It hasn’t been long since the season 4 finale of The Umbrella Academy dropped on Netflix – and it’s safe to say, many fans were absolutely devastated.
Not just over the fact that they had to face saying goodbye to some of their favourite characters, but also where the story ended… including a romance that made viewers want to ‘vomit’.
The last episode of the show sparked memories of other lacklustre TV finales, from Game of Thrones’ underwhelming and rushed conclusion, to How I Met Your Mother’s crushing twist of the knife at the final hurdle.
One fan called Rebecca wrote on X: ‘I hate to say the Season 4 of #TheUmbrellaAcademy was a flawed entity ending with a train wreck of a finale. Why guys? I loved first three seasons and these characters.’
As we delve back into the history of TV, there are several shows that had epic rises… and in some cases, even more epic falls.
Now when it comes to the debate of worst TV endings ever, there are bound to be passionate disagreements.
This writer, for example, will always stand up for the Lost finale, no matter how many people are determined to tear it apart. And there are some who choose to defend Game of Thrones’ conclusion five years on.
But, putting our personal views to one side, here are some of the worst TV endings of all time, according to fans all around the world.
Game of Thrones
When the final season of Game of Thrones aired in 2019, fans were disappointed for many reasons.
Not only did it consist of a mere six episodes (after the first six seasons had each had 10, and the penultimate season had seven), but the story felt rushed to many viewers.
Watching Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) rise as a merciful and fearsome leader from season one made her descent into bloodthirsty madness that much more heartbreaking for fans, before her lover Jon Snow (Kit Harginton) stabbed her to death.
And then to top it all off, after years of wars and conquest, Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) was crowned the King of Westeros in what felt like a very random direction.
Years later, fans are still very bitter about this ending.
How I Met Your Mother
When How I Met Your Mother first started airing in 2005, fans were absolutely enthralled by the sitcom, with many feeling as though it filled the Friends-shaped void in their lives.
The premise of the show followed Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) as he told his kids the story of how he met their mother.
However, the big reveal of who their mother was ended up being a huge letdown, as the Mother (played by Cristin Milioti) dies from a terminal illness, before Ted reconciles his romance with close friend Robin (Cobie Smulders).
To top it all off, Ted and Robin’s reconciliation comes after Robin divorces from Ted’s best friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) following a three-year marriage.
Fans who had hoped Robin and Barney would be endgame, and that there would be more to the story of Ted and his children’s mother, were not happy whatsoever.
Lost
Even though Lost is still hailed as one of the best TV shows of all time, it’s ending is one that many fans hate with a passion.
The drama follows a group of passengers from a crashed flight, who must work together to survive the dangers of mother nature and the mysterious forces at play on the island that they’ve landed on.
The show boasts a great ensemble cast who are revealed to have secret connections to one another, and whose backstories often weave in wonderful ways.
But the final conclusion of the story – where the main characters rediscovered each other in a purgatory-like alternate timeline before heading to the afterlife together – was certainly divisive.
In our opinion, wrapping up a show as complicated as Lost was always going to be a huge challenge and they did a bang-up job – but we have to acknowledge that many others disagree.
Dexter
When the season finale of the original run of TV series Dexter aired in 2013 – titled Remember the Monsters? – it caused an intense reaction from fans and critics alike.
A review in Associated Press accused the finale of being a ‘cop-out’, while a searing review in The Atlantic stated that it was ‘a show whose unbelievably unsatisfying end ruins all that came before it’.
The programme had a chance at redemption when it returned for the limited series Dexter: New Blood in 2021, with a prequel called Dexter: Original Sin currently in the works.
What’s more, a sequel series called Dexter: Resurrection is also on the way, with the lead actor Michael C Hall returning to the titular role. So it remains to be seen if all be forgiven for fans’ previous disappointment.
Killing Eve
The premiere of Killing Eve was a massive TV moment when the series was first released in 2018, revealing Jodie Comer as the conniving assassin Villanelle and Sandra Oh as MI5 analyst Eve Polastri.
However, the ratings for the BBC drama took a huge dip for its fourth and final season, with the biggest crushing blow coming during the finale.
‘I heard that the #KillingEve finale was bad but I did not expect it to be that bad. Just…why?,’ one X user called @savorygritz wrote after watching Villanelle being needlessly killed moments after finding happiness with Eve.
Mentioning the trope of queer characters being killed off in fiction, another viewer called @Alrightpunk wrote: ‘The thing I hate most about the #KillingEve finale, and why it’s the most egregious instance of Bury Your Gays I’ve ever seen, is we didn’t get to see Eve come to terms with her grief and rebuild her life.
‘It just ended, there and then. No compassion or empathy. No hope.’
Seinfeld
Seinfeld might be considered to be one of the best comedic TV shows ever, but plenty of fans were massively disappointed by the finale.
In an article published by Time in 2010, it was claimed that many viewers thought that the final episode was ‘downright awful’, adding: ‘Producer Larry David has said he has no regrets about the way the show ended, but the 2009 Seinfeld reunion he staged for an episode of his new show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, was viewed by many as his attempt at a do-over.
However, in 2019, Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander jumped to its defence.
Writing on X, he said: ‘To be clear, I adored the Seinfeld finale. I just keep getting crap about it from fans.
‘I loved that Jerry/Larry found an organic way to bring back all the amazing guests that enriched our show. It was an amazing week together filming it.’
Pretty Little Liars
Premiering in 2010, Pretty Little Liars follows a group of teen girls who are targeted by a mysterious individual called ‘A’ after the leader of their clique goes missing.
While there have been several spin-offs, including Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists and Ravenswood, the way that the original series ended devastated fans.
One fan wrote on X: ‘Does anyone else randomly think of how great #pll #prettylittleliars was, until they revealed A and the series finale was trash, which tarnished the show completely?’
Another called Alex tweeted in 2018, a year on from the finale: ‘If you aren’t still angry about the #PrettyLittleLiars finale a year on did you even watch it.’
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