Warning: this article contains spoilers<\/p>\n
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel<\/p>\n
What does perfect 50s housewife Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) do after her husband leaves? She gets drunk and flashes her boobs on stage while doing an impromptu comedy set. It\u2019s impossible not to root for her from this moment on. With the help of her unlikely manager, Susie Myers (Alex Borstein), she embarks on a standup career with the odds constantly stacked against her. Finally, Midge makes her breakthrough moment happen on a late-night show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want a big life,\u201d she tells the studio audience, who have just been howling at her jokes. \u201cThey say ambition is an unattractive trait in a woman. Maybe. But you know what\u2019s really unattractive? Waiting around for something to happen.\u201d All of her family members \u2013 who had been so against this career \u2013 are there cheering with pride. Gordon Ford (Reid Scott) then introduces her to the world: \u201cThe magnificent, the magical, the marvellous Mrs Maisel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the real gut-punch moment? When Midge looks over to Susie, who has a tear in her eye and her hand on her heart. The final scene jumps to decades later, with the hugely successful pair joking over the phone as they both watch an old episode of Jeopardy. Hollie Richardson<\/p>\n
30 RockFunny business \u2026 Tina Fey as Liz Lemon and Keith Powell as Toofer in 30 Rock. Photograph: NBC\/NBCU Photo Bank\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The brilliance of the 30 Rock<\/a> finale \u2013 aired as two episodes back-to-back in 2013 \u2013 really begins halfway through the closing series. That\u2019s when Liz Lemon gets married and embarks, via adoption, on motherhood, both milestones at which a traditional sitcom would usually end a show centred on a female protagonist. But not for Lemon, and not for creator Tina Fey, who ends it with TGS (the show within a show) being uncancelled and brought back for one last episode \u2013 an appropriately meta end for the show itself \u2013 so that everyone else\u2019s storylines can be tied up. Liz is shown to be back at work and realising she needs to have work and not just family in her life or she\u2019ll live on a knife-edge of insanity as much as she did when it was just work.<\/p>\n It gave us callbacks (even unto St Elsewhere), the full gag quotient (plus The Rural Juror song), Kenneth\u2019s ascendance (possibly transcendence), and closure. Even Pete got a brief year of happiness before the epilogue. Above all, it gave us Jack\u2019s lovely speech to Liz from the boat, which she eventually interrupts to tell him she platonically loves him too. Affectionate respect has never been so beautifully captured. See-through dishwasher for all! Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n DetectoristsTime for the gold dance! \u2026 Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook) in Detectorists. Photograph: BBC<\/p>\n There was rarely anything tricksy about the narrative of Detectorists \u2013 it was based round a set of simple, binary storylines concerning relationships, parenthood and mild discord over metal-detecting territory. All the same, Lance and Andy were deceptively complex characters and the show\u2019s seemingly still emotional waters ran deep. It soon became clear that we were being offered one of the most charming and convincing depictions of friendship in television history.<\/p>\n The show\u2019s conclusion was gently audacious, suggesting continuity as the happiest of endings. Andy and Becky buy a delightful, dilapidated house. Toni is preparing to move in with Lance. Andy and Lance don\u2019t actually need anything they don\u2019t already have. Friends, lovers, a pub nearby, modest roofs over their heads, a shared passion and perhaps most importantly of all, each other. Their gold dance is, at all times, right in front of them. Phil Harrison<\/p>\n Derry GirlsChoose yes! \u2026 Derry Girls. Photograph: Peter Marley\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cIf YES put an X in this square.\u201d The Derry Girls<\/a> had to grow up sometime, and so it came to pass, after Erin and Orla made it through the wildest 18th birthday\/joint first communion party ever \u2013 theme: literary monkeys \u2013 that they all got to vote on the Good Friday agreement. For a show so consistently hilarious, Lisa McGee\u2019s cracker comedy finally turned on a sixpence into the most beautifully poignant piece of historical analysis. I was weeping with joy from the moment Granda Joe says: \u201cWhat if no one else has to die? What if all this becomes a ghost story you\u2019ll tell your weans one day. A ghost story they\u2019ll hardly believe.