Best And Worst TV Series Endings

[TordelBack]

...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.

[JamesC]

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?

[Greg M.]

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.

[Tiplodocus]

I hardly ever make it to the end of TV series.

Wasn't SAPPHIRE AND STEEL another bummer of an ending?

[Chris Tresson]

Dunno about the best, but Dexter has by far one of the worst endings to a TV series.

[Pete Wells]

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!

[TordelBack]

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.

[Bolt-01]

Personally I thought that the ending of Quantum Leap was superb. It was really ther only choice Sam could make.

[radiator]

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

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.

[Ghost MacRoth]

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.

[JamesC]

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

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?

[radiator]

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?

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.

I 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.

Never 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.

[Jim_Campbell]

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

[TordelBack]

Good God, I've read the majority of his comics and a third of his novels...

You're the kind of critic publishers like!

[Ghost MacRoth]

I 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'.

Never 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.