We just got the series finale of Dawson's Creek here and I must say that it is one of the best finales I've ever seen for a show. I liked how the 3rd last episode (Joey And The Capeside Redemption?) kinda served as a mini final episode. And how the actual finale was more like a reunion movie. I thought it wrapped up storylines brilliantly, and it had true emotion in it. It's defininitely a finale that will stay with me for a long time. I'm glad Kevin Williamson came back to write it.

Other finales I've enjoyed were the Buffy and X-Files ones. I know some fans didn't think much of them, but they gave me what I wanted. I enjoyed how Buffy was able to achieve her dream of being able to live like a normal person. And I like how if for some reason they want to do another TV series, it's easy for them to create a new slayer without having to explain where she came from. I'm not saying I would watch that show, but I'd be happy knowing they didn't kill Faith to get it.

And I enjoyed The X-Files finale because they did what I've wanted them to do in a long time, show me how everything was connected. True the episode wasn't just Chris Carter drawing a huge concept map on a whiteboard, but it helped my poor little brain connect everything together. I was satisfied with it.

I have to say that The Office Christmas specials/finales have to be one of the BEST I've seen in awhile. I can effectively cry every time, because a great show has ended, and because, welll, you'll see why (when BBC America ever decides to air it) ;)

Word. What a rip!

My faves: Babylon 5, MTM, M*A*S*H (The subplot with Major Winchester and the North Korean musicians gets me more than anything else), Newhart, Futurama.



I felt exactly the same way. In fact, even though it seems that most fans of the show hated the finale, I've met quite a few people who didn't like the show, but liked the finale. I think of it as "The Seinfeldepisode for people who don't like Seinfeld."

Oh, and on the list of "shows that didn't have a proper finale, and even worse, got cancelled on a cliffhanger," let's not forget Benson (ended with Benson running against Gov. Gatling for the governor's office, IIRC).

Do you guys remember Remington Steele with Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist? I used to have a crush on her. I think the last episode was when they decided to sleep together and they found out who his dad was. Doris Roberts was on there too.

Something about the people of Walnut Grove had built a town, and the callous horrible horrible railroad people were going to take it over, so they made sure all they got was the land. I remember Laura, I think, saying something about how "they'll live in OUR houses and go to OUR church! We just can't stand for it!" Uh, yeah you can. It's called real estate.

Also, do you guys remember the PBS show Ghostwriter? That show was so popular back in the day. I think I saw the last episode but I can't remember? Do any of you?

Gosh, this thread is giving me so many flashbacks... I remember Punky Brewster. I think the series finale was when Henry got custody of her. Sings, "Every time I turn around/ I see the girl that turns my world around/ Standing there..." At least, that's how I think it went.

I also liked WB's Savannah with Jamie Luner and George Eads. I was so disappointed when it got cancelled after the 2nd season. There was a double wedding but Jamie Luner (who played the bad girl) got exposed. Then she was left alone in the church and she vowed revenge on her sister. She used to say "Come hell or high water..." a lot.

ChinkyGirl, I think that Growing Pains and Who's the Boss actually had somewhat opposite endings.

I don't remember what exactly happened in WTB, but I know the last scene has Tony, in a tuxedo, showing up at Angela's doorstep and asking if she needed a housekeeper (or something similar to that -- it was obviously supposed to be a "bookend," repeating the first episode -- all I know is that it was basically "Tony coming home").

On GP, the family moved Washington, D.C. and out of the house. What I always loved about the finale was that the last scene is Maggie taking pictures off of the mantle and the last picture she takes is the one of the family at Mike's graduation. It almost made you forget all about Chrissy and DiCaprio and post-right-wing-rebirth Kirk.

To throw some words in for something that isn't mentioned very much: School's Out!, the 90-minute TV movie that ended Degrassi Junior High/Degrassi High. A lot of fans of the original Degrassi hate this movie because it doesn't give the characters the best fate (Joey cheats on Caitlin and knocks up Tessa, who gets an abortion; Wheels drives drunk, kills a kid, paralyzes Lucy, and winds up in jail), but I've always liked it.

