Why TV Series Are Difficult To End Well
TV series can be difficult to end well, and by well I really mean in a way that is narratively satisfactory and has emotional payoff, or resonance, for its long term audience.
Many times people become very attached to TV series - they do afterall spend much longer with those characters than the characters in a film or even a franchise, but often too the ending of show can be deflating, abrupt, or even downright insulting.
Why does this exist more in TV than other medium? Well frankly the nature of TV is very different to either film or narrative fiction.
TV Series Mentioned:
Happy Days (1974-1984), Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy (1979), Only Fools And Horses (1981 - 2003) Roseanne (1988-1997) The Simpsons (1989 - ), Frasier (1993-2004), Oz (1997-2003), The Sopranos (1999-2007), Scrubs (2001-2010), The Office (UK) (2001-2002) Lost (2004-2010), Deadwood (2004-2006) The Office (US) (2005-2013), Prison Break (2005 - ) Heroes (2006 - 2010), Breaking Bad (2008-2013), True Detective (2013 - )
Пікірлер: 2 600
I really don't get why people were so upset about the Soprano's ending, it was just like the beginning. When the show started the characters were in the middle of a bunch of plotlines, when it ended they were in the middle of another bunch of plotlines. Organized crime goes on with or without Tony, just like life.
@nateh1135
2 жыл бұрын
Hence, the Journey song they play at the end: "And it goes on and on and on..."
@johnstrawb3521
2 жыл бұрын
@Robert Luben And almost none of you have figured out that The Sopranos was terrific for 7-8 episodes. After that it was predictable, weakly written junk.
@Hazztech
Жыл бұрын
Because Americans can't handle it when the world doesn't revolve around them.
"The whole thing was a dream" is the most annoying plot twist ever.
@austinryan9382
5 жыл бұрын
The worst n most lazy endings ever!!!! I hate the dream ending or everything was in a persons head... absolutely ridiculous!! So uncreative
@ETBrooD
5 жыл бұрын
I dont do birthdays What about the "it was all a dream... or was it?" *x files theme plays* twist?
@johnjamele
5 жыл бұрын
It was great ONCE. Now it's just lazy theft.
@uselessDM
5 жыл бұрын
I think it can work for one of episodes when the creators want to do something that would be off limit or something. Still a bit lazy, but acceptable for me. If you pretty much throw out whole series it of course becomes just inexcusable.
@tinymetaltrees
5 жыл бұрын
Newhart was fine ending that way. Obviously, no one was expected to take it seriously in the first place, which was why it was funny instead of terrible.
American Horror Story has a new story each season, but still doesn't know how to end each season well.
@longliverocknroll5
6 жыл бұрын
I stopped watching after the train-wreck that was Hotel, and only watched bits of Roanoke and read the synopsis for Edgelord...I mean "cult", and Asylum is the only one that has had a half-way decent end. The rest are awful, including the sappy garbage in the first season (which falls apart at the end of one character arc in particular).
@dmcgee3
5 жыл бұрын
Murderhouse and freak show were definitely the only ones I’d recommend to anyone. I don’t remember anything about the plot of cult, it was entirely forgettable. It didn’t even seem like horror. There was nothing even remotely scary about it. Don’t even recall if it had any monsters or supernatural anything. Not even sure I’d consider the leader as evil, just crazy. That really felt like out of ideas but under contract to make more
@jasonbowman9521
4 жыл бұрын
And I find that bizarre. Anything that has near unlimited stories to draw from yet they muck it up.
@BeersAndBeatsPDX
4 жыл бұрын
The first season was great. Everything following was cheesy garbage with terrible acting.
@boynamedalexxx
3 жыл бұрын
I thought ‘Asylum’ was wrapped up beautifully.
Scrubs got the perfect ending in series 8 it couldn't have ended better. The next series was simply a failed spin off not part of the original story just some original characters
I bet Game of thrones will end in an anticlimax with British police interfering and arresting everyone.
@gab_gallard
5 жыл бұрын
Terry Gilliam would be proud.
@Daniel__Nobre
5 жыл бұрын
I really hope so!
@MortyKaiShalom
5 жыл бұрын
"You got a loiscince for them dragons?"
@aceyspud551
5 жыл бұрын
I understood that reference.
@PainhammeR13
5 жыл бұрын
With the current writers also being arrested for impersonating actual writers.
If Season 9 of Scrubs was pitched for what it was, a Scrubs spin-off, it might have been slightly more successful. But since they decided to call it season 9 instead of being it's own thing, it ruined the series and undermined everything that was established before it by shoehorning in old characters and ruining them in the process. I pretend season 9 doesn't exist in the same way I pretend bad spin-offs don't exist. The end of season 8 was perfect.
@JustNatax3
7 жыл бұрын
happychaosofthenorth haha I couldn't have said it better! It was embarrassing and cringy. I don't think it was running a second time in my country. They started the old episodes very soon after release.
@Vanessinha91Pucca
7 жыл бұрын
Idk, the new characters had no charisma..
@samcrane5273
7 жыл бұрын
Well its does kinda have a different title in the opening credits it says scrubs and in small writing in the corner it says med school
@fizzplease6742
7 жыл бұрын
I actually enjoyed the "spin off". I didn't love it like Scrubs, and it doesn't feel like it should have been called season nine. I was amused and entertained enough to keep watching, though, and actually a bit sad when it wasn't continued.
@kerred
7 жыл бұрын
happychaosofthenorth You have a Gravity Falls thumbnail and no mention of its extremely satisfactory ending? :)
I've considered this about the Walking Dead. I'm not a fan anymore, but surely there can be no satisfying ending for it. They find a cure? They all die? They all indefinitely survive? I'd say none of these situations would be received well at all.
@r.graves5531
6 жыл бұрын
RavnDream that show went downhill so fast. The first six episoded are good. After that it becomes just... trash.
@derekwall5570
6 жыл бұрын
Honestly zombie tv shows get their tension and entertainment from the survival aspect, if the characters get it too good then the viewers become disinterested. If the characters get it too bad and too many die off, then the viewers get disgusted. Because of that the walking dead is probably going to be one of those shows that keeps on going till it makes no more profit.
@TH3LAST5TAND
6 жыл бұрын
well thats what happens when you adapt a series that is still ongoing
@robocoastie
5 жыл бұрын
It should take a season to end on purpose. Not a cancellation with maybe 1 episode later as a bone. What I hate is movies that just - drop - end when it clearly should have a brief court conviction season or a brief look at how characters move on. The best series that had a perfect end and planned as in written even with whole story arch in line was SyFy’s Battlestar Galactica. Tv Series’ I have no patience for because they burn me too often unless it is a property. BSG for example was a property, had it got just dropped, cancelled like original I would have been POd yes, but being a fan property there’s a chance of picked up in future or movie. Super titles are the same, they have the “comics” and movies etc. so if tv cancelled it’s not like that’s the end of the story. My favorite and only type of tv show I trust is the nearly dead 1off shows. Crime dramas are good about this. They can be a one or two episode plot then move on. Those shows do not need to be tied together like a long plot. Gunsmoke is the very best example of this. MASH was an example so good that it lasted longer than the Korean War itself. I don’t even think this tied together tv trend started until maybe 1985.
@robocoastie
5 жыл бұрын
Derek Wall and the only one doing that to model is The Walking Dead.
6:14 "When they start making a movie, they know how it will end" Someone should have told Disney this when they decided to make their Star Wars trilogy
@enotsnavdier6867
4 жыл бұрын
More like Abrams
@alexanderwill2847
4 жыл бұрын
Star Wars and Marvel are basically just TV Shows that are theatrically released.
I do agree with you on an overwhelming majority of the video, but I adamantly disagree on your conclusion with Breaking Bad. I feel that if it had ended after season 4, it would've been an incredibly unsatisfactory ending. Yes, Walt would've won in the end, but we had been told from the beginning that Walt's cancer was terminal. No matter what, he eventually was going to die. For it to have just been that he defeated Gus, and then we just had to assume the rest of the short amount of his life, fall out and all, it would have in my opinion been a horrendous let down. No matter what, I feel the actual end of Breaking Bad would've had to have been his death. Because of that, as well as seeing the actual conclusive fallout of his criminal and scheming double life, I feel that the actual ending with season 5 was one of the most satisfactory endings I have ever seen in a TV show.
@PunksterOS
7 жыл бұрын
I completely agree with you. Season 5's ending was perfect.
@ThumpertTheFascistCottontail
6 жыл бұрын
Breaking Bad wasn't perfect, but it was close enough in my opinion. I think one of the reasons it worked so well was that the story was quite well defined in the sense that it had a start, a middle and and end. It told the story and then buggered off. I wish more t.v series took the same attitude.
