What’s the worst TV series finale of all time? Is it Lost? Is it the sitcom How I Met Your Mother? Game of Thrones? Each of these shows is an all-time great, but they failed to stick the landing with their final episodes, forever complicating their legacies. Why did this happen? And how can future shows avoid the same fate?
Endings are exceptionally difficult to write. And when the audience has spent years with a cast of beloved characters, saying goodbye is even harder.
These shows notoriously botched their finales, leaving a bad taste in viewers’ mouths with last-minute swerves and dissatisfying wrap-ups. Consequently, these shows’ GOAT status is undermined by how they fell short of the finish line.
5
“Star Trek: Enterprise”
The Underwhelming End Of An Era For The GOAT Sci-FI TV Franchise
“These Are The Voyages” was the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise, concluding a nearly eighteen-year run in which there was always at least one Trek series on TV. It would be another 12 years before Trek returned to television with Discovery. The episode features a unique premise, but it makes some controversial choices that ultimately turned many fans against it.
The finale focuses on a familiar face, but not one from the Enterprise cast: Next Generation’s William Riker, who stars in the frame story of “These Are the Voyages,” as he watches a holodeck recreation of the OG Enterprise’s final mission. It’s a good idea, but in practice, it arguably draws focus away from where it needs to be.
By far the most contested moment in the episode, though, is the death of fan-favorite character Trip Tucker. It was a jarring emotional beat unlike anything in a Trek finale before, and it has never sat well with fans, especially considering that the series had no time to grapple with the fallout.
4
Dexter (The Original Series)
The Showtime Hit’s Revival Can’t Fully Undo Its Bad Ending
Dexter Morgan looking up and angry in Dexter season 8’s finale
The other series finales here are controversial. Dexter’s original finale was straight up bad. The success of the Dexter prequel and sequel shows that have come since is a testament to how much people love the character, because the original Season Eight ending was a low low for the show to go out on.
In a bizarre swerve, Dexter put main character Debra Morgan in a persistent vegtative state, the result of surgical complications after she was shot in the previous episode. Her brother Dexter then personally unplugged her from life support, taking her on his boat and heading directly into the middle of a hurricane.
It would have been one thing if the Morgan siblings in fact died together, but the episode closed with one final twist: Dexter survived and escaped. It opened the door to future installments, but at the time, it was a major “WTF?” moment that dealt a huge blow to the show’s otherwise esteemed reputation.
3
“Lost”
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of “Mystery Box” TV
Jack lying on the ground next to Vincent and looking up at the sky at the end of Lost
Lost was a predecessor to an entire generation of TV shows, from Game of Thrones, to True Detective, to Breaking Bad even, all of which became synonymous with rabid fanbases that loved to speculate about the direction of the show. For better or worse, though, most shows have concrete answers they’re driving toward. That was not the case with Lost.
Lost is infamous for its “mystery box” nature. The show thrived in its early seasons by asking more questions than answers. Yet as its plot arc bent toward its conclusion, and audiences started to expect more answers than questions, the series faltered. This led to a divisive finale that, while not without its fans, didn’t live up to Lost’s early promise.
It’s a cautionary tale for shows today like Severance and Yellowjackets. A mystery can be a propulsive engine for a show, but plowing ahead with a “we’ll figure it out when the time comes” attitude is a precarious proposition. It’s always best for a show to have a plan, but that plan ultimately needs to be flexible.
2
“How I Met Your Mother”
Years Of Patient Build Up Marred By A Hasty Finish
How I Met Your Mother is the defining sitcom of its generation. It also boasts one of the most maligned series finales ever. What happened? It starts with a matter of pacing. HIMYM ran for nine seasons, totaling 208 episodes. For nearly a decade, the show slowly, methodically built toward the long-heralded meeting between Ted Mosby and his true love.
Except the two-part finale swerved viewers, revealing that the titular mother wasn’t who Ted was fated to be with after all. Robin was all along. It achieved this final story beat by killing off the mother in a montage that was meant to break fans’ hearts, but instead made most of them angry.
The finale, “Last Forever,” is a hard sell after asking viewers to invest so much time in the build-up, only to rush the payoff. If the How I Met Your Mother finale’s story had played out over a season, or even a handful of episodes, it might be more palatable. As it stands, it is an ignominious end for a groundbreaking show.
1
“Game of Thrones”
Unfinished Source Material & Tired Showrunners Resulted In A Truncated Final Act
Astute fans realized that Game of Thrones was in trouble as early as Season Four. The show was in an extremely unique position, as it eventually outpaced its source material, George R.R. Martin’s still-unfinished seven-novel A Song of Ice and Fire saga. However, the real problem was that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss seemingly lost patience with the show.
Benioff and Weiss spoke candidly about their desire to put Martin’s work on the page. When they have to navigate the labyrinthineplot themselves, things quickly fell apart. The final beats of the story might have been relayed to them, to some degree, by the author, but the way it was done undermined the good will Thrones’ early seasons built up.
The second half of Game of Thrones is a completely different show than the first, in terms of pacing and tone. By the time it reached its actual finale, Thrones had already gone from beloved to maligned, and the deck was stacked against the last episode no matter what happened. Unfortunately, what happened stunned viewers, and not in a good way.
Created by
George R.R. Martin
First TV Show
Game Of Thrones
Cast
Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, John Bradley, Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill, Liam Cunningham, Gwendoline Christie, Aidan Gillen, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Rory McCann, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jerome Flynn, Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith, Graham McTavish, Fabien Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Emma D’Arcy, Matthew Needham, Olivia Cooke, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey
TV Show(s)
Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
Game of Thrones is a multimedia franchise created by George R.R. Martin. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the basis for the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, which lasted for eight seasons. After the incredibly divisive final season of Game of Thrones, the series was followed up by the prequel series House of the Dragon, which also received critical acclaim.