Yahoo Sports Were These Series Finales Really the Worst? TVLine Readers Defend Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, HIMYM, Seinfeld — Even Dexter!
Mmm… hot takes!
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Which Series Finale Isn't Nearly as Bad as Everyone Makes It Out to Be?
TVLine recently asked you, our beloved readers, to stand on your soapboxes and defend a series finale widely considered to be among the worst of all time. In doing so, we received hundreds of comments touting the merits of cult classics like Battlestar Galactica, Lost and Quantum Leap, iconic sitcoms such as Seinfeld and Roseanne, and prestige dramas including Game of Thrones, The Sopranos and Mad Men.
We also received quite a few unexpected responses. I mean, was anyone anticipating that somebody would defend the original ending to Dexter?
What follows are 11 of the most thought out, carefully written arguments we received… and one that got right to the point. (Thanks, Joan!) Review them all, then hit the comments and tell us if any of the following have inspired you to go back and revisit a much-maligned finale.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
“A lot of people hate how far into the religious elements they went, but it was there since Day 1. Over the course of the series, we watched both sides of the war change the way they saw the other side, and the wearing down of Galactica was a nice representation of the old ways not working anymore.” — Kyle
CHUCK
“The final season was uneven — Morgan as the intersect? Not great! — but I had no doubt at the end of the series that Chuck and Sarah were going to find their way back to each other and, eventually, Sarah would get her memories back. I didn’t need it spelled out for me.” – Stefany
DEXTER
“Dexter would have been fine if not for the final scene. That made it awful.” — Joan N.
DINOSAURS
“[The Sinclair family awaiting their inevitable demise due to an impending ice age] probably was not the way a TGIF sitcom should end, but it also was in many ways far ahead of its time in showing the consequences our actions can have on the environment.” – JD
GAME OF THRONES
“I won’t say I loved it, but I liked it, and I thought it was a proper ending. Daenerys was justifiably unbalanced considering her lineage and what had been done to her, and could have never ruled. She had killed hundreds, if not thousands of people in her search for vengeance/justice… Jon never really wanted the throne and was happiest with the Night’s Watch and the wildlings… Sansa was where she belonged, Queen of the North… Arya was off adventuring… and although Bran was technically king, Tyrion, as the Hand, was running things, which is how it should have been.” – Jane
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
“I will stand on my soapbox and defend How I Met Your Mother’s series finale to an extent. Couples getting divorced is part of life. People getting sick and dying young is part of life. Moving on with someone else — yes, even an old flame from however many years ago — is part of life. I thought it was heartwarming that Ted’s kids supported and encouraged their father to get back out there and find love again after tragically losing their mother. Don’t get me wrong: I understand the frustrations — ‘Then why make the whole final season about Barney and Robin’s wedding if you were just gonna divorce them?’ and ‘What was the point of nine seasons of buildup just to kill Tracy and reunite Ted and Robin?’ — however, execution aside, I thought the concept was bittersweet and realistic.” — Wes
LOST
“The series was never about the various and sundry and maddening mysteries. It was about whether or not its characters could find — or deserved — redemption for their past mistakes and choices. To have only watched for the former means missing the latter by default. It doesn’t matter if the writers had plotted the entire series from start to finish…. What mattered was if our main characters could battle and overcome their proverbial, psychological and — in the case of this show — literal demons. In the end, they and the show did that, and the finale, while not perfect, brought the series to a fitting end.” — J. Bernard Jones
MAD MEN
“Mad Men was subversively brilliant. Don was spiraling, and on this journey down, he had that ‘a-ha’ moment which resulted in him getting back to the top of his game (since that Coca-Cola commercial is considered one of the best ever). After hitting rock bottom, and admitting that so much of his life was a lie and he was acting his way through it, BAM! He has this creative breakthrough. It was true to his character.” — Marie
QUANTUM LEAP
“Sam finally understood that he could go home at any time. He was given the choice. But he decided that helping people was more important than going home. Sam always wanted to right the wrongs, and there was always going to be another wrong to make right… Perhaps the next thing he fixed would make the world a better place.” – John M.
ROSEANNE
“A lot of people at the time (myself included) hated the finale, but now I think it was poignant. The last season was a mess, so I don’t mind them saying it was all made up. I appreciate how they used Roseanne’s writing as a way to deal with the craziness of her life — especially Dan’s death. It was jarring at the time, but looking back, I kinda dig it. I know The Conners retconned a lot of the original run, but on its own, the Roseanne finale works for me.” — Garrett
SEINFELD
“I actually thought the Seinfeld finale was perfect. It clarified that, yes, each of these characters is a terrible person who had never before suffered for their selfishness, even though people in their orbit did. (Remember the guy who lost his job because Jerry convinced him to blow off a business meeting?) After being particularly awful, they run up against a law that makes their awfulness a crime, and they finally get what they deserve. Perfect.” – Jack
THE SOPRANOS
“What many people forget is that the ending of The Sopranos was clearly foreshadowed just a [few] episodes prior. [In Season 6, Episode 13, Tony and Bobby Bacala are talking about death, and Bobby muses: “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?”] That’s exactly what happens in that final scene. When the final scene is viewed in a vacuum, I agree it is abrupt and pretty frustrating. But when you remember the previous scene, it works perfectly.” — Rick
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