Pop Vultures

It’s been five days, but I’m still thinking about the finale of The Wire. It was such a relief to actually have the show end exactly as it ought to. Although I was fairly certain that David Simon would not have McNulty wake up next to his ex-wife, wondering about the strange dream he had, I hadn’t expected the end to be quite as perfect as it was. In the spirit of satisfying show-enders, today’s Friday 5 celebrates the five best TV finales. Warning: some spoilers ahead.

5. The Wonder Years
This show was a master of emotional manipulation, showing all those predictable family sitcoms how it should be done. It knew the best ways to tug the audience’s heartstrings and did so mercilessly. Fortunately, its sentimentality rarely dipped into mawkish, and the finale was no exception. The show spent six years drawing the viewer into Kevin and Winnie’s relationship as childhood sweethearts, causing many of us to be more involved with the love lives of fourteen-year-olds than we were perhaps comfortable with. In the very last episode, we found out that, years later, Kevin met Winnie at the airport when she returned from France – with his wife and child. Simultaneously upbeat and heart-breaking, that ending was also achingly true to life and summarized what the show did so very well.

4. Star Trek: The Next Generation
Note: I am not a Trekkie, or a Trekker, or a Trekaphile. I simply think this was a very good show with a truly excellent conclusion. First of all, the finale was Jean-Luc-centric, and therefore Patrick Stewart-centric. This was an excellent place to start. Then, it brought in the trickster Q, ensuring that the show had a more interesting narrative than the typical “find new aliens and make friends/shag them silly” plotline. Best of all was the way that it combined all the elements that made the show so strong. The complex time-travel plot – complete with three separate timelines – required the audience to use its brain, while the flashes into the characters’ pasts and futures emphasized the show’s history as a character-based drama. The conclusion, in which a self-sacrificing Jean-Luc demonstrated the best of humanity, was one of the best Trek moments ever, from any of its various incarnations.

3. M*A*S*H
Confession time: I have never seen this episode. I also know that it is the most watched, and arguably most-loved, of all TV finales, so I sure couldn’t leave it off the list. Instead, I asked others to explain why it was so great. The responses were enthusiastic, to say the least. To quote those who know far more than I do: “It’s incredible and true to every character,” and “They all get to go home!! And they’ve all been changed in so many ways, but these people are their FAMILY now but they have to leave and probably they’ll never see each other again!” This was followed by lengthy discussion of which scenes were the most heart-breaking and was only interrupted when everyone had to reach for their tissues to stop the fresh flow of tears. Now I think I have to may have to watch it at last, a mere 25 years later.

2. The Wire
It’s so recent that it’s hard to say if it will stand the test of time, but I can’t see how it wouldn’t. If a) the series was one of the greatest shows ever, and b) the finale was a note-perfect ending to one of the greatest shows ever, it follows that c) the finale was one of the greatest endings ever. Flawless logic, I’m sure you’ll agree. The episode itself managed to wrap up every single one of its roughly 208 separate stories, all without feeling rushed or false. Nothing was tied up neatly, but it still provided an ending, a pause in the lives of these characters that we’d learned to love over five seasons. McNulty on the pool table was a stroke of genius and that bar scene contained everything great about the eternally messed-up members of the Baltimore Police Department. It’s the rare show that goes out in glory, without ever missing a single step, but this one managed it. It will be sorely missed.

1. Six Feet Under
Confession time, pt. 2: I have never cried at any film or television show the way I cried during the last six minutes of Six Feet Under. After four seasons of Fisher family drama – and comedy – it was hard enough to say good-bye to these characters. However, the show that reveled in the close ties between life and death wasn’t going to let its viewers off with anything so mundane as a family reunion or a wedding. No, we got to watch them all die. The ending fast-forwarded through the character’s futures, combining the defining moments of their lives with their inevitable deaths. I started sniffling when Ruth Fisher died, with her children by her side. I was weeping when an aging Keith was gunned down in his security van. By the time David keeled over at a family gathering, I was fighting off big, gulping sobs – and losing. This finale didn’t just affect me; it wrecked me. No other show has so definitively wrapped up its characters lives – and their deaths. For its devoted fans, the final six minutes were unforgettable. Watch it again, if you want, but don’t complain to me when you run out of tissues.

What about you? Which TV finales are your favorites, and why?