Over the last 15-20 years television habits have changed dramatically with expectations at an all time high and viewers shifting to new media streaming models.
Competition for shows is at all time high, and once companies have a hit, they try to drag it out as long as possible.
Part of this is also because ending shows can be difficult too. Here is a look at three TV shows which angered viewers with their disastrous finales, and soured their reputations in the process.
Lost
Launched in 2005, Lost was an instant hit from episode one with viewers.
Fans of the series became wrapped up in the mysterious characters who were and were not on the crashed plane, and equally as bemused as to why there were polar bears on a sunny island. (The answer to that one was never explained).
Six series began to test the patience of fans, even with the help of sometimes mind-bending flashbacks and flashforwards.
When we got to the final episode, it was pretty underwhelming. It consisted of all the plane passengers meeting together in a mirror-world, hinting they were dead the whole time.
The lack of clarity, mixed with a message the show was a waste of time all along, was a disappointment for fans who had invested years in it.
Perhaps it was fitting that in the finale, Lost botched the landing.
Dexter
TV’s favourite serial killer had viewers both fascinated and at times squirming as he provided a window into his own twisted world.
The show was engaging as Dexter’s own ‘normal’ life at times unravelled due to his murderous tendencies by night.
The show lasted for eight seasons before it was eventually killed off.
When it did come to an end, viewers were spitting blood as it left more unanswered questions than it solved.
Dexter ended up beginning a new life as a lumberjack, a solution which felt like producers picked it out of a hat.
Game of Thrones
It takes some going to produce the best show of the decade and screw it up as spectacularly as Game of Thrones managed to.
The final season being just six episodes was a warning sign, and concerns were well placed.
Thrones did not lose it’s ability to showcase spectacular television, but instead it became too reliant on big ‘wow’ moments instead of good writing.
Part of the problem with the finale was not simply Bran ending up on the iron throne, but how he got there, having been a pretty vacant character on screen from series five onwards.
The jump and little justification made little sense, but it was more than that. This was a series first created in painstaking detail. By the end it seemed that logic and key plot points ceased to matter.
At least there’s always the books, if George Martin ever finishes them…