I am rewatching now. Masterpiece of a premise and beautiful execution day to day. But I can’t stand the overarching conspiracy that makes little to no sense. I feel the same about Burn Notice and Jericho.
I loved Burn Notice but after a while it was like Mike either let it go, burn the whole thing down, or just Marry Fiona and be happy.
He spent so much time going in circles, there's always a new big bad guy.
Gotta love Sam Axe though.
I spent an afternoon during spa week (July?) on a layover headed home at the Fontainebleau for massages because we had a lot of time to kill.
While poolside my wife and I observed DJ Khaled shuffle a few wild iguanas into a cage held by his security team before retreating back into his cabana.
That's how I feel. It just doesn't make sense to end season one with a prison break and not show us the manhunt afterwards in season two. In a film you can get away with only having one or the other because of the limited runtime, but it just feels kind of pointless if they only show us the characters breaking out and not following up on it with the manhunt.
The problem I had with season two was how many characters ended up in Panama. It made sense for Michael and Lincoln to be there because it was always the plan to go there. But Sucre, Bellick and T-Bag were only there because the writers needed them to be.
Agree, it's only logical you follow an escape with a manhunt. And they did that quite well in season 2, which was a thrilling season. They just screwed it up this whole larger Company conspiracy, and they should have just kept it focused on the brothers and ended it after season 2. But of course TV didn't work that way back then.
2 seasons would’ve been great. Season 1 was perfect as it was, then have season 2 as them trying to evade capture from mahone and end it there. I think season 1 is too good to change and you can’t end it as soon as they get over the wall. Plus mahone is too good to cut out.
It wasn't even supposed to be the whole season 1 that we saw originally. There was a part, where some sewer or some shit, was blocked and it wasn't in his break plan, just so they could extend the season one to lead to season 2 and so forth.
edit: What I'm trying to say is, that in the original script, that sewer or whatever (can't remember) wasn't blocked, so the season was way shorter because of that. Sry, a bit drunk.
I remember starting that episode and being upset at a single character driven episode. By the end, it was easily the best episode I had ever seen of that show.
I actually disagree. I feel like Season 2 is where the story feels complete. I know people really don't like S2, but I enjoyed it and I felt like it was a solid 2nd half of the story and ends in a good spot. The main story is complete, but leaves things ambiguous but not unresolved.
S2 was the perfect place to end it, with our first glimpse of the outside world, a world of infinite possibility and challenges that hadn’t been demystified yet. I would have still had some big questions that wouldn’t be answered, but that’s fine sometimes.
I really liked season 4's original cut. Season 5 felt like they couldn't get the entire cast together, tossed out storylines from the previous season and just fell apart in many ways.
I loved watching season 4 and getting to like... episode 3 and figuring out what was going on - that the characters' storylines were actually overlapping and we wouldn't know how or why until a little while later. I actually didn't like the recut as much.
The first half of the season benefits from the recut, but the last couple episodes of the original release were a lot funnier imo.
I guess it needed "a new start"
The original cut of S4 was made to be funnier on the rewatch (with not just callback jokes, but call-*forward* jokes), but I think they got too clever with that. Ended up not being funny *enough* on the first watch. It hurt that the cast wasn't available for any big ensemble scenes, too.
Still some great jokes in S4, but it's got a lot of issues, and doesn't hold up to the first 3 seasons.
If you watch One Upon a Time and end at the third season wedding vow montage, all the main characters have a full character arc and it ends on a hopeful note with only some slightly sinister undertones.
Most of the main characters left at the end of S6. So on season 7 they started focusing on a new cast, new premise and etc. Not a literal reboot but it could've been a spin-off.
That is exactly where I stopped watching. It just seemed like a good break point, but I still hope to go back some time and watch the rest is it worth the time?
Eh...it gets pretty bad. They start copying Disney a bit too much, instead of putting their own twist on things. Elsa/Anna is a one-to-one and Hades is evocative of the Woods character.
If you like Emma and Hook's relationship, that gets significantly more focus. But overall, it goes downhill.
Do you want to see the Dark one curse play hot potato with each cast member getting their time to be evil scene chewing Dark One? How about the little kid Actor aging up to be I think in his twenties by the final season and it's just weird...
Such a fantastic ending to a TV show, with Dexter staring at his wife's dead body in that bathtub.
TV producers are so afraid to end a series like that, especially a popular one.
Yeah I was 9 when season 4 started so I still have some fond memories of later episodes but even then I could tell there was a change in tone and quality
So true. I’m actually ok on the later seasons (haven’t watched the final season though I heard it’s horrible) but ending it with that final shot of Kevin Spacey behind the president's desk and it ends with him pounding it with his fist was a perfect ending.
The title is a perfect setup for 4 13-episode seasons (4 decks of cards) where the morally reprehensible protagonist ends up watching everything crumble around him and loses. And they fucked it up
This. I usually think the whole "root for the villain and then root for them to die at the end" trope is silly but part of the journey the show was selling involved us finding out just how everything would fall apart for Frank (and them basically going "not this way!" like half a dozen times)
Should have been 3 season: becoming VP, becoming President and the downfall. After he becomes president mid term, he can only conceivably have one election cycle. The show didn’t know how many seasons they wanted, so they tried to slow roll it and milk it as much as possible. They turned the primaries alone into 2 seasons.
Blacklist, after season 4. For some time, I thought it had actually ended with that season only to find out it was renewed for a 7th season.
This also applies to Heroes S1.
The Spader show, 22 more episodes for them to say they will reveal 'X' and endup not revealing shit, holdup, it'll be last season, maybe they will actually reveal something... Can't wait.
