Best and worst series finales

What series do you think had the best and what series do you think had the worst finale?

For the record shows series finales are ones that were planed to be the last episode and not a season finale that ended on a cliffhanger and was canceled.
Also movies that wrap up the series counts.

Nothing that super-amazed me is coming to mind for the best. But my vote for worst has to go to Battlestar Galactica. Without spoiling anything (we probably ought to be careful of that on this topic, huh?), I'll say there was a wonderful, tear-jerking payoff for the relationship developed between two long-standing characters of the series.

But that doesn't make up for the bad taste left in my mouth by the glaringly unanswered questions handled with the frustrating post-modern sensibility that says "it's more profound and interesting when it doesn't make any sense".

I kid you not, I have watched the whole series through MAYBE 3 times total, including the original airing. And it would be watched SOOOO much more if I didn't always see that terrible finale looming ahead of me. In fact the finale is what, in the end, keeps the show from being number two on my list of best TV shows, instead of being tied with Farscape. (Cuz, y'know, NOTHING beats Farscape...)

Smallville's finale was pretty awful. I'll spoil the big reveal...Clark and Lois get together! We literally never see Clark in the Superman outfit, the only thing he does while in it is to push a planet out of orbit, and we only see the planet move while exciting music plays. The first half of this epic finale is all about Clark not showing up to his own wedding (Lifetime presents Smallville, apparently) and the vaunted fight with the big bad (his identity I will keep secret) consists of literally one move.
The lame, repetitive fights of "Man of Steel" were better than this!
I've liked far more shows' finales than not, though. I think "Deep Space Nine", "The Next Generation" and "Voyager" all had pretty good ends for Trek. The Original Series didn't really have a finale, so I don't hold that its last episode was also one of its worst as a slight in this vein. "Enterprise" had an abysmal finale, but it was set seven years after the preceding episode, was made by the idiots who botched the first two seasons of the show, and was actually more about the cast of "The Next Generation" than "Enterprise". I personally consider the 2-parter that preceded it the true finale, and it was one of the series' highest watermarks, in my opinion.

If I had to pick my top 3 of the best and worst planned series finales...
Are we talking just geek shows? Or all of television? Grrr.....

Best
Babylon 5 - neatly wrapped up the whole thing, as planned from the beginning
Warehouse 13 - a wonderful and moving denouement that touches every character and reminds us that our favorite stories never really end
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - a hero's journey and hell on earth

Honorable Mention
Newhart - !!!!
Family Ties - hit home, closing a chapter in the lives of characters I identified with
Psych - "It's technically stolen."
Monk - because people can be better if they choose to be

Worst
Lost - hated the show's lack of structure, despised the gimmick ending
Battlestar Galactica - same review
X-Files - I love the X-Files. But the final season seemed to go out of its way to not only give each character the worst possible ending, but to intentionally confuse the mythology.

Honorable Mention
Seinfeld - like the show, nihilism in action
Angel - lazy writing, meaningless character deaths, spoiled an awesome season
Burn Notice - same review, with the added nonsense that they've been doing this stuff successfully since episode 1

Y'know, this might be bending the rules a bit, but I kinda want to nominate Farscape for worst finale. (Don't worry, no spoilers)

I don't mean the mini-series. The last ep of season 4 ended on the worst possible cliffhanger a person can imagine. Seriously.

Yes, the cancellation was a surprise to them...during shooting. But they had plenty of time to choose to give us a happy ending in the editing room.

I waited two years... TWO YEARS... before I got any resolution. And for almost half of that time I didn't think there WOULD be any.

As much as I love Farscape, I was very mad with the Henson guys and the network for not cutting that ending differently.

I hated it and by the time I was watching the show the TV movie finale already existed. Again, avoiding spoilers, but something very bad and completely random happens in the last few minutes that they simply could have excised. It wasn't an event they had set up or anything, it was just...bad stuff suddenly happens. No need to, as far as they knew, end it that way.
That being said, the true finale did rock!

Nothing major is coming to mind and this is probably not the best finale, but even though I had my problems with the last two seasons of Being Human I enjoyed the conclusions of the series. The reason I say conclusions plural is that it ended one way and then when they released the DVDs there was a bonus scene that dramatically changed something in the story and I really liked them both.


I'm talking about the BBC version of Being Human by the way.

Lost still really makes me annoyed with how that show ended. Fantastic, thrilling ride that had me hooked throughout. But then when it got down to the last four episodes, I thought to myself, "There's no way they're going to tie everything up with only four episodes left!" And I was right. Very disappointing, as there was so much story and build up concerning the island and all these characters lives. Could I recommend to others that they watch this series? I'm not sure. Like I said, some fantastic story telling in there, but it was like that old joke about how mad fans would have been if Star Trek the Next Generation would have ended with Riker waking up in the real world only to realize it had all been a dream...

Speaking of Star Trek: TNG, yeah - All Good Things was a very satisfying ending for me. But since there were more TNG movies, I guess it really didn't end I suppose. Although, Nemesis was NOT a good movie send off for The Next Generation Crew. I still wish there could be a proper movie ending for TNG.

Babylon 5 had a good ending, but then it continued with Crusade. And Crusade was cancelled, so I guess it didn't have such a good ending after all. But if you liked Bab 5, I'd recommend checking out Crusade too. I liked it.

Psych - enjoyed this show. Fun ride throughout with a lot of geeky references and such, and a pretty decent ending too, which left me happy. If you haven't checked out Psych, this show comes highly recommended. Perfect for a lot of people in the 30-40 age bracket, or those who wish they would have grown up in the '80s and '90s.