...are inherently paradoxical. They're different from every episode of the series that came before it. You watch 20, 30, 50, 75 episodes of a show that just keeps unspooling story and one of the advantages that the storytellers have in keeping you invested is that there's always a built-in cliffhanger: the story will continue. But not with the finale.

Different shows over the last 20 years have handled ongoing storylines in different ways, of course. Some shows had very much ongoing storylines but made a pretty clear effort for the episodes to be awesome on their own. The Sopranos was like that probably because of David Chase's history with conventional TV shows like The Rockford files (where every episode needed to wrap up a story). I could watch any episode of The Sopranos from any season out of nowhere and it would be an hour well spent. But, for example, The Wire is almost the total opposite end of the spectrum. Watching one episode of The Wire, out of sequence, would feel like a complete waste of time. I would want to start at the beginning of the season (if not the entire series) and watch them in order, preferably several at a time.

But regardless of where a show falls on that spectrum, they are all trading to some extent on that promise of more story to come. Additionally, it gives them the leeway to unspool plot and wallow in character development w/o having to worry about wrapping everything up. It's both a hook *and* a legitimate aide to improving the depth and complexity of the story. And then, all of a sudden, as a long-running series nears its conclusion...everything changes.

We know the end is coming, so we start to get antsy and look for things to happen in episodes that we never would have looked for or even wanted during the majority of the run of the show. It's almost like how basketball becomes a different sport in the final couple of minutes because of the clock and the fouling rules (i.e. the inability to decline FTs and just maintain possession). However good you were at starting your show, introducing characters, developing conflicts, expanding the universe of the story as necessary to keep the show interesting...none of that really helps you when it's time to land the plane. It's like a completely different skill set.

Ultimately I'm just looking for sincerity. Just do the ending you believe in and I don't care if it's weird or if it's not what I would've done or if it doesn't wrap everything up (or does wrap everything up) or whatever else. There's no right way to do it and there's a better than 50% chance people are going to be unsatisfied...so just do what you feel.
[Post edited by Gobbler-100 at 05/21/2019 7:13PM]