Underhated TV finales - What ending you were the only one dissapointed at?

[Mystery Spy]

Star vs. the Forces of Evil had a pretty weird ending with all the implied genocide.

That show really started falling apart the longer it went on. Plot elements were getting introduced one episode only to be resolved or completely abandoned the next.

Got way too caught up in shipping crap.

I think their main issue was that they obviously had no idea how to end the series and were making things up as they went along.

Fans often blame a lack of time or episodes, but this clearly wasn't the case. If there's one thing they had, it was time. The fourth and final season had a lot of filler that went nowhere and featured by far the weakest villain in the series, who at best should've been a lackey to a bigger one. While Season 3's ending was great; it's obvious they had already spent their best ideas. They should've planned things better.

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

I thought of two examples if that's okay.

Quantum Leap: Not only does Sam Beckett never make the Leap home, they couldn't even spell his name right while telling the audience this.

The Flash: So many characters were brought back, only to be wasted on such a shitty plot. For a show all about the Fastest Man Alive, not a single writer seemed to object to having the final fight take place in a cramped apartment where Flash and Cobalt Blue can barely run.

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

I thought of two examples if that's okay.

Quantum Leap: Not only does Sam Beckett never make the Leap home, they couldn't even spell his name right while telling the audience this.
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Oh god yes.. that pissed me off so much back in the day. Was young but a huge fan. Underrated series except for that and a few other little things.

 

[Cryborg 1987]

-The Sopranos, though I'm not sure if it's underhated. I just finished watching Game of Thrones and said to my wife "yeah, GOT's ending wasn't very good, but at least it had an ending".

-Star Trek: Enterprise is probably the worst I've ever seen. People don't hate it enough.

-Oz was stupid but I never thought it was a good show to begin with.

-Chuck was a thumbs down. It teetered on the verge of cancellation like three times before they ended it and the actual finale ended up being the worst.

-Now that I think of it Orphan Black was a bit of a letdown.

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

Oh god yes.. that pissed me off so much back in the day. Was young but a huge fan. Underrated series except for that and a few other little things.

I got into it a few years ago. I always loved the JFK episode and the story behind it.

 

[TheBallPit]

Regarding Quantum Leap, if Allison Pregler is to believed, there were plans for a season 6 and she has proof via negatives she bought off of eBay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3at8cylnJc

I have no clue about the veracity of her claims, but the photos look legit.

(Yes, I know Pregler is Obscurus Lupa from the old That Guy With the Glasses/Change the Channel days. I'm just relaying info.)

I suspect this is a common problem with shows "on the bubble", as it's practically impossible to produce a definitive end to a series AND leave things open for another season should the show be picked-up. You have to choose one or the other, otherwise you wind-up with finales that are really bizarre and nonsensical, like QL's.

WHUPPS. Nevermind the above link, here is a video of Pregler's with actual footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSEmfCjgTNM

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

All this time she's been built up as this antagonist foil with Reese's operative skills and Root's bullshit man machine meld and then she dies with zero fanfare or effort to Root who at the time was already chained up to a hospital bed.
I mean I was already sick of Root at that point but god damn you couldn't find any better way to write that character off?

And then they just left Root there. Like I get they had a deal, but this is exactly why the latter seasons were so bad. The almighty antagonist who just lets the heroes go isn't scary, leave this shit for Saturday morning cartoons.

Somehow they got Werner Herzog to make a sequel to Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant", and even fewer people asked for that.

What? No, it is not a sequel, it's not even a remake. It is just a movie about bad cop with the same name since they probably had the rights for it. I still laugh my ass off from Ferrero still losing his shit over this movie to the point of wishing death upon everyone involved while Herzog just replied "Never heard of him".

I was gonna say Last Resort but honestly the entire show was one long lost opportunity that threw away a perfectly good political thriller and wasted it. I half suspect Obama was involved in getting it fucked over but that might just be the A&Nigger in me seeing shit where there is nothing.

Holy shit, someone remembers this show? Yeah, I absolutely agree, the first episode was fucking thrilling. The rest was, well, from ok to just plain bad. It is understandable though.

Whedon firing Charisma Carpenter for being fat after having a baby was the first step in his eventual downfall

Whedon was apparently so, so mad with Charisma being pregnant that he absolutely destroyed his own show.

Wait, what? And he was still employed after that? Jesus Christ, people keep talking that it was much better before METOO, but this is just... She should've sued him for that.

The show got fucked over hard by a change of leadership at CBS. The original plan was for six seasons, which the production crew felt confident they were going to get since the show had good ratings and the top brass at CBS liked the show a lot. Then, towards the end of season four, the change in leadership at CBS happened and the new top brass weren't happy that the show's audience was mostly older demographics, so they only gave Person of Interest one more season. Then that season got shortened into a half season... and the retards at CBS *also* wanted there to still be stand-alone episodes, despite it being the final season.

