Best Series Finales EVER!!!

[The Borgified Corpse]

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.

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.

Not a bad idea. If they'd just called it "The Good Fight," it also would have been a nice callback to Doyle's death. "'The good fight,' yeah? You never know 'till you've been tested. I get that now."

But I definately agree that the Angel finale is one of my all-time favorites. I love the breathless cliffhanger that it leaves you on, leaving that final battle to your imagination. Personally, regardless of what the comic books say, I prefer to think that none of them survived.

There are a few minor issues I have with the finale though:
1. The Circle of the Black Thorn really comes out of nowhere. It would have been better if they had at least hinted at it earlier in the season.
2. I never liked Angel ordering Lorne to kill Lindsey. That was uncalled for, especially since Lindsey was helping them at the time (and considering Harmony got away scot free with a letter of recommendation even after she betrayed Angel to Hamilton).
3. I'm torn on Wesley's death. On the one hand, it's a great death scene between him & Illyria. On the other, I'm bummed he wasn't there to make his final stand with everyone else in the alley.

But beyond that, it's brilliant. I loved how they brought back Connor & Anne. Spike at the poetry slam was a nice callback to his origins in "Fool for Love." And, of course, "I need you Lindsey... Maybe I should rephrase that."

So naturally, instead of it being longtime characters Wes, Angel, and Gunn making the last stand it's also rans Spike(who Angel fans resented)

As an Angel fan myself, I disagree with that. I thought that Spike was a great addition to the cast in Season 5. I loved how he & Angel would bicker like an old married couple. He brought out some great new sides to Angel and I think Angel brought out some of the most entertaining parts of Spike. (I really hated how they tried to paint him as a tragic hero in the later seasons of Buffy. I suspect that the unwarranted hero worship he got on that show is the reason why there aren't more votes for the Buffy finale in this thread.)

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, "All Good Things..."
They brought back Q, who was always such a great counterpoint to the supremely rational Captain Picard. The future stuff was cool. Even cooler was the stuff in the past, coming right back to the beginning, bringing back Tasha Yar & Miles O'Brien, etc. Plus, it's just a good, solid episode in its own right.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "What You Leave Behind"
I'll concede it's something of an imperfect finale-- the stock footage space battles, "devil" Dukat, kinda awkward pacing. But it wraps up the Dominion War perfectly and many scenes bring a tear to my eye-- "The Way You Look Tonight," Odo & Kira's goodbye. (Although, I still think the big missed opportunity was that the final line of the series should have been spoken by Morn.)

Wonderfalls, "Caged Bird"
Most shows cancelled so early in their runs don't get such a fitting, happily ever after finale. Thankfully, in the final episode of Wonderfalls, things finally go right for Jaye. She & Eric get together. Aaron & Mahandra stay together. And some of Jaye's stuff before she & Eric finally get together is truly heartbreaking. "I let him go. I had to let him go. I didn't want to let him go. I wanted to keep this one. Why can't I have nice things?"

Red Dwarf, "Only the Good..."
As an episode, it's kinda uneven. It focuses too much on Rimmer and not enough on Lister. But I love the final punchline. Rimmer falls to the ground while the ship disintegrates all around him. The Grim Reaper comes to claim him. Rimmer kicks him in the balls and says, "Not today. You forgot, only the good die young."

 

[Thrall]

As an Angel fan myself, I disagree with that. I thought that Spike was a great addition to the cast in Season 5. I loved how he & Angel would bicker like an old married couple. He brought out some great new sides to Angel and I think Angel brought out some of the most entertaining parts of Spike.

That was latter on in the season. He spent most of it being the obnoxious, despicable, low life ratings-killer he had been in the latter seasons of Buffy. The WB canceling the show was the best thing to ever happen to it. Because Whedon (who really never had that much to do with the show) even admitted it forced him to focus on the other characters to complete their arcs and push Spike into the role of background comedy filler, the only thing he was ever good at. It must have just killed him to put the only character he ever really cared about into the background.

That still doesn't excuse the awful finale though.

(I really hated how they tried to paint him as a tragic hero in the later seasons of Buffy. I suspect that the unwarranted hero worship he got on that show is the reason why there aren't more votes for the Buffy finale in this thread.)

