Just wondering what everyone else would pick?
For me the best would have to be Breaking Bad. There was no better way they could have ended that.
As for the worst. The Sopranos. No question. Whoever decided on that ending should be sleeping with the fishes.
What are your guys picks?
Always loved the ending of This Life. It's just perfect and leaves the audience wanting more.
Let's just all forget about This Life +10...
I agree that This Life ending was one of the best things to happen to British Television (This Life starting being one of the worst)!
What, compared to Simon Cowell? Seems more than a little absurd to have so much hatred for an unassuming cult late night drama series that ran for two series nearly twenty years ago.
Blake's Seven has to be the best ever.
[spoiler]Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes or Lost [/spoiler]- something where everyone was like "oh they're in purgatory"
and all the show runners state "no it's not purgatory it's something else"
and everyone is like "are you sure?"
and the show runners say "yes, come on how much imagination do we think we have?"
and then it ends and it's purgatory and the show runners hang their heads and go "we don't have imaginations I'm sorry" :(
Also spoiler tags everyone some of us are still working our way through Breaking Bad!
Quote from: GrinningChimera on 23 December, 2013, 07:55:36 AM
As for the worst. The Sopranos. No question. Whoever decided on that ending should be sleeping with the fishes.
What are your guys picks?
Big fan of the end of The Sopranos. Thought it was all there and in my mind at least I know exactly what went down.
Best tv ending: Blackadder series 4, the bit where they go 'over the top'. Very well done I thought.
Worst tv ending: Lost.
Cheers
I always thought DS9 wrapped up very nicely, and more recently was quite satisfied with breaking Bad.
On the dark side: I was a Lost apologist right up until the 2nd last episode.
The veil was punctured by that ridiculous ending.
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 08:58:38 AM
What, compared to Simon Cowell? Seems more than a little absurd to have so much hatred for an unassuming cult late night drama series that ran for two series nearly twenty years ago.
Absurd it may be but I did have a pathological hatred for the show which was made worse every time someone went on about how great it was (although I knew plenty of other people who couldn't bear it too - I guess it was one of those Marmite things).
Everyone knows that Simon Cowell shows are shite (or at least disposable fodder) but I'd probably get equally as annoyed if people started evangelising about the X-Factor as though it was the second coming too.
Sorry if I've offended you - it probably comes off as pretty arrogant to dis something that someone else has just said that they really like. I guess we all have things we just can't bear and it hit my buttons.
It's really none of my business if you enjoyed the show and I really shouldn't try to spoil your fun.
Quote from: JamesC on 23 December, 2013, 10:59:32 AM
It's really none of my business if you enjoyed the show and I really shouldn't try to spoil your fun.
You've used the internet before, right?
Cheers!
Jim
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 23 December, 2013, 11:02:46 AM
Quote from: JamesC on 23 December, 2013, 10:59:32 AM
It's really none of my business if you enjoyed the show and I really shouldn't try to spoil your fun.
You've used the internet before, right?
Cheers!
Jim
Yeah, but it's Christmas!
Quote from: GrinningChimera on 23 December, 2013, 07:55:36 AM
Just wondering what everyone else would pick?
For me the best would have to be Breaking Bad. There was no better way they could have ended that.
As for the worst. The Sopranos. No question. Whoever decided on that ending should be sleeping with the fishes.
What are your guys picks?
Oh, you see, you've got that
entirely the wrong way round. You're welcome.
The BSG reboot could've ended really well if they had stopped when [spoiler]they found 'Earth'[/spoiler] but instead suffered a bit of a slow, vaguely disappointing burn out in my opinion.
The Wire had a disappointing last series in one way as I could have watched a few more series, but I thought it was wrapped up well overall [spoiler]and good to see Bubs get a break in the end[/spoiler].
M.
Babylon 5 had a magnificent ending: exciting, satisfying, melancholic and intriguing all at the same time.
Then they made a fifth season.
...which ended with an episode originally intended to end the fourth season. Which remains a great final episode.
Quote from: Greg M. on 23 December, 2013, 11:42:01 AM
...which ended with an episode originally intended to end the fourth season. Which remains a great final episode.
Indeed, it was that episode I was referring to. I just regret the season they squeezed in between 'Deconstruction of Falling Stars' and 'Sleeping in Light': taken together those two episodes are as good as any SF TV ever made. Although I accept that the way it played out wasn't JMS' fault.
When I was at school it was the source of much debate as to whether the kids ever got home in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.*
I had friends who swore blind that they did but a quick Google search suggests that they didn't.
I don't think the episodes were shown in the right order on BBC anyway which probably didn't help. There were certainly a couple of episodes where they appeared to get home but it was a trick and I think one where they got home but Venger came with them so they had to go back again.
So in way this is the worst of the TV endings - they're still in limbo somewhere.