@circleofsorrow4583
Жыл бұрын
I agree.
The Walking Dead will not end well.
@Th3Downz
7 жыл бұрын
Lyndii Mey Depending on how they follow the serial comics. I hated the show and loved the comics, but stopped reading them about a year ago.
@lovecraftcat
7 жыл бұрын
I believe the comic author went on record he's never ever going to end it, I last read it in 2009 or 2010 maybe.
@Jade_Matthews
7 жыл бұрын
Lyndii Mey The Walking Dead hardly even started well. It's a hog podge of random garbage and bad ideas acted out by a room full of hacks for millions of dollars. I honestly hope it ends bad so it can fully represent what the show is.
@Th3Downz
7 жыл бұрын
Нет Нетович Really? That's news to me. It seems kind of crazy to have a piece of fiction that airs monthly and not have an end to it. Shit, maybe that's the way to do it... I'll be interested to see.
@LividImp
7 жыл бұрын
The TV show already didn't end well. The first season was great, everything after that was just meh. The producers fired the original writer after the first season, and it shows.
I disagree about Breaking Bad. The creators made it clear they gave Walt a death sentence in the very first episode, and the show was never going to be about Walt "winning" (the conclusion of season 4). There had to be a "fall" for it to be true to the vision behind the series, exemplified especially by the Ozymandias episode. I think they made it clear from from the beginning that Walt had a tragic flaw in his ego that would sabotage everything he'd do. In the first season, his friends were literally willing to just give him the money for his cancer treatment... but instead he chose to go down a path of lots of death and suffering for both himself and everyone close to him. That's not a guy who "wins" in the end... he's just not the kind of person able to hold on to the victory long enough.
@Azidoazideazide.
5 жыл бұрын
Yeah, he is completely wrong about Breaking Bad. I don't see how you could end the series at the fourth season. It was obvious that EVERYTHING would have a final conclusion. I believe the ending to Breaking Bad was executed far better than other shows have been.
@StefanReich
5 жыл бұрын
Breaking Bad has a fantastic arc
@someokiedude9549
4 жыл бұрын
Yeah, but Walt ‘won’ anyways.
@S_047
4 жыл бұрын
Mike described it perfectly , calling Walt out in his ego
@phobics9498
3 жыл бұрын
@@Azidoazideazide. When I first saw season 4 I definitely felt like "Yep this feels like a good ending" and thus was worried that season 5 would just be extending it too much but to my surprise, it didn't. I felt like season 5's ending was definitely more satisfactory and what the show was building up towards but if it didn't exist, season 4 ending still provided a good conclusion
I disagree about romance plots. There's nothing more tedious than writers dragging out couples getting together. If you've created enough chemistry to get the audience invested in the relationship, there's only so many obstacles you can throw in their way before it becomes ridiculous. And frankly, any writer who can't think of ways to create interesting conflicts between people dating is a hack.
@Trazynn
5 жыл бұрын
Suits had Mike and Rachel together quite early and their relationship was one big obstacle course. Relationship done right.
@PowerRedBullTypology
5 жыл бұрын
Before people become couples they should not throw in too many obstacles in their way before indeed it becomes rediculous. Once they're in a relationship though, I think it often works beter to *not* give the couples that many obstacles. I like it better when they give them obstacles outside of their relationship, just as characters who were in relationships at the start of series, usually do not have endless problems either. If you're know they'll be coming back together, then it becomes such a dull ride for hte viewer to watch the hassle , because you know it's going to resolve anyhow. Especially if they first have problem A, then resolve problem A, then immediately comes problem B, then problem B is solved...etc... This way the whole thing becomes a joke you can't remotely take seriously anymore
@michaeldorosh5047
5 жыл бұрын
I understand the thought behind the Niles/Daphne and Jim/Pam examples in the video, but in both cases I thought their actual relationships were more interesting than the "will they or won't they" aspect. It was nice to seem them learn how to work together to overcome external conflicts, and become a team. That's satisfying in its own right. By that token, I thought the phony tension in the last season of the US Office with the introduction of the camera guy just didn't work. I couldn't believe the writers would invest so much in the Jim/Pam story that they would just rip it apart on a whim. Was far more interesting seeing Pam reign Jim in whenever he decided to beat up on Dwight too much.
@EmperorsNewWardrobe
4 жыл бұрын
Reilly, they’re almost always courtship stories, not so much romantic partnership stories
@anonb4632
4 жыл бұрын
Northern Exposure really screwed up with this.
Futurama is another good example of a show that ends with a marriage/relationship. Unlike the Simpsons, which will go on forever it seems, Futurama ended, and with a great episode nonetheless.
@lildominator2953
7 жыл бұрын
Lucas Graham did you even way u the episode. They got married then had to restart the whole series over again because fry broke the time button. As much as I love that series, they took and the whole series and made it meaningless because they couldn't end it right. It was lazy
@thenightrider2121
7 жыл бұрын
Third time's the charm?
@genghiskhan2180
7 жыл бұрын
It's been a while since I last saw the episode, but I can agree with your statement in a sense. The series didn't end up feeling meaningless after that to me though (especially when there was an episode where Fry and Leela read out exactly how they're future would be). The series had a loose connection that focused on the characters and the settings & problems they encountered, so each episode was just a new adventure of its own. All that being said, you do bring up a good point
@isaacsibrian2503
7 жыл бұрын
The ending was made in case they got picked up again. The restart point is completely up to the viewer.
From a UK perspective, Blackadder Goes Forth had the bravest final episode of any TV series.
@nox5555
7 жыл бұрын
You mean killing 4/5 of your cast by letting them run into machinegun fire? its not as brave as it looks. they didnt needed to let the cast life, they swapped time periodes 3 times before.
@chaos.corner
7 жыл бұрын
Yep. Everyone died an a previous season too (I think 1st?)
@joelmole3157
7 жыл бұрын
2nd. It was a tacked on post-credit scene where Hugh Laurie killed the entire cast
@vermis8344
7 жыл бұрын
Chaos, Joel: First AND second. Third was unusual in that only one of the cast died! (Er... spoilers)
@RevaneCrowford
7 жыл бұрын
Though in the first series it was played as a black comedy joke, further mitigated by the fact that Blackadder (unlike in later seasons) was portrayed as a bumbling and cruel idiot with no redeeming qualities, and in the second it was a deliberate non-sequitur that was just a wink to the first series as "yes, we ended it the same way". The way the "everyone dies" of series four was written was very different, and in a way that would have made making a series five with the same formula much harder. Not that it stopped them from tacking on a special later.
The Office(UK) Christmas specials were probably the best ending to a TV show - satisfying without seeming too cliche and leaving some ambiguity about what happens next. I think sitcoms that only create 2-3 series leave the best legacy as there is only so much you can do with characters. Gervais and Merchant's formula for 2 series and a special has proven to work well.
"Movies are obviously written with a narrative arch in mind....." I think 90% of Hollywood missed that memo....
Rushing through events in a final season to reach an ending is also just as bad, like what happened with Boardwalk Empire and BBC's Merlin.
@rougelazer8278
4 жыл бұрын
Larry Bundy Jr. Is one of those rare KZreadrs that watches as much as he creates
@sarahtaylor4264
4 жыл бұрын
On season 4 of Merlin. I have few criticisms about the pacing, but I question Morgana's character shift. I get why she has daddy issues and a grudge against Merlin. I don't get why she is so willing to hurt Arthur and doesn't care about Gwen anymore. She loved him like her brother (which he coincidentally is), had zero interest in power, and was a genuinely compassionate person who cared about justice. Gwen was her best friend and she begged Arthur to save her. Gwen didn't do anything wrong to her and is still unaware of her true heritage and Merlin's choice. It feels like a very sudden, not well explained, shift in character to the point of Morgana being unrecognizable. That is bad writing. I can see how that would be a symptom of rushing to the end. Rather than go through the transition in a realistic way they made her into a cartoon villain overnight and hoped we wouldn't care that much.
@spud9846
4 жыл бұрын
Merlin was unwatchable garbage from the get go tbh
@Turiargov
4 жыл бұрын
"The Man in the High Castle" season 4: more rushed than B.
@zorroxemo
4 жыл бұрын
GoT ...
The ending to Avatar: The Last Airbender was incredibly satisfying. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel also had outstanding final episodes.
Game of Thrones is going down the 'we don't know what we're doing but we've got to get it done" route. Their trying to meet budgetary constraints together with no story structure as the TV series has caught up with the books. If the leaked scripts are true, then the final 7th and 8th seasons will not really please anyone. Perhaps GRRM has written himself out, as he hasn't finished the books and obviously hasn't given the showrunners any clues as to how the show should end. A good beginning but a bad ending is unfolding for the TV series because the show cannot pull off an ending in line with the author's vision. Crazy.
