Scribbles About TV: Series Finale Rankings/ratings (pretty spoiler free.) + Kroll Show Finale Review
I figured "I've seen a lot of series finales at this point" and since the Kroll Show finale just happened, it seemed like a good idea to do a little ranking/ rating for all of them. I'm going to try my hardest to actually rank these in order of best to worst fairly... but it seems weird to be ranking The Wire with something like The Nanny or Desperate Housewives... so there's that. Most of these I've seen live when they actually aired, some I haven't seen since then... and some were like when I was 5 years old, so I only kind of remember them. Also because I'm writing this before the Kroll Show finale does happen, I'm going to put Kroll Show at the end... not because its ranked lower but just because that is easier. Plus thats the special reason why I'm doing this. Also as of now, I don't think its going to have much of a finale vibe for me. I'm sure its the end of this sketch show... but the characters will probably still exist and be on other shows or Comedy Bang Bang and stuff like that... Nick Kroll has even talked about that, so it just makes sense.
Also series finales are really weak in a lot of great tv shows... So that is why so many tv shows that are more like guilty pleasure shows rank above quality TV Shows... just thought I would throw that out there.
1) 30 Rock- So this is not only one of my favorite shows, but definitely the best finale on the list. And not just because it was a good way to wrap up the series as a whole... but it was actually a good episode in itself too. I could watch this several times and its very funny and just good overall. I thought the thing with Blimpies was really funny and Liz's relationship with Jack sort of wrapping up and I love that she ended up adopting kids that were just like Tracy and Jenna. For the Love of Griz, this was just funny and I loved it.
2) Parks and Recreation- This was a fantastic final episode. I thought the time jumps were all really good, I loved that we got to see a little bit of all the characters and where they were headed. Those are really the best finales right? No cliffhangers, no unanswered questions... just a look into the happy future of all of our favorite characters with just one little mystery added in there. I've talked about this a lot already, so I won't go too much into it, but it was perfect and I loved it. Moving on.
3) Breaking Bad- This finale was sooooo good! I kind of forgot about this one because I think I might be in denial that it happened still... even though I finished watching the series a year ago. This might actually be tied for number 1 with 30 Rock... Yeah. I'm keeping it here as number 3, but really it is number 1. I've got 20 shows on this list... so this will take a while if I keep editing it. But just the way this wrapped up was just so good... omg. Jesse Pinkman lived! Plus he and Walt were badasses and killed all of those bad guys and Jesse even killed the leader of them by himself. And it was pretty emotional too. When Walt saw his son for what he knew would be the last time... I was done. I cried.
4) The Wire- What an awesome show right? I haven't actually seen every episode of this one, and I was watching it for a class, so I over analyze a lot of things about this show and I feel like I know the characters myself. Every season finale of this show was typically a montage and the fact that they incorporated it into the finale itself was absolutely brilliant. That alone gets it a very high ranking on this list.
5) Friends- This is the first finale I really remember watching televised. I think the first finales I had ever seen were Seinfeld and Mad About You... but those were when I was quite young and don't remember much about them. The Friends spinoff I remember and I like that it had a little happy something for everyone. Monica and Chandler had twins that they were taking care of... kind of. I mean Monica left the apartment for a long time and went across the hall to take down a foosball table... maybe not the best idea when you have literally fresh out of the womb infants across the hall... but whatever. Ross and Rachel got back together. Phoebe and Mike were together and thinking of starting a family. Joey had a chick, a duck and a spinoff. It all made sense.
Side note: I liked Joey... but I'm happy they didn't mention him leaving New York to go to Los Angeles on Friends. It didn't soil the finale with bad advertisement for a spinoff that eventually failed, which I guess is why the writers never mentioned it on the show... which is a good move but risky cause it is basically saying they don't believe in the spinoff before it airs even.
6) The Nanny- This was a really good series finale in my opinion. Fran gave birth to twins, she was already married to Mr. Scheffield. Everyone ended up happily married or happy together. Even C.C ended up with Niles. All around I thought it was really funny and I liked it. I saw this episode before getting into the show, which for a while I really liked. It is a really funny show, I kind of got tired of it because I honestly do not like the whole "will they or won't they" aspect in tv shows... and this leaned heavily on that as a series... its still really a good show though and I liked the finale a lot. I must say, it was very fitting.
7) Seinfeld- This is another one where it just fit. It is on a lot of worst finale lists from people... but to me it ended pretty perfectly. It was a show about nothing and the end was kind of about nothing also. I don't remember it much because this is one of the first series finales I ever saw... and I kind of remember thinking "that's it" and apparently so did a lot of other people... but yeah thats it. Thats all the show was and it was pretty perfect for that.
