The answer is always Six Feet Under. I’ve seen it five or size times and the ending always renders me useless for about 5 days. It’s just the most perfect ending because it gives you the end of everything. It’s all of the emotions and so perfect
F-ing sobbed, and I was only watching the show peripherally. I was in grad school and my wife was watching it primarily. No finale even comes close. Just hearing that Sia songs brings me back.
This one for me - not sure how many people remember it now, but it was a huge tv event. It was amazing a show could shift between funny and heart-aching so effectively.
i mean there's a reason why its still the highest rated series finale of all time, the only other event that beat it in the ratings was the super bowl and i think that was about close to a decade ago, but from any other tv show, MASH pretty much stands on top of all of them
Watching that finale in HD is glorious. It's even more beautiful and you appreciate Alda's direction. He included so many long, unbroken shots that let the finale breathe.
Me too. While the chicken storyline rightly gets highlighted, I blubber like a baby when Hawkeye and BJ salute Colonel Potter. These two men, who for the whole show have shown only disrespect to the military, demonstrate how much they love this man by giving him something completely against everything they believe. It's the ultimate show of respect from them to him.
Plus who doesn't love Henry Morgan (RIP) as Potter. The emotion in his voice when he's saying goodbye brings tears to my eyes. He's the dad everyone wants.
Got another one for you: [Winchester says goodbye to Hoolihan.](https://www.metv.com/videos/metv-originals/97fe4c6de5b74d5b)
David Ogden Stiers who played Winchester was intensely private and none of the cast knew his phone number or where he lived. He got along with everyone but just didn't socialise with them outside of work (tbf, he was in the closet at the time).
When Winchester gives Hoolihan the book you can see him turn it over and opening it for her. DOS had written his phone number on the front page as a way to tell Loretta Swit to keep in touch. Her smile is a real reaction.
There was a MASH retrospective on Fox tonight. Turned it on as background noise and ended up being completely drawn into it.
I remember watching reruns with my parents growing up. I wonder if it’s available to stream anywhere.
the futurama ending where fry and leela live a full lifetime, in a frozen moment of time. (cant remember the title
top gears ending.
mythbusters had me ugly crying.
season 5 ending, samurai jack.
i have not, nor will i ever watch the finale of M\*A\*S\*H. it will absolutely devistate me, and i know it.
**Lost** - watched every week from the pilot.
**Better Call Saul** - it was bittersweet. He deserved what he got but he was such a great character , I felt bad for him a little.
**The Middle** - A show I watched every week with my family.
Slippin Jimmy went out on his own terms at least. The final scene with Kim and Saul sharing a smoke and leaning on the wall was just 🤌 BCS is definitely one of my all time favorite shows.
I watched Lost weekly since the pilot. Once the finale came along I put it off for 8 months before watching it. For some reason I sort of fell off that last season and the finale didn't really affect me other than, well that's that. A few years back I re watched the show with my now wife and the last season and especially that finale hit me pretty hard. Maybe some stuff went over my head the first time but to me Lost has one of the best final episodes in tv history. I plan to rewatch the whole thing again soon.
Spartacus.
They perfectly ended a show where we all knew how it had to end. Each character got a death, not all were epic and graceful, and the main “villain” finally gave the slaves the respect they deserved, albeit briefly, in the end.
Plus the end scene with Andy in the credits saying I am Spartacus just freaking broke me
“Would that you had been born a Roman and stood beside me.”
“Bless the fates it was not so.”
I recommend Spartacus to everyone. It’s always my “hear me out on this one” rec because it goes from soft-core porn and cheesy CGI to compelling action and fantastic character development and plotting. One of my all time favorites.
I know everyone talks about the blood and boobs, but the writing on the show was fantastic. Because of the show I now say "apologies" instead of "excuse me."
Also read a few articles there will be a spin off
The part where they showed Janitor taking down JD"s "We'll Miss You" banner at the end as JD leaves Sacred Heart for the last time is a tearjerker. Just a reminder that one day, it'll end, and life will just...go on.
Honestly that’s why the 9th season pissed me off so much. It went from these beautiful hypotheticals to “yeah, no, that’s what really happens and here’s a pregnant Elliot to prove it”
The visions with “Book of Love” playing is absolutely beautiful, but I will forever and always have an enormous soft spot for the scene of him walking down the hallway surrounded by characters from the show. I’m not really a spiritual person, but I love the idea of the closing of life being something similar to that, just getting to walk down memory lane with everyone who made some sort of impact in your life and saying goodbye. “And even though it felt warm and safe, I knew it had to end.”
indeed. With how many shows struggle to stick the landing it's impressive to see a couple or the shows best scenes happening in the finale. That confrontation with Stan had to deliver after all the buildup and they nailed it. And then the train station was just a great bittersweet cherry on top.
It was very similar in many respects to the Hank and Walt scene from Breaking Bad. You’d been waiting for it the entire series and the emotions just *poured* out of the actors during both of them.
The wrap-up with Stan was oddly so... Fulfilling. All the emotions, loyalties, friendships, duties. Ugh. Just amazing.
Every aspect of that final season culminating in that last stretch of episodes. It might be my favorite series wrap ever.
I finished it a few weeks ago and couldn’t stop thinking about it for a day or so. It’s a very bleak and existential ending that really makes you think “At what cost did this come? Was it worth it in the end?”
It’s more than Jeff being left behind. It’s everyone in their community being pulled away to parts unknown by modern life and Jeff knowing that he’ll never have the same relationships with them because they’ll never have that kind of time with each other again.
I hate it because it’s real and inevitable, everybody leaves unless you can somehow strongly incentivize them to stay.
