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QOTD 18: What a letdown!

Happy Friday Olog Botters, I figured with this Sunday being the finale of one of the best television shows of the past decade, we could dedicate today, tomorrow, and Sunday, to our favorite and least favorite finales. Today we're going to tackle our LEAST favorite endings to a given show.

What series finale let you down the most? Did it ruin the rest of the show for you? What did you hate it about? 




My least favorite finale of all time is probably the ending to The West Wing, which was running on fumes by that point following the end of the fifth season. While it created a kind of cool 'lame duck' kind of thing, namely President Bartlett being a lame duck President and the show being a lame duck show, I just found the entire ending lacked in reverence and pizzaz, it was just...blah.

Beyond that, I thought that the Roseanne finale, which a lot of people really disliked, was kind of cool, but I could see how the really heavy handed nature of the ending would irk some people after a season that was essentially the Roseanne Barr wish-fullfillment half hour.

Also I kind of guess the ending of Dexter left quite a lot to be desired, as well.

Tomorrow we'll talk about our favorite finales.


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Blog Otter Award: wnyxmcneal for hating Otters and giving me a reason to post a picture of one. His fluffy adoracoable award can be found below.






Comments

  1. "What are you?"
    I'm an otter.
    "And what do you do?"
    I make cute little human things with my hands.
    "You're free to go. And what are you?"
    I'm a cow.
    "Get on the truck!"

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  2. I have to go with Seinfeld. The finale was basically the unfunniest episode of the entire run. For a show that spent most of it's run at or near the top of the quality-meter, it was a huge letdown, and I remember thinking "what did I just watch?". Second biggest letdown: the X-Files finale. Anticlimactic uses the X-Files logo as it's picture in Webster's.

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  3. I was waiting for someone to realize that's where I got the otter thing from.

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  4. Dexter and Lost are the two recent ones I can think of.

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  5. It wasnt bad, but the finale of Oz depressed the shit out of me. Seeing Beecher, who was a constant from episode 1 and one of the only sympathetic characters through out the entire duration of the series, heading back to Oz after getting released and getting screwed over by the dude he loved just ended the show on such a depressing note, IMO.

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  6. Star Trek: Enterprise.


    Fuck anyone who had a hand in writing "These Are The Voyages".

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  7. To be fair, last time I mentioned Denis Leary on the Blog, I got an immediate refrain of "Bill Hicks!" So, I try to keep it to a minimum...

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  8. Had I been around, it would have been a Scotty Smalls's dad reference, so count your blessings. (Although that movie ruled when I was ten)

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  9. You're killin; me, Smalls!

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  10. Friggin' Joss Whedon and his willingness to kill off characters in the final shows. Buffy and Angel both had great finales, but I want to pretend that even if there isn't a happy ending that the characters are all still alive to still have the opportunity to carve out a happy ending. Still, his finales never went the safe route like so many other shows do, so that's commendable.

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  11. I didn't mind the finale to the West Wing, or the two seasons setting up the President Santos win, as it morphed the show into a new direction when the show absolutely needed it.


    The most disappointing series finale to me was Fringe. The final season, really, was a weird letdown after a really great build of four seasons.

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  12. Two words: Lumberjack Dexter.

    Another show that should garner some serious consideration is "Roseanne", considering the finale nullified every single freaking thing about the show that had happened through nine seasons. And SCREW the producers of "Alf" who had him get caught at the very end.

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  13. Holy shit. I forgot about Alf getting caught in the finale. Seriously, WTF??

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  14. I guess Lost was a situation where people who liked the characters were satisfied, and people who loved the mystery were boned.

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  15. I guess the only saving grace is that they end that episode talking about the very same thing they did at the start of the pilot.

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  16. Quantum Leap. I learned later that they filmed the episode before they got cancelled and then had to go hack some stuff together, but man f--- that ending. They just put some cards on the screen to serve as the epilogue.

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  17. Never seen the last Alf. Youtube, here I come

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  18. The thing with Seinfeld, is how do you end it? Not to use the cliche, but it really was a story about nothing so it never was really building to a plot climax. It was never "mushy" either so you can blow it off with like Elaine and Jerry getting together. While I agree the finale was just weird, I could never really think of another satisfying finale scenario.

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  19. My all time favorite show, X Files... I dont want to even get into it.


    Dexter was kind of ho-hum finale, as something more recent. I was expecting him to tranquilize himself after he buried his sister at sea. You know like stand on the edge of the boat, stick himself in the neck, then fall in the water and presumably drown, so he could die with her.


    I dont know, just thought THAT would have been better

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  20. Had Seinfeld been cancelled after the season where they were doing the TV show, that season's finale would have made for a good series finale. But other than that, I can't think of any way to rewrite that finale where it would be satisfying to a higher percentage of people.

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  21. Worst series finale: WCW Thunder.

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  22. They wanted to force ALF to get extended for another season. The end result was bad, but their intentions were pious.


    And ALF was saved in the followup movie.