\u201d By the time all of them chose yes, chose hope, chose to end the Troubles that were all they\u2019d ever known, I was a goner. Of course it was soundtracked to the Cranberries \u2013 the only possible choice \u2013 and of course, in the ultimate cameo, Chelsea Clinton got their letter decades late in the closing seconds! As Michelle said, being a Derry Girl is a fuckin\u2019 state of mind, and I\u2019ll never stop loving them. Sl\u00e1inte! Kate Abbott<\/p>\n HacksShow stopper \u2026 Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) in the Hacks finale. Photograph: Sky<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve watched the finale of Hacks<\/a> this might be a hard sell. Major spoiler incoming: the final episode of this biting showbiz satire ended with our Joan Rivers-inspired antiheroine Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) revealing a terminal cancer diagnosis, and planning her death by assisted dying. Fans had already noted the morbid foreshadowing all season, but it still felt like a brutal plot twist \u2013 not only for Deborah but for Ava (Hannah Einbinder), her protege, surrogate daughter and sometime pretend girlfriend.<\/p>\n Frankly it was all a bit triggering, not just because I lost a parent to cancer, but because Hacks is really funny and this was absolutely the unfunniest thing that could have happened. But in a way \u2013 stay with me here \u2013 Hacks did have a happy ending. At the 11th hour, Deborah changed her mind and decided to hang on a little longer and write another comedy special, delivering one of the best lines in the whole damn series: \u201cI may not have 30 years \u2013 but I think I have another hour.\u201d I was, like most professional journalists, watching the finale from an airport Starbucks, ugly crying. When I heard that line I got instant chills. I stopped sobbing, let out a gasp, then started crying again \u2013 but this time it was happy tears. The thought of Deborah writing one final bitchy, tell-all special really made me smile. Hannah J Davies<\/p>\n Only Fools and HorsesBro selecta \u2026 Only Fools and Horses\u2019 Sleepless in Peckham. Photograph: BBC<\/p>\n Like one of Del Boy\u2019s dodgy deals, Only Fools and Horses gave us two happy endings for the price of one. The first was 1996\u2019s iconic fairytale finale: an antique watch makes Del and Rodney millionaires \u2013 cue a fever dream montage of the brothers living in the lap of luxury. Yet for the elder Trotter, the giddy euphoria was tinged with wrenching nostalgia for his old life, resulting in a profoundly bittersweet conclusion that cemented the show\u2019s place in the British pop cultural canon. Then came the 2000s reboot: three Christmas specials, widely derided as knock-offs. Still, the eventual denouement \u2013 which involves a more modest windfall, some closure for Rodney and a long-awaited baby for him and Cassandra \u2013 is actually more uplifting and heartwarming than the original. A less artful ending, undoubtedly, but I\u2019m still glad we said goodbye with a more relatable kind of happiness. Rachel Aroesti<\/p>\n Brooklyn Nine-NineUp lifting \u2026 the Brooklyn Nine-Nine finale. Photograph: E4<\/p>\n How to end one of TV\u2019s most gleefully daft comedies? With a ludicrously elaborate set-piece episode, featuring the most OTT version ever of the annual event where the characters go all out to double cross each other in a heist \u2013 naturally. This double-bill farewell was a glorious exercise in fan-pleasing that packed in a whistlestop tour of the show\u2019s most significant moments (the warehouse where they solved their first case! The interview room behind the best ever skit \u2013 where Peralta made suspects sing Backstreet Boys<\/a>!), joy-inducing returns of fave characters and the heartfelt emotional moment that had been brewing for eight seasons \u2013 Captain Holt telling Peralta he\u2019d be proud to have a son like him. It all ended with a quiet, beautiful moment \u2013 the lights being turned out on the precinct as they stepped into the lift together for one last time. Then they threw in a bonus scene set a year later with the crew announcing that they\u2019d get back together every year for their annual heist. Cue a last sketch, including bad magic, hammy acting and one final rousing call of the team motto: Nine-Nine! Now that\u2019s how you say goodbye. Alexi Duggins<\/p>\n Sex and the CityFrench connections \u2026 An American Girl in Paris (Part Deux), the Sex and the City finale. Photograph: HBO<\/p>\n Things weren\u2019t looking great as Sex and the City<\/a> careened and Carried its way through its too-long final season. Even Charlotte\u2019s dog was starting to look exhausted. But writer Michael Patrick King and this beautiful cast of women really pulled it out of the Birkin for the two-parter finale in which Carrie has to choose between moving to Paris with a handsome millionaire, or staying in New York with a different handsome millionaire (look, we\u2019ve all been there).