The final letdown: These 10 series had the most disappointing endings

TV shows with disappointing endings: Gossip Girl, Lost, Dexter, Gilmore Girls, 13 Reasons Why, Pretty Little Liars, Supernatural, Two and a Half Men

How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014)

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  How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014)

  For nine seasons, fans followed Ted Mosby’s much-meandering tale of how he met the woman he married. And yet, the final season ended up untangling its own mess – focusing on his friends Robin and Barney’s wedding and almost-immediate divorce. The mother from the title, Tracy McConnell, finally appears but makes no splash. Ted ends up going back to Robin, character arcs be damned. Maybe the title promised too much to begin with?
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  Gossip Girl (2007-2012)

  The scandalous lives of Manhattan’s wealthy, privileged teens, told from the POV of an anonymous member of the pack, play out for six seasons. Several loose ends (car crashes, catfights and the like) are tied up by the end. But who’s Gossip Girl? It turns out to be despondent Brooklyn outsider, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley). It’s a shock not just for the characters but also for viewers. He marries Serena, who he created GG for. Nothing adds up. Ugh.
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  Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

  Tight plot. Nudity. Quick battles. Nudity. Surprise deaths, dragons, machinations. Nudity. As nine noble families fight for control of Westeros, it was gripping TV. But with no books to further the story, the final season crumbled. Characters seemed poorly motivated, events got jumbled up, the screen went too dark. Even Daenerys, who birthed dragons from stone eggs, couldn’t put life back into the show.
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  Lost (2004-2010)

  Plane crash. Deserted island. Two batches of survivors. Smoke monsters. Magic numbers. A bear. Secrets. Bunkers. Others. JJ Abrams had woven such a tangled web through the six seasons, he’d lost his own way out. The finale made it out to be as if the show never happened. Questions were left unanswered and mysteries stayed unresolved. Were they all dead anyway? Why waste our time then?
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  Dexter (2006-2013)

  Blood-splatter analyst by day; serial killer by night. For eight seasons, Dexter Morgan played one of the best anti-heroes on TV. Pity his story had such a dull end. He attempts suicide, only to reveal he’d faked it all to escape and continue life under a new identity. Luckily for fans, the reboot Dexter: New Blood (2021-2022) answered all the questions that were left dangling.
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  Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

  This warm, fuzzy favourite for seven years deserved more care in its final moments. The mother-daughter storyline suffered as the shows original creators left. Lorelai and Christoper get married, Lane gets pregnant, Logan proposes to Rory out of the blue. It seemed needlessly messy and rushed. Netflix’s revival special Gilmore Girls; A Year in the Life didn’t help things either. The damage was done, the connection was broken.
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  13 Reasons Why (2017-2020)

  From the start, the show had a full plate: teen suicide, homophobia, bullying, drug abuse and sexual assault. By Season 4, the show had killed off Justin Foley, with Aids of all things, pushing the story from psychological thriller to boilerplate tearjerker. No focus on the isolated inner lives of young people. No commentary on how hard it is to be good. Then, ghost characters were added, throwing the whole show off a cliff.
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  Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017)

  Fans expected more after following the twisting mystery-drama involving four girls for seven seasons. Who were the black-hooded stalkers on the internet tormenting them? Towards the last season, it seemed as though writers stopped paying attention to their own clues. The mysterious A was revealed to be Spencer’s evil British twin sister. What a cop out!
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  Supernatural (2005-2020)

  They had 15 seasons of demon-slaying, monster-mashing, car chases and a firm friendship. So fans tend to forgive the show that didn’t stick the landing when it ended. Chuck becomes a mere mortal, Rowena sacrifices herself, Jack vanishes majestically. There’s no reason to kill off Dean, one of the two main characters, in an accident and let Sam, the other hero, die of old age. This is not what fans stayed loyal for.
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  Two and a Half Men (2003-2015)

  Terrible things happen when stars clash with show creators. Actor Charlie Sheen went head-to-head with Chuck Lorre. The casualty was a 12-year-old hit sitcom that found itself minus one of the two-and-a-half men in the title. Even by the show’s ridiculous comedy standards, the last season was rubbish: inappropriate jokes, fourth-wall breaking, cheap 3-D animation and weirdly, death. Nobody won that round.