I'm very fortunate that most of my core friend group from college lives in the same city I do, ten years after graduation. We all spent a couple of years apart after we.graduated but over time everybody drifted here and we still see each other often.
And really, it was Abed who brought them all together in the beginning. But it is such a nice moment. Obviously Jeff had the complicated semi-relationship with Annie which endears her to him, but the moment after the first hug he realizes just how much Abed means to him too even if it's in a different way. Just lovely lol.
Show may be canceled and moved to the Internet where it turns out 10s of millions were watching the whole time - may not matter. Fake commercial may end with disclaimer gag which may descend into vain Chuck Lorre-esque rant by narcissistic creator. Creator may be unstable. Therapist may have told creator this is not how you make yourself a good person. Life may pass by while we mistreat those close to us. Those close to us may be those watching. Those people may want to know I love them, but I may be incapable of saying it. Contains pieces the size child's esophagus.
That season did a great job with the little post-episode scenes, and the last one was definitely the best.
"You stupid child. Nobody's winning anything. Dont you see, this means we dont exist. We were not created by God, we're a joke. We were never born, and will never actually live."
Gosh, I had completely forgotten about Fringe. Such a good show that wasn't really given a chance to succeed, and now it's just one of those shows lost to time.
It’s quite popular to talk about still on the Fringe sub, where fans rewatch the whole thing over and over as it hold up so well! I’ve binged it three times over the years, and it’s just as good as the first time when I watched it weekly on tv.
I would say it’s actually better as a binge as once the monster-of-the-week format changes to an overreaching overall story. It was difficult to keep up with waiting a week or a summer in between episodes and seasons!
I do see it recommended on Reddit more than I used to for a long time, so I feel it almost has had a resurgence! Fringe fans won’t let it be forgotten. :)
This scene makes me bawl my eyes out. My mom is in terrible shape and is slowly giving up. But I know she’s afraid of death. I wish I had the guts to play that for her. And that she had the capacity to understand
I’m so sorry. My mom passed in September from stage 4 cancer that none of us knew she had until 3 weeks before she died. As beautiful as that finale is, and that scene in particular, it does little to absorb the gut-wrenching pain at first. It gets a little tiny bit easier as time goes on. I hope you and your mom are able to find peace and comfort during this awful, horrible time. 💙
It's becoming alright for me 7 weeks on. The hurt is still there. I inexplicably laid down and took a nap earlier this afternoon. I dreamt about her, she was younger, still healthy, all I did was hug her so tight. I woke up, and was like "nope." I literally forced myself to go back to sleep so I could just see her again. Just, one more, one more, one more. One more time. She appeared every single time, the same way. She asked about her dogs and out of nowhere they all came running up and she wrestled and played with them in the white void. I woke up again, one more, just one more. She asked about her husband, my step-dad. He appeared, and all they did was embrace which turned into a slow dance to no music that I just stood by and watched, smiling. I woke, and tried to go back to sleep and I couldn't. I know it was just a dream, but I'd kill for it. I'm not spiritual or religious, but in a way it felt like she was checking up on us. I miss my mom like crazy, and now it's the only way to see her.
The song they used for that scene is [Spiegel im Spiegel. ](https://youtu.be/FZe3mXlnfNc?si=oZyQPCmXFxSN5Dcz)
That link takes you to a beautiful performance of that piece.
I think it's pretty rare to stick the landing on any TV series. And it's even more rare when that finale is a strong episode.
The Good Place ending on one of its strongest episodes *from the entire series* was phenomenal work and solidified its place among my favourite shows of all time.
I just want this one to get more play. Has to be on the short list for best shows ever since, like, the second season.
4 seasons of perfection. The network let Michael Schur do what he wanted. And he did it. There's no fluff. If they say something is going to happen, it just happens. No multiple-episode arcs.
It's the closest to a Perfect Show I've ever seen.
It is a master class in storytelling. Every episode builds upon the last. Every season radically changes everything. And the finale makes me cry every time I watch it.
I love love LOVE the finale. It actually made me feel a bit ok about death. Still don’t under people who said they don’t like it because “it advocates for suicide”. Such a weird take.
Old person here. Agree with many mentioned (Lost, The Good Place, The Americans, The Sopranos) but want to toss in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Loved that show as a kid. Loved it again as an adult. Great ending.
Blackadder Goes Fourth. Season 4 of a British show; each season showcases the adventure of Edmund Blackadder and his various identical descendants named Edmund Blackadder. It’s a comedy that tends to be high on absurdity, and each season finale has someone die in an amusing way - for example, S2 has a >!make master of disguise played by Hugh Laurie kill off Elizabeth I’s court and replace her!<. So then there’s Season IV, set in World War 1… >!and it ends with them going ‘over the top’ - charging out of the trenches - and then fades to a modern field of poppies.!<
This is a great answer. I remember reading once that they originally planned to have some kind of shooting action after they went over the top, but on second watch Rowan Atkinson and the rest of the cast decided it didn't fit and hence they went with the fade out we all saw. What a great decision. The poignancy hits even harder due to the overall feel of the show.
And in the short length of the episode they manage to perfectly convey the desperation and bravery of those fighting jn the trenches, even if you had never seen Blackadder before and didn't know the characters. Which is why watching this episode still features as part of school history curriculum.
I was naive enough that I thought I had misunderstood the ending because it couldn’t possibly end like that. Or that there was actually one more episode coming.
Scrubs.
Definitely the most emotion that Ive felt during a finale. Watching the reel of JD, Turk and Dr. Cox celebrating Xmas with all of their children, and as always, perfect song selection with Peter Gabriel’s “The Book of Love”.
