What makes a TV series finale satisfying versus one that makes you feel cheated. What are the best and worst you have seen

[Finley]

Been thinking about this after finishing a show recently that ended badly. What actually makes a finale satisfying? Is it resolving every thread, or giving characters a proper ending, or something else? And which finales do you think genuinely nailed it?

Open to any genre

[GoldbergFan_X]

The best finales feel inevitable rather than surprising. Breaking Bad works because every choice Walter makes from the pilot leads logically to the ending. You could not end it any other way without betraying what came before

[Cobra69]

The worst finales try to be surprising when they should be satisfying. Game of Thrones failed because the final season compressed the story too fast and made character decisions feel random rather than earned

[NealBinnom-Williams]

The Wire ended by showing that nothing changed, which was the whole point of the series. That is one of the most satisfying endings I have seen because the finale was true to what the show was arguing

[TommyB_20]

Six Feet Under ends with one of the most technically brilliant sequences in television history showing the deaths of every main character. It is earned because the whole show was about death

[DarkEnergy]

Satisfying does not mean happy. What matters is that the ending is consistent with the rules the show established for itself and honours the time viewers invested in the characters

[Louise84]

The Sopranos ending is still debated 20 years later and that might be the most impressive finale of all. It refused to give closure deliberately and that choice was thematically perfect for a show about a man who can never escape himself

[Ruby_50]

The worst finales almost always involve either killing a main character arbitrarily to create emotion, or tying everything up too neatly in a way that ignores the complexity the show built