When the duo signed on to “Game of Thrones,” they were expecting to adapt a completed series of novels with a fleshed out endpoint.
It’s hard not to feel a little bad for David Benioff and D.B. Image Credit: Photo by Joseph Del Valle/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Anything for less discourse, is my motto! Also, I could do without the years and years of discourse about what really happened. That rage is what I will always associate with the ending of “The Sopranos,” even if/when I reverse course on thinking it was a cheap, cheating way not to tie up the story of Tony Soprano. Yes, that’s become a cliché, I know! But yes, it also really happened! Panic ensued, with everyone wondering how Mary could write a review not knowing whether Tony died - and then we all slowly realized that it had been deliberate. So when the screen went black, we all screamed in the mostly empty newsroom, thinking the cable had gone out. But that Sunday night, I was the TV editor at the Los Angeles Times, and we were all in the office watching the show together, because TV critic Mary McNamara, who’d later win a Pulitzer Prize, was reviewing the series finale for the next day’s paper (the internet was actually a secondary thought at the time). Someday, I will do a “Sopranos” re-watch, and when I do, I reserve the right to take this blurb back. Fans can see the buildup to the finale in minute detail, leading to the conclusion that Tony Soprano gets what was coming to him courtesy of the mystery man in the Members Only jacket. That is why now, 15 years after “The Sopranos” concluded, the ending of the series is actually satisfying upon repeat viewing, instead of thinking your cable has gone out. On top of that, it was not as easy to go back and re-watch episodes leading up to the finale at the time. So fans were understandably a little perturbed. The second half, which ended with the infamous cut to black in the middle of “Don’t Stop Believin’,” came out a year after the first half. Instead of the age of instant streaming gratification and binge watching we live in now, the first half of the sixth and final season of “The Sopranos” came out two years after the fifth season ended. We’ll see where “Atlanta,” “The Good Fight” and others will fall at the end of the year.īelow are the worst series finales ever, not presented in any particular order.Ī critical thing to consider with any piece of media is the context in which it came out. “Ozark” and “Killing Eve” bowed in disappointing fashion, while “Better Call Saul” and “Better Things” delivered the goods.
“Game of Thrones,” “Dexter” and “Battlestar Galactica” are some of the critically adored, boundary-pushing, TV-landscape-redefining properties on the list that fumbled their endings, no matter how you look at it.Ĭonsidering the volume of TV shows ending their runs this year (and overall volume, in general), this list is bound to grow with new entries. Others, meanwhile, induce a collective groan at the mere mention of their final episodes. Elsewhere” are other shows on this list with divisive adieus. Its entry on this list is contentious not just among fans, but Variety staffers alike. Fifteen years after it abruptly cut to black, people are still discussing “The Sopranos” finale, so bad or not, creator David Chase did something right. Most of the shows on this list have inspired one too many think pieces and endless debate about whether their endings were indeed subpar. Coming up with a series finale that wraps up loose ends, completes character arcs and answers lingering questions in an original, satisfying, thought-provoking fashion that doesn’t resort to tired tropes, stays true to the show’s roots and appeases legions of fans is a Herculean task.Īnd, yes, “worst” is an objective term. Any TV writer (and Olympic gymnast) can tell you, it’s hard to stick the landing.
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