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Best Series Finales EVER!!!

B

bionicbob

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
After watching the series finale of BSG the other night (which I thought was pretty close to perfect as any TV show could hope for) it got me to thinking of other great TV series that had great finale send-offs leaving the audience satisfied instead of scratching their heads in disappointment.

Some of the best series finales in my mind are:

MAGNUM PI -- Getting his daughter back and rejoining the Navy.
NEWHART -- waking up with in other tv wife, it was all a dream--hilarious.
BABYLON 5 -- the blowing up of the station and Sheridon going beyond....
MASH -- what can you say, it was MASH... goodbye, farewell and amen.


What are your favorites?
 
BSG, of course, but it's still so fresh in my mind that it's unfair to call it right away. Otherwise...

Babylon 5- Sleeping in Light. A ballsy episode taking place so far in the future after a lot had obviously happened in between the last one and this one. Yet it was all character and worked perfectly.

The Shield- Family Meeting. Startling, disturbing, heartbreaking and funny. This was television at its finest.

The Wire- -30-. Wrapping up the best made show that I've seen in a satisfying way that really brought home the point of the show. It was pure Wire and I loved it.

DS9- What We Leave Behind. Some people dislike it and I've no idea why. I adore it. I laughed and I cried.

The Sopranos- Made in America. Yep, I'm one of those people.
 
For a long time it was "Blake", the final ep of Blakes 7. That was eventually joined in magnificence by B5's "Sleeping in Light".

They were both blown completely away by "Everyone's Waiting", the finale of Six Feet Under. It simply does not get any better than that.
 
I can name lots of great premieres, but not so many finales. Maybe because most of my favorite shows ever are on now.

Gooduns:

DS9, BSG, M*A*S*H, B5. But best ever for me is Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars.

I'm expecting Lost's series finale next year to blow everything else out of the water.

I haven't seen The Sopranos, The Wire, or Six Feet Under.
 
There are plenty I like but for the best and not just good...

Babylon 5
Angel
BSG
Life on Mars (UK)
DS9
TNG
Farscape PK Wars
Fraiser (though I may need to re-watch that)
Boston Legal
The West Wing
 
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The B5, Farscape, and BSG Finales were very well done. I despised the DS9 finale and that was my favorite Trek show, mainly for the WTF? Sisko/Dukat/Pagh Wraith disappointment.
 
Farscape's was good, but predictable. The only thing I didn't like was the revelation that Scorpy was really a good guy all along. His noble goals in no way justified all the things he did to John. The torture. The mind rape. The constant threat of death. And, oh yeah, remember John's Tech Girl girlfriend he shot and killed?

I liked DS9's. People bitch about the religious Armageddon stuff, but that was completing an obvious arc that they had developed since the first episode. Doing a Space Jesus arc in a franchise known for it's anti-religious views was so ballsy. I like that Good vs Evil stuff. If they had gone the opposite route, and Sisko had taught The Bajorans that religion is stupid and the prohpets are just aliens and they should grow up and deal with it, it would just be another The Next Generation episode.

The last episode of Life on Mars(UK) was amazing because it was totally up to debate. Not even the writers or John Simm or Phil Glenister agree on what it all means. But it did it without being mind-fucky and convoluted.

TNG's All Good Things was good too. They way they brought it all back to the beginning was very clever. And when Picard sits down and plays poker with his crew, well that just rocked.

The last episode of Justice League was nothing short of amazing. The JLU and The Leigion of Doom teaming up to take on Apokolpis's invasion of Earth. Big, climactic battles. Superman going full throttle and giving Darkseid everything he can take. And Lex Luthor sacrificing himself to save Earth, and taking Darkseid with him. It was perfect.
 
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I didn't like BSG's finale. It was too disjointed. I hated the back and forth structure to the flashbacks. We needed to have Kara represented by a pigeon? The audience figured it out a year and a half ago that she and Lee would never be together. We didn't need screen time wasted on their flashbacks with him chasing a pigeon supposed to be her. I still could have lived with it if it weren't for that coda that was too cute by half. I can't believe Moore tacked that on. Shame on him. Bill looking out over the plateau would have made a much better and poignant final shot.