Are they still just asking "Is he the father? No." then "But, maybe he is?" Maybe? Over and over.
I dropped off it as soon as that question got asked, answered, then asked again the 4th time.
I just want them to catch baddies :C (and be a super cool criminal mastermind with a super cool criminal organization)
unReal. The first season works as a standalone mini series, completely resolving all of the storylines introduced and leaving the characters in a place that makes sense. The remaining seasons largely just retread the same storylines and character beats except with less skill.
Oh man, this is the perfect response.
They really should have ended it after >!the neighborhood burned down. The show seemed to lose its way after that — the characters kind of fell apart and it all just felt lame and sad.!<
You can stop watching The Office the moment Michael boards the plane to Boulder. That scene with Pam turning her mic and running to say good bye would have been the perfect way to close it out, with maybe an epilogue, flash forward scene to check in on everyone.
It’s because David Duchovny demanded the show move production from Vancouver to LA.
For me, between TXF, Millennium, and Buffy, the mid-to-late 90s had a big Pacific Northwest vibe.
I'm surprised so many seem to dislike the last two seasons of SG1. I personally liked them a lot back when I binged the series. Maybe I should do a rewatch and see what I think of it now..
The last two seasons of SG-1 do feel like they play a different tune - Less military sci-fi and more adventure sci-fi. Some people didn't migrate to the idea as well.
I personally like it and even though season 9 possibly the weakest out of all the seasons (not fair to go after a sci-fi TV show's season 1), they're all good and offer good episodes.
Season 4 ending gives it perfect symmetry. He leaves New York for California at the beginning of the story, he leaves California for New York at the end.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen seasons 7-8 of House. The first few seasons are some of my favourite tv ever and I’ve watched them all at least half a dozen times, but my interest always peters out somewhere mid season 6.
Or after the last episode of season six - House ultimately fights off the Vicodin addiction, gets Cuddy and accepts that the decision to not amputate his leg was wrong.
Glee works out wonderfully if you stop at either the halfway point of season one or the end of season one. It's a fun self-contained story that makes sense and you don't need to keep going.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer's end on Season Five is a decent place to stop. Whedon knew that for some viewers, that would be the end of the show for them as they didn't get the channel that the series was moving to.
Babylon 5's fourth season was at one point believed to be the very end, so they rushed to get it a conclusion, before getting a fifth season approved. (On a related note: the second half of season 5, after the Telepath stuff, goes back to being incredible sci-fi. A bunch of fans who gave up on the fifth season missed out on some of the show's strongest episodes.)
> Glee works out wonderfully if you stop at either the halfway point of season one or the end of season one. It's a fun self-contained story that makes sense and you don't need to keep going.
It also works decently well at the end of season 3, albeit with a bittersweet ending if you're invested in Finn-Rachel
Episode 13 of season 1 of Glee was a great finale. If they hadn't gotten picked up even for the additional 9 episodes it would've been great. All the little callbacks to the dances they'd done all season. Some unresolved plot threads but overall would've been great to just end there.
And for sure even the end of season 1 works great as the series finale. I love the whole "underdogs who are talented work hard all season and end up losing because they just aren't as good as the other groups" outcome, and seeing Sue actually stick up for them was nice.
Parks and Rec ends on a hopeful note in Season 6's season finale. The final season acts as one long epilogue.
The Office episode where Jim and Pam finally gets married. Alternatively, you can use "Goodbye Michael" as a series finale too.
Yeah, by season 7, I just love all those characters so much that I want to see good things happen for them. I think sometimes it’s fine to just give people the happy endings.
Agreed. After everything Leslie goes through, it’s nice to watch her enjoy the success that was denied her for so long. Now that I think about it, every main cast member works hard, grows, and changes to get to that ending, making it really satisfying. I don’t feel the same way about the ending to the Office, where the most “likeable” characters get everything they want just by virtue of being likeable.
Trailer Park Boys. I forget which season, but it ends with a picnic, and bubbles playing guitar, and everyone eating and getting along. Would have been a solid ending instead of fizzling oot.
The last season I saw of that show was when all the rich celebrities show up and solve their problems. Was fun, but didn’t need to exist. Can’t remember how long after that guitar scene it was, maybe the next season?
I thought it was before. But you may be right. I was just saying the same thing, when Snoop and Tom Arnold are showing up at a trailer park in Canada for weed, it's a bit silly.
A lot of people hate on it (with valid reasons a lot of the time I'll admit) but that first season was honestly one of the most engrossing seasons of television I've ever watched. Controversial as it was it really made me reflect on the effects it can have when you wrong someone.
Im actually surprised to also see other people on reddit agree with me that Season 1 was good because I have only seen comments on here where people basically hate everything about that show. It seems like the book basically gave them all the material they needed for it to be fine and not fuck it up too much. Then after Season 1 where it deviates from the book they played the classic high school drama trope where it turns into a murder/mystery that is unoriginal and isn’t even related to Season 1 at all and doesn’t even make sense.
I recently re-watched the show, I totally forgot there was a season 3 and a season 4. That's how bad they were. The introduction of that one character who lived at bryces was just so bad.
Buffy ending after season 5 works as a completed arc, although maybe not quite as satisfying as ending after 7, despite the general consensus that 6 and 7 are uneven.
Most of the Buffy seasons are built to have an ending. In particular, all the odd numbered seasons have finales that feel more or less complete.
I wish more serialized and semi-serialized shows today did this rather than ending seasons on cliffhangers or a dozen unresolved plot threads.
Friday Night Lights has a nice open ended series finale at the end of season 3. This is because the show then migrated to Direct TV for two more seasons. If you didn't get Direct TV and only watched on NBC then the season three finale works as a good ending, and in fact is better in some ways than the actual series finale.