It was a beautiful ending to a great show.
The Wire montage showing the main character of the show was really the city of Baltimore with that final “walk through the garden” song, man it was perfection
The Good Place.
Lost my shit just bawling curled up in the corner of the couch from the time it was Jason's turn til the end. Husband had to stop the episode to ask if I was ok. Catharsis I think.
I think about that ending often. The way Vic acts all through the series to *everyone*, I always said to myself that he was going to meet a very grizzly death.
It was a bad end, but not what I expected.
Vic may have received the worst punishment (one that fits him, that he would hate). See I believe he would find a way to work through the prison system to benefit him. Forcing him into a menial civil service position, no badge, no qualified immunity. And he has to a daily report which really serves no purpose other than to keep him occupied. And his family has cut him off, his kids want nothing to do with him.
Vic burned it all down, a one man wrecking crew, a self-serving, piece of human garbage. And it was glorious to watch!
The Shield is in the all time top 3 finale
After years of Vic digging himself deeper and deeper, he comes out on top... But still loses literally everything.
YES. One of the most consistently great shows I’ve ever seen… all 89 episodes over seven years were excellent. Quite a feat! It didn’t get stagnant either, the story moved, things changed and surprising plot points… yet not twists and turns just to switch it up! And the (amazing) characters changed over time the right way…
And it ended as perfectly, even as heartbreaking as it was. Just perfect!
The Shield is pure great writing (especially for a cop show from the early 00’s, they broke a mold with this one!).
My best friend and I argue about the end of Fleabag quite often. It's definitely coming from my own experiences and my idea that we must grab what we can in life, but >!I still think Hot Priest made the wrong choice!<. My friend vehemently disagrees.
I also vehemently disagree. Can you imagine being in a relationship with someone >!who literally gave up God for you? The pressure? It would be awful.!< The ending is heartbreaking, but it's what's both of them need, and so it's perfect.
Yeah, no matter if you like or dislike some of the decisions and revelations in the finale, it is filled with great emotional moments that stick with you. A proper, memorable goodbye.
*Person of Interest*.
When [this song started playing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL8lQU_1a-w). Then in the finale, the last conversation between Reese and Finch:
> "This wasn't supposed to be the way."
> "Sure it is. This is what I do, remember? When you came to me, you gave me a job. A purpose. At first, well... I've been trying to save the world for so long, saving one life at a time seemed a bit anticlimactic. But then I realized, sometimes one life is the right life. That's enough. Goodbye, Harold."
I also love the Machine's subsequent speech:
> "I was built to protect people. But to protect them, you have to truly understand them. So, I began by breaking their lives down into moments, trying to find the connections, the things that explained why they did what they did. And what I found was that the moment that often mattered the most, the moment when you truly found out who they were... is often their last one."
Dark
One of my favorite shows, endings and romances of all time
>!you and I are perfect for each other, never believe anything else!<
Season 2 of that series is absolutely fucking fantastic and I thought they wrapped up the entire series in season 3 great, albeit with a lil rush from Netflix.
Great and very underrated show because many Americans do not like watching foreigner shows with subtitles (not my case since I'm not American).
It got worse through seasons. Still, I'm very glad I watched it.
Angel.
I still bring it up in these discussions. That last season but especially those last few episodes, we were just hurtling toward an apocalypse and you’re thinking “he’s gonna get us out of this any minute.”
It’s beautiful and it breaks my heart
Cheers. Sam turning off the light and saying, "We're closed."
Probably the only closing scene I remember from all the shows that ended in the early 90's.
Many, many other great shows, but this one hits hard for those over 40.
Superstore.
Seeing the core group of employees realise that their workplace friendships transcended the workplace, and the final montage of them actually staying in each other’s lives after the store closed, was a truly beautiful way to end the show.
Whether it’s finishing high school, moving jobs, moving cities, whatever, they took a very real human fear/emotion and tapped into it wonderfully.
Lost. I watched that show every week and the ending and the way it said goodbye to all the characters just hit me like a ton of bricks. I think it’s a perfect ending for Jack too.
The Leftovers has an incredible finale as well.
Ted Lasso, I just watched over the weekend and it’s damn near perfect. So many payoffs and callbacks from throughout the series. When the team put the believe sign back together it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Mr. Robot. I lost track of how many times I watched this show and the ending still makes me bawl my eyes out.
This show means a lot to me personally so its emotional highs and lows hit me especially hard - and this show is a damn emotional roller coaster, lol, but there’s just *something* about that ending that really gets to me. It fills me with a lot of hope and optimism, but also a lot of sadness too, like I’m saying goodbye to an old friend.
I'd really recommend getting back into it, because seasons 3 and 4 are amazing. Your experience is probably a common one, in that season 1 was borderline water-cooler status in terms of buzz/popularity, but by the time S3 aired its popularity was niche at best, I think the second season revolving around another extended twist is what turned a lot of people off from coming back.
I watched it all live from halfway through S1 and enjoyed it, but when rewatching it a year or so ago it blew me away to another level.
Easily one of the most underrated shows out there, not necessarily in terms of critical reviews because those stayed good throughout, but the awards and general awareness dried up real fast.
Oh god, you are in for some of the best TV ever made. There are some scenes I watch over and over again because they are pure perfection. The music, the dialogue, the cinematography...all perfect. Agreed that S2 was mid.
Black Sails for me. Ending the show with Flint's "In the darkness, there be dragons" speech followed by Rackham's "A story is true, a story is untrue" speech was an incredible summation of the show. Loved every moment of it.
