Finales You Loved and Those You Hated

[JackPeyton]

Dawsons Creek will always be the best finale. Ever. IMHO anyways. It was a love letter to the fans, it tied the show up and gave you closure but also left you wondering what happens next? Jens death was fantastic and because her heart was off was a verry fitting way for her to die. Jack & Doug were great. Joey finally chose - and ut was Pacey! Dawsons tv show, etc... everything was perfect.

6 Feet Under was another perfect finale.

Anbd i love the end to Felicity.

[Khan]

I realize I'm the last one to defend SATC: The Series, but it seems to me all four women -- Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte -- were "paired up" in the end because they weren't as desperate for men to "complete" them. Each entered her respective relationship emotionally whole and healthy (...more or less...), able to give fifty percent to the partnership, at the end of a long process of self-discovery and empowerment.

What I loved about the movie, though, was that it wasn't as overtly raunchy as the series had been, nor did it seem as reliant upon cheap and obvious sexual gags for humor. Instead of presenting the four as one-note stereotypes, we actually got some emotional depth to each of them (well, everyone except Charlotte; her story was pretty much 'done' by the end of the series).

[dm.]

Oh yes, I loved the ending of Felicity. I'm going to have to watch the show again to renew my memories.

[applcin]

Deep Space Nine: I wish they had made some different choices. Why not have Damar survive and held rebuild Cardassia? And Sisko joining the prophets...let me say, I grew very tired of "the prophets."

Voyager: Liked it. They got home.

Didn't like St. Elsewhere. It just felt like a cheat. Ditto Without a Trace (I mean, we could have at least seen a bit of Danny & Elena's wedding) & Cold Case (it just felt unfinished.)

Buffy - Spike sacrifices himself and Buffy's still a beeyatch. Blech.

MASH had one of the best finales ever.

[quartermainefan]

This is before my time, but supposedly The Fugitive had the best finale ever.

[EricMontreal22]

I think one reason The Fugitive was groundbreaking was it was one of the first times an American TV show ending gave full closure.

The last few years of Dawson's were a mess (though they're all muddled in my head--I watched and enjoyed the first two seasons as a teen, then I lost touch with the show until TBS would have late night marathons heading up to the WB showing the finale, and it corresponded with a time I was working security graveyard shifts and basically could watch tv at work, so I went through the whole series in a month or so). But I agree in many ways Kevin Williamson' coming back for the finale was great (not sure if I liked Doug and Jack or it was too WTF though).

I don't really remember Felicity's ending--for me it was all tainted by the bizarro time travel stuff, though I know that wasn't entirely Abrams' and his writing partner's fault, but...

Speaking of, it's funny, I ADORED Alias, at least the first three seasons, and I remember being very mixed on the last year but still being happy with the finale. Yet the show has made next to ZERO lasting impression on me except some cool images of Sydney's outfits. It's like it's all been wiped from my mind--very very weird (that could just be me and not a reflection on the memorableness of the show, though by the last few years I did stop trying to understand or follow the whole Rimbaldi plots).

Khan, I'm gonna have to disagree. As a casual, but regular fan of the series, I (and to be fair all of the people I watched the finale with) were left disappointed with it. Your point is valid, but I don't think it was clearly shown in the show whatsoever. Carrie going back to Mr Big in particular, but... And really, you found the movie less raunchy? Less raunchy than the early Darren Star seasons for sure (remember Season 1's annoying "interview guys on the street" moments?), but not than the later years IMHO. I found the movie all over the map, the serious stuff was too much, characters made me roll my eyes too much, too much was a thematic retread, etc. I have no plans on seeing this new movie anytime soon, but I do appreciate that they've gone out of their way to make it much lighter and more fun.

[DRW50]

The main difference for me with early and later SATC is that I thought the earlier sexual stuff was more organic to the storyline. Later on I just thought they were desperate for attention. Watch Samantha say something shocking...again. You could hear the creaking in each line.

I also thought the friendships in the later years were fake. Carrie became so self-absorbed and so strangled by her neuroses and her fairy princess fantasies that she barely seemed to notice anyone. Charlotte no longer needed Carrie, Miranda, or Samantha, and seemed closer to her gay BFF than to any of them. Miranda was in her own world, as was Samantha. It felt like they were friends with each other only because they had to be to keep the show going.

I'm surprised you could get through a season of Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan without falling asleep.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha I prefered the side characters (I did lose some investment when they dropped her "real life"--I liked the mix of that with her spy stuff--Frannie or whatever her roomate was called, Bradley Cooper, etc. (as well as it being more interesting when she didn't know who she was working for, etc, etc of course part of that was ABC asked them to streamline the show and make it less complex later on--more a straight ahead mystical spy thriller, but that lost some of the appeal). I do like Garner though--sorry

I pretty much completely agree with you re SATC especially that the friendship angle. I guess one prob is the show got more serious and more soap opera--which is prob the only direction it coulda gone in, but it got hard to juggle what made it so appealing early on.

[DRW50]

The irreverence was what made SATC great early on. It was never the same when everyone had to take themselves so seriously, especially Carrie. She went from being a screwed-up but fun person to this loser and oh how we were supposed to weep over how she would never let herself be happy, and oh wonderful, special Aidan and blah blah blah. It wasn't hard to see why in the later years some felt the show was anti-female.

[Sylph]

Well, I don't. The finale was kind of bad because of other things. And not because the friendships were "fake". Friendships weren't fake. But there's no point explaining when Carl made up his mind.

It made no sense for Carrie to fall for the Russian guy, the violence was just... WTF? Totally misplaced and deviated from the tone. And if you add her coming back to Big, than it's just one big mess. But the friendships were real, they were very real.

What you wrote just makes no sense. That did not happen.

It's like you're talking about a whole different show.

[JackPeyton]

WHAT? I think its one of the best parts. This is why...

Pacey always knew Dougie was gay. Sure he mocked him for it, but i also think he felt for him because their dad was a hard ass and Pacey knew this. Furthermore i think the main reason pacey stood up for Jack when he read his poem about being attracted to a boy is because he didnt want Jack to hate himself like Doug did.

Flashforward like 8-10 years and Jack is living in capeside as a teacher. Doug is still in the closet and they start a secret thing.

Add in them raising jens baby and Doug coming out, and it was amazing.

[EricMontreal22]

Hrmm I can kinda buy that. I never thought about it from the POV of Pacey's teasing actually being based on anything more than the fact that doug was fairly pretty and cared about his looks But, that makes some sense. I wasn't completely against the plot anyway--but thanks JP, yor POV actually does make sense to me.

Sylph, I think the friendships DID become a bit strained--the scenes with them felt arbitrary (though never as bad as in Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia where the scenes with all "the girls" int he few eps I saw really felt like they were shoved in there just to make it more SATC). But I definitely agree with you about the true problems with the finale--though I stand by my original statement about the tone and final "statement" of the show seeming to be at odds with what the show had always been about.

[Sylph]

I just don't see it.

That's what I said too: the tone shifted. The violence, Miranda coming back to Steve and living in Brooklyn... That made no sense.

The friendships did.

[EricMontreal22]

Well they felt strained But hey, we agree otherwise, so that's not bad

[Sylph]

Strained by what?

They have a huge history together, it just doesn't fall apart like that.