44 Worst TV Show Endings That Left Fans Disappointed

"The show got so crazy complex that so many things were left unanswered and essentially the finale made it so that everything was pointless and had the show had no meaning when all was said and done."

"Any and all character development was undone. Barney went back to being a womanizer, and Ted, who spent the whole series coming to terms that Robin wasn't right for him, went running back to Robin. Awful finale."
 
servantoffire replied:
"I remember reading something about the writers had always intended this, and for the show to wrap up in 4 or so seasons. I feel like I would have accepted the ending a lot more if they hadn't spent another 4 seasons reiterating why Ted and Robin don't work."

"GoT the first 7 seasons:
 
Houses fighting long wars for years to see who should sit on the iron throne.
 
GoT season 8 last 5 minutes:
 
How about Bran?
Everyone: okay.jpg."

arvigeus replied:
"The original story was planned for one season. Just watch the first season and pretend the rest didn’t happen."

"Gabrielle and Xena should have had their happy ever after."

Mediocre_Ad1344 said: "Dexter... twice"
 
Wind_Yer_Neck_In replied: "Let's bring our show back so we can do another ending! But this time, let's wipe away any sense of self-awareness from the main character and have him be basically a raving lunatic by the last few episodes."

MilwaukeeDave said:
"Roseanne ended so badly."

Kanobe24 replied:
"Some of those 90s ABC sitcoms became completely different shows by the time they ended the series. Roseanne is a prime example. Family Matters is another one. They went from very down-to-earth, relatable shows to complete zaniness."

KlerWatchCo said: 
"Dr. Sam Beckett never made it home."
 
MeMoInfinity replied:
"But, don't forget about the evil, female leaper that was undoing every single one of the timelines that he had fixed! What? So, he might as well not have done anything during the show's history. Because she erased it all!"
 
S-WordoftheMorning replied:
"If I remember correctly, Sam encounters her again, and manages to convince her to not screw up all the good work he's doing."

The_Wkwied said:
"Ended on a great high note with a goodbye to the main cast and crew, only to be brought back for a 'final season' as a crappy spinoff disguised as Scrubs."
 
metalslug123 replied:
"That's because Scrubs Med School was supposed to be a spin-off but ABC executives decided, in their infinite wisdom, to market it as a new season instead of a new spin-off as originally intended by showrunner Bill Lawrence."

SnowdropWorks said:
"Solely because of Penny's plotline."
 
baxbooch replied:
"Yep. I hated the way they did Amy too. She always had her own style and gave no f**ks what anyone thought. Then in the end it was 'Oh I need a makeover, teehee!' It was disappointing because I felt like that show really grew in the way it portrayed women. It started out with the only woman the ditsy blonde neighbor girl. Then they developed her character beyond that trope. Then they added smart accomplished women. Then they added actual geeky women. Then in the final episode, they shoved everyone back into their stereotypical box."

"Went from being the most popular show to the point when no one cares about it anymore."

00psie replied:
"Hearing about how some writers got ousted and how all the greatest scenes from the final season were improv from the leads. Such a garbage end to what started as a fantastic series."

cowboywhale9 said: 
"I’m amazed that 'Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life' is not very high on this list. Complete character butchering by a resentful writer who could not write the final season 10 years earlier."
 
GingerSnapBiscuit replied: 
"Their entire thing was a 'Will they, won't they'. Everyone knew from episode one. The fun part was the journey."

"ALF finally gets called by his people and they schedule a time for him to be picked up and taken back to his home planet, and the last few seconds of the series end with the FBI pulling up just as the alien mothership is about to pick Alf up. Cut to black."

Jimbabwe88 replied:
"Seasons 1 and 2 are phenomenal. I absolutely adore Penny Dreadful if we're talking about those two seasons. The third season... it had promise, but I'm almost positive Showtime had it canceled and so John Logan had to wrap up the story quickly."

"Because there are three more books of stuff to cover. The stuff with the Free Navy was a bar fight in comparison to what comes later."

"Absolute garbage (on top of season 5 itself being pretty stinky) and I'm still willing to get mad about it 11 years later."

BlahVans replied:
"The books weren't great, but the show really started to go downhill the more they veered from the source material. Like in the books, Sookie pretty much has no interest in Bill past book 3, and for most of the remainder of the series, until the last book, it's all about her and Eric (Even though she has other boyfriends). The show forced the Bill/Sookie relationship solely because the actors were a couple. The only good things the show did (compared to the books) was Lafayette, creating Jessica, Godric, a bit of the Newlins, and Russell."

"I loved that show, but the finale was shockingly bad. Made absolutely no logical sense."

"Should have ended with the death of Ragnar. hat would have left the open book for:
– A tv movie about the revenge of Ragnar, by his sons.
– A short 6-8 episode season of Bjorn and his travels. Obvs this would have had a better development with money enough for a full season about it, instead of a single trip with two undisclosed locations."