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  23. What would the finale have been in that scenario? The one where the pilot gets cancelled because the nbc executive goes to green peace?

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  24. There was an ALF movie? Man, how did I not know this...

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  25. Dustin Rhodes vs. Jarrett and Scott Steiner. Yea, we may have a winner

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  26. I'm not sure that shows need to end with a big episode. I would have been satisfied with an ending that was funny, and ended just like any other episode, with Newman running down the street screaming for his life.

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  27. Yeah, that's the one I was talking about. The series not getting a pickup would have been a perfect wrap-up to the series, I think. After that season, the characters on the show started to become caricatures of themselves, I think.

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  28. The movie has ALF interacting with entirely new characters at the ATF. The entire Tanner family is moved to Madagascar in some kind of witness protection program, and are never heard from at all.

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  29. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_ALF

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  30. I forget exactly what season I thought the quality went down but I agree, the last few seasons werent as good. Larry David leaving probably contributed to the shoes quality decreasing.

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  31. "Pin the Naitch on the Jackass" is MONEY.

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  32. Wow, it sounds like it sucks. I had always wondered why the had ALF get captured in the series finale. Your explanation above makes it make more sense.

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  33. the correct and only answer is and always will be the last ep of seinfeld


    /thread

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  34. Irony: Booker makes the save on his future tag partner.

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  35. All of the actors, especially the guy who played Willie, HATED being on ALF, because working with the puppet was so cumbersome.


    And ALF was an asshole in real life.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmgxeqNFSSs

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  36. I can't think of one mystery that didn't get solved.

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  37. hi jerry!

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  38. unsolved mysteries

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  39. 'Killing Trips for no good reason?'


    stephanie thought it would be best for business

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  40. Threadjack: I just watched HHH's new DVD. The doc is very good but not a top 5 all timer. Kinda boring in spots, for example, when talking about Summerslam 99 HHH has a chance to bury Austin but just takes the high road.


    The best part is him and Orton talking about being disappointed in their 25 match. Also, a throwaway line by Brock is a big missed opportunity. He says HHH brought him back in. Why couldn't we get 5 minutes talking about all the guys HHH has signed instead of his shitty fucking movies?

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  41. That movie rules today.

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  42. The last episode of Medium, where they killed off Allison's husband in a plane crash and then Allison herself of old age in a flash-forward moment.



    It pretty much ruined re-runs where they were a happy family and (aside from the whole "psychic" thing) one of the most realistic couples on network TV.

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  43. I liked the characters, and I hated the finale because it turned out that they all died.

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  44. I stopped watching lost after a few seasons and never bothered watching the finale. Can someone give me a brief overall synopsis of how they wrapped it up?

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  45. The last episode of Seinfeld has aged remarkably well, surprisingly enough.

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  46. What? Why would you hate the finale because of that?

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  47. I loved the final eps of Cheers and The Office.

    Dexter's was atrocious. Seinfeld and Sopranos were right there for them as warnings...and they epically blew it.

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  48. I'll try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, because I'd really like to explain WHY I feel this way, but I think "Dexter" may have had the most disappointing ending I've ever seen.

    The big problem I had with the finale was that it had absolutely nothing to do with Dexter himself. Again, even if you're not familiar with the show, I'd like you to keep reading.


    For the uninitiated, Dexter was a cop that is also a serial-killer; on top of that, his sister also happens to be a cop in the same precinct, and their father (another respected cop) is practically a God to those that knew him. Now, even if you've never seen the show, wouldn't you think that the obvious ending would be for Dexter to be "found out"? That the very precinct he works for would ultimately discover who and what he is?

    The thing is, whatever happened after that moment would be immaterial - whether he was arrested, imprisoned, put to death, got off on a technicality, successfully fled the country... the entire show, the whole POINT of the show, was building to the moment that his friends and family finally found out the truth.


    And it didn't happen. Not even close.


    The final season was built around exploring a completely new character, and the actual finale had absolutely nothing to do with Dexter. No, instead, the finale was about whether or not Dexter's girlfriend would attain HER goal. Seriously.

    To put that in perspective, imagine if the season finale of "Breaking Bad" had nothing to do with Walt's legal problems, but instead focused on whether his son would pass the SATs. Or if the finale of "Star Trek" had nothing to do with space travel, or the finale of "MASH" had nothing to do with the war. The "Dexter" finale had absolutely NOTHING to do with the central plot of the show!

    I could forgive a lot of things. The writing had certainly gone down hill over the last few years, as the dialogue had grown increasingly clunky, continuity was spotty at best, and logic just completely flew out the window (such as, say, one character stabbing another on a crowded bus and NONE of the passengers noticing). Many of the actors seemed to be sleep-walking through their lines. Many new characters were not interesting or fleshed-out, time was devoted to side-stories that went absolutely nowhere, and... well, it was clearly circling the drain near the start of Season Six (there were eight seasons). But I would have forgiven ALL of that if we could have just gotten that one moment where Dexter's secret is exposed to the world.

    And it didn't happen. They didn't even come close.

