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16 TV Shows That Ended So Perfectly They Enshrined The Whole Series In Greatness

"The perfect cap to one of the best shows in all of American television."

by Benjamin DzialdowskiBuzzFeed Staff

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Recently, Miserable_Click_1933 asked r/TopCharacterTropes for "Finales that stick the landing so flawlessly they cement the series as an absolute masterpiece." So we thought we'd share the TV examples that came up the most.

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20th Century Studios

🚨Naturally, there will be spoilers, so skip over at your discretion.🚨

Breaking Bad

AMC

"After five seasons of watching Walter White ruin basically everything he touched, 'Felina' doesn’t try to let him off the hook with some clean redemption arc, and it doesn’t end with some vague cut-to-black either. Walt finally admits to Skyler that he did all of it for himself, not for his family. He ties up the loose ends, makes sure his kids get the money, kills the neo-Nazis, frees Jesse, and then dies in the lab. It’s a really well-put-together ending, and it feels satisfying because a monster gets to go out exactly the way he chose."

–Miserable_Click_1933

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Nickelodeon

"'Sozin’s Comet' is one of those finales that just gets everything right. It had to balance huge action with emotional payoff, and somehow it does both without losing what made the show special in the first place. Aang beats Ozai without betraying his own pacifist beliefs, and the energybending never feels cheap or random. At the same time, Zuko and Azula’s Agni Kai is tragic, beautiful, and honestly one of the best scenes in the whole series. Pretty much every character gets the ending they were building toward."

–Miserable_Click_1933

The Good Place

NBC

"A philosophical sitcom really had no business hitting this hard. Instead of ending once the group fixes the afterlife and finally reaches the actual Good Place, the show goes one step further and asks what happens when eternal happiness starts to feel empty. The answer it comes up with — a door that lets souls peacefully move on once they feel complete — is both heartbreaking and comforting. It’s such a thoughtful way to end a comedy."

–Miserable_Click_1933

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

MBS, TBS

"Edward giving up his alchemy to save his brother in a way that didn’t require sacrificing others’ lives and accepting being just a simple human was the best possible ending to his arc. Al gets his body back. Hohenheim dies in peace after his oldest enemy is defeated, and he has the time to clear things up with his children. Ed and Winry finally admit they’re in love."

–Radioactive_monke

The Wire

HBO

"While the last season isn’t usually rated the best, the finale does such a good job of emphasising the themes of the show. It highlights how ‘the system’ is broken but also cyclical. Some characters move on, some are gone, and some fill those same voids the characters left.

Since the main character really is Baltimore as a stand-in for any American city in decay, you get to look at how the big players in the city that you’ve watched have evolved and how the city evolved around them."

–LetosLatestDuncan

Blackadder Goes Forth

BBC 1

"The ending of Blackadder Goes Forth, when the main characters all go over the top to their likely deaths. The episode shows a lot of hidden depths to each character: Blackadder courageously accepts his fate; Baldrick is surprisingly aware of how futile the war is; George admits he’s terrified of meeting the same fate as his friends; and we quickly go from disliking Darling to feeling sorry for him when it’s clear all he wanted was just to make it back home alive and live a simple life with his girlfriend."

–fatherandyriley

M*A*S*H

CBS

"I had a whole post about it, but Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen still holds the record for the most-watched live television broadcast of a scripted show. Considering how modern streaming works, it’s likely that record will never be beaten."

–CynicalAltruist

"M*A*S*H nailed the ending as well as any show ever has."

–Cute_Repeat3879

Gravity Falls

Disney XD

"The ending scene of Gravity Falls is literally the only scene in any media that makes me cry every single time I rewatch it."

–Dedezin031006

"The whole arc from 'Not What He Seems' was so good, and the finale was really everything you could wish for. Love Gravity Falls."

–niphaa

"An absolute masterpiece through and through. Part of me wishes they had made a new season, but Alex Hirsch’s reasoning makes sense, so I’m happy with what we got. Time for a rewatch, I suppose."

–Hunter5865

Parks and Recreation

NBC

"Even though it didn’t have any huge twists, Parks and Recreation’s finale is really noticeable for just how well it tied up every single story for the main cast, hinted at a great future for all of them, and delivered one excellent joke after another. Jerry Gergi