Top 10 TV Finales That Didn't Have to Go That Hard

Each season of this British sitcom is set in a different time period, with Rowan Atkinson playing variations of the title character in “Blackadder.” Its very last edition is hysterically funny despite being set in the trenches of World War I. Blackadder pretends to have lost his mind in order to be discharged, but it doesn’t work out. He finds himself leading a troop of doomed soldiers to their deaths in place of their commanding officers. The jokes all stop once these men realize they’re about to die. The episode garnered critical acclaim—including a review from “The A.V. Club” that called it “the best episode of the series” and “one of the best series finales in television history.”

For four seasons, viewers watched MI6 agent Eve Polastri play a dangerous game with the sociopathic assassin, Villanelle. Many “Killing Eve” fans hoped their globe-trotting cat-and-mouse adventure would end with a real romance, but their exploits catch up with them in the final scene of the series. After Eve’s former superior at the agency orchestrates Villanelle’s assassination, Villanelle and Eve jump into the River Thames as sniper fire rains down on them. Although Villanelle often seems irredeemably evil, she ultimately dies protecting Eve. Her arc is complete, but at what cost? She sinks to the bottom of the river while Eve can only scream in grief. It’s a bracing and merciless episode.

Tuning into this sitcom about single women in their golden-years sharing a house in Miami, was like a warm hug. In the two-part finale of “The Golden Girls,” the jokes are as witty as ever, but the tears aren’t far away either. Dorothy marries Blanche’s uncle, Lucas, and the four women—Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia—face a future without each other. They share a group hug before Dorothy leaves for the airport—or at least tries to leave. She runs back in for another hug. And then another. But once it’s clear she’s really gone, the episode closes as the remaining trio tearfully hug each other. There’s no punchline. They’re as sad to part ways as we are to see them go.

This philosophically grounded sitcom that takes place in the afterlife always found a way to add a new wrinkle to the story. The finale of “The Good Place” adds yet another complication. The main characters can choose to end their time in the afterlife. We follow them as they each decide when it’s time to step into the great unknown. The selfish Eleanor Shellstrop finally learns her lesson, and makes her first real selfless decision. And Chidi finally makes a decision as well. The finale is profound and sad in a way that still feels true to the show’s humor and overarching ideas.

Tony is in dire straits at the end of Season 6 of “The Sopranos.” He finds himself staring down the barrel of an all-out mob war with New York, resulting in several of his crew getting killed or hospitalized. When the screen suddenly goes black at the end of the episode, it would be understandable if viewers thought their cable went out. Instead of tying up the story with a bow, they did the most “Sopranos” thing they could do. They left Tony’s fate unresolved. Whether he dies now or dies later, he and his family will always be living in limbo. HBO’s masterful mob series never provided easy answers, and it wasn’t about to start.

Given the zany antics that had become standard at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, its last hour is surprisingly heartfelt. Taking place a full year after the previous episode, “The Office” finale finishes all the loose narrative threads. It’s full of touching moments, like Erin finally meeting her birth parents and Michael Scott making a surprise appearance at Dwight and Angela’s wedding. For all the sweetness, there’s also a sense of melancholy throughout the whole thing. It’s impossible not to put on the nostalgia goggles as you’re watching this family of weirdos say goodbye to their good old days. Please, someone tell a joke before we run out of tissues.

The tone of this hit HBO series always tended to sit comfortably between dramatic and comedic. But the closing scene of “Six Feet Under” was just straight up poetic. As Claire Fisher leaves her family behind for New York, we’re shown a montage of how they all meet their end. It’s an emotional and deeply moving sequence. It’s also devastating. You can’t just make us fall in love with these people and then remind us that they’ll die once the story is over. But that’s the whole point. If we’ve learned anything from watching the Fisher family and their funeral home for five seasons, it’s that death is inevitable. Okay, fine, but not for them, please.

Let’s just say things are not going well for Walter White. His long-held double life as a drug lord has never been less secret, and by the series finale of “Breaking Bad,” he’s gone full-on fugitive. Watching him try to make amends, and get his final revenge on the criminal associates who’ve wronged him, makes for a bittersweet conclusion. Walt is finally honest about why he turned to crime, but it’s a little too late for that now. There’s no possible way this can end well for him. Yet the show still manages to twist the knife at every turn. It’s an explosive conclusion to an unforgettable show.

Due to some broadcasting weirdness, this series finale wasn’t the last episode that aired of this puppet-centered children’s show from Jim Henson. However, it was the last one produced—and it’s definitely the end of the story. The show “Dinosaurs” ends on the most depressing possible note, as the family patriarch, Megalosaurus Earl Sneed Sinclair, inadvertently causes the Ice Age that will kill off all the dinosaurs. That includes the entire family at its center, even Baby. It’s not the first episode where the show conveys its deeply environmental message to its young viewership, but it was easily the most straightforward and depressing one.

The long-running joke about this Korean War sitcom is that it lasted even longer than the war it was set in. “M*A*S*H” had come a long way from its laugh track-filled beginnings. Over the years, it had toed the line between comedy and drama, openly confronting the psychological toll of war. This culminated in a television film that served as the “M*A*S*H” series finale. The generally good-humored Hawkeye is haunted by an incident involving an enemy patrol and a refugee’s desperate act to stay hidden. Exploring the mental toll of war, the emotional finale became the most watched TV episode in U.S. history.

What series finale caught you off guard? Tell us in the comments!