As the world waits for the Lost final tonight (and I hear many countries are airing it live at the same time as the West Coast broadcast), I'm filled with a mixture of excitement and disappointment, because most TV finales always leave me wanting. Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, Star Trek.TNG, Quantum Leap - none of them really captured "The End" as I wanted to see it.
In fact the only TV finale I think I ever watched that gave me a supreme sense of satisfaction was that of the BBC's version of The Office (and anyone who saw that will know what I mean).
So - what, in your opinion, are the better final episodes from TV history?
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It's controversial, but I subscribe to the camp that thinks "The Sopranos" went out on the right note.
It is the finales of the BBC's "The Office" and "Extras." They were perfect.
The Wire went out with a bang. The X Files went out with a whimper. A 2 year long whimper actually.
Never got into Lost. Saw some explanatory show last night. I watched a bit of it. The plane wreck gang is hanging out on a beach at night and a smoke monster is bustling about in the woods, making some disturbing noise. The text under the screen said something to the effect that the smoke monster was once a man who was put into smoke form by his brother Jacob.
That sounds pretty cool actually. Maybe I'll check out the DVD's sometime.
Enjoy the show Scara.
M*A*S*H
They got it right.
6ft Under ended cool.
Still annoyed we never got a true Deadwood finale
For those who remember it -- the finale of St. Elsewhere was magical!
The thing is that no matter how good the writing is the ending will taste bad for some fans while other love it. Then of course there are the series that are top notch all the way BUT the very last episode fucks it up like Battlestar Galactica (reimagined series) To me the best series in many years but ended with crap.
M*A*S*H and St. Elsewhere have already been mentioned, so I will throw in Newhart.
http://poobala.com/bobandnewhart.html
The Shield had a spectacular finale. Probably my favorite finale. I can't imagine it ending any other way.
Angel had a fitting finale as well, even if the narrative over the last couple episodes was rushed to provide a fitting finale. The last shot of that episode perfectly represented what Angel was all about.