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Worst Television Series Finales of All Time?


VirginiaHamilton

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Nowadays, that's exactly how the series would end. Florida and Willona hug, James bursts through the door, he hollers, Florida "snaps out of it" and realizes the past several years have been nothing more than a daydream. And there's J.J., sitting at the kitchen table, giving "Thalma" hell for her oatmeal.

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For me bad series finales also involve TPTB being angry or furious about being canceled, and prioritizing that over the fans.

I already said this but I was enraged over the season 5 finale of St. Elsewhere, when Tom Fontana and John Masius were just about 100% sure the show was canceled. They gave Auschlander dementia and had him trapped in the hospital as it was blown up for demolition by the city.

I didn't even like Aushclander very much, but he was a touchstone for viewers, so to treat him that way and the hospital that way, out of spite, truly hurt me as a fan.

The final season was not perfect, or even close, but it had far more heart and less bitterness and less callous "humor" than most of that fifth season. I'm glad that Fontana and Masius had moved to other projects for most of that last season.

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I recall Will & Grace ended with them reconnecting after 20 years (!!!) apart. Which is insane and I can't imagine any fan of the show was happy with it.

I didn't absolutely hate the finale of Desperate Housewives but the idea that all of them moved off the street depressed me. And Bree became a congresswoman? I'm sorry but no, that is not who she is at all. And she married a guy that we met 3 episodes before the end and that she barely knew? Come on!

And the stupid visual of every dead person ever standing on the street in white while Susan drove away to her uncertain future (after spending the last part of the season mourning her dead husband) should have been scrapped as soon as they knew Nicolette Sheridan was never coming back.

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Oh, Lord. Didn't DYNASTY attempt to pick up that thread the next season with Fallon attending "UFO Survivor" group therapy sessions? I seriously doubt there was any way to resolve that particular storyline without the whole thing delving into "X-Files" territory.

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Funny you brought it up, because earlier I was on the brink of saying that sometimes series which lost all their steam and appeal during later seasons manage to come up with THE most fitting and perfect series finales. Marc Cherry was back for the finale and so was the darker tone and satyre of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: The women moved away and overcame suburbia, next to Mary-Alice we had all (well - besides Edie, booo!) the other dead looming over Wysteria Lane and waving them goodbye.

This was closure - and very well done. Not my favorite finale ever but still very good.

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