No television series finale will ever satisfy everyone, but in a few cases, not even the creators of the shows themselves were happy with how they turned out. For some of the most popular TV shows of all time, putting a cap on multiple seasons of groundbreaking TV can be near impossible, forcing showrunners, writers, and directors to make choices that, in hindsight, left audiences with a sour taste in their mouths. Even recently, the “Euphoria” series finale has drawn unflattering comparisons to the polarizing endings of “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things.”
For these six shows, however, their endings not only disappointed and outraged fans, but their creators have also expressed dissatisfaction and regrets about the choices they made. Some of these series have continued with spin-offs and reboots that tried to right these wrongs, so it would seem a divisive finale isn’t necessarily final.
Seinfeld
Even though “Seinfeld” is regarded as one of the best sitcoms ever made, its finale was among the most controversial in all of TV history. Jerry (Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) are thrown into court after opting not to intervene to stop a robbery on the street, in accordance with a local Good Samaritan law. The episode brings back many familiar faces who testify against the quartet and the episode ends with them sentenced to a year in prison.
Though the finale was subject to criticism upon airing and ultimately unsatisfying for a lot of fans, co-creator Larry David has repeatedly defended it. The same cannot quite be said for the show’s other creator, Jerry Seinfeld, who has admitted that he occasionally regrets making the finale more of a celebration of the show itself. He also told Q with Tom Power, “I think the only mistake, if there was one, was leaving them in jail.”
Thankfully, David and Seinfeld got to right their wrongs with the series finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in which David is, ironically, brought to court and faced with many of the characters he’s encountered over the past 20 years. However, this time the guilty verdict is thrown out when Seinfeld himself rats on a member of the jury who broke his sequester.
Star Trek: Enterprise
You can’t fault a series finale for taking a big swing, but sometimes the swing goes way too far. See, for example, the conclusion of “Star Trek: Enterprise,” the prequel centered on the first Warp 5-capable Enterprise helmed by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). Rather than ending its final episode with a proper goodbye to its cast, it folds the series into the continuity of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
Jonathan Frakes reprises his role as William Riker, viewing a holodeck simulation of the “Star Trek: Enterprise” crew and joining their digitized recreations to rescue the kidnapped daughter of an Andorian ally. Ultimately, series co-creator Brannon Braga agreed that what was meant to be a tribute to “Star Trek” past just robbed “Enterprise” fans of getting real closure for their favorite characters, telling a Star Trek Las Vegas panel, “It was a kind of a slap in the face to the ‘Enterprise’ actors. I heard it from everybody. It was the only time Scott Bakula was ever mean to me. I regret it.”
Lost
The final episode of ABC’s “Lost” aired in May of 2010 — more than 16 years ago as of this writing — and fans continue to relitigate its relative merits to this very day. Perhaps there’s no timeline in which “Lost” could’ve answered every lingering question presented in its sprawling sci-fi narrative — but try telling that to the finale’s detractors.
“Lost” polarized critics and audiences with its two-parter last episode, aptly titled “The End,” which reveals that the final season’s alternate timeline is a form of purgatory. Some would argue that several plot threads are left unsolved or under-resolved, and even viewers who consider the finale wildly underappreciated can admit that the plot of “Lost,” as a whole, gets messy.
As showrunner Damon Lindelof later said, his regrets about “Lost” can be traced back to the show going on for too long. As he told Vulture, “It was such a ratings hit that it became clear to me instantly that all conversations about ending the show would be over [because ABC wouldn’t agree]. I said, ‘Hey, guys, we can’t keep this up forever,’ and that’s when ABC said, ‘Oh, we were thinking … 10 seasons.’ The compromise ended up being six, but I personally wish that we could have done it in four.”
“Lost” taught Lindelof a valuable lesson about ending on a high note that he’s carried over to other series, like HBO’s “The Leftovers” and “Watchmen.”
How I Met Your Mother
It’s only the final moments of the “How I Met Your Mother” two-part series finale, “Last Forever,” that completely soured fans. In the future, when Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) is telling his children the story of how he met their mother (Cristin Milioti), it’s revealed that she passed away from an unknown illness. Ted’s children nevertheless encourage him to pursue their now-divorced “Aunt Robin” (Cobie Smulders) reuniting an on-screen couple that had been done for several seasons.
Although some fans were outraged that the series-long search for Ted’s soulmate ended with her dying, creator Craig Thomas defended the decision. However, there’s a particular scene that was cut from the finale – in which a widowed Ted and divorced Robin catch up — that could have won over viewers who weren’t sold on “HIMYM” ending with Ted and Robin getting back together. As he told TVLine, he wishes he “could go back in time and ask for two hours for that finale instead of just an hour and change … I gotta admit that is a bit of a regret.”
Dexter
“Dexter” is maybe the mother of all poorly received TV endings. The crime series following Michael C. Hall’s forensic-analyst-by-day and serial-killer-by-night ended after eight seasons with a much-derided series finale where Dexter, after faking his own death by sailing a boat into an oncoming storm, is revealed to still be alive living as a lumberjack in Oregon.
Because many audience members had been expecting the series finale to give the titular character his just desserts, his fate was polarizing. However, this ending was reportedly due to the network, Showtime. Producer Scott Buck told Bloody Disgusting of the final season: “The one thing I was told I could not do is kill Dexter, because [Showtime] wanted to bring him back.” Buck also said concluding the story with Dexter captured by law enforcement down would’ve created other untenable complications.
For fans of the best “Dexter” seasons, that decision from Showtime paid off with two sequel series, “Dexter: New Blood” and “Dexter: Resurrection,” which restored the series’ critical acclaim.
The X-Files
“The X-Files” is no stranger to controversy, from episodes covering sensitive subject matter to tensions between its stars. However, nothing seems to have divided the “X-Files” audience more than the Season 11 finale, which not only frustrated longtime fans of the series with insane plot twists and ultimately ending on a cliffhanger, but frustrated even Dana Scully herself. Gillian Anderson publicly declared that she wouldn’t be returning for a Season 12, telling Duchovny on his podcast, Fail Better, “I wasn’t really enjoying the direction that it was heading … and I didn’t have a voice in it.”
As it turns out, series creator Chris Carter isn’t entirely happy with the episode in retrospect, either. Though he stood by his storytelling decisions on the assumption that there’d be more seasons of the hit sci-fi series to come, he told “The X-Files” podcast,”Sammensværgelsen,” that “I didn’t realize there wouldn’t be more X-Files … I would have fixed it in Season 12.”
Thankfully, longtime fans of “The X-Files” have a little hope knowing that Ryan Coogler’s reboot landed a Hulu pilot order, starring two brand-new FBI agents.
