How TV Shows Are Sabotaging Themselves (Video Essay)

As narrative TV dramas grow in popularity, are they doomed to keep going forever? Their huge success leads to more and more seasons, but this usually ends badly, as they lose traction and peter out with a disappointing ending that damages the audience's perception of the entire show. But will this wheel ever be broken?

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[HarboWholmes]

Remember to actually look at the upload date before you post the smartass Game of Thrones comment you're currently cooking up

[AvatarYoda]

Avatar: The Last Airbender did it right. It was intended for three seasons, ran for three seasons, was strong throughout, and had a great finale.

[maxjax]

CW is terrible for this, their shows start strong and fall apart after the first or second season.

[josueguillen]

Supernatural should’ve ended at season 5 after they defeat Lucifer. It would’ve been poetic for Dean to settle down with a family (the life Sam wanted) and Sam sacrificing himself to end the biggest supernatural threat to the world, the mission Dean had made for himself since the moment we met him. It’s poetic.

[ThatJohnKillion]

Sitcoms suffer this same fate. After the 3 or 5th season of "will there/won't they", it becomes nothing but engagements, weddings, and babies.

[natalierivera]

This is why I love limited series like The Queen's Gambit, cause they know that they're ending the story and not leading on the audience with a shitty cliffhanger so they're able to plan for it wrap everything up, and craft it beautifully.

[fpdarkness]

That particular Comment on Game of Thrones ending on a high has not aged well.

[VibesNeptuneMarz]

Gravity Falls also had a perfect ending. As much as I wish it never ended, I'm really glad it did.

[cebasm]

Stranger Things should have been an anthology series, where each season was it's own standalone sci-fi/horror inspired story 😩

[someone-lkqz]

Fleabag was a really good comedy show and many people wanted to see more but I'm glad that it ended. The ending was meaningful and great

[travconnelly]

For those worried about it, this video is about how shows end, so look out for MAJOR SPOILERS for the following shows in these sections. The spoilers come up quick and without warning, so you won’t be able to pause in time unless you know they are coming.

Intro (tons of random clips): 0:00
Lost: 1:24
Pretty Little Liars (Lost mentioned once, opinion mentioned with no spoiler): 3:02
The Walking Dead (no real spoilers here, just opinions): 4:33
Random scenes from many movies/shows with no real spoilers: 5:24
Lost: 5:56
Breaking Bad/Sopranos: 6:58
Sopranos: 7:09
Lost mentioned suddenly with spoiler: 8:21
Breaking Bad: 8:30
Random scenes: 9:38
Pretty Little Liars: 10:01
Orange is the New Black/Stranger Things, implied spoilers for Glow/Supernatural: 11:30
Breaking Bad, very sudden spoiler: 13:19
13:29
Black Mirror/American Horror Story (opinions/scenes only): 14:42
Random Clips(Another Breaking Bad and Lost spoiler included in the clips): 15:29

Every movie/show mentioned or shown even once: Oz, Stranger Things, Sopranos, Pretty Little Liars, Game of Thrones, Lost, Better Call Saul, American Gods, The Last Kingdom, Supernatural, Breaking Bad, Glow, Sons of Anarchy, Prison Break, Preacher, Doctor Who, The Good Place, Orange is the New Black, The Walking Dead, The Thing (1982), Shawshank Redemption (1994), The IT Crowd, Sense8, The Italian Job (1969), M*A*S*H, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Expanse, The Good Place, The Thick of It

[himanshisobti]

I think The Good Place had a good ending it didn't just give us the ending where the characters got everything they wanted 'to be in the good place' but showed us that even if you have everything you can imagine in the world you still don't have everything

[andyespinozam]

Dark is another example of closure, such a great ending. They also made the 3 seasons, just as planned. Such a gem.

[Runner_in_the_dark]

This is kind of why I like the idea of HBO doing more mini series like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Generation Kill and most recently with Chernobyl.

[agrumpymonkey]

Mr. Robot is another good example of how to end a series. Only 4 seasons, but each is connected and most loose ends are tired up, with a very satisfactory emotional ending. Mr. Robot is very focused with the way it tells the story through Elliot’s perspective. That’s what tv shows need, a focus on how they tell the story

[bassstuffidk]

i think Netflix's Dark is a brilliant example of a show that knew when to end. A 3 season story written by a married couple that did everything brilliantly

[andrewmanchiraju]

I know this video came out before Game of Thrones’s ending, so with the benefit of hindsight I can say that GoT’s finale has the opposite problem, that being that the show should have had 13 seasons not 8 with the last 2 shortened.

[waywardbard]

April 2019: "Lost has the worst ending of all time."
Literally The Next Month: [GAME OF THRONES has entered the chat]
November 2020: [SUPERNATURAL has entered the chat]

[emmaporter]

The real tragedy with shows running to long is that it ties up the cast and crew, and prevents them from working on anything else.

[Slowpw]

I'm surprised the Dexter ending was not mentioned - "let's keep him alive as a lumberjack so we can revive the series 8 years later"