Best Ending of These Aughts TV Serials

the ending of "the wire" is hysterically bad

oops meant SHIELD for chrissakes

The Shield was a completely perfect ending.

Friday Night Lights was cool too.

Wire was ok, BG and Lost were bad.

The Shield, followed by The Sopranos.

There's nothing wrong with the Wire ending, it just kinda wraps up as you'd expect. FNL does the same, only much better,

The Lost and BSG finales are total shitshows.

The Buffy finale's not all that great; Angel's is far superior.

fuck Six Feet Under.

lol Simon otm

god i will never not be angry about the BSG ending and i didn't even like the show that much

Shield forever.

LOST was ridiculously bad, almost to the point where it felt like a deliberate intentional fuck you to their fans.

Has anyone aside from JJ and DaLin ever defended it? Would love to hear what Red Letter Media would have to say about it.

I rep for the LOST ending, but it's not as good as The Sopranos or The Shield or Six Feet Under (a not-good show but a fitting ending).

i'm hoping the answer is "breaking bad" but these endings always seem so disappointing. so hard to do wrap things up well.

what do you like about the LOST ending? xp

Jack learns shit and sacrifices himself and there's a dog and a closing eye

No john doe no credibility

Voted for the Wire, but I haven't finished The Shield and Six Feet Under yet.

I'm only on Season 5 of the Shield; my friends who've watched the whole thing say it has one of the best endings of any TV show ever. BSG easily the worst of the ones I've seen.

Admit I haven't watched all of these but of the ones I've seen Oz is pretty good as is the Sopranos (probably vote for the latter). Final Wire montage is great, but the fifth season itself is decidedly not and 6FU petered out long before they got to the finale. Lost and BSG are garbage.

The Lost and BSG finales both have not-horrific little moments, but on the whole they're both insulting in pretty similar ways.

The Shield gets my vote for being the perfect ironic ending to match the unrelenting bleakness of the show.

Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost all got so ludicrous by their last seasons, that no great ending could possibly fix them.

The Wire ending was fine, but the last season was just so-so.

Buffy started somewhat crapuletnly, and ended similarly, but the middle, holy shit.

The final episode of "Buffy" gets just enough of its shit back together but it still really makes you wish they had ended it with season five. Season finale, 100th episode, Whedon writes and directs, major character dies (spoiler?) doing something noble and thematically appropriate. And season six is pretty grim.

Must investigate The Shield, I guess? I watched a season of The Commish so it's hard for me to imagine Michael Chiklis being in anything "bleak"

Oh, you have no idea.

Both Lost and BSG are great, exciting finale episodes that somehow screw completely everything up in the closing scenes.

I mean, horrible as it was, me and Mrs Chuck bawled through the whole Lost finale, so it was doing something impressive I guess

Must investigate The Shield, I guess?

You must. I hold the controversial opinion that it's better than The Wire in some respects. First season is a bit lacklustre though.

I haven't seen anything past the first season of The Wire. I watched Season One back-to-back-to-back eating cereal, I was so addicted, I decided to skip the subsequent seasons. I haven't seen any of these shows, actually, except Battlestar Galactica. I've never seen The Sopranos. What am I even doing in this thread

When the Money Train scenario starts unfolding towards the end of season 2 into 3, that is where I started thinking this IS better than The Wire.

What I loved about The Shield is how mistakes/errors in judgement made in the first episode continue and compound for several seasons. It's just so smart with its characters and storytelling, not unlike "Breaking Bad." Things are always moving forward even when they seem to be moving sideways.

There's maybe half a season's worth of flab in the whole run and a couple missed opportunities, but other than that The Shield is pretty much perfect.

Six Feet Under - not my favorite series by a long shot, but the flash-forward with the techno-pop is surprisingly moving

Angel would have won, had it been polled, though.

*won my vote

i watched the first season of The Shield recently. pretty solid, chiklis actually is really incredible in it. i remember it debuted at basically the same time as The Wire, and i maybe somewhat unfairly found it really hard to take seriously back then because it just seemed so, y'know, this is so the old cop show idiom just with butts and people saying "shit". im probably a lot more prepared to accept The Shield on its own terms these days, i guess partly my tastes have become broader and also it doesnt have to compete now with a show i last watched like 7 years ago.

'aughts'?

The Shield did its sensationalist oh shit stuff very well, but it will never be as good as The Wire based solely on the endless and terrible exposition scenes.

If we're talking purely about the final frames of the series, the final moment, Lost's was great. It was the two hours leading up to that scene that were infuriating.

"Ok, the show's over now, I guess I'll lie down and take a nap."

