Top Ten Series Ending Cliffhangers

01/04/2011 1:42 pm by

This article is about the last episodes of television series. As such, it is absolutely chock-a-block full of spoilers. A river of spoilers. Welcome to Spoilerville! Population: this article.

10. 24
Fate: after eight seasons, no feature film version in sight
Verdict: Ha!

24 was a reprehensible torture-happy show that glorified state-sanctioned brutality, but it deserved better than it got. Instead of wrapping up the series in a dignified fashion, the writers hedged their bets on a feature film and turned Jack Bauer into a vengeful freak instead of giving the character any kind of resolution. The news just broke that 20th Century Fox has rejected the script for a big-screen 24, so it looks as if all that plot wrangling was for nothing.

9. Dark Angel
Fate: cancelled after 41 episodes
Verdict: semi-satisfying

dark angel jessica alba e1294164895589 Top Ten Series Ending Cliffhangers

The second season of this show about a near-future dystopian Seattle got into weird territory, as genetically enhanced bike messenger/cat burglar Max Guevara (Jessica Alba) encounters an ancient cult of snake-handling übermen and becomes the leader of a micronation of genetic freaks. It’s also implied that she may be the saviour of the human race. None of that gets resolved because the network cancelled it at the end of the second season. James Cameron took the themes from Dark Angel and made Avatar.

8. Lois & Clark
Fate: cancelled after 4 seasons
Verdict: probably a good thing

Lois Clark dean cain teri hatcher e1294165242557 Top Ten Series Ending Cliffhangers

At the end of the final episode, Lois and Clark come home to find – an infant in a bassinet, with an ambiguous note announcing that the baby is theirs. I guess alien übermenschen don’t have to bother with birthing the natural way. Exec producer Brad Buckner explained that the baby was Kryptonian royalty, but viewers never got to see what became of the little nipper.

7. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Fate: cancelled after 31 episodes
Verdict: Noooooooo

terminator sarah connor chronicles lena headey e1294165662662 Top Ten Series Ending Cliffhangers

The ending of the Terminator series is either the best or the worst unresolved cliffhanger ever pulled on the viewing public. John Connor follows a liquid metal terminator (played by Shirley Manson, of all people) into the future, where the machines hold sway and no one knows who the hell John Connor is. The show had been hinting at the twist ever since the sixth episode, but when it came it was completely unexpected. A third season would have lead to a remarkably different series, but the show had lousy ratings and Fox dropped it.

6. Deadwood
Fate: those cocksucking bastards cancelled the goddamn show
Verdict: I’m going to stab those HBO pricks in the eye

What in the ever-living fuck happened to Deadwood? Those motherfucking cocksucking claim-jumping sons of bitches at that tittyfucking HBO cancelled the best goddamned glorious bright star in the firmament of their miserable pissant little Sunday night lineup, and they didn’t even open their precious pink rosebuds to give David Milch one last hurrah at the toll booth. Now they shake their fucking pans in the river and leap on every last lousy refracting surface sparkle to proclaim it gold, those soak-fingered farting bastard-pinching hog skins that walk like men.

I miss Deadwood.

5. Carnivale
Fate: cancelled after two seasons
Verdict: Hey, wait.

Never has television achieved the blue-balling of so many geeks at once. Season two ends with the long-awaited for confrontation between Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) and Father Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown). Crowe is strung up and dying in a cornfield when Sofie (Clea Duvall) comes along and heals him, the cornfield blighting as the life drains from the plants and flows into Crowe. What? What’s going to happen next season? Oh wait.

4. Veronica Mars
Fate: cancelled after three seasons
Verdict: semi-satisfying

Every season of Veronica Mars ended on a cliffhanger, the best of them being the last shot of the first season, when Veronica opens her door and says “I knew it would be you” to an unseen visitor. The end of season three leaves everyone at loose ends: her father in hot water, Veronica dejected, and the powerful (as always) vindicated. Creator Rob Thomas tried to land a fourth season for the show by setting it a few years in the future with Veronica as an FBI agent in training, but the network didn’t bite.

3. The Prisoner (1968)
Fate: cancelled after 17 increasingly weird but glorious episodes
Verdict: I do not understand what just happened, but I liked it

What the – what was that? Why did they do that? Who were the people in the hoods? Why’d they shave that guy’s beard? What about the tunnel full of guys driving mopeds? Could someone explain about the mopeds? And what exactly happened to No. 6? Did he escape back to London, or is he now living in some hyper-real fusion of The Real and The Village? Did No. 6 drag us all into some weird alternate universe that resembles ours but is actually a gigantic prison? Or did The Prisoner show us that we live in a prison overlaid on our reality like some ghastly palimpsest? Is Patrick McGoohan still the coolest guy to walk this earth? Yes.

2. Twin Peaks
Fate: cancelled after 30 episodes
Verdict: WTF?

Everyone remembers the start of Twin Peaks: the body of a young woman is found wrapped in plastic. The question of who killed Laura Palmer fueled the show and allowed David Lynch and Mark Frost to wander off in all kinds of strange directions (remember Nadine and her quest for the silent drape runner?). Once they revealed the identity of the killer, though, viewer interest dropped, and the show went out on a bizarre cliffhanger, with the revelation that Agent Cooper was possessed by the spirit of Bob.

