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How do?

So as the fall out of Game of Thrones continues to, well, fall out? I fancy a discussion about shows that you feel bowed out well.

For clarity - this isn’t about comparing other finales to GoT, and it’s not genre specific. Rather, it’s about that satisfying conclusions are, in my opinion, relatively rare.

I suspect there’ll be a lot of references to Anime, which is fine. Just from my perspective, it’s not a medium I’ve ever really developed an appreciation of. But hey, that’s just me. You do you, and you just enjoy what you do

So the first entry?

Deep Space Nine.

Wonderful series, and it’s conclusion wrapped up all the arcs (or at least, all the arcs were wrapped up by the conclusion. Six of one, half dozen of the other). The ending also felt right. Nobody left flapping the the breeze, not real hand wavium or ‘may have happened off screen’ type stuff.

The Dominion War is brought to a largely organic end. And the build up to it just worked, with the Cardassian’s rising up, and turning coats. That sort of thing is very easy to get wrong, but here that plot developed really nicely.

By all means feel free to disagree. This is after all simply an opinion piece. But rather than disputing my take (I mean, you can), I want to here about your entry for such rare, august company.

Right. Off you go!

DS9's ending made sense, but I still didn't like how Sisko's storyline ended. Made me sad.

I think the best ending for a series I've ever seen was Breaking Bad. It really couldn't have ended any other way.

Another entry from Yours Truly?

Spartacus. It’s a very, very silly show. Very silly indeed. But, being based (loosely. Ish) on history it perhaps had a leg up. But it did work. Pacing was good, story didn’t flag, nothing felt particular spun out.

As for its historical accuracy? I’d like to quote a friend.

It’s not at all historically accurate, but it is totally the sort of show Romans would’ve made.

I liked Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood's ending despite a few nitpicks (If Hoenheim was dying anyway, why did Ed have to make his sacrifice?).

The Wire - showed beautifully how nothing ever changes
ST TNG = no explanations needed - that closing poker scene
True detective S1 - not the best of final episodes but capped a stunning piece of TV.
Stranger Things S1 - wonderful.
Black Sails - again not amazing like true detective but a nice capping of a brilliant show.

TNG's All Good Things is a very satisfying conclusion, looking back at how far all the characters have come and forward to where they could all go.

Babylon 5's Sleeping in Light was an emotional goodbye well earned.

Stargate SG1's Unending was an emotional roller coaster, but kind of whiffed the landing when they tried to leave the door open for the TV movies by removing consequences.

Big Bang Theory had a pretty good send-off, if a bit schmaltzy.

M*A*S*H set the gold standard for series finales.

I would second earlier mentions of Deep Space Nine, Breaking Bad, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and Spartacus. Spartacus in particular, because the last two seasons weren't very good, but the ending was damn near perfect. I also think Rome had a good ending for how up and down that show was during its two seasons.

I'd add Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion as having maybe my favorite ending to an anime ever. If you're not crying, at least on the inside, watching the closing moments of the series then you don't have a soul XD

EDIT: Oh, and Psych. I think Psych ended exactly the way it should have and by that I refer to Psych The Movie wrapping everything up And since I'm editing I'll also mention Monk. Monk gave the title character the closure he needed and managed to wrap it up nice and neat.

Code Geass and B5 are both excellent and wonderfully executed to perfection in terms of overall story and ending. B5 in particular is probably the best written show ever (Lorien aside) in terms of narrative cohesion. My issue with DS9 is that Sisko's ending and the sillyness with what becomes of the pahwraiths and that storyline was a bit ridiculous, but was mainly just a weak point in an otherwise excellent show, the larger narrative was very well wrapped up and satisfying.

One I'll toss in is Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. It's not the most satisfactory ending in terms of how one wants to see it end, but it's probably more grounded in reality than a happier ending would have been, and is wrapped up rather well. Made In Abyss was fantasically done as well, though may have additional seasons yet.

Oh, are we just doing TV shows, or can we stretch out a bit?

I might get blasted for suggesting it, but the ending to Fate/Grand Order's first story arc was fething amazing, especially if you look at the story as really being about Mash's growth into a true hero, rather than the player character saving humanity.

I quite liked how Stargate ended, but best series finale has to be Blackadder, and it's not particularly close.

I would say The Wire & Breaking bad for sure.

Gotta agree with The Wire, though the last season was its weakest, imo. Bubbles getting clean, but Dukie becoming a junkie, so sad. feth that was a great show.

I liked the ending to The Office as well, though it should’ve ended much earlier after Michael Scott left.

I was twelve when I watched Cheers end, but I remember enjoying it.

Newhart was the best.

Soap went out on an epic cliffhanger...on purpose. Gotta respect that.

Blake's 7 ended the only way the show could have possibly ended. George R. R. Martin ain't got nuthin' on Chris Boucher.