@camzoman
7 жыл бұрын
Nah, he's told them how it ends, in case he dies before the show ends. The issue is everything in between, where the writing is going to suffer from lack of fully fleshed out source material painstakingly written over several years.
@christianjadot4459
6 жыл бұрын
As an avid fan of both the show and books, there are still many places it may end up. (I am convinced Arya kills Jon in the end.) It does seem that with only 6 episodes left, that it is concluding too fast. Things that should take an entire episode to conclude will be done in a line of dialogue.
@CeruleanBlue61
6 жыл бұрын
The writers have ran out of book material
@hart-of-gold
6 жыл бұрын
Yes,' they are past the books currently, but the main beats of the story and its ending were determined before the show began.
@paulperkins1615
6 жыл бұрын
Season 7 sucked, though the fans who are just in it for the spectacle liked it well enough. Problem is GRRM told the producers how he intended the story to end, and the producers, who have no talent for writing, decided they knew better and are madly turning an anti-LoTR story into just another LoTR clone.
The problem with comedy series is that they tend to become sad. Either because the characters have gotten what they always thought they wanted only to find that their lives aren't as perfect as they'd hoped or the characters still haven't achieved whatever they wanted and start to come across as increasingly pathetic. Also, the actors age in real time which leads to someone in their 30's or possibly even 40's still playing a teenager or someone in their early 20's. After countless seasons, they tend to pick up on what people like about the character and play up those attributes to the point of self parody. The creators of any show have 2 choices, either keep everything the same or let the story develop. Shows that keep everything the same soon run out of ideas and becoming boring while shows that evolve risk losing their original audiences if they stray too far from what made the show successful to begin with. Finding the right balance is almost impossible.
@charliedawson6318
4 жыл бұрын
British comedy _Peep Show_ embodies this. The final episode ends with one of the leads turning 40 and the very final scene sees our characters in the exact same place (literally and emotionally) as they were 12 years ago in episode one. In that case whoever, it was intentional as the whole show was quite sad.
@laumay7364
4 жыл бұрын
I think Cheers succeeded because when one character left, the new character wasn't a carbon copy of the last so it was a new show every time.
Fargo is an example of a show that should never have these issues, because each season is a self contained story with only small references and loose connections to the movie/other seasons. The endings of all 3 Fargo seasons have been pretty satisfactory, at least in my eyes.
@carledwardsagan8295
7 жыл бұрын
HighJusticeGrimstoner Agreed, just like American Horror Story. Each season follows different stories with new chatacters with an actual conclusion at each end
@acesul8811
6 жыл бұрын
What was Season 3 like? I couldn't get into it after the first episode, even though Season 1 and 2 grabbed me from the start.
@TheSkyfolk
6 жыл бұрын
Hard to explain exactly what it was like. It was excellent, the villain was the slimiest so far and the acting was top notch. Genuinely made me feel uncomfortable a few times. Was a bit slower to get going than the previous 2 seasons however.
*Every 90s TV show finale* - The main character looks at an empty interior of where majority of the show takes place as they turn off the light one last time - roll credits and grab some tissues for those tears
George… you are wrong… there is no 9th Season of Scrubs… we're never talking about this again. Never ever again. Season 9 never happened and is just a bad memory from a parallel universe.
@OdaSwifteye
4 жыл бұрын
It's non canon. Someone wrote a fan season as part of a charity drive.
@aussiewanderer6304
4 жыл бұрын
A great recommendation that would have made it much better would have been for it to have been a spin off with a different title. The fact you're watching 'Scrubs', but everyone you know and have loved for 8 seasons are now just occasional cameos is too jarring to leave a good taste.
@GlaceonStudios
4 жыл бұрын
@@aussiewanderer6304 Maybe _Sacred Heart_?
@jimimac168
4 жыл бұрын
I actually rewatched Scrubs over quarantine. I´m with you there, watched all the way to the end of Season 8 and stopped. As far as I´m concerned "My Finale" is the last episode and was a perfect ending to what, in my opinion, is one of the best written sit-coms ever made
@mrteacher359
4 жыл бұрын
@@jimimac168 it really was!
I usually don't like video series with just one guy talking to the camera. They usually are over-excited, make terrible jokes, plug their channel for half the video, and are WAY too into themselves. You, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. You are easy to listen to, give interesting info, and don't seem to have an inflated ego. Anyway, good job with the videos, and i'll keep watching.
The Simpson imo is the prime example of a series gone bad because it drags on. The last years are just horrible.
@jdenton1337
7 жыл бұрын
TZ it's weird, it's gotten to the point for me where I don't really want The Simpsons to end because I know they'll never do it justice, I know they're not exactly honoring the legacy at the moment but I just don't want the definitive ending to be awful
@anthonylipira9526
7 жыл бұрын
TZ I figured they were going to wrap it up after the movie came out. When it got renewed for several more seasons, I stopped trying to watch it.
@Hammelj
7 жыл бұрын
Jordan I think if it is cancelled it should be done in secret as the next season never comes and it just peters out
@EarthboundX
7 жыл бұрын
I'd says seasons 2-12 are the good ones myself, season one is terrible.
@knightartorias9137
7 жыл бұрын
Seasons 2-8 prime Simpsons
Whether I hate the ending or not, I at least WANT AN ENDING. Better than the shows that get cancelled on a cliffhanger.
@MuttFitness
5 жыл бұрын
I'm still waiting for Spider-Man to save Mary Jane after she was sucked into another dimension.
@skinflutey
5 жыл бұрын
Mutt Fitness me too man, me too.
@Joseph-li3df
5 жыл бұрын
*Sheds a single tear for Firefly*
@Xylarxcode
4 жыл бұрын
@@MuttFitness There was supposed to be one more season of that show where Spider-Man does just that. At the end of the series, when Madame Web takes Spider-Man with her, she was going to take him across time and space and assist him in helping to find the real MJ. That would have been the focus of what they intended to be the last season. And yes, I'm right there with you about still waiting for that particular closure. I've read the reports about it, but it's not the same as getting a movie/season/comic book follow up or whatever to write an ending to that.
@JLE8811
4 жыл бұрын
Hear hear
Breaking Bad didn't end in S4. There were too many plotlines unresolved, especially Hank.
@harrisd1983
5 жыл бұрын
@petulant I believe they weren't sure if it was coming back. All the contracts were up and everyone wanted a raise. When they wrote it the show hadn't become a huge hit yet. So they wrote the season finale as a possible series finale.
@davidmayberry3190
5 жыл бұрын
@@harrisd1983 it didn't catch on right away, but by season 4 I remember it being pretty huge, it had already won a bunch of Emmys and it had big ratings.
@shepherd2148
5 жыл бұрын
Jumbo Jango at that point in season 5, whoever was going up against Walt was far less important. Heisenberg had become the main villain.
@andrewsparkes8829
5 жыл бұрын
@@davidmayberry3190Doug said: "When they wrote it". It was DURING Season 4 that it became a big hit, in terms of audience numbers (and thus profits). Between Season 3 ending and Season 4 starting being aired (i.e. when they wrote it), it was critically acclaimed yes, but good reviews do not get shows renewed. As they wrote Season 4, they were assuming that was the last season they would be writing. Gilligan has even stated this before himself.
@MLennholm
4 жыл бұрын
@Jumbo Jango Walter White was the villain in season 5. That was the whole point of the show, to get him to that point.
1:44 Rest In Peace, Phil Hartman. The tragic irony of his departure from the airwaves wasn't because of a series cancellation
Babylon 5, was a great exception, with a story arc extending over 5 years. With great characters, and fantastic plots. Though it tried to end prematurely, when they thought they were going to be cancelled.
@GenMVeers
6 жыл бұрын
Robin Hislop -- nice to see someone whose memory extends past the last 15 years :) B5 was a trailblazer -- outside of Hill Street Blues, series had been mostly stand-alone episodes only, regardless of their genre. B5 put the ball really rolling, since it was pre-planned *from* *the* *start* *to* *the* *end.* Shame about the cancellation/pick-up mess at the S4/S5 seam...
@paulperkins1615
6 жыл бұрын
I think people make too much of the supposed distortion of the story arc to be ready to end after season 4. Season 5 was always going to be about issues popping back up that we hoped had been resolved by the wars that ended in season 4. But it must have been weird to film the series finale and then make and broadcast one more season before actually showing the final episode.
@BGRANT777X
6 жыл бұрын
B5 is getting the royal nostalgia goggles treatment. It should have ended in the second last episode of season 4. Season 5 sucked
@megamanxhunter
5 жыл бұрын
The last episode was intended for the end of season 4, because the team didn't expect to get a fifth season.
