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Ending a beloved television series in a way that ties up loose ends without being a checklist slog while also saying goodbye to our favorite characters in an emotionally satisfying way is difficult. Very difficult. Let’s take a look at some of the best – and worst – finales in television history.
Some shows, however, never get a finale and get cancelled without warning like, you know, Firefly. Sometimes that happens mid-season and the show just stops. Sometimes a show is cancelled between seasons, in which case the “finale” was the end of the previous season. Fortunately, writers are aware of this, so some television seasons are – more or less – self-contained and the season finale is hopefully satisfying and wraps up the season nicely and sometimes that’s also the whole show. Most episodic television shows in the history of broadcasting never even considered a finale. It just wasn’t a thing.
Let’s start with a completely spoiler-free look at why the Stranger Things (2025) series finale worked so well. First, it took its time. After the action is over and our primary story arc is resolved, there’s still 37 minutes to spare for the denouement. Second? It was entirely character-focused. Third? The show very nicely ends up where it started, with a next generation of D&D nerds eager to play.
OK, spoiler warning… for shows that ended a long time ago. You should stop watching now if you don’t know how M*A*S*H, Star Trek: Enterprise, St. Elsewhere, Newhart, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones ended! We will talk about other older shows too, with mild spoilers, but the above six will be completely spoiled.
M*A*S*H (1983) is the quintessentially perfect ending to an episodic show and had some of the highest ratings of any episode of television in history, granting that this was back in the day when there were three network channels and PBS and that was it. Why does the finale work? First, it takes its time. It’s two hours long, with 25-minutes of remembering. Second, it focuses on the characters and not on plot.
One of the most disappointing finales of any show was the conclusion of Star Trek: Enterprise (2005). The show was cancelled in its 4th season and the final episode was written by two executive producers who had never written an episode of the show. The episode was so bad it killed all of Star Trek television for a dozen years. The conclusion? It was all just a dream. Ahem. I was all just a holodeck program. Deargawd. The “it was all a dream” trope completely betrays the audience. Betrays the show. Betrays us.
The “dream” has happened before. In the case of Dallas (1978), it was a trick used to erase the events of the previous season of badness when they killed a popular character and needed to bring him back from the dead because ratings were dropping. In the finale of St. Elsewhere(1988) it’s not a dream, but “it was all in an autistic kid’s imagination.” Maybe.
The “it was all a dream” trope finale has been parodied and used effectively, however: One of the best season finales ever was the end of Newhart(1990). The Vermont BnB owner Dick Loudon in Newhart wakes up next to his wife from the iconic smash hit The Bob Newhart Show(1978) and it turns out it was… all a dream. Comedies can get away with that and it was a great ending.
Television series can be meticulously planned from the day a show is greenlit by a network or distributor. A series might be plotted out to cover five or seven seasons. This is a luxury and a show has no excuse not to stick the landing in this situation. So we have to talk about Game of Thrones (2019).
After seven seasons… Arya kills the Night King, Daenerys goes insane, a bunch of people are killed and, uh, let’s say Bran takes the titular throne and becomes the King of Westeros. All in the last episode (more or less). It’s a lot. And the goodbyes are half-assed. What we wanted, what we needed, was an emotional goodbye to the characters we loved. This is in stark contrast to the finale of Stranger Things. Ending a show is tough under the best of circumstances, but just giving up should never be an option, unless it’s a gag, like Newhart pulled off.
Finally, we have no problem with shows that end ambiguously… if it’s a good ambiguous ending. The Sopranos (2007) is a great example. Sure, it pissed some people off, but how did you think it was going to end for Tony? How DID it end for Tony? DID it end for Tony?
Check out this list of the most-viewed television series finales. Let us know what your favorite series endings are. Or, even better, let us know which ones you hated.