Also throwing my hat in the ring for the way things were left with My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks.

And as for best finale ever? Props to Newhart. I'm kind of hoping that Friends ends exactly the way Newhart did. Fat Monica wakes up in bed to realize that it's all been a dream because she had pizza too late at night or something ;)

Best Finale ever: Tie between The Golden Girls and Boy Meets World, just for making me sob! But I also liked Futurama, even though it wasn't meant to be a finale (Damn you to hell Fox!)

Worst Finale ever: Xena-God this was horrible. It went against everything that had been shown in the previous seasons, such as Xena dying. Um, she had "died" 50 gajillion times before and come back to life and she has "connections" in the whole Gods area (meaning, I'm sure she could have had one of them bring her back), and yet, this one time, she can't come back to life because of a technicality? Just stupid.

Benson's 'parent' Soap fits into this category as well. IIRC, there were 3 or 4 cliffhangers going on at once. Jessica was facing a firing line, Burt was about to get ambushed and murdered, and I'm sure there were others.

To add to the insult of the Xena ending, of all the intentional harm she did, the thing that she suffered and died to atone for was a simple accident.

Sadly, yes. The very last case/episode featured Jamal's annoying cousin Casey entering a writing contest that revolved around Gooey Gus, a huge purple monster that spewed slime gum. There was no real ending, because that's when PBS decided to stop the funding for this show. Yes, a shame, but the memories live on in the Ghostwriter thread at TWOP!


I don't remember the specifics of both finales, but didn't they both deal with moving out of the house they've lived in for the run of the show? I could be wrong, but that's where I got the similarities from at least!

Who's The Boss's finale had Tony ask for the housekeeping job, just like he did eight years earlier. He did move to Iowa or somewhere to coach baseball, but Angela couldn't commit and went back to Connecticut.

Worst Ever: WINGS

Background:

The Pilot: After their disturbed father dies, upright Joe reunites with his rakish brother Brian; they have been estranged since Brian ran off with Joe's fiancé. They find out their inheritance is a key to a safe deposit box which excites Brian who remembers his father telling him "You're rich." In the box is another key, which leads to another box containing another key and so on, leading the brothers on a scavenger hunt throughout Boston. At last, a final key is identified as belonging to a locker at the airport, which contains a suitcase.

Joe: "Whatever's in here we spilt 50/50."
Brian: "Wait! What is it's a puppy?"
Joe: "Brian, it's been a LONG, LONG day."

They open it and are surprised by spring loaded novelty party "snakes"

Joe: "What does this mean?"
Brian: "Well, for one thing it means Pop's funnier dead than you are alive."

In addition, a picture of them as children with the words “You’re rich.” Meaning they are rich because they have each other. The brothers decide their father wasn’t as crazy as they thought and to become a family again.

After 4 brilliant seasons and some more inexcusably awful one's, comes the worst final of all time:

They look into the suitcase again and find money and another key. They go on another scavenger hunt, which leads them to another suitcase filled with thousands of dollars. Clever, expect that IT COMPLETELY NEGATES THE MESSAGE OF THE PILOT, which was that they were METAPHORICALLY rich because they had such a wonderful relationship. Moreover, do you mean to tell me, that in 7 years, they never noticed a huge wad of cash in what was probably a priceless family keepsake? Pathetic!

And Crystal Bernard playing the cello? Whatevah.

I haven't seen much of this show, but the last few minutes of the Crossroads finale (the first one, from 1988) just seemed very last-episodey. What, with Jill (That's Jill, right?) driving off into the sunset with her new man, and uttering the touching line, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name [for a hotel]."

I think that ending line ranks up there with:

"What are you searching for?"
"Tomorrow, and I can't wait."

For what it's worth I think Touched by an Angel had a well done finale, hmm I also liked Boy Meets World although I was pissed they didn't put Angela and Sean together. I pretend the 9th season of Roseanne didn't happen so I have no opinion on that.