8) The Office- This is another one thats kind of meh... which shows you how bad series finales really are lol. Excellent show, on second watch I even really liked the seasons without Steve Carell and I'm happy that they didn't rely too heavily on his return and the return of other characters for the finale cause thats really just a cheap aspect.
I thought it was an interesting choice to show that it was a documentary the whole time... I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm glad they addressed the literal "elephant in the room" but I kind of wished they just left it alone the way Parks and Rec did. There were a lot of really funny bits in this particular episode, which just makes it a funny episode besides being a finale... and thats why its high on the list. I feel like I'm explaining this more than any others randomly... but I think thats a good thing? Lol.
9) Will and Grace- This finale I did not like at all when it first aired, but through repeats and stuff, its really grown on me. I didn't totally get if it was a flash forward or just a daydream of what could have been... but I think it all really happened in the end and I'm happy that Will and Grace became friends again and their kids ended up together. It was just a nice happy finale.
10) Desperate Housewives- Not sure this is totally "top 10" worthy, but I liked it. I thought the final season of this show was pretty exciting and they wrapped it up nicely in their finale. I liked that everyone got their happily ever after and ended up being successful. I thought it was nice of Mrs. McClusky to take the fall for Carlos and I was really sad when she died, especially since the actress that played her died like a month later or so... but yeah. It was a good finale and wrapped the series up nicely. Not perfect, but the show hadn't been the best the last few seasons and I thought the finale had restored some of its glory.
11) Mad About You- This was probably the first series finale I ever watched. And I don't remember it very well, but I liked the time jumps of it all. This is a pretty underrated series and the finale was pretty funny from what I remember and I think I thought they were going to do another show where their daughter was a grown up or something... but that didn't happen obviously because it was my idea when I was like 5... so yeah. Lol.
12) Ugly Betty- The ending of this was really cute. It was a good show, they ended it before they were ready too. It was a little weird that Betty ended up with Daniel, but it made enough sense... and sometimes you just want the two to get together. I just feel like... idk. I think it made it seem like all of Daniels relationships failed because he was in love with Betty the whole time, and I thought that was a little disrespectful to his wife that died of cancer. Idk that was my only issue with them getting together because I really liked the woman Daniel married and that was sad. But it made sense that Daniel didn't run a fashion magazine and it made sense that Wilhemena did.
13) Everybody Loves Raymond- This is another one that kind of had to grow on me. I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a finale... and as an episode too, I thought it was a little boring... but now I wouldn't say it was a bad way to end the series. It didn't have a big emotional finale like Friends, but it didn't really need to. So that made sense for it to end the way it did.
14) The X Files- It ended on a cliffhanger. One would think this cliffhanger would be solved in the movie that came out after the show had ended... but nooooo. It didn't. And like... it could have been more exciting. The trial aspect of it all was a little boring to be honest. It was nice that old characters returned, it was definitely watchable and enjoyable... but like really?
It also really bothers me that they never really talk about the fact that Mulder and Scully have a child together. The relationship between the two of them still completely baffles me. Are they together? Did they just have sex one time and have a kid? The writers never address this and I get that thats not what the show is about at all... but they could have handled it. They could have just addressed it instead of making it this weird ambiguous thing.
15) Trueblood- This wasn't bad. I liked that Sookie didn't end up with Bill or Eric and that she kept her powers. For a show I thought was typically empowering to women though... this felt a little not empowering... Did Sarah Newlin really deserve to be prostituted and locked in a basement of Fangtasia? She did cause the death and destruction of an entire race and she did drink up the only thing that could cure them... but she was trying to live a new life, why chain her?
Also did Sookie have to end up with anyone? Isn't it cool enough that she kept her powers instead of giving them up for Bill, who was really just a crappy ex boyfriend? Did Jessica need to get married to Hoyt? Idk...
16) That 70s show- I barely remember this one... and this was another show I liked for a little while, but my tastes kind of changed and then it started to annoy me. It was nice that all the characters reunited and that the 80s were happening and Donna ended up with Topher Grace. I would have liked for Jackie and Hyde to get together... but at some point they're going to end up cheating on their significant others with each other probably.
Also how weird that Jackie progressed so much from the first episode.
17) The Sopranos- I didn't really watch this series at all, but I did see the finale. I thought it was good when I watched it because you got to choose your own ending for it... but now I feel like it needs to have a little more detail than that. It would be like me stopping
18) Two and a Half Men- I had a really tough time deciding which one of my bottom two was the worse show... I feel like this was a ballsy move to tell all jokes that insulted the series during its final episode... that isn't really a good thing though because that is basically insulting the people that like the show... which there are in the world I suppose. Lol. Maybe there are not... but yeah. Thats not necessarily good ballsyness.