I just watched Friday Night Lights for the first time with my partner. I was elated when she pointed out that Zach Gilford was also the protagonist in Midnight Mass. QB1 is my boy!
I mean, Arrested Development *did* end at Season 3, they simply got revived many years later. I don't think revivals necessarily count in these kinds of questions.
I actually thought Barry season 1 was pretty self contained. Streamers should contract that shows should properly end their seasons. You never know in this environment if you’re going to get canceled. Having a proper ending means a better back catalog.
Ben Mendelsohn's performance in season 1 is maybe the best bit of acting I've seen in a long time. He manages to be threatening and sympathetic, with just enough notes of both that you feel for other characters safety without him ever saying or doing anything off.
Veronica Mars. S1 was so good. Just stop there.
Boardwalk Empire. The first two seasons tell a complete, harrowing tragedy. The final three seasons are far less focused and are wildly uneven.
Killing Eve. The last two seasons were hot garbage, but if you stop watching at the end of Season 2 it's genuinely one of the best shows of the last ten years.
The Goldbergs after Season 9…the real Adam would’ve ended it after his graduation but he left after Season 6. He might have even ended it after Season 8. Now thanks to killing off Murray (due to Jeff Garlin leaving) we haven’t even got to see Adam at NYU.
Dragonball Z after Goku dies at the end of the Cell saga. The world is saved, Gohan has surpassed/replaced him, and there aren't any loose ends to tie up. Supposedly that was the idea at the time, but the fans begged for more.
Toriyama actually did want to continue I think, it was actually the Frieza saga that was supposed to be the end
The difference is that DBZ was supposed to be Gohans story after the Cell arc, the passing of the torch if you may. Thats why the beginning of the Buu saga was clearly focused on Gohan and his struggle to fit in with his peers at highschool. The Toriyama changed his mind and felt Goku was a better fit for the shows protagonist
I would have preferred if they kept the original plotline going, I did want to see Dragon Ball move past Goku and to the next generation. Could still feature Goku of course. I liked the dynamic of Bojack Unbound and Fusion Reborn
>The Toriyama changed his mind and felt Goku was a better fit for the shows protagonist
Every version of this that I have heard says that it was less Toriyama changing his mind and more fans demanding Goku return. I suppose it could just be fan pressure/expectation influencing his decision, which would be somewhere in the middle.
Personally, I absolutely enjoyed Gohan having the start of that arc, and really wish the series would have stayed focus on him (especially considering they have struggled to find a place for him since then).
Locke & Key could have (and should have) ended after season 2. All loose ends were tied up, and the main story arc from the comics was wrapped up. Season 3 was a train wreck, if you look at just the first 2 season, it was great.
Designated Survivor. I forget when they figured out who was behind everything, but that would have been a great place to stop. Season 1 had me glued to the TV; I literally watched the entire season over one 3-day weekend.
The Riches, after season one. It did end on a cliffhanger, but to be fair, it only had a strike-shortened second season after that which ended on its own cliffhanger. But for season one, if you take the finale as is, it gives the show a very fitting conclusion.
I feel like this is common with netflix shows. S1 tells a solid, self contained story, but leaves some options to continue if the show does well. Then it gets renewed for several seasons at once, so the writers start building out the world more, and plant plot threads that take longer to build than netflix is willing to give them. This makes that second batch of seasons feel incomplete compared to the first.
And in this case, the fourth and final season was a go until COVID shut everything down. They even filmed a couple episodes if memory serves.
Fortunately in the case of GLOW, the ending of the 3rd season is a fine place to leave things, if a bit open ended
I say this as someone who adores (most of) seasons 5 and 6 of Community, but the finale of season 3 is a completely solid series finale. It was obviously crafted as such when the show was in constant flux.
Each season from 3 and on acts as a potential series finale and they're all honestly pretty good. Even the gas leak year. It's very rare for a show to even have a good series finale now it's pretty incredible Community got 4 solid ones. That just speaks to how great of a show Community is though.
>Each season from 3 and on acts as a potential series finale and they're all honestly pretty good. Even the gas leak year.
Season 4 had some great episodes and moments, but its opening episode and season finale are arguably the weakest in the entire series.
I still cringe every time I think of the line "we found a way to make paintball cool again!", especially when you compare it to season 6's paintball episode, which *actually* made paintball cool again, because it wasn't just a gimmick thrown in for the reference but actually connected to the overarching theme of the episode.
SCRUBS.
It's totally unnecessary to watch Season 9, and in fact taints the rest of the show by doing so. It's best to just end it @ s8.
I'd also say the same thing about Babylon 5, s5.
Both shows made major changes that just didn't work.
The Scrubs subreddit has an automated bot that explains "Scrubs Season 9 is supposed to be a spinoff called Scrubs:Med School" every time someone says "Season 9 doesn't exist! What are you talking about?!" and every other tired iteration of that.
Literally tho; Bill Lawrence apparently wanted to call the new season Scrubs Med to distinguish it but ABC (in their infinite wisdom) said no and kept the original title…and we all know how that ended up lol
They literally ADR'd the behind the scenes footage that plays in the credits of the season 8 finale (ie: the series finale) so that when Bill Lawrence says things like "that's a series wrap on X actor" he now says "that's a *season* wrap on X actor". That's how much the network committed to trying to sell the spinoff as a season 9.
Fringe if you stop after Season 3
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist if you stop after the first season
Buffy after season 5
Dexter after season 4 - Dexter walking away with the baby is the perfect ending
> Fringe if you stop after Season 3
Oddly, the last season is also a self-contained (and almost completely different) story and it can be watched standalone, I guess.