I agree...both finales were well done....my fanwank for BMW was that Sean went after Angela off-camera.

Worst- Capitol So was sloane shot or not? yuck.

Ooh, I didn't know about this. To be fair, I was like an infant at the time, but they kept interviewing Debrah Farentino in Soap Opera Digest and she kept repeating "I had the first AND last lines of the series! Yay for me, and stuff!" She didn't say anything about a shooting.

Any finale where I had to see Paul Gross leave David Marciano in the cold or Christopher Meloni scraped off the concrete floor was bad.

Thank god for Due South fanfic and SVU.

I'll go with Newhart as being the best series finale. It's difficult for a sitcom to come up with a really conclusive, memorable ending, but they pulled it off and then some.

And I'll vote for Quantum Leap as having the worst series finale. This show had its finale all but written for it from day one, and what do TPTB do instead? Did they have him spend the final season learning about the physics behind all his jumping, and figuring out a one shot, high risk plan to stop it all and put him back where he should be? Did he go back and analyze all his previous jumps and finally figure out that there was a larger pattern that connected them all, what his real mission was, and what he really needed to do to complete it?

No. Sam stops jumping and disappears. That's all they could come up with. Pure crap.

We've been talking about the finale of QL over in the QL thread, dhb. Some of us liked it. Come on over and discuss.

Man, I really am the only person on the face of the planet who absolutely hated the Newhart finale, aren't I?


Yeah, I thought so.

Edited quite a bit later to explain my rationale for said hatred: I felt incredibly cheated that the whole thing was a dream. I mean, obviously it was an over-the-top sitcom, and (possibly more tellingly) I was a kid at the time, but I adored that show, and loved the characters on it. To have the whole thing turn out to be a dream that took place on another show that I never watched in the first place just ruined it for me. Now I'm (nominally) a grownup who's seen many episodes of the old Bob Newhart Show and I still hate that ending. What would happen if, say, Friends ended and it turned out to be all a drug-induced dream of Phoebe's that took place in 1994? Assuming it were cleverly done (big assumption, I realize), would people be upset or would they say it was a brilliant finale?

Another thing I don't understand is why everyone loves the Newhart "it was a dream" finale and despises the similar dream scenario on Dallas. I'm a little too young to remember the Dallas thing clearly, but was Newhart poking fun at the Bobby's-dead copout?

To answer Thecustomoflife's question from a few pages back, The Brookside finale was basically crap. I'd stopped watching around the time channel 4 started messing it about in the schedules but I tuned in for the last ep and I wish I hadn't. Basically some company was buying off all the houses on the Close and everyone was moving out. Some drug dealer had moved in and was terrorising the street, selling crack to kids etc. So Jimmy Corkhill under the advise of Barry Grant (oh yeah, Barry Grant came back engaged to Lindesy) gets all the men in the street together in a vigilante mob and they murder the drug dealer by beating him up and then hanging him out of his window. The next day everyone starts moving out one by one and everyone has an alibi for the murder. All thats left then is Jimmy, Tinhead and Nikki and Jimmy then does a 15 min rant(I'm not joking, it really lasted that long!) about the state of British TV today and how Britain is basically fucked up while Nikki smiles and nods. Then Jimmy writes game over on the windows of the houses on the close and changes the street sign from Brookside Close to Brookside Closed and then winks at the camera. The really fucked up thing is that they play the Grange Hill theme tune at then end. So there you have it. Total bollocks.

A good finale is that for Dawsons Creek, Only Fools and Horses(the original 1996 one) and The Office.

This is from a few pages back, but...



