Recently, two series that I had been watching for the past couple of years came to an end: Barry and Ted Lasso. The two were very similar in a lot of ways. Both protagonists were played by SNL alums. Both were fish out of water stories. They both contained a small number of seasons which ended within days of each other, and they both blended drama with humor.
I was along for the ride and happy to see whatever twists and turns each show took. I didn’t try to guess what would happen next or expect any particular resolution to these characters’ stories. But when they came to an end, I had two very different reactions to their finales.
I was completely satisfied with the finale of Ted Lasso and super disappointed with the finale of Barry. The disappointment in Barry took nothing away from my love of the show as a whole. For me, it just didn’t stick the landing. And while I agree that the final season of Ted Lasso wasn’t perfect and its ending bittersweet, I feel like it found its way to the best possible conclusion.
Two different stories to end
As I scrolled through Twitter after finishing Barry, I was seeing all of these positive tweets about the final episode. It made it seem like they were seeing something that I wasn’t.
Barry was always going to be a difficult show to end. The story is so dark, and there were so many twists and turns that there was never going to be a happy ending or a neat resolution. It was going to be sloppy and cynical.
But the final episode didn’t manage to have that wow factor that I had seen throughout the show’s run, particularly in its past season finales. I was hoping for a more epic conclusion. Instead, it felt rushed with a tacked on ending that just didn’t land for me in terms of what the show was trying to say about the entertainment industry through the eyes of its unlikely member.
Ted Lasso had an easier job of coming up with a satisfying ending, at least in some ways. It was a positive show with a more straightforward premise and likable characters. There was a large cast and a staggering number of storylines to flesh out and wrap up over the season. And while I found that the final season as a whole didn’t have enough time to do all of these storylines justice, I felt like the choices they made in wrapping them up were satisfying overall.
But I did see a lot of disappointment from other fans who weighed in on the finale online after it ended. It made me realize that every fan was getting something different from that show. So, it makes ending a show near impossible.
Reactions to the end of a story
Reflecting on these two series finales got me thinking about how to end a story, particularly a series. Every story contains a mountain of choices to make and any one of those choices can steer into a wrong turn that leads to disaster. Sometimes those choices are planned in advance, and sometimes they’re made on the fly. But how an audience reacts is often unknown. Otherwise, creators would know what decisions to make that will please their audience.
TV and movie series are written to draw in an audience and maintain that audience. Their success and continuation hinges on it. So, they either have to meet audience expectations or deliver something so unexpected that it exceeds their expectations. It can be a plot twist, a call back to past events, a jump forward in time, or something that promises a spinoff series so that we get more of the story in another form.
The latter choice is a gamble. With so many soapbox opinions out there and commentators waiting to pick apart every aspect of each scene so that they can only find the flaws. And when they themselves have developed a solid and loyal fanbase, they can convince those followers that these opinions are the norm.
And because we can see so many differing opinions online, it’s so tough to figure out whether or not an ending was successful overall. Even using a scoring system, accurate numbers are hard to crunch. You don’t know if the people rating a piece of entertainment have actually watched it, if they are part of a group who is trying to sabotage its ratings for one reason or another, or if they’re even real people or just bots.
Voicing criticism of a story
There’s nothing wrong with criticism, particularly constructive criticism. And criticism is nothing new. But audiences now have the power to sway the creativity of a particular storyline.
Audiences can campaign to have movies recut, they can sway the casting of a particular character, and they can tank a series just by refusing to show up if things don’t go their way or they don’t like the way a trailer looks.
This has been known to play out in the audiences’ favor. It’s why the cinematic version of Sonic the Hedgehog was redesigned and The Snyder Cut of The Justice League was released. But it can also be a slippery slope as creators struggle to check all of the boxes of a diverse group of fans, or even non-fans who just want to put their two cents into a project.
Part of the fun of watching movies and TV shows now is following along with fellow fans online who share their theories or favorite moments. It can heighten the experience of watching something new because it feels communal.
Audiences have always loved to shout at the screen, directing characters away from their bad decisions in horror movies, pointing out clues in a mystery, or cheering when a character returns to save the day in an action film. Now, they can continue to discuss a show or movie long after the credits roll.