Other than that, the jokes were still stupid. They relied wayyyy to heavily on the Charlie Sheen jokes. And it was just not funny. Still after 12 years.
19) How I Met Your Mother- This finale was watchable... but really? Barney and Robin just get divorced? And they get divorced really easily and oversees... which is weird. The mother is DEAD! I mean The Wire, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad are on this list... how is this the saddest finale? This show is last on the list because it changed the rest of the series for me. Barney is totally unredeeming to me now when I watch it, I'm just like "yuk thats gross" they just kind of got rid of the mother for no real reason. The show would have made sense if the mother was not dead because Ted explained that he wanted to tell his children the story in full detail wayyy back in the second season. There were just... so many better things they could have done than killing the mom. She's not Omar Little or Jesse Pinkman. She's the friggin mother! Just let her live!
And yeah Alison Hannigan who plays Lilly on the show mentioned that there was a funeral for the mother and they never showed on the air... which they should have. It may have been dark for a comedy finale but the show already went there... so I don't see why they couldn't just show the funeral. Lilly lost one of her best friends, Ted lost the love of his life. Robin probably consoled Ted even though it couldn't have been easy for her either... it could have been good.
Kroll Show Review- I thought it was really good. You could kind of tell it didn't have to end and really Nick Kroll could have continued a lot with these characters and it could have been amazing... and he still can... but I think its cool that he didn't want to overdo the show to much and I think 3 seasons is brilliant for this show. Overall it is probably one of the best most creative shows on TV. There was an awesome fan made chart that showed how all of the characters and sketches of the show were all connected... and they are pretty much all connected except one sketch that starred the girl from Suburgatory and it was about college meal plans and it was pretty brilliant... and just really funny.
And like the finale left me wanting more of the characters... but also I thought it was very well done and it connected really really well. I think my favorite of all Kroll's characters is probably C-Czar... idk I also love The Australian Guy, Dr. Armond, Reff Jeff, Liz... El Chupacabra I love because I can actually do that voice... its just all really funny. Ohhh and Gil Faison... Its just a super funny show overall and I really loved the finale.
I didn't like Rich Dicks at first... but Wendy became one of my favorite characters... and Bob Ducca is too funny. I want Andy Daily to have a show like this too! Lol.
Also did you guys ever realize Kroll Show is based off his name? So funny. I tweeted that to Nick Kroll and he favorited it... he's a nice guy!
It gets an A. If I were to rank it... it would be 3rd. Breaking Bad is tied with 30 Rock really but I forgot about it... then Parks and Rec and then this! Lol.
Byeeee!
-Shannon
Also series finales are really weak in a lot of great tv shows... So that is why so many tv shows that are more like guilty pleasure shows rank above quality TV Shows... just thought I would throw that out there.
1) 30 Rock- So this is not only one of my favorite shows, but definitely the best finale on the list. And not just because it was a good way to wrap up the series as a whole... but it was actually a good episode in itself too. I could watch this several times and its very funny and just good overall. I thought the thing with Blimpies was really funny and Liz's relationship with Jack sort of wrapping up and I love that she ended up adopting kids that were just like Tracy and Jenna. For the Love of Griz, this was just funny and I loved it.
2) Parks and Recreation- This was a fantastic final episode. I thought the time jumps were all really good, I loved that we got to see a little bit of all the characters and where they were headed. Those are really the best finales right? No cliffhangers, no unanswered questions... just a look into the happy future of all of our favorite characters with just one little mystery added in there. I've talked about this a lot already, so I won't go too much into it, but it was perfect and I loved it. Moving on.
3) Breaking Bad- This finale was sooooo good! I kind of forgot about this one because I think I might be in denial that it happened still... even though I finished watching the series a year ago. This might actually be tied for number 1 with 30 Rock... Yeah. I'm keeping it here as number 3, but really it is number 1. I've got 20 shows on this list... so this will take a while if I keep editing it. But just the way this wrapped up was just so good... omg. Jesse Pinkman lived! Plus he and Walt were badasses and killed all of those bad guys and Jesse even killed the leader of them by himself. And it was pretty emotional too. When Walt saw his son for what he knew would be the last time... I was done. I cried.
4) The Wire- What an awesome show right? I haven't actually seen every episode of this one, and I was watching it for a class, so I over analyze a lot of things about this show and I feel like I know the characters myself. Every season finale of this show was typically a montage and the fact that they incorporated it into the finale itself was absolutely brilliant. That alone gets it a very high ranking on this list.
