Shows That Should Have Ended a Season Earlier

Ten shows that kept going after the story asked to be let out.

Entries
10
Category
TV
Updated
  1. A small banana stand on a boardwalk, shuttered and padlocked, a stair car parked behind it.

    10. Arrested Development

    Mitchell Hurwitz · 2019

    Season 5 came in two Netflix halves a year apart and scored 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. Its press tour is best remembered for a New York Times interview in which Jessica Walter teared up over Jeffrey Tambor. The banana stand had money. The season had no reason.

  2. A grand oval office desk with an empty leather chair, a ring of dust where a nameplate used to be, rain on the window.

    09. House of Cards

    Beau Willimon · 2018

    After Netflix cut ties with Kevin Spacey, the eight-episode final season killed Frank offscreen and spent the rest of its time talking about him. Robin Wright carried it anyway. A show about one man's ambition ended up being about his absence.

  3. A flashlight beam cutting across an empty office with a poster-shaped bright rectangle on the wall where something used to hang.

    08. The X-Files

    Chris Carter · 2002

    Season 9 has Mulder in hiding and Duchovny gone until the finale, with Doggett and Reyes chasing Super Soldiers. Ratings fell about 30 percent. Chris Carter said they lost the audience on the first episode. Fox cancelled it, though the truth stayed out there.

  4. A winning lottery ticket on a kitchen table beside a typewriter, a crumpled draft manuscript and a plaid couch afghan.

    07. Roseanne

    Matt Williams · 1997

    In Season 9 the Conners win the lottery and hang out with high society. The finale then reveals it was all something Roseanne wrote, and Dan actually died of a heart attack. The best review of the season was the season itself, apologizing.

  5. A wood-paneled basement with a circle of mismatched chairs, one empty, a 1979 calendar on the wall.

    06. That '70s Show

    Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner and Mark Brazill · 2006

    Topher Grace left, Ashton Kutcher mostly left, and Season 8 added a new guy named Randy to fill the space. The show still had a year of 1979 to get through. Every episode but the finale is named after a Queen song, which is the most committed thing about it.

  6. A pair of hospital scrubs folded neatly on a bench beside a brand-new university lecture hall, a stethoscope left behind.

    05. Scrubs

    Bill Lawrence · 2010

    Season 8 gave J.D. a perfect goodbye. Then ABC ordered Season 9, moved it to a fictional med school and kept Zach Braff for six episodes. Ratings hit a series low of 3.79 million. Cancelled two months after the finale.

  7. Two oversized coffee mugs on a diner counter, one full and one oddly lukewarm, beside a stack of unread books.

    04. Gilmore Girls

    Amy Sherman-Palladino · 2007

    Season 7 was made without the Palladinos, who left over a contract fight, and it shows in every scene that almost sounds like the show. It aired on the brand-new CW and was cancelled in May. Netflix had to bring her back in 2016 to write the actual ending.

  8. A small sailboat heading into a dark hurricane on a choppy sea, a plastic-wrapped lab kit on the dock behind it.

    03. Dexter

    James Manos Jr. · 2013

    The final season ends with Dexter dumping his sister at sea, sailing into a hurricane, and surfacing in Oregon at a lumber company. The A.V. Club gave the finale an F. Showtime later revived him twice, which is a confession of a kind.

  9. A yellow umbrella leaning against an empty wedding chair at a lakeside inn, rose petals scattered on the aisle.

    02. How I Met Your Mother

    Carter Bays and Craig Thomas · 2014

    Season 9 spends 24 episodes on one wedding weekend, introduces the Mother, then rushes through her in the finale. The kids' reaction scene was shot back in 2006, and the show bent eight years of story to fit it. The kids were right to be annoyed.

  10. An iron throne made of swords in a ruined, snow-dusted hall, a single modern takeaway coffee cup on the floor beside it.

    01. Game of Thrones

    David Benioff and D. B. Weiss · 2019

    Season 8 crammed endings for seven seasons of plot into six episodes, lit its biggest battle so dark you could barely see it, and scored 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, the show's lowest. A petition to remake it with competent writers passed 1.7 million signatures.

Honorable mentions

  • A small silver fox figurine on a church pew next to a single glass of wine, sunlight through stained glass.

    Fleabag

    Phoebe Waller-Bridge · 2019

    Two seasons, twelve episodes, and Waller-Bridge stopped on purpose. Season 2 won the Emmy for Comedy Series, the first British show to do it, plus acting and writing for her. A demonstration, for everyone on this list, of the exit.

Dishonorable mentions

  • An overgrown highway of abandoned cars stretching to the horizon, a cowboy hat on the hood of the nearest one.

    The Walking Dead

    Frank Darabont · 2022

    Eleven seasons, 177 episodes, a peak of 17.3 million viewers for the Season 5 premiere, and the lead left in Season 9. It kept walking for three more years and six spinoffs. Never has a show been more on-the-nose about refusing to die.

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