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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  "Downer" Series Finales (Spoilers!) « previous next »
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Author Topic: "Downer" Series Finales (Spoilers!)  (Read 4587 times)
Squishy
Guest
« on: May 26, 2001, 02:49:55 AM »

Wooooo, baby, fans of "The Fugitive" probably did not like the taste of the series finale--a mysterious government conspiracy leaves both Kimble (the fugitive) and Gerard (his pursuer) shot to death. No happy ending, no resolution. Of course, the series ended prematurely and this time a probable season cliffhanger became the show's edgier epitaph, but it's not the first time a series ended in the WCS (Worst Case Scenario). England seems to have a long tradition in this field:

"Blake's 7"--Blake returns from the grave only to be shot by one of his own, and everyone else, after seasons of last-second rescues and beating the odds with occasional losses, winds up summarily executed in the final two minutes. The chief baddy was whacked in the penultimate episode, but the Evil Galactic Empire prevails.

"Black Adder"--four series and a movie; I haven't seen the movie, but in at least three out of the four series, everybody--even children--winds up deader'n hell. Aah, Brit humor.

Meanwhile, in the US:

Semi-adult kid's show "Dinosaurs!" started off with the "message" premise that the dinosaurs did not get wiped out by a meteorite--it missed--but were well on their way to extinction by destroying their environment themselves. Of course, being the most powerful life-form on the planet, they were convinced they would always be around. The main character and the Evil Corporation he works for finally succeed in triggering the Ice Age; instead of saving the characters with a last-second cop-out that would have invalidated their message, the producers left them to slowly freeze to death after the end credits. That's astonishingly cool and heavy for a Disney show--and hangs over the end of their later movie, "Dinosaur."

In another Disney downer, the hero of "Reboot" is betrayed and shot into an alternate dimension supposedly swarming by monsters that slowly eat the likes of him--leaving the system he's defending under the guardianship of his useless, smartass sidekick with a new uniform. (Everybody must have realized how helpless this looked, because years later--just recently in fact--an OAV "Reboot" series cops out and saves everyone.)

Any others out there? You tend to remember the "bad" series endings rather than ones where the series drags itself to death and wraps up with some sugary crapola.
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Ringneck
Guest
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2001, 09:03:01 AM »

Squsih.  Not quite what you were talking about, but the "Married....With Children" finale REALLY was p**s-poor.  I think it was inteneded to be a season finale instead, then re shot, re-edited, or had new stuff stuck in to make it appear to be a series finale.  

Quantum Leap.  I think they planned on getting a TV movie for a finale, and didnt, so they threw this together.  Not really altogether bad, just no real closure.

The Dukes of Hazard.  Even though it was a live action cartoon, I still would have liked to have seen this show have a real series finale.  It would have meant the reunion movies would have been less juvenile than it was.  

BradLaGrange
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Vermin Boy
Guest
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2001, 12:04:49 PM »

I'm astonished no one else has mentioned this, but the best example I can think of is "Twin Peaks." The series finale included one character bashing his head against a mantle, one character indefinitely suspending a cage of tarantulas over his head with his teeth, two of the more beloved characters caught in a bank explosion, and the hero of the series possessed by evil incarnate. From what I've heard, the producers didn't know it would be the finale, so chances are most of the characters would have survived, but man...

"How's Annie?"
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BoyScoutKevin
Guest
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2001, 02:29:53 PM »

That is interesting about "The Fugitive." With the death of both characters, I presume that it will not be back for a second season. And, in some ways, that is too bad. At least by the standards of "TV Guide," "The Fugitive" was a better show then "CSI." Yet "CSI" will apparently continue for a second season, and "The Fugitive" will not. And some of us wonder why television
may not be as good as it once was. But, back to the question. Besides the shows named, the only television show I remember where most of the characters were killed was the Canadian adaptation of H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds." Where between the first season of this syndicated show and its second season, most of the characters from the first season were killed off. I think it is significant that of the shows named--at least half were foreign made. As if foreigners have fewer problems killing off characters, then we Americans.
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Warren H.
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« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2001, 10:12:36 PM »

The "Seinfeld" series ender was a real downer, with George, Jerry, and Kramer most likely ending up with their throats slit or becoming b***hes to the rougher inmates.  They didn't even show how poor Elaine was doing in prison.