Even the much lampooned BSG ending wasn't as bad and s4 was still pretty solid up until the bizarre decisions of the last episode.
Despite being rushed to finish in s4 both the s4 ending and s5 finale for Babylon 5 were excellent.
DS9 wrapped up well.
Breaking Bad of course.

In books:
Lord of the Rings managed to do more than just have a "and they lived happily ever after."
I'm now realizing I don't read many series...

In movies:
The resolution in RotJ was open ended in some ways, but satisfactory.

Even bad/controversial endings in books like The Dark Tower series and Harry Potter at least answered questions with decent enough answers.

Six Feet Under (although still think Keith should have got a happier ending, but then again maybe that was the point)

DS9, the last season did feel a bit spun out but its still may favourite Trek, mostly down to Sisko going from 'not Picard' to Treks most brilliant character

Big Bang, mostly because it means it cant hurt anyone anymore

Babylon 5, steins;gate, mahou shojo madoka magica, star trek TNG, DS9.

Bran Dawri wrote:
I quite liked how Stargate ended, but best series finale has to be Blackadder, and it's not particularly close.

At the end of ...Goes Forth?

----------------------------------------------------

The (proper) Office, when Tim and Dawn get together and the show immediately ends.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt had a very fan-service ending where every character ended up happy and successful, but damn if it wasn't satisfying anyway.

 Excommunicatus wrote:

Bran Dawri wrote:
I quite liked how Stargate ended, but best series finale has to be Blackadder, and it's not particularly close.

At the end of ...Goes Forth?

----------------------------------------------------

The (proper) Office, when Tim and Dawn get together and the show immediately ends.

The WW1 seaaon, yes.

It's a very affecting ending, but they made a bunch more after that.

Even though I consider ...Goes Forth the canonical 'ending' myself.

I actually liked the ending of Seinfeld myself. M*A*S*H, of course, probably had the best finale of all time as far as TV shows go. Star Trek TNG and DS9 also had great endings, much better than Voyager or Enterprise.

As far as movie series go, I have to mention Avengers: Endgame. I'll try not to spoil anything, but I will say that the ending was very satisfying and although the MCU will go on, it did a great job of wrapping up this whole major arc of the storyline. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi did a similar thing, and although Disney has decided to continue the story, it had a good ending that gave pretty good closure for the characters and story. Let's hope Rise of Skywalker does a good job wrapping up that arc of its story, a tall order after the train wreck that was The Last Jedi.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
It's a very affecting ending, but they made a bunch more after that.

Even though I consider ...Goes Forth the canonical 'ending' myself.

None of 'em were on proper telly, though, so that last episode of Goes Forth still counts.

Man, Its hard, im trying to remember shows I watched that ended.
Sg-1 I liked the ending
HiMyM: Good, but everything was rushed
I cant think of any others

The Office, Psych, Chuck, SG-1 (with the TV movie), Gilmore Gurls (before the reboot), STNG.

Best ending for me. Justified. Perfect ending and true to the characters.

Angel had a very cool ending that did not attempt to tie up all the loose ends and was fairly bleak, it was probably a more GoT ending than thrones actually got.

MASH as someone said was a pretty amazing, in a similar vain Blackadder goes Fourth has probably the greatest ending to any British show ever made also that is how you subvert expectations.

I would guess not many people have actually seen it but the last episodes of Space above and Beyond are epic.

I could go on because honestly most shows don’t actually screw up the ending. It seems to be a fairly modern problem and imho stems from 2 major issues.

1. You get a show that good and with so much hype attached that the writers start to believe there own hype and they become insulated from outside and internal oversight and criticism.

2. You get writers who start to believe there own hype who just we’re not as good as they believed, either due to having excellent/good source material to initially work from or who originally had other writers working with them or had worked with some other form of oversight.

3. Actually just thought of another one you have writers who for some reason take it personally when fans are able to predict there twists and reveals ahead of time and decide to come up with random bollocks just so they can say ha you never saw that coming.

4. Damn I feel like the Spanish Inquisition thought of another one. “Subverting Expectations” which seems to be short hand for I am massively overpaid and in over my head so I will just pull gak out of my ass throw it and see what sticks.

I'm kind of curious how Arrow will end. They've very specifically been building up towards the ending of the show for the last year, have a chosen, defined ending segment. Are deliberately and clearly laying groundwork for it a year in advance...

They appear to have every single domino set up perfectly and exactly for it.

The question is, when it comes to Christmas time... Will it work?

Halt and Catch Fire. In some ways satisfying because some people are moving on: in another way satisfying because others are trying again. Lovely balance of a chapter closing vs respecting why your characters did what they did - because they loved it.

The originally planned ending was a horrible idea though and we're all better off that they got feedback before committing to it. There's a lesson there Big Bang Theory might have wanted to learn.