<\/p>\n There\u2019s breathy old Hollywood dialogue that somehow works. There\u2019s Sarah Jessica Parker galloping across wet cobbles to moody French hip-hop. And if you didn\u2019t get goosebumps from Miranda gripping Mr Big\u2019s hairy, Rolex-clad forearm and gasping \u201cGo get our girl!\u201d you\u2019re as dead inside as the second movie. Dylan B Jones<\/p>\n Parks and RecreationKnope for president! \u2026 Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation. Photograph: NBC\/Channel 4<\/p>\n Unlike most TV \u201chappy ever afters\u201d which can seem rushed, Parks and Recreation<\/a> treats us to a two-part finale which jumps forward in time not just once but several times, as it lovingly explores what happens next to Leslie Knope and our favourite gang of Pawnee government employees.<\/p>\n Each character gets their storyline tied up in a way that is entirely befitting of their personality and arc \u2013 and of course, it would end with Amy Poehler\u2019s overachieving Knope possibly becoming president of the United States. We also finally get some karmic justice for Jerry\/Garry\/Larry, the perennial office scapegoat, who becomes a much-beloved mayor of Pawnee and lives to the ripe old age of 100.<\/p>\n The ending is sweet, offbeat and supremely wholesome \u2013 all the things we\u2019ve come to expect from Parks and Rec over the years. And this cuddly sitcom couldn\u2019t have ended in a better way \u2013 as a tribute to the power of \u201cfriends, waffles, work\u201d (Knope\u2019s life priorities), right to the very last credits. Ann Lee<\/p>\n Mr InbetweenMaking a killing as a cab driver \u2026 Mr Inbetween. Photograph: FX<\/p>\n So many classic shows have been led by a monstrous male character we secretly root for \u2013 Tony Soprano, Walter White, Doc Martin \u2013 and the protagonist in Scott Ryan\u2019s flawless crime drama is up there with the best\/worst. Ray Shoesmith has bludgeoned and gouged his way through Sydney\u2019s criminal underworld but, in the final episode, he\u2019s given up killing to become a rural cab driver. When two hoodlums who mean Ray harm get in the car, Ryan makes a brilliant creative decision: the last shot is Ray breaking the fourth wall, eyeballing the camera and grinning. Ray knows what we want. He\u2019s going to horribly murder them! Hoorah! Jack Seale<\/p>\n The LeftoversAbsolutely perfect \u2026 Kevin and Nora in The Leftovers finale. Photograph: HBO<\/p>\n From the ashes of one of the bleakest television programmes ever made (in a nutshell: 2% of the world\u2019s population goes missing, and those left behind go mad with grief) came a beautifully hopeful ending. A long-separated couple reunite. The woman says she visited an alternative dimension where the missing 2% live happily in peace. It almost certainly isn\u2019t the truth, but the story brought her comfort. The man says he believes her. They cry. They hold hands. They smile. For a show that never had any intention of explaining its central mystery, this ending \u2013 an emotional truth landing harder than a logical one \u2013 was absolutely perfect. Stuart Heritage<\/p>\n Gavin and StaceyWell lush \u2026 Gavin and Stacey. Photograph: BBC<\/p>\n It\u2019s the drama, Mick, I just love it. There\u2019s a reason why the Anglo-Welsh romcom\u2019s finale became Britain\u2019s most-watched scripted show in more than two decades. Five years after Nessa proposed to Smithy, nuptials loomed \u2013 except it was boring Sonia who the lovable lummox was marrying, not his love-hate soulmate. What was occurring? After a spine-tingling intervention at the altar, Smithy called it off and dashed to Southampton docks, where Nessa was about to set sail on a cargo ship. Now it was his turn to pop the question. The pair married in Barry while 21m viewers wept with joy into their Quality Street tins. Tidy, cracking and well lush. Michael Hogan<\/p>\n Share your happiest TV ending<\/p>\n You can tell us your own happiest TV ending using this form.<\/p>\n Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For alternative ways to get in touch securely please see our tips guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tell us your happiest TV show ending and why <\/p>\n Please include as much detail as possible. <\/p>\n If you are happy to, please upload a photo of yourself here Optional<\/p>\n Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB.<\/p>\n Choose file<\/p>\n Can we publish your response? <\/p>\n You can add more information here Optional<\/p>\n If you include other people’s names please ask them first.<\/p>\n Would you be interested in speaking to our audio and\/or video teams? <\/p>\n By submitting your response, you are agreeing to share your details with us for this feature.<\/p>\n Submit<\/p>\n Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: this article contains spoilers The Marvelous Mrs Maisel What does perfect 50s housewife Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-553945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}