There's this io9.com article called 10 Television Cliffhangers That Make Great Series Finales (http://io9.com/5963464/10-television-cliffhangers-that-make-great-series-finales) that inspired me to create this thread and ask you guys out there if you know of any season-ending cliffhangers that you can see functioning as ideal series enders?
Breaking Bad's season 4 ending could have functioned a finale. It wouldn't have been perfect, since there was still a lot of ground uncovered, but the major plotline that had dominated the last couple seasons had been wrapped up. Also, not quite the same thing, but for a while Farscape's season 4 finale did have to function as the series finale. And what an awful place to leave off.
Buffy Season 5's finale is the perfect ending. Pity they made two more seasons. ETA - I posted that before looking at the link, and sure enough it's No 1! LOL
Also, I disagree with them about Heroes to an extent. The end of the very first season would have been a perfect finale. It wrapped up the main story, and dropped a couple tidbits for future stories. Plus, having the show end there would have spared us the three wretched seasons of idiocy that were to follow.
The reason Season 1 of Heroes worked well as a finale was because it was supposed to be a finale. Each season of Heroes was supposed to be standalone. But critical reception of the characters (especially Sylar) meant they had to reprise their roles in season 2 and beyond. So instead of new characters finding out their powers, we got the same characters finding out that their powers have evolved, so now they have NEW powers.
The X-Files season five finale Millenium season two finale Stargate SG-1 season eight finale Dexter season four finale Being Human UK season three finale
Buffy's fifth season was the first one that popped into my head as well. A downer but it worked way better than the actual series finale did, IMO.
Although I liked the fifth season of The Venture Brothers, the fourth season finale actually felt like the show was over. The boys graduate. Gary has it out with the Monarch. Hunter gains control of SHIELD. Sgt Hatred gets back Princess Tiny Feet. Brock gets the final brush off from Mol and returns to the Ventures.
Season 6 finale of Stargate SG-1 works amazingly well. Breaking Bad Season 5.0 finale would have worked. Heroes should have blown up NYC, that would have been amazing. And each season should have been like American Horror Story but with different actors and maybe a tiny bit of crossover. Farscape season 4 ending I almost like more than the miniseries ending. The ending of season 2 of BSG is the real ending to me.
I've recently been revisiting the 2007 Flash Gordon series, which was a much better show than most people think; its first half-dozenish episodes were so weak that it hemorrhaged viewers quickly, so few people stayed around to see how much it improved in the last 2/3 of the season, and thus it had no hope of renewal. But its finale, while it had cliffhanger elements, was in many ways a perfect ending. It wrapped up the season's arcs quite nicely and showed the beginning of a status quo which was essentially what fans (all 17 of us) had wanted for the series all along. I agree with the io9 article about the V revival's finale being a perfect ending. Sure, it represents total victory for the villains and defeat for the heroes; but the heroes had been thoroughly incompetent and unpleasant throughout, while the main villain Anna had earned her victory through her cunning, her dedication, and the loyalty she inspired in her people. So honestly she deserved to win much more than the "heroes" did. I thought it would've been a perfectly appropriate ending. I mean, Farscape was never conventional and always thoroughly weird and wild. It would've been entirely fitting for the series to end with a shocking, frustrating twist that left no doubt that the characters' crazy adventures would continue indefinitely.
Dexter and Six Feet Under, had they only lasted one season, would have left me remembering them as great shows. Stargate season 7 or 8 would have made great finales. Babylon 5 season 4. Heroes season 1 is also a super obvious one. Or 24 season 1, 2 or 4. Also Flashforward, though IMO it deserved better ratings than it got, went out on a very satisfying note.
Honestly, were it not for the final scene, Bad Timing would have made a decent "conventional" finale, too. It managed to wrap up Crichton's story in what I thought was a very satisfying way.
Which is exactly why I liked the final scene. It was just like Farscape to pull the rug out from under a conventional ending and leave its audience going "Aaaaa! What the hell was that??!!!" I was actually a bit disappointed when they came back and resolved the cliffhanger.
That felt like it was designed to be a series finale, and would have ended the series perfectly during its prime.
To quote myself: As much as I'd love to see the other prospective two "volumes" of two seasons each, Carnivàle was a beautiful nightmare of a show, and no dream ever really lasts long enough to resolve all its plot points. In a way, Carnivàle's abrupt ending is perfect.
I'd have rather had the seventh season finale of The X-Files, "Requiem", serve as the series finale. I know, lots of people seem to love season 8. I don't, especially not the gag-worthy "Scully's miracle baby" arc. But Requiem was a solid end to a largely underwhelming season, the last moment the series still felt like its old self, and a nice bookend-style trip back to the story and characters of the pilot episode. Mulder disappearing aboard a UFO seems oddly appropriate for the character and Scully's hospital bed revelation of her pregnancy works, in hindsight, better as a final, mysterious twist than it does a drawn out story arc about alien super soldiers.
The season finales of Alphas and the Eric Close/Dennis Haysbert Now and Again (if I remember the title correctly,) work excellently as series finales in which pretty much everyone dies. Logically satisfying, if not upbeat.
Yeah, it was not a cliffhanger per se. However, it really would have been a perfect finale. If anything, I worry they'll not be able to top it with the actual finale. In another "it wasn't necessarily a cliffhanger" example, the Fifth Season finale, where the FBI raids a mob sit-down and Tony has to run back home through the snow, into Carmella's arms, could have functioned as a finale if need be