The Angel writers were much, much smarter then Buffy writers on their best day. Because they were smart enough to recognize that Spike is a horrible, disgusting, person. He's like Raistilin from Dragonlance. He's complete monster who does good deeds for the wrong reasons. David Fury called Spike fans "Serial Killer Groupies". Of which you can throw Whedon, Noxon, and Espenson in there as well.

 

[Kirkman1987]

TNG : This is the best series finale I've seen thus far. one of the reasons it's great, and a point I think many finales fail on, is that it works as both a finale and as a really good regular episode. Many sitcoms and so forth turn serious during the last show, or make a big production. TNG's finale is mostly an Epic sized regular episode that happens to be a good end for the series. I agree with the others that the poker scene at the end is just perfect.

as a side note to star trek, I can't officially count it, but Star Trek VI is an exellent ending to the TOS era, even though it is a film.

MASH: I think there are some flaws with it, and the show should've ended a few years before it did, but this cast's departure was bound to have heavy emotional resonance with viewers. The final scene with Hawkeye and B.J. is really touching, and you wonder if they ever met up again.

Twin Peaks : I'm going to be berated by somebody for this, because this ending pisses people off a lot. There's loose ends and a serious cliffhanger that are never resolved (well.....maybe in Fire Walk With Me, but it's just not the same.). IMO however, for a series that was struggling in the late second season, It returned in full force for the last episode, and was not only one of the series strongest hours(and strangest) but showed that the series could have lived on beyond it's demise.

I also agree with others who suggested Black Adder Goes Forth.

 

[Ethros]

Just saw the BSG finale last night, and though I thought it was excellent I'll need to time to properly evaluate it.

So not including that my first choice is Angel- Not Fade Away by about a 1000 light years. Easily my favourite episode of the show and just fantastic all round

Others include-
DS9: What You Left Behind
The Office: Christmas specials
Buffy: Chosen
Now & Again: The Eggman Cometh
ENT: Terra Prime

 

[lennier1]

In no particular order:

Life on Mars (UK)
Babylon 5
Space: Above And Beyond
TNG

 

[Barbados Slim]

3. I'm torn on Wesley's death. On the one hand, it's a great death scene between him & Illyria. On the other, I'm bummed he wasn't there to make his final stand with everyone else in the alley.

I was okay with that because Wesley truly died in "Shells" when he realized Illyria was here to stay. His actual death was truly hard for me to take and it added to the doomed feeling of their last stand in the alley.

Best finales:

Angel - Not Fade Away. It's only flaw was that it wasn't a 2-hour finale.

Alias - Reprisal/All The Time In The World. Sloane's Rambaldi dreams come true...just as he's trapped in a cave for all eternity. And Syd and Vaughn live happily ever after. Great ending to the series.

The Shield - The last six episodes were like launching a rocket at a brick wall. The entire series came crumbling down on our leads and in the end, everyone got screwed.

Rome - De Padre Vostro. Mark Antony blows it spectacularly as the series ends with the coronation of Octavian Augustus Caeser.

The O.C. - The End's Not Near, It's Here. The Cohens move to Berkeley, Ryan makes something of himself. The series ends with new successful Ryan taking in a young ruffian and we all cry because this show was better than it had any right to be.

Six Feet Under - Everyone's Waiting. I didn't even watch this show and a friend showed me the famous Sia "Breathe Me" montage and it moved me like no other series finale.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Done. The family sells the house and moves east and Will can't deal with the loss. This sitcom is pretty much an echo of Will Smith as an actor: genuinely funny, kinda corny and all heart. The goodbye talk between Will and Uncle Phil. Carlton doing the Tom Jones dance one last time. That was a great finale.

 

[ialfan]

Angel...Power Play/Not Fade Away
Enterprise...Demons/Terra Prime
Battlestar Galactica...Daybreak
Star Trek: TNG....All Good Things
Star Trek: DS9....What You Leave Behind

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I'm torn on Wesley's death. On the one hand, it's a great death scene between him & Illyria. On the other, I'm bummed he wasn't there to make his final stand with everyone else in the alley.

I was okay with that because Wesley truly died in "Shells" when he realized Illyria was here to stay. His actual death was truly hard for me to take and it added to the doomed feeling of their last stand in the alley.