*See also - did the Littlest Hobo stay with a family and live there for the rest of his life like Dale Kemp said?
Quote from: TordelBack on 23 December, 2013, 11:47:48 AM
Indeed, it was that episode I was referring to. I just regret the season they squeezed in between 'Deconstruction of Falling Stars' and 'Sleeping in Light': taken together those two episodes are as good as any SF TV ever made. Although I accept that the way it played out wasn't JMS' fault.
Ah, gotcha. I actually quite like the fifth season - well, the second half, anyway. It's a bit of a slow burn, but once we reach "You want a war? Well, you've got a war!" it gets quite exhilarating. The single biggest problem is the absence of Claudia Christian - if she hadn't gone, everything else would have fallen into place and we'd have had a superb season.
I hardly ever make it to the end of TV series.
Wasn't SAPPHIRE AND STEEL another bummer of an ending?
Dunno about the best, but Dexter has by far one of the worst endings to a TV series.
Another for the bad, Quantum Leap ([spoiler]Sam never got home :([/spoiler]) and I really liked the end of the Office. Brent telling Finchy to fuck off, Tim and Dawn getting together and Brent getting the girl. Sickly sweet? Yes. Perfect? Yup!
Quote from: Pete Wells on 23 December, 2013, 02:11:55 PM
Another for the bad, Quantum Leap...
I really liked that one. It helped that in those pre-web days I had no idea that I was watching the last episode, and so was completely gobsmacked by Sam meeting Bruce McGill aka [spoiler]God[/spoiler] in a 50's bar. Under the thin SF veneer this was always an 'angel gets its wings' type show, more Heaven Can Wait than Time Tunnel, and I thought Sam's choice worked well in that regard.
Personally I thought that the ending of Quantum Leap was superb. It was really ther only choice Sam could make.
QuoteAbsurd it may be but I did have a pathological hatred for the show which was made worse every time someone went on about how great it was
Just don't really understand how anyone can 'hate' a drama series and feel compelled to slag it off, especially one so niche. Surely you just don't watch it if you don't like it? I guess some folks just like to be the contrarian and rail against something that's 'cool' (or was cool a very long time ago).
I don't like Doctor Who - I think it's a load of silly nonsense and find it's popularity baffling. But other people seem to like it, so fair play to them.
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 04:50:51 PM
Just don't really understand how anyone can 'hate' a drama series and feel compelled to slag it off,
I can. I
HATE coronation street with a passion. Even the first couple of bars of the opening theme makes me angry. It's not that it's any worse than any of the rest really, but it has elements that combine to make it simply unbearable to me. I guess that's what 'This Life' was like for JamesC. Never really watched it, thought it was just a British take on 'Friends' really, with equally little to offer. Plus, Daniella Nardini was in it, and she's shite. ;)
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 04:50:51 PM
QuoteAbsurd it may be but I did have a pathological hatred for the show which was made worse every time someone went on about how great it was
Just don't really understand how anyone can 'hate' a drama series and feel compelled to slag it off, especially one so niche. Surely you just don't watch it if you don't like it? I guess some folks just like to be the contrarian and rail against something that's 'cool' (or was cool a very long time ago).
I don't like Doctor Who - I think it's a load of silly nonsense and find it's popularity baffling. But other people seem to like it, so fair play to them.
You've never had that experience where you try something and don't like it and then people say 'but you
must like it, it's so great'. So you try it again and you don't like it so you leave it alone, and then someone says 'so you like it now right?' And you say, 'No, it's not for me', and they get more and more drunk on 90s booze like fucking Caffrey's and keep telling you why you're wrong not to like it and you end up wanting to punch them?
QuoteYou've never had that experience where you try something and don't like it and then people say 'but you must like it, it's so great'. So you try it again and you don't like it so you leave it alone, and then someone says 'so you like it now right?' And you say, 'No, it's not for me', and they get more and more drunk on 90s booze like fucking Caffrey's and keep telling you why you're wrong not to like it and you end up wanting to punch them?
No.
I can understand it being
ever so slightly annoying having people evangelise stuff to you - I know several people who refuse to watch Breaking Bad because of the hype for example. But I'd think nearly twenty years later they'd have let it go.
QuoteI can. I HATE coronation street with a passion.
Then I suggest you don't watch it.
I make a special exception for X Factor and its ilk, because they are genuinely unavoidable and have been for over a decade - to the point where the influence of reality TV pollutes a large section of the mainstream media - which as a result is now dead to me. But I'd be hard-pressed to say I 'hate' it. I literally don't even want to add to the inane conversation about it, so just ignore it.
QuoteNever really watched it, thought it was just a British take on 'Friends' really, with equally little to offer.
Well no, they're entirely different genres for a start. And Friends (as much as its ubiquity was grating at the time) is a good show, or at least was in its first few seasons. I guess if you're one of those people who decide to hate something purely because its popular you'd hate it though.
