The finale of a television series is always a big deal. It stands as the ultimate conclusion of a story fans have invested years of their lives into, one that needs to tie all the loose narrative threads while delivering a cohesive resolution to every major character. It stands to reason that these episodes typically generate impassioned responses regardless of whether they’re astounding masterpieces or calamitous failures.
Ranging from flailing fantasies to crime classics, these wild series finales sparked a particularly strong reaction from their respective fanbases, becoming entrenched in the annals of television history for their impact. Whether they left viewers elated, frustrated, or irate, the crash out of these climaxes is a reflection on the magnificence or monstrosity of the finales themselves.
10 "Till Death Do Us Part" (2017)
'Pretty Little Liars' — Season 7, Episode 20
A teen mystery drama series that ran for seven seasons through the 2010s, Pretty Little Liars’ story of hidden secrets and dark pasts flaunts a penchant for shocking twists that stands as one of its most transfixing strengths. However, the series finale’s reach exceeded its grasp in this regard, resulting in an overly ambitious reveal concerning the emergence of an evil twin that even the show’s most adoring fans struggled to accept.
It is the sort of revelation that lends itself to crash outs, an excessively wild and borderline nonsensical turn that leaves fans either scratching their heads in utter perplexion or screaming aloud with a sense of deranged disbelief. This bizarre narrative decision is only compounded by the twins’ mystifying Cockney accent. It isn’t enough to tarnish the legacy of the series—in fact, it has probably made Pretty Little Liars even more memorable than it otherwise would have been—but it definitely provided a jarring jolt that sent fans into a frenzy.
9 "Everyone’s Waiting" (2005)
'Six Feet Under' — Season 5, Episode 12
Following the Fisher family’s misadventures as brothers Nate (Peter Krause) and David (Michael C. Hall) inherit their father’s funeral home, Six Feet Under strikes an enthralling balance between thematically loaded family drama and surrealist fantasy that explores death with a sense of morbid simplicity. Its five-season run typically sees episodes start with a random character’s death, but the series finale opens on a baby’s premature birth before delivering a grounded and perfectly unglamorous illustration of the lives each of the main characters lead and the circumstances that bring about their deaths.
It is a bold way to end a series, but Six Feet Under is able to make so strong a decision while maintaining the series’ dark humor, quiet depth, and character-focused storytelling. It culminates in a beautifully poignant meditation on life, death, family, and love that hits at the central themes of the series with great artistry and originality. It is widely regarded to be among the best and bravest series finales in television history.
8 "The Last One" (1988)
'St. Elsewhere' — Season 6, Episode 22
Operating with a more grounded realism, St. Elsewhere is famous for its exploration of the lives of doctors in a hospital setting (as well as being a launching pad for several A-list Hollywood icons, including Denzel Washington). However, the series’ unbelievable final twist completely stripped it of much of its impact. In its final minutes, it reveals that the events in the series weren’t real but were occurring in the imagination of a young boy.
While it isn’t quite an ‘it was all a dream’ twist, it still flaunts a similarly bitter aftertaste, one that immediately sent fans into a furious disarray. Even without social media around for fans to make their thoughts known to the world, the outcry was apparent from the fanbase. The story turn invalidates so much of the drama, sacrifice, and camaraderie the series depicted among the doctors, and makes for one of the most staggering series finales of all time.
7 "The Finale" (1998)
'Seinfeld' — Season 9, Episode 24
A show about nothing, Seinfeld ran for nine seasons following a quartet of friends in New York City who subverted traditional sitcom formulas with their irredeemable selfishness, self-righteous world views, and their utter reluctance to help anyone if it was of no benefit to themselves. The series concludes with a 60-minute two-part episode that sees Jerry Seinfeld and his friends standing trial for their inactivity as they watched a carjacking unfold. At the hearing, many familiar faces of past foes emerge to damn the four before the series ends with them awaiting transfer to prison to carry out a one-year sentence.
The surprising ending has become somewhat polarizing, with some fans enjoying the irreverence of the finale and the sight of seeing the four reprehensible main characters finally facing consequences for their callousness, while others felt it placed too much emphasis on the supporting characters and lacked a rewarding resolution. Needless to say, with opinions so divided, the cultural crash out among Seinfeld fans has eased little since “The Finale” aired.
6 "Lock and Key" (2022)
'Peaky Blinders' — Season 6, Episode 6
At the beginning of its run, Peaky Blinders had a certain hypnotic quality, a captivating marriage of cinematic style and crime intrigue that made Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) one of the most iconic characters to have ever graced the small screen. However, the series does become increasingly untethered to reality, with the Birmingham-based buster’s ever-rising ambitions seeing the crook infiltrate English politics and impact global criminal organizations through the early part of the 20th century. When it ends with Tommy Shelby emerging victorious over yet another rival, its indulgent sense of style starts to smack of naïve, starry-eyed admiration.