5) Friends- This is the first finale I really remember watching televised. I think the first finales I had ever seen were Seinfeld and Mad About You... but those were when I was quite young and don't remember much about them. The Friends spinoff I remember and I like that it had a little happy something for everyone. Monica and Chandler had twins that they were taking care of... kind of. I mean Monica left the apartment for a long time and went across the hall to take down a foosball table... maybe not the best idea when you have literally fresh out of the womb infants across the hall... but whatever. Ross and Rachel got back together. Phoebe and Mike were together and thinking of starting a family. Joey had a chick, a duck and a spinoff. It all made sense.
Side note: I liked Joey... but I'm happy they didn't mention him leaving New York to go to Los Angeles on Friends. It didn't soil the finale with bad advertisement for a spinoff that eventually failed, which I guess is why the writers never mentioned it on the show... which is a good move but risky cause it is basically saying they don't believe in the spinoff before it airs even.
6) The Nanny- This was a really good series finale in my opinion. Fran gave birth to twins, she was already married to Mr. Scheffield. Everyone ended up happily married or happy together. Even C.C ended up with Niles. All around I thought it was really funny and I liked it. I saw this episode before getting into the show, which for a while I really liked. It is a really funny show, I kind of got tired of it because I honestly do not like the whole "will they or won't they" aspect in tv shows... and this leaned heavily on that as a series... its still really a good show though and I liked the finale a lot. I must say, it was very fitting.
7) Seinfeld- This is another one where it just fit. It is on a lot of worst finale lists from people... but to me it ended pretty perfectly. It was a show about nothing and the end was kind of about nothing also. I don't remember it much because this is one of the first series finales I ever saw... and I kind of remember thinking "that's it" and apparently so did a lot of other people... but yeah thats it. Thats all the show was and it was pretty perfect for that.
8) The Office- This is another one thats kind of meh... which shows you how bad series finales really are lol. Excellent show, on second watch I even really liked the seasons without Steve Carell and I'm happy that they didn't rely too heavily on his return and the return of other characters for the finale cause thats really just a cheap aspect.
I thought it was an interesting choice to show that it was a documentary the whole time... I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm glad they addressed the literal "elephant in the room" but I kind of wished they just left it alone the way Parks and Rec did. There were a lot of really funny bits in this particular episode, which just makes it a funny episode besides being a finale... and thats why its high on the list. I feel like I'm explaining this more than any others randomly... but I think thats a good thing? Lol.
9) Will and Grace- This finale I did not like at all when it first aired, but through repeats and stuff, its really grown on me. I didn't totally get if it was a flash forward or just a daydream of what could have been... but I think it all really happened in the end and I'm happy that Will and Grace became friends again and their kids ended up together. It was just a nice happy finale.
10) Desperate Housewives- Not sure this is totally "top 10" worthy, but I liked it. I thought the final season of this show was pretty exciting and they wrapped it up nicely in their finale. I liked that everyone got their happily ever after and ended up being successful. I thought it was nice of Mrs. McClusky to take the fall for Carlos and I was really sad when she died, especially since the actress that played her died like a month later or so... but yeah. It was a good finale and wrapped the series up nicely. Not perfect, but the show hadn't been the best the last few seasons and I thought the finale had restored some of its glory.
11) Mad About You- This was probably the first series finale I ever watched. And I don't remember it very well, but I liked the time jumps of it all. This is a pretty underrated series and the finale was pretty funny from what I remember and I think I thought they were going to do another show where their daughter was a grown up or something... but that didn't happen obviously because it was my idea when I was like 5... so yeah. Lol.
12) Ugly Betty- The ending of this was really cute. It was a good show, they ended it before they were ready too. It was a little weird that Betty ended up with Daniel, but it made enough sense... and sometimes you just want the two to get together. I just feel like... idk. I think it made it seem like all of Daniels relationships failed because he was in love with Betty the whole time, and I thought that was a little disrespectful to his wife that died of cancer. Idk that was my only issue with them getting together because I really liked the woman Daniel married and that was sad. But it made sense that Daniel didn't run a fashion magazine and it made sense that Wilhemena did.
13) Everybody Loves Raymond- This is another one that kind of had to grow on me. I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a finale... and as an episode too, I thought it was a little boring... but now I wouldn't say it was a bad way to end the series. It didn't have a big emotional finale like Friends, but it didn't really need to. So that made sense for it to end the way it did.
