Sometimes a really great story just doesn't get a chance to conclude on TV, and there's nothing anyone can do about it but wonder what might have happened. For me it's Stargate Atlantis. The showrunners had plotted out a final season, and when that didn't happen they wrote a movie which was cancelled also. Years later I still sometimes hope they'll announce some sort of final movie or miniseries but I know the ship has probably sailed at this point. What other shows do people still want closure for?
Freaks and Geeks goddammit. Is four seasons an unreasonable request? I'm the kind of nerd who listens to DVD commentary and what they had planned is full of unrealized potential. The actor who played Sam had a growth spurt while they were waiting to find out if they were cancelled so they were gonna put him on the basketball team, driving a wedge between him and the other geek. Daniel was going to start hanging out with the geeks because he liked playing D&D with them but he was going to remain mostly with his clique. Lindsey was going to become more of a stoner after her time following the Dead, start dating Daniel and that wouldn't have gone over well with Kim and Nick. At least Judd Apatow had the last laugh being a comedy writing and producing golden boy now. And Paul Feig is directing the new Ghostbusters. Pretty much everyone went on to have a career afterwards. But that last episode is heartbreaking, not just because that was the nature of the show, because you'll never see those characters again.
It's still worth it. The ending is ambiguous but they knew they were on thin ice when NBC started jerking the schedule and episode order around so it's somewhat satisfying. Like how Futurama has four series finales or whatever because they never knew if they'd get renewed. Except they did and Freaks & Geeks didn't. Maybe it's my high school experience but the characters are so real and well devolped given their short time. Not watching Freaks and Geeks for the reason you said is like not dating so you won't get hurt. It's gonna hurt but you're going to have a great time in the interim.
Very good point. Also, I completely agree the main things I love about Freaks and Geeks is that it's hilarious and that it's incredibly relateable. I feel like at different moments I relate to almost every character at least once at some point just in the first season
I would say Firefly, but thankfully we got the movie that tied up loose ends satisfactorily. "I am a leaf on the wind..." Elsewise, I make it a rule to never get invested in a show that's currently airing. I've been burned by haphazard series' cancellations too many times before. Lost. I don't accept the finale that was aired, so thus, it never properly ended for me. I would have loved to've seen more seasons of Terminator: TSSC.
Yeah I started adopting a similar rule. I was going to watch Constantine but I'm kind of glad I waited because it's not going to get a chance to end. Yeah Firefly was such a promising universe. They did a sequel comic series to the movie last year called Leaves on the Wind but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I dunno if the vibe would be the same without Wash.
I was disgusted with the ending of LOST for a long time. I still don't like it, but I understand why it's some people accept it. The ending was not a good ending to the story, it was a good ending to a TV show. Those who were in it for purely for the TV show-ness of it loved the ending I find. Those who were in it for the story hated the ending. The key difference being an emphasis on either characters as just a fun thing to interact with versus characters in an overarching story.
No mention yet of Seinfeld, the best show with the worst ending ever?
Seriously, a "best of" kind of ending. So terrible. I really hope it was just some terrible joke on the viewers. It was the funniest show of all time (in my opinion), and then the ending is just a gimmick of all the characters coming back and clips? Total let down.
Yeah, it was weak. Did you see the "reunion" on the Larry David show? I though that was way funnier than the actual finale.
Intelligence, the US TV series. Not the best series overall, granted, but the premise has been very interesting, the characters - on their way to the third dimension (with quite a bit of potential for each of them), and the stories - uniquely diverse without seeming like a kitchen sink. The series features a proper, non-bland male role model for a main character, which is extremely rare these days. The storylines may have been pushed (fake killing of Shen Cassidy, outing one of the Six Tigers), but the writers managed to maintain interest to the series through the last episodes.
Alphas. I binge watched all (there is) of it on Netflix and was left with a cliffhanger ending fit for a mid-season finale.
Considering how massive the cliffhanger was - and how badly the second season went overall - I believe the series is best where it is. Alphas had a very good premise, good potential and even good ideas from the second season (like Dr. Rosen's imprisonment and his reaction to the issue), but it lost quite a bit as it went on. Both cliffhangers are magnificent, but not much more is remarkable about the series.
Honestly, Stargate Atlantis didn't end too badly. It's now on Earth and Earth is a force to be reckoned with finally (SGC's original goal was to acquire new alien technology, and now they have a whole alien city that is cloaked in SF bay). They really just need a new series that merges SG-1 and Atlantis, but I'm guessing most of the actors are a bit too old now (hence, the mess that was Universe, but I still enjoyed it despite its teenage love-triangle bullshit). The two that I wish had endings were: Dollhouse, which got really amazing right at the end but never really finished (a Joss Whedon production, check it out!). The second one was that they tried to remake that old 70s show called Battlestar Galactica in 2003. They had a 2 episode miniseries that rocked and then they didn't get picked up for a TV show unfortunately. It could have been amazing.