A big fat WORD to this. I loved Dinosaurs when I was younger, but I didn't see the finale (which according to imdb.com, had a parental warning attached to it because of the content) until I was a few years older and they were airing reruns on Disney. And even then, it scared the complete and utter shit out of me. As soon as they showed the family all huddled up around the TV, freezing their (pun intended) tails off, I just burst into tears, and didn't stop the whole damn night. I also remember that, instead of the regular happy music they played over the closing credits, it was an incredibly sad violin type music, which just made me cry even harder. It was a terrible choice to make in terms of a finale. The show was so smart and funny and was probably intended for an olderish audience, but they had to have known that they had a large audience of kids, too. Having a finale in which every single character dies is certainly not the way to go. I'll second that Boo!, it was a terrible ending to a great, great show.

How 'bout the Black Adder finale? They killed off most of the cast in two of the three season finales and made it hilarious, but the last time round still makes me cry.

My stongest hate goes to Voyager, which was just too annoying for words. Did anyone not know that they were going to get home?

My personal favorite will always be Daria. It wrapped up all the storylines and sent the cast on its way while still being the snarky goodness that I adored.

Dawson's Creek finale was the best ever and really it shouldn't have been. I watched every goddam episode of Buffy and I would have to say that it is still my favourite show in the world and yet its final sucked big time. I guess I can just pretend the last two seasons never happened and that Buffy ended with The Gift. But I can't help feeling cheated by that finale, while I feel like the Dawson's one was done better than I could have ever hoped for.

Felicity final was also pretty good. I enjoyed the time travel thing- so like others I think of it as having 2 series finales.

I totally forgot about that! The final series where they are in the first World War and it ends with them going over the top and then it cuts to a field of poppies. That makes me cry every time, so unexpected from a comedy series.

Word, word, word, to whoever praised the Blackadder ending. Of course, all the Blackadder season finales ended...badly, shall we say, but the series finale was poignant rather than amusingly grotesque.

I was a certified X-Phile (or certifiable, depending on how you looked at it), but by the finale, all I could think was, "Just let it die, please. Let it die quickly." That's what Seasons 8 and 9 did to me.

I thought what turned out to be the series finale for My So-Called Life was very good, even if it left all those tantalizing questions unanswered.

I liked the DS9 finale, too. Sue me.

As for the Buffy finale, two words: train wreck. By that point in the series, though, BtVS was nigh-unwatchable for me. If they'd ended the series at "The Gift," I think everyone would have been better off. Heck, they could have ended it after Season 3 and spared us Glory and Adam, not to mention Riley and Dawn.

Speaking of gloomy finales, though...Forever Knight is probably the worst in this respect. Just...wow.

I think the only finale I ever remember as feeling ripped off about was the Models, Inc. finale which wasn't even supposed to be the series finale. I am probably the only person who religiously watched the VERY shortlived show but I remember there being a wedding and it looks like the groom (whose name I don't remember but he was "Jake Hanson" of Models, Inc.) is going to be shot by Linda Evens who was the manager/mother of the model bride. However, the groom is holding the baby that he has with the bride and basically the show implies that the baby will end up on the receiving end of the bullet, the groom sceams "NOOOO"...and then it cuts off never to be heard of again. To be really into that show and then think that is ends with a dead baby is disturbing...just disturbing.

Afraid not. It was cloying and obvious - especially after the whole "Dallas - Pam's nightmare" thing.

I didn't like it either.

Oh, God, "Blackadder". I think I understand why they did it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I knew what was going to happen when Lieutenant George said he was scared… it was the first serious thing that had ever come out of his mouth and I thought “Oh God, that’s it, they’re going to kill them all.” So I respect and admire the strong anti-war statement the writers made, but the thought of Edmund, Baldrick, Kevin and George… I think I cried for an hour.

Best:
Cheers: Finally resolved the Sam & Diane storyline in an adult way; no overblown scenes; poignant and somewhat upbeat without being mushy
The Wonder Years: For something that wasn't originally intended for a finale, it worked great. I loved this show; wish there was something this good on network tv now.
Boy Meets World: Great ending to a great show. Feeny's last scene still makes me cry.
thirtysomething: This is how a drama series should end. It was the perfect balance between some things remaining the same and some things changing. I miss this show and my VHS tapes are shot. Why the hell isn't this series on DVD yet?

