20 Of The Worst TV Show Finales

Alright, grown up talk now. Our major biff with the Seinfeld finale was that the show was supposed to be about nothing, but the ending was about something: punishing its characters. For all of Larry David’s “no hugging, no learning” rule, Seinfeld still ended up imposing a sort of moral meaning onto itself, only one of judgment for bad behavior instead of mushy learning about feelings and stuff. What’s the deal with that? Sorry, that question was funnier in our heads. The point is: Seinfeld’s ending is still not that bad. It contradicts the basic ideas of the show and as a consequence its jokes don’t land, but it does not leave a bad taste retroactively staining our enjoyment of the rest of the show.

The same thing cannot be said about the finales in this Pictofact, though. For truly bad endings are not the same as simply failed (or even misunderstood) endings. The worst of the worst either bring forth fundamental problems with their show, or just make our entire investment in them worthless. We’ve discussed a lot of them throughout the years, from the ending of Dallas to that of 13 Reasons Why and House of Cards. Following such a Cracked tradition, here we’ve compiled endings so awful, they kinda make it easy for us to let go of the show. If they hurt so bad in the end, then they weren’t meant for us to begin with. As for the very best series finales, we’re leaving that for another time.