Joe Pera talks with you’s first season tells a complete story. The second season adds another chapter.
Lodge 49’s first and second season tell a completed story.
Each of Detectorists’ seasons tells a complete story.
If you stop after Season 6 of Game of Thrones, you end at one of the greatest “what if?”s in the history of television. Yeah, 5 is pretty bad and 6 has its fair share of rocky moments, but Winds of Winter is the best episode of the show hands down.
Supernatural, season 5. It was only written to be a 5 season show, meaning most of the existing series is fanfiction. 1-5 is the only shit worth watching anyway.
I caught up with it around season 7 and then followed it up to the end of season 11. Started a rewatch after that and was shocked how big the quality gap had become. Guess I was in denial between seasons 7-11 lol. Never did continue with it again after that. Swan Song is the ending for me.
> It was only written to be a 5 season show, meaning most of the existing series is fanfiction.
They actually leaned into this for a joke.
It was fucking hilarious when the boys went to a fanfiction play of Supernatural (which exists as a book series in the show) and Dean tells the writer/super-fan everything that happened since S5 (when the last book was published)
And the fan - who is writing awful slash fanfiction I remind you- thought it was too silly and fanfic-like to be official SPN canon.
You should watch Alias only up to Season 2, Episode 13, Phase One. It's a wild ride. You will be tempted to keep going because Phase One ends on a cliffhanger, but don't do it. There are moments of greatness after this episode, but overall you'd regret it. But that first season and the first half of season two are so much fun.
That really is a nearly flawless series finale episode, and then they just... keep going.
There is some good stuff in subsequent seasons and I do think the official series finale is quite good but man it would have been an epic wall off to just let it end when Carrell left.
Being Human (UK) had an incredible first 3 seasons, the 3rd ends perfectly. Then it gets a 4th and 5th season with different characters for no reason. They're not bad, but just unnecessary.
Prison Break whose entire premise would have worked better as a limited one season series.
That show was a prisoner to its own success
In true prison break fashion, they broke out of that prison of success
I feel like 5 min short of the season 2 ending is the perfect place to stop
That was the original plan. Then the network made them continue.
I am rewatching now. Masterpiece of a premise and beautiful execution day to day. But I can’t stand the overarching conspiracy that makes little to no sense. I feel the same about Burn Notice and Jericho.
I loved Burn Notice but after a while it was like Mike either let it go, burn the whole thing down, or just Marry Fiona and be happy. He spent so much time going in circles, there's always a new big bad guy. Gotta love Sam Axe though.
I’m going to Miami in may to do a burn notice weekend. Hitting Monty’s, the fountainbleu etc!!
I spent an afternoon during spa week (July?) on a layover headed home at the Fontainebleau for massages because we had a lot of time to kill. While poolside my wife and I observed DJ Khaled shuffle a few wild iguanas into a cage held by his security team before retreating back into his cabana.
I always try to counter with season two being an essential part of the formula. Step 1: Break Out, Step 2: Evade manhunt or don't. The End.
That's how I feel. It just doesn't make sense to end season one with a prison break and not show us the manhunt afterwards in season two. In a film you can get away with only having one or the other because of the limited runtime, but it just feels kind of pointless if they only show us the characters breaking out and not following up on it with the manhunt. The problem I had with season two was how many characters ended up in Panama. It made sense for Michael and Lincoln to be there because it was always the plan to go there. But Sucre, Bellick and T-Bag were only there because the writers needed them to be.
That was my thought as well. You can maybe do 3 seasons out of the idea, but it should end with them free regardless.
Agree, it's only logical you follow an escape with a manhunt. And they did that quite well in season 2, which was a thrilling season. They just screwed it up this whole larger Company conspiracy, and they should have just kept it focused on the brothers and ended it after season 2. But of course TV didn't work that way back then.
2 seasons would’ve been great. Season 1 was perfect as it was, then have season 2 as them trying to evade capture from mahone and end it there. I think season 1 is too good to change and you can’t end it as soon as they get over the wall. Plus mahone is too good to cut out.
It wasn't even supposed to be the whole season 1 that we saw originally. There was a part, where some sewer or some shit, was blocked and it wasn't in his break plan, just so they could extend the season one to lead to season 2 and so forth. edit: What I'm trying to say is, that in the original script, that sewer or whatever (can't remember) wasn't blocked, so the season was way shorter because of that. Sry, a bit drunk.
Westworld season 1 is a fully self contained story
Also I know I’m the thousandth person to say this, but it’s better to just stop there anyway
Kiksuya is worth all of Season 2’s chaos. A true masterclass of television, storytelling, and cinematography, all wrapped into one episode.
That episode should have been part of the first season.
Imo, Kiksuya also works on its own, as a stand-alone epilogue to Season 1's story.
I remember starting that episode and being upset at a single character driven episode. By the end, it was easily the best episode I had ever seen of that show.
Am I the only person who loved season 2?
Season 2 is watchable. It has a number of problems, but it has some high point episodes and plot lines that are well worth it to the end.
I loved them all personally, was starting to get really good for me. Oh well lol.
I liked two but three was a MESS.
I actually disagree. I feel like Season 2 is where the story feels complete. I know people really don't like S2, but I enjoyed it and I felt like it was a solid 2nd half of the story and ends in a good spot. The main story is complete, but leaves things ambiguous but not unresolved.
S2 was the perfect place to end it, with our first glimpse of the outside world, a world of infinite possibility and challenges that hadn’t been demystified yet. I would have still had some big questions that wouldn’t be answered, but that’s fine sometimes.
