TV fans everywhere know that a strong finale can help to solidify a show’s reputation, just as a bad or ill-conceived one can tarnish it. However, it should be pointed out that even finales considered bad at the time can, in hindsight, be appreciated for the risks they were willing to take regarding character development or plot. Indeed, some of the most compelling and adventurous finales ended up becoming divisive among their fandoms, ensuring that the shows they concluded earned a place in the history of the television medium.
'True Blood' For most of its run, the HBO vampire series True Blood kept viewers constantly wondering whether the main character, Sookie Stackhouse, would end up with either Bill or Eric, each of whom was desperate for her to pick him. As it turns out, in the finale she ended up with someone else entirely. While this was certainly an anticlimactic choice — as were many of the plot lines of the last few seasons — the series at least took a little bit of a risk and allowed Sookie to finally find her way out of a love triangle that had already overdefined her character.
'Spartacus' The ending is already clear if one sets out to watch a series called Spartacus . Even so, there’s something beautiful yet haunting about the finale of the Starz series Spartacus , which sees the death and defeat of its title character at the hands of the Romans. It would have been easy for the series to find some way of keeping him alive, but instead, it gives him — .