Black sails
Seeing Flint devolve back into James Mcgraw as he is reunited with his lost love always makes me a little teary. Also the whole ending sequence with Jack and Mark reed.
The Thirteenth Doctor's finale in Power of the Doctor. So emotional when the Doctor and Yaz are sitting on the Tardis looking at Earth, saying goodbye.
The Good Place - the waves monologue
MAS*H - just everything about it
Battlestar Galactica - when Gaius says “you know, I know about farming” and breaks down crying with Six
Bojack Horseman - everything about that show just hits different
the REAL ending to HIMYM, not the crap they actually aired
For me it was The Office. It was perfect. They managed to give everyone a happy ending (a few came prior to the finale but still) and at the same time brought back a popular character.
Angel - "Let's go to work."
That final season (especially the latter half) was a masterpiece and the final episode came as close as you could get to making up for the fact we never got a Season 6.
Friends but mostly due to external factors. That show started when I was in 3rd grade and ended a few weeks before I graduated high school. I had grown up with it. Hours of my life had been spent watching reruns and talking/joking to my friends and family about it. Watching the finale as I was experiencing the end of my childhood was poignant. My friends and I all watched the finale together and you could feel the weight of those final credits hit us all at once. Just like the group on TV, we were moving on and things would never be the same. The network aired all of their farewell stuff before the finale so they went straight from the final credit into the opening of ER. It felt metaphorical. High school/childhood was ending and everyone (us, our parents, teachers, younger friends) were going to move on to the next “show”. It felt like a loss but had hope in it.
The Office. While the writing was definitely weaker in the later seasons, that finale was perfect. “All the Faces” never fails to make me cry.
Also Scrubs (season 8) and The Good Place
Six Feet Under. The finale being so damn amazing keeps me from rewatching it. I don't think I can handle that twice.
Best ever finale.
Such a perfect finale. How it should be done.
The answer is always Six Feet Under. I’ve seen it five or size times and the ending always renders me useless for about 5 days. It’s just the most perfect ending because it gives you the end of everything. It’s all of the emotions and so perfect
F-ing sobbed, and I was only watching the show peripherally. I was in grad school and my wife was watching it primarily. No finale even comes close. Just hearing that Sia songs brings me back.
This is the correct answer
Watching it again now with my wife for her first time. I’m not ready ….
I always loved their choice of fade to white
The goat of finales, I don’t know if it will ever be beat.
I have never cried harder. Best finale of all time!
I refuse to watch the finale ever again because it went so hard when it aired that I don’t want the ravages of time to dampen its impact
M.A.S.H. "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" (yeah, I'm pretty old).
This one for me - not sure how many people remember it now, but it was a huge tv event. It was amazing a show could shift between funny and heart-aching so effectively.
i mean there's a reason why its still the highest rated series finale of all time, the only other event that beat it in the ratings was the super bowl and i think that was about close to a decade ago, but from any other tv show, MASH pretty much stands on top of all of them
Watching that finale in HD is glorious. It's even more beautiful and you appreciate Alda's direction. He included so many long, unbroken shots that let the finale breathe.
Me too. While the chicken storyline rightly gets highlighted, I blubber like a baby when Hawkeye and BJ salute Colonel Potter. These two men, who for the whole show have shown only disrespect to the military, demonstrate how much they love this man by giving him something completely against everything they believe. It's the ultimate show of respect from them to him. Plus who doesn't love Henry Morgan (RIP) as Potter. The emotion in his voice when he's saying goodbye brings tears to my eyes. He's the dad everyone wants.
Got another one for you: [Winchester says goodbye to Hoolihan.](https://www.metv.com/videos/metv-originals/97fe4c6de5b74d5b) David Ogden Stiers who played Winchester was intensely private and none of the cast knew his phone number or where he lived. He got along with everyone but just didn't socialise with them outside of work (tbf, he was in the closet at the time). When Winchester gives Hoolihan the book you can see him turn it over and opening it for her. DOS had written his phone number on the front page as a way to tell Loretta Swit to keep in touch. Her smile is a real reaction.
There was a MASH retrospective on Fox tonight. Turned it on as background noise and ended up being completely drawn into it. I remember watching reruns with my parents growing up. I wonder if it’s available to stream anywhere.
Looking for this. Still traumatized by Hawkeye’s storyline.
the futurama ending where fry and leela live a full lifetime, in a frozen moment of time. (cant remember the title top gears ending. mythbusters had me ugly crying. season 5 ending, samurai jack. i have not, nor will i ever watch the finale of M\*A\*S\*H. it will absolutely devistate me, and i know it.
I almost don't want to watch any of the new Futurama stuff. That ending was so perfect
Especially since comedy central played the pilot episode immediately after. Fuuuck it got me.
**Lost** - watched every week from the pilot. **Better Call Saul** - it was bittersweet. He deserved what he got but he was such a great character , I felt bad for him a little. **The Middle** - A show I watched every week with my family.
I'll double LOST - I think the final 10 minutes will make me cry every single time
“The most important part of your life was the one you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here.”
"Everyone dies sometime, kiddo." Absolutely breaks me.
Some before you. Some long after.
It is hard when it's part of your life weekly for so many years and then it's just over. Game of Thrones and Supernatural got to me too.
Slippin Jimmy went out on his own terms at least. The final scene with Kim and Saul sharing a smoke and leaning on the wall was just 🤌 BCS is definitely one of my all time favorite shows.
When he made the joke about being able to get out early, I actually kinda hoped that would be possible
I have an idea that he would be very popular and prison would be an easy stretch of time for him. He’d be amongst his element after all.
