HISHE is a pretty funny site. With the recent multimedia end of Harry Potter, I got to thinking about how the increased prominence of the myth-arc has improved modern television and other media. When I was a kid, television and movies were, in large measure, deeply episodic - to the point where anything significant that happened was confined to season finales and season premieres. There were some exceptions. Shows like The Prisoner and The Fugitive had ongoing arcs of a sort, but were short-lived. Soap operas had long story arcs, but were not moving toward any particular end goal. A few anime series that made it to the U.S., like Voltron, also had myth-arcs in cartoons, which was pretty impressive to me as a kid. Sadly, they were all strangely translated, re-cut, and aired in whatever order, so not a lot of it made a ton of sense. Myth-arcs get people invested in media, and specifically in how these long stories end. Sometimes the ending is really satisfying, and other times it's not. Sometimes you think a different ending would have been preferable. For example, I would have ended the Harry Potter series differently: Spoiler I always saw the entire series being about growth - specifically the growth of the main characters to take their place in the adult world of wizarding. Rowling took the last book in a different direction, making the whole thing a rumination on death. There had been plenty of dealing with death early in the series, and I just thought it didn't fit. She even goes to the trouble of killing Harry. While emotional, he doesn't actually die. Unlike every other dead character in the series, he gets a magical (and effectively unexplained) reprieve. Why? In the whole last two books, they're making these huge sacrifices and taking these big risks to destroy 6/7ths of Voldemort's soul. But having 1/7th of a soul, in the Harry Potterverse, is apparently just as good as having a whole one. I would have ended it such that destroying the horcruxes successively weakened Voldemort. At the final battle, Voldemort would have found himself reduced, bit by bit, to what he hated most in the world - a powerless muggle. Since he was so obsessed with purebloods and all, it would be the worst fate for him. Harry, Hermione, and Ron would be powerful adult wizards, while Voldemort would have less magical ability than a first-year. I'm not sure how everything would be resolved - I would have actually been OK with Voldemort surviving the final confrontation in muggle-form. I doubt the fans would have considered that 'closure,' though - maybe Bellatrix could have killed him in a bid for power and then been zapped by Ron's Mom, trying to stop her. I'm not sure what I would have done with the remaining death eaters - although apparently Rowling didn't know either. Maybe I would have had them all assassinated by house elves or at least put in Azkaban forever. Either that or have a big scene where they somehow bind their powers to Voldemort's, so when Voldemort loses all of his powers they do also. FOCUS: What series would you have ended differently, and howso? What series ended well, in your opinion, and which ended poorly? RULE: Spoiler-tag anything that gives away the ending of a series that ended after the year 2000. 10-year statute of limitations on spoilers.
Weeds Spoiler End it at season three's finale, with Nancy riding away on the scooter as the house burnsto the show's original theme. Once the Mexicans came along, what once was my favourite show declined so sharply.
The last episode of "Newhart" where he wakes up in his bed with his wife from "The Bob Newhart Show" to say, "I just had the weirdest dream."
How the Sopranos should have ended: Spoiler When Tony looks up just at the last second before the screen goes black, it should have been the Russian (the one that Paulie and Christopher fucked up killing in the woods a couple of seasons back) standing above Tony, holding a gun to his head smiling, then the screen goes black. Just that extra 5 seconds of footage would have tied up so many loose ends.
A non TV/movie example: Here's how BioShock should have ended. Obvious spoilers. I can't be the only one who thinks this would have been fucking awesome.
I loved The Wonder Years, but Christ did the end of that series depress me. Kevin was supposed to marry Winnie and dad wasn't supposed to DIE right after the show ended. Though she does make a pretty hot math teacher these days.
I actually liked how Kevin didn't end up marrying Winnie, and we found out that he had married another woman and had a kid. It felt more realistic to me. Focus: 24. The ending was a disappointment and was almost identical to the ending of season 4. It should have ended with Jack going out kicking ass. The last three seasons of the show (seasons 6-8) were all awful, and I would say that it should have ended after season 6, since the season 5 ending wasn't a feasible stopping point.
I personally feel like most tv shows/movies should take a cue from the finale of The Prisoner and end accordingly. Spoiler Spoiler But that's just me, I think. Me and my many, many, many, many peculiarities
I hope you are being sarcastic, from the way you generally post I don't think so. That is by far the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I think AJ biting the dust could have been done in that show and no matter if Tony lived or died his blood line wouldn't have lived on in a male heir.
This. Its gotta be the most creative finale of all time. One of my other favorites was Quantum Leap. In the last episode, Sam leaps into into himself, and hes in a bar in some mining town. He begins meeting random people from past leaps including another leaper whom he hadnt met before. The bartender turns out to be God or some other entity who has been overseeing Sams leaps. He tells him he can now go to anywhere he wants. He chooses to go back to the timeline of his first leap and inform Als wife that hes not dead but a POW in Vietnam, changing the entire timeline.