@frankdrebiin
5 жыл бұрын
Babylon 5 is an exception, because it was fully written before they started shooting the first episode.
The ending of The Sopranos was very emotional for me. Every episode used to end with a song kicking in before the credits and when Tony played Journey I knew it was almost over. I watched that show for almost ten years and when I first saw the final episode I really didn't want it to end, but I knew that it would, it was inevitable, obviously. I thought the ending was very well done. A lot of my friends hated it but I thought it was handled well.
@sarfaraz.hosseini
5 жыл бұрын
Yeah, it was a great show and a great ending.
@gordonsalive9998
5 жыл бұрын
A brilliant ending but people misunderstand it for a open ending and that’s usually why they hate it.
@Gunth0r
5 жыл бұрын
@@gordonsalive9998 a perfect ending!
@matthewsantos8525
5 жыл бұрын
I'm going to say in concluded he died only because James died in real life
@DavySolaris
4 жыл бұрын
@@matthewsantos8525 it's been confirmed by David Chase that the ending scene is a "death scene" some time ago. Definitely not an open or ambiguous ending imo.
After mentions of The Soprano’s, Deadwood, and Oz… I got unreasonably excited about the possibility you might discuss Carnivale. That series was written as a complete story, with the finale decided before production started, and meant to be a precise number of episodes that they were going to stretch out over 5 seasons. The audience wasn’t large enough to justify the production costs (record setting at the time) nearing the end of the first season and they were told season 2 (which was already in production if I remember correctly) to wrap it up. The pacing of the show was shocking as they tried to cram all that story into the final episodes they were allotted. Even though season 2 was a mess, I still loved it although I mourned it’s potential (enough to research what happened which is why I know this info). It started to take off in season 2, but it was already too late. It might not seem impressive now, with series like GOT raising the bar of production needed to awe audiences but I’d argue that series was the OG when it comes to building an alternate world to tell a story.
Relationship thing is kinda complicated. If "Will they or won't they" lasts too long, the tension is eventually lost and becomes tiresome.
Lot of misinformation about the end of Breaking Bad here. So here's the real skinny: Breaking Bad was made up as they went along, yes, but they always had a clear arc that the writers were following. The original pitch for the show was "Mr Chips turns into Scarface", and Walt didn't truly enter his Scarface phase until the mid-point of season 5, when he made a deal with Nazis to murder 10 people. Season 4 was only the penultimate step along the way, and was never intended as a finale to the show as a whole. In fact, Vince Gilligan (the head writer) has said more than once that he would have been unsatisfied if the show had ended at season 4. (The reason Breaking Bad feels as if it was meticulously planned out from the beginning is because the writers got extremely good at "mining their own history", as they like to put it. What this means is that they would go back through older episodes to find plot-points and characters that they could bring back into the episodes they were writing. It gives the whole series a cohesive feel.)
@anonb4632
4 жыл бұрын
There was some happenstance in Breaking Bad - Pinkman was supposed to be a smaller part... But a lot of thought had been put into the series. The series is about the corruption of a man, and his descent into evil. There are also some interesting questions about the "straights" in Breaking Bad.
@dash4800
4 жыл бұрын
Even if thats the case, its still miles ahead of every other tv show. I'd say 99% have absolutely no idea where they are going when they start. Its just a neat idea but they have no clue how to end it so they just keep repeating shit over and over until its cancelled. At least with BB they made a logical determination of how long this could go on for and wrote based on that. Honestly the only 2 shows that seemed to have a crystal clear direction from the beginning are Black Sails and Spartacus. Other shows have managed to be satisfying, but outside of those 2 I don't know any that had a definitive ending in mind from the start.
@blandalbloot1138
3 жыл бұрын
@@dash4800 I never saw Black Sails or Spartacus (Black Sails I heard bad things about, Spartacus came out too close to HBO's Rome, which I loved, and so I didn't have room in my heart for another Rome show). Didn't the lead actor of Spartacus die unexpectedly, though? Surely that messed with the writers' plans? Regarding Breaking Bad, if you get into the behind-the-scenes stuff, there's a surprising amount of accidental stuff that happened that, fortunately, made the show better. The original ending to season 1 was going to be this lurid murder-fest that probably would have derailed the show, but fortunately season 1 got cut short by the 2008 writers' strike. And season 2 was supposed to focus on Tuco, but the actor got a starring role on another show, and could only do 2 episodes, which is what forced the writers to find the hyper-serialised format they settled on for season 2 onwards. That's not to take away from the skill of the writers, because obviously they didn't "accidentally" create on of the best shows ever, but Vince Gilligan freely admits that they also had a lot of luck, and that many things that seemed bad at the time actually helped them in the long run.
@Corn_Pone_Flicks
2 жыл бұрын
Even as awesome as it was, Breaking Bad still had the odd weird stumble. Marie's shoplifting habit just sort of disappears after a while and doesn't lead to anything, and similarly, Hank's increasing frustration with her during his recuperation feels as though it will come to a head at some point, but then he gets back on feet, stops being such a dick to her, and they just carry on with no real change to their relationship. Still, for a five-season show, it amazing that the only nits I have to pick are that small.
@Corn_Pone_Flicks
2 жыл бұрын
@@dash4800 The Fugitive may have been the first TV show to actually have an ending in mind, and ended its story while the show was still popular...Kimble finally catches the one-armed man and is exonerated. Granted, that's a simple premise you can essentially do at any point, but shows of that era tended to drag on until they died in the ratings.
I don't know what is worse: A series being canceled or a series being longer than it was intended to be. I hope I don't have any of those problems.
@1pcfred
7 жыл бұрын
At least when a series overstays its welcome you can choose when you quit. When a show gets cancelled other people made the decision for you.
@pca1987
7 жыл бұрын
Ernesto Gomes Bolaños I find a series becoming bad along the wa worse than it being canceled. That usually happens in series becoming longer.
@moon2a379
7 жыл бұрын
None are good
@josephlozano4533
7 жыл бұрын
....When a series runs out of source material.... *Cough* Game of Thrones Season 7
@frakkintoasterluvva7920
7 жыл бұрын
Joseph Lozano You mean GoT seasons 5, 6 and 7. It went downhill when it still hadn't passed the source material but still started to diverge way too much from it.
I wonder if the rise of Netflix and other streaming and/or subscription services will substantially change this dynamic. As far as I understand it, for these services, so it doesn't matter what tv series you are watching as long as the entire service keeps you as a paying customer. Therefore, since the pressure to make a series profitable by keeping it on as long as possible is much reduced, series consisting of fewer seasons and episodes, but longer episodes without commercial breaks that lend themselves to smoother narratives, might enable considerably more series to plan out complete arcs and end well. This certainly seems to be the trend, as television has obviously risen dramatically in quality in the past decade or so and an unprecedented number of series that began in this era have already completed well-received runs.
X-Files is an interesting one. Remember that in the mid 90s most TV shows were not meant to have long story arcs; most of them were just a collection of standalone episodes. The original Star Trek, for example. X-Files started to develop this long thread of government/UFO conspiracy thing that kept the show moving between standalone episodes in a long, ever more complicated web of intrigue story arc. Only problem was, they had no idea where it was going or how to end it, and the show was so popular that thy probably couldn't wrap it up if they wanted to. Then Duchovny left the show after the good, but unsatisfying film, and the story got ever dumber as they lurched towards an ending that just felt flat. Interesting enough, they actually brought the show back recently with the original cast and all. I'm happy to see them back and all but they are making it awful hard on themselves when it comes to writing!
It´s very rare for me to find a channel which I watch two videos of and think "yup, I really like this one". Your channel is one of them, you have a great vocie and the topics are unique and interesting, in this never ending swamp of mediocre click-bait channels that is youtube it was very refreshing tp find your channel. You´ve just earned a sub, and I am VERY picky about the channels I sub to nowadays. Also, the lava lamp is brilliant. I have never seen anyone else use that in videos which mostly consists of talking and I´m kind of suprised I haven´t seen more of that. It´s mezemerizing to watch but it never gets too distracting from what is being said. Keep up the good work!
As a writer myself, I'm actually really surprised that most TV shows are started with no end game in mind. That's so ineffective and so sloppy?
@LividImp
7 жыл бұрын
It's the business. Your six year plans for a complex narrative can be shit-canned midway through the first season. TV writers tend to just wing it because chances are better than not, that what you are working on will never be seen.
@bleedingberryjuice
7 жыл бұрын
Livid Imp Not saying you gotta have a six year plan, it doesn't have to be that complicated, but at least see some sort of end resolution to work your characters and narrative towards. But yeah, I get it, and it's sad.
