Which TV Shows ‘Betrayed’ Viewers in Final Season? Fans Say…

Television fans were getting into the thick of it on Thursday (May 29) when discussing the shows they loved that let them down in the final seasons.

In a Reddit discussion, commenters weighed in with their picks for the TV series that dropped the ball on the home stretch the most, and while some of the answers were pretty obvious, others weren’t quite as widely maligned. The prompt for the exchange came when the original poster asked, “What shows betray its audience with its final season?”

That wasn’t the first (and surely won’t be the last) discussion of this subject on the discussion board site. Less than a year ago, thousands of Redditors hit the comments of a similar thread to share their picks for the shows with the worst final seasons.

So which shows were among the most disappointing, according to these TV fans?

The Umbrella Academy

“Never been so disappointed with an end season in my life,” one commenter wrote of the Netflix sci-fi drama. “The actors did their best with an absolutely terribly written final season that could have been amazing.”

Another commenter agreed, writing, “Genuinely the first season of a show I thought could have been written by AI. No character acts like themselves and jokes completely contradict the narrative.”

Game of Thrones

This fantasy epic is noted as perhaps the most “obvious” answer by the first suggester of the title, considering how much of a nosedive the show did in Season 8. One commenter agreed and pointed to the oft-maligned behind-the-scenes explanation for Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) fatal mistake, “somehow Dany forgot about the Iron Fleet, just mental writing.” “Somehow D&D [David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, cocreators] forgot to write a good show,” the original poster agreed. “It went from the absolute center of pop culture to complete irrelevance over the last season. I’ve never seen anything like it,” another fan wrote in a separate thread.

The X-Files

One fan wrote that this sci-fi all-timer failed to stick the landing, too, pointing to several issues with its last season: “Scully is just turned into a talking womb. Mulder and Scully have no reaction to their child dying. The alien invasion plot that was the crux of the show is dropped. Terrible cinematography and dialogue,” they explained.

Roseanne

It’s been almost 20 years since the original sitcom’s final stretch saw the Conners become millionaires and then wipe it all away as a figment of the titular character’s imagination, but apparently that still sings. “It was all made up and Dan is dead,” one poster noted.

Dawson’s Creek

“When I was a teenager I felt Dawson’s Creek had betrayed me because I thought the first season was written to make the audience believe Dawson was Joey’s soulmate, not Pacey,” one TV fan submitted to the list, echoing an ageless complaint about the direction the show took in the end.

That ’70s Show

“It’s terrible,” the suggester wrote. “Topher Grace leaving was the nail int he coffin and not to mention Ashton Kutcher was barely there as well. All the new characters sucked, and you can tell nobody cared and they were phoning it in. Terrible season to an otherwise excellent sitcom.”

Another fan agreed with that suggestion adding, “The show should have ended with Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher leaving.”

Dexter

Showtime’s celebrated serial killer drama, which is returning for its third spinoff this July, rubbed some fans the wrong way on its final stretch. “It’s insane how awful the last season of Dexter is,” one fan wrote. “Everyone and everything feels like they’re just going through the motions.”

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Gilmore Girls

Not counting Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the final season of this dramedy was a notoriously disliked one, especially since its creators, Daniel and Amy Sherman-Palladino, weren’t involved. “It’s so wrong,” one fan wrote of Season 7. “Lane deserved more than just popping out babies and staying in Stars Hollow. Lorelai shouldn’t have ever married Christopher. The whole season has a different feel.” Another agreed, writing, “By the end of the show, I’m rooting so heavily against the characters that I’m hoping they turn into a pair of completely unsuccessful weird old cat women outcasts in their own town.”

Which shows did you feel fit the bill of this final stretch faceplant description? Hit the comments below and let us know.

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