A big downer, for me anyway, was the ender to "Neon Genesis: Evangelion." An anime series that built up some really likable characters in its first half, and then proceeded to do ever-worse things to them in its second half.  One of them, Shinji, decides to accept life even though it sucks, but Rei (a clone who was developing a personality) is just forgotten about, Asuka (so so lovable) is left insane, and all the other characters, well, poo on them.  Geez.
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faerieofdeath
Guest
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2001, 11:34:37 PM »

From the time it started, when i was about 12 or 13, I was absolutely addicted to Millennium.  But, sadly, after a few fascinating, disturbing seasons, all of the cool characters had died and poor Frank was left all alone, deranged and much less interesting without everyone else to bounce off of.  The series ended with storming a suspect's apartment and ending up setting off a bomb.  We know that Frank is alive, but there's nothing more and the series shudders abruptly to a halt.  He made a brief appearance on the X-Files in late 1999, helping Mulder and Scully from within a mental hospital, but that hardly gave any closure.  We all knew that the show, being called "Millennium", couldn't possibly survive for more than a few years, but they could have at least given it a slightly less disappointing ending.
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peter johnson
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« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2001, 12:15:34 AM »

Personally, I hated the finale to "3rd Rock" that just aired.  When it was on-target, this show could be more wickedly funny than just about anything else out there.  The series finale really lamed-out  -- No William  Shatner as Big Giant Head, for God's sake!!  No real relationship closures, just a get it over with and let's go attitude.  Maybe the actors and writers were all tired of it after 6 years.
I agree with Mr. Vermin about Twin Peaks.
My wife screamed and cried and hated the ending to "Blackadder 4" -- In Flanders' Fields -- I found it strangely uplifting, sort of like the final TV M.A.S.H.  The time-travel episode of Blackadder -- which I think is what is being meant by the film -- just aired here in Colorado on PBS.  It was pretty funny, but nowhere near the calibre of the series.  The film they showed afterwards on the making of it was actually more interesting.
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Abby
Guest
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2001, 02:15:58 AM »

This is way out of genre context, but Moonlighting had a miserable 'downer' ending. The show had suffered from all sorts of internal problems for two years, took a really bad story turn during the final season, then ended it with a self-consciously empty ending -- as David and Maddie tried to figure out why the public didn't like them anymore.
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Squishy
Guest
« Reply #8 on: May 27, 2001, 04:26:50 AM »

I completely forgot an earlier "Fugitive" rehash: "The Incredible Hulk." After the series ended, there were a number of forgettable TV-movies (co-starring astonishingly bad versions of other Marvel superheroes like Thor and Daredevil), wrapping up with "The Death of the Incredible Hulk." Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno and Jerry Goldsmith's famous theme, as always, were the sole saving graces (well, that and the "Russian" hottie Bixby's character falls for--literally) but it was pretty ballsy to whack a comic-book icon "for real."

Yes, the Black Adder "movie" I refer to was not so much a movie as a TV special, in which a future Blackadder is visited by the ghosts of the past series' title characters (all Rowan Atkinson), who, in a twist of "A Christmas Carol," teach him to be a right bastard. Think it was called "A Black Adder Christmas."
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Fritz
Guest
« Reply #9 on: May 27, 2001, 01:44:43 PM »

There's another Blackadder special that was made for the Millenium Dome.
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peter johnson
Guest
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2001, 12:56:54 AM »

Yeah, the Blackadder that just aired is not the Christmans Special -- That one's been around here for awhile & is a straight parody of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.  This must be the Millenium Dome one -- They go back to ancient Rome & Stephen Fry & Chris Laurie wear very short Roman uniforms & there are the usual "cunning plans" by Baldrick & the Time Machine looks like a giant wooden clock.  It's got Napoleon & some other bits.
Anyway, okay in the funny department, though I need to see it again to get the jokes I missed.
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Flangepart
Guest
« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2001, 11:27:38 AM »

As Blackadder is a Brit series, the ending of Blackadder 4 is appropriate. The British suffered so much from the war, any other ending might have been inconcivable, espchualy for the Blackadder...its certianly his karma.  A funny show, but as per this post topic, it does fit, and shows what i call "Euro-cynicisim". The inevitable conciquense of European history. Well, mankind all told, actualy.
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Dr. Freex
Guest
« Reply #12 on: May 29, 2001, 04:37:35 PM »

It was called Blackadder: Back and Forth, I believe.
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