Quote from: JamesC on 23 December, 2013, 05:03:52 PM
You've never had that experience where you try something and don't like it and then people say 'but you must like it, it's so great'.
TBH, what I find more annoying is people who insist that you aren't allowed to dislike an creator's work unless you've read/seen
all of it. How many Neil Gaiman comics and novels do I have to read to
confirm my dislike of his fiction? Good God, I've read the majority of his comics and a third of his novels, at this point surely I'm allowed to say "Actually, no, I don't think I will read his new novel if that's OK?" without a tirade about not knowing his work well enough to criticise it? I'm not criticising it, I just don't
like it!
Cheers
Jim
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 23 December, 2013, 05:22:11 PMGood God, I've read the majority of his comics and a third of his novels...
You're the kind of critic publishers like!
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 05:18:24 PM
QuoteI can. I HATE coronation street with a passion.
Then I suggest you don't watch it.
I don't. That was what's known as 'an example'. ;)
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 05:18:24 PMQuoteNever really watched it, thought it was just a British take on 'Friends' really, with equally little to offer.
Well no, they're entirely different genres for a start. And Friends (as much as its ubiquity was grating at the time) is a good show, or at least was in its first few seasons. I guess if you're one of those people who decide to hate something purely because its popular you'd hate it though.
Ah I see, you liked it, and saw no similarities at all, so I'm wrong. Thanks for that correction. As for hating things 'cause they are popular? No. I hated 'Friends' cause it was shit. 'This Life' had ENOUGH similarities (whining yuppies being the foremost) that after a couple episodes, I knew it was not for me, But you go right on telling us we aren't allowed to hate things if it makes you feel better. :P
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 05:18:24 PM
QuoteYou've never had that experience where you try something and don't like it and then people say 'but you must like it, it's so great'. So you try it again and you don't like it so you leave it alone, and then someone says 'so you like it now right?' And you say, 'No, it's not for me', and they get more and more drunk on 90s booze like fucking Caffrey's and keep telling you why you're wrong not to like it and you end up wanting to punch them?
No.
I can understand it being ever so slightly annoying having people evangelise stuff to you - I know several people who refuse to watch Breaking Bad because of the hype for example. But I'd think nearly twenty years later they'd have let it go.
Well to be honest, and without adding obvious exaggeration, that's about all it would take for me to make an ill advised quip (on an internet message board, in a thread specifically designed to provoke discussion about our likes and dislikes of past programmes).
Merry Christmas.
And sorry to double post, but saying 'if you're one of those people that hates something purely because it's popular', is the worst kind of arrogance and far worse than anything I've said on this thread.
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 23 December, 2013, 12:36:33 PM
Wasn't SAPPHIRE AND STEEL another bummer of an ending?
What turned out to be the final episode to Sapphire and Steel was originally meant to be a cliffhanger ending, and the series was going to return the following year. Alas.....
How did they ever get out of that particular pickle? Well the audio drama's from a few years ago gave the answer - [spoiler]They just did OK, now move along please...[/spoiler]
Quote from: Judge Jack on 23 December, 2013, 05:42:06 PM
What turned out to be the final episode to Sapphire and Steel was originally meant to be a cliffhanger ending, and the series was going to return the following year. Alas.....
The same is almost true of Blake's 7 - there was a chance, at the time, that it might have got a fifth series - the fourth series itself was completely unexpected and announced before anyone actually making it knew it was even going to happen. If there'd been another series, anyone Chris Boucher wanted to have survived would have - apart from Blake, as Gareth Thomas insisted that he be definitively killed off, hence all the blood and his being shot with a different sort of gun. (Oh, and Josette Simon never intended to return either, hence Dayna doing some terminal eye-rolling as she's shot.)
One that I feel deserves a notable mention is Captain Scarlet. All those amazing adventures and in the end [spoiler]it was all a dream![/spoiler] I refuse to this day to buy into the last episode as canon. Second biggest disappointment of my childhood. Maybe third.
No-one mentioned The Prisoner yet? As endings go that was both great and shite - utterly bonkers!
I liked This Life well enough at the time, if only for the outrage it tried to provoke by showing that gay men liked to cuddle, but the ending was pretty shite. The anniversary special at least dropped the pretense of not being yet another BBC show about middle class privilege and got on with things, so I thought that drew a line under it a lot better than the actual series finale managed.
I thought Star Trek: Enterprise had a great ending: action-packed, emotional, the characters moved forward, the fictional universe moved back in line with its prequel remit - I didn't really like it at the time, but I've been able to re-evaluate it without preconceived ideas of what the show should or shouldn't have been like and I've come around to thinking it was a great place to leave things, without the false pretense of closure that an episodic sci-fi prequel could never really deliver because it's merely a footnote in something larger.
Unfortunately then there was another episode that pooed all over everything.
