What’s poppin’, y’all!  If y’all remember my post about the final season of Atlanta, I mentioned all the things I wished to see (i.e.:  Earn and Van get back together, Tracy makes at least one more appearance, Al aka Paper Boi has another “Woods” style episode, see more of Earn, etc.).  To my great surprise, the writers delivered.  It’s almost as if they read my mind.  Not only that, but the ending still managed to stick the landing.  Sadly, not every show does that in their final season.

There’s been a good many shows that start off strong and get weaker as they progress (Lost Girl, Grey’s Anatomy), and then there’s TV shows that are strong throughout their life span, but then when they get to the last season—or in some cases, the series finale—they fall flat.  Those are the TV shows that I wanted to talk about in this article.  I know, after my post about The Idol, it seems like I’m shittin’ on TV shows lately.  I promise I’ll write another post about a TV series universe (other than the Power Universe) that I’ve come to adore in the last few months.  

Mr. Robot

Those of you that have been reading my blog posts for a while know exactly how I feel about Mr. Robot. With that said, you also know exactly why it made the list, despite it being one of my favorite shows of all time.  Mr. Robot had a stellar final season, but to this very day, I still don’t like that series finale.  Whenever I watch the final season for Christmas (it’s become sort of a tradition), I hardly ever watch the last episode. When I do, I find myself getting aggravated.  I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, the ending never made a lot of sense to me (and before some of you comment that I didn’t understand the ending, I understood it just fine; I just never thought it fit with the overall story).  I won’t spoil it for those of you that haven’t seen it.  I’ll let you make your own judgements.

Claws

In all honesty, I didn’t hate the final season of Claws, but when I went back and binged the other three installments, I realized the last season was a pale imitation.  Roller was MIA, Quiet Anne was being even more annoying, Uncle Daddy’s character development went out the window, Dean and Virgina stayed broken up and Dean started a relationship with Linda Hamilton?  Okay.  Don’t even get me started on Ken and Polly, and once again, the ladies had to play what I like to call “The Desna Blame Game.”  If you ever watched the show, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Lord knows Desna isn’t perfect, but I couldn’t stand it whenever those ladies used Desna as a scapegoat whenever the shit they all planned to do went left (as it always did).

Power

Y’all are probably wondering why the hell Power was included on this list.  It’s the same reason I included Mr. Robot.  The final season for Power was great, but that series finale wasn’t it.  For weeks, the showrunners had us wondering who shot Ghost and broke down all the possible suspects, just for us to learn that it was none other than Tariq’s spoiled ass.  Oh, the shock!  The horror!  *Sarcasm*  By the way, I didn’t spoil anything for y’all; if you’ve watched any episode of Power after season three or four (I can’t remember exactly when Tariq grew up and turned stupid), you’d know Tariq is the obvious killer.  The only consolation for this is that Tariq eventually grew some brains after he killed his father and is actually a compelling character on Power Book II:  Ghost. Who’d thunk it?

Pose

I know, I know.  I still owe y’all reviews for the final season.  I haven’t forgotten about that.  However, I had to include Pose on this list because the last season was nowhere near as good as the previous two.  In 2021, a lot of our favorite TV shows were coming back after the pandemic slowed down and they suffered from what I like to call “The COVID rush.”  I believe shooting schedules had to be rushed, and a lot of the scripts were written in a hurry…and it showed. Pose suffered from the phenomenon with its hurried storylines and plot devices that made little to no sense:  Elektra joins the mob with no consequences, Lulu suddenly has a boyfriend we’ve never heard of or seen before and she dumps him like a bad habit the minute we’re introduced to him, all of a sudden Angel and Lemar have a deep family history, and we still never see them say more than two words to each other, I could go on and on.  It’s no wonder Janet got drunk and slammed her own creation.

Insecure

Again, I didn’t hate this season, but it was a far cry from the brilliance of the previous four.  Insecure was another TV show that fell victim to The COVID rush.  I still scratch my head over some of the storylines.  I feel a bit cheated that we didn’t really get to see Issa and Molly’s full journey to get back to the place they were.  Molly was one of the most uptight people on Earth, but out of the blue she takes on a “I don’t give a damn” attitude?  Okay.  Let’s not forget how the writers turned Issa and Nathan into a couple with scorching chemistry to a pair that’s as dry-as-a-Popeye’s-biscuit.  Also, I hated the Crenshawn character!  If that’s not bad enough, all the time jumps throughout the season—especially the finale—were enough to give me whiplash.  The showrunners decided to go through years of story during the series finale, squeezing an entire season and a half in 40 minutes. 

Dear White People

Remember how all your favorite TV shows just had to have that annoying ass, useless musical episode back in the early 2000s?  Dear White People decided to do that with their entire final season.  What’s sad about this decision is that when they weren’t breaking out into musical numbers from the ‘90s, the storyline for the last season was quite good, with the exception of the flash forwards to the gang years after they graduated from Winchester University (what the hell was that shit on Lionel’s face?).  There were some other facets I wasn’t crazy about either, like the uber antagonistic newcomer Iesha, and how the Order of the X storyline was all but scrapped.  I also didn’t like that Lionel turned on Sam, although given what she pulled, I can see why.

Empire

It’s sad how far Empire fell.  When it first aired, it was near perfection.  By the time it went off the air, it was horrid and barely recognizable.  It’s true, after season one, a lot of my friends and co-workers stopped watching, and over the years, Empire had its good seasons and its no-so-good seasons.  But for the most part, Empire was still a watchable show.  Then season six happened.  The first half was unbearable, the second half was a slight improvement.  However, that series finale was pure…unadulterated…hot garbage. Many claimed that the finale was yet another victim claimed by the COVID rush, and I wouldn’t doubt it.  The only part of it I liked was when Lucious knocked Wood Harris’s ass out with his prosthetic leg.  Priceless.  Throw the rest of the episode (and most of the final season) away.

Game of Thrones

Come on, now.  Was there any doubt in your mind that Game of Thrones would be on this list?  The wack seasons and/or series finales I mentioned beforehand were sad, but season eight of Game of Thrones has to be one of the saddest things I’ve ever witnessed.  D&D took a TV show that was on its way to being regarded as one of the greatest to ever do it and turned it into a big, stinking turd.  The culprits were the usual suspects: the story was horribly rushed, the editing was non-existent (Starbucks coffee cups and plastic water bottles were caught in frame more than once), and the characters were acting…out of character.  Jaimie goes back to Cersei after five seasons of plot development?  Tyrion suddenly becomes gullible? Varys gets sloppy? Dany goes straight HAM and burns King’s Landing to the ground? Bran is crowned king? Riiiiight. What’s even sadder is that unlike Pose, Insecure, and Empire, Game of Thrones can’t blame this hot mess on the COVID rush. This dumpster fire aired nearly a year before we were hit by the pandemic.  For those of y’all that never watched the show before, just check out seasons 1-7, and pretend season eight never existed.

—Written by Nadiya

Did you agree with anything on the list?  Which of your favorite TV shows had a stinker of a season and/or series finale?  Let me know in the comments section!