What Series' Had Damn Near Perfect Endings?

[tharpdevenport]

You know ... this thread got me thinking. Aside from the rushed, but still damn effective "Angel" finale, and the imperfect but still touching "M*A*S*H" send off ..... I can't name a single thing.

Couple that with many of the most popular TV shows ever had NO finale ("Knight Rider", "Gunsmoke", "In the Heat of the Night", "Star Trek", etc...), it certain makes one wonder what kind of finale some series could have had.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Farscape:The Peacekeeper Wars, Angel, I think "24" had the perfect ending way back in Season Four when the show hit it's peak IMO. Lost had a satisfying ending but obviously far from perfect since fans continue to debate and understand just what went down.

 

[D Man]

Lost produced my favorite finale, and the close runner-ups are nBSG, TNG, and B5.

 

[L8Nite]

Lost produced my favorite finale, and the close runner-ups are nBSG, TNG, and B5.

Although Lost was very emotional I was a bit let down with the ending. I found it a bit too depressing. The whole series was freaking awesome though.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Farscape:The Peacekeeper Wars, Angel, I think "24" had the perfect ending way back in Season Four when the show hit it's peak IMO. Lost had a satisfying ending but obviously far from perfect since fans continue to debate and understand just what went down.

Farscape without a doubt had a great ending with the peacekeeper wars. I was so disappointed when it was canceled.

Never fails shows I really love get canceled while others leave you scratching your head as to why they're still going.

 

[tomalak301]

Everyone is saying Peacekeeper Wars was a great ending and I agree, but I want to give some love to Bad Timing. That was a fantastic ending to a show, especially at the time when there was so much anger that it was going to be canceled. Having the writers just end it as if they were going to get a season 5 was a good idea because it made it all that more powerful in the end.

Other good endings:

TNG - Best finale ever
B5 - Also Best finale ever, very emotional at least
ENT, Terra Prime - Since TATV really was a encompassing Star Trek episode, ENT's real finale seemed to be Terra Prime. In that respect it was a great finale.

 

[Joeman]

LOVED the ending to the American Life on Mars. Overall I thought the Brit series was better, but the American ending was pure brilliance.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Bad Timing was a great cliffhanger not a series finale. I can't believe I forgot Babylon 5!

 

[tomalak301]

Bad Timing was a great cliffhanger not a series finale. I can't believe I forgot Babylon 5!

At the time, it was a series finale though.

 

[Admiral_Young]

That is true but we're talking about present time...and Peacekeeper Wars has happened since then. I agree with you that at the time "Bad Timing" was a fantastic series finale and balsy too killing off their two leads.

 

[sidious618]

The Shield, LOST and B5 are the top three for me.

 

[startrekwatcher]

After seeing all the votes for LOST's finale I now know what my answer will be when someone asks what is the most overrated series finale.

 

[John Clark]

For me, Alias, Angel, B5, DS9 and Mash had great endings.

I also liked the BSG ending

 

[Orcus]

The (original) Prisoner
Blake's 7
Life on Mars
Sapphire and Steel

 

[I am not Spock]

TNG
DS9
Buffy
Angel

 

[RonG]

for me the top five would be:

Lost - for some reason people still bitch and moan about this, but it was emotional and satisfying IMO

nuBSG - I feel about the same about it as I do about Lost..

DS9 - the best Trek series, bar none, with an epic set of episodes right through the final one

B5- a great ending, although season 5 was a let down for me. The best ending IMO would be the s4 finale...

The Shield - dark and inevitable...

TNG - the first great series finale IMO, at least before the rise of arc-heavy TV

 

[Mr Light]

DS9 was my favorite show at the time but I'll never understand the love for the finale. The epic final space battle was about 80% stock footage from previous episodes and the Pagh Wraith storyline just had the worst possible ending imaginable. The Sisko's great destiny was to toss a book into a fire? Plus we had to sit through another five minute long Vic Fontaine song *shudder*

 

[clint g]

Hmmm, my favorite would have to be TNG's. It covered just about everything the show was about.

B5's end was awesome as well, so was DS9s, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the show. The endings to both seasons of Ghost in the Shell were pretty awesome as well.

 

[startrekwatcher]

DS9 was my favorite show at the time but I'll never understand the love for the finale. The epic final space battle was about 80% stock footage from previous episodes and the Pagh Wraith storyline just had the worst possible ending imaginable. The Sisko's great destiny was to toss a book into a fire? Plus we had to sit through another five minute long Vic Fontaine song *shudder*

Yes, it had issues--the aforementioned Pagh'wraith wrap-up, the way the Founder gave in was a little underwhelming, Avery Brooks interfering with the original intent by the writers to let Sisko be dead but it had a lot of great moments--the Founder ordering the destruction of Cardassia wiping out 800 million, the exciting final battle, Garak finally returning home from exile only to watch his world lie in ruins, the promised shared toast after the war ends as hinted at back in the S6 finale came to fruition but not as celebratory as one thought plus it perfectly captured the mindset of the Klingons and Starfleet in that scene when it came to how they viewed war, Odo/Quark's good-bye, Kira/Odo's good-bye, Winn's one last act of redemption was a feel good moment, O'Brien/Bashir's good-bye, the final scene.

I have never understood the complaining about the reuse of stock footage. It didn't bother me in the slightest.

 

[flemm]

I have never understood the complaining about the reuse of stock footage. It didn't bother me in the slightest.

All new footage would be better, I guess there was no budget left. I can't say it bothers me much either, but certainly it is something that ends up in the "flaw" column.

WYLB remains my favorite series finale, though the critic in me would probably have a bit of hard time ranking it as the best.

 

[ialfan]

Star Trek (The Undiscovered Country)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (All Good Things...)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (What You Leave Behind)
Enterprise (Demons/Terra Prime)
Angel (Power Play/Not Fade Away...)
Battlestar Galactica (Daybreak - Extended Edition)

And I'm inclined to nominate Heroes just for the whole full circle aspect with Claire revealing herself. But besides that and a few other moments the whole final season was a snooze-fest of a train-wreck.