Magnum: PI had a great series finale, but then they made another season of it and the first episode was just the character going "Whoa - I nearly died there" and acting all bummed out until he isn't. I hear the definitely for-real final episode was pretty good, too, but haven't got that far yet.
Cowboy Bebop had a great finale that captured the soul of the show perfectly.
Neon Genesis Evangelion had a really good series finale and then they remade it and Not So Much. Then they remade it again and it was just the worst kind of wank. They are currently remaking it yet again.
Probably Cheers, too. There's something really bittersweet about Sam's coming to terms with being a washed-up joke who tends bar for a living and accepting that the women he chases are transient distractions rather than something he actually wants as a permanent part of his life. A lot of tv works on the basis that everyone wants to be part of a couple, but Cheers left us with the knowledge that Sam, for all his faults, was just a people guy and the patrons of his bar - and his bar - were all he really needed.
Worst series finales for me have probably been Lost, BSG, Buffy, Alias, and Dexter. Not for being outright terrible so much as just failing to satisfy.
QuoteI liked This Life well enough at the time, if only for the outrage it tried to provoke by showing that gay men liked to cuddle, but the ending was pretty shite. The anniversary special at least dropped the pretense of not being yet another BBC show about middle class privilege and got on with things, so I thought that drew a line under it a lot better than the actual series finale managed.
Ugh, I despised +10. It just didn't seem to take place in the same universe that the series did. Classic example of a writer returning to their most beloved creation after some time away, and promptly turning out something that seemed like fan fiction.
You can't go wrong with the original ending imo. *wallop!* "Outstanding!". Freeze Frame. Had a lot more balls than some ill-advised bunkum about Egg's novel (Egg would
so never have written a successful novel) and a reality TV show.
At the risk of drawing further criticism, I'll put forward
Only Fools and Horses* as having a good, and latterly godawful ending. The 1997 specials were a nice send-off that aired just as the wheels were coming off, but the followups they did in the early 2000s were simply unwatchable.
Always hate it when they try to add more after something has unequivocally ended. Was watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the other day and remarked that I couldn't believe they made another one after that. I mean, Indiana Jones
literally finds the Holy Grail in that film, and then
rides off into the sunset.
*Love it or loathe it, I think it's
some kind of classic.
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 04:50:51 PM
Just don't really understand how anyone can 'hate' a drama series and feel compelled to slag it off,
Quote from: radiator on 23 December, 2013, 07:49:14 PM
Ugh, I despised +10.
Always hate it when they try to add more after something has unequivocally ended.
::)
Hah!
BSG had a great final episode, spoiled by the realisation that actually [spoiler]they did not have a plan and its all gone a bit metaphysical[/spoiler]. But cmon, ramming the Galactica into a space station - that was cool.
Wasn't too keen on the JLU finale where they made Batman Beyond a clone-offpsring of Bruce Wayne. In fact I really hated that particular twist.
The Shield has a great, slightly open (but as with all things in the life of the characters, catastrophically fixed into a downward spiral) ending. Everything came to a head and when the doodoo finally hit the fan, it sprayed far and wide.
I was fond of the "ending" to The Wire and I anticipate something similar with David Simon's soon-to-be-finished other masterpiece Treme which is my favourite series of all time I think. They are both realist and the endings are really a reflection on reality they are attempting to mimic and the nature of continuation - as John Goodman's character from Treme says: "Don't think in terms of a beginning and an end - in real life there is no closure"
HUZZAH
'Seinfeld' suffered from an over-hyped ending that couldn't live up to expectations. They went full circle and maintain the point that no one developed at all but it just felt like a damp squib. In contrast 'The Larry Sanders Show' ended on a real high with Larry allowing that we now could flip. Great Jim Carrey guest spot too.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8DLbAQGg6I)
I also liked 'Arrested Development' having a 'Save the Bluths' charity event which mirrored the show's imminent, but not permanent, demise.
Also another vote for 'Blackadder 4' and 'The Office' although I liked the end of the series rather than the X-mas specials "And people say she's just a big pair of tits".
Quote from: JamesC on 23 December, 2013, 05:41:49 PM
And sorry to double post, but saying 'if you're one of those people that hates something purely because it's popular', is the worst kind of arrogance and far worse than anything I've said on this thread.
You've no idea how often I encounter this. It's what comes from living in a town full of hipsters.
I'll throw this out to the board - where do ye stand on the ending of Oz?
Quote from: Ancient Otter on 27 December, 2013, 07:04:46 PM
I'll throw this out to the board - where do ye stand on the ending of Oz?
"There's no place like home..."
Worked ok for me
Cheers
Jim
Worst ending for me goes to Firefly. Because, well, it shouldn't have ended.
Honorable mention goes to the X-Files. Still my favorite TV series ever, I felt after so much quality build up for the first 6 seasons it went out with a relative whimper.