@SOEINEGAUDI
7 жыл бұрын
i think most times they have a few corner stones of the end in mind, that have to be reached some how (with variable obstacles in the way) for example in how i met your mother it is how the mother is met (and who it should be)... only the real problem is, that at some point they had to give up this corner stone inorder to keep making episodes, which results in grave grave problems. I think in the end, even himym works for so many seasons, because tv writers are no longer telling a story that has to develop towards sth... but viewers are rather enjoying the company of their tv-character-friends who can at times be annoying and boring, but feel familiar. the habit of watching the series is only broken, when all hope has died, that what used to be good about the series would ever return
@dubsy1026
7 жыл бұрын
Because if you lay out a plan for a 5 series story, and it's losing money by season 3, it won't be finished. However, if it's profitable, it will be forced on by the studio, so forgot your plan. Either way, your plan is broken and you have to prepare for both anyway
@sathrielsatanson666
7 жыл бұрын
@Berry Tears that's not necessarily the case. Show creators might have the ending in mind and a plan for 4 season... and then something happens. It might be a show getting insanely popular so they decide to crank up another 4 seasons. Or show is getting cancelled so they have to cram 2 seasons worth of plot in 4 episodes. Or maybe actors go on strike and they have to shorten a season to 14 episodes from 22. And besides making movies or TV shows is not the same as writing a book. TV/studio execs and producers often have as much to say(if not more) than the creators. So sometimes even tho creators have and idea they are forced to do something they don't want. Just look at "Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain"
Monk had an excellent ending. It was extremely satisfying.
@neildennis7294
4 жыл бұрын
Yes, and Psych’s one season too long ending was still somewhat good because, among a few other bright spots, they alluded to Monk being in the next room in its final moments.
@schoudh
3 жыл бұрын
One thing I didn't like about the Monk ending is that he had the biggest clue to his wife's murder was in the gift box he had all along but never opened.
I really enjoyed the follow up movie to breaking bad “el Camino”. It was a satisfying end for me to the story of Jessie Pinkman.
@jesmondsaunders7746
3 жыл бұрын
I LOVED that movie. I remember counting down on the release day. And I thought it did some things better than the original show. And just how good was the one scene with Walt dropped in?
I thought Breaking Bad was always supposed to end after 5 seasons
@reservoirfrogs2177
7 жыл бұрын
LGC Productions It was, people think otherwise because 5 was very different as it didn't follow the same arch as 1 to 4, 5 was the aftermath of 1 to 4
@kuhpunkt
7 жыл бұрын
It wasn't.
@reservoirfrogs2177
7 жыл бұрын
kuh punkt It was
@huydang7313
7 жыл бұрын
It still follows the same arch, the villain in the season is Walter White himself.
@KVirello
7 жыл бұрын
Huy Dang You don't know what a story arc is
Can you possibly do a video on the censorship, and how it can be sometimes overused.
@GeorgRockallSchmidt
7 жыл бұрын
Funny you should mention that - it's the Bizarre Summary after next. It's about censorship in general, I'll do another video about censorship in film specifically too, in the future.
@Danbotology
7 жыл бұрын
I've noticed over the years when they televise old episodes of The Simpsons on Channel 4 they cut out whole bits that make reference to anything the slightest bit controversial. Conversations between two characters often go through some kind of short range dimensional jump and is often very jarring. When a classic episode comes on and you're looking forward to a particular bit in the episode that you've not seen for years and that happens, it's very frustrating- and a little sad that Channel 4 feel they have to censor the broadcast.
@ozzymandias8137
7 жыл бұрын
Chris Acosta there's also a great bobby burns video on the topic
@LOLCRAZEDmonkey
7 жыл бұрын
Dan Coleman-Goss ikr. I always thought something was off when watching lol
@harmonicagoose9676
7 жыл бұрын
ozzymandias I am suscribed to him and have watched that video. I just thought he didn't mention some things that still need to be talked about.
The sopranos has the most perfect ending of all time. It's brilliant, well constructed and satisfying. Unless you didn't get it, then it can be very frustrating.
I didn't hate the end of Lost, I thought it was fine and i was so emotionally involved with the characters by that point it was super emotional. Gotta remember when Lost was on there was nothing else like it and was very popular/talked about.
@MLennholm
4 жыл бұрын
I wasn't exactly a big fan of the ending but it was ok and certainly far from the worst ending ever. Pretty much everyone I've seen who says they hate it simply misunderstood it, i.e. they incorrectly believed it shows that the characters "where all dead the whole time".
@Corn_Pone_Flicks
2 жыл бұрын
@@MLennholm I never understood how that became the prevailing perception, when the final episode took great pains to explain that no, all the stuff on the island did happen and the characters went on to live their lives afterwards. I wasn't really crazy about the ending overall, but people should at least dislike it for what it actually did, not for what they imagine it did.
It's funny that you brought up Happy Days. Considering that the term "Jumping the Shark" came from that show. When Fonzie literally jumped over a shark because the writers thought it would be cool despite in an earlier season Fonzie said he wouldn't keep trying things like that after he'd gotten into an accident trying something similar. Honestly Fan-service is just one of those things that can very easily ruin a show when it's used as a crutch like that.
Babylon 5. The epic, planned-from-the-beginning story concludes half way through season 4 because the show got canceled. Then they were picked back up and there's a season and a half of WTF.
@aronpuma5962
7 жыл бұрын
Of course, you can always watch Babylon 5's unofficial series "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" if you want something similiar with a satisfying ending. And by satisfying, I mean incredibly satisfying, because pretty much everyone gets a resolution and the last 5 episodes are just, so, strong. Babylon 5 of course has a more complex and layered plot, but in general, DS9 has better character arcs and character writing that really make it soar. DS9 also has generally better acting and some really ambitious standout episodes. And in terms of each series stand out characters, well, DS9 has Quark and Garak and Dukat, although Babylon 5 has Londo and G'Kar. I think that's a wash. And of course, for both series, their first season is something to just get through (for the most part) before you reach the good stuff.
@StygianBeach
7 жыл бұрын
Having just rewatched DS9, I can say that Bab5 is much better. Sisko takes 4 seasons to become likeable, also Sisko's big reveal feels contrived compared to Sinclairs. The G'Kar/Londo story is way better than the Kira/Ducat story. Garak is pretty cool, but the Kardassian's just did not get enough attention. Ducat was very poorly handled. Quark has some good moments, but the moogie stuff gets tedious. Also I like how the Narn/Centari conflict was not as black and white as the Kardassian/Bajor conflict. In DS9 the badie race wear black and look like Lizards. Season 1 of Bab5 is hard work when you watch it the first time, but it is brilliant when you re-watch it after finishing all 5 series and realise just how much foreshadowing is there. I would say that the main thing that DS9 has (apart from much better sets) over Bab5 is that the final season is a real final season.
@1pcfred
7 жыл бұрын
All of Babble On 5 was WTF, or rather WFB?
@acesul8811
6 жыл бұрын
Technically incorrect. They weren't sure they would be picked up for a 5th season so they filmed the series finale that wrapped all the major plot points just in case. When they got picked up for Season 5 they continued with the telepath plotline which was planned from the beginning (originally for Talia Winters)
@ejungleska
6 жыл бұрын
@Ace, yes, that's why Season 4 was almost non-stop action. Which in some ways I enjoyed. You get all this First Ones story line out of the way, but then realize there's still problems at home. Which also pisses me off why Crusade was cancelled so early but shows like Andromeda get picked up.
I think Pretty Little Liars also should've ended way earlier. They just kept on adding weird plot twists that made no sense
@owlnemo
7 жыл бұрын
My god that ending! Granted, the show was already rather ridiculously over-the-top, but it was still well executed and fun for the most part. This finale was the worst thing ever. Secret twin axe murderer who just was jealous and psychotic. Waow. First A (Mona) arc was really good. Second A (Charlotte) arc had good things and bad things (the bunker was really over-the-top and the reveal was meh and a weird depiction of transgender people). Third A (evil fake British accent axe murderer Spencer twin) was the worst. Some of the episodes of this arc were already rather bad and "fanservicy", but nothing compared to that horrendous finale. Even bad fanfic could maybe have done better.
@PowerRedBullTypology
5 жыл бұрын
The mona thing made sense, but anything after that was more of the same without a logical structure to support it. So it should have stopped after the first seasons (first 2 I believe when mona came out of the 'a' closet?)
cough cough DEXTER
@hulakan
6 жыл бұрын
Dexter indeed... one of the worst TV series endings of all time.
@INCC74656I
6 жыл бұрын
i was told not to watch it so i have seen teh series twice but never watched the last episode...
@hulakan
6 жыл бұрын
I am delighted to hear that you do what you're told. Give me all your money immediately.
