When it comes to TV shows, landing the finale isn't always easy. For every glorious, fan-thrilling climax, there's an ending so bad that it taints viewers' memories of the entire show. Why bother bingeing the entire box set if you know it's just going to end like that?
You know the ones we're talking about. And yeah, we're about to flat-out contradict ourselves now. But a lot of those endings you're thinking of don't deserve the flak they get. In fact, they deserve some praise...
1. True Detective
The evocative first season of Nic Pizzolatto's detective drama ended on a note that was either a cathartic, character-driven masterstroke... or a meandering and mundane letdown, depending on who you ask. But the first answer is the correct one.
After seven episodes and seventeen years of investigation, Rust and Marty's journey into the Yellow King mystery wraps up on an atmospheric but surprisingly simple showdown, with both detectives left wounded but still breathing.
There was no grand conspiracy, no supernatural rug-pull, no twist reveal. And there's an argument to say – particularly after that less-impressive second season – that Pizzolatto's writing is to blame for setting up false expectations, teasing out a more complex mystery than he ever intended to solve.
But for our money, the mystery was never the point. It was a means of unravelling the relationship between these two very different, very damaged men. And the finale paid off that bond beautifully, giving both Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson their finest, most affecting moments on the show. And if you think confirmed nihilist Rust Cohle saying the line "The light's winning" doesn't qualify as a twist, then you just weren't paying attention.
2. Lost
When Breaking Bad came to its almost universally well-received ending, some mean fans started trolling Lost writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, telling them "that's how you write a finale". But they don't know what they're talking about, because the Lost finale did as much as it possibly could in the couple of hours that it had left.
We could spend an entire article defending 'The End', but in short, it was thrilling (Jack punching the Smoke Monster!), tearjerking (Charlie remembers Claire in the flash-sideways universe! Sawyer remembers Juliet! Jack sacrifices himself!) and kept you hooked until the very last moments.
Okay, it may only explain why things on the island happened rather than how. How did the Man in Black turn into a smoke monster, for example? And how did Jacob use a lighthouse to find the plane survivors, exactly?
But if you can suspend your disbelief and avoid taking the logistics too literally, then it's one of the show's greatest ever episodes and a fitting end to such a WTF-filled show. If there's one thing we learned from Jack and Locke, it's that you're either a fan of science, or a fan of faith.
3. Seinfeld
What's the deal with people who hate the Seinfeld finale? The accepted wisdom is that nine seasons of remarkable comedy was unfortunately capped off with an ill-judged, mean-spirited, unfunny farewell. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Sitcoms all too often descend into romantic, sentimental schmaltz by the final curtain – sometimes earned, often not. Seinfeld bucked the trend by telling it like it is. Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer are the horrible bastards they're legally proven to be – not that there's anything wrong with that.
Some of the 76 million people who watched the episode go out live felt as though they were being judged for finding mirth at others' misery for nearly a decade. That's the result of being told by "comedy dramas" (aka less-funny comedy) that you have to like or relate to or empathise with sitcom characters. Actually, all you need to do is laugh at them.
After nine years and 180 episodes of our lead stars being horribly funny and funnily horrible, learning absolutely bupkis along the way, this long-overdue reckoning – complete with a carousel of past guest stars – was the perfect way to wrap things up.
4. The Sopranos
David Chase's mob epic pretty much invented the term "box set", and remains arguably the greatest ever TV drama. Not just for its stellar cast, realistic characters and tightly knotted plot, but also for bringing in a new generation of TV writing talent like Matthew 'Mad Men' Weiner and Todd 'Damages' Kessler.
But much of that goodwill went out the window on June 10, 2007, when the show ended on that infamous, abrupt cut to black, leaving Tony Soprano's fate brashly unresolved. After establishing that their cable box hadn't in fact malfunctioned, viewers were not amused, and Chase himself was fairly peeved by the controversy that followed.
That The Sopranos' ending remains ambiguous has only fed its legend. If you think Big Tony was offed, you'll have no doubt spent many an hour poring over the details of "The Definitive Explanation", and if you haven't, do. The fact that the final episode was only the second that Chase directed, some 85 episodes after its opening, gives credence to that explanation's cyclical claims.
But whatever you make of it – Chase won't be drawn on the meaning – it remains a fantastic finale that grows in stature ever year, a pinnacle of tense telly, and a fitting end to an iconic character who lived and died (perhaps) on his own terms.
5. Twin Peaks
Even before its return, the Twin Peaks finale was not not technically The End. "Prequel" movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me wraps around if you're paying close enough attention, but the open ending of the last TV episode of the original series still annoys people something rotten, along with the rest of season two.
Nine episodes into the second run, Laura Palmer's killer was unmasked, and for many the show ceased to have a function beyond this point. It's true that, with David Lynch looking elsewhere, things went off the boil – but they picked up swiftly with the entrance of Windom Earle and eventually came to a jawdropping, brilliant and unforgettable conclusion.
Staple Lynch themes of duality and Doppelgängers underpin the final scenes, as Cooper effectively sacrifices his soul for Annie in the Black Lodge. Evil Coops makes his way out to misbehave, starting with the genuinely demonic crime of squeezing toothpaste from the centre of the tube. What does it all mean? The good Dale is in the Lodge, and he can't leave. Write it in your diary... and we'll see in you 25 years. (Draw your own conclusions about the new series.)
6. Mad Men
Some might say that Mad Men's final season lacked the magic of its previous runs, and that the finale itself was a bizarre and sombre conclusion that was nothing but "meh".
The final scene saw Don Draper at a hippy commune, apparently regressing to a shell of his former self. Until he suddenly smiles, having apparently come up with the idea for one of the most iconic ads in history.
But there's more to this ending than that. "I'd like to buy the world a home," says the first line of the Coke commercial, and we know that there's nothing cynical about that sentiment from Don, whose hopeless response when Peggy tells him to come home is "Where?" Work is Don's home, and his family, and his stability, and his lightbulb moment with the Coke ad is realising that he – and maybe, at last, his actual self Dick Whitman too – actually can go home again.
Matt Hill is Digital Spy’s Editor-in-Chief and Group Digital Strategy Director at Hearst UK. A data obsessive and overseer of multi-award-winning content strategies, Matt ensures the team never wants for internet connections, central heating or cups of tea.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