It had a sort of ending but they left too many plot points up in the air, and it was a rushed conclusion since they thought they had more time. The movie, Extinction, was going to be basically Atlantis going back to Pegasus and had some sort of plot involving ending the Wraith for good. It just felt like there was so much more they could have done. There's a series of post Atlantis novels that are still being released, but I haven't made the jump yet to reading EU stuff for any franchises really. It's on my to do list though. Haha I'm guessing that you didn't like the end of BSG. I didn't mind it, but I did think ghost Starbuck made no sense.
Ghost Starbuck made no sense. Them sending their ships into the sun made no sense (now they are less likely to survive). The fact that they found a planet that has the same constellations as our Earth light-years away from our Earth was the thing that got me. If the constellations were to be the perfect guide for them to find their Earth (I imagine they could be relatively similar for some planets) means that if there was one planet that was light-years away with the same constellations as our Earth, then their little quest to find this map to the real Earth would have been pointless because they would have known it wouldn't narrow down a planet like an address. The only thing that made sense was Cavill committing suicide, and that was improvised on set. For a show that entirely existed as "just wait! we have answers at the end!", the end was awful. I got tricked by Alias and BSG, but thankfully I stopped watching Lost after one season because I saw that it was going to be the same thing as Alias. I will never watch a show again that is "just wait! we have an end that will blow your socks off!".
I'm probably going to be the only person here that posts this, but The Paradise. I became way too involved in the lives of the main characters. I'm not even a huge fan of department stores, so I was frankly shocked that I watched it all the way through. This is what happens when you become addicted to Netflix.
Better Off Ted. Not to say they really needed an ending, but I would have liked them to tie things up with everyone.
Black Books! My favorite sitcom (despite only having 3 seasons) and suddenly it just stopped, no conclusion or anything. I want to know what happened to Bernard, Manny and Fran!
After years of smoking and drinking, you do sometimes look at yourself and think...you know, just sometimes, in between the first cigarette with coffee in the morning to that 400th glass of corner shop piss at 3am. You do sometimes look at yourself and think...This is fantastic. I'm in heaven.
How to make it in America! I really liked the way it was filmed and the storyline, but it took too long between episodes and I guess that s why people never really got into it :( I was double pissed when he theme song became a "hit" like, 2 years after the show was cancelled or something.
Pushang Daisies. I swear Bryan Fuller never gets a chance at parties to finish his stories.
Due South was cancelled in the UK not long after Vecchio went undercover. I know it was terrible, cheesy crap but I loved it. I still hunger for justice for Fraser's father.
Well. The fact that Deadwood doesn't have an ending has kept me from being willing to give it my time and attention. I've heard it's a great show, but I don't really want to get invested in something that won't satisfy me. It's unfortunate.
Each season of Deadwood is a bit of a self contained story. Deadwood will completely satisfy you, maybe. The only thing you'll want more of though is the show. It did feel like there were still stories to tell but I highly recommend that you give it a chance.
Terra Nova, definitely. They left it on a huge cliff hanger, but I can understand that people could be dissapointed that it didn't focus on dinosaurs.
Carnivale. It was a show that was mostly build-up to something pretty epic before it got cancelled. Real Humans is also wonderful, some of the best writing I've ever seen, and hasn't been renewed and is in some kind of limbo.
The Borgias (Showtime). Really would have liked to see Cesare Borgia in power, I was infatuated with his character and his actual real life counterpart for a while during this show, even if the (likely false) rumors about the family were portrayed as fact. It was such an addicting show.
I forget where I read it but supposedly the end of My Name is Earl was going to be Earl realizing he could never finish his list, but his goal had inspired other people to make their own lists. So he walks off into the sunset finally having put out more good karma into the world than bad.
That show had a decent thing going, and I was really disappointed how short it ran.Earth 2
Bad Judge. I would have like to see the judge and the baliff become a coup,es
The fate of Terriers was up in the air when they wrote the finale, and I believe the show had a lot more left in the tank. But at the same time I'm grateful they managed to handle it as gracefully as they did -- the ending didn't leave me feeling unsatisfied personally, even though it could have easily been continued. Still, it deserved so much more than a single season!
Better off ted. I should really re-watch that show, I hardly remember it but I know that it just ended, so sad. I also enjoyed Flashforward, it was cancelled for good reason I guess, but I liked it and it ended on such a cliff hanger for the next season.
Kyle XY ended on the dumbest cliffhanger I've ever seen in my life. So if you haven't seen it/or want to see it, keep that in mind. It's a great show and I loved watching it every week, but they KNEW that was their last season and they ended it sooo terribly. Not that I'm bitter...
Oh ye gods, yes. I'd forgotten about Kyle XY. The bad handling of that was painful. Matt Dallas and Jaime Alexander were way too hot together to end with a game-changing cliffhanger that then petered into nothing, inducing feelings of abandonment and WTF-ness from its previously loyal, excited viewers.