Best ending might be Spartacus. I had a huge man-crush on Andy Whitfield, so after what I consider a brilliant first season, I didn't like the next couple of seasons half as much, with Liam McIntyre being a main reason for this. But damned if he didn't go out like a man in that series finale. Great stuff, with a lot of unexpected emotional moments.
Quote from: locustsofdeath! on 27 December, 2013, 11:28:38 PM
Honorable mention goes to the X-Files. Still my favorite TV series ever, I felt after so much quality build up for the first 6 seasons it went out with a relative whimper.
The X-Files ended with the first movie. Seasons 1 -5 were pure gold. The only episode that I felt was up to the standard set by the first 5 seasons was
Drive. I still remember to this day the first time I watched it with my mum. No intro, no titles, just straight into news footage of a car chase. I don't own S6 because the rest of the season was a disappointment in my eyes, but I may well have to shell out just for that one episode. Plus Bryan Cranston was brilliant in it too. (up to that point I only knew him as Hal)
As for everything after that, it wasn't worthy of the X-Files name. Especially the Robert Patrick stuff (great actor, but didn't fit the show) Oh, and the
Lone Gunmen spin-off was great too. The foreshadowing of 9/11 - spooky!
Mad Dogs.
Baffling. Bewildering. Cop out. Sell out. Shite.
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 29 December, 2013, 10:10:06 PM
Mad Dogs.
Baffling. Bewildering. Cop out. Sell out. Shite.
I EXPECTED BETTER OF SKY ONE.
Life on Mars (bloody great)
Blake's 7 (no spoilers back then so it was a shock for me)
Indiana jones last crusade( let's say that was end)
Quote from: Judge Jack on 23 December, 2013, 05:42:06 PM
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 23 December, 2013, 12:36:33 PM
Wasn't SAPPHIRE AND STEEL another bummer of an ending?
What turned out to be the final episode to Sapphire and Steel was originally meant to be a cliffhanger ending, and the series was going to return the following year. Alas.....
How did they ever get out of that particular pickle? Well the audio drama's from a few years ago gave the answer - [spoiler]They just did OK, now move along please...[/spoiler]
Silver was the key - he was going to do something clever with the diner's cutlery (or perhaps
have done something clever, seeing as he slips out of the place just before the end).
This seems the best place to put this -
Watching it on UK telly, so just got round to the How I Met Your Mother finale and oh boy, did they fluff that.
Seems like the main problem is they were sticking doggedly to an idea they had back before the original pilot, when between then and now things had gone somewhere else. We'd been talking for a couple of seasons now about how we expected it to end, and it did go there, and that could have been perfect...but then it immediately rushed through a quick five minute (if that) resolution that felt tacked on, unearned, tone deaf and totally undid a lot of what had come before it.
Seems silly to get this bothered by the last episode of a show, particularly the last episode of a sitcom I get largely mocked for watching, but you get a bit attached to this stuff and this really felt disrespectful to the story they'd been telling and to the characters. Just...urgh.
I can't think of a single final episode of a sitcom that I thought was anything other than awful *. The whole format of sitcoms is setup, punchline, setup, punchline, and then everything basically goes back to how it was before in time for next week's episode. Deviating from that to introduce whatever inelastic plot developments are going to bring the show to a definite end just means that episode is mostly absent of the elements that made you enjoy the show in the first place.
Ideally, the final episode of a sitcom would be just another episode with no definite ending, but no broadcaster's going to pass up the huge potential audience attracted to an event show where you find out what finally happens ... in a show where nobody cares what actually happens, just as long as the gags are funny. I blame the fad for season arcs not on Buffy and Whedon, but on Jennifer Aniston and her hair her on-off thing with the giraffe from Madagascar.
* except the flippant and sardonic Blackadders 2, 3, and 4. Yeah, I know the ending of ... Goes Fourth is poignant, but that episode is just as mordantly funny as every other episode until the last few minutes, which is what gives the ending its impact
A lot of that might be true, the problem here is that most of that wasn't true for this show.
It was telling an overarching story which you always knew had a beginning and an end, it was told by an occasionally unreliable narrator who would go off on tangents meaning it wasn't linear, so the whole thing was constantly jumping all over the time line of the characters' lives.
Episodes would obviously have a focus or a mini-story to tell, but the events weren't wrapped up and forgotten about the following week - the way the flashbacks and flash-forwards worked some stories were told in little chunks over the course of different seasons and would still pop up and be revisited again from time to time, some things were cleverly set up years in advance and some gags would be overarching in-jokes that spanned the entire length of the show. Crucially as well, people did care how it was going to end up - besides just wanting to see where the characters wound up it had the hook that one day, eventually you were going to get to the point of the story.
A lot of people sneer at it for being very commercial, but I think within the framework of the sitcom it was doing a lot of very smart things. Which is why it's particularly upsetting for them to botch their finale.
