Can a bad series finale taint the rest of the show(spoilers)

[wildojinx]

Can a bad finale to a show ruin the rest of the show? Malcolm in the Middle comes to mind. The episode ended with some guy from a tech company visiting Malcolm and offering him an excellent job, but Lois basically turned it down, saying it's more important that Malcolm goes to college. Malcolm eventually snaps at his mother and Lois tells him that she's been the way she was through the entire series because she's determined to have Malcolm become President so he can help people like her family. It might have worked if the final shot had been Malcolm as President, but instead it was showing him working as a Janitor to pay his way through college. Considering all that he went through in the series, couldnt they at least throw him a bone and give him a happy ending? Sorry for the rant, but that episode kind of taints the whole series for me.

[James Fabiano]

Something something How I Met Your Mother.

[chrom]

Yes

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Yes and no

I wouldn't say it taints the whole series for me but if I rewatch a series and didn't like the ending, i'll probably end up getting bored or skipping the last season. I hate Dexter season finale but I can still watch the earlier shit without a problem

Sopranos is another one. Series finale just ended flat but i'll still watch it again and enjoy it but i'll just skip episodes I don't care for or skim past certain parts

[eJm]

I'll put it one way;

Throughout the stuff I've seen about social media and from people I know about stuff they're going back to and binge watching for the first time, one show in particular isn't up there even though it was a cultural milestone for years;

Game of Thrones.

That more covers a season than a finale but still.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Apr 13, 2020 10:50:20 GMT -5 eJm said:

I'll put it one way;

Throughout the stuff I've seen about social media and from people I know about stuff they're going back to and binge watching for the first time, one show in particular isn't up there even though it was a cultural milestone for years;

Game of Thrones.

That more covers a season than a finale but still.

A season is different from a finale tho. Like that whole season was basically marketed that as each episode is like a final chapter and the obvious final chapter is the end of everything 

When you market something as the final season and it falls very flat, that effects the whole series which I can agree with to an extent. 

[Deleted]

By the end of Star Vs. The Forces of Evil she's pretty much so utterly detestable that I really find it hard to give a shit about her going back to old episodes.

[clodhopper]

I'd say it can, yeah. A bad finale doesn't undermine the quality of what has preceded it but it makes it far less likely that I'll go back and revisit a show, knowing that that is where it is heading.

This only applies to series with an overarching story, obviously. Shows that are built on stand-alone episodes there is no reason why a bad finale would ever ruin them.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2020 11:06:45 GMT -5 clodhopper said:

Shows that are built on stand-alone episodes there is no reason why a bad finale would ever ruin them.

I feel like a case could be made for Dinosaurs.

[clodhopper]

Apr 13, 2020 11:08:34 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Apr 13, 2020 11:06:45 GMT -5 clodhopper said:

Shows that are built on stand-alone episodes there is no reason why a bad finale would ever ruin them.

I feel like a case could be made for Dinosaurs.

It's bleak but I love that ending. It does leave an air of sadness hanging over the whole show that you didn't get first time out but I thought it was really well done.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Absolutely. See how GOT’s ending effectively killed the show’s status in pop culture dead.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

What were they doing all in a church??

[Deleted]

It depends on the stakes and/or build to the finale. I can’t enjoy How I Met Your Mother reruns because all I can think about is how awfully it ended.

[Push R Truth]

Apr 13, 2020 11:25:57 GMT -5 @notoriousnd22 said:

It depends on the stakes and/or build to the finale. I can’t enjoy How I Met Your Mother reruns because all I can think about is how awfully it ended.

Yeah when the entire premise of the show ends up being some bullshit, it taints everything.

If it's just a bad episode it doesn't. If it spreads it's buttcheeks and unloads on the reason for the show existing, yup.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Never watched them initially, but despite some curiosity to go back and watch “Lost”, “Two And A Half Men”, and “How I Met Your Mother”, the known reputations of the endings has me go “ahh, f*** it”. So I’d say so, yeah.

[thechase]

"These Are The Voyages" killed interest in the Prime Star Trek universe for almost twenty years, and tainted what had been up to that point Enterprise's best season

[Milkman Norm]

It depends. It the show is a serial like GoT, HIMYM or Lost then yes. If it's episodic like Seinfeld than not really.

[fw91]

Apr 13, 2020 12:07:04 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

It depends. It the show is a serial like GoT, HIMYM or Lost then yes. If it's episodic like Seinfeld than not really.

yeah. this.

[EvenBaldobombHasAJob]

Game of Thrones' ending was so bad that everyone immediately stopped talking about it.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Apr 13, 2020 10:45:20 GMT -5 James Fabiano said:

Something something How I Met Your Mother.

Yep, have never felt the same about it. Can watch an individual episode here or there but no desire to watch the whole story ever again.