Worst (in the "way to fuck over a good show" category):
Twin Peaks: Left Dale Cooper, who was totally to die for in every way, taken over by BOB, along with other cliffhangers. On my planet, Dale Cooper is rescued an hour later and is fine, thank you very much. Anyone who says he isn't will have rabid flying monkeys to deal with.
Sex and the City: Most annoying lead character in an adult comedy ever finally gets commitment from the poster child for commitment phobia, who will even move back from CA to NYC to listen to her whine some more. Yeah, right. Way to jump that shark. Meanwhile, Miranda gets handed a senile MIL to deal with. Charlotte and Sam have acceptable endings. Best part of the finale: Carrie getting slapped, fulfilling a wish made by many viewers almost every time she opened her mouth.

Just Plain Weird:
St. Elsewhere: Another great show, but to be the daydream of an autistic child? Didn't hate it, but felt very weird about it. Loved the characters, and it's amazing how many actors got their start on that show.
Roseanne: This was sort of the "my meds need to be increased" ending. But it did negate a lot of the crap that happened in the last season, so I don't hate it.

I absolutely completely and totally despise the final episode of M*A*S*H* as a two hour Aldawank. Somebody once said that the show stopped being good when they decided to stop their Emmy race and try for the Nobel Peace Prize instead.

At least an hour's worth of the show seemed to be nothing more than an excuse for Alan Alda to say to the television audience "Look! Hawkeye's really a serious man who has major issues with this horrible war! He was just joking around to mask his pain!". Yes, Alan, we know. We knew since episode one, season one. Thing is, the show was much more effective when you'd portray this in a subtle manner. The overt preachiness and maudlin introspection reached a nadir in this episode. I was additionally amused at how Alda (who I believe helped write the show) managed to get himself plenty of juicy screen time with his solo shot in the asylum.

"Roseanne" was also ridiculous. If you want to erase a season, go ahead. If any show needed someone to step out of the proverbial shower, it was this one. But to retroactively change the most important elements in the show? The kids are actually married to each others' husbands? Jackie is gay? Dan is dead?

Great, go ahead and kill off the only character I liked during that final season besides the wonderfully snarxey [Infatuated Sigh] Darlene [/Infatuated Sigh].

"Benson" bothered me, and I'm glad that it was mentioned in another post. It wasn't the greatest series in the last couple of seasons, but they deserved some sort of conclusion.

"TNG" and my personal favorite "DS9"" also worked for me. "Yoyager" I'm neutral on. "Buffy" I liked as an open-ended conclusion. And "Newhart" is an all-time classic ending.

No kidding, but the thing that really pissed me off was Darlene married to Mark and Becky married to David. It makes no sense. When did Darlene and Mark hook up? Did she drop out of high school and not go to college? Did Darlene and Becky just trade places? Darlene was one of my favourite TV characters of all time and was clearly much too sarcastic and witty to end up with that dimwit Mark.

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I mean, I could vaguely see Becky and David. He was just desperate enough for any attention, and she'd love the idea that she was hooking up with someone who wouldn't hold her back. But I somehow can't see Darlene living in a trailer, or Mark accepting the utter independence and quick wit of Darlene.

The finale of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was one of the most emotionally exhausting experiences I've ever had watching a tv show. I alternated between laughing and crying so much. Whenever I even think of Crow's final "This movie looks kinda familiar, doesn't it?" I start to tear up a little.

Thank you, Jeebus. I never thought Darlene was much of a prize, but Mark wasn't fit to lick her shoes.