But when you don’t share in the fandom or lose that fandom, you lose that sense of community. Fans connect the themes and situations of these stories to their real lives. And losing interest or seeing the negative comments of others can suck the air out of your enthusiasm and that connection you’ve made with the fictional yet relatable world.
The story that the audience writes
As a fan, I’m guilty of writing movies and TV shows in my head before I watch them. There have been a lot of things that I haven’t liked on first viewing because they didn’t match up with what I had in my head.
Luckily, I’m a repeat viewer and have watched almost every movie or show I’ve ever seen at least twice, or it’s on my list to give it a second chance. More often than not, I soften my opinion the second time around as I watch it for what it is and not what I expected it to be.
There’s something to be said about being willing to alter your opinion about a piece of creative content after repeat viewings. And being open to accepting it for what it was rather than what you wanted it to be can lead to more positive audience experiences and an appreciation for letting a story sink in rather than being something to rip apart and throw away without giving it a second chance.
The time to end a story
TV shows are now a lot shorter than they used to be. Rather than an eight-season arc with 24 half hour episodes per season, you get just a handful of seasons with as little as six episodes per season. And sometimes, you have to wait over a year between seasons due to various delays and the overall expense which allows for better quality shows, even if they are much shorter in scope.
The good shows tend to leave people wanting more, and the bad ones cause them to lose interest in between these large gaps in seasons. This quick pace presents a lot of challenges for its writers who have less time to flesh out their characters and forward the storyline while still providing enough detail to keep you connected.
Barry only had four seasons. Ted Lasso had three. There was plenty more space to tell an extended story in both cases. But how disappointing would it have been had those extra seasons not landed or changed the trajectory into an entirely different show all together? Concentrating on a small amount of episodes keeps the story tight and allows audiences to fill in the blanks on where the characters came from and where they go from here.
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Editing a story versus writing a story
Audiences also forget that it’s easier to edit than to write from scratch. An outside party can go through a finished product and come up with changes that better the story once all is said and done.
Voice actors like to say that they are not mimics. It is an art to create a character’s voice. So, it doesn’t impress them when a person can do an impression of that voice. What’s impressive is coming up with that specific voice and watching it become an impression that others can do.
It is also a group effort. While there are teams of people editing along the way, they each bring their own ideas and perspectives to a prjoect. So, its original concept will have been altered by the performances, the direction, or the editing, sometimes for the better and sometimes worse.
It’s tough to say what will work and what won’t, whether it’s an element that has survived the first draft or a risky choice taken and put in at the last second. That’s why it’s so impressive that creators get as many stories right as they do.
While these arguments may seem to be in defense of the writers, I don’t mean to get them off the hook. It’s the writer’s job, and goal, to write something good. And just because their story gets greenlit to be made into a movie or series, that doesn’t mean that they will make all of the right choices.
But we should recognize all of the obstacles that get in the way of telling a good story. As much as we may latch on to them, they aren’t ours. They belong to the people who are actually making them, and they have the difficult task of making the decisions and coming up with all of the elements that fully forms the project and the vulnerability that comes with releasing it out into a critical world.
Final thoughts on endings
When it comes to ending a series, the important thing is to have fun with it. Anticipate it. Hold a watch party. Live stream your reactions. Read the comments. But don’t take it too seriously, and don’t lose sight of its purpose: to entertain.
The writers haven’t been reading your mind. You have to be willing to be disappointed. But you also shouldn’t let that ruin the experience of enjoying the series overall. A personally failed ending shouldn’t define an entire story, especially if the rest of the story delivered in your eyes. It had to have if you’re a fan.
And these days, you can replay, rewatch, or reread those stronger moments and even skip the weaker ones. In this way, you come to appreciate the journey and not the destination.
What are your favorite series endings? Your least favorite? Leave your answers in the comments below!
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What a great post that has me thinking about some of my reactions to tv show endings and even movie and book endings! There is always how I want it to end and how other people want it to end and then how it ends and that is something to try and think about from the perspective of a writer. ✍️
Yes, hopefully it doesn’t scare writers too badly into second-guessing their endings, but it is a tricky process.