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Endings are difficult. No, that’s not true. Endings are really difficult, and one of the hardest things to end is a good TV series.
After all, viewers have sometimes put years of their lives into watching a show, and if you don’t stick the landing, then people are going to feel like they wasted their time.
Just look at what happened to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the men behind the Game of Thrones show.
They went from two of the most beloved figures in entertainment to personas non grata after they failed to deliver a satisfying conclusion to Jon Snow and Daenerys’ story.
Yet, not everyone falls at the final hurdle. In fact, plenty of shows end on a high note. So, as it’s the anniversary of Breaking Bad’s grand finale this week (September 29), the Metro TV team thought we’d take a look back on the best endings in TV history.
Don’t agree with us? Send an email, but we think these are the best TV finales of all time
Breaking Bad
Our Deputy TV editor, Tom Percival, thinks Walter White’s final send-off is pretty special…
Widely considered one of the best TV shows ever made, Breaking Bad saw the mild-mannered Walter White transform into the heinous Heisenberg as he sank deeper and deeper into Albuquerque’s criminal underworld.
In the end, it all came crumbling down around Walt as his double life was exposed, and he lost his family and fortune. Yet what I love about Breaking Bad’s finale is that in the final episode, we see the true synthesis of Walter’s two personas.
With nothing left to live for, the barriers between the nebbish Mr White and the narcissistic Heisenberg come down, and the true Walt is born. He’s a ruthless but confident genius entirely dedicated to undoing his biggest mistakes.
Honestly, endings don’t come more thrilling than this. It’s brilliantly cathartic to see Walt get revenge on those who wronged him, save his family, and sacrifice himself for Jesse in a hail of gunfire.
I know some people say it’s unrealistic, but Breaking Bad more than earned its dramatic and explosive finale..
Lost
Freelance TV writer Rob Oliver, meanwhile, has his own thoughts…
For its very final statement, Lost proudly wore sentimentality and spirituality on its sleeve, and bravely argued that not only is there a place after death, but that we make that place ourselves by loving the people we love. These broken characters fixed each other over the course of the show.
Writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse also suggested with the finale that, whether it’s a benevolent god, an unknown entity, or a man-made energy, a greater force connects us to those we love. And it saves this argument for the very end.
What other TV show was brave enough to save its big philosophical mission statement for last? What other TV show still had something so valuable to say after almost 100 hours?
Lost’s finale stands above all others because it shoots for something incomprehensibly huge and sticks the landing. It successfully presents a worthy explanation of the meaning of life, arguing that it’s to make peace with your own death
Friends
TV Editor Sabrina Barr prefers a group who are always there for you…
I can’t remember a time when Friends wasn’t in my life. That might partially be down to the fact that I was only a month old when the first episode was released in 1994, but as soon as I was old enough to watch it with my parents, I was hooked.
I might have been too young to understand a lot of what went on throughout its 10-season run, but from an early age, Chandler, Phoebe, Joey, Rachel, Ross and Monica became my friends for life too.
To this day, the sitcom is still my ultimate comfort watch. You could quote any line, show me any still, and I could tell you instantly what episode it was from.
I remember watching the final ever episode of Friends with amazing clarity. I was 10 years old, sitting on the sofa with my parents as Rachel declared to Ross: ‘I got off the plane.’ We might have been in our lounge at home, but I could almost hear the collective gasps that resounded around the world.
Friends wasn’t just any old sitcom. It touched the hearts of billions around the world, and it couldn’t have delivered a more satisfying ending, both for storytelling purposes and to make fans happy.
Rachel and Ross are back together. Monica and Chandler are parents to twins, and Phoebe and Mike want to start a family of their own. Joey is struggling with everyone moving on, but remains an anchor for the gang. Everything is changing, and yet, everything is still exactly the same as it always was, because their friendship is at the heart of it all.
Succession
TV reporter Milo Pope wants to get straight to business…
It’s a tale as old as time. You sit down to start a new series. It presents a fascinating set of characters, played by an extremely talented cast, but… it completely messes up the ending.
For Jesse Armstrong’s Succession, which did all of the above, thankfully, its series finale managed to leave a sweet taste in viewers’ mouths.
Impeccably shot and written, every character’s story arc manages to come to a complete conclusion amidst the most high-pressure stakes imaginable.
But right at the end, it still sucker punches you with a truly shocking and unexpected ending. Truly magnificent
The Sopranos
Senior TV reporter Rebecca Cook wants to make you an offer you can’t refuse…
When it comes to The Sopranos, a clear pick for the Mount Rushmore of great TV, it isn’t so much about the show’s finale episode as the final scene.
Set in a diner to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ (perhaps the most unlikely song choice Tony Soprano could make), James Gandolfini’s indelible mob boss watches his family arrive for a low-key dinner. Outside, Meadow can’t master parallel parking. Inside, there’s a shifty bloke looking at Tony from the bar.
There’s so much promise in the rousing Journey track and AJ telling his dad to ‘focus on the good times’. Yet, everything suddenly cuts to black in an ending more haunting than if we had seen what many believe happened next.
Did you think your TV was broken? Was the ending a cop-out? The fact we’re still talking about it nearly two decades later is a testament to its brilliance. So, did the shifty bloke whack Tony? Well, if you were to make me choose once and for all, I’d say – cut to black
Scrubs
Deputy TV editor Tom again, with a second pick that he demanded be included on the list…
Scrubs may not be an obvious contender for a list like this, but I stand by the fact that it’s the best ending to a sitcom ever. Set on JD’s final day at Sacred Heart, the episode ends with the young doctor finally getting the validation he’s always sought from his mentor, Doctor Cox.
As he heads out the door for the last time, we’re treated to a montage of the future showing JD finally marrying Elliott, staying close to Carla and Turk, and their kids falling in love.
Is it blatant fan service? Yes. But it’s also packed with great jokes (JD collapsing when he realises he’s actually going to be actally related to Turk) and moving moments as well.
For a show like this, which walked the fine line between hilarity and poignancy, I can’t think of a better way to see off the hard-working doctors and nurses at Sacred Heart hospital… let’s just pretend that ninth season never happened.
Six Feet Under
Tom again. Now you’re just being greedy…
Most people hate when a show kills off its cast in the final episode, but there was no other way for a show set in a mortuary to end. Indeed, it’s the final montage at the end of the show’s sixth series that people remember best about Six Feet Under these days.
If you’ve never seen it, the show ends with a time-skip montage where we see how all the characters we’ve been following for six years die. Some pass away peacefully with their loved ones around them, others are taken far too soon, and some are violently snatched away from their families.
The only thing these deaths have in common? Well, they all serve to remind us of that horrible universal truth. We all die eventually.
And while you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s a horrible way to end a TV show, it’s also a powerful reminder of one of Six Feet Under’s key themes. The idea that you only get one life and you don’t know how long or short it will be, so you’d best live a good one.
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