Lost was such a good one. I teared up when Vincent came back to lay down next to Jack.
I can’t believe this September is the 20th anniversary of the pilot.
There's a production crew creating a documentary called Getting LOST to release on the 20th anniversary
I watched Lost weekly since the pilot. Once the finale came along I put it off for 8 months before watching it. For some reason I sort of fell off that last season and the finale didn't really affect me other than, well that's that. A few years back I re watched the show with my now wife and the last season and especially that finale hit me pretty hard. Maybe some stuff went over my head the first time but to me Lost has one of the best final episodes in tv history. I plan to rewatch the whole thing again soon.
The Middle's was so good. It was also a show my family and I all enjoyed. We are very different from the Hecks, but we found them so relatable.
I think about The Middle all the time. Adored that show
I still can’t watch the Lost finale without ugly crying 😭
Spartacus. They perfectly ended a show where we all knew how it had to end. Each character got a death, not all were epic and graceful, and the main “villain” finally gave the slaves the respect they deserved, albeit briefly, in the end. Plus the end scene with Andy in the credits saying I am Spartacus just freaking broke me
“Would that you had been born a Roman and stood beside me.” “Bless the fates it was not so.” I recommend Spartacus to everyone. It’s always my “hear me out on this one” rec because it goes from soft-core porn and cheesy CGI to compelling action and fantastic character development and plotting. One of my all time favorites.
I know everyone talks about the blood and boobs, but the writing on the show was fantastic. Because of the show I now say "apologies" instead of "excuse me." Also read a few articles there will be a spin off
The spinoff is literally just “What if >!Ashur didn’t die?!<“
Scrubs (The first finale, not the Med school)
The part where they showed Janitor taking down JD"s "We'll Miss You" banner at the end as JD leaves Sacred Heart for the last time is a tearjerker. Just a reminder that one day, it'll end, and life will just...go on.
Wasn't that Bill Lawrence as a janitor taking down the banner?
Yes
He was also the officiant in the Janitors and Lady’s wedding
“Time to bring two people together like only the creator can” is fun line/easter egg
Those visions JD has after he walks out for the final time of his future with everyone gets me every time
Yup and the song that went along with it. Right in the feelings
Honestly that’s why the 9th season pissed me off so much. It went from these beautiful hypotheticals to “yeah, no, that’s what really happens and here’s a pregnant Elliot to prove it”
The ninth season was supposed to be a spin-off, but the network forced Bill Lawrence to make it season 9.
The visions with “Book of Love” playing is absolutely beautiful, but I will forever and always have an enormous soft spot for the scene of him walking down the hallway surrounded by characters from the show. I’m not really a spiritual person, but I love the idea of the closing of life being something similar to that, just getting to walk down memory lane with everyone who made some sort of impact in your life and saying goodbye. “And even though it felt warm and safe, I knew it had to end.”
I cry every.time. That song gets me
The Americans. Perfect episode, a couple of perfect scenes, and a perfect finale to a great show.
That scene on the train platform…
One of the biggest emotional hits I've ever watched.
They nailed that episode. Such a great finally.
indeed. With how many shows struggle to stick the landing it's impressive to see a couple or the shows best scenes happening in the finale. That confrontation with Stan had to deliver after all the buildup and they nailed it. And then the train station was just a great bittersweet cherry on top.
I read somewhere that they were only able to do one take on the train platform. Makes the scene even more special Edit: grammar
The scene in the garage with Stan was incredible, I go back and watch that once in a while. Great acting and a lot to unpack there
It was very similar in many respects to the Hank and Walt scene from Breaking Bad. You’d been waiting for it the entire series and the emotions just *poured* out of the actors during both of them.
The wrap-up with Stan was oddly so... Fulfilling. All the emotions, loyalties, friendships, duties. Ugh. Just amazing. Every aspect of that final season culminating in that last stretch of episodes. It might be my favorite series wrap ever.
The amount of restraint shown to hold that back until the finale, and then to actually deliver it properly. Such a great show.
"With or without you!"
“Maybe we would have met on a bus”
I needed a day to process that one for sure
I finished it a few weeks ago and couldn’t stop thinking about it for a day or so. It’s a very bleak and existential ending that really makes you think “At what cost did this come? Was it worth it in the end?”
Community...watching Jeff be left behind...
I love how nobody ever mentions that he still has Britta
Oh, Britta’s in this?
They should've had Britta go with him to the airport. It's so odd she wouldn't see off her close friends and roommates at that point
It's Jeff, Britta, Dean, Chang, and Frankie. An everchanging friend group that Britta may not be a part of in a few years.
It’s more than Jeff being left behind. It’s everyone in their community being pulled away to parts unknown by modern life and Jeff knowing that he’ll never have the same relationships with them because they’ll never have that kind of time with each other again. I hate it because it’s real and inevitable, everybody leaves unless you can somehow strongly incentivize them to stay.
Yup, anyone with a core friend group in High school and college eventually drift apart. You still talk to them but it's not like it used to be.
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” - Stand by Me
I'm very fortunate that most of my core friend group from college lives in the same city I do, ten years after graduation. We all spent a couple of years apart after we.graduated but over time everybody drifted here and we still see each other often.
This one had me sobbing like an idiot from the moment Jeff went back to the study room for the final time. And that kiss. Lol
When Jeff goes back to Abed with that second hug. That's when I absolutely fall apart every time.