I voted for the show eazy voted for.

how does the west wing end? bartlet leaving, or santos in his office, or josh in his office?

i am actually watching nypd blue in order right now since i saw a lot of it in repeats in the early half of the decade but never saw how it turned out. the prospect of sipowicz's promotion is appealing, though at the moment (in the beginning of the seventh season) things have flagged a little after he weathered simone and costas' deaths without falling off the wagon. (i think the writing fell off near the end of the sixth season for some reason, that weird milch-ian working class shakespeare sound of the dialogue has disappeared.) but despite the show's flaws (too confined from being shot in la while being set in new york, casework and interview scenes can get a bit samey) it's still doing things with long-term characterization and continuing narrative that can seem less contrived than on the high-status tv-auteur shows that followed it. (i.e., more like tv, less like omg-tv-can-be-like-novels-or-movies.)

the wire has an apt ending but it loses effectiveness from coming at the end of the fifth season.

shield ending is all-time, i look forward to seeing it again after doing the series all in one shot, gave up recently though when re-viewing season 1.

the shield easily, sopranos and six feet under for runners up. the shield works really well as something to marathon, alot of the complaints i heard from ppl who watched it as it aired were really minimized for me watching it all over a couple of months. not nearly as down on the lost and bsg finales as some (esp the bsg) though i'll admit that pretty much every complaint ppl have of them (and more the last season or so of each series) is totally fair. wire last episode has some of the pat cynicism and score settling that weakens that last season but i remember liking bugs climbing those stairs, marlo taking that corner, the wake for lester and mcnulty, and the final montage. i'm trying to remember who's still alive by the last episode of oz.

i can't remember anything abt bsg after new caprica, they should've ended it with them leaving there

always thought the wire ending was incredible don't know what y'all are talking about, but maybe i'm mostly just remembering the montage

i'm not too down on the lost finale either, much more annoyed about the preceding episodes about jacob and bro

would've voted Angel, as well

i'm trying to remember who's still alive by the last episode of oz.

The finale isn't memorable but the last season of Oz was crazy - Aryan #2 booted because he got Jewish gums!

also aids iirc right? i remembered the prison shut down cuz meloni biochemmed the aryans for beecher and he comitted suicide and also had beecher accidentally kill schillinger in that production of macbeth by switching out a prop knife w/ a real one, but i couldn't remember just how much of all that was in the finale vs say the penultimate episode. that show got really ridiculous by the end (and it's not like it started out sober and dry). i never did see the last er and i watched a few of that last run.

ha just remembered baltar and six standing by a newstand in the present day and the montage of o no we are building robots now have we learned nothing. still beyond that and the fucking copout w/ starbuck i'm not recalling anything really egregiously bad though i'd agree that the coup was probably the last sustained great moment for bsg and that the show really is spotty as hell after new caprica and that maybe 'earth' might've been the finale they should've gone with.

Prisoner: Cell Block H

fringe had a better ending than any of these

i can't remember anything abt bsg after new caprica, they should've ended it with them leaving there

― j., Monday, June 10, 2013 12:11 AM (44 minutes ago)

No, they just should've made the rest better.

New Caprica totally the peak of the series, and the decline is very fast after.

Though the first four (?) episodes of S3 are as good as SF television has ever been.

'aughts'?

― j., Sunday, June 9, 2013 10:33 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as in a dozen ppl telling you 'you really aught to watch "the Wire"'

the egregious thing about BSG was that they discovered earth like 10 episodes earlier and then they discovered it again and said "well this is a different earth, that other earth wasn't really the real earth, ok just listen for a second --"

basically there were two options when it came to "earth" in this series, only two real possibilities -- either the twilight zone-y "they discover earth and it is destroyed because they're in our future" or "they discover earth and they settle there and become our 'ancestors' because they're in our past" -- neither of which are really interesting at that point because they were both so obvious, and they went with both. it didn't make any sense and it was ridiculous and completely unnecessary. it was like the end of the simpsons lord of the flies episode where it just ends with a narrator saying "and they were rescued by... let's say... moe." except the show actually ended 10 episodes earlier and the second half of that season was just spent futzing around trying to find story to fill in the page count. the whole thing had absolutely no direction and i hate it and want to set it on fire

Also any dangling plot threads were resolved by saying "Ah well, I guess God did it for some reason or other."

have only watched 3 of these shows all the way through the whole run, Wire finale was ehh and Lost finale was legendarily bad so...i guess the West Wing one was OK? Freaks & Geeks obviously the best series finale of the aughts, but wrapping up 4+ seasons satisfactorily is probably a much more difficult task.

was west wing finale just bartlet and santos doing a good cop bad cop routine w/ foreign policy and santos getting hawkeye to be his sos?

more or less

I only remember being annoyed that the writers made Donna CoS to the First Lady rather than giving her a job in the Santos Administration, the topper in a line of "how can we shit on this blonde female character" plot points.

yeah, Freaks & Geeks was fantastic but not fair at all compared to these other shows

Those of you who haven't seen it have no idea from how great a height The Shield finale shits on all these other candidates.

hearing about how well that show wrapped up was what got me to finally sit down and watch the 1st season, and it was good but i was really just not that compelled to watch 70 more episodes.