Not sure if the end of season four, where Martine's death happens, got changed but I always suspected it did since they unceremoniously kill off a lot of supporting cast.

Hm, interesting. I get it, but to be fair, it was going downhill after season two, even before the Samaritan was introduced. I remember there were episodes where I was like "wtf, why is it even here?" Also, that FBI psychopathic chick was as good of a character as a plank of wood. "Oh look, she doesn't get that people have emotions! Even though she is a grown adult and somehow entered intelligence agency". Reese was so much better since he was a tragic character - a man, traumatized by the death of his father, who wanted to serve his country, but instead was used, abused and thrown away and who failed to save the only person he loved because of this decision. Or Finch, who for the same reason lost his friend and had to hide from the woman he loves. This chick? She is just not interesting. Honestly, I get why they wanted to wrap it up, I don't get why the last half season had fillers though. For all my hatred towards the war with Samaritan, it should've been the center of that season.

-The Sopranos, though I'm not sure if it's underhated. I just finished watching Game of Thrones and said to my wife "yeah, GOT's ending wasn't very good, but at least it had an ending".

I really don't get why people insist that others should hate the end of it. Not only it was foreshadowed throughout the season, the last few episodes are just the endless demonstration that everything is falling apart. Tony killed his right hand man, then lost almost everyone who were loyal, he is about to get jailed for life and even Malfie basically told him he can never change. The scene where he comes to demented Junior is the last nail - not only he has lost his future, he's lost his past. It is obvious that he got killed, the only question is who did it and the answer is basically "doesn't matter, since everyone hated him by this point". IMO it was crime bosses, since Tony had all the chances to get jailed and you know what they say "only the dead can't snitch".

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I suspect this is a common problem with shows "on the bubble", as it's practically impossible to produce a definitive end to a series AND leave things open for another season should the show be picked-up

Babylon 5 ran into that problem iirc
they expected to not get renewed for the planned fifth season so did a speedrun through the galaxy-level shit of season four and five, even the "and then a gorillion years later it's looked back on as legendary history! The End!"
and then they got picked up for season 5 by TNT

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

-Star Trek: Enterprise is probably the worst I've ever seen. People don't hate it enough.

^

Babylon 5 ran into that problem iirc
they expected to not get renewed for the planned fifth season so did a speedrun through the galaxy-level shit of season four and five, even the "and then a gorillion years later it's looked back on as legendary history! The End!"
and then they got picked up for season 5 by TNT

Ouch yeah, that's another one. That whole last season was so "what is this?" Anticlimactic and the ending was a huge oof.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

True Detective Season 1. Up until the last episodes it was a masterpiece. Then the ending ruins all the mysticism built up by revealing it was all human larpers rather than cthulu esque cult, and the final villain was a fat autist.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

-The Sopranos, though I'm not sure if it's underhated. I just finished watching Game of Thrones and said to my wife "yeah, GOT's ending wasn't very good, but at least it had an ending".

-Star Trek: Enterprise is probably the worst I've ever seen. People don't hate it enough.

-Oz was stupid but I never thought it was a good show to begin with.

-Chuck was a thumbs down. It teetered on the verge of cancellation like three times before they ended it and the actual finale ended up being the worst.

-Now that I think of it Orphan Black was a bit of a letdown.

The point of the Sopranos finale's ending was that it was the last perfect moment Tony would ever have, and his fate was sealed before that point.

You didn't need to see him get killed, it was inevitable, and could come from anywhere, at any time and NOT showing it made that last little bit of being a happy family for a minute sting way more than seeing Tony killed would have.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

The point of the Soprano's finale's ending was that it was the last perfect moment Tony would ever have, and his fate was sealed before that point.

You didn't need to see him get killed, it was inevitable, and could come from anywhere, at any time and NOT showing it made that last little bit of being a happy family for a minute sting way more than seeing Tony killed would have.

I liked the idea you do "see his death" from his own POV. He gets double tapped from behind, he dies before his brain even registers the sound of the bullet, the black void is his eternal damnation from his action. It makes the final moments of the show absolutely horrific.

 

[God of Nothing]

I liked the idea you do "see his death" from his own POV. He gets double tapped from behind, he dies before his brain even registers the sound of the bullet, the black void is his eternal damnation from his action. It makes the final moments of the show absolutely horrific.

That was originally the intended ending and not the up for itnerpretation shit. I mean, they even have Janice talk about it way beforehand and the whole thing with Silvio being next to a hit and not noticing someone was shot, only the blood that got on him.