I'm right there with you, Eegah. From start to finish that was a great finale: between the Earth song, the "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", Gypsy getting rich (she always was underestimated), and the final shot of Mike and the bots on the couch-- it was a great ending to the most creative and entertaining show I've ever seen. When Pearl says "Mike, move on-- we have." and there's static... Sniff. By the time they got to the Crawling Eye I was misty, but I loved the fact that no matter where the crew of the SOL go, crappy movies shall follow.
As for the Buffy finale...well, they tried. After how far that show had fallen, there was really no way to redeem it. But the glorification of Spike, and the utter lack of any resolution or purpose for Willow, Xander, and Giles being there still grates my cheese. Bad, but the shot with the Original Scoobies doing the conversation from The Harvest makes it not quite so horrible. And hey, Spike died! That will never not be fun to watch.

As much as the Buffy finale made no sense, and didn't make up for the previous season, I still loved it. I'm just a sap, though, and all I wanted was a happy ending and Jossian wit, which I got, so I was willing to overlook the lack of closure on a lot of the season's plotlines.

As for Roseanne, though...I could see them using that gimmick if it actually served a purpose, but all that husband switching and sexual orientation switching was totally unnecessary. I too loved Darlene, and didn't understand how she could possibly end up with Mark. They should have ended it the season before, with the wedding/heart attack episode. I cried in that one. I know; I'm a sap, but Darlene and Dan were my favourite characters and they had a lot to do in that episode.

Good finales:
-'Once and Again'--I don't even remember what happened; just that I liked it.
-'Sex and the City'--still fresh in my mind, and very sweet. I hadn't watched that many eps before the final season, so Big and Carrie weren't especially interesting to me, but the rest of the plotlines were.

Bad finale:
-Firefly, because it didn't get one

I hated the finale for Profiler. I wasn't sure whether or not i was supposed to cry or feel bad for Rachel because everyone seemed to have forgotten about her.

What I generally hate are series that have been cancelled without giving the viewer a proper finale. Examples that spring to mind are Raising Dad and Popular - when they aired here in the UK a couple of years ago, they stopped airing episodes suddenly. A quick trip to tvtome.com confirmed my suspicions that the show had been dropped. It's more likely that the ratings were so bad that the show wasn't worth salvaging, but it's a slap in the face to the viewer to leave things hanging.

As for the Buffy finale, I rejoiced when the end came. At least I wouldn't have to put up with Dawn anymore.

I hated the Cosby Show finale, although I did like the running gag with the doorbell during the last season.

I missed the Family Ties finale - was it good?

Best Finales

Dawson's Creek - I didn't even watch the show the last two seasons, it got so bad, but the final episode made me remember why I loved the show in the first place. Bawled like a baby. And I got Joey and Pacey, together the way they were meant to be. Perfection.

Boy Meets World was just charming. I loved all the flashbacks and seeing everyone so young. And all of Eric's "Feeney!" calls. It was just so sweet that the core group was still together, and then everyone showing up at Feeny's classroom one last time.

Roswell - There was something so zany and fun about it. And the best was Michael suggesting a van. I don't know why, but I loved that line, and I loved the idea of them all traveling around scooby style, in a van, helping people. And I love that Liz got to marry Max (I remember crying in second season when Liz asked future Max to dance with her since she thought she was never going to get her wedding dance with him).

Worst Finale -

Felicity - I know it's not a popular opinion, but I Hated it! We're talking flames... on the side of my face... breathing…breathless.. heaving breaths. Granted, I wanted Felicity with Noel, but more than that, I just hated how they pushed Ben's cheating to the side. He told her that she had to forgive him, because he could imagine his life without her, and *poof* all is better? They never even talked about why he cheated, or the fact that it wasn't a one night stand, but an actual relationship that went on for a month, and the fact that this wasn't even the first time that he had strayed. I will never be able to understand how they were able to be together in the end. And don't even get me started that she had to kill Noel and poor hot wax on his face to get over him.


I had mixed feelings on Seinfeld, Roseanne, Sex and the City, and Buffy. There were parts I really didn't like, but I didn't hate them. And Roseanne and SATC both made me cry, which will put them in a special place for me. Buffy didn't, which was very disapointing since I thought it would move me more. Maybe not as much as Becoming pt 2, but it should have been able to conjure up a little emotion.