Friends, Frasier, Will and Grace, How I Met Your Mother; none of these had a good ending. All were look backs,or poignant but more likely cloying in the end. The best final episode I can think of is Porridge - Lennie Godber gets released but Fletch still flicks the V's at MacKay as a final insult. No lessons learned. No kissing and making up and letting bygones be bygones. Just, yeah, life goes on and up yours. Porridge was brilliant.
Spaced ended well. And surprised no one's mentioned Black Adder, and I don't mean just the famous Goes Forward finale.
Quote from: Theblazeuk on 18 July, 2014, 06:25:34 PM
surprised no one's mentioned Black Adder, and I don't mean just the famous Goes Forward finale.
Goes
Fourth. Ahem:
Quote from: sauchie on 18 July, 2014, 05:09:21 PM
* except the flippant and sardonic Blackadders 2, 3, and 4. Yeah, I know the ending of ... Goes Fourth is poignant, but that episode is just as mordantly funny as every other episode until the last few minutes, which is what gives the ending its impact
Has anyone mentioned the BBC adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods?
A three book series was reduced to two books worth of series, with a ridiculously downbeat ending.
I still shake my fist at the BBC for that one, 'cos up to that point it was going really well!
I find the problem with a lot of American Sit-cons is that they end long after they've outstayed their welcome and the once lovable characters are parodies of their former selves. I found HIMYM to be mildly amusing to begin with, but by about the 4th seasons I foun all the main cast to be thoroughly unlikeable, in fact they had turned into such terrible, horrible people, I wanted Ted to end up alone and unloved
Woops :) I meant more in this microcosm of sitcom finale discussion
NB I know it's my problem, not yours, theirs or whatever.
Nonetheless, it genuinely baffles me when people talk about watching a series of a comedy or buying a box set of Last of the.Summer Wine. Isn't comedy something you watch the odd episode of when it's on rather than set out to watch deliberately? Probably just me. I'd never choose to see a comedy at the pictures either, even though I like laughing and sometimes they are funny.
Seen a lot of fb moaning about How I Met your Mother. Had to stop reading when a friend of a friend said it was the worst ending since Blake's Seven.
Best endings: Blake's 7, The Shield, Angel, Sunset Beach. Blackadder had a n okay ending but the whole last series was pretty dismal.
Worst: not sure. The Wire was a bit pooh but it had generated so much goodwill by then that i can't hold it against it.
Quote from: The Cosh on 19 July, 2014, 09:44:08 AM
Nonetheless, it genuinely baffles me when people talk about watching a series of a comedy
Three of my most re-watched box-sets are Father Ted, The Office & Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In the latter case, barring one season, I've watched each series' episodes back-to-back on DVD.
But I take your point- it's the genre that most easily lends itself to sporadic / opportunistic viewing.
US sitcom seasons are dragged out for so long you'd have to be a masochist to stick with them all the way through, but stuff like Partridge, Blackadder, and Father Ted were appointment viewing for me and have been rewatched many times over on repeats. I eventually saw every episide of Friends and Frasier through repeats too, because they were on at a time when I needed something to eat while eating and I get locked into routine quite easily. Wouldn't watch them on video.
Blake's Seven ending disappointed me. Though now I probably wouldn't like the ending I wanted at the time.
Worst endings of all are when a channel switch happens and I don't get the new channel. Annoying as I know the program still exists but for me it has ended.
I didn't see Firefly at the time. Seen it on DVD since and cannot understand why it didn't run at least 5 full seasons. Heck it could still be going... A very rich setting.
Survivors reboot. Had an ending with a conclusion. AND a cliff hanger for a third season or spin off. Good AND bad...
Best endings have me stumped right now. Must be one not mentioned yet but cannot think of one...
Quote from: Link Prime on 19 July, 2014, 10:34:17 AM
Quote from: The Cosh on 19 July, 2014, 09:44:08 AM
Nonetheless, it genuinely baffles me when people talk about watching a series of a comedy
Three of my most re-watched box-sets are Father Ted, The Office & Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In the latter case, barring one season, I've watched each series' episodes back-to-back on DVD.
But I take your point- it's the genre that most easily lends itself to sporadic / opportunistic viewing.
I regularly re-watch Black Books, Chef, Father Ted and Black Adder. I laugh at the same things over and over.
Quote from: sauchie on 19 July, 2014, 11:01:18 AM
I eventually saw every episide of Friends and Frasier through repeats too, because they were on at a time when I needed something to eat while eating
You needed something to
watch while eating, idiot.
Quote from: sauchie on 19 July, 2014, 12:59:13 PM
Quote from: sauchie on 19 July, 2014, 11:01:18 AM
I eventually saw every episide of Friends and Frasier through repeats too, because they were on at a time when I needed something to eat while eating
You needed something to watch while eating, idiot.