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  49. I said it below, but how else do you end the series? It was never about "feelings or mushy" so you cant blow it off with something like Elaine and Jerry together. Its cliche but it really was a show about nothing so it never built to a plot climax. I dont think the finale was great but it kinda fit how they closed other storylines, George getting out of marriage by Susan dieing, Jerry choosing "hello", etc.

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  50. "Jerry! Hello!"

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  51. Yes...i forgot that one. Loved that show and we got no closure. Part of it was that they filmed that with the idea that they were coming back but then had to work with what they filmed and edit it into a finale. I was 12 when that aired and i was crushed he didnt get to go home.

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  52. I don't even know why they wanted to bring it back another year. It became so gimmicky to me that I just wanted it over. Then we get the ending that's not even an ending. Just a big letdown all over.

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  53. The Last Nitro.


    Cuz I knew Wrestling in America would never be the same... AGAIN


    /thread

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  54. Are you talking about the Panama show, or the WWF Nitro that gave us Booker T vs Buff Bagwell?

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  55. I enjoy you more as Sydney Huffman, Ricky Spanish.

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  56. Seinfeld finale just was too big, too cameo-filled at the expense of being actually funny.


    I liked the Dexter finale, but it did feel like it was something of a different show.


    The Shield finale was amazing, especially the DVD cut of the final two episodes. In some ways, Vic kind of payed for his sins the way did Dexter did, but it was more complex and compelling.


    The West Wing and Lost had two of the best I think. Matthew Fox was amazing on that final episode, and the show was so emotionally rewarding.


    X-Files was interesting, but spent way too much time on the court room scenes, which isn't exactly what the series was about! Also seemed like the Seinfeld wrapup.


    Law & Order was basically just another case of the week, but the final scene was great where Van Buren learns she doesn't have cancer, surrounded by our regular characters. Never should have cancelled that show. Special Victims Unit should have axed a few years ago though!

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  57. How did we get this far without anybody mentioning Roseanne?

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  58. Meekin mentions he liked it above. I def disagree

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  59. From thehistoryofwwe.com:

    3/19/01; Gainesville, FL
    3/21/01 - final episode:
    Yang & Kaz Hayashi defeated AJ Styles & Air Paris

    Jason Jett pinned Cash

    Ernest Miller & MI Smooth defeated Chris Kanyon & Road Warrior Animal

    Hugh Morrus pinned Rick Steiner

    WCW Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms, Rey Mysterio Jr., & Billy Kidman defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr., WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions Kid Romeo & Elix Skipper

    WCW Tag Team Champion Chuck Palumbo pinned Mike Awesome

    WCW World Champion Scott Steiner & Jeff Jarrett defeated Dustin Rhodes in a handicap match

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  60. Brittas Empire....great show, but it was because they had a decent ending before they decided to continue the show with new writers. The "real" finale is an "it was all a dream" ending, which no one but Newhart should ever do.

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  61. We want the last Thunder show, not the first Impact show.

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  62. I still liked it. I'm not sure what you mean by gimmicky...unless you mean the famous people he leaped into. I remember reading Bellsario fought those but NBC insisted. I never had a problem with them.

    Anyway (sorry you got me going...ill yap about QL and Mirror Image all nite) i read the plot going forward was supposed to be Al, and his new family traveling in time trying to bring Sam back...not sure how I'd like that..

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  63. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to have the dexter finale spoiled for me. Not blaming you or anything, but nice to see they killed her off. Now I don't have to waste my time finishing the show, which was running on fumes for a while.

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  64. The last two episodes of The Shield were fucking mindblowing. Same with the last 3 weeks of Breaking Bad...just amazing, gripping television.

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  65. I know you were just kidding, but here you go anyway:

    TNA @ Huntsville, AL - Von Braun Civic Center- June 19, 2002 (3,000)

     

    Sonny Siaki, Jimmy Yang, & Jorge Estrada defeated AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, & Low-Ki

    Teo pinned Hollywood

    Richard & Rod Johnson (w/ Mortimer Plumtree) defeated James Storm & Psychosis

    Bo & Stan Dupp (w/ Fluff Dupp) defeated Christian York & Joey Matthews

    Ken Shamrock and Malice (w/ James Mitchell) co-won a 20-man Royal Rumble match at 30:55; order of entry: Jeff Jarrett, Buff Bagwell, Lash LaRoux, Norman Smiley, Apolo, K-Krush, Slash (w/ James Mitchell), Del Rios, Nick Justice, Konnan, Bruce (w/ Joel Gertner), Rick Steiner, Malice, Scott Hall, Toby Keith, Chris Harris, Vampire Warrior, Devon Storm, Steve Corino, Shamrock, and Brian Christopher; order of elimination: Bagwell by Jarrett, LaRoux, and Smiley; Slash by Steiner; Justice by Steiner; Bruce by Malice; Killings by Malice; Del Rios by Malice; Konnan by Malice; Steiner by Malice; Jarrett by Keith; Harris by Christopher; Storm by Christopher; Vampire Warrior by Christopher; Corino by Christopoher; Christopher by Shamrock; Hall and Apollo by Malice

    Ken Shamrock pinned Malice (w/ James Mitchell) at 6:22 with a belly to belly suplex; Ricky Steamboat was the guest referee for the bout; after Shamrock's win, Jeff Jarrett interrupted the presentation of the belt and complained again about crowning a NWA World Champion in a battle royal before attacking Bob Armstrong and Dory Funk Jr until Scott Hall, Jackie Fargo, and Toby Keith chased Jarrett off to close the show

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  66. I could yap about it all night also, but yeah I mean the famous people leaps. The Marilyn Monroe and Elvis ones especially.