@longliverocknroll5
6 жыл бұрын
As a fan of Dexter, it wasn't even that it didn't end well, it's that they were NEVER going to live up to season 4 and what Lithgow brought to the show in that season. Everything after season 4 was just okay, at best, with season 5 being the only real standout and part of 7 being good, with 6 and 8 being absolutely awful. When you can predict the ending to a series about catching a murderer in episode 2 of 12, that's a pretty big "we're fucked" moment.
@TheBlarggle
5 жыл бұрын
The moment he didn't kill that one bitch and instead fucked her on his killing table, the series was over for me.
supernatural is a great example where it should've ended at the end of season 5.
@jokester3076
7 жыл бұрын
They should have stopped at season 5 and made a spinoff with Jared
@jagdjohn96
7 жыл бұрын
Derek Baehni oh my god i was thinking the same goddamn thing!
@mitchellhorton9382
7 жыл бұрын
I actually don't mind it. 6 and 7 tried to take itself seriously again; they fired the show runner, and gave people the camp they wanted. It's basically 2 shows to me. And man, I don't care how stupid and convoluted it was, God as their roommate was hilarious.
@irrationalgaz
7 жыл бұрын
Derek Baehni I was literally about to write the very same thing. When Eric Kripkey conceived the show it had an intelligent 5 year arc. When they announced that the show would continue before the S5 finale had even aired it sucked out all the tension and emotional impact. The show is now a parody of it's self but given that it is the CW's highest earning show in relation to it's meagre production cost there seems to be no end in sight for the Winchester brothers.
@mitchellhorton9382
7 жыл бұрын
@gaz and it's a great comedy now! Man, the show Kripke did next was TERRIBLE. He should have stayed on and tried to make SPN good.
The Shield had a great final episode.
@greatsageequalofheaven8623
7 жыл бұрын
A million upvotes- great call
@patanouketgersiflet9486
7 жыл бұрын
Teeny Tiny Asakura : It sure did. One of the very best in my opinion. Even though it was extended past the 5 seasons it was first supposed to last because of the screenwriters being on strike then, including the showrunner Shawn Ryan, if I remember well.
@chrissedaka8141
6 жыл бұрын
The Shield> Breaking Bad Breaking Bad was like watching mice being orchestrated through a maze by a cat that cared about the well-being of one of the mice. The Shield was like watching mice find their own way through a maze full of starving cats.
This is why an ongoing repeated tagline in the background of scenes throughout The Truman Show said "HOW IS IT GOING TO END?"
This guy deserves his own TV show...oh wait, TV is dead...
@hannibalburgers477
4 жыл бұрын
250k+ subscribers and no like in 1,5 years. Here have a like you poor creature.
The Shield. I've shown and told sooo many people about it. When I tell people about it, they always seem to think it's like Law & Order. Where it's a different story with different characters every week. It's linear. It follows 4 corrupt undercover cops, 2 detectives and 2 beat cops. In my opinion, the best TV show I have ever seen. Nary a bad episode, and everyone left you wanting to see what happens next. I think it's funny that you mentioned 7 seasons. The Shield had 7 seasons and knew that was the end. Characters had dug themselves so deep, and circumstances had gotten out of control and way over their heads. All that was left was a reckoning. I tell all who read this, watch The Shield. It is the definition of greatness.
@kevaninthe4135
5 жыл бұрын
The Shield was like TV crack. Brilliant television.
Here's another thing to consider: It's even worse when you're not a native English speaker, and are watching an American or an English show in your country, so changes in a show and general problems kinda become exponential. Not only can voice actors inherently change the whole tone and feeling of the show, but when there is a change of a voice actor, this can impact the fans' reception of the whole show. For example, here in Germany, after The X-Files was revived, they changed Mulder's dubbing actor (dumb idiots). Can you imagine how pissed off fans were? This, of course, has nothing to do with how well the show end, but has everything to do with how well it is received by fans all over the world, since the show's market is not only in the US (or UK, for that matter), but usually worldwide.
@kunyoruyo
7 жыл бұрын
whiterottenrabbit Yes! Exactly!! Specially if the dubbing actors are well know for other, more fitting roles. In "Bones" dr. Brennan has the same voice as the old lady from the looney tunes.
@maujo2009
7 жыл бұрын
I feel you. In Latinamerica, the quality of dubbing (both in TV and movies) has decayed horrifically.
@theBabyDead
7 жыл бұрын
They should stop dubbing shit and start subbing it, period
Let me just correct the title: "Why American TV Series Are Difficult To End Well."
Castle anyone? It fits so well with all his points. It had a satisfying ending of Season 7 which tied up every loose ends in a neat-ish end, but had a shitty Season 8 which became a parody of itself. The two main cast gets together even though many warned the producers that that's gonna ruin the show.
@kopicat2429
4 жыл бұрын
Problem with Castle was that it was cancelled(i think?) The two main actors hated each other. It got so bad they where only able to talk to one another while in-character apparently.
georg, the wire has the most satisfying ending of all time. no character is truly satisfied, the system wins in the end and the game is still the game
@stevebrizzle
6 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I thought it was strange he didn't mention The Wire.
@randomprotag9329
6 жыл бұрын
The tv show with the most satisfying ending is life on mars (cant say for ashes to ashes yet) for me at least
@TheBlarggle
5 жыл бұрын
Certainly not the American version of Life On Mars. One season, ended in a rather bullshitty way because the series got canceled.
4:22 - saay what?Breaking Bad was planed as 5 sezon series from very beginning. If fact this tv series broke me: I'm unable to watch generic tv series after so well plan out and executed story.
@hamoony999
7 жыл бұрын
Egon check out better call saul. its a satisfying continuation of the characters
@LOLCRAZEDmonkey
7 жыл бұрын
hamoony999 I think im starting to like Sual more then breaking bad now lol
@dragonmasterlance123
7 жыл бұрын
Breaking Bad was, for lack of a better term, made up on the fly. Some plot threads and ideas were planned from the start but generally they never knew exactly where it was headed.
@mk2mister2
7 жыл бұрын
hamoony999 Isn't it technically a prequel to the events of Breaking Bad? I felt Better Call Saul was a bit slow in the beginning but it gets really good. :-)
@sathrielsatanson666
7 жыл бұрын
Yes, it is definitely a slow-burn but worth it. And yes, it is a prequel as we see Jimmy before he became Saul Goodman.
This is why Avatar: The Last Airbender is so good. It has three seasons, and tells one complete story
@williamfulenwider7332
6 жыл бұрын
Agreed
@thomasstarkey8238
5 жыл бұрын
It can't hold a candle to the film though
@mrJety89
5 жыл бұрын
lol
@lorenzoamato953
4 жыл бұрын
@@thomasstarkey8238 LOL
@tedsowards
4 жыл бұрын
This comment should have hundreds of upvotes
Six Feed Under had a great ending. I had to cry whenever I listened to the last song for a whole year!
i stopped watching lost the moment i saw jj abrams TED talk about his magic box... (also i never watched another TED talk...) before you feel tempted to watch the talk: He basically explains that his method to come up with a story is, to include some kind of 'magic box'/mistery, that keeps the viewer interested. all tension is derived from wanting to know what is inside... but other than that it has no purpose. the mystery is no deeper truth, some enlightenment or moral... only a device. it's not supposed to be more than a cheep trick to keep you entertained for a bit
@wayne7055
7 жыл бұрын
SOEINEGAUDI it's funny because he admits he's a hack with no deep meaning himself
@PhilipHarwell
7 жыл бұрын
SOEINEGAUDI ugh, so sick of the mystery box thing. explaining things is good sometimes!
@kuhpunkt
7 жыл бұрын
Abrams work on LOST was very limited.
@rooty
7 жыл бұрын
I am SO glad I realised this at the end of the very first episode and never watched any more of it.
@kuhpunkt
7 жыл бұрын
What did you realize?
What about futurama's ending
@hoboken3971
7 жыл бұрын
T.V.C cartoons How I Met Your Mother?
@lildominator2953
7 жыл бұрын
T.V.C cartoons as much as online futurama it being my favorite tv show. That ending was horrible. We have to restart everything to fix everything and we won't remember any of it.
@thenightrider2121
7 жыл бұрын
Well Futurama had three finales. I don't mind the last one even if it is kind of a Deus Ex Machina. And will probably lead to everything happening again on an infinite loop.
@lildominator2953
7 жыл бұрын
Craig Martin I love that show. But it makes everything we watched and went through with the characters meaningless in the end by just erasing it. The loop concept means that technically there are no consequences.
@thenightrider2121
7 жыл бұрын
It is probably the weakest of the finales by far, I will agree to that. And I can see that it makes what happens in the show meaningless.
