I hate series finales. If I like a show, I don't want it to end. And watching what I know will be the Very.Last. Episode of a show I've enjoyed watching, maybe for years, just plain makes me sad and annoyed. Just like getting to the end of a really good book.
Plus, series finales usually suck.
Sometimes they run to self-indulgent, even fourth wall-flirting sloppy pieces of sad crap, sometimes both cast and writers get carried away with their own emotional flotsam and faux Spielberg the thing to death, a sleazy technique that, even if it "succeeds" in making me cry, I resent that it's making my cry even as I reach for the Kleenex, and in between sniffles, mutter choked curses at the asshats who did this to me.
Maybe all that sadness and sentimentality cause me to block the damn things out, because usually, no matter how rich and detailed my memories of the show itself - I don't remember a thing about specific Final Episodes!
Of course, sometimes the finale can become even more famous than the show - I never watched a single episode of The Sopranos, but of course I know about the finale - it was a lead story on the US National news the next day, and was talked about all over the world for weeks - and all they did was nothing. Literally. (In case you have been living under that proverbial rock for the last couple of decades, they ran most of an episode, blah blah - then just went to a black screen).
There is, however, one exception - Six Feet Under.
THAT series finale was so good that even if you haven't seen the show, and have no interest in seeing it, you should still watch the last episode. It won't matter that you don't "know" the characters, or anything that went on before. The finale stands on its own two feet. It really is that good.
In fact, it was so memorable, so exactly what and how a series finale (if the show really must end) should be, that I think the same treatment, the same formula, should be mandatory for every TV series that has a finale. (Most of them just get cancelled without notice, so they don't really get much of a chance to do one at all).
So what Series Finale do YOU think was the best? The worst?
Plus, series finales usually suck.
Sometimes they run to self-indulgent, even fourth wall-flirting sloppy pieces of sad crap, sometimes both cast and writers get carried away with their own emotional flotsam and faux Spielberg the thing to death, a sleazy technique that, even if it "succeeds" in making me cry, I resent that it's making my cry even as I reach for the Kleenex, and in between sniffles, mutter choked curses at the asshats who did this to me.
Maybe all that sadness and sentimentality cause me to block the damn things out, because usually, no matter how rich and detailed my memories of the show itself - I don't remember a thing about specific Final Episodes!
Of course, sometimes the finale can become even more famous than the show - I never watched a single episode of The Sopranos, but of course I know about the finale - it was a lead story on the US National news the next day, and was talked about all over the world for weeks - and all they did was nothing. Literally. (In case you have been living under that proverbial rock for the last couple of decades, they ran most of an episode, blah blah - then just went to a black screen).
There is, however, one exception - Six Feet Under.
THAT series finale was so good that even if you haven't seen the show, and have no interest in seeing it, you should still watch the last episode. It won't matter that you don't "know" the characters, or anything that went on before. The finale stands on its own two feet. It really is that good.
In fact, it was so memorable, so exactly what and how a series finale (if the show really must end) should be, that I think the same treatment, the same formula, should be mandatory for every TV series that has a finale. (Most of them just get cancelled without notice, so they don't really get much of a chance to do one at all).
So what Series Finale do YOU think was the best? The worst?
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