    Not sure how I would take the Al and his family plot. Though I did read a rumor about how they wanted Sam to leap into a cartoon and Magnum P.I., I think.

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  67. I feel like the Simpsons finale is bound to disappoint a lot of people, just because the expectations will be so high.

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  68. So they shared:


    Jarrett, Styles, R. Steiner, and that's it.

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  69. The best possible thing they can do is not announce everything, just run one last episode and throw something in the end to wrap it all up.


    Good luck keeping it any sort of secret, but it might be worth a try.

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  70. Watched the last episode of Criminal Intent a couple of weeks ago. Everyone there was just mailing it in.

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  71. For worst, Roseanne by a light years throw. To be fair, at that point the show became such a parody of what it used to be, but even still, that finale was just a big middle finger to everyone, whether you liked the early years or the later seasons.
    Best? I don't know, Seinfeld. So few shows get true finales.
    Show that should've receive one proper: Married with Children.

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  72. They were all dead and in purgatory...

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  73. The last episode of the shield was the best I've seen so far. A lot of people hate the last ep of weeds but I got goosebumps and a little choked up on that last scene and I'm always ready to white knight for Nancy B. The worst ending to me is carnivals...how the fuck are you gonna end a show like that?

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  74. I wasnt sure if you were being facetious or not until I looked it up. Sounds like a terrible payoff

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  75. Ha sorry, figured everyone had seen it by now.


    I honestly think the show should have ended 2 season ago

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  76. Yeah man the actual ending is everyone but Ben going to heaven... smh

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  77. Agree with you on the X Files finale. The most frustrating part was there were soooooo many suitable endings, I can think of 2-3 off the top of my head right now, a decade later.

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  78. I have five nominees, none of which have somehow been mentioned so far so maybe I don't know shit.


    1) Reaper. This one, and the next three, are bad because they weren't supposed to be finales. In this case, the bad guy wins, the stakes get amped, Heaven finally gets involved after two seasons of being the elephant in the room but their motives are never revealed. For such a fun show it ends on a total downer.


    2) Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. Similarly ends on a cliffhanger, with one core character dead (OR IS SHE?), massive plot hooks for season 3, and basically nobody happy.


    3) Young Justice. Ends with Wally dying, and then Vandal Savage escaping and teaming up with Darkseid AND OH MY GOD I WANT THAT.


    4) The Norm Show. Norm randomly gets (and loses) superpowers in a show that previously had never flirted with the supernatural. Nothing is resolved, and it just feels like an episode of a completely different show (though still funny). The last scene is also probably the worst offender of Season 3's general amnesia about how to write female characters.


    and, now for one that's actually bad in a vacuum, and as a finale.


    5) Battlestar Galactica. Heck, you could extend this to bad final season, or even bad final two seasons, if you want. Granted, I got dragged kicking and screaming through this show (had to watch it on a bet, essentially) so maybe I'm the wrong guy, but it went from flawed but interesting to pants-shittingly terrible and never looked back.

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  79. Then wans't there a movie where he was like disected by the FBI or something?

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  80. Fringe was awesome. The ending was beautiful and brilliant.

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  81. Buffy went on too long. For like the run of the series they built up the idea that death was the Slayer's reward, and her death scene at the end of Seasons five was beautiful and gave me goodbumps. Then season six they just bring her back? It was not good. I'd have ended the show run there.


    It would have been better for me if (a) Dawn became the new slayer in season six, ending SMG's run or (b) Dawn dies in Season five instead, and Buffy still does all the brooding she did in seasons six. You did get the Buffy/Willion mega-powers exploding at the end of Season six, and I guess Sunnydale dying in Seasons seven was okay but I don't think I watched much of Seasons seven.

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  82. I don't mind the ending of Seinfeld in retrospect.

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  83. Apparently. Zantadude posted a wiki link to the movie above. I didnt even know about it till this thread

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  84. What about the fucking Sopranos? Nobody has mentioned that yet? Awful fucking ending.


    And I really with people would stop pretending like Lost was a good show. The creators and writers have admitted they didn't have any grand plan in what they were doing.

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  85. The final "cut to black" scene blew hard, the rest of the finale I didnt mind.

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  86. i... didnt even know the original law and order ended. usa network kept pimping "new eps!' for the longest time and not being a watcher of the skies...er, show i had no idea what was going on

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  87. Zoolanders on TBS, forgot how fucking awesome it is.

