Favorite unintentional series finales

[Joe Washington]

What I mean by "unintentional series finales" are episodes that weren't meant to be the actual ends of the TV shows they were a part of but they ended up that way due to abrupt cancellation.

I consider the recent Hannibal finale to be among my favorites. It wasn't meant to be the end but felt right that way at the same time.

What about you? Any unintentional series finales come to mind that are close to your TV viewer heart?

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Caprica

If Defiance doesn't get picked up for another season, the finale for the third season was pretty great.

 

[Christopher]

Off the top of my head, I think the RoboCop: The Series finale worked pretty well. That was before serialization became common, so there weren't really any dangling threads left over, and it was a good culmination to the season, bringing back the three main recurring villains for a final, epic crime, and ending with a really good speech from RoboCop. The producers may have been well aware that they were unlikely to get a renewal, so perhaps it wasn't entirely "unintentional," but it works well as a closing point to the series (though I still regret that the series didn't continue).

 

[Lonemagpie]

Can we count Blake's 7 in this one...

 

[Christopher]

Can we count Blake's 7 in this one...

I was expecting someone would. But can it really be considered an unintentional finale, given how, well, final it was?

 

[auntiehill]

Yeah, that would be pretty damn final.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I liked the Flashforward finale quite a bit. It wrapped up all the mysteries of the season pretty well and ended on a second blackout and the looming knowledge that if the exact correct sequence of events were not followed the world would end.

I've heard that the Twin Peaks finale was not intended to be a series finale but David Lynch changed some things around when he found out it was. And it led to one of the weirdest, most unsettling hours of television ever.

 

[Tosk]

Dark Angel, although most of the rest of the season was crummy.

Firefly, provided we're treating Objects in Space as the finale.

Quantum Leap, although they did know there was a good chance it would be the end.

Happy Endings.

Dead Like Me.

Does Arrested Devlopment count? They knew the end was nigh, but I can't recall if they 'finished up' before the plug was pulled.

 

[Timewalker]

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven was actually renewed for a second season, but when corporate stuff happened with the production company, the new owners decided to cancel it. So the series left off on not quite a literal cliffhanger, but I'd say a "bridge-hanger" is a good analogy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_oigA5ka_M

 

[Beagleman]

Caprica

If Defiance doesn't get picked up for another season, the finale for the third season was pretty great.

Yes and yes. (Though of course I really hope Defiance isn't ending.)

Hannibal is a great example too.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Space: Above and Beyond really set something good up for its story in its final episodes, left you wanting more, but it also went out in spectacular fashion as well. The same could be said about Gravity.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Does Arrested Devlopment count? They knew the end was nigh, but I can't recall if they 'finished up' before the plug was pulled.

If you mean the original FOX run, I think that counts. The finale was essentially a lengthy call back to the pilot, only with Michael finally escaping his family this time to let them stew in their own misery.

 

[Starkers]

Can we count Blake's 7 in this one...

I was expecting someone would. But can it really be considered an unintentional finale, given how, well, final it was?

Anyone who wanted to come back was only stunned, anyone who didn't was dead, and we never saw Avon go down so all that gunfire could have been a bunch of rebels shooting all those Federation troopers in the back

Although in the end it didn't turn out to be the series finale, the final moments of Doctor Who's Survival were pretty apt.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

The same could be said about Gravity.

I meant Defying Gravity, doy!

 

[DimesDan]

Bad Timing.

 

[Kor]

Does anyone remember the UPN show "Nowhere Man" from the 90s? I think the ending fits in with this discussion.

Also Michael Mann's "Crime Story" from the 80s.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

Does anyone remember the UPN show "Nowhere Man" from the 90s? I think the ending fits in with this discussion.

Except this is supposed to be about good finales. Nowhere Man was a mess overall -- its attempt to tell a Prisoner-style paranoia show in a Fugitive-style wandering format couldn't really work, because it pretty much required most of the population of the United States to be cooperating in the "secret" conspiracy against this one guy -- but its finale was a much greater mess. They basically revealed that nothing we'd seen for the previous season was what it seemed, but in a way that made no sense whatsoever and gave the impression that they were just making stuff up as they went and had never really had any idea what the secret behind the conspiracy was. It was the kind of finale that made everything before it seem worse and more pointless.

 

[ToddPence]

They basically revealed that nothing we'd seen for the previous season was what it seemed, but in a way that made no sense whatsoever and gave the impression that they were just making stuff up as they went and had never really had any idea what the secret behind the conspiracy was. It was the kind of finale that made everything before it seem worse and more pointless.

It sounds like you're describing exactly the series finale of LOST, doesn't it?

 

[Kor]

Does anyone remember the UPN show "Nowhere Man" from the 90s? I think the ending fits in with this discussion.

Except this is supposed to be about good finales. Nowhere Man was a mess overall -- its attempt to tell a Prisoner-style paranoia show in a Fugitive-style wandering format couldn't really work, because it pretty much required most of the population of the United States to be cooperating in the "secret" conspiracy against this one guy -- but its finale was a much greater mess. They basically revealed that nothing we'd seen for the previous season was what it seemed, but in a way that made no sense whatsoever and gave the impression that they were just making stuff up as they went and had never really had any idea what the secret behind the conspiracy was. It was the kind of finale that made everything before it seem worse and more pointless.

Maybe it's because I was thirteen when this show was on the air, but I always thought the whole thing was absolutely brilliant!

Kor

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Lost's finale was a mess but it didn't make the first five seasons any less awesome. I think some people were just mad nobody stood up and said "HAHAHA! I have been behind all of this the whole time for these reasons and these are the specific mechanics by which the magic works!"

I liked the way Nowhere Man started out but it never really defined the motivations of the central villain. Their conspiracy seemed to be this. Take some guy. Erase his memory and implant fake memories. Convince him that he was a photographer whose identity was erased to cover up a photograph of some execution in South America. Program his fake memories to self-erase after a set period of time. Have a bunch of random agents pretend to be his friend every so often. Gain absolutely nothing from it but lose several of your best men. Repeat.

If it didn't air after Voyager it probably wouldn't have lasted the season.