There is zero reason to watch Lost again knowing that abortion of an ending.

The problem with this, though, is that it's a bit like a lobster being boiled alive. It stays just interesting enough to give you hope it'll turn around, and by the time you realize how bad it's truly gotten it's too late.

I watched the entire run a couple summers ago with my kids. It was as great as it ever was (and I railed on season 6 the entire way when it aired and it's still bad). You just have to look at it as "it's all about the journey and not the destination." The cast chemistry, stories, acting and production was and still is top notch.

Season 9 and the original finale. I haven't seen 10 or 11 yet (and I'm not sure I ever will), but the second film was a complete waste of time.

I originally was let down by the season 9 finale of The X-Files but never enough for it to ruin the series for me. The second movie to me is a great X-Files meets The Silence Of The Lambs mash up. I seem to be one of the few people who loved seasons ten and eleven. For me both seasons made me actually like seasons eight and nine a lot more since they were no longer the end of the series. Other than Skinner left lying under the tire of a car I am happy with how the series "finally" wrapped up.

I'll agree on the X-Files. Still one of my favorite shows, even if Carter and company gave us unsatisfying conclusions to many of the show's long-running arcs after season 7. But that show became more about the chemistry between Fox and Scully than purely solving alien conspiracies.

I was thinking how great it will be to watch the show again a few years later and pick up on a bunch of subtle clues sprinkled throughout the show, only to find out that nothing meant anything at all. That said, if you only watch the first five seasons, the screen going white at the end of the season 5 finale is a great ending for the whole thing. Oh, and skip the episode about Jack's tattoo while you're at it.

What about the finale to Quantum Leap? The show teased us for five seasons and stoked our hope that Sam would make it home...and then that final card at the end. The final episode itself was poetic and beautiful, but it added a sense of melancholy to an otherwise uplifting series.

Whether you think it was a good or bad finale, I don't think you could seriously argue it ruined the rest of the show.

I gave up on Dexter well before the final season and only found out the ending by reading a spoiler here a month or so back. I don't generally think a bad series finale can destroy a show.*

I would love to see a fan edit of Battlestar where they pull out the flashback crap with Roslyn and her fling, as well as the Adam /Saul flashback stuff aside from that I loved the series but a lot of the stuff at the end felt like filler to me although i greatly enjoyed the series and most of the finale.

* the exception to this is Lost, I re-watched the series with my kids a couple of years ago and it was as good as I remember aside for a few crap filler episodes I remember being bad at the time. I am still nearly irate at the ending of the show especially when I recall vividly reading or seeing an interview where they specifically say they are not all dead and there is a valid explanation for everything that happens on the show.

That answer came after only the Pilot or couple first episodes aired; back when we were wondering where a Polar Bear came from. lol

I wouldn't say it "ruined" the entire series, but 'The Sopranos' finale really pissed me off.

Shoulda been fined for that.

HIMYM is definitely my example of a bad ending ruining, or at least partially ruining a series

This is it exactly. It depends on the show. If it is one long story arch set up with lots of mysteries **cough** LOST **cough** then the ending absolutely matters. It's like the bad ending of a movie. If it ended poorly you're going to think the whole movie is terrible.

I quit watching Lost before the finale because I suspected that the writers were asking more questions than would be answered. I never saw St. Elsewhere, but didn't they end it with . The main one that comes to mind is GoT. I loved it for a while, but that ending sucked. I felt the writers didn't understand the difference between subverting expectations and breaking the writer's contract with the audience. George R. R. Martin did the first, the writers of the show did the latter. It was just so poorly done and infuriating--I'll never watch the show again.

Kind of, but not exactly

There was actually a pretty interesting podcast series on The Ringer Network about series finales called "Stick The Landing". In the final episode of their first season they talk about several weird 80s series finales and start off with St Elsewhere
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7HE...TOyTvqozpNARWA

I stand by what I said regarding Dexter (including Dexter: New Blood). Awful set of finales. The fact that they managed to pull off two finales with the second being as bad or worse is quite the feat. I’ll say I enjoy the first two seasons a lot. The third is good too. After that I kind of prefer to pretend it got cancelled or ended.

Sadly that was how I perceived Game of Thrones as well. Loved everything up to Season 6 and then it just went downhill fast. Never watched Season 8 again after the original run. I even tried a separate time later and watched from the beginning and got through the first six seasons no problem, but after a few episodes into seventh season I just came to the conclusion I could not keep going know how everything ended and stopped there.

While it was also partially due to time constraints, but since GoT ended in 2019 I have not watch hardly any new or existing HBO shows. For the past 4 to 5 years, while having full access to their content, I only watched Barry to its conclusion. As of today I do not think I would bother with House of Dragons or any other spin offs, but given enough time I might come around, or not.

There are a number of series I've watched that were excellent up to a certain point and then dropped off a cliff, either gradually over a number of seasons (Dexter, GOT, True Blood) or due to a poor finale and/or last few episodes. Shows like Penny Dreadful (the original with Eva Green), Boardwalk Empire, Rome, Carnivale, and Banshee were all rushed during their final seasons in order to wrap things up ... which was a damn shame as they were all quality shows that should have been allowed to end their runs properly. I can still watch them but can't help but feel shortchanged, though. Sadly, not every great show is allowed to see things through to the end and given a proper send-off ala Breaking Bad or Mad Men.

Yes, this has happened for two shows for me: HIMYM and GoT. I have no desire to ever watch them again. OR any fucking spinoffs by the jackholes who ruined those shows.

No

Miami Vice sucked in season 5 but the 2 hr finale made up for it.

Yup.

I will never watch Game of Thrones again after the horrid final seasons. I'll watch the sequel/prequel series, but the original legacy is over with.

The Carnivale ending would have been okay, had it not been for the very last scene. They were trying to leave it open for returning. They should've just let it end.

I don't remember how Boardwalk Empire ended. It's been a long time. I actually may rewatch it. My wife likes Steve Buscemi, so I might be able to get her to watch it, too.

Boardwalk's and Banshee's final seasons were a step down in quality from the previous ones (due to their creators about to start new projects - Vinyl and Quarry) but are still watchable, IMO. Had the quality remained steady throughout their runs they would both be perfect series AFAIC. Carnivale was supposed to be a 5-season run, IIRC, and was abruptly canceled after (or near the end of) the 2nd season. An amazing show that just didn't bring in the numbers, unfortunately. Rome was another incredible show that was just too expensive to continue. Another season would have been ideal but, despite being very rushed, it did have a decent ending. What they did to Penny Dreadful, however, was downright unforgiveable. They raced through the final couple of episodes at breakneck speed and ruined what had been an amazing series up to that point. It was an abomination. One of my favorite shows of all time up to that point. I still shake my head at that. It deserved much, much better.

Yeah, with Penny Dreadful there is literally a point in the final season where you can see they found out they were cancelled, and they rushed through a bunch of plotlines in order to get Ethan back to England to tie off enough plotlines to end the series.