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  88. I felt like The Office handled Michael Scott's cameo flawlessly. I was afraid they'd bring him back and just cram in as many of his old jokes as possible. Instead it was low key, we got a couple of great one liners and and an all-time classic "that's what she said".

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  89. Yea. NO WAY, it lives up to the hype. Keeping it under wraps would be the way to go, but as you mentioned there's probably no way they can realistically do that.

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  90. The dad hated it so much that he ended up doing drugs and having sex with homeless guys.

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  91. What was awful about the Sopranos ending? And that is bullshit about Lost. They knew what the wanted to do, but they didn't know when the show was going to end. Once they got the end date, I don't think there was one filler ep.

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  92. No realistic way to keep it secret is accurate... you'd have to go to some extreme lengths, such as not doing the "good-bye" scenes until the last minute/second, and/or maybe rumoring another season to throw the scent off, to pull it off.

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  93. 'Why couldn't we get 5 minutes talking about all the guys HHH has signed instead of his shitty fucking movies?'

    2 words: sin cara

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  94. Carnivale was canceled. There was supposed to be a third season.

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  95. If they can get beyond the barrier of the original voice actors, then I'm not sure that The Simpsons will ever end.

    Sazae-san in Japan has been broadcasting for something like 50 years now...

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  96. What sucked about that? That's the perfect way to end the show when the main character gets whacked.

    Or would you have preferred for things to limp along like "Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Daughter"?
    Or wou

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  97. That wasn't how i understood it.

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  98. I knew someone would beat me to it

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  99. Forgive my ignorance... but what show is ending on Sunday?

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  100. Jacob and the Smoke Monster were two powerful, semi-godlike beings that were living on the Island, with Jacob as its protector and the Monster (his brother) being trapped there. The nature of their powers was that they couldn't kill each other, but they could induce others to do so on their behalf. So, the Monster took the appearance of various dead people (Jack's dad, Eko's brother and several others, ending up looking like Locke's dead form) to try and trick various castaways and Others into killing Jacob.

    Jacob, meanwhile, was looking for a candidate to eventually replace him as the Island's protector since he figured his brother would eventually win. All of the Oceanic 815 passengers were brought to the Island via Jacob's influence --- the "Numbers" ended up referring to the coordinates on the lighthouse wheel that Jacob used to watch them back on the mainland, with 4/8/15/16/23/42 referring to Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Jack, Kate and one of the Kwons.

    Anyway, the show ended with the Monster 'breaking' the Island by using Desmond to shut off its electromagnetic power source, but this had the side of effect of making the Monster mortal, so Jack could finally kill him. Hurley ends up as the new Jacob (with Ben as his assistant), the crew of Sawyer/Kate/Miles/Claire/Frank/Desmond ended up escaping on a plane back to the mainland, and the final shot was Jack laying down the grass a la the first episode and watching the plane fly overhead to safety.


    This is a very, very, very light synopsis since LOST is virtually impossible to briefly recap.

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  101. I can't blame shows like Quantum Leap for their bad endings since they didn't know they'd be cancelled, so the writers weren't able to craft a proper finale that wrapped up the story.

    The problem with the Seinfeld finale was that on an intellectual level, it worked as a final way for these four awful people to get their comeuppance. The problem was that a) it wasn't funny and b) the Seinfeld crew was written as being so lovably self-centered that the audience felt ripped off by the "oh, they've been jerks all along, you're dumb for liking them" finale.


    Buffy and LOST had good final episodes that aren't remembered well since the last seasons overall were so poor. Dexter, on the other hand, had a terrible finale that just topped off that godawful last season. If you've never watched Dexter and are curious to start, just watch the first five seasons and stop there. Better to go out on the average season five than go into the real crap.

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  102. Breaking Bad.


    Watch it. You're missing out.

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  103. He can't be referring to WWF Nitro, that was bigger than the moon landing.

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  104. My favorite finale will always be the Larry Sanders Show finale. A perfect ending without getting too mushy, nostalgic or melodramatic.
    My least favorite finale will always be the Mystery Science Theater 3000 finale mainly because the idiots at Sci-Fi pulled the plug on the show just as it had its best season yet (That final season had so many great episodes such as "Squirm", "Final Justice", "Soultaker", "The Girl In Gold Boots" and "Boggy Creek 2" among others) and as Rifftrax has gone on to prove, the people involved on the show clearly had a ton of fresh material left in their sleeves.

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  105. That wasn't meant to be the finale of Norm though. They also showed episodes out of order.

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  106. Hey, great call here! Larry Sanders is probably the best "sitcom" (hate to call it that though) ever, and I was pretty obsessed with Mystery Science Theater. Still love watching it too.

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  107. The guy who wrote the show was a mean spirited heroin junkie so naturally that kind of show is going to have a negative vibe.
    Funnily enough though, everyone else associated with ALF besides Jerry Stahl faded into oblivion while Jerry got clean and went on to become one of CSI's top writers. Reality is much stranger than anything Hollywood can make up sometimes.

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  108. Why did they have Beverly Tanner, the only cast regular to be in the movie besides ALF, play a completely different character? That's about as stupid as casting the lead star of The Birds, Tippi Hedren, to play a completely different character in The Birds 2.

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  109. Yeah, Larry Sanders never gets enough love.
    I have to give props to "It's Garry Shandling's Show" too, that show totally destroyed the sitcom formula and showed how behind the times network execs were while also showing that Garry was about ten years ahead of everybody in the process.
    And it was also what led HBO to pick up Larry Sanders since they, along with the Big Three networks, had rejected "It's Garry Shandling's Show" only to see that show become a huge hit for Showtime so HBO was at least smart enough to not make the same mistake twice.

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  110. I lost weeds after they wrote...conrad out of the show for no reason. Did they ever explain what happened to him?

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  111. Actually was that his only line?

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  112. It's really good!

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  113. The Sopranos has an INSANE meta narrative surrounding it, and the ending of that episodes not only includes homages to the three previous 'groups' that tried to whack tony, but everything else is done in threes, and the scene cuts out lyric in the song.


    The essence of the Sopranos is that Tony in a sense struggle to be a good person because he doesn't see the point, simply because all evidence points to there being nothing beyond our life, save for Tony's near death with a blinking light that is then called back in an episode where Tony realizes his toxic nature.

    Check out the AV club reviews of the show, it's really freaking deep.

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  114. The Shield's ending is open to an interpretation, Does Vic Mackey grab his gun and go home after leaving the office, or does it chase after those cops? He doesn't seem to be in a hurry, and it seems like the show has punished Mackey for his sins.

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  115. Simpsons has been disappointing for over a decade now so that will be fitting.

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  116. "Very good but not a top 5 all timer. Kinda boring in spots," seems like that sums HHH's career up rather nicely ;-)

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  117. The show's creators would have to somehow keep the secret from FOX, because there's no way the network is going to pass on the opportunity for a huge rating and the extra advertising money that a hyped-up Simpsons finale would draw.

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  118. That also happened with Night Court. It's true finale was the second to last show aired.

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  119. You disagree that he liked it?

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  120. I can't believe we got THIS far without anybody mentioning Dinosaurs.

    Goodnight. Goodbye.

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  121. Everytime I hear someone mention the Seinfeld finale, I get a little tinge of fear about how It's Always Sunny is going to end considering the comparisons between the 2 that everyone makes/that are there.


    Fwiw, I've heard S7 is pretty good too. But otherwise, I'd agree to just watch the first 5 seasons.

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  122. Didn't Reaper just get canceled out of the blue, no proper finale or anything?

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  123. So where does Dexter rank in terms of "shows hitting the wall painfully"?

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  124. I'm pretty sure he also had a talking head spot. Didn't he say something about watching his 'children' grow up and marry each other (in a typical Michael Scott tone)?

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  125. Twin Peaks. How could they leave it there???

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  126. I'm in the camp of really liking the seventh season of "Dexter". It had a lot of the dialogue/logic problems that were a staple of the last three seasons, but the main arc of LaGuerta putting the pieces together made for tense, thrilling TV.

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  127. The problem with the final cut to black was that it was purposely artsy and ambiguous when the audience was looking for a more concrete ending.

    Even if they had added the sound of a gun-shot (which they should have, as, in real time, he wouldvvv have heard the shot before dying), it would have told the audience what actually happened.

    Plus,

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  128. Seinfeld. We didn't need sentimental and mushy, but we didn't need whatever that was either. I haven't watched it since 1998, so maybe it's OK, but I remember the letdown feeling.


    Scrubs. They had a great episode that wrapped things up, then kept going for a few more.

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  129. I liked the CONCEPT of the Seinfeld ending (ie. they're all revealed as horrible people and punished for it), but doing the final episode as a borderline clip show was just unacceptable.

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  130. why would he hear a gunshot from a bullet going straight to his brain?

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  131. on Todd and the book of pure evil- it's getting an animated movie to close it up, duder. http://www.toddandthebookofpureevil.com/ check the vid there.

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  132. Based off of what I read on Cracked, the actors were basically like "FUCK ALF" by the end, and would probably not have come back even if asked.

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  133. The gun has to be fired before the bullet gets to him.


    There are a million movies/shows that end with a gun being fired and then immediately cutting to black. This should have been another one.

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  134. The entire final season of "The Shield" was just absolutely phenomenal.


    I've always been vocal in thinking that the show definitely roller-coastered in quality over the years, but holy shit did they deliver in the end.


    [And for what it's worth: First two seasons were basically perfect television, Three sucked, Four was decent, Five was fantastic, Six was decent, and Seven was incredible.]

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  135. I took it as him continuing to "do what he does" - he wasn't going to be a good boy and stay at his desk, no way would he take orders from anyone (especially a woman). No, he was going to continue to take out the trash on his own time.