Belgand replied:
"And the ending was probably the best it was going to get. A nice return to the first episode and Mulder, is finally, getting some sort of answer. It wasn't a great ending and it ignored a lot of the nonsense that the plot had turned into, but it was at least an ending, unlike the constant non-ending garbage we got after that. Re-watching the series it becomes really obvious how there was never any idea behind things..."

"The finale was one big pile of nonsense that made me realize how bad the previous seasons had been, although I had enjoyed them before."

"It took a fan campaign to even bring it back for a second season, and when they did it felt rushed and canceled again after 7 episodes--the last one of which felt like the writers were given the instruction to find a way to wrap up the entire show in one episode because it was incredibly sloppy and full of plot holes."

ideaforwin replied:
"The distant space atmosphere of Stargate Universe will never be matched imo. It felt truly alien."

"Awesome show didn't know they were getting canceled, left us with a major cliffhanger that was never resolved."

endedupqueer said: 
"I am still so mad at how bad the ending of that show was."
The real problem with Pretty Little Liars was none of the girls were nearly interesting enough to warrant stalking from A, Big A, Uber A, and everyone working with the A's.
 
-Handsome-Jim- replied:
"Basically, the whole town was desperate to track these girls' every move and they just weren't really doing that much outside of worrying who is tracking them."

"Should’ve left Supernatural at Dean living a normal life."

"I spent so many seasons piecing together the clues to who Red John was only to find out the writers had no clue and just picked someone. It made no sense and was anticlimactic. Then they tried to continue on for another season afterward without the Red John arc. Awful."

StChas77 replied:
"Another Netflix single-season casualty."
 
PartyPug69 replied:
"It's bad because it doesn’t have an ending. It’s a good setup for a second season if they make one."

"The series was so good up until the finale where everyone starts traveling to the world and it ends on this upbeat note as if the world was going to change."

Femme0879 replied:
"I still find it funny that they made Piper do all these things and end up with Alex while the woman It was based on barely spoke with her ex and remained married to the guy she was with when they first arrested her."

jittery_raccoon replied:
"Yeah, it got really tiring after a while. She never did it with good intentions or because her hand was forced. She literally just causes chaos every episode for no reason."

"Hey let’s make the last episode a holodeck episode about two characters that aren’t even in the show! Then for the coup de grace we can needlessly kill off someone at random."
 
Cm0002 replied:
"I mean they did the best with what they could, Enterprise was canceled midway through season 3 iirc and that's why after a certain point everything feels rushed, they were trying to complete 2-3 seasons worth of story in a single season."

"A British drama about a police anti-corruption unit who catches corrupt officers. It was awesome. Five (I think) series of intricate plot details, gripping twists, and action. Then they absolutely ruined it in the final (I believe sixth) series."

ghostofkozi replied:
"She just has no clue how to pace and end a season without burning everything down in the last 2-3 episodes and starting over the following season. Weeds could have been so much better if they pursued character development over turning secondary characters into jokes (Uturn, Guillermo, Conrad etc)."

WillaBerble repleid:
"Didn't they provide the 13 reasons in the first season?"
 
_ac3_0f_spad3s_ replied: 
"Yes. The first season was an adaptation of the book. All the others were made up by the writers because Netflix ran it into the ground because it was the bug thing for a while"

"It never really ended with you knowing if they returned to their real-world or were stuck in the game forever. The show was canceled before the 4th season when the concluding episode was already written."

"Iirc the final season was delayed due to covid, and when it came out it was centered on COVID and the pandemic, it felt like a cop-out and they didn't actually have an ending planned.

"Wasn’t wild about the ending of Ozark."

BranchSupervisor said: 
"Worst ending ever."
 
MartoufCarter replied:
"Loved the show but that final season was beyond ridiculous."

"Last season was awful. Hank’s son… Jesus, he was annoying."

Aldren said:
"The whole last season was messed up."
 
MossTheTree replied:
"Honestly, the reason I stuck with watching The 100 is because it got more and more ridiculous with each season - just when you thought the character motivations couldn’t be any less consistent, they’d take it up a level. By the end, the writers were almost explicit in how many sharks they were jumping and seemed to revel in it. I loved that show and it ended just as stupidly as it should have."

"Hyped up this huge final battle between the humans and the bad aliens and the battle was relegated to a handful of radio messages 'We are starting the fight now.' and then the protagonist conversed with the queen bad alien for a bit, and then he used a MacGuffin to kill her. Naturally, her death caused allllll the bad guys to instantly die too. Falling skies started out very strongly, season one is excellent. the quality started to drop about midway thru season 2. the show is one of my all-time media disappointments."

"Not sure if anyone has had the willpower to push through all 4 seasons of the strain, but every now and then I’ll remember how awful it was."