After spending years with TV characters and developing a genuine care for them, it’s hard to say goodbye. That’s why there’s a lot of pressure in making a finale episode, especially for a series that’s been on the air for a long time. The pressure combined with multiple storylines to close is sometimes the recipe for disaster and the reason why a beloved series can become the object of fan animosity.
Updated December 27, 2022: This article has been updated to include additional disappointing series finales and to reflect recent revivals and series continuations.
There have been some series that had a happy ending like Break bad and Friends. However, these are still very rare today. The final of Lost is probably one of the most talked about and for lack of a better word hated in the world. Unfortunately, one of the most successful series at the time ended in a way that disappointed most fans. This is just one of many examples of series that created such intricate stories that it became impossible to complete them with the same level of quality as the previous installments and seasons. It’s extremely difficult to properly end a complex story, as these otherwise great shows prove. Here are some finals that disappointed fans.
10/10 Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls had one of the best mother-daughter relationships on television. It was fun and heartwarming to watch their relationship develop as Rory got older. However, the ending felt rushed and the entire last season seemed to lack the core feel of the show. It’s no surprise that the series’ creators left before that season even started, ultimately leading to its cancellation. After a few years, they did get a chance at a revival, but it was also disappointing and didn’t feel like the show that so many people loved.
9/10 Hair-raising adventures of Sabrina
Hair-raising adventures of Sabrina was a nice addition to the young adult horror series on Netflix. Set in the same world as River valley (Sabrina even returned in Season 6 of River valley), the show was based on an Archie Comics series and the previous classic 1990s show Sabrina the teenage witch. The modernized series dealt with various relevant topics such as gender, sexuality, women’s rights and mental health. So when in the final episode one of the characters dies by suicide so they can reunite with another character in Hell, it felt like a sick joke to the fans and a disappointing conclusion with unsettling implications.
8/10 Entourage
Entourage certainly has a complicated legacy, and as a comedy may not have aged the best. But at the time of its release, it was an incredibly popular and highly regarded HBO comedy, seen by many as the manly one Sex and the city. The story of a rising movie star, his childhood best friends, and his cops may not have had the highest stakes. Nevertheless, it made for an entertaining comedy.
However, the final season contains many rushed storylines and the speed of the final episode goes through many important developments. Everything comes out of nowhere and despite ending with the characters flying off into the sunset, it felt undeserved and incomplete like something was missing. It was clear that something was wrong, because four years later, when the Entourage cinema movies, every major storyline from the final episode is quickly jettisoned in the opening prologue and forgotten to get the story moving. While the movie serves as a somewhat satisfying conclusion, that series finale just felt like a big plate of nothing.
7/10 Gossip Girl
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Having a secret identity that isn’t revealed until the end of the show is a steal. Several series did, such as Liars (another show set in the River valley universe), who struggled to live up to the expectations created after years of following the story. Unfortunately, Gossip Girl was no exception. The main problem was that the identity of the gossip girl was switched halfway through the series because the fans figured out who it was supposed to be. Not only that, but many of the other characters, like Nate Archibald, had bleak and unsurprising endings that didn’t fit with what the show was about.
6/10 The X files
The X files changed television and was a cultural phenomenon. This sci-fi criminal procedural had nine seasons and a feature film before ending. Nevertheless, the fans felt that the show had reached its limits (something David Duchovny even agreed with, as Mulder had left the show in its seventh season) and that the ending given to longtime viewers fell short of expectations of what the series could offer.
Dual identities and unwanted pregnancy didn’t sit well with the iconic FBI duo, nor with the public. The actual original finale of The X files was the least watched finale of every season of the show, which is saying something. The sequel film after the end of the series, The X-Files: I want to believe was released six years later, and in 2016, 14 years after the end of the original series, it was revived and ran for two seasons, making up for the original’s lackluster ending.
5/10 Sherlock
BBCs Sherlock had what many people consider to be the best Sherlock Holmes rendition. However, the complicated cases, incredible cinematography, and the impossible duo, Watson (Martin Freeman) and Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), fell short of the mark in the finale — and the show’s final season in general. The series was technically not canceled but also not renewed by the channel. There’s still hope that these actors make a comeback and finish the show the way it’s supposed to end: with something only Holmes can come up with.
4/10 Roseanne
Roseanne was a great series that focused on the struggles of a low-income family. It was funny, relatable and sometimes sincere. But the show’s final season took a major nose dive, ditching the familiar blue-collar plots with a storyline where the family won the lottery. The storyline involving Dan Conner cheating on Roseanne was also controversial and didn’t feel right with his character, and to make matters worse, the finale revealed that most of it (if not all of the series, it’s actually unclear) was actually a novel Roseanne had written and that Dan had actually died of a heart attack. The ending felt like a betrayal of everything audiences had come to love about the series over the past eight seasons.
The finale and every development in it was so poorly received that when Roseanne was revived in 2018, every revelation ignored and joked about as if it never happened. Like many series on this list, from Roseanne revival seems to be an attempt to right the wrongs of a bad series finale.
3/10 Right
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Right quickly became the world’s most beloved serial killer. So after following the various characters and the progression of Dexter’s arc in particular for eight seasons, the ending was extremely disappointing to the fans. There was no real payoff for the protagonist, the actual decisions and plot were extremely illogical and unlikely, and most of the storylines that took place throughout the show never came to an end. The ending felt incomplete and a bad farewell to this series. Dexter: New blood brought back the main character, but also didn’t end in a way that would make longtime fans happy.
2/10 How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother had everything going for it: the characters were compelling, the jokes were funny, and the audience developed a close bond with the group of friends over nine years. However, after spending all of last season focusing on a couple who finally just broke up in the final episode only due to a plot twist, the lack of the other stories in the show felt and even seemed like a cheap bait and switch. The finale fell short of expectations it created after such a long run and cast a shadow over the legacy of one of the great comedies of the 21st century.
1/10 Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones probably had the most anticipated final season in the history of modern television. Sadly, most fans hated the entire season and hated the final episode. From major character changes that felt out of place with their arcs and motivations in previous seasons, to some hard Iron Throne decisions, the Game of Thrones finale was a very messy way to end one of the greatest fantasy shows ever made. The author of the novels stated that he wasn’t extremely present in the later seasons (and didn’t even write the books they were supposed to be based on), and it shows.
While the last episode of Game of Thrones definitely disappointed fans, it certainly didn’t kill the goodwill of the franchise as the prequel series House of the Dragon has been a big hit for HBO. Game of Thrones is perhaps the best example of even a bad ending that doesn’t quite ruin a series’ legacy, though it certainly leaves a bitter note to end on