What is your favorite final season?
- Thread starter Joe Washington
- Start date
DS9, for me. In season 7, they did a good job of wrapping up the war as well as several other loose ends, and I felt satisfied (if a little teary-eyed) as the camera was pulling away from the station in that last shot.
M*A*S*H is another show that did a good job of tying up all the loose ends. So I'll go with that for second place in the category of best final season.
Babylon 5 is my second favorite show of all time, after DS9 (although they are so close as to make ranking them 1 and 2 rather ridiculous), but the final season of B5 was most definitely not it's best. The second half picked up immensely...but the first half was so gawd-awful that I just can't put the 5th season of this otherwise stellar show up as a 'favorite' final season.
Now...if you want to talk about final EPISODE, that is a whole other matter, since Sleeping in the Light was fabulous, and had me crying like a baby by the end of it. But favorite SEASON? Nah....I can't in good conscience give the Byron season my recommendation in this category.
Now...for me, LOST has an excellent chance of deposing DS9. If the final season is as good as the rest of the show has been, we might be looking at LOST heading the top of the list. But I won't count my chickens before they hatch...and so will stick with DS9 for now.
M*A*S*H is another show that did a good job of tying up all the loose ends. So I'll go with that for second place in the category of best final season.
Babylon 5 is my second favorite show of all time, after DS9 (although they are so close as to make ranking them 1 and 2 rather ridiculous), but the final season of B5 was most definitely not it's best. The second half picked up immensely...but the first half was so gawd-awful that I just can't put the 5th season of this otherwise stellar show up as a 'favorite' final season.
Now...if you want to talk about final EPISODE, that is a whole other matter, since Sleeping in the Light was fabulous, and had me crying like a baby by the end of it. But favorite SEASON? Nah....I can't in good conscience give the Byron season my recommendation in this category.
Now...for me, LOST has an excellent chance of deposing DS9. If the final season is as good as the rest of the show has been, we might be looking at LOST heading the top of the list. But I won't count my chickens before they hatch...and so will stick with DS9 for now.
Another vote for nuBSG. I thought it did a good job wrapping the storyline up and taking the show to places I wouldn't have expected. To be clear I'm considering 4.0 and 4.5 to be one extended season (not everyone considers them the same season). They cover a hell of a lot of ground and the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. My view is also colored by the fact I liked the finale (perhaps a minority view).
Enterprise. Ignoring the divisive finale episode (which will still be debated 50 years from now), I felt this was the strongest season in terms of overall storytelling. To a degree it was an admission of defeat, as viewers and fandom soundly rejected the show's attempt to go in new directions with the Xindi arc, etc. But on the upside we got great stories that had the same feel as TOS - In a Mirror Darkly, of course, and the long-awaited storyline about why the Klingon's appearance changed (a topic that realistically couldn't be ignored forever). Even the much-maligned Nazi episode - people were harping about ENT not being enough like TOS, yet they scoffed when offered a classic Roddenberry-style TOS story like that. It was clearly time for Trek to die, at least on TV, and I thought they did wrapped it up in style, TATV or not TATV. (And if that's not the worst attempt at a Shakespeare pun you've ever read I'll eat a turnip!) In some respects, they came full circle and I actually found it appropriate that the cancellation announcement came while they were filming the remarkable Mirror Darkly episodes (which proved they could have made a movie or TV show in the same style as TOS if they'd wanted to).
And since I love citing out-of-left-field examples, one more: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The second season of that show was very much maligned by fans for being too serious and losing much of the spark that made the first season so well regarded. I remember I hated the second season when it first aired back in 1980 or so. But when the show was released to DVD about 6 years ago, I saw these episodes for the first time and realized that if you ignore a few silly touches like the bird man and Crichton the robot, that these were some very mature, Trek-style storylines and while everyone including Erin Gray have claimed that the relationship between Buck and Wilma suffered in the second season, I thought it became a more realistic and even more romantic relationship than the somewhat silly circumstances of the first season (which often injected "girl of the week" characters specifically to undermine a Buck/Wilma romance). It had flaws a-plenty, don't get me wrong, but of all the shows I've rediscovered on DVD, the second season Buck Rogers remains the one that has caused me to change my opinion the most.
Alex
Enterprise. Ignoring the divisive finale episode (which will still be debated 50 years from now), I felt this was the strongest season in terms of overall storytelling. To a degree it was an admission of defeat, as viewers and fandom soundly rejected the show's attempt to go in new directions with the Xindi arc, etc. But on the upside we got great stories that had the same feel as TOS - In a Mirror Darkly, of course, and the long-awaited storyline about why the Klingon's appearance changed (a topic that realistically couldn't be ignored forever). Even the much-maligned Nazi episode - people were harping about ENT not being enough like TOS, yet they scoffed when offered a classic Roddenberry-style TOS story like that. It was clearly time for Trek to die, at least on TV, and I thought they did wrapped it up in style, TATV or not TATV. (And if that's not the worst attempt at a Shakespeare pun you've ever read I'll eat a turnip!) In some respects, they came full circle and I actually found it appropriate that the cancellation announcement came while they were filming the remarkable Mirror Darkly episodes (which proved they could have made a movie or TV show in the same style as TOS if they'd wanted to).
