Finales
io9: When Amazing Scifi Series Have Infuriatingly Terrible Finales
It's more difficult to name series that had a good finale, isn't it? Either we get horrible endings, or no endings at all. The latter is especially bad if TPTB thought they were going to get another season. Farscape is a perfect example, as Sci-Fi renewed it for a fourth and fifth season at the same time, giving TPTB the leeway to write a longer story, then they yanked the renewal for a fifth season after season four finished on a cliffhanger. There was a mini-series to wrap it up, but only because fans raised holy frell.
Feel free to rant about terrible finales, but I'd also like to hear nominees for good finales. I think Farscape qualifies, because at least it did finally get a proper ending, even if it wasn't as much as we wanted. Babylon 5 also gets a mention, because the creator did have a beginning and end in mind from the start for five seasons, but network shenanigans meant they thought it would end after four seasons, so they filmed a finale, but surprise, they got another season. The fourth season wrapped up a lot of the big plots, but they saved the final episode of that season to air at the end of the fifth. It's also considered the forerunner of "long form" television stories that we see a lot of these days, so that gives it some bonus points.
More recently, I enjoyed the finales for Orphan Black and Person of Interest. Orphan Black could have very easily gone completely darkity dark, and certainly dabbled in it at times, but ultimately had a positive ending. With Person of Interest, I think TPTB knew the end was coming with a shortened season, shrugged in a "What can they do, cancel us twice?" way, then did whatever they liked to wrap things up. It's got a pretty tight storyline with twists and turns that aren't always happy making, but ultimately what the show needed.
It's more difficult to name series that had a good finale, isn't it? Either we get horrible endings, or no endings at all. The latter is especially bad if TPTB thought they were going to get another season. Farscape is a perfect example, as Sci-Fi renewed it for a fourth and fifth season at the same time, giving TPTB the leeway to write a longer story, then they yanked the renewal for a fifth season after season four finished on a cliffhanger. There was a mini-series to wrap it up, but only because fans raised holy frell.
Feel free to rant about terrible finales, but I'd also like to hear nominees for good finales. I think Farscape qualifies, because at least it did finally get a proper ending, even if it wasn't as much as we wanted. Babylon 5 also gets a mention, because the creator did have a beginning and end in mind from the start for five seasons, but network shenanigans meant they thought it would end after four seasons, so they filmed a finale, but surprise, they got another season. The fourth season wrapped up a lot of the big plots, but they saved the final episode of that season to air at the end of the fifth. It's also considered the forerunner of "long form" television stories that we see a lot of these days, so that gives it some bonus points.
More recently, I enjoyed the finales for Orphan Black and Person of Interest. Orphan Black could have very easily gone completely darkity dark, and certainly dabbled in it at times, but ultimately had a positive ending. With Person of Interest, I think TPTB knew the end was coming with a shortened season, shrugged in a "What can they do, cancel us twice?" way, then did whatever they liked to wrap things up. It's got a pretty tight storyline with twists and turns that aren't always happy making, but ultimately what the show needed.