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  136. Charismatic e-Negro Jef VinsonSeptember 28, 2013 at 7:50 AM

    From what I understood it was supposed to be answered in a full-length movie that never got made.

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  137. That was like S4 though. Things were still solid through season 6 or 7. It wasn't until Larry David left that it became a real caricature.

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  138. That was depressing but not bad. It was actually quite good...just a big time downer.

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  139. Weeds sucked after s2 when they changed the format. First 2 seasons were AWESOME.

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  140. GB does that with shows as well (e.g. Last of the Summer Wine, Doctor Who), but America really hasn't experimented with shows longer than 10 or 11 seasons. Outside of daytime sitcoms, of course. It will be interesting to see how Fox handles Simpsons going forward.

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  141. Yeah, he had a couple of lines but not a ton. Like I said, I thought they did a good job. I was expecting they'd go the overkill route but I really liked the way they handled it.

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  142. I agree. Dinosaurs' ending was depressing but great.

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  143. Beat me to this...

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  144. Battlestar Galactica gets a ton of hate. I, personally, like it a lot as most of the problems were endemic to the writing style of the series as a whole (i.e. not planning things the fuck out despite the opening credits saying "they have a plan).

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  145. Agreed, there was really not a lot that they could do without breaking with the whole spirit of the show.
    In retrospect I think that was as good an ending as you were going to get.

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  146. That Alf ending was messed up but I've read that it was never intended to be the finale and so that was the reason for it.

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  147. Ricky Spanish, huh.

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  148. I've never actually seen it, I'd mostly stopped watching after they won the lottery, but WOW does that sound messed up.

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  149. Battlestar Galactica always seemed to me like they had a pretty good overall story arc, but then got renewed for more seasons than they had anticipated and had to start fleshing it out with middlin stuff.
    I never saw the finale, I had given up.

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  150. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Z0YyC3fzA

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  151. I said this just recently in another thread, but I actually would have been fine with the whole "imagined" ending if it were only confined to the final season. To me, I think that having it revealed that all of the family's recent good fortune was just Roseanne's way of trying to deal with her husband's death would have been a FANTASTIC way to end the show.


    The problem (IMO) was that they completely invalidated the ENTIRE show with that retarded "WTF?" ending revealing that pretty much EVERYTHING we had seen was false. The daughters dating the opposite guys, Jackie being gay, it was just weird for the sake of weird. The audience was very emotionally-invested in these characters, and to just turn around and say that everything we saw out of the characters was fake was just... horrible.

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  152. Fringe was a great show, but that flash to the future storyline was the least enjoyable season I have ever watched. The last five minutes of the finale were nice, but god forbid they allow walter to stay with them and have a happy ending. Given what came next, they really should have just cancelled it after season four.

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  153. We knew they were all gonna die. It like complaining about titanic ending with the boat sinking.

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  154. Scrubs Med School shouldn't exist. I'd say that's a "spin-off" of the original show, like The Closer and major Crimes, or there's company and the aboortion that followed that that only had Jack and his wife.

    The true scrubs finale was one of the greatest bus of television ever.

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  155. There's an entire scene dedicated to this in an earlier ep...where they agree that you don't even hear it coming...everything just fades to black...

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  156. He moved. He returns for a few episodes at the end.

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  157. Also...bullets travel faster than the speed of sound.

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  158. Im 99.99% sure that the only stuff she made up was after Dan's fatal heart attack....which was in the last or second to last season.

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  159. I find it interesting that so much of our general feeling towards a tv show or movie is tied into how we feel about the ending. I'm not saying that's the wrong approach; I just find it fascinating.

    To answer the question, everything about the last episode (hell, last season) of Roseanne was so bad, everyone involved should have to forfeit all royalties. It was basically doing something different for the sake of it. Just awful stuff. I'm one of the twelve people on the planet who was never into Seinfeld, so I didn't watch the finale, but I can see why people would have hated it.

    You know what I really hate? When tv shows that have been on for several years end abruptly with no real ending, People invest a lot of time into these shows, and it would be nice if the networks would say, "Okay, we're cancelling the show, but we'll give you guys a few extra episodes to wrap it up". Even released as a separate DVD/Blu-Ray or something. I know producing even a single episode of some shows can be rather expensive, but come one, throw us a bone.

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  160. No, they specifically said that Darlene and Mark had always been an item, that Becky and David had always been an item, and that almost all of Jackie's relationships (since the beginning of the show) had been imagined.

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  161. It wasn't a "great" show by any means, but my wife and I had really been into "Kyle XY" while it was on the air. The fact that it ended on a major plot-twist - specifically BECAUSE the network cancelled the show with no notice - has always bothered me.


    Same with "WMAC Masters". I've said it before and I'll say it again: to me, Tsunami joining the "Jukido" was almost as big as Hogan joining the "nWo".

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  162. I loved both, the problem for me was the show starting focusing on the one thing I cared the least about: Jacob.

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  163. They didn't all die in the crash.


    The sideways thing that was going on during the final season was purgatory, and as Christian explained to Jack, some got here before you, and some got here after you, basically stating that everything that happened, happened.

