In the history of television, countless great shows have suffered from a bad conclusion. Some final scenes feel rushed, while others have poor writing and character choices. In many instances, shows are forced to end when they aren't renewed for another season, which also leads to unfinished plots and unanswered questions.
When this happens, a once-loved series can easily fall from grace and lose its place among the best in television. Fans are unlikely to return to a show when all the buildup leads to nothing, and potential new fans are turned away due to bad reviews. No matter the circumstances, they all lead to unsatisfied fans and unfulfilling stories.
10 The Final Scenes Of Criminal Minds Were Mundane
There was no mystery show more successful than Criminal Minds. The series focuses on some of the best FBI profilers as they work together to solve crimes, save lives, and take down murderers. Criminal Minds contains many disturbing cases and dramatic storylines, which prompted fans to keep coming back.
Criminal Minds met great success, but some fans viewed the series finale as a lackluster sendoff. At the end of the series, the BAU team has a final conversation and says goodbye to one another. The scene is sweet and fun to watch, but its mundanity makes it seem like a season finale, rather than the end of the entire series. Hopefully, the upcoming revival, Criminal Minds: Evolution, won't suffer the same fate.
9 Merlin Is Never Truly Accepted
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In the BBC series Merlin, the title character is a young wizard who works as the squire to Prince Arthur. The series is a retelling of The Knights of the Round Table, but with the unique twist of magic being a forbidden practice. Merlin splits his time between helping Arthur and learning magic in secret, and often saves their Kingdom from danger.
At the end of Merlin, Merlin reveals his magical abilities to Arthur, and it doesn't go well. While Arthur has always been wary of magic, he grows to be a close friend of Merlin. Fans hoped that Arthur could ignore his prejudices and bring a new age to Camelot, but that never comes to pass. Instead, Arthur dies and Merlin seems to live his centuries alone.
8 Constantine Leaves Fans With More Questions Than Answers
Constantine aired on NBC in 2014 for only one season. The series follows John Constantine, a Warlock and Demonologist, as he attempts to thwart rising darkness. The series contains many supernatural and horror elements and was a darker show compared to the other superhero series on TV at the time.
By the season finale, Constantine's guardian angel Manny is revealed to potentially be pulling the strings. His once-trusted friend becomes an enemy in Constantine's closing scenes, and with only one season, fans never find out what happens to him. As a result, fans were left with more questions than answers.
7 Voltron Leaves The Characters Where They Started
Voltron: Legendary Defender is a modern retelling of the classic '80s cartoon, and the revamped characters became beloved fan favorites. After eight seasons of fun adventures, fans were disappointed by the epilogue that the finale gave.
Voltron brings the Paladins of Voltron together again during a reunion dinner. They reminisce about their adventures and lost friends and talk about their plans for the future. Later that night, the lions of Voltron leave without their Paladins, no longer allowing the show's main characters to continue defending the universe as they did before.
6 Full House's Ending Is Overly Dramatic For A Sitcom
One of the most popular sitcoms of the '90s was Full House. The series has a strong focus on family, and it revolves around Danny Tanner as he and his family adapt to the recent loss of his wife. Most scenes revolve around growing up and raising a family.
Full House takes a dramatic turn in its final season when the youngest daughter Michelle falls from a horse. In the series finale, it's revealed that she has amnesia and can't remember her family. This is a very dramatic turn for Full House to take. It's also largely unnecessary, as she regains her memory by the end of the episode.
5 Legends Of Tomorrow Turn Its Heroes Into Criminals
The Arrowverse series DC's Legends of Tomorrow takes the most unlikely of heroes and turns them into guardians of the timeline. The Legends spend their time traveling through space and time to preserve history from a plethora of threats. Legends of Tomorrow was well-received for its comedy, the interesting mashup of characters, and the fearless way the series has fun with its story.
The Legends' adventures come to an abrupt end when they are arrested for changing a fixed point in time. The series ends with this development, leaving fans with a cliffhanger and unaware of the exact futures of their favorite characters. It seems like an unjust way to leave the Legends, as the heroes were treated like criminals.
4 Lost's Ending Confused Many Of Its Fans
There are many series about people being stranded in a new environment, but few are as successful as Lost. After the crash of flight 815, the surviving passengers are left to survive on an island with many dangers. Lost is full of high stakes, mystery, and drama, which keep fans coming back for six seasons.
In the final episode, fans are given glimpses of what the characters' lives would be like if their flight never crashed. These "flash-sideways" scenes are revealed to be an afterlife that the survivors created for themselves. It led many fans to believe that they'd been dead the whole time. This ending caused a lot of confusion and outrage, but that was not the case. Still, Lost's conclusion is viewed as one of the worst.
3 The Magicians Breaks Up Friendships
A mature take on the world of magic can be found in The Magicians. The series follows Quentin Coldwater as he enters the world of magic and attends Brakebills University. Throughout the series, he and his friends encounter Gods, monsters, and magical worlds. The fantasy, fun, and horror reach an end when the series finale splits up its characters.
Throughout The Magicians, the main cast grows to become a found family, but due to world-ending circumstances, many of them end up separated. Some end up left on Earth, and others like are placed in a reborn Fillory, unable to return to the lives they left behind.
2 How I Met Your Mother Had The Most Disappointing Ending
How I Met Your Mother is a popular sitcom that focuses on Ted, who is telling his children the story of how he met their mother. The episodes are full of humorous situations as Ted pursues romances with the help of his friends. Throughout How I Met Your Mother's nine seasons, the story is building up to the reveal of who The Mother is.
The reveal ends up being a huge disappointment, however, as Ted's wife is revealed to be Tracey McConnell. She had few appearances in How I Met Your Mother, but in the finale, it is revealed that she passed away from a terminal illness months before Ted began to tell the story.
1 Supernatural Gives Its Main Character An Untimely End
The CW series Supernatural follows Dean and Sam Winchester, two brothers who hunt the supernatural and protect the innocent from otherworldly threats. The series amassed a large following, but fans were largely disappointed with how the series finale treated the main characters.
In the last episode of Supernatural, after surviving a final battle between the forces of heaven and hell, Dean loses his life while clearing out a vampire nest. His death is sudden, and it is more of an accident than anything else. It's not grand, and it doesn't do his character justice. Sam, in contrast, is given a montage of his life until he passes from old age and reunites with his brother in heaven.