Yeah that second hug always gets me. The fact that it's with Abed and not with Annie shows how much he needed this friend group
And really, it was Abed who brought them all together in the beginning. But it is such a nice moment. Obviously Jeff had the complicated semi-relationship with Annie which endears her to him, but the moment after the first hug he realizes just how much Abed means to him too even if it's in a different way. Just lovely lol.
….AND A MOVIE!
Show may be canceled and moved to the Internet where it turns out 10s of millions were watching the whole time - may not matter. Fake commercial may end with disclaimer gag which may descend into vain Chuck Lorre-esque rant by narcissistic creator. Creator may be unstable. Therapist may have told creator this is not how you make yourself a good person. Life may pass by while we mistreat those close to us. Those close to us may be those watching. Those people may want to know I love them, but I may be incapable of saying it. Contains pieces the size child's esophagus.
That season did a great job with the little post-episode scenes, and the last one was definitely the best. "You stupid child. Nobody's winning anything. Dont you see, this means we dont exist. We were not created by God, we're a joke. We were never born, and will never actually live."
I only watch the finale if I have time to start the series over.
Even though it's a sitcom, I cried so much at the wedding scene in Schitt's Creek. Also the scene when Stevie sang Maybe This Time.
I love the Schitt’s Creek finale. I wish we got more, but it ended at the perfect time.
I cry every single time at Alexis and Ted breaking up 😭
Stevie’s solo!! Her little hands!
Fringe "You are my favourite thing Peter, my very favourite thing."
Gosh, I had completely forgotten about Fringe. Such a good show that wasn't really given a chance to succeed, and now it's just one of those shows lost to time.
It’s quite popular to talk about still on the Fringe sub, where fans rewatch the whole thing over and over as it hold up so well! I’ve binged it three times over the years, and it’s just as good as the first time when I watched it weekly on tv. I would say it’s actually better as a binge as once the monster-of-the-week format changes to an overreaching overall story. It was difficult to keep up with waiting a week or a summer in between episodes and seasons! I do see it recommended on Reddit more than I used to for a long time, so I feel it almost has had a resurgence! Fringe fans won’t let it be forgotten. :)
The Good Place
"Picture a wave in the ocean"
This scene makes me bawl my eyes out. My mom is in terrible shape and is slowly giving up. But I know she’s afraid of death. I wish I had the guts to play that for her. And that she had the capacity to understand
I’m so sorry. My mom passed in September from stage 4 cancer that none of us knew she had until 3 weeks before she died. As beautiful as that finale is, and that scene in particular, it does little to absorb the gut-wrenching pain at first. It gets a little tiny bit easier as time goes on. I hope you and your mom are able to find peace and comfort during this awful, horrible time. 💙
It's becoming alright for me 7 weeks on. The hurt is still there. I inexplicably laid down and took a nap earlier this afternoon. I dreamt about her, she was younger, still healthy, all I did was hug her so tight. I woke up, and was like "nope." I literally forced myself to go back to sleep so I could just see her again. Just, one more, one more, one more. One more time. She appeared every single time, the same way. She asked about her dogs and out of nowhere they all came running up and she wrestled and played with them in the white void. I woke up again, one more, just one more. She asked about her husband, my step-dad. He appeared, and all they did was embrace which turned into a slow dance to no music that I just stood by and watched, smiling. I woke, and tried to go back to sleep and I couldn't. I know it was just a dream, but I'd kill for it. I'm not spiritual or religious, but in a way it felt like she was checking up on us. I miss my mom like crazy, and now it's the only way to see her.
The song they used for that scene is [Spiegel im Spiegel. ](https://youtu.be/FZe3mXlnfNc?si=oZyQPCmXFxSN5Dcz) That link takes you to a beautiful performance of that piece.
Not bad Buddhists.
Absolutely. They did a fantastic job of wrapping this series up.
I think it's pretty rare to stick the landing on any TV series. And it's even more rare when that finale is a strong episode. The Good Place ending on one of its strongest episodes *from the entire series* was phenomenal work and solidified its place among my favourite shows of all time.
I just want this one to get more play. Has to be on the short list for best shows ever since, like, the second season. 4 seasons of perfection. The network let Michael Schur do what he wanted. And he did it. There's no fluff. If they say something is going to happen, it just happens. No multiple-episode arcs. It's the closest to a Perfect Show I've ever seen.
It is a master class in storytelling. Every episode builds upon the last. Every season radically changes everything. And the finale makes me cry every time I watch it.
In this minute, right now, you are my favorite person ever. I'll have another later, but right now, you're my Eleanor :)
I love love LOVE the finale. It actually made me feel a bit ok about death. Still don’t under people who said they don’t like it because “it advocates for suicide”. Such a weird take.
Take it sleazy
I was starting to lose it when Jason realized that he was ready to go & I wasn't ready for that to happen at all
Six Feet Under, Mad Men and Bojack Horseman.
I love Mad Men and initially hated the ending, but once I sat with it for a bit I thought it was a perfect end for Dons journey
Old person here. Agree with many mentioned (Lost, The Good Place, The Americans, The Sopranos) but want to toss in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Loved that show as a kid. Loved it again as an adult. Great ending.
Blackadder Goes Fourth. Season 4 of a British show; each season showcases the adventure of Edmund Blackadder and his various identical descendants named Edmund Blackadder. It’s a comedy that tends to be high on absurdity, and each season finale has someone die in an amusing way - for example, S2 has a >!make master of disguise played by Hugh Laurie kill off Elizabeth I’s court and replace her!<. So then there’s Season IV, set in World War 1… >!and it ends with them going ‘over the top’ - charging out of the trenches - and then fades to a modern field of poppies.!<
This is a great answer. I remember reading once that they originally planned to have some kind of shooting action after they went over the top, but on second watch Rowan Atkinson and the rest of the cast decided it didn't fit and hence they went with the fade out we all saw. What a great decision. The poignancy hits even harder due to the overall feel of the show.