You've got a point about when Wesley actually "died." Similarly, although Cordelia's death in "You're Welcome" was a sucker punch the first time around, it doesn't phase me quite as much on subsequent viewings because, really, the Cordelia we knew had been gone ever since Season 3 (not counting her brief appearances on the "higher plane" in "Deep Down," "Ground State," & "The House Always Wins").

Plus, I'm not sure series finale deaths count anyway because, in a way, everyone is "dying." Certainly Wesley's death never crushed my soul the way that Doyle's death in "Hero" or Fred's death in "A Hole in the World" did (although that really didn't hit me until "Shells" when we saw flashback Fred drive off into the sunset and realized that she was never coming back). Then, of course, Illyria impersonating Fred in "The Girl in Question" & "Not Fade Away" was just twisting the knife.

As an Angel fan myself, I disagree with that. I thought that Spike was a great addition to the cast in Season 5. I loved how he & Angel would bicker like an old married couple. He brought out some great new sides to Angel and I think Angel brought out some of the most entertaining parts of Spike.

That was latter on in the season. He spent most of it being the obnoxious, despicable, low life ratings-killer he had been in the latter seasons of Buffy. The WB canceling the show was the best thing to ever happen to it. Because Whedon (who really never had that much to do with the show) even admitted it forced him to focus on the other characters to complete their arcs and push Spike into the role of background comedy filler, the only thing he was ever good at.

I'll agree that, while I thought Spike brought some wonderful things to the show in Season 5, they never really fully integrated him into the W&H setting. You always ended up with episodes that barely had Spike in them except to make some snarky comments then leave ("Head boy" in "Lineage," "You're a wee little puppet man!" in "Smile Time," etc.) or episodes that focused almost exclusively on Angel & Spike while pushing Gunn, Fred, Lorne, & Wesley into the background ("Just Rewards," "Hellbound," "Damage," "Why We Fight," "The Girl in Question"). The closest they ever came to really integrating Spike into the team was when Angel hired him to test/spar with Illyria in "Origins" & "Time Bomb."

Although, I'm not sure how much arc completing there was left to do at the end of Season 5 anyway. Really, I think the show said all it ever really needed to say about Angel back in Season 2 with "Reprise"/"Epiphany." Gunn's brain-upgrade arc seemed to be resolved pretty quickly mid-season in "Smile Time"-"Underneath." As has been said, Wesley was really already dead when he realized that Fred wasn't coming back in "Shells." Illyria didn't have much of an arc ever, nor did Lorne or Harmony, or Spike during his time on Angel. (Although I did like how they finally made him really face the terrible things he had done in "Damage.")

 

[diankra]

For a long time it was "Blake", the final ep of Blakes 7.

The only excuse for not having Blake in your top three series endings is 'I've never seen Blake's 7'.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

Jericho - Patriots and Tyrants
The Prisoner - Fall Out
Six Feet Under - Everyone's Waiting
Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak
Stargate SG-1 - Unending
Justice League Unlimited - Destroyer
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - What You Leave Behind

 

[tharpdevenport]

I forgot: I loved the sad way "Roseanne" ended.

 

[Vanyel]

Newhart & TNG's finales were best.

Newhart Finale

Has Phoebe in it too.

 

[Scherazade]

Babylon 5 - Sleeping in Light. Not much to say here. I watched this episode a week before the BSG finale and it basically left me in a puddle on the floor. I don't cry over TV shows but this one gets me every time. Easily on of the best hours of TV ever produced.

Alias - All the Time in the World. The whole end of the show was rushed because ABC cut back there episode order but this finale was great. Everyone got what they deserved and Jack Bristow is still one the best badasses on TV.

Stargate SG-1 - Unending. Like Sleeping in Light, it's all about the characters. No time for unresolved plot, just the characters I came to care about, no matter how ridiculous the stories became. A touching and honest potrayal of the team dynamic.

Angel - Not Fade Away. This one is special because this episode was more than just about the characters or plot, it was about a specific philosophy being applied to actions. The characters going out to fight, not because they would win, but because it was the right thing to do was great. One of the few finales that I would say was inspiring as well as emotional.