And since I love citing out-of-left-field examples, one more: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The second season of that show was very much maligned by fans for being too serious and losing much of the spark that made the first season so well regarded. I remember I hated the second season when it first aired back in 1980 or so. But when the show was released to DVD about 6 years ago, I saw these episodes for the first time and realized that if you ignore a few silly touches like the bird man and Crichton the robot, that these were some very mature, Trek-style storylines and while everyone including Erin Gray have claimed that the relationship between Buck and Wilma suffered in the second season, I thought it became a more realistic and even more romantic relationship than the somewhat silly circumstances of the first season (which often injected "girl of the week" characters specifically to undermine a Buck/Wilma romance). It had flaws a-plenty, don't get me wrong, but of all the shows I've rediscovered on DVD, the second season Buck Rogers remains the one that has caused me to change my opinion the most.
Alex
My favorite final season would be the seventh season of The Shield. It was actually the show's best season and the finale was perfect.
Runners up would be: nuBSG, The Wire, The Sopranos and DS9.
Runners up would be: nuBSG, The Wire, The Sopranos and DS9.
To me, a final season should have a looming sense of finality even before the series finale. Probably as far as the beginning of the season itself. Each episode should have some level of closure or a feeling that says, “It is the last time I’m going to see this” or “This is the last time these two characters having moments like these.”
So my favorite final seasons hands-down are: Six Feet Under, the Shield, and the Sopranos.
My least favorite, if bigdaddy is watching, are: Queer as Folk (too much melodrama and a political agenda), the L Word (with its destruction of the Jenny character and the non-resolution of her murder mystery which was used as a lead-in for the final season in the first place), Stargate SG-1 (should have ended with Season 8), Starget Atlantis (should have ended with Season 1), Dead Like Me (should have ended with Season 1), and Oz (with its wasteful "major death a week" format).
Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, and IFC's The Business are in the middle.
So my favorite final seasons hands-down are: Six Feet Under, the Shield, and the Sopranos.
My least favorite, if bigdaddy is watching, are: Queer as Folk (too much melodrama and a political agenda), the L Word (with its destruction of the Jenny character and the non-resolution of her murder mystery which was used as a lead-in for the final season in the first place), Stargate SG-1 (should have ended with Season 8), Starget Atlantis (should have ended with Season 1), Dead Like Me (should have ended with Season 1), and Oz (with its wasteful "major death a week" format).
Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, and IFC's The Business are in the middle.
My thoughts exactly, man.
About the only show I can think of where the final season was my favorite compared to earlier seasons is Angel. The change of scenery to Wolfram & Hart was a refreshing clean slate after the convoluted storylines of seasons 3 and 4, and addition of Spike to the main cast just plain rocked.
I'd agree that Angel had a fantastic final season! Season 4's apocalypse took the Angel Investigations format to its absolute limits. Season 5 made the necessary but still gutsy change by moving the characters to Wolfram & Hart. At the same time, it was a limited format that ended exactly when it needed to. I feel like it resolved Gunn & Wesley really well. The deaths of Cordelia & Fred still hit me like a ton of bricks, even years later. My only regret is that we didn't get to see more of Spike & Illyria. (Well, that and I really didn't like what they did with Lindsey.)
I really liked the final season of The X-Files but that's because I'm a huge John Doggett fan. I wish the show had lasted longer with just Doggett & Reyes.
Similarly, even though Seasons 9 & 10 feel like a different show, I thought Vala Mal Doran was a fun addition to the main cast in the final season of Stargate SG-1.
I'll throw my voice in with the chorus of folks who loved the final season of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. I loved Ezri Dax. I thought "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" was really fun. The Final Chapter was an epic conclusion. The only thing I didn't like was the whole Pagh'wraith/Gul Dukat thing. They made the Pagh'wraiths too EEEEEEEEEEEvillllllll at the end.
It's cheating because the show only lasted 1 year, but I'd say Wonderfalls has a very satisfying finale for being a 1 season wonder.
I'm in the minority opinion here but I really enjoyed the final season of Veronica Mars. Getting rid of Duncan lifted such a dead weight off the shoulders of the show. Some of the ongoing mysteries had kinda lame resolutions but the stand-alones were as great as ever. It was also kinda fun to see Keith Mars become sheriff again. And while it sorta ends on a cliffhanger, it's a really interesting one and not a terrible place to leave off (though many may call me insane for thinking that). I feel like I'm simply parting ways with Veronica as her life veers onto a new path.
Red Dwarf Series VIII was a very interesting reinvention of the series, resurrecting Rimmer & the rest of the Red Dwarf crew. The last few episodes kinda meander through a bunch of unrelated stand-alone skits but I love the final scene where Rimmer confronts Death. "You forgot, only the good die young."
Dollhouse seems to be wrapping things up and going out at the top of its game.
Put Star Trek: Enterprise & Tru Calling in the category of struggling shows that were cancelled just as they were starting to get good.
Similar threads
