Do games count? I would say Halo 3.
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Endgame is the end of the MCU. After endgame disney pished out too much MCU shit and ruined it. They should’ve stopped at endgame and not try to make many shows that also factor into the overall MCU. Some may argue that this problem was already too much before endgame premiered. That is a valid argument.
S10 E12 (The Doctor Falls) is the end of (Modern) Doctor Who. Such a perfect episode epitomising the character, and closing an arc for one of the longest villains. He even 'dies' at the end.
Everything since then has been badly written and purposefully disrespectful to the cannon and the audience, and has wasted so many fantastic actors.
I only wish I ever learned who's the mother and how he met her...
Terminator 2 (T2) is a masterclass in combining CGI with practical effect and its ending is a rare cinematic full stop.
The T-1000’s liquid metal form was revolutionary, the morphing effects were cutting-edge in 1991, yet Cameron used them sparingly and only where practical effects couldn’t work. That restraint made the CGI more impactful and has made it so they still hold up 35 years later.
The truck chase through the storm drain, the helicopter flying under an overpass, the Cyberdyne building blowing up; it was all real and you can feel that when you watch the movie. There is no way any movie studio would do that nowadays when they could just CGI giant Michael Bay explosions.
The destruction of Cyberdyne and the Terminators meant the timeline was reset. Judgment Day was averted. The T-800 lowering itself into molten steel is an iconic moment; a machine choosing self-sacrifice for humanity. It’s a perfect final note, not just for the character, but for the franchise. Bringing him back again and again weakens that sacrifice. Any sequel has to undo all of this just to exist. Which is why to this day, I have not watched a single Terminator film after T2.
Which is why to this day, I have not watched a single Terminator film after T2.
I don't want to spoil anything, but you might be interested in knowing that some of us feel that Terminator: Dark Fate avoids the issues you mention, and works as a direct and worthy sequel to T2.
FWIW, I actually enjoyed T3 and what it did with the timeline. Not saying it's a better movie, or it was necessary, but still I liked it well enough.
Basically, the arm and chip Dyson used to advance science merely accelerated judgement day. It was coming regardless. Destroying them just pushed judgment day back to its original date.
I kinda like that, cuz otherwise it's a bootstrap paradox where skynet sent back the technology that was used to create skynet.
spoiler
The end of the episode loops seamlessly into the pilot. When I first watched it live they played both episodes back to back without an ad break. It took me a few minutes to realize what they had done and I started crying.
It's a perfect loop, a perfect end to Fry and Leela's relationship, and bittersweet in its existential implications
The "new" episodes they released afterwards don't count. I acknowledge that they exist but I do not grant them the title of canon.
24 Season 4 is my version of a happy ending. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the rest of the show, but God damn, Jack didn't deserve that many bad days.
Toy Story 3.
EDIT: And to elaborate, the movie showed a conclusion to a longer narrative thread of Andy growing up and his toys needing a new home. There was a satisfying ending.
Well with an ending like this they didn’t really leave anywhere to go.
Aliens ended the franchise. Slightly different answer, nothing occurred between the release of Predator and Prey.
I feel compelled to say Scrubs s08e19, which is weird because they only ever made eight seasons of Scrubs.
I liked s9 🤷🏻♀️
It’s okay as a spinoff. But it’s very much not the same show.
JD walks down the corridor to Peter Gabriel singing The Book of Love while I'm weeping like a baby.
And that's that. There was no more Scrubs.
Now, if you decide you want to see more of the gang and their shenanigans, there is a single season of a spin-off show called “Scrubs: Med School.” It’s okay. Not great. It’s certainly not Scrubs though.
The Matrix
The Office when Michael moved away. It was never the same after that.
I'm currently watching The Office Superfan Episodes (would recommend, if you haven't. They add a lot of new scenes and jokes that have cracked me the hell up) and I feel like I am progressively moving the "jumped the shark" line up every time I rewatch the show.
At one point I thought it was around the time Andy got on the boat. Then around when Robert California came around. Then, when Michael left. Now I'm kinda feeling like the show has taken a significant change in tone at the point when the original corporate office is bought and cleaned out by Sabre. That's not to say that there aren't good episodes forward from here, but I literally feel like I'm not starting to watch the show "waiting for it to end"
Last episode of The Simpsons Season 9
new season has been goood
In my own opinion, it's Disney good.
