[Lostie!]

Loved:
Spartacus. Probably my favourite finale tbh.

Spoiler:

I love that they stuck to history by having Spartacus and most of his allies fall in the final battle, it would have been awful if they changed it to give it a forced happy ending. But I also love that they managed to sprinkle in some optimism with a few of them surviving and Spartacus being content in death. It was the perfect bittersweet ending. Also the final end credits with shots of all the past characters and that final moment with Andy Whitfield

Lost. Not a view shared by everyone I know but I really did like it.

Spoiler:

It was perfect in terms of character conclusions and delivering emotionally and that was more important to me. Getting to see so many old faces in the flash sideways was great (although some characters like Danielle and Alex should have been in the finale too, though they did reappear in the final season at least). I never did get the whole thing with the light at the heart of the Island and I had some issues with why some characters were and weren't in the final church scene (and Shannon being Sayid's soulmate rather than Nadia didn't work for me) but those are minor gripes with what was on the whole a very emotionally satisfying conclusion. The final shot of Jack dying with Vincent by his side and his eye closing (the whole sequence mirroring the very first scene of the Pilot when he woke up) was just perfect.

Person of Interest.

Spoiler:

Again, it was brilliantly bittersweet and that was the best way to go out. A completely happy, cost-free ending wouldn't have worked for this show and an unhappy ending would just make the deaths of Root and Reese pointless so I love that they won but with tragedy along the way. Reese dying to save Finch was fitting since it brought things full circle with Finch rescuing Reese from his terrible life at the start of the show, Finch going back to Grace at the end was brilliant pay-off for their relationship, the Machine appearing as Root throughout the episode was a wonderful idea and her musings about death added even more emotional punch, and Shaw taking Bear and continuing to investigate numbers with the Machine was such a great place to go out on.

Ugly Betty. Bit of a different example from the others since it was a much lighter show

Spoiler:

But yeah, I really liked it. It did the "everyone gets their happy ending" thing that most of these sort of shows usually do but it worked rather than feeling annoyingly cheesy. That final scene with the title appearing on screen and Ugly disappearing was probably the best shot the show could have ended with.

Liked:
Fringe. Now for the most part I really did love this and I do view it as a great finale but

Spoiler:

the reset button thing did bother me and still does. I wish they had a way to defeat the Observers without erasing everything that happened throughout the final season, it nullified powerful moments like Nina's death (one of the best scenes from the entire show) since it never happened now. Though it was better than a lot of other examples of this happening since it came with a cost (Walter's departure) so that was a plus point. In terms of emotion and character pay-off it really was brilliant and such a satisfying way to go out but I just have always hated the trope of undoing things to save the day so that stops me from putting it up in the Love category </3

Meh:
Nikita. I dunno, it just didn't really leave me feeling much of anything although one moment that I felt was absolutely perfect was

Spoiler:

Amanda being imprisoned and alone for the rest of her life. You go into it fully expecting her to finally die but this was even better. But yeah, on the whole I felt more for the previous season's finale and think the destruction of Division, which is probably my favourite sequence from the whole show should have been in the very last episode.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Lostie!

Lost. Not a view shared by everyone I know but I really did like it.

Spoiler:

It was perfect in terms of character conclusions and delivering emotionally and that was more important to me. Getting to see so many old faces in the flash sideways was great (although some characters like Danielle and Alex should have been in the finale too, though they did reappear in the final season at least). I never did get the whole thing with the light at the heart of the Island and I had some issues with why some characters were and weren't in the final church scene (and Shannon being Sayid's soulmate rather than Nadia didn't work for me) but those are minor gripes with what was on the whole a very emotionally satisfying conclusion. The final shot of Jack dying with Vincent by his side and his eye closing (the whole sequence mirroring the very first scene of the Pilot when he woke up) was just perfect.

Did you ever think of it like this, though:

Spoiler:

The scene doesn't just mirror the first scene... it could run into it. Jacks eyes close in those final seconds... fade to black... *pop* you're back at the first scene. Jacks eyes spring open. Because it's Purgatory so it just continues to loop like that, over and over, for infinity, and Lost never ends.

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Did you ever think of it like this, though:

Spoiler:

The scene doesn't just mirror the first scene... it could run into it. Jacks eyes close in those final seconds... fade to black... *pop* you're back at the first scene. Jacks eyes spring open. Because it's Purgatory so it just continues to loop like that, over and over, for infinity, and Lost never ends.

No, because Jack isn't dead at the start of episode 1 and they leave the island in season 4.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

No, because Jack isn't dead at the start of episode 1 and they leave the island in season 4.

He might be, and how do you know?

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

He might be, and how do you know?

Because they left the island in season 4.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

Because they left the island in season 4.

Or those characters felt that they had "unfinished business" that was part of their purgatory and they were never really back in the world...

I dunno I only watched it through once, on the original run, my memory of it probably has gaps