Excellent series finales? I'll echo the sentiments about The Shield and The Wire. Outstanding, emotionally satisfying, and disturbing as well. They didn't feel emotionally hollow like BSG's finale. But the Shield and the Wire were pretty riveting all along.
 
Babylon 5 is my favorite finale. I'm not really a huge fan of finales, they always leave me wanting more, but this one didn't.
 
For comedy, it's Newhart hands down.
Hard to say for drama/sci-fi. nBSG was great, I loved the fact that both visually and story wise it was bright and optimistic, something of which the series never really was. TNG and DS9 both ended very well, and I may be one of the few that enjoyed how the series of SG-1 ended (Unending). I never saw Babylon 5, but that is probably the next series that I'll start.
 
In this order...
Six Feet Under

Second...
TNG
West Wing

All close behind....
Wonderfalls
DS9
BSG
Futurama
Enterprise :lol:

Comedies... Ones I remember...

Reba and Boston Public
 
A flying rat who can't keep her pants on. :lol: Seriously, them getting drunk and her double dog daring him to do her right there on the table and him climbing up there ready to go with his brother right there asleep on the couch was the epitome of classy with a capital "K." What wonderful people they were when they were around each other. :rolleyes:
 
I can't say enough about the series finale of "Angel".

News of cancellation didn't give enough tiem to tie it up properly so the plot had to be forced in, but he worked it in there so well, and the episode was so dramatic (and poor Lindsey), and then ending in a dark rainy alley where the odds appeared to be completely stacked against them. It's one of the things I LOVED about "Serenity" -- good people trying to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming adversaries.


And say what you want, but I liked how "Qauntun Leap" ended.
 
Though it was heartbreaking I too liked the ending for Quantum Leap - just didn't expect Sam to leap into a certain Starfleet captain's body mind.

Honourable mention to Cheers as it gave us Fraiser.

West Wing was sad but not great ... but then again I never wnted it to end so it might be sour feelings. But el Prez flying off into the sunset on Airforce One was a touching last scene.

Six Feet Under was a rocking last episode with the coolest music choice and flash forwards of each character's fate.

Then there's the famous St Elsewhere's snow globe ...

Haven't seen nuBSG finale and won't for months so I have to tip toe around here very lightly so as not to be spoiled. But can't wait.

Just wonder how things will end for ER? Harder for a show like that to end with its revolving door cast, etc.

DS9 was perfect ... if I choose to believe it stopped with the drinks scene in Quarks. Sisko declined the camping trip to see the Fire Caves on this occassion.

All Good Things had the best Trek finale. ENT feicked things up right royally as did Endgame for Voager.
 
Tharpdevenport said:
I can't say enough about the series finale of "Angel".

News of cancellation didn't give enough tiem to tie it up properly so the plot had to be forced in, but he worked it in there so well, and the episode was so dramatic (and poor Lindsey), and then ending in a dark rainy alley where the odds appeared to be completely stacked against them. It's one of the things I LOVED about "Serenity" -- good people trying to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming adversaries.
Click to expand...

The only thing that bugs me about Angel finale was I wished Joss Whedon had gone with the episode title "Fight the Good Fight" as a little homage to what they use to say about his quest early into the show.
 
If I can remember that a series finale is on, I try to watch it. I just love to see how the writers (for any show) try to end everything into a nice little bow.

A few of my faves were..

Quantum Leap..remember crying..one of my fave episodes of this show.
TNG..shed a tear..loved when Picard visited his crew, and end up playing poker..
nuBSG..didn't cry..but had an ahh! moment..loved where they filmed the ending..bright and beautiful.
Frasier..a good end to a great show..no crying for me.
Wonder Years..cried..the funny thing is that I hardly watched this show, yet I still cried at the end of it. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was almost at the end of my high school years, so I felt some sort of connection with the main character.

With Voyager..I was happy that they found home, but it felt rushed to me.

Looking forward to see how they end the American version of Life on Mars..I've read that it's suppose to be different from it's British counterpart.
 
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