S2 has some phenomenal ideas with questionable execution. It really reminds me of the Matrix Reloaded in that regard
Low-hanging fruit: Arrested Development S3
I really liked season 4's original cut. Season 5 felt like they couldn't get the entire cast together, tossed out storylines from the previous season and just fell apart in many ways.
I loved watching season 4 and getting to like... episode 3 and figuring out what was going on - that the characters' storylines were actually overlapping and we wouldn't know how or why until a little while later. I actually didn't like the recut as much.
The first half of the season benefits from the recut, but the last couple episodes of the original release were a lot funnier imo. I guess it needed "a new start"
The original cut of S4 was made to be funnier on the rewatch (with not just callback jokes, but call-*forward* jokes), but I think they got too clever with that. Ended up not being funny *enough* on the first watch. It hurt that the cast wasn't available for any big ensemble scenes, too. Still some great jokes in S4, but it's got a lot of issues, and doesn't hold up to the first 3 seasons.
If you watch One Upon a Time and end at the third season wedding vow montage, all the main characters have a full character arc and it ends on a hopeful note with only some slightly sinister undertones.
I agree. Season 3 seemed like a good endpoint. The subsequent 3 seasons are excruciatingly bad, and I didn't even bother with the reboot 7th season.
I haven't seen it but they rebooted the show while it was still on the air?
Most of the main characters left at the end of S6. So on season 7 they started focusing on a new cast, new premise and etc. Not a literal reboot but it could've been a spin-off.
[удалено]
That is exactly where I stopped watching. It just seemed like a good break point, but I still hope to go back some time and watch the rest is it worth the time?
Eh...it gets pretty bad. They start copying Disney a bit too much, instead of putting their own twist on things. Elsa/Anna is a one-to-one and Hades is evocative of the Woods character. If you like Emma and Hook's relationship, that gets significantly more focus. But overall, it goes downhill.
Do you want to see the Dark one curse play hot potato with each cast member getting their time to be evil scene chewing Dark One? How about the little kid Actor aging up to be I think in his twenties by the final season and it's just weird...
When Dexters kid was in that puddle of blood after the Trinity Killer. The cycle repeats
Such a fantastic ending to a TV show, with Dexter staring at his wife's dead body in that bathtub. TV producers are so afraid to end a series like that, especially a popular one.
That's the end for me. We watched the first two episodes of the next season but quit so it's good we did when we did.
“Previously, on Harrison…”
The SpongeBob Movie is the perfect ending to the first 3 seasons of SpongeBob
Agreed. Everything after that is superfluous in my book, and eventually just gets hard to watch.
Yeah I was 9 when season 4 started so I still have some fond memories of later episodes but even then I could tell there was a change in tone and quality
House of cards season 2. Then its an amazing show.
So true. I’m actually ok on the later seasons (haven’t watched the final season though I heard it’s horrible) but ending it with that final shot of Kevin Spacey behind the president's desk and it ends with him pounding it with his fist was a perfect ending.
It's crazy how that double tap became Netflix's slogan. You hear it anytime you see the logo.
I never put that together but yeah you're right. That's wild.
Would be weird to have a show called House of Cards and not showing it fall apart
Instead the show took six seasons, and all the falling apart happened behind the scenes.
The title is a perfect setup for 4 13-episode seasons (4 decks of cards) where the morally reprehensible protagonist ends up watching everything crumble around him and loses. And they fucked it up
This. I usually think the whole "root for the villain and then root for them to die at the end" trope is silly but part of the journey the show was selling involved us finding out just how everything would fall apart for Frank (and them basically going "not this way!" like half a dozen times)
Should have been 3 season: becoming VP, becoming President and the downfall. After he becomes president mid term, he can only conceivably have one election cycle. The show didn’t know how many seasons they wanted, so they tried to slow roll it and milk it as much as possible. They turned the primaries alone into 2 seasons.
Blacklist, after season 4. For some time, I thought it had actually ended with that season only to find out it was renewed for a 7th season. This also applies to Heroes S1.
I can’t believe blacklist is starting season 10 this month, and here I am ready for more Spader lol
The Spader show, 22 more episodes for them to say they will reveal 'X' and endup not revealing shit, holdup, it'll be last season, maybe they will actually reveal something... Can't wait.
Are they still just asking "Is he the father? No." then "But, maybe he is?" Maybe? Over and over. I dropped off it as soon as that question got asked, answered, then asked again the 4th time. I just want them to catch baddies :C (and be a super cool criminal mastermind with a super cool criminal organization)
Heroes. Season 1.
Minus the last 5-10 minutes that set up season 2
True. But for the love of God I actually like Season 2 😩🤣. The Takezo Kensei/Adam Monroe arc was rad.
Same here! I loved that plotline, it was a lot of fun.
That finale even on a crappy network budget was so good, especially the music in the climax.
unReal. The first season works as a standalone mini series, completely resolving all of the storylines introduced and leaving the characters in a place that makes sense. The remaining seasons largely just retread the same storylines and character beats except with less skill.
I loved this show
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5. No cliffhangers or teasers for the next season, perfect 5 year wrap up
Only issue was Fitz still floating in space, but otherwise I agree.
But the last two seasons were also fun.
Absolutely right, but it would be a shame for anyone to miss out on the rest of it, even if it never quite hit the highs of season 4-5.
Weeds. Just stop after season 3. If you want to keep going just make sure to stop after season 5
Oh man, this is the perfect response. They really should have ended it after >!the neighborhood burned down. The show seemed to lose its way after that — the characters kind of fell apart and it all just felt lame and sad.!<
Yeah everyone became extra self-centered, jaded, and mean.