'you should really start dating this guy, he'll be the best break-up you've ever had!'

lol

fringe had a better ending than any of these

Um, just no.

honestly so many popular/acclaimed shows seem to start going off the rails or getting a backlash by the time i actually make up my mind to start watching them that hearing that someone stuck the landing really is a big plus.

i watched the Fringe finale for lols, having not seen barely anything since the first few episodes. that fuckin show.

Agreed upthread about the unparalleled greatness of The Shield's finale. Truly hellish comeuppance for Mackey.

shield finale is head and shoulders over the others here for sure and you can throw in any other long running drama this century i can think of also, it's better even than freaks and geeks though freaks and geeks is bleaker obv. i did lol watching that first season though - some real nineties hangover and shawn ryan obv loved homicide, it gets better imo. tempted to do a best nineties tv drama one but either twin peaks or x-files would probably take it w/ all the nerdlingers here (homicide OBV).

abstaining bcz Oz was the only one I watched semiregularly; skipped 6 of them entirely

love how this thread manages to skirt spoilers (unless lame ass west wing treatment of donna counts)(or oz i guess though c'mon isn't the real spoiler there 'a major character lives'?). could easily become this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM0AI5T4wYo.

would love to get a dvd commentary of morbs first viewing of the west wing

(homicide OBV)

OTM

hearing about how well that show wrapped up was what got me to finally sit down and watch the 1st season, and it was good but i was really just not that compelled to watch 70 more episodes.

― treeship journey to stars hollow (some dude), Sunday, June 9, 2013 11:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this, except i haven't seen a single episode. i've never actually heard anything good about the shield other than "great ending"

Zachalon, The Shield is Wire minus NPR tokenism. Total exploitative thrills, crazy acting theatrics (Walton Goggins and Michael Chiklis overdrive), and TV schlockiness to the Nth degree. Save it for a summer flu binge viewing. The end justifies the means. Truly.

also if you're looking to really really hate on forrest whittaker, this is the tv show to watch.

some real nineties hangover and shawn ryan obv loved homicide, it gets better imo.

haha yeah i was surprised by how much homicide i detected in the first season

Wire minus NPR tokenism

instead of wanting to watch the shield i just hate you

Is your hate on behalf of Wire or NPR? What I meant (perhaps not clearly) is that The Shield did not receive the same kind of 'if you watch only one gritty street drama' that The Wire did. Not a slight even slightly. The Wire is better than The Shield but The Shield has a similarly singular appeal, too.

lol yes some clarity may've helped, thought you meant something else. tbh what you described (thrilling schlock!) is exactly what i try to avoid when it comes to 90 episode hourlong shows. it's nothing against those qualities in a vacuum, it's just that those are the exact terms used to describe every single show that isn't aspiring to be like mad men or w/e. actually making a commitment to devote time to escapism doesn't really feel like escapism.

would love to get a dvd commentary of morbs first viewing of the west wing

one sentence: ah, liberal fantasy at its most mundane dangerous.

The only three of these I've watched in their entirety are BSG, Buffy and Lost, and of those, it's Buffy in a walk.

that's really sad

Only wish they hadn't cut out the scene with Giles and Principal Wood sharing a joint.

Although BSG does get a slight lift for the whole, "Beautiful view from this hilltop, isn't it, Laura? Laura? Oh, you're dead now? OK!"

The end of the Roslin/Adama storyline was the most satisfying certainly.

Sam flying the fleet into the sun was also great, but overall it was just a big letdown.

Tony driving his Escalade into the sun was amazing, though.

the clear winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CX0yQRTeB0

Sopranos duh

worst is a more interesting question

Had the final moments of "Entourage" played out totally silent like that clip, I'd consider that one of the best endings of all time.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Lost getting more votes than The Wire is insane. Actually, Lost getting any votes at all is insane.

some secret saps out there

i really don't believe any of those 3 Lost votes aren't trolling/joking

lol i didn't know friday night lights was over

spoiler alert: they won the big game. and then they lost a bigger, metaphorical game. and learned a few lessons in the process. probably.

man, nypd blue ran until 05?

yeah it hung around almost as long and as uselessly as ER

Lost fans have a bit of Stockholm syndrome I think. I thought it was a total disaster, if not a con, and I have an extremely high tolerance for religio-sentimentality in my endings.

out of the ones I've seen it's probably shield>>sopranos >>>>> wire >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>bsg

the shield ending is perfect I think, manages the nice trick of keeping Vic in what at first seems like purgatory but is for him actual hell