7 of the biggest TV shows that ‘completely betrayed’ their fans

TV fans have revealed which shows left them feeling absolutely betrayed – so let’s see if you agree with their choices.

It can be a pretty lonely experience once you’ve finished your favourite TV series.

For months on end, a show can feel like it’s part of your life, like huge hits that spanned years like Game of Thrones, Lost and Dexter.

Whether you’re bored at work and you can’t wait to get home or it’s a Sunday afternoon and you want nothing more than to sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and watch your latest episode – saying goodbye to a character such as Tony Soprano or Don Draper is never easy.

At the drop of a hat, you can go from enjoying dazzling story arcs and plot twists to feeling like your evening’s are empty and colourless.

But an even more devastating feeling is when a show goes from filling you with so much joy to ending in the most drab and disappointing way imaginable. It almost feels like a crime.

So, from Dexter’s ‘completely botched ending’ to House’s ‘terribly terrible finale’, here are the seven biggest shows that ‘completely betrayed’ their fans.

Two and a Half Men

From 2003 until 2011, Charlie Sheen starred as one of the leads of the sitcom Two and a Half Men alongside his on-screen brother Jon Cryer and on-screen nephew Angus T Jones.

However, in March 2011, it was announced in a statement: ‘After careful consideration, Warner Bros Television has terminated Charlie Sheen’s services on Two and a Half Men effective immediately,’ after the actor publicly criticised the co-creator Chuck Lorre and demanded to be paid $3million (£2.3m) per episode.

While the future of Two and a Half Men was initially up in the air, the actor was then replaced by Ashton Kutcher, who played the new lead Walden Schmidt until the final episode in 2015.

‘I seriously missed Charlie Sheen on this show as I think everyone was perfectly cast especially and the witty Chuck Lorre writing was excellent,’ X user @Nostalgia150360 wrote.

‘But the show honestly sucked with the arrival of Ashton’s character for the last few years as it made the show worse.’

Another user, @Thakkar____, wrote: ‘Yeah I loved the show too but I guess it was a clash of egos and we were on the losing side.

Two and a Half Men is available to stream on ITVX.

Game of Thrones

The final episode might have come out six years ago, but the ending of Game of Thrones – and how its plot veered – is still one of the most heated debated topics in TV.

Hailed as one of the best TV shows of all time, there are many fans around the world who were devastated by the final season, as they felt it was rushed and led to conclusions that didn’t make sense for the story.

A user on X, @ben_wellick_V, wrote: ‘Game of Thrones. It’s the one time I can remember where the show went from having a bigger buzz than most major blockbusters to literally being an afterthought bc of the bad will the last season caused.’

Another fan called @Ronak_Kamat added: ‘In what was potentially an effort to please, resulted in almost total displeasure.’

After years of build-up, the shortened final season did not go down well with a lot of viewers, especially considering George RR Martin – who wrote the books on which the fantasy drama is based – hasn’t finished the story yet.

Game of Thrones is available to watch on demand on Sky and NOW.

The Blacklist

Airing from 2013 to 2023, The Blacklist follows the story of Raymond Reddington (James Spader), a man who is onthe FBI’s most wanted list who works with the organisation to hunt down other people.

The show accumulated a massive fanbase over the course of 10 years, which is why the disappointment of the final episodes was so keenly felt.

Writing on Reddit, one fan stressed how upset they were by how the drama was wrapped up – however, they also defended the series, emphasising that the 10 years they spent watching it weren’t a waste in their eyes.

‘However, I have seen some people say that they have wasted 10 years watching this show, which I believe is untrue. Yes the ending was severely underwhelming and anti-climactic, but the earlier seasons, and even some of the later season had some great moments of television,’ Tonedog01 wrote.

‘So, we can accept the disappointing reality of the Blacklist’s finale and all the unanswered questions, which are completely valid criticisms, and should rightly be criticised. But, this is just a reminder to not forget the good moments of the show, and not allow for the finale to tarnish everything that came before.’

Another user called jmpinstl said in response: ‘I feel like they could have ended a lot differently, it felt way too abrupt.’

Someone else stated: ‘I disagree. I’ve been watching all 10 seasons and they just strung us along. It was a long con.’

The Blacklist is available to watch on demand on Sky and NOW.

House of Cards

While House of Cards originally received acclaim from fans and critics alike, the show was marred after Kevin Spacey’s axe following allegations of sexual misconduct made against the actor in 2017.

Spacey denied all of the allegations against him and stood trial in New York in 2022 over the claims, where he was found not liable.

In 2023, he was found not guilty at a trial in London over allegations of sexual assault and indecent assault, which he had denied.

The sixth season of the show was the only one not to feature Spacey after he was dropped from the cast.

One fan on Reddit called oneisnotprime remarked: ‘House of Cards season six is absolutely incomprehensible, bordering on being outright nonsense.’

HolycommentMattman commented: ‘I mean, season five doesn’t make sense. Why would season six?’

House of Cards is available to stream on Netflix.

House

House is frequently hailed one of the best TV shows ever… but its finale left viewers sorely disappointed.

The drama starred Hugh Laurie as Dr Gregory House, an extremely cynical doctor who uses unorthodox methods to make incredible discoveries about his patients that no other medical professionals could make.

An X user called Nostalgia said that House is one of the greatest characters in the last 30 years to grace our televisions’.

But this acknowledgement made the finale Everybody Dies, which aired in 2012, even more disappointing, as the fan sated: ‘His show’s finale was terribly but I’ll give it a pass as his character was greatness for a majority of the time even if the show was unrealistic.’

In a review a the time, The AV Club wrote that the final episode was a ‘failure of ambition’.

House can be bought per episode or season on Amazon Prime Video.

Lost

For years, Lost has boasted one of the most heavily-debated finales of all time, with some TV fans thinking it was the perfect way to end the show, and others claiming it was the most frustrating conclusion ever.

However, that episode wasn’t the only time viewers felt hard done by, as some found the series difficult to follow throughout, as X user @DizzyJB remarked that ‘the whole series lost its way’.

@proofofwork69 claimed that the series was ‘winging every second of the story past the third season or so’, while @ItWasTheMoops called out all of the ‘unanswered questions’ that remain a mystery to this day.

‘At some point maybe three or four seasons in it became clear they didn’t really care for the mythology they started building and just winged it the rest of the way,’ @Time_Machine_X added.

Lost is available to stream on Netflix and Disney Plus.

Dexter

The original Dexter series introduced viewers to Michael C Hall’s Dexter Morgan in 2006, a man working by day as a forensic technician for the Miami Metro Police Department who is also secretly a serial killer, targeting murderers.

The show has had an incredible legacy since its launch, spawning several spin-offs – but fans were incredibly disappointed by the finale Remember the Monsters? when it aired in 2013.

‘Dubbed as Everyone’s favorite serial killer, I loved this show Dexter especially the first pilot episode with the opening gripping lines,’ social media user @Nostalgia150360 wrote.

‘That being said they completely botched the landing (so to speak on the terrible finale).’

X user @e_bo30 added: ‘Omg, the series finale of Dexter is as bad, if not worse than the finale of How I Met Your Mother… I‘m so mad, eight seasons leading up to this.’

Dexter is available to stream on Netflix.

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