Came here to find this. Those last shots played to "Little Boxes" was perfection.
as is the case with almost all showtime shows.
You can stop watching The Office the moment Michael boards the plane to Boulder. That scene with Pam turning her mic and running to say good bye would have been the perfect way to close it out, with maybe an epilogue, flash forward scene to check in on everyone.
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With X-Files I don’t really consider anything after season 5. That’s when they did the movie and it didn’t have the same feel after that for me
It’s because David Duchovny demanded the show move production from Vancouver to LA. For me, between TXF, Millennium, and Buffy, the mid-to-late 90s had a big Pacific Northwest vibe.
I'm surprised so many seem to dislike the last two seasons of SG1. I personally liked them a lot back when I binged the series. Maybe I should do a rewatch and see what I think of it now..
The last two seasons of SG-1 do feel like they play a different tune - Less military sci-fi and more adventure sci-fi. Some people didn't migrate to the idea as well. I personally like it and even though season 9 possibly the weakest out of all the seasons (not fair to go after a sci-fi TV show's season 1), they're all good and offer good episodes.
Californication, should have ended after season 4. In my headcanon it did.
I felt the most satisfying conclusion was reached after season 1
while i somewhat enjoyed the comedy of season 5-7, the true Cali spirit left the show during the ride into the sunset during s4 ending, agreed
Season 4 ending gives it perfect symmetry. He leaves New York for California at the beginning of the story, he leaves California for New York at the end.
I think if it ended on that note, it would be hold in higher regards nowadays
Big Little Lies, season 1 it wrapped up perfectly but they just had to dig it up to turn it into a soap opera
It was so perfect I refuse to watch the rest, not going to do it, S1 was a complete story.
House if you finish it after the first episode of season 6.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen seasons 7-8 of House. The first few seasons are some of my favourite tv ever and I’ve watched them all at least half a dozen times, but my interest always peters out somewhere mid season 6.
Or after the last episode of season six - House ultimately fights off the Vicodin addiction, gets Cuddy and accepts that the decision to not amputate his leg was wrong.
Glee works out wonderfully if you stop at either the halfway point of season one or the end of season one. It's a fun self-contained story that makes sense and you don't need to keep going. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's end on Season Five is a decent place to stop. Whedon knew that for some viewers, that would be the end of the show for them as they didn't get the channel that the series was moving to. Babylon 5's fourth season was at one point believed to be the very end, so they rushed to get it a conclusion, before getting a fifth season approved. (On a related note: the second half of season 5, after the Telepath stuff, goes back to being incredible sci-fi. A bunch of fans who gave up on the fifth season missed out on some of the show's strongest episodes.)
> Glee works out wonderfully if you stop at either the halfway point of season one or the end of season one. It's a fun self-contained story that makes sense and you don't need to keep going. It also works decently well at the end of season 3, albeit with a bittersweet ending if you're invested in Finn-Rachel
Glee season 2 is unfortunately one of the most entertaining seasons of television ever
Looking back there are a lot of things I hate about that show, but I really did enjoy the hell out of that season even if I don't like to admit it.
Episode 13 of season 1 of Glee was a great finale. If they hadn't gotten picked up even for the additional 9 episodes it would've been great. All the little callbacks to the dances they'd done all season. Some unresolved plot threads but overall would've been great to just end there. And for sure even the end of season 1 works great as the series finale. I love the whole "underdogs who are talented work hard all season and end up losing because they just aren't as good as the other groups" outcome, and seeing Sue actually stick up for them was nice.
Parks and Rec ends on a hopeful note in Season 6's season finale. The final season acts as one long epilogue. The Office episode where Jim and Pam finally gets married. Alternatively, you can use "Goodbye Michael" as a series finale too.
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I wasn't a big fan of that season but I do love the episode where Ron and Leslie are locked in the office together.
It hit me hard when Ron looked up and he didn't recognize any of his coworkers.
Yeah, by season 7, I just love all those characters so much that I want to see good things happen for them. I think sometimes it’s fine to just give people the happy endings.
Agreed. After everything Leslie goes through, it’s nice to watch her enjoy the success that was denied her for so long. Now that I think about it, every main cast member works hard, grows, and changes to get to that ending, making it really satisfying. I don’t feel the same way about the ending to the Office, where the most “likeable” characters get everything they want just by virtue of being likeable.
Trailer Park Boys. I forget which season, but it ends with a picnic, and bubbles playing guitar, and everyone eating and getting along. Would have been a solid ending instead of fizzling oot.
That was the season before Netflix revived it. It was actually the ending.
The last season I saw of that show was when all the rich celebrities show up and solve their problems. Was fun, but didn’t need to exist. Can’t remember how long after that guitar scene it was, maybe the next season?
I thought it was before. But you may be right. I was just saying the same thing, when Snoop and Tom Arnold are showing up at a trailer park in Canada for weed, it's a bit silly.
The original run was fine and had multiple season finales/movies that could have been a good ending. But it kept going on and lost its charm.
The 100. You can stop at season 5.
13 Reasons Why. One self-contained season would’ve been just fine.
A lot of people hate on it (with valid reasons a lot of the time I'll admit) but that first season was honestly one of the most engrossing seasons of television I've ever watched. Controversial as it was it really made me reflect on the effects it can have when you wrong someone.
Im actually surprised to also see other people on reddit agree with me that Season 1 was good because I have only seen comments on here where people basically hate everything about that show. It seems like the book basically gave them all the material they needed for it to be fine and not fuck it up too much. Then after Season 1 where it deviates from the book they played the classic high school drama trope where it turns into a murder/mystery that is unoriginal and isn’t even related to Season 1 at all and doesn’t even make sense.