14) The X Files- It ended on a cliffhanger. One would think this cliffhanger would be solved in the movie that came out after the show had ended... but nooooo. It didn't. And like... it could have been more exciting. The trial aspect of it all was a little boring to be honest. It was nice that old characters returned, it was definitely watchable and enjoyable... but like really?
It also really bothers me that they never really talk about the fact that Mulder and Scully have a child together. The relationship between the two of them still completely baffles me. Are they together? Did they just have sex one time and have a kid? The writers never address this and I get that thats not what the show is about at all... but they could have handled it. They could have just addressed it instead of making it this weird ambiguous thing.
15) Trueblood- This wasn't bad. I liked that Sookie didn't end up with Bill or Eric and that she kept her powers. For a show I thought was typically empowering to women though... this felt a little not empowering... Did Sarah Newlin really deserve to be prostituted and locked in a basement of Fangtasia? She did cause the death and destruction of an entire race and she did drink up the only thing that could cure them... but she was trying to live a new life, why chain her?
Also did Sookie have to end up with anyone? Isn't it cool enough that she kept her powers instead of giving them up for Bill, who was really just a crappy ex boyfriend? Did Jessica need to get married to Hoyt? Idk...
16) That 70s show- I barely remember this one... and this was another show I liked for a little while, but my tastes kind of changed and then it started to annoy me. It was nice that all the characters reunited and that the 80s were happening and Donna ended up with Topher Grace. I would have liked for Jackie and Hyde to get together... but at some point they're going to end up cheating on their significant others with each other probably.
Also how weird that Jackie progressed so much from the first episode.
17) The Sopranos- I didn't really watch this series at all, but I did see the finale. I thought it was good when I watched it because you got to choose your own ending for it... but now I feel like it needs to have a little more detail than that. It would be like me stopping
18) Two and a Half Men- I had a really tough time deciding which one of my bottom two was the worse show... I feel like this was a ballsy move to tell all jokes that insulted the series during its final episode... that isn't really a good thing though because that is basically insulting the people that like the show... which there are in the world I suppose. Lol. Maybe there are not... but yeah. Thats not necessarily good ballsyness.
Other than that, the jokes were still stupid. They relied wayyyy to heavily on the Charlie Sheen jokes. And it was just not funny. Still after 12 years.
19) How I Met Your Mother- This finale was watchable... but really? Barney and Robin just get divorced? And they get divorced really easily and oversees... which is weird. The mother is DEAD! I mean The Wire, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad are on this list... how is this the saddest finale? This show is last on the list because it changed the rest of the series for me. Barney is totally unredeeming to me now when I watch it, I'm just like "yuk thats gross" they just kind of got rid of the mother for no real reason. The show would have made sense if the mother was not dead because Ted explained that he wanted to tell his children the story in full detail wayyy back in the second season. There were just... so many better things they could have done than killing the mom. She's not Omar Little or Jesse Pinkman. She's the friggin mother! Just let her live!
And yeah Alison Hannigan who plays Lilly on the show mentioned that there was a funeral for the mother and they never showed on the air... which they should have. It may have been dark for a comedy finale but the show already went there... so I don't see why they couldn't just show the funeral. Lilly lost one of her best friends, Ted lost the love of his life. Robin probably consoled Ted even though it couldn't have been easy for her either... it could have been good.
Kroll Show Review- I thought it was really good. You could kind of tell it didn't have to end and really Nick Kroll could have continued a lot with these characters and it could have been amazing... and he still can... but I think its cool that he didn't want to overdo the show to much and I think 3 seasons is brilliant for this show. Overall it is probably one of the best most creative shows on TV. There was an awesome fan made chart that showed how all of the characters and sketches of the show were all connected... and they are pretty much all connected except one sketch that starred the girl from Suburgatory and it was about college meal plans and it was pretty brilliant... and just really funny.
And like the finale left me wanting more of the characters... but also I thought it was very well done and it connected really really well. I think my favorite of all Kroll's characters is probably C-Czar... idk I also love The Australian Guy, Dr. Armond, Reff Jeff, Liz... El Chupacabra I love because I can actually do that voice... its just all really funny. Ohhh and Gil Faison... Its just a super funny show overall and I really loved the finale.
I didn't like Rich Dicks at first... but Wendy became one of my favorite characters... and Bob Ducca is too funny. I want Andy Daily to have a show like this too! Lol.
Also did you guys ever realize Kroll Show is based off his name? So funny. I tweeted that to Nick Kroll and he favorited it... he's a nice guy!
It gets an A. If I were to rank it... it would be 3rd. Breaking Bad is tied with 30 Rock really but I forgot about it... then Parks and Rec and then this! Lol.
Byeeee!
-Shannon
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