort of satisfying resolution was nil. That’s not actually right. They had the resolution planned from the very start. Everything they did was designed carefully to lead up to that resolution. It’s just that when it came to it, they didn’t do a very good job of explaining what it meant. Even so, it was a fairly satisfying resolution that came close to explaining the mysteries. But the really bad thing was a sub-plot that was only in the last season. The show kept cutting between the two plots. There was a parallel storyline in which the plane had never crashed, so nobody had been trapped on the island. The dead characters are alive and well. The people from the plane keep on encountering each other, and feel that there is some mystery binding them all together. The resolution to \*that \*plot was utterly appalling. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/133 "2011-05-20T21:59:15Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The resolution to \*that \*plot was utterly appalling. And what was it? I never watched the show. My ex wife did. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/134 "2011-05-20T23:09:20Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > IIRC it showed that the Enterprise unknowingly caused an anomaly that would have prevented the creation of life on Earth. However, it turned out that the anomaly was a kind of puzzle created by Q to “test” humanity, humanity being represented by Picard and his crew. We do learn from the episode that life on Earth started…in France! Now I know why the French sound so superior. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/135 "2011-05-20T23:43:38Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Worst ending ever? That’d be _Life On Mars_. > > [spoiler] Sam Tyler really is from 1973 after all, his memories of living in 2006 are the dream. > > No, lets change that. He’s actually from 2006, and his life in 1973 is a dream. > > Also, he prefers his dream of 1973 to real life in 2006, so he kills himself trying to get back there. > > The first part of that would have been a great ending. Why didn’t they stop there? [/spoiler] Would you rather he wakes up from suspended animation on the first manned mission to Mars in the 2030’s or thereabouts? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/136 "2011-05-21T00:43:16Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > And what was it? I never watched the show. My ex wife did. 🙂 They’re all in heaven, reliving an improved version of their lives, where they made different life choices, and are better people for it. There aren’t enough :rolleyes:'s in the internet for that one. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/137 "2011-05-21T02:17:47Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > There aren’t enough :rolleyes:'s in the internet for that one. Glad I didn’t waste my time. I thought the BSG ending was bad. 🙂 ---
**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:** [May 21, 2011, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/138 "2011-05-21T07:49:00Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I liked the concept of the last Seinfeld episode, but the execution was kind of meh. And the final scene of the characters locked up bickering at eachother was a pretty good coda to the series, IMHO, so I have trouble grouping it with real trainwrecks like Lost. The finale of _Seinfeld_ was exactly backwards. The series always had a twisted logical consistency to it; the most improbable coincidences would always happen and people would follow the strangest goals and motivations, but it all made sense in a way. In the finale the gang failed to intervene to help someone, and a lineup of previous guest stars testified about how their own lives had been fucked up in their dealings with Jerry, et al. By _Seinfeld_ logic, all those people should have been testifying for the defense. Whenever Jerry, or any of them, got involved with anybody’s life, that person got screwed. Jerry tried to help a restauranteur, and it drove him out of business and got him deported. When they left that guy alone to get mugged, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. The trial should have been about the gang of four setting out to prove their own incompetence as the only way to stay out of jail. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/139 "2011-05-21T13:37:20Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Apparently you’re not familiar with how God is said to work. He tends to do things like flood an entire valley, but it’s actually evidence of his Unfathomable Love and Grace that one child managed to survive by floating on a raft made from its dead parents. > > So, yes, the God thing is even more believable now. > > -Joe Take your God-bashing to GD, please. This is Cafe Society. Thanks, **twickster** , Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435/140 "2011-05-21T16:51:28Z")
Deadwood was poor. I understand that it wasn’t meant to be a finale but the mischaracterizations were just awful. And didn’t Kelly almost get married in the last episode of Married with Children? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-series-ending/582435.md?page=8)