 

[Irregardless]

The recent ending of "You" was utter shit. The entire last season was actually complete trash, but the ending specifically was just fucking retarded and likely happened because "We can't let the guy who seduces, uses, and murders women win in the end".
I don't wanna go over the entire plot, but the last season boils down to Joe becoming infatuated with another woman, for the 5th time, with this one being a literal ugly red haired feminist who is also like 10+ years younger than him, turns out shes part of some they/them tiktoker gayop to expose Joe as a killer, this basically fails and girl #5 learns that she loves Joe for real and doesn't think he's an evil murderer (Just a non-evil murderer) from there the previous woman #4, Joe's current wife, finds out and brings in all of the surviving women Joe either failed to kill or destroyed their lives/reputation, to team up and fuck Joe over, this obviously falls apart and as it's looking like Joe will get away girl #5 decides he's actually a bad guy and turns him in, though not before shooting him in the dick.
Joe goes to jail, and we're basically left with the conclusion that he didn't get away with it.

 

[LazyLizard]

The recent ending of "You" was utter shit. The entire last season was actually complete trash, but the ending specifically was just fucking retarded and likely happened because "We can't let the guy who seduces, uses, and murders women win in the end".
I don't wanna go over the entire plot, but the last season boils down to Joe becoming infatuated with another woman, for the 5th time, with this one being a literal ugly red haired feminist who is also like 10+ years younger than him, turns out shes part of some they/them tiktoker gayop to expose Joe as a killer, this basically fails and girl #5 learns that she loves Joe for real and doesn't think he's an evil murderer (Just a non-evil murderer) from there the previous woman #4, Joe's current wife, finds out and brings in all of the surviving women Joe either failed to kill or destroyed their lives/reputation, to team up and fuck Joe over, this obviously falls apart and as it's looking like Joe will get away girl #5 decides he's actually a bad guy and turns him in, though not before shooting him in the dick.
Joe goes to jail, and we're basically left with the conclusion that he didn't get away with it.

didn't he also get his dick shot off at the end? they really wanted that feminist power fantasy.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Wait, what? And he was still employed after that? Jesus Christ, people keep talking that it was much better before METOO, but this is just... She should've sued him for that.

Whedon was the original Male Feminist, a predator who wears a mask of staunch feminism to hide his abusive behavior. He was hailed for how good he was at writing strong female characters. He wrote tons of episodes that were basically feminist talking points (for example, every one of his series had a witch burning episode, including Firefly and Dollhouse). The man, like Neil Gaiman, was untouchable until he became culturally irrelevant.

 

[Cronarch]

The Man in the High Castle should've ended with season 2. It seems the writers and producers didn't expect the show to get greenlight for another two seasons and had to come up with something. Honestly it's kinda hard to believe that Amazon even allowed season 2 to happen. For those who don't know the show, season 2 portrays Hitler being sick as a bad thing and no one wants him to die. The portrayal of life under national socialism was surprisingly decent. It also includes one of the most epic nazi speeches ever put to screen. People being able to jump between 2 timelines was already weird and felt really out of place in the first two seasons but the show really jumped the shark when the Germans started to build portals to conquer the other timelines, as if they were in a Rick and Morty episode. Himmler going full Mao Zedong and destroying american culture made zero sense. Then they badly copied the plot of another show involving timelines and have John Smith trying to kidnap his own son from another timeline, ruining both characters at once. The final season ends with the Japanese just leaving after black commies blow up some stuff and the United States getting restored out of nowhere with neither the Japanese or the Germans trying to get it back.

Sorry for replying to such an old post, but I just found this thread and have to vent about the Man in the High Castle.

I'm an autist who loves alt history scenarios, so I was really hopeful for the show (despite knowing the current socio-political climate we live in). Season 1 was great and then every season after had almost nothing happen in it, so that somehow despite nothing happening for two and half whole seasons, the final episodes still felt rushed with a lot of plotlines ending unceremoneously or just completely forgotten about.

I still naively hold out hope that one day I'll get a good alt history piece of media outside of video games, but with how uncreative and risk-averse people are now it'll never happen.

 

[Captain Syrup]

How I Met Your Mother was so bad they released an alternate version where the mother lived on the DVD.

So they torpedoed Robin and Barney just so she would run back to Ted?

Cool, cool. "She doesn’t want kids, he absolutely does” was just a minor footnote. Am I missing something? Or did they just want their own bargain-bin Ross and Rachel?