Eating
without eating. That's some art of war stuff right there :P
TV - Being Human (UK), Psychoville, Blackadder Goes Forth, Merlin, Law & Order: UK
Movie - The Dark Knight Trilogy
Comic - Star Wars: Legacy-Volume One, Nikolai Dante
Computer Game - The Walking Dead: Season One, The Wolf Among Us, Syphon Filter Trilogy
Wolf Among Us - worst endings.
Quote from: Theblazeuk on 20 July, 2014, 04:58:58 PM
Wolf Among Us - worst endings.
Oh, is the last episode out? Best go play this, then
Quote from: Batman's Superior Cousin on 20 July, 2014, 01:58:39 PM
TV - Being Human (UK), Psychoville, Blackadder Goes Forth, Merlin, Law & Order: UK
Movie - The Dark Knight Trilogy
Comic - Star Wars: Legacy-Volume One, Nikolai Dante
Computer Game - The Walking Dead: Season One, The Wolf Among Us, Syphon Filter Trilogy
I should also point out that I'm looking forward to the endings to
Boardwalk Empire,
Fables &
Falling Skies.
Quote from: Theblazeuk on 20 July, 2014, 04:58:58 PM
Wolf Among Us - worst endings.
It has one of the BEST endings if [spoiler]you didn't chase Faith/Narissa at the end[/spoiler].
It still just [spoiler]cuts out[/spoiler] right?
The actual ending scene is ok I suppose I just don't really feel the final chapter had much to say in the end.
If we're talking videogame endings now for some reason, I'll throw in The Last Of Us' jaw-droppingly Marmite final scene that adhered to the game narrative's central themes of trust and survivor's guilt, if only for the anger it would go on to instill in those expecting a big fight and some explosions and then saving the girl and curing the disease and saving the day forever - as arguably you do absolutely none of these things.
Best ending
surely LIFE ON MARS has to rank amongst them,
and Breaking Bad did it for me,
in fact BB ended in a very satisfying manner.
best endings - Quantum Leap, The Prisoner, Babylon 5, The Next Generation, Cheers
worst endings - lost, Dexter, x files, dexter, community (wait, its back again...?), oh and Dexter.
Did i mention before that Dexter might be the worst ending of a tv show EVER! The whole last season is a total fucking mess, and the season before it was only marginally better. Given the euphoric highs of the trinity Killer and Doomsday Killer, it was such a catastophoc low.
Dave:)
I'd also like to mention Dexter for worst ending. I absolutely loved that show and even though the final season wasn't the un-watchable mess people had led me to believe (I quite liked it) when i was watching the final episode I was thinking at the time that it must have been written by someone who's never even watched the show especially after the utterly callous way they killed off [spoiler] Deb[/spoiler]. I could go on but I'd just rage :lol:
Best: M*A*S*H
Worst: all covered above.
Boss starring kelsey grammer is the best programme i've ever seen or am likely to see - unfortunately it got cancelled so..... seriously check it out if you're not aware of it
Breaking Bad probably wins it for me. My other favourite drama series, Twin Peaks, was a bit of a let-down (though most of the second series was a bit iffy). Is it really coming back?
Quote from: Tjm86 on 12 August, 2014, 10:58:37 AM
Best: M*A*S*H
Worst: all covered above.
M*A*S*H should be brought back as children cartoon about alien who have replaced all the main characters from the original television.
It was a idea I got from the cover photo on the front of the official novelisation of movie that gave birth to the same television series. It looks like thing with female legs and the rest of it is a hand.
(http://www.coverdude.com/covers/mash-1970-dutch-r2-front-cover-70750.jpg)
I tried so hard to recreate this in the game called
Spore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)) and looking back at the cover picture there. I've only just realised I go the legs round the wrong way. Mine were facing forward with the palm of the hand, but I was only going by memory back then.
I used the in game creature-creator to make creatures that looked like that hand thing and thought I was spot on in my recreation at that time. I decided to make those things because I couldn't do humans very well in the game and everyone of creatures look the same, so I most definitely couldn't do any fo the characters. Although I did
Maxwell Clinger wearing his trade mark blue dressing gown and fluffy pink slippers on hang glider as the religious flying machine. I also tried hard to recreate the
M*A*S*H - 4077 outfit using the buildings creator. I thought my recreation of the
The Swamp to be very well detailed. I also wanted to make
The Swamp into the
U.F.O., but that became something that could only be described to be the
Yankee-Doodle-Doctor.
I'm not even sure if I had still have any of those on my
SPORE account page. I can only find the helicopter I did....
(http://static.spore.com/static/image/500/397/131/500397131879_lrg.png)
And it's the only
M*A*S*H I did that didn't turn out so well and yet it's the only one that I didn't lose.