While it isn’t at all uncommon for crime movies and TV shows to illustrate the allure of organized crime with a certain decadence, Peaky Blinders forgets that such stories are also meant to display the message that ‘crime doesn’t pay.’ With a finale that basically hero worships Tommy Shelby as he rides off victorious, the series ends as a naïve crime fantasy, an immature and reckless piece of style over substance television. Even with a Peaky Blinders movie now on the horizon, the once entrancing series itself is stained by its misguided and morally questionable finale.
5 "Made in America" (2007)
'The Sopranos' — Season 6, Episode 21
Following the life of New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) as he takes control of his crew while secretly seeing a psychiatrist to help manage his persistent panic attacks, The Sopranos is an arresting and pioneering masterpiece of television drama. While the series itself is an enduring classic that stands among the absolute greatest shows of all time, its finale has long been an emphasized talking point, particularly its famous cut to black ending.
As abrupt as it is ambiguous, the series' final moments see Tony sitting at a diner preparing to enjoy a meal with his family, even as his mob life spirals out of control. With Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” playing, Tony looks up at the diner door as someone walks in, then the shot snaps to black. It caused quite a stir among fans when it aired, and has remained a contentious creative decision in the years since, though it has come to be widely respected as an impressionable choice that allows fans to determine for themselves what Tony’s fate was.
4 "Remember the Monsters?" (2013)
'Dexter' — Season 8, Episode 12
A TV show about a serial killer who kills serial killers, Dexter runs with a distinct antihero gleam and a morbid intrigue that made it one of the defining sensations of 21st-century television for much of its run. However, the series began to err in its latter seasons, losing its grip on its stakes and making nonsensical narrative choices as a result. This sadly came to be most apparent in the disastrous series finale, “Remember the Monsters?”.
Depriving fans of closure with its illogical plot beats, total lack of respect for several central characters, and an ending that is the ultimate anti-climax, Dexter’s swan song is an unpleasant misstep that left many fans seething with rage. In fact, the crash-out from the final moments of “Remember the Monsters?” is so severe that many fans have joked that they’ll never be able to look at a lumberjack the same way again.
3 "Person to Person" (2015)
'Mad Men' — Season 7, Episode 14
One of the true defining masterpieces of television’s golden era of prestige drama, Mad Men is an immersive examination of American culture in the 1960s told through the eyes of the enigmatic advertising man Don Draper (Jon Hamm). Its finale is nothing short of perfection, avoiding easy sentimentality as it showcases where each character will land with tactful precision, and ending on the wonderful note of Draper’s journey of self-discovery, inspiring him to create Coca-Cola’s famous “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” commercial.
Whether this is a sign of equilibrium in Don’s life, or yet another example of him finding a genuinely peaceful feeling that he ruins by using in an ad campaign is open to interpretation, viewers on both sides of the argument have crashed out and conflicted with each other as they debate their points. The ambiguity is a strength, as is its gripping thematic resonance, compelling complexity, and its focus on realistic, understated moments of emotional honesty.
2 "The Iron Throne" (2019)
'Game of Thrones' — Season 8, Episode 6
The emotional outburst to Game of Thrones’ whole final season stands as one of the most visceral and venomous reactions to a TV series’ ending in the history of the medium. The story of the ruling houses of Westeros entering an intense war full of political betrayals and epic battles ensnared millions of fans the world over, with its agonizing yet addictive unpredictability, complex characters, and enrapturing production value creating one of the greatest spectacles television drama has ever seen. That it was all thrown away in the final season stands as perhaps the biggest misfire in the history of the medium.
The Season 8 finale, “The Iron Throne,” wears the brunt of the outcry, with the episode epitomizing the hurried and degrading character evolution, unfulfilled expectations, and nonsensical plot twists that marred the series’ final season. Conversation surrounding the Game of Thrones finale continues even today, some six years on from when it originally aired, illustrating how damning and dispiriting a crash out it caused for so many of the show’s fans.
1 "Felina" (2013)
Breaking Bad — Season 5, Episode 16
Heralded by many as being the outright greatest series of all time, Breaking Bad thrives as an engaging story of desperation and crime as it follows Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) gradual descent into the drug trade after he starts cooking crystal meth to provide for his family when diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. While the series soars with its analysis of Walter’s moral decay, the depth and detail of the surrounding characters, and the outstanding performances from the entire cast, its ability to deliver its greatest episodes towards the end of the final season is what cemented the series’ lasting legacy.
“Felina,” an anagram from ‘Finale,’ stands tall among the series’ best episodes, following White as he evades the nationwide manhunt for him while settling scores with his family members and past acquaintances. Its well-rounded and cohesive conclusion stands as possibly the single most rewarding finale to a television series. It delivers beautifully bittersweet catharsis, standing as a masterful final chapter to White’s story of immorality, greed, and power that sends the characters off in spectacular fashion.
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Breaking Bad
TV-MA
Crime
Drama Thriller 36 9.5/10
- Release Date
- 2008 - 2013-00-00
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- AMC
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- Showrunner
- Vince Gilligan
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