The Mentalist, after 5 and a half seasons of hunting Red John, he's finally revealed and defeated and it just keeps going for another season with a mostly new crew and it tries to get you hyped for new villains but nothing measures up to Red John, it just goes out with a whimper not a bang. it should have ended with Jane killing Red John but instead the execs thought they could keep milking the series, turns out no they couldn't

The Red John reveal never sat right with me. Mostly because it was the same twist as Profiler—the killer’s just a random small-town sheriff, first time played by Dennis Christopher. If you’re going to recycle a plot twist, maybe don’t steal one that wasn’t great to begin with.

Battlestar Galactica was another one with a dogshit ending

Having devoured 11 seasons of these damned things—all of DS9 and most of Battlestar Galactica too—I always came away baffled by the clunky, half-baked religious allegories. Then I found out Ron Moore’s Catholic. Suddenly, everything made unfortunate sense.

It's not the actual finale, but the finale of Babylon 5 Season 4, which was supposed to be the series finale before they got S5 greenlit, was embarrassingly bad.

Hope no one minds me barging in to talk about Babylon 5, because honestly, I don’t get many chances. First, the disclaimer: I liked the show overall, but it often tried way too hard to be clever with all the time-travel nonsense and flash-forwards that felt like they were just jerking off.

Season 4 was supposed to be stretched over two seasons, but when cancellation loomed, they crammed everything in like it was the last shuttle off Earth. Result? Sheridan sees the Centauri war in the future… then acts completely shocked when it actually happens. Because acknowledging that time travel ep would've made season 5 completely pointless. So they just ignored it.

Londo and G'kar had reached their apex, and by season five, the show was scraping the barrel, desperately trying to repackage their blood-feud as an odd couple comedy. Yes, the chemistry was undeniable, but after everything that happened, the most they could ever credibly offer each other was a curt nod. Friendship? Never. Not in this life or the next.

And then there’s the Telepath War, which exists solely to hype a spin-off that never happened or to sell some tie-in novels no one read. It added nothing and went nowhere.

That said, it's not the disaster people claim. There were some great performances in season 5. Especially the ghostly cameos in "Day of the Dead."

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

genuinely shocked Fox hasn't convinced them to bring it back, although i'm also shocked Stephen Fry never did a guest role as some idiotic fop.

Like you can easily make a revival season "House is finally free from prison/granted parole because of a medical emergency and is now under house arrest with X. He has delusions of his old dead buddy, who he talks to instead of bouncing shit off of other medical personnel" you can determine who to bring back from the old cast but overall its house being house, maybe you have some bit about him being in prison so long and needing to get caught up to speed on stuff or all the doctors are now of a new gen and he's the old school dude who doesn't need to ask a computer or AI to figure out a diagnosis.

House could be revived fairly easily.

Wilson is dead, House is a bitter old drunk with no reason to keep going other than the refusal to die. He's in a bar, drinking away like the old washed-up detectives of film noir crime films. Someone falls ill, a barfly calls for a doctor. House gets up and walks out, it's none of his business. When he returns to the bar the next day, he hears the barfly say he saved the guys life, despite the guy who fell ill still being in hospital with "nobody can figure out what's up with him".
Curiosity gets the best of House because the guy who fell ill is called James Wilson. The episode is all about House fighting against his past, refusing to solve puzzles, but this stranger called James Wilson plays on his mind.
Symbology and flashbacks from his dead friend force him to sneak in to the hospital, solve the puzzle, discreetly, saving the mans life.

Maybe make the pilot/Season 9 1st episode a two-parter with religious symbology plaguing House. By the end of the season he accepts he knows everything about medicine, but nothing about the after life.

Or, go the full "Due South" route where Benton can see his dead father, or Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) where Wilson helps him solve the puzzles while convincing House there is an afterlife.

They could do a lot with the show if they weren't fucking retarded.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I gave up on House when the cop with the lollipop came after him, what a shit season that was. I just read a summary of the final episode and holy shit.

Watching House in real time was a trip, man. Somehow, the show got more popular as it got worse.

My take is that House was the last kiss-off to the emo era which died around 2012. The show’s lead was a brat with superpowers, which hit the same nerve as all those other disaffected quirky shows back then.

Whedon firing Charisma Carpenter for being fat after having a baby was the first step in his eventual downfall.

Charisma is a weird case. She apparently brought her acting coach to set for YEARS, which, sure—she didn’t have experience, unless you count Baywatch and something called a “leasing agent.”

But after five or six seasons, you’d think she could deliver a line like “I'm the dip” without needing a scene study.

Apparently not. Joss likely had a spreadsheet of reasons to fire her.

She had a specific energy Buffy and Angel needed. Joss always struck me as network television’s answer to Paul E. Dangerously: casting people who had no business acting and taking huge gambles. That’s probably how Charisma got the part in the first place.