There’s nothing like the heartbreak of investing years in a television show, only to have the finale leave you stuck in shock on the couch, forgotten popcorn still clutched in your hand, questioning whether what you just experienced was watching your favorite characters get run over by a bus. A few finales are so terrible that they are now pop culture myths just not the kind that the creators were hoping for. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane (or perhaps the Hall of Shame?) with the 15 most disappointing TV series finales that audiences still can’t shake off.
1. Game of Thrones
Few shows have soared as high or crashed as hard as Game of Thrones. After eight seasons of dragons, betrayals, and prophecies, audiences were left in the dark. Jon Snow’s Targaryen heritage amounts to nothing, Arya’s face-stealing talents are barely used, and Bran yes, Bran becomes king after spending most of the series spaced out in the background. Daenerys’s sudden heel turn into “Mad Queen” territory sounded hollow, and Night King’s death raises more questions than answers. As one BuzzFeed writer neatly summed it up, the finale left viewers “confused,” and the plot holes are still the stuff of internet urban legend.
2. Lost
Lost was the king of mysteries, but where it really got down to solving them, the show decided to go full-on purgatory. Viewers spent years trying to figure out the island’s secrets, only to find that much of what they’d watched was essentially a spiritual holding pen. The makers had previously ruled out the theory of purgatory, so the final reveal was a rug-pull in terms of storytelling. All fans concurred that the show’s never-ending questions were left mid-air, and the finale was frustrating more than an eye-opener.
3. How I Met Your Mother
Nine years of blue French horns, yellow umbrellas, and perpetual teases finally paid off as fans finally got to meet “the Mother” only to be eliminated so that Ted and Robin could be together. The finale wiped out years of character development and left viewers feeling as if they’d been on a wild goose chase. Having Ted and Robin be together, after all of it, was a punch in the gut to many fans who had invested in the journey.
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4. The Sopranos
The Sopranos series finale is a masterpiece of genius or a troll class, depending on the person. The abrupt cut to black when Tony looks up in a diner had people all over in a panic trying to determine if their cable had just dropped out. While some praised the ambiguity, others felt cheated out of closure for one of television’s best anti-heroes. The debate still becomes fiery, but one can’t dispute the place of the finale in TV shame.
5. The Walking Dead
By the time The Walking Dead shuffled its way to its series finale, it had had most of its bite taken away. With key characters like Rick and Carl dead, the series finale was more about setting up spin-offs than tying up the loose ends of the survivors. Viewers expecting closure instead received an advertisement for upcoming shows, leaving many to wonder if the show itself had a real final episode that was just floating out there, awaiting discovery.
6. Pretty Little Liars
After all those years of twists, turns, and ambiguous texts, Pretty Little Liars concluded that Spencer’s wicked British twin sister, Alex, was the villain. The “evil twin” twist felt like a soap opera cliché, and few fans thought that the twist was as surprising as it was absurd. The convoluted plot had viewers feeling that the series had cleverly hoodwinked itself.
7. Supernatural
Fifteen years of monster hunting, brotherly love, and apocalyptic fallout all came down to a conclusion that left fans sobbing and not tears of joy. Castiel’s honest admission to Dean was immediately followed by his own sacrifice, and the death of Dean came as a shock and a letdown. After all the Winchester brothers had endured, the ending was more of a whimper than a bang.
8. Alice in Borderland
This mind-bending thriller had viewers hooked with its deadly games and mysterious world. But when the finale finally explained why Arisu and friends ended up in the Borderlands, the answer was so unceremonious that some fans wished they had not wasted their time at all. The “all a dream” twist with a sprinkle of meteors and unanswered questions left observers feeling robbed of a proper conclusion.
9. Two and a Half Men
Ever since Charlie Sheen’s infamous exit, the show staggered along with Ashton Kutcher stepping in to a finale more meta-joke than emotional goodbye. The series finale was a confusing mix of self-referential humor and bizarre plot twists, culminating in a literal piano crashing on somebody. Loyal viewers who endured felt like they’d been the butt of an inside joke that lasted too long.
10. Scrubs
Scrubs was loved for the ideal balance of comedy and genuine feels. The show had already ended perfectly at the end of season eight, but season nine, a pseudo-reboot with the majority of the original cast on the bench, undid all that goodwill. The new characters did not work, and the show did not end with a bang, but rather a whisper that could barely be heard, tainting its legacy.
11. Friends
Ten years of coffee, laughs, and “will-they-won’t-they” ended with Friends when Rachel left her job in Paris for Ross. Some were overjoyed, while others were appalled that this was a step backwards for Rachel’s character. The group’s last coffee run was somber, but the choices made in the final episode are still controversial among die-hard fans.
12. The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries series finale tried to go out with a bang literally. Katherine returned as the queen of hell and was defeated within a span of less than an hour, and Stefan passed away. All those years of character growth and supernatural drama were tied up in a rush, and fans hope they could have been provided with a better ending.
13. The X-Files
The X-Files tried to tie its vast mythology into the series finale, but all they succeeded in doing was a long, slow trial of Mulder that ended in an anticlimax escape and a fuzzy, open-ended finish. Even with follow-up movies and resurrections, fans felt the original series finale left too many loose ends.
14. House
House was praised for its witty writing and complex lead, but the show’s series finale saw Dr. House faking his own death so he wouldn’t have to be imprisoned and ride off into the sunset with his sick friend Wilson. While as obvious as the Sherlock Holmes reference, the actual finality of the show itself seemed forced and out of character and left watchers with a sour taste after eight seasons of doctor drama.
15. Veronica Mars
After getting married to her longtime beau Logan at last, Veronica Mars fans were left gasping in dismay when he was killed in a car bombing just hours later. The shocking twist hurt like a joke played on the characters, erasing years of built-up character development and leaving viewers devastated.
Those kinds of finales prove that sometimes the hardest part of loving a television program is letting go especially when the letting go hurts like an affront.