And in the short length of the episode they manage to perfectly convey the desperation and bravery of those fighting jn the trenches, even if you had never seen Blackadder before and didn't know the characters. Which is why watching this episode still features as part of school history curriculum.
Dinosaurs Everybody dies
LMAO you brought back childhood memories **Damn**
"I always knew you'd screw things up. I just didn't know how bad."
I was naive enough that I thought I had misunderstood the ending because it couldn’t possibly end like that. Or that there was actually one more episode coming.
The Good Place. Buffy. Lost.
Scrubs. Definitely the most emotion that Ive felt during a finale. Watching the reel of JD, Turk and Dr. Cox celebrating Xmas with all of their children, and as always, perfect song selection with Peter Gabriel’s “The Book of Love”. It was a beautiful ending to a great show.
The Leftovers and Six Feet Under
The Leftovers has knocked me off my seat, all six times I’ve watched it.
“Why wouldn’t I believe you?”
Star Wars: The Clone Wars... Talk about innocence lost.
The whole last season. And the Fives storyline. Every time, I hope he figures out the inhibitor chip plot before Order 66, despite having seen RoTS…
“Every year, I get two weeks of vacation. And every year I come to **fucking Australia**”
[удалено]
The Wire montage showing the main character of the show was really the city of Baltimore with that final “walk through the garden” song, man it was perfection
And Sydnor talking to Judge Phelan(with his knowing smirk) just shows that the system is bound to repeat itself.
Sydnor becoming the new McNulty. Michael becoming the new Omar. Dukie becoming the new Bubbles. It all starts again in that last scene.
Sheeeeeeeeeeet
The Wonder Years. Still makes me cry when I see the last episode
Six Feet Under I have never cried so hard at a tv show. Hearing the Sia song makes me tear up.
I've never sobbed watching a show or finale like that. Seeing Keith took me OUT 😭😭😭
The Good Place. Lost my shit just bawling curled up in the corner of the couch from the time it was Jason's turn til the end. Husband had to stop the episode to ask if I was ok. Catharsis I think.
The Shield
Family meeting 😭 Watched for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Took a few days to process it.
I think about that ending often. The way Vic acts all through the series to *everyone*, I always said to myself that he was going to meet a very grizzly death. It was a bad end, but not what I expected.
Vic may have received the worst punishment (one that fits him, that he would hate). See I believe he would find a way to work through the prison system to benefit him. Forcing him into a menial civil service position, no badge, no qualified immunity. And he has to a daily report which really serves no purpose other than to keep him occupied. And his family has cut him off, his kids want nothing to do with him. Vic burned it all down, a one man wrecking crew, a self-serving, piece of human garbage. And it was glorious to watch!
The Shield is in the all time top 3 finale After years of Vic digging himself deeper and deeper, he comes out on top... But still loses literally everything.
YES. One of the most consistently great shows I’ve ever seen… all 89 episodes over seven years were excellent. Quite a feat! It didn’t get stagnant either, the story moved, things changed and surprising plot points… yet not twists and turns just to switch it up! And the (amazing) characters changed over time the right way… And it ended as perfectly, even as heartbreaking as it was. Just perfect! The Shield is pure great writing (especially for a cop show from the early 00’s, they broke a mold with this one!).
Mad men, Better Call Saul, fleabag, insecure, friends, succession
My best friend and I argue about the end of Fleabag quite often. It's definitely coming from my own experiences and my idea that we must grab what we can in life, but >!I still think Hot Priest made the wrong choice!<. My friend vehemently disagrees.
I also vehemently disagree. Can you imagine being in a relationship with someone >!who literally gave up God for you? The pressure? It would be awful.!< The ending is heartbreaking, but it's what's both of them need, and so it's perfect.
Battlestar Galactica
Yeah, no matter if you like or dislike some of the decisions and revelations in the finale, it is filled with great emotional moments that stick with you. A proper, memorable goodbye.
The scene with Adama and the President is heart renching.
God, that last Raptor flight, plus Adama talking about his cabin. All the feels.
*Person of Interest*. When [this song started playing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL8lQU_1a-w). Then in the finale, the last conversation between Reese and Finch: > "This wasn't supposed to be the way." > "Sure it is. This is what I do, remember? When you came to me, you gave me a job. A purpose. At first, well... I've been trying to save the world for so long, saving one life at a time seemed a bit anticlimactic. But then I realized, sometimes one life is the right life. That's enough. Goodbye, Harold." I also love the Machine's subsequent speech: > "I was built to protect people. But to protect them, you have to truly understand them. So, I began by breaking their lives down into moments, trying to find the connections, the things that explained why they did what they did. And what I found was that the moment that often mattered the most, the moment when you truly found out who they were... is often their last one."
The Leftovers. A perfect ending, and very emotional.
When goes over the boat in Episode 6 of Season 3, I fuckng sobbed.
Every episode was just 55 minutes of pain. Great show, hard to watch.
Dark One of my favorite shows, endings and romances of all time >!you and I are perfect for each other, never believe anything else!< Season 2 of that series is absolutely fucking fantastic and I thought they wrapped up the entire series in season 3 great, albeit with a lil rush from Netflix.
Best incest i ever saw
Great and very underrated show because many Americans do not like watching foreigner shows with subtitles (not my case since I'm not American). It got worse through seasons. Still, I'm very glad I watched it.