Breaking Bad season 5 was beautiful, and a great way to end the series.. What the fuck, you expected to show to end at season 4? Why? There was so many lose ends.. The last 3 episodes of BB are my favourite finale to any TV show ever..
Six Feet Under's series finale was the most satisfying I've ever seen
@yvindkorsnes2296
6 жыл бұрын
I dont think anyone can disagree with that.
@Jah_LEASE_yah
4 жыл бұрын
Yeah definitely. Six feet under was probably the only show I can think of that had a truly satisfying ending.
@robjabbaz
4 жыл бұрын
See: Eastbound and Down
@stoozdee
4 жыл бұрын
rob jabbaz facts
@Gaveno112
4 жыл бұрын
I stopped watching after the weird afterlife time jump thing. I'm now curious to watch that show again
It's hard for me to get expressly invested in many television shows because of the problems you mentioned in the video - especially when it feels like a show should have ended on a certain season, or it just feels like they're making things up as they go along, which can be really disheartening to notice (or read about in the tabloids.) It's why I have a much easier time watching television shows that feature an entirely new story every season - those like Fargo or American Crime.
Please follow this up with your thoughts on Twin Peaks, both what they did stretching out the second series, and what they're doing with the current series, which makes Lost seems suddenly extremely watchable.
Mad Men ended well for me.
@alexanderforbes1452
6 жыл бұрын
Mad Men had a good ending, but it had pretty much run out of steam by the time they get there. I think they had an end in mind and they made sure not to put the characters in a place that they couldn't employ it when the time came. You could cut a good two or three seasons off of Mad Men and used the same ending and it would have been a stronger show overall.
@perhaps9460
4 жыл бұрын
There were still some plot lines that felt unresolved to me, but besides that I loved the ending
Spot on as always man. Particularly agree with you in regards to Oz but that's show end went past its sell-by date long before the show itself ended.
Can you talk about Tommy Wiseau's The Room and why it's so bad it's good ?
@lildominator2953
7 жыл бұрын
What's the point? I can understand wanting his point of view, but that movie has been blown so out of proportion. It's not even amusing anymore
@paulspud724
7 жыл бұрын
You answered your own question, I'd like to see Georg talk about this so that's why I suggested it.
@Vanessinha91Pucca
7 жыл бұрын
The Room is such a basic thing that we don't need an analysis of why it is bad yet a cult.
@paulspud724
7 жыл бұрын
You're tearing me apart Vanessa
@DendyJungle
7 жыл бұрын
Top Spud he should do a video on steve buscemi being a part time firefighter
Lost and Dexter are the biggest 'late game' fails in my opinion. Both ended so badly it makes me struggle to remember what I liked about them in the first place. Cancelled too early - Alcatraz, though I do recognise that this could very easily have followed Lost down the absurdity path
@thehitherto5348
7 жыл бұрын
That's one of the worst consequences of sloppy endings; it can make the whole series seem weaker in its entirety. I tend to solve such problems by imagining earlier and superior season-endings as the "real" conclusion.
@itspricila
7 жыл бұрын
TheSentry777 i still love Dexter especially the seasons 1-5
@robbie_
6 жыл бұрын
Dexter is another show that I actually enjoyed the ending. I didn't think it was bad at all. It's kind-of open-ended too; I read somewhere they're thinking of doing another season.
I'm sure I'm not the first to say this but, well: The Wire! It was definitely written with not only episode arcs in mind, but seasonal arcs, and a story arc which spanned the entire 5 season show. I honestly fear that I'll never watch anything so well written again
Wow this is amazing content. Who would've thought that shorter shows following a set story with a predetermined ending would end better than shows that just make stuff up on the fly? And who would've thought that the main reason for shows dragging on and going to shit would be money? My god, it's as if I've swallowed the red pill. This is the new era of intellectual videos on youtube about film analysis.. it's truly flourishing .
Because they go on too long or the creators lose the meaning of the show.
@logansmith2703
7 жыл бұрын
FManAngryAmerican or they answer the central theme.
I think Breaking Bad is a prime example of how extending a show could actually been done well if you have the right talent behind it. Vince Gilligan set up everything nicely in Season 5 and gave the show a good conclusion, even if Season 4 had a stronger narrative and ending
@ethanbrock5453
7 жыл бұрын
Jake yancey Breaking bad wasn't extended though. It was planned to have 5 seasons from the beginning.
firefly is a better example of cancelled too soon than any I can think of. It eventually got a movie that was pretty good but it was no replacement for what could have been :'(
I do not believe breaking bad was meant to end at the end of season 4. Season 4 ends some arcs for sure, but season 5 was always intended IIRC.
Between poor endings of over extended series and series that were canceled way too soon (Serenity, Dark Angle, Flash Forward, Sarah Conner Chronicles etc), there are precious few series that actually do end well. Possibly the ones that do are either extremely episodic with no real long story arcs, or, they are written with each season being very self contained. The Wire is an example where each season was one completed arc and where any season could have been the end and the actual end was fine. But this is at the expense of a predetermined multi season narrative. Basically, if you have a story arc that is going to take 5 seasons, it will either get cancelled or they want season 6. So the only way to end well is not to start with a 5 season narrative.
@skyscreamstudios
7 жыл бұрын
Serenity was the 2 hour feature film finale of the cancelled series Firefly. Yeah. I'm that kind of nerd. Sorry. ;)
@LividImp
7 жыл бұрын
You're not alone Terry, was coming here just to add that correction myself.
@1pcfred
7 жыл бұрын
Yeah I'm glad they got to do the Serenity movie. Sometimes it is good to go out on top.
Dexter. Season 2 should have been its final season, or the story of it anyway, and the Eighth season should be buried in that landfill they took all the Atari ET games from.
@mattcelder
7 жыл бұрын
H.D Beird Can't believe he didn't talk about Dexter. One of the worst cases of a show that outlived it's welcome and was ruined by new writers completely missing the point of what made the show great in it's early seasons.
@patanouketgersiflet9486
7 жыл бұрын
H.D Beird : I remember watching season 3 and thinking all the way how dreadful and contradictory to its own principles it was. I kept watching till season 3 finale, and never considered watching a second of coming seasons after that. Yet I think the first 2 seasons are really nice and original.
@AdamLynch551
7 жыл бұрын
series 4 was amazing, 3 was indeed rubbish, but 4 is one of the best, John Lithgow's performance ruled. crazy that he didn't mention Dexter though.
@G00berella
7 жыл бұрын
Should have been season 1, 2 (kinda), 4 then goodbye forever.
@rotoplooker5844
7 жыл бұрын
DEXTER has to be my number one regarding unsatisfactory endings. As if the writers deliberately made ALL the choices that would annoy the hell out of long time viewers.
"avatar the last airbender" may be a kids show, but it feels like they knew how it ended from the first episode and stuck to the premise. I wish shows like lost had stuck to there premise without over-complicating things
Great insights. I share the frustration of majority of series being written as they go. I like contained, though-out, preconceived closed arcs. I think we gravitate to stories with a "pay-off", because we don't get that in real life.
How was season 4 of Breaking Bad an ending to the series? The entire series is building up to a confrontation between Walter and Hank, with many episodes detailing Hank attempting to find out who Heisenberg is and almost figuring it out. Likewise the series was advertised as turning Walter into a villain but aside from let Jane die in Season 2 the audience is completely on Walter's side in the first 4 seasons. Especially since Walter is in a position that he was forced into. The series beginning with a ticking clock at the start with Walter's death being imminent also foreshadowed this, and Walter poisoning a child without Jesse knowing clearly foreshadowed a confrontation between the two. Season 5 is the season that delivers on all of what the show was building on. Without it, we wouldn't have seen Breaking bad as a series where the hero becomes a drug kingpin but more so a series where a guy creates meth and eventually takes down a drug kingpin at the very end and suffers zero consequences. It's extremely hard to imagine that anyone would have been satisfied with Season 4 being the final season to the show.
I'll be honest, I never thought about why TV shows are hard to end well, but I do agree with you. One point, to me, that seems to show the benefit of tv series not overstaying their welcome is (generally) anime. Most last for 13 or 26 episodes and generally when they end, the quality of how they end it is debatable, but they do a good job capping off the show.
@mandAbih
7 жыл бұрын
Eh, really? Maybe some older anime, but most of the newer seasonal ones (circa 2011/2 and onward) that are direct adaptations have manga/LN-bait endings. Yeah, there's the 'minor' sense of conclusion, but most of the times all questions don't really get answered.
