Why do most series end in a rubbish way?

Aeleys

Aeleys

Aeleys

Soldato
Joined
25 Aug 2010
Posts
5,216
Apart from the ending to the new BSG, I've always been left disappointed by most series at either not leaving it in a good way, or seeming to just stop dead with no 'ending'

Is it just due to them not caring anymore because they know it's the end, no budget etc?

Really annoying.
 
Aeleys said:
Apart from the ending to the new BSG, I've always been left disappointed by most series at either not leaving it in a good way, or seeming to just stop dead with no 'ending'

Is it just due to them not caring anymore because they know it's the end, no budget etc?

Really annoying.
Click to expand...

Most series don't get to end in the normal sense, they get cancelled. When this happens, most of the time, it just ends at the end of the last season that was produced. A good example of this is something like Flash Forward.
Sometimes, the makers are lucky enough to be told this while still making the last season, so can rewrite the last few episodes to make some sort of finale (like Stargate Universe did).
Sometimes you get the odd series where they don't even get to show what they have already produced, but this normally only happens when the show is so poor, most people haven't even got into it (like Zero Hour which lasted two episodes before getting pulled).

It is very rare for a series these days to actually last to a predetermined conclusion, but it does happen sometimes. Unfortunately sometimes series don't work right even when it does happen [COUGH] LOST [/COUGH] ;):p
 
Yeah came in to say that BSG ended very well for a TV series. Most don't plan ahead to finish properly.

BSG was always going to be 4 series, no matter how popular and now matter how much the suits wanted more. Hence the movies and specials after which can be ignored.
 
And yet countless people moaned about the BSG ending...

Not me, for the record, I thought it was brilliant. I cried and everything.
 
It's just really annoying watching many hours of something for it to just be meaningless...

I just got done watching The shield and that ended poorly I was expecting so much more, but it kind of just fizzled out

BSG is by far the strongest ending, and most satisfying I've seen so far, and I'm gonna assume breaking bad will leave me with the same feeling.
 
I'd say they can't let go at the appropriate moment when it hits a high - they get attached to it and its all downhill from there.

Firefly was lucky tbh! :D
 
Hey, Spartacus ended properly, it's funny that such an OTT series actually stay very close to history, including the ending
 
Nothing demonstrates this better that the final episode of the X-Files. As a teenager growing up in the 90s I loved that programme. A few years ago I watched the last episode out of curiosity, to see how they'd ended it all.

Dire does not even begin to do it justice ;) They'd obviously run out of money, ideas, and had nowhere to go, but needed to end it somehow, anyhow. I honestly wish I'd never seen it, because it devalued all my childhood memories. It was terrible.
 
MooMoo444 said:
Shows have abrupt endings because of low viewers so they get the chop. Stargate Universe was so good :(
Click to expand...

I really liked SG:U, although I did think that it ended in a reasonably decent way considering there were still a lot of things that hadn't been answered or explained. Having them essentially float out to space asleep worked well enough in the circumstances.

I think The Event was one of the most annoying series endings for me, because right at the end you find out 'the event' hasn't actually happened yet, so you never even get to find out what it is.
 
BSG - the ending was along the lines 'the magic fairies did it' Easy way out, and no need to explain anything (much less the huge number of cylons still surviving on heavily armed base stars)

Others end, as has been said, because they get canned. Firefly ended with a somewhat rushed film, SGU ended and no one realised (it was awful), SG:A ended when there was loads more to cover etc.
 
Dragged out for to long and thus get cancelled so no ending, or they decide to end it with in a few episodes as they dragged it out so long, the ratings nose dived, meaning writers and producers have to rush to change the script and get it filmed.

Writers should go to publishes knowing the longterm goal and number of series and publishers should keep asking for more, then just cancelling it.
 
Fundamentally, I imagine many series (particularly US ones) are pitched with a general premise/theme, pilots/1st season then made, and their popularity is monitored to see if it's worth making more. At some point either their popularity dries up or they've wrung all the feasible ideas out of it and the network either cancels outright or tells them this is the final season. The writers then need to wrap things up and because there was no preplanned endgame (or certainly nothing solid) it's a letdown. The most obvious example I can think of this is Lost. Had they sat down from the start and internally said 'Here's how it ends, and here's how we eventually get there' they may have avoided at least one or two of the unexplained items in this video.

Edit: Shouldn't have left this post unsent for half an hour in the browser. :p
 
Beacause of the uncertainty of renewal from the networks, a lot of shows either end on a cliff hanger or with a wimper of a ending. Although one perculiar one is One Tree Hill, that show keep finishing and then keep getting renewed. It really could have ended in like Season 5 or 6 or something when Lucas and Peyton left but they renewed it without two main characters.

Veronica Mars has a ending to the season, not the series
Dead Like Me just stopped
Firefly just got cut short
Buffy has an ending like every season but the last one they just made it bigger


There are only a few that ends in a satisfactory way for me, one was Friends. 10 seasons is a good number and by the end they had pretty much tide up all the characters, Ross/Rachel together, Chandler/Monica together, Pheobe married and Joey going to Hollywood. Which is quite difficult as being a sitcom, they could in theory go on for yearsssssssssssss.

DS9 was also good, the war makes a tidy ending.

The West Wing ends with the President's last term if office which is fitting.
 
Defying mavity - which I personally really liked - was cancelled before it really got into it's stride. When it became clear that it wasn't going to get a second chance the creator actually wrote a long post detailing his plans for the entire series and put it online. It's not as good as seeing it on screen but it satisfied my curiosity and I have a lot of respect for him for doing that, purely for the fans.
 
robgmun said:
Hey, Spartacus ended properly, it's funny that such an OTT series actually stay very close to history, including the ending
Click to expand...

That shows, unlike any other, had an historical fact to base on. They knew the beginning, middle and end for the entire show before they even started so that made it vert neat from the outset.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom