The final season of Riverdale is airing in 2023, and fans are excitedly anticipating how the show will end. There are two ways that the show could go by continuing to raise the stakes of the fantasy that now permeates the series, or returning to the relatively low stakes of the first season. While fans certainly can’t be sure, there is one thing each one agrees on: They want it to be good.
Given how many TV shows in the past few decades started perfectly and found themselves loathed by audiences, in the end, it’s certainly an understandable worry to have. Unfortunately, some TV shows are great from the start but just aren’t worth finishing.
Once Upon A Time
While there are many characters from Once Upon A Time needing a spin-off, the show itself drew the ire of many fans along the way. “Any plotlines that were somewhat grounded in reality got ignored for a bunch of fantasy nonsense that just gets stupider as it goes,” says starmartyr on Reddit.
Towards the end of the show, most episodes were simply reiterating plots from previous seasons. Amnesia and loss of magic plots were rampant, and the need to bring in new characters hurt the chance to develop existing ones. So while Once Upon A Time was a great show once upon a time, it fell apart in the end.
The Flash
A show dedicated to the beloved DC superhero, The Flash was all about the fastest man alive and his origins. Unfortunately, it grew to be somewhat repetitive. “90% of the season is him training to once again be the fastest man alive,” says Redditor kneecapped33.
While the show hasn’t ended yet, fans aren’t expecting much from the upcoming final season. After all, it is exceptionally hard to make compelling antagonists for a speedster, and the direction The Flash has taken proved it. After all, Flash has some lame villains, and it’s hurt the show.
Heroes
A show dedicated to exploring the consequences of what would happen when ordinary people get superpowers, Heroes was once one of the most interesting shows on TV, before having the worst series finale in history. The show had simply gone on too long and fans were tired of repetitive plots and stagnant characters, not to mention poor choices in superpowers.
“It was so hard when you give someone the ability to control time,” says Reddit user DaMoonRulez_1. “Opens you up to 1000 ways they could have easily defeated the enemy that didn’t happen.” Once Hiro developed that ability, any hope of a compelling ending was gone as suspension of disbelief snapped.
House Of Cards
A TV show filled with movie stars, fans had high expectations for House of Cards, and most were suitably impressed. Though the show was about politics, no part of it was ever boring. Every political gambit and assassination by the anti-heroes was another horrifying push that made the show so enthralling.
Of course, it didn’t remain that way. “Just stop watching on the last episode of the penultimate season and pretend the last one is still in the works,” says Reddit user Strange-Ad8829. “The last season is insulting on so many levels.” With Doug getting away with murder entirely, it felt like the consequences and stakes had melted away, and the show grew more predictable with every episode.
The Walking Dead
While some shows have disappointing endings that leave fans wishing it had gone on longer, The Walking Dead is the story of a show that has gone on far too long. “Yup, it got a bit past the whole ‘normal people surviving in a brutal world’ and just kinda got silly in a way, everyone was always serious and talked in a very specific dry quiet way,” says A_FamousNobody on Reddit.
After Rick and Carl left the show, few of the characters that fans had come to love remained. Many of the show’s strongest fighters are gone, leaving audiences wondering why it is still going in the first place. After over a decade, the plots are repetitive and droll, and it feels like the walkers are the perfect representations of the show: slow-moving and aimless.
Suits
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One of the best legal dramas on TV, Suits was an incredible show that always left fans on the edge of their seats. Or, at least, that’s what the show did at the start. After all, fans quickly figured out the pattern of Suits, and once they did, the show became far less engaging.
With the show centering around a college dropout who never attended law school, fans were always nervous that the firm would be caught. Instead, “every season someone else learns the big secret and it gets dumber and dumber,” says Redditor allegate. By the end, it was tiring watching the same thing again and again and nothing coming of it.
Arrow
While filled with filler episodes, few shows were better than the first episodes of Arrow. “When Arrow was first coming out all my friends were watching it all super excited for what comes next,” says Redditor Sburban_Player. “Now I don’t know anyone who would touch a CW DC show with a 10 foot pole.”
After all, the show eventually lost interest in heroism and Oliver Queen’s quest to protect his city. It devolved into romantic subplots, drama scenes, and dark plots that were completely forgotten and ignored. While it was fun connecting to the rest of the Arrowverse, the show lost its focus on Oliver and suffered for it.
Castle
One of the funniest and best dramedies on TV, Castle was a show that explored what it would be like if a crime novelist had to act as a real detective. While the show was always a fun experience, the ending utterly ruined any hope fans could have had to enjoy it.
“The finale was the worst finale in the history of finales,” says Reddit user Mental_Worker_1520. “I can’t even bring myself to watch marathons when they are on and it was one of my favorite shows when it first started.” While the show could have had a great ending, the fact that it was abruptly canceled left editors with little to work with to make a compelling ending, and it’s why fans despise it.
Game Of Thrones
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The finale of Game of Thrones disappointed fans everywhere, largely thanks to an abrupt and confusing ending. “GoT has been arguably the best series ever for the first five or six seasons, only to drop what was possibly the worst ending in the history of television, who basically erased it from existence in a matter of weeks,” says Redditor Abiduck.
With Daenerys Targaryen destroying King’s Landing on a whim and the heavily anticipated antagonist the Night King dying after only a single confrontation, the ending of the show insulted fans. To make matters worse, watching Bran sit on the throne because he had the best story in the show was utterly confusing, given that the show had left him out of an entire season.
Supernatural
A show that went on far longer than it should have, Supernatural had a strong five-season run before falling off the wagon. “It started out good, but I feel like the writers had no idea where to stop, so they just run with the ideas no matter how bad they were or how much they made no sense,” says Reddit user Solivagant0.
With each season desperately trying to raise the stakes from the last, the Winchester brothers were left wrestling with scenarios that were utterly out of their league, and it showed. While fans wanted monster-of-the-week episodes, they were instead greeted with leviathans, demons, and even a fight against God. It was too much in the end, and it’s why the show fell off so much.