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  164. I enjoyed the fifth season, I mean, it made sense for the show to go in that direction. What other point was there for the Observers other than that?

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  165. I love both guys and have seen almost all of their stand ups , I still don't see where people think Leary ripped off Hicks. Do they talk about the same stuff? Yes. But that's not stealing material. Comedians are bound to talk about the same shit.

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  166. thought bullets can travel faster than sound.

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  167. Wait a minute... there were Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions?

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  168. it was cancelled; that wasn't supposed to be the ending. the actress who played audrey talks about how she was slated to survive the bank explosion

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  169. yeah, shows always pimp when they get their contacts extended, so if theres no news of the show getting renewed, peeps would talk

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  170. And not to mention the reasoning for the trial and sentence was so fucking flimsy, like they just tossed one idea and ran with it without once considering the plausibility.


    Yes, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer were all self-absored dickheads. But criminals? Okay, Kramer probably is, but still.

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  171. I probably would've been satisfied if they went the Full House route and, rather than going for a "grand finale," they just did one of those all-encompassing episodes that summarizes what the series is all about, which in this case is nothing.

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  172. 'the worst one for me was the last episode of Medium, where they killed
    off Allison's husband in a plane crash and then Allison herself died of
    old age in a flash-forward moment'

    i only watched a few eps, and since it was during nbc's "shaky camera' phase, it was a bit jarring. and from what i saw, it seems like the show just wasn't what it prob could be.

    allison was nice look at though

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  173. 'Funnily enough though, everyone else associated with ALF besides Jerry Stahl faded into oblivion'

    not true.

    alf is back

    in pog form

    remember alf?

    (in all seriousness, alf does bumpers for the hub channel)

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  174. was the follow up the one with david ogden stiers (winchester from m*a*s*h)? that always stuck out

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  175. I also enjoyed the final episodes of Friends and That 70s Show.


    With sitcoms, it's weird - the ones that stay pretty good for most of its run get disappointing finales, while the ones that jump the shark like Friends, That 70s Show, The Office, etc. get really awesome finales. It's like writers just mailed everything past a certain season in to save all of their creative energy for the final episode.

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  176. I still need to watch that show

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  177. Thats what annoyed me about the show. It lost its luster after the first couples seasons with the moving out of suburbia, but then brought me back in with the good characters. But then they would leave

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  178. It's amazing how many kids nowadays have never even heard of Dinosaurs.
    Much like another great 90's show, "Unhappily Ever After", once it was cancelled it just vanished, no long syndication run, no 20,000 airings on TBS or TV Land, it just got absolutely nothing.
    On the plus side, Disney dumped Starz for Netflix because if they had not done that, Dinosaurs would have never made it onto Netflix.

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  179. Never saw Titanic for that very reason.

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  180. That's interesting I've never had the urge to see again. Maybe I should.

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  181. Minor Lost spoiler below, I suppose...








    Lost begins and ends this conversation to me. So much was left unexplained, and so much more could have been done with the alternate timeline than was actually done.

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  182. Charismatic e-Negro Jef VinsonSeptember 28, 2013 at 3:27 PM

    The last episode of Good Times was a cop out.

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  183. It's Always Sunny has been much more upfront, however, about the fact that their characters are all horrible human beings, so I'd suspect their final episode will be as good as ever. I'm not sure what lines are left for them to cross....the Gang gets sent to jail? The Gang kills someone? Dennis and Dee sleep together?

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  184. No. Bullets travel faster than sound.

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  185. So why didn't we ever see The Flintstones Apocalypse, when such an advanced civilization (they apparently harnessed the power of animals to make moving pictures appear inside of stone blocks) disappeared without a trace?

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  186. The first two seasons of Dexter were damn near flawless. Seasons 3 and 4 were also very good. 5-7 were just treading water waiting for the big moves in the final season. 8 started with so much potential and so many cool ideas and then it just squandered everything for the ridiculous Oliver Saxon reveal. I hated the finale with passion.

    Dexter is Weezer. The progression pretty much mirrors Weezer's descent in quality from Pinkerton to Hurley.

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  187. They've teased Incest before, but I don't think FX will let them do it which kind of sucks because if there's any show that can making die of laughter because of Incest it's the Sunny crew.

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  188. That Weezer comparison is scary accurate.

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  189. I loved "Unhappily Ever After". Sure, it was a shameless "Married With Children" rip-off, but it was funny.

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  190. Just because you pour chocolate on a piece of shit, doesn't make it any less a piece of shit.


    I hated the Sopranos ending.

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  191. Yeah, they basically implied that she started "writing" the show as far back as when they turned part of the basement into a writing room for her.

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  192. Did you see the DVD extras in the last season?

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  193. Because.....THE FLINTSTONES ARE NOT REALLY PREHISTORIC. Why do you think they celebrate Christmas? They are the proles who live on the ground in the Jetsons' society.

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  194. And on top of that, it means that Roseanne never met Patsy and Edina!

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