7 of the worst TV endings of all time after ‘disastrous’ And Just Like That finale

The Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That reached its big conclusion on Thursday night – and fans are angry with the ending.

So angry, in fact, that some have dubbed the ‘disastrous’ And Just Like That ending as one of the very worst in TV history.

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 I’ll happily defend Game of Thrones’ conclusion six 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.

And Just Like That

If you’re in the Sex and the City fandom, you’ll know by now that the sequel series And Just Like That never quite lived up to the expectations its fans had.

Picking up years after the original show but without Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones, And Just Like That followed the love lives of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) into middle age.

From the start, viewers accused the series of coming up with nonsensical storylines and betraying the main women from the original series, while introducing new faces who couldn’t replace the side characters they’d come to know so well.

And things really came to a head during Thursday night’s series finale, which has been slammed as ‘disastrous’ by fans and critics who watched it.

Not only did the climax feature a lactose-intolerant character clogging a toilet, but fans were also disappointed with the conclusion to basically every character’s story. That’s some achievement.

Game of Thrones

When the final season of Game of Thrones aired in the spring of 2019, millions of fans were left feeling angry and disappointed after the finale.

The last two seasons consist of just seven and then six episodes, after the first six seasons each had 10. While some later episodes had supersized extended runtimes, viewers were still left feeling that too much story was packed into too little time.

The main point of contention to this day is the tragic end of Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) quest for the Iron Throne, which saw the Mother of Dragons burn an entire city to the ground before her lover Jon Snow (Kit Harington) 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 for, you know… reasons. Reasons that remain unclear.

As the years have gone by, a minority of fantasy fans have registered their defences of the last stretch of episodes, but the overwhelming consensus has never changed: Game of Thrones flubbed its finale.

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 actually 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 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.

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’.

Following years of twists and turns, as fans waited and waited for cop-turned-killer Dexter to get his comeuppance, the eponymous anti-hero just… started a new life as a lumberjack, having never been publicly exposed for his crimes.

The series had a chance at redemption when it returned for the limited series Dexter: New Blood in 2021 – and fans were largely pleased with the continuation of Michael C. Hall’s character’s story.

Two more spin-off series, Resurrection and Original Sin, were also positively received, but the scars of the original ending have still never been forgotten by TV viewers worldwide.

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.’

The Umbrella Academy

When Netflix superhero comedy-drama series The Umbrella Academy came to an end, 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’.

Adapted from the comic book series by My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way, The Umbrella Academy followed the story of seven powerful kids who were all born on the same day in 1989.

Much like Game of Thrones, the final season was significantly shorter than those that came beforehand, and the decision of the Umbrella Academy kids to erase themselves from the universe proved… controversial.

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.’

Pretty Little Liars

Premiering in 2010, Pretty Little Liars follows a group of teenage girls who are targeted by a mysterious individual, known only as ‘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 still irritates fans to this day.

In the final episode, fans found out that a mysterious stalker who had been harassing the main characters was actually someone who fans had never met before. Viewers were baffled.

One 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?’

The original version of this story was first published on August 18, 2024.

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