If you believe that the journey is the destination, you may be fine with a television series that fails to wrap up satisfyingly. But for those who crave closure, all’s not well that doesn’t end well. However it plays, there are very different ways to approach the swan song of a series.
Netflix’s immensely popular Korean thriller Squid Game and FX/Hulu’s Chicago-based restaurant dramedy The Bear — current TV offerings that have won over audiences and critics alike — just delivered seasons that could be taken as endgames. Spoilers should be avoided by any interested parties who have not seen the recent episodes. Still, events depicted in what is nominally the last Squid Game installment were more definitive than those that occurred as The Bear completed its fourth season.
A sense of finality permeated both programs, yet there were hints that neither story had reached its true finish. For Squid Game, a scene suggested that the program’s deadly competition continues in one form or another, regardless of its key player’s dispensation. And a significant decision made by chef and restaurant co-owner Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), the central figure of The Bear, is a crucial one for his imperiled dining establishment, and leaves even more dangling plot lines than those that were already in the wind.
Cliffhangers and incarcerations
It would be unfair to say that the controversial finales of HBO’s acclaimed crime-family saga The Sopranos and ABC’s mystery-laden sci-fantasy Lost undermined the legacy of either show, although an open-ended conclusion probably did less damage to the reputation of the former than a surreal, arcane wrap-up did to the latter. Quibbles were few with the dark-hued funeral home drama Six Feet Under, the beloved space opera Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the 1980s-set undercover Russian spies thriller The Americans, which are among the series that successfully ended with emotional future visions depicting the fate of their principal characters.
So the goodwill built up over numerous seasons might be trashed with one misbegotten goodbye. Or not. A case in point is “The Finale,” the last episode of the frequently hilarious sitcom “about nothing” Seinfeld, which went out on a sour but arguably appropriate note with all four individuals in its selfish, self-centered ensemble languishing in jail for their petty behavior. It turned out that the widely negative reaction to “The Finale” didn’t besmirch the show’s entire run at all. In fact, the popularity of Seinfeld in syndication is ongoing. At the same time, comic actor and writer Larry David, the show’s cocreator, was so cognizant of the disapproving response to “The Finale” that his hilariously misanthropic solo sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm boldly and amusingly referenced the episode in its own finale.
The goodwill built up over numerous seasons might be trashed with one misbegotten goodbye.
Television history is dotted with successes, failures and oddities that result when programs prepare to go off the air. A fail can happen due to no preparation at all, as was the case with HBO’s 2020 reboot of Perry Mason — inspired by the novels of Earle Stanley Gardner. Despite accolades brought on by the excellence of the writing, acting, and production values, this 1930s-era period drama showing the origin and development of the determined Los Angeles defense attorney was canceled by a corner-cutting Warner Bros. executive after the cliffhanger in its second season left Perry incarcerated — although not in the same hoosegow as the Seinfeld gang. In other words, the disheartening de facto finale had nothing to do with the creative team in charge. Not much can be done in that instance, beyond calling for a TV movie to tie up loose storylines.
From poetry to pranks to purgatory
Some series shutdowns are expected or obvious (e.g., the military med unit in the Korean War sitcom M*A*S*H decamps in poignant fashion, paralleling the real-life conflict’s cease-fire); some are subtle, even poetic (e.g., owner Sam simply and quietly closes his venerable bar for the night on Cheers, turning off the lights after choosing to continue the business rather than move to Los Angeles). Others are unconventional, to say the least. One of the most memorable series-enders has to be that of Newhart, starring wry comedian Bob Newhart who is shown waking up in bed as his character from his previous sitcom The Bob Newhart Show. He turns to his wife from that earlier show and tells her that he’s just had the weirdest dream, consisting of all the events that went down over the course of Newhart.
When it comes to comedies that take an unconventional approach, it follows that the “death” of the exhilarating afterlife sitcom The Good Life — set in a whimsical variation on purgatory — would be done with a deft touch, and indeed it stuck the landing as its handful of deceased-in-waiting moved on to a blissful eternity. We should all have such a happy ending.
That brings us back to Squid Game and The Bear. After Squid Game ties up its tale of greed, desperation, and survival in a gripping, wrenching way, its coda (with a truly unexpected cameo) opens the door to what might be a new iteration of the game. As for The Bear, its cast members may be in great demand due to the success of the series, but a contract is a contract, and there have been reports that those questions left unanswered as the end credits ran on season four may very well be addressed with a fifth season to be commissioned by FX/Hulu — if we can bear to wait. It just goes to show that, occasionally, an end is just the pathway to a beginning.