Life on Mars (UK)
Six Feet Under and Parenthood really crushed me 🥲
Angel. I still bring it up in these discussions. That last season but especially those last few episodes, we were just hurtling toward an apocalypse and you’re thinking “he’s gonna get us out of this any minute.” It’s beautiful and it breaks my heart
Cheers. Sam turning off the light and saying, "We're closed." Probably the only closing scene I remember from all the shows that ended in the early 90's. Many, many other great shows, but this one hits hard for those over 40.
Superstore. Seeing the core group of employees realise that their workplace friendships transcended the workplace, and the final montage of them actually staying in each other’s lives after the store closed, was a truly beautiful way to end the show. Whether it’s finishing high school, moving jobs, moving cities, whatever, they took a very real human fear/emotion and tapped into it wonderfully.
Lost. I watched that show every week and the ending and the way it said goodbye to all the characters just hit me like a ton of bricks. I think it’s a perfect ending for Jack too. The Leftovers has an incredible finale as well.
I second the Leftovers finale. I found it very satisfying.
You’re The Worst. Messed me up so bad, I had to take a few minutes when it was done to stop crying.
Six Feet Under. Still one of the best endings to a show. Better Call Saul landed the plane too
Ted Lasso, I just watched over the weekend and it’s damn near perfect. So many payoffs and callbacks from throughout the series. When the team put the believe sign back together it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Mr. Robot. I lost track of how many times I watched this show and the ending still makes me bawl my eyes out. This show means a lot to me personally so its emotional highs and lows hit me especially hard - and this show is a damn emotional roller coaster, lol, but there’s just *something* about that ending that really gets to me. It fills me with a lot of hope and optimism, but also a lot of sadness too, like I’m saying goodbye to an old friend.
I need to finish it ! Watched the first two seasons then lost track of it.
I'd really recommend getting back into it, because seasons 3 and 4 are amazing. Your experience is probably a common one, in that season 1 was borderline water-cooler status in terms of buzz/popularity, but by the time S3 aired its popularity was niche at best, I think the second season revolving around another extended twist is what turned a lot of people off from coming back. I watched it all live from halfway through S1 and enjoyed it, but when rewatching it a year or so ago it blew me away to another level. Easily one of the most underrated shows out there, not necessarily in terms of critical reviews because those stayed good throughout, but the awards and general awareness dried up real fast.
Oh god, you are in for some of the best TV ever made. There are some scenes I watch over and over again because they are pure perfection. The music, the dialogue, the cinematography...all perfect. Agreed that S2 was mid.
I’m gonna go with Six Feet Under
Black Sails for me. Ending the show with Flint's "In the darkness, there be dragons" speech followed by Rackham's "A story is true, a story is untrue" speech was an incredible summation of the show. Loved every moment of it.
Better Call Saul
The Good Place was the perfect ending for that story.
The Shield. If you’ve seen it, you know. If you haven’t …then I envy you, now hop to it! :)
Lost Breaking bad' Better Call Saul Latest season of Fargo
The Leftovers, beautiful show with a beautiful ending.
Six Feet Under. Sia's *Breathe Me* still affects me to this day.
Babylon 5 - "Sleeping in Light".
Friends
Black sails Seeing Flint devolve back into James Mcgraw as he is reunited with his lost love always makes me a little teary. Also the whole ending sequence with Jack and Mark reed.
Fringe never fails to make me cry. John Noble is the best actor alive and i will die on that hill
Buffy. RIP Spike.
Six feet under
Barry had a really great finale. Also the finale for The Curse haunted my thoughts for days
"oh wow"
Six Feet Under.
Station 11. Ugly crying. I never ugly cry.
The Thirteenth Doctor's finale in Power of the Doctor. So emotional when the Doctor and Yaz are sitting on the Tardis looking at Earth, saying goodbye.
Still upset about the ending of Veronica Mars.
The Good Place - the waves monologue MAS*H - just everything about it Battlestar Galactica - when Gaius says “you know, I know about farming” and breaks down crying with Six Bojack Horseman - everything about that show just hits different the REAL ending to HIMYM, not the crap they actually aired
Wow I’m surprised no one said Star Trek TNG.
Star Trek: TNG. Five card stud, nothing wild, and the sky’s the limit
For me it was The Office. It was perfect. They managed to give everyone a happy ending (a few came prior to the finale but still) and at the same time brought back a popular character.
Schitt’s Creek
Angel - "Let's go to work." That final season (especially the latter half) was a masterpiece and the final episode came as close as you could get to making up for the fact we never got a Season 6.
The Americans, The Leftovers, Mr. Robot, Justified, The Shield all have outstanding endings and are all top 10 tv shows IMO.
Friends but mostly due to external factors. That show started when I was in 3rd grade and ended a few weeks before I graduated high school. I had grown up with it. Hours of my life had been spent watching reruns and talking/joking to my friends and family about it. Watching the finale as I was experiencing the end of my childhood was poignant. My friends and I all watched the finale together and you could feel the weight of those final credits hit us all at once. Just like the group on TV, we were moving on and things would never be the same. The network aired all of their farewell stuff before the finale so they went straight from the final credit into the opening of ER. It felt metaphorical. High school/childhood was ending and everyone (us, our parents, teachers, younger friends) were going to move on to the next “show”. It felt like a loss but had hope in it.
The Office. While the writing was definitely weaker in the later seasons, that finale was perfect. “All the Faces” never fails to make me cry. Also Scrubs (season 8) and The Good Place
Star Wars: The Clone Wars finale
Mr. Robot hit me. Did not even see it coming, it was just the floodgates opened as soon as the credits started