@theBabyDead
7 жыл бұрын
To name a few very bad examples: Dragonball Z, ruined with - gt - super, retconning all we loved about DBZ Naruto, ruined through filler and a rushed ending. Anime deviated from the manga. Bleach -- should've ended with the aizen saga, perfect sage, perfect ending. Entire show ruined by the new stuff. To name a few good examples: - Kenichi (even though the manga never ended there) - Death Note (Pretty much perfect) - avatar the last airbender (Though Korra kind of ruined that, too) So basically what I'm saying is, still the same BS as in tv shows today. Though older anime were better at it, but so were tv shows generally.
One example of a show that ended well and wrapped up all loose ends after a decade of episodes is The Shield. It spends an entire series hinging on the events of the first episode. Antagonists come and go but in the end the main Character is still the focus and carries the show up until the final fifteen minutes of silence. It's been a while since I've viewed it in its entirety but I watch the final episodes quite frequently. A series that did not really end well was Centennial. It started out so good and really holds you attention until the final episode where a major star is brought in (Andy Griffith) only to kind of fizzle out. It's a good ending that wraps up many loose ends but the series or mini-series best plots are behind it. Great videos!
Frasier ended well I thought, it's one of the only tv finales I was satisfied with. Sure Niles and Daphne got together before the show ended but it wasn't about them. And they carried their plot threads well enough it didn't matter.
That god damned lamp better stay right where the fuck it is.
Avatar The Last Airbender had a great finale.
@sim.frischh9781
6 жыл бұрын
Because the writers knew where to go. And let´s face it, the finale had two of the best fights of the entire show with Aang vs. Ozai and Zuko vs. Azula! I still have to watch Legend of Korra though.
@BryanBoytano
6 жыл бұрын
only saw the movie so i’m betting it was also garbage
@BK-ku1zt
6 жыл бұрын
The film was made by sir M night shamalamadingdong himself, hence why it was crap throughout. He messed with the characters including their relationships and personalities, twisted the rules of the universe and wrote it completely backwards. The film takes itself as seriously as M night does for himself when the show was never like that, it dealt with a lot of heavy shit but it never presented itself as some fantasy epic like lord of the rings. And Sim, Korra is eh. Not as good as the original, not even close, but it's watchable. There are a lot of problems with the writing but there's a hint of the original in there - one major problem that does relate to this video is that the writers for Korra kept getting told to wrap things up and getting extra seasons, leaving them stranded.
@williamfulenwider7332
6 жыл бұрын
@@BK-ku1zt I love the original and recently bought it. I agree with your thoughts on the trash fire that is the movie. My question is does watching kora add to the original or take away from it?
@Crofflzron
6 жыл бұрын
After having watched the first three books only (just started with the last) of Korra, I'd say it doesn't take away from the original at all. It's not something I'd say you MUST watch, but I found it very entertaining and well done. It's not as good as the original, but still better than many other series out there.
This guy was onto something before we saw what d&d did with game of thrones s8
Stargate SG-1 had several chances to end well. Seasons 7 or 8 would have been able to close the series with very little tweaking without too many plot holes being left, especially with Atlantis being in the works. But it went on for 2 more seasons and 2 movies. While these were in no way bad, thanks to the help of Ben Browder & Claudia Black coming right off of Farscape, it would have been best to end the entire series with the Goa'uld being wiped out from the Milky Way, rather than bringing in a new big baddie to fight for 2 more seasons.
@RFerrer
7 жыл бұрын
Yeah, the defeat of the Goa'uld was the perfect conclusion to the series. The Ori was just beating a dead horse.
@serenaistheb.o.a.t
6 жыл бұрын
SG-1s last episode is terrible. Horrible way for such a great show to go out. Apparently the writers wanted to end the show after season 8 and create a new spin off called Stargate Command which would introduce Mitchell, Vala, Laundry and the Ori, but the network refused and forced them to make that into a season 9 and 10.
@blahdose
4 жыл бұрын
I love this show so much, i think the ori storyline wasn't as impressive and with O'Neil gone it was at a serious disadvantage but imo it pulled through. Not brilliant like the goaul storyline but good.
Airbender may have the greatest tv finale with it's wonderfully structured 3 seasons building up to the climax, Korra was just ok
@Tacom4ster
7 жыл бұрын
***** Well if Nick weren't being cowards, the writers wouldn't have to wrap up within a season every time Though Brian and Mike left alot of great writers, like Dave Filoni and Aaron Ehasz, who was the main writer of the show Brian and Mike were kinda like George Lucas
@ThePreciseClimber
6 жыл бұрын
I wouldn't call the first season of ATLA "wonderfully structured." In fact, it was pretty messy.
And you don't mention a few big examples... *Babylon 5* and *Farscape.*
A show that I think got canceled too early is Hannibal but at least there was somewhat of a resolution to it. Though I wish the show went on for longer. Very visually appealing and had good acting as well as writing.
@ThreadBomb
6 жыл бұрын
There is talk about them doing more, though I doubt it will happen. I would like to see this show's version of Silence of the Lambs, which has potential to be better than the movie.
And then there's Duckman. They knew they were being cancelled so they deliberately wrote in huge cliffhanger.
@frozenbinarystudio
2 жыл бұрын
Brilliant show. Gotta love how ballsy it was for them to pull that move.
I thought of "Gravity Falls". Great ending to a pretty short series. Never felt this kind of Goodbye-Moment since the Harry Potter Franchise.
Star Trek Deep Space Nine has an extremely satisfying ending. Star Trek Enterprise had a hit and miss finale in that, it's mostly bad, but it's also entertaining. Space Above and Beyond only got 1 season and it's ending was a rather downer. Left more questions than answers. Firefly felt like it just ended because " _it did_ ". I sure hope Star Trek Discovery turns out great. Once I am done with Highlander, ( _5-6 episodes left of S5 before S6, and then there's the Raven spin-off_ ), I'll have to get into Stargate Universe and Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles.
@aronpuma5962
7 жыл бұрын
What's weird about DS9 to me, with its end, is that the end is so so strong, despite season 7, in some ways seeming at first to be slightly dragging. I think Season 6 was better than Season 7, although the end is great. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
@Vanessinha91Pucca
7 жыл бұрын
I'm very positive that DS9 had the end in the writers mind since day one.. TNG ending was amazing too. About Discovery.. Well if you like The reboot movies and a darker Star Trek (such as DS9) it will be ok.. If you are like me and don't like DS9, the reboot, TNG movies and think that the peak of Star Trek was TNG (and strong love Rodenbery Vision)... it will suck
@LOLCRAZEDmonkey
7 жыл бұрын
Didn't Firefly make a movie to fix the ending, sort of?
@LordofGondor69
7 жыл бұрын
Steve Yes, but it was just a two hour movie. The series was planned as a four seasons concept so the movie feels really rushed as it is killing main characters by dice roll randomness.
@mikester1290
7 жыл бұрын
Similar thing with Farscape right?
i just watched the final scene of black adder, situated in the trenches of ww 1 in 1917. and i think this one is absolutely brilliant... would be interested to know how you think of it
Great video Georg, well done mate. Special thanks for mentioning Oz and how great it is, Oz is not mentioned enough :(
One good example of a long TV show whose quality was mercilessly degraded because its two leads were made to fall for each other towards its end, and which I'm surprised you didn't mention in your video, was Mulder & Scully from _The X-Files_ , who (SPOILER) end up romantically involved after season 8 (END SPOILER), drastically hurting their dynamic and consequently, the show's quality, not to mention that it was a painfully unnecessarily stretched show that, in my opinion as a hard fan, should have ended in Season 6.
@1pcfred
7 жыл бұрын
Yeah the way the X-Files fell apart was painful to watch.
@longliverocknroll5
6 жыл бұрын
The real reason it fell apart was Duchovny deciding he wanted out, and the show runners realizing that people didn't really care enough about Anderson to justify the show still existing. Also the writing got a lot worse, and, like Lost, they kept building holes of bullshit with the main plot that needed to be brimmed with more bullshit to make it seem remotely plausible or realistic in its own universe (and they failed). The best episodes for me are still the stand-alone's; Jose Chung, Drive, Clyde Bruckman, Squeeze-Tooms, Humbug, Bad Blood, Home, Ice and Musing's of a Cigarette Smoking Man.
@macree01
5 жыл бұрын
@@longliverocknroll5 AGREED!! Peter Boyle is FIRE in Clyde Bruckman, definitely one of the strongest episodes in the show. I also love Jose Chung ... another strong contender is "The Post-Modern Prometheus"
Can you give a citation for where breaking bad was supposed to end at season 4? I've never heard that before and was jw
A fascinating counter-example was Person of Interest. It started as some sort of Minority Report, but with AI instead of psychics, reinvented itself several times and ended in a spectacularly intense season that wrapped up the whole story well.
Battlestar Galactica comes to mind as being nicely wrapped up. Plus the Galactica flying into the sun was epic.