I have to think back on that one, but I remember enjoying it. I believe it ended with Alex moving to Washington DC, and him saying goodbye to everyone. And the final scene (I think) was of Alyce turning off the light in his room was both funny (we saw his framed picture of Ronald Regan next to his bad) yet terribly sad at the same time. Very sweet.

I thought the finale of Roseanne sucked ass. I couldn't believe they pulled that shit that all this shit wasn't real. I hated it and couldn't believe that it was all a dream. Talk about shit.



I could actually buy that Jackie was gay because it was funny and it's also because it was much like me and my sister. But Dan dea, and the kids married to each others' husbands just did me in.



I hear you. I was really pissed off about it. I'm still pissed off about it.

Felicity, I can't believe she just swept Ben's cheating under the rug.

Buffy was okay but I didn't like Spike burning up and the way that the Scoobies just walked away and didn't say a fucking thing about who just saved their asses. Dawn was even saying 'hey let's go to the mall', talk about shitty.

At the time, I was just enormously bitter about the ending of TP, but reading this breaks my heart. They really did destroy lovely Agent Cooper - normally I like difficult choices, but that one just seemed too cynical and obvious.

Another finale that I hated at the time was Moonlighting, but I rewatched the series a few years ago, and having had time to get over the pain, it was actually rather good. Explaining that they couldn't force a happy ending, but if they'd had some more time, they might have managed to pull it off - which I think I agree with.

Best:
Okay, I'm going to have to go against the popular opinion and vote for QL as having the best finale. I thought it was well-written, well-acted and really quite poignant. The first time I saw it, I was just so bummed for Sam that I could barely speak. However, the more times I see it, the more I appreciate just how well it fits with the series and how noble Sam was. It's funny how after so many years, I can still feel so much for a fictional character.

Worst:
I'm going to join the many other BtVS fans who are living in Egypt right now and say that "The Gift" was an awesome series finale, because "Chosen" sucked ass. While I could get behind the concept that all the potentials were activated giving Buffy a chance at having a normal life, the execution was horrid. And I'm not even going to discuss Anya's death. I might go into a murderous rage. I actually go back and forth about whether things would have been better had "The Gift" ended the series. While it was a perfect finale (as was "Graduation Day 2"), we would have missed out on the (few) flashes of brillance that followed (namely: OMwF, Selfless, Tabula Rasa). Another episode that would have worked better for me as the series finale than "Chosen" (besides almost all of them) ? "Normal Again". What a mindfuck that would have been.
Running a close second has to be Dark Angel. The glove of love, the flying pizza ride, the superfroggy legs, the freakin' WWE, and the lack of Alec, continuity, and all sense really sucked. If I just looked at the episode by itself without trying to fit it into the context of the series, then it's actually okay. I enjoyed many parts of it. But, it just doesn't work with the rest of the season, which had problems of its own. Sometimes the episodes played out like the writers were playing that game where everyone adds a sentence to a story that's being written, but the paper is folded so they can only see the line that immediately precedes theirs. Yeah, and the finale was like Cameron didn't even get to see the preceding line.

I never saw the Roseanne finale, but now I wish I would have, just so I could be confused and hate it too. I was meh about DC, just because I stopped caring about any of them after highschool and the finale just seemed emotionally manipulative. Felicity pretty much worked for me as did Roswell's "Departure". What? There was a whole other season after that? Huh.

Some of you posted about the Others, which was a show I lurrrved and never got to see the finale to. All I have to say about that is
What? I'm sorry, I meant WHAT!?!

I'm another one that loved the Quantum Leap finale. To this day I tear up every single time I watch a rerun of it.

Yeah, let me hop on that train with the two of you. The one thing that many fans have been stating was so horrible about the ending (he never goes home) was the perfect coda IMO. Remember, it was revealed that he was the one controlling the leaps without realizing it in an attempt to do good. On some level, he realized that he belonged "out there", where he could do some real good in people's lives.

Still brings a tear to my eye.