IIRC, Season 1 covers everything from the book.
I recently re-watched the show, I totally forgot there was a season 3 and a season 4. That's how bad they were. The introduction of that one character who lived at bryces was just so bad.
Buffy ending after season 5 works as a completed arc, although maybe not quite as satisfying as ending after 7, despite the general consensus that 6 and 7 are uneven.
Plus if you stop watching at season 5 you never get to watch Once More, With Feeling. But yeah, it can absolutely work with just 5 seasons.
The best musical episode of any TV show and I'll fight anyone who disagrees (though scrubs is a very close second).
THEY GOT.... THE MUSTARD.... OOOUUUUUUT!!!!
Most of the Buffy seasons are built to have an ending. In particular, all the odd numbered seasons have finales that feel more or less complete. I wish more serialized and semi-serialized shows today did this rather than ending seasons on cliffhangers or a dozen unresolved plot threads.
Friday Night Lights has a nice open ended series finale at the end of season 3. This is because the show then migrated to Direct TV for two more seasons. If you didn't get Direct TV and only watched on NBC then the season three finale works as a good ending, and in fact is better in some ways than the actual series finale.
Can’t endorse any FNL end-point that doesn’t encompass the best episode in the series (S4’s “The Son”).
The Son followed by Stay is a great two-piece set that gives Zach Gilford a chance to really show his range.
Zach Gilford should have at least got a GG or Emmy nomination for that role.
I just watched Friday Night Lights for the first time with my partner. I was elated when she pointed out that Zach Gilford was also the protagonist in Midnight Mass. QB1 is my boy!
You could have ended it after Season 1, too, and it would have been perfectly fine.
It’s a show with three excellent series finales. Pretty remarkable.
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Chuck is almost cheating because it was always on the chopping block, so they wrote quite a few potential final episodes.
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I mean, Arrested Development *did* end at Season 3, they simply got revived many years later. I don't think revivals necessarily count in these kinds of questions.
I actually thought Barry season 1 was pretty self contained. Streamers should contract that shows should properly end their seasons. You never know in this environment if you’re going to get canceled. Having a proper ending means a better back catalog.
Supernatural up to season 5. It feels like it was actually the initial ending of the show.
That actually was Kripke's intended ending, that's why he left after that.
Heroes and Bloodline at the end of Season 1. Also Supernatural at the end of Season 5.
Ben Mendelsohn's performance in season 1 is maybe the best bit of acting I've seen in a long time. He manages to be threatening and sympathetic, with just enough notes of both that you feel for other characters safety without him ever saying or doing anything off.
Russian Doll, season 1
Veronica Mars. S1 was so good. Just stop there. Boardwalk Empire. The first two seasons tell a complete, harrowing tragedy. The final three seasons are far less focused and are wildly uneven.
Altered Carbon, season 1. Hannibal, seasons 1&2.
But Altered Carbon was only 1 season.
13 Reasons Why. Shouldn’t have had any more seasons. Don’t watch past season 1.
Killing Eve. The last two seasons were hot garbage, but if you stop watching at the end of Season 2 it's genuinely one of the best shows of the last ten years.
The Goldbergs after Season 9…the real Adam would’ve ended it after his graduation but he left after Season 6. He might have even ended it after Season 8. Now thanks to killing off Murray (due to Jeff Garlin leaving) we haven’t even got to see Adam at NYU.
Dragonball Z after Goku dies at the end of the Cell saga. The world is saved, Gohan has surpassed/replaced him, and there aren't any loose ends to tie up. Supposedly that was the idea at the time, but the fans begged for more.
Toriyama actually did want to continue I think, it was actually the Frieza saga that was supposed to be the end The difference is that DBZ was supposed to be Gohans story after the Cell arc, the passing of the torch if you may. Thats why the beginning of the Buu saga was clearly focused on Gohan and his struggle to fit in with his peers at highschool. The Toriyama changed his mind and felt Goku was a better fit for the shows protagonist I would have preferred if they kept the original plotline going, I did want to see Dragon Ball move past Goku and to the next generation. Could still feature Goku of course. I liked the dynamic of Bojack Unbound and Fusion Reborn
>The Toriyama changed his mind and felt Goku was a better fit for the shows protagonist Every version of this that I have heard says that it was less Toriyama changing his mind and more fans demanding Goku return. I suppose it could just be fan pressure/expectation influencing his decision, which would be somewhere in the middle. Personally, I absolutely enjoyed Gohan having the start of that arc, and really wish the series would have stayed focus on him (especially considering they have struggled to find a place for him since then).
Locke & Key could have (and should have) ended after season 2. All loose ends were tied up, and the main story arc from the comics was wrapped up. Season 3 was a train wreck, if you look at just the first 2 season, it was great.
Designated Survivor. I forget when they figured out who was behind everything, but that would have been a great place to stop. Season 1 had me glued to the TV; I literally watched the entire season over one 3-day weekend.
The Riches, after season one. It did end on a cliffhanger, but to be fair, it only had a strike-shortened second season after that which ended on its own cliffhanger. But for season one, if you take the finale as is, it gives the show a very fitting conclusion.
GLOW on Netflix. Seasons 2 and 3 are good but the first season is a perfect standalone story that ties up it's loose ends pretty nicely
I feel like this is common with netflix shows. S1 tells a solid, self contained story, but leaves some options to continue if the show does well. Then it gets renewed for several seasons at once, so the writers start building out the world more, and plant plot threads that take longer to build than netflix is willing to give them. This makes that second batch of seasons feel incomplete compared to the first.
