TV shows often struggle to stick the landing with a satisfying ending, but a rare few perfect series finales have wrapped up their shows the right way. There have been divisive endings, like Lost and The Sopranos, and endings that were universally panned as outright terrible, like Dexter and How I Met Your Mother. But there have been great finales, too.
10
Better Call Saul
The final episode of Better Call Saul, “Saul Gone,” had to function not only as the conclusion to the spinoff itself; it was the culmination of the entire Breaking Bad saga. After hiding out under a new identity for over a year, Jimmy McGill is finally caught by the feds and extradited back to Albuquerque to face the music.
It was poetically fitting that this series ended up back in a courtroom, with Jimmy representing himself. We see some classic Saul Goodman trickery one last time as he talks himself down to a slap on the wrist, but then he takes some accountability and allows himself to receive a just sentence so he can make amends with Kim.
9
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
From Cheers to The Office to Parks and Recreation, the workplace family has become a staple of the sitcom genre. When audiences are coming back to the same characters week after week, they come to feel like members of the family. A workplace show can capture that by turning all these co-workers into each other’s found family.
That trope can be traced back to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which bid its found family the perfect farewell in its touching finale episode. The series ends with a heartfelt farewell, a group hug, and a momentous departure. It has all the hallmarks of a satisfying finale: it hit audiences in the feels, and stayed true to the show’s feminist message.
8
Cowboy Bebop
One of the most seminal anime series ever made, Cowboy Bebop ran for 26 episodes (or “sessions”) before reaching its thrilling, action-packed, deeply cathartic two-part finale, “The Real Folk Blues.” For the most part, Cowboy Bebop was an episodic series following the intergalactic adventures of a ragtag group of bounty hunters chasing their bounties across the cosmos.
But the first episode had set up Spike Spiegel’s dicey past as a member of the Red Dragon Syndicate, and that threat loomed over the entire series. In the final episode, the syndicate finally catches up to Spike, targeting anyone connected to his old cohort Vicious. Spike’s last stand against the Red Dragon Syndicate makes for a riveting climax.
7
Derry Girls
For three seasons, the masterpiece sitcom Derry Girls functioned as both a universally relatable coming-of-age tale about five teenagers getting ready for adulthood and a poignant snapshot of the final years of the Troubles. The last episode brought both of these storylines together and concluded them perfectly, as the girls left school and the Troubles came to an end.
In the series finale, as the girls are getting ready to start their adult lives and anything seems possible, they all vote in the Good Friday Agreement referendum. These kids have never known peace — they were born into the Troubles — so it’s heartening to see an end to the violence to cap off their childhoods.
6
The Wire
The final season of The Wire was controversial for its contrived fake serial killer plot — a stark contrast from the sobering, almost documentary-like realism of the previous seasons — but David Simon and co. absolutely stuck the landing with their final episode. Aptly titled “-30-,” The Wire’s series finale deftly concludes Simon’s journalistic study of corruption in the American city.
There’s no real closure at the end of The Wire, but that’s the point. There are no easy fixes to the systemic problems depicted in the series; the wheels will keep turning, the institutions will remain broken, and lives will continue to be destroyed. The final montage hammers that home as we see Duquan become the new Bubbles and Michael become the new Omar.
5
BoJack Horseman
The titular horse in BoJack Horseman finally faced some comeuppance for his morally dubious actions in the series finale. Having been jailed for breaking and entering his old home in the previous episode, BoJack is granted a furlough to attend Princess Carolyn’s wedding in the finale. This allows him to have one last moment with all the main characters.
Princess Carolyn assures the now-disgraced BoJack that he’ll get another chance. He has a nice chat with Todd on the beach, and in the episode’s final moments, he has a heart-to-heart with Diane. It’s a suitably bittersweet ending: BoJack isn’t let off the hook for any of his misgivings, but he does get a chance to make peace with the people he cares about.
4
The Office (UK)
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant concluded The Office with a two-part Christmas special picking up three years after the documentary was filmed. We see how David Brent is doing post-redundancy and how the office is functioning under Gareth’s tyrannical management. Dawn has moved to America with Lee, and Tim is still stuck at work, wishing she hadn’t left.
The Christmas special has a lot of laughs (including David doing a poorly received Austin Powers impression at a nightclub gig), but more importantly, it’s a satisfying ending. It gives us all the payoffs we’d been waiting for: David finally finds happiness, Gareth finally becomes somewhat popular among his co-workers, and Dawn finally leaves Lee and embraces Tim’s love.
3
Six Feet Under
The final episode of Six Feet Under gives everyone a moving sendoff without letting go of the series’ morbid obsession with death. The finale both sets up all the main characters for the next chapter in their lives, priming them for a bright future, and flashes forward to show us how and when each of them will eventually die.
Every previous episode of Six Feet Under had begun with an untimely demise, but the finale opens with a birth to symbolize new beginnings. This series had focused so much on our inevitable mortality, but the final episode inspires hope. That final montage is about as powerful and cinematic and emotionally rich as television gets.
2
M*A*S*H
In real life, the Korean War lasted three years. But M*A*S*H managed to stretch it out for 11 seasons. Usually, when a sitcom has gone on that long, it struggles to wrap up the story in a satisfying way. But M*A*S*H’s two-hour final episode is one of the most perfect endings to any story ever told.
As the ceasefire takes effect, the members of the 4077th celebrate with a party, take down the camp one last time, and say their heartfelt goodbyes. The image of the helicopter leaving, looking back at the message “GOODBYE” on the ground, is about as perfect a conclusion to a television show as there’s ever been.
1
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad had planted the seeds of its series finale all throughout the final season — hinting that Heisenberg’s empire would fall and Walter White would return to Albuquerque with a giant machine gun to settle his old scores — and the finale, “Felina,” brought all those hints together in an action-packed climax.
It’s a jaw-dropping spectacle in which Walt cleverly exacts revenge against all his surviving enemies, but it’s also a poignant dramatic conclusion in which he gets one last moment with all the main characters. He comes clean to Skyler, he watches his son from afar, and he frees Jesse from a life of slavery. Walt’s death, the moment the series had been building to from the beginning, was the perfect bittersweet ending.