Cowboy Bebop - Real Folk Blues. - Another tour de force. This one had everything; action, drama, character, and plot resolution. The episode also had style to spare, like the rest of the show. Whenever someone critizes the power of animation compared to live action, I recommend this series. The last moments will always be etched in my mind.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Sozin's Comet. One of the best finales I have ever seen and one that did everything it was supposed to do and then some. The only words to describe it are epic and intimate. Epic because the entire series led to this moment and it didn't disappoint. The action scenes involved some of the most impressive martial arts I have seen in a movie or TV show and the animation was feature quality. Intimate because the writers also crammed a ton of character development and moments into it to make it feel very personal. Excellent series finale.

 

[Vanyel]

Here is the original Newhart finale with The Bob Newhart Show music

 

[JediKnightButler]

Although it left me desperately begging for more, the series finale to Angel, "Not Fade Away" (actually the combination of "Power Play" AND "Not Fade Away") has grown on me over time. At first I was very bummed out and felt cheated but after thinking about it more, I'm not sure I could've thought a better official ending to a show about a main character who will, as we all know, live forever.

Although "Sleeping in Light" from B5 was an emotionally powerful episode, I actually thought that "Objects at Rest" was the more proper finale to the series. "Sleeping in Light" to me felt more like a "bookend" to the series. Plus, since it was originally slated for the end of S4 (believed to be the last season of the show at one time), it has a more S4 "feel" to it and doesn't quite "mesh" with S5 for some reason. Nevertheless, I felt like both episodes capped the series off nicely- demonstrating that the REAL strength of the show was the characters created and developed by JMS.

DS9's finale, "What You Leave Behind" was pretty in good in terms of its conclusion of the Dominion War and seeing most people leave the station/move on. The Sisko/Dukat confrontation seemed unnecessarily rushed/forced. The one thing I don't understand is why they didn't have Bajor join the Federation at the end (in recognition of Sisko's sacrifice and the end of the war)? That was the whole initial raison d'etre for the Federation being there.

TNG's finale, "All Good Things" was a good but ultimately inconsequential finale since it was common knowledge that they would be making TNG movies. Plus, there weren't any major long-term changes to any of the characters.

Voyager's finale was pretty good but a bit rushed/contrived. Plus, I thought that they should've had one more episode dealing with the Voyager crew's return. It would've been interesting to see Starfleet's reaction to 7 of 9 being part of the crew. Although, on second thought, they had established more or less regular contact with Earth by that point that maybe it didn't ultimately matter that the series ended immediately with their return.

 

[Dar70]

Favorites:
Angel
Buffy
Farscape
Ds9


NUBSG was one of the worst. Sorry.

 

[Goji]

DS9 - A great finale for my favorite SF series. A lot of the complaints most people have don't bother me so much. The reused FX shots are slightly annoying, but since they are all shown in one giant block it's easy to just forget it and focus on all the cool new shots. I even liked most of Dukat's part in the finale. I liked the ideas behind it, and only some of the execution fell short.

Farscape - For me, there are two main problems with The Peacekeeper Wars that hold it back from perfection. The first is just how much time it wasted on interchangeable action sequences. I know, it's a show a war, but it really went overboard. Two, Sikozu really got the short end of the stick both in terms of her character's motivations and the makeup budget. Otherwise it's a fantastic end to the series.

Arrested Development - It wasn't the funniest episode of the series, but I really thought it was great to bring Annyong back out of nowhere.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Danger Diabolik is hardly a movie worthy of the final experiment, nor is the riffing terribly inspired. I did like the final shot of Mike, Tom and Crow in their apartment, still quipping their way through bad movies, though. So for that it gets a mention, even if I prefer the utter WTF?!ness of Laserblast's ending, what would have been the series finale had the Scifi channel not come to the rescue at the final hour.

 

[CaptMurdock]

While I concede that "Sleeping In Light" is Babylon 5's true finale, I've always had a soft spot for "Deconstruction of Falling Stars", which aired as the last episode of Season 4, right on the heels of the major story arc of the series. It basically showed the consequences of the characters actions a hundred years, five hundred years, a thousand years and a million years later. Basically, while some of the details have gotten blurred over time, Sheridan, Delenn and the others changed history for the better.

As for M*A*S*H'S finale...I think you could cut an hour to ninety minutes out of it and make it a whole lot better.

Buffy and Angel both...by the time they got their respective finales, I no longer gave a crap.

Another good finale not mentioned: Hill Street Blues. While it did tie up some plotlines, you left feeling that life went on as usual on the Hill.