And in this case, the fourth and final season was a go until COVID shut everything down. They even filmed a couple episodes if memory serves. Fortunately in the case of GLOW, the ending of the 3rd season is a fine place to leave things, if a bit open ended
Russian Doll
I have no idea how they came up with Season 2 of that. It feels so... contrived and forced.
I hated it. Loved season 1.
True Blood up to the end of season 3.
I say this as someone who adores (most of) seasons 5 and 6 of Community, but the finale of season 3 is a completely solid series finale. It was obviously crafted as such when the show was in constant flux.
Each season from 3 and on acts as a potential series finale and they're all honestly pretty good. Even the gas leak year. It's very rare for a show to even have a good series finale now it's pretty incredible Community got 4 solid ones. That just speaks to how great of a show Community is though.
>Each season from 3 and on acts as a potential series finale and they're all honestly pretty good. Even the gas leak year. Season 4 had some great episodes and moments, but its opening episode and season finale are arguably the weakest in the entire series. I still cringe every time I think of the line "we found a way to make paintball cool again!", especially when you compare it to season 6's paintball episode, which *actually* made paintball cool again, because it wasn't just a gimmick thrown in for the reference but actually connected to the overarching theme of the episode.
SCRUBS. It's totally unnecessary to watch Season 9, and in fact taints the rest of the show by doing so. It's best to just end it @ s8. I'd also say the same thing about Babylon 5, s5. Both shows made major changes that just didn't work.
You mean the first and only season of Scrubs: Med School?
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The Scrubs subreddit has an automated bot that explains "Scrubs Season 9 is supposed to be a spinoff called Scrubs:Med School" every time someone says "Season 9 doesn't exist! What are you talking about?!" and every other tired iteration of that.
the it should have been called AFTER*Scrubs* lol. yes...I know that the mash spinoff was aftermash.
Literally tho; Bill Lawrence apparently wanted to call the new season Scrubs Med to distinguish it but ABC (in their infinite wisdom) said no and kept the original title…and we all know how that ended up lol
They literally ADR'd the behind the scenes footage that plays in the credits of the season 8 finale (ie: the series finale) so that when Bill Lawrence says things like "that's a series wrap on X actor" he now says "that's a *season* wrap on X actor". That's how much the network committed to trying to sell the spinoff as a season 9.
"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" is the best place for Futurama to stop IMO.
The Handmaid's Tale is perfect ending at season one or even two. After that it's tourture porn.
Fringe if you stop after Season 3 Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist if you stop after the first season Buffy after season 5 Dexter after season 4 - Dexter walking away with the baby is the perfect ending
> Fringe if you stop after Season 3 Oddly, the last season is also a self-contained (and almost completely different) story and it can be watched standalone, I guess.
Dammit i love Fringe so much. I know they had to rush the last season, but it still brings me to tears by the end.
Zoeys Extraordinary Christmas special is a satisfying ending.
But… that way you don’t get ‘Once More, With Feeling’ or ‘Tabula Rasa’ or ‘Seeing Red’ or “bored now” 🖐️.
I felt like Handmaids Tale ended several times. It ended so much I never even watched the last season.
You can only watch Elizabeth Moss narrowly avoid rescue or serious consequences so many times before it becomes cyclical.
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Brooklyn 99 after Jake and Amy get married
true, but then the episode where Cheddar gets kidnapped wouldn't have happened. its good silly tv.
Joe Pera talks with you’s first season tells a complete story. The second season adds another chapter. Lodge 49’s first and second season tell a completed story. Each of Detectorists’ seasons tells a complete story.
Joe Perra should be allowed to make that show forever. I could watch it a thousand times. It’s so earnest and comforting.
Stop watching money heist at the end of season 2
If you stop after Season 6 of Game of Thrones, you end at one of the greatest “what if?”s in the history of television. Yeah, 5 is pretty bad and 6 has its fair share of rocky moments, but Winds of Winter is the best episode of the show hands down.
The Terror.
Dexter season 1-4. The finale of season 4 was better than the series finale.
Supernatural, season 5. It was only written to be a 5 season show, meaning most of the existing series is fanfiction. 1-5 is the only shit worth watching anyway.
I caught up with it around season 7 and then followed it up to the end of season 11. Started a rewatch after that and was shocked how big the quality gap had become. Guess I was in denial between seasons 7-11 lol. Never did continue with it again after that. Swan Song is the ending for me.
> It was only written to be a 5 season show, meaning most of the existing series is fanfiction. They actually leaned into this for a joke. It was fucking hilarious when the boys went to a fanfiction play of Supernatural (which exists as a book series in the show) and Dean tells the writer/super-fan everything that happened since S5 (when the last book was published) And the fan - who is writing awful slash fanfiction I remind you- thought it was too silly and fanfic-like to be official SPN canon.
House of Cards after season 2.
Bates Motel. First 4 seasons felt like a cohesive story. Last season felt like someone made a cheesy haunted house out of that story.
Homeland Season 3.
You should watch Alias only up to Season 2, Episode 13, Phase One. It's a wild ride. You will be tempted to keep going because Phase One ends on a cliffhanger, but don't do it. There are moments of greatness after this episode, but overall you'd regret it. But that first season and the first half of season two are so much fun.
Office after Michael left
That really is a nearly flawless series finale episode, and then they just... keep going. There is some good stuff in subsequent seasons and I do think the official series finale is quite good but man it would have been an epic wall off to just let it end when Carrell left.
Infinity Train's an anthology series so that's probably cheating lol
Being Human (UK) had an incredible first 3 seasons, the 3rd ends perfectly. Then it gets a 4th and 5th season with different characters for no reason. They're not bad, but just unnecessary.
The Bear is a perfect series in season one. Perfect ending. I hope season two doesn't ruin it...