WHY SO MANY TV SHOWS FUMBLE THE FINALE

If you checked social media following the release of the Stranger Things series finale, you would have found a constant stream of viewers searching for answers. It was chaotic and people were obviously disappointed. Most tellingly, people were convinced that there had to be a secret final episode. Netflix crashed the following week because people believed in the ‘Conformity Gate’ theory so much, refusing to accept the ending for what it was. 

This has unfortunately become a fairly familiar ritual. A beloved TV show wraps up after years of cultural dominance and fans are left disappointed or in denial. With a general consensus that the writers managed to fumble an ending that people had invested their time and energy waiting for. 

Stranger Things is far from alone. Looking at the IMDb averages for final seasons of Game of Thrones or How I Met Your Mother, the pattern becomes hard to ignore. Shows that were once critically adored and obsessively watched somehow collapse at the very last hurdle. The longer and more successful the show, the more spectacular the disappointment feels when it ends badly.

So why does TV keep messing this up?

On paper, it shouldn’t be this hard. These are the same writers and showrunners who created the worlds we fell in love with in the first place. They proved they could build complex characters, compelling arcs, and emotionally resonant storytelling. Yet when it comes time to land the plane, everything goes wrong.

One explanation is that some shows simply lose touch with what they originally were. Stranger Things, for example, started as a tight, nostalgic, slightly eerie sci-fi story about childhood, friendship, and small-town mystery. As the seasons went on, the stakes ballooned, the cast expanded, and the spectacle increased. By the end, it felt like the show didn’t quite know whether it wanted to be a character-driven coming-of-age story or a Marvel-level blockbuster.

There’s also the issue of character evolution, or the lack of it. How I Met Your Mother is a perfect example of a show that got stuck in its own past. The finale clung so tightly to an ending planned years earlier that it ignored how much the characters, and audience expectations, had changed along the way. After nine seasons of growth, and emotional investment, reverting back to an old idea felt jarring and regressive. 

In other cases, burnout plays a huge role. With Game of Thrones, it often feels less like a creative failure and more like a rushed exit. After nearly a decade working on the same world and the same characters, it’s not hard to imagine the creators wanting to move on. Bigger projects, such as the offer of the Star Wars franchise, and general exhaustion reportedly sped the ending along. This resulted in a finale that felt undercooked, abrupt, and emotionally unsatisfying. 

Of course, there’s another argument that gets thrown around every time a finale flops: perhaps it’s just impossible to please everyone. After years of build-up, theorising, and emotional investment, expectations become too high. With millions of fans all wanting different things, how could any ending possibly satisfy the general consensus?

However, plenty of famous, successful shows have managed to stick the landing. Breaking Bad is often held up as the gold standard. While shows like Gavin and Stacey, despite its long gaps and enormous fanbase, returned with an ending that felt warm, earned, and emotionally right. These finales worked because they respected the worlds they’d built and the people watching.

With enough care, time, and attention, well-beloved shows can end in ways that feel satisfying. Which is exactly why bad endings hurt so much more. 

When a finale disappoints, so many of us cling to conspiracy theories about secret episodes or surprise revivals, because it’s easier to believe there’s more coming than to accept that something you loved didn’t get the ending it deserved.

• entertainment
• Finale
• television