I also did the army truck. Yet the hand-thing with female legs is lost to me forever. However I did find that someone had stolen it. So I stole it back and tried to reverse engineer it, but that just wasn't happening. It had been evolved I could only remove it's clothing.
I can't even find it now. Most of my stuff has between deleted from the
Sporepedia.
My name is
Fungusmonster on the official
Spore (http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=all) website.
Sorry, I don't have any best/bad-endings......only the ending to the
Seinfeld series comes to mind. Not that bad really or best either.
BTW I have the official
Hawkeye Pierce action figure as a past purchase from
Ebay....
(http://www.behindthetoys.com/images/archive/rob/MASH2c.jpg)
He sits in the bottom half of the official
Mork and Mindy - Egg-Ship....
(https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQEGDJNJ4C-FNClJsA_K25EJD3VOXIyu0s-Pt2fO0fr2IlD7FT)
The only part of it I can still find. I'm very sorry about losing that action figure and my much sort after
Evel Knievel Figure, Stunt Cycle & Power Launcher, and
Six-Million-Dollar-Man-Doll-With-Space-Capsule. (I still have that doll, but none of the accessories or his trade-mark red track-suit :( :-[ :( )
My apologies if you think that is creepy and disrespectful to both actors and further condolences towards
Robin "Mork" Williams and rest in peace.
You had me at 'official Hawkeye Pierce action figure'. Oh to live so long as to see such sights!
Please tell me he came with a little cocktail glass accessory.
EDIT: Having googled and found this:
(http://distro-1.retrojunk.com/secure/db42efa5531a4ae496ab0d1faf9d6da04e0a4e4efbaab47e4d7aef4798ced56e0e083a/image/37f7cd8ff11bf03cd29daedc929cb158.png)
...my eyes are wet with tears of joy and my MASH-obssessed wife's birthday and Christmas presents are sorted for the next few years. Not only do they exist but they are so bloody good. I'm going to work on plans for a little 3 3/4" billet tent now. Obviously I will have to live with the knowledge that there will never be a Radar, a Major Burns, Colonel Potter, Kilnger or a Trapper John, but hey, life is pain, princess.
Thank you Thryllseekyr, you have, yet again, made my day.
Quote from: TordelBack on 13 August, 2014, 06:09:07 PM
You had me at 'official Hawkeye Pierce action figure'. Oh to live so long as to see such sights!
Please tell me he came with a little cocktail glass accessory.
EDIT: Having googled and found this:
(http://distro-1.retrojunk.com/secure/db42efa5531a4ae496ab0d1faf9d6da04e0a4e4efbaab47e4d7aef4798ced56e0e083a/image/37f7cd8ff11bf03cd29daedc929cb158.png)
...my eyes are wet with tears of joy and my MASH-obssessed wife's birthday and Christmas presents are sorted for the next few years. I'm going to work on plans for a little 3 3/4" billet tent now. Obviously I will have to live with the knowledge that there will never be a Radar, a Major Burns, Colonel Potter, Kilnger or a Trapper John, but hey, life is pain, princess.
Thank you Thryllseekyr, you have, yet again, made my day.
Should have, but didn't. He arrived in a little plastic bag.
Have you seen some of the interesting
M*A*S*H episodic novels. They look like classics reads. Maybe like those two-dollar westerns. I want those as belated father's day gifts for my father.
Even though he never watches the reruns on the
Fox-Network. I watch them sometimes and was watching them regularly while trying to use it as a theme for
Spore.
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 13 August, 2014, 06:19:17 PM
Even though he never watches the reruns on the Fox-Network. I watch them sometimes and was watching them regularly while trying to use it as a theme for Spore.
We have the entire thing on DVD.
The entire thing.
EDIT: It gets better. There is a (vanilla) Klinger and a Col. Potter too!
Quote from: Official Hawkeye Pierce Action Figure on 13 August, 2014, 06:41:04 PM
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 13 August, 2014, 06:19:17 PM
Even though he never watches the reruns on the Fox-Network. I watch them sometimes and was watching them regularly while trying to use it as a theme for Spore.
We have the entire thing on DVD. The entire thing.
EDIT: It gets better. There is a (vanilla) Klinger and a Col. Potter too!
So does my older brother and his family...I mean they have the entire box-set. You know it was filmed at a in ranch in
Malibu (Technically, this is a western.) and if was in it's proper setting. Then it might have wet steamy jungle.
I just remembered I made
U.F.O. One was based on a regular
Army-Helmet and the other
Henry Blake's Fishing-Hat...you know with all the lures attached to it.....
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSflO9TifaSWYAaxmhfQHHvCsXyhEwQ0j0WpciGjjrkdVe9QpLTbw)
Yep, I made those into
U.F.O.s, because I couldn't think of anything else and I wanted a
M*A*S*H - Theme. I know I was scrapping the bottom of the barrel with some of my ideas.