Early Simpsons was slightly edgy, not in a shock factor way, but in a way where it could explore mature themes without any tonal whiplash, while still being entertaining for kids and adults.
As Fox deteriorated, so did the Simpsons, presumably from bad producing and low funding. Pretty much as soon as the Disney acquisition happened, quality began to climb again, and people have been saying it's good for a few years.
But I can't shake the feeling that the real feeling isn't that it's good, just that it isn't bad anymore. It's as inoffensive and bland as many Disney IPs, but doesn't carry the true badness of Fox. I don't trust that Disney is able to give it the ingredients for it to be great again.
Episode 25 of Death Note would have been a dark, but logical place to end the series. After that point the entire dynamic of the show changes. There are some good and interesting moments, but it doesn't really feel like the same show.
Season 5 of Supernatural was the logical endpoint
The last harry potter movie (deathly hollows pt 2) marks the end of the franchise as far as I am concerned. 8 great movies and 7 great books. I wish there was more but I fail to see how it can be extended. Both fantastic beasts and crushed child do more harm than good to the original franchise
Both fantastic beasts and crushed child do more harm than good to the original franchise
I really liked the first FB movie, it captured the whimsical charm of the intial 3 HP movies and books quite authentically. I could go on and on on how the next film changes the tone, breaks established canon, and generally feels like a cobbled together mess of story beats hastily Scribbled on sticky notes(didn't anyone proofread the thing?) So for me it ends with newt Scamander helping to apprehend grindelwald and the rest of the story is implied in the main HP books.
Cursed child doesn't exist, what are you talking about?
Season 1 of Westworld. It’s okay to have an ambiguous ending, you can leave it to viewer’s imagination. That show went downhill with every season because it was trying too hard to be smart.
Agree.
Saw S2 but the magic was just not there. Never saw anything after.
Babylon 5 ended with season 4 and the excellent shadow war arch.
Rocky ended at Rocky. Even Rocky 2, the second best movie if you're judging its qualities with the same ruler Rocky's measured, feels off compared to the original. Rocky is a love story/character study with a little bit of boxing at the beginning and at the end, whilst the rest are boxing movies primarily/solely.
Also, while everyone knows Terminator ended with T2, did you know Kung Fu Panda also ended with KFP2? 🙏
Rocky is so all over the place. You make great points and I don’t disagree. Another metric is how watchable they are and by that standard you could argue it makes it up to and including Rocky IV. I don’t even know what to do with the newer ones.
The Office when Michael left.
Terminator 3 is the last of that series in my eyes. The others - although not too shabby (excluding Salvation of course) - I regard as fan fiction.
Arrested Development - that last season just did not agree with me.
Community - things dropped off quickly when Troy left.
I know your question is worded for movies and shows but I have one example from the world of video games that still makes me sad. Final Fantasy died shortly after X, maybe X-2. XII if you really want to stretch things. After that, they were too focused on "modernizing" gameplay. I just want something with a colorful world, quirky characters and turn-based combat that's more about finding the right strategy for a boss than reflexes.
I guess XIV is nice in its own way but as an MMORPG I see it more as a spin-off than as a part of the main series. The VII remakes tickle some nostalgia neurons but would have been better without their real-time combat. XIII, XV and XVI were just meh. If you really want to make me happy, make a faithful remake of VIII with modern graphics, rebalanced but otherwise faithful gameplay and a few more scenes in the last act that answer a few questions that the community has been trying to answer for 25 years.
If we're including video games im gonna say mass effect. I didn't give 2 enough of a chance because at the end of ME1 the entire known universe bands together to defeat a single big-bad ship and it's a fully annihilating battle where the good guys barely scrape by. Then thousands of the big-bads turn up at once and the credits roll. Its a devastating ending that really drives home the central themes.
Then in ME2 your guy(orgirl) just wakes up in hospital after the battle? No chance. I just couldn't get past it long enough to give it a chance. I still have them and I know I should but...
Walking Dead S07E01. I think that episode could have been a perfect ending. They dragged it a lot after.
I stopped watching after Negan was introduced.