1. Angel
Fate: cancelled after five seasons
Verdict: oddly perfect

angel david boreanaz e1294166468458 Top Ten Series Ending Cliffhangers

After the operatic but over-budget clusterfuck of season four, the WB network gave Angel a drastically reduced budget to work with and a demand for more easily digestible ‘monster-of-the-week’ stories. The creators took the money and pushed the show in a completely different direction, shifting from a supernatural Wagnerian comic book to a supernatural law dramedy, as Angel and crew attempt to run an evil law firm and still fight the good fight. The finale ends with (most of) the main characters in a rain-drenched alleyway, facing down a massive army of demons, dragons, what have you. They rush forward, weapons held high. “Let’s go to work,” Angel says. Perhaps the best possible ending of any series, ever.

And those are my top series-ending cliffhangers from shows that were shot down in mid-flight. Do you have any cancelled-too-soon cliffhangers in mind? Are there some closeted Tru Calling fans out there? Let us know in the comments.

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About Palinode

The Palinode, aka Aidan Morgan, is a freelance writer and communications fellow. Slowly but surely, he amasses a towering pile of text behind him as he goes.

Filed Under: Best Of Featured, Best Of MamaPop, It's Not TV, It's HBO, News, Sci Fi, Television, Things That Suck, Things You'll Never See, Top 10(ish) List, TV, Video, WTF? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,


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  • CH

    Golly moses, I adored the end of “Angel.” A really perfect ending for that series, and the addition of Spike made even scaled-back!Angel a real treat. I almost want to rewatch the whole season again.

    The “Deadwood” cancellation continues to be a travesty. I’m still upset about it.

    • Mona

      Deadwood! Margh! Still can’t form coherent sentences, so angry, still.
      I follow the actors in other work just in the hopes they’ll bust out an old west school style creative filth laden rant. A shout out to Powers Boothe, who made old and (presumably) evil HAWT.

      • CH

        Same! I couldn’t get into “Kings” because Ian McShane was using network TV swears, and I continue to watch “Breaking Bad” with the exception that Anna Gunn will bust out some Martha Bullock-isms. Similarly, I had my brain warped when Alma Garrett appeared in “Party Down.” It was weird to see her with a phone in her hand… :)

        • Mona

          All through Kung Fu Panda, I could not shake the hope that Ian McShane would bust out a filthy f bomb raid. For so many reasons.

          • CH

            Perhaps for the fact that he was in “Kung Fu Panda”? ;)

  • Rae

    Roseanne. I LOVED that show, even if the last season was ridiculous. Guess the writers knew it too, since they pulled the “we only jumped the shark in a DREAM!!!” card. WTF? Roseanne was so real, and the one thing that really gave me hope in the midst of all that depressing reality was the fact that they held on to each other, kept trying, and things would work out in the end. Things didn’t always go the way any of us would like, but there was NEVER that level of sheer hopelessness.
    Granted, losing Dan was horrible and would take a long time to get back to life again. However, ending the show before Roseanne could do this went against everything they had done so far.
    The entire premise of the show revolved around the fact that no matter how bad things got, keep your loved ones close and you’ll make it through. So to leave such an epic loss unresolved, to never see if the family rallies and makes it through- bitchsmack.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      The ending of Roseanne was everything you said. Sacrificing the show’s realism for the weird lottery-winning fantasy of the last season just felt like a waste of time. Then the big reveal came, and it really was a waste of time.

    • http://kdiddy.org kdiddy

      Agreed 100%

  • http://www.danielletodd.com Danielle

    How about My So Called Life? Did Angela ever get it on with Jordan Catalano or did she ditch him for the long-suffering Brian Krakow?

    Ok, maybe it wasn’t the cliff-hanger of the century, but those questions will forever remain unanswered.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      I left My So Called Life off the list because I figured someone with taste would bring it up in the comments. And so it came to pass.

    • http://www.playaminded.wordpress.com vegas

      Oh, My So-Called Life. We barely knew ye.

  • http://www.agirlandaboy.com Simon

    Twin Peaks: simultaneously the best and most frustrating series ending EVER. God, how I miss it.

  • April

    Dark Shadows. The 90s remake. Probably the beginning of my overly dramatic vampire love story obsession. In the final show of the first and last season in Back to the Futureesque fashion, Victoria Winters comes back to present day just when the Victoria that was in the past is hung. She now knows who and what Barnabas Collins – the man she is in love with – is, looks at him, gasps, and scene. Forever. My 12 year old heart was devastated and I quite possibly wrote some very strongly worded letters to NBC in my math class notebook.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      There were rumours for a while of a Dark Shadows remake, right around the time that Angel’s cancellation was announced. I guess the WB figured that vampires weren’t cool anymore.

  • Suzy Q

    Re: “24.” Jack was *always* a vengeful freak with a penchant for thigh shooting. I could never understand why that show was nominated for awards in the Drama category. It was a comedy!

  • Monica

    I hate to admit this but it still haunts me so I’ll add it here.

    Did anybody watch Caroline in the City? The last episode she’s about to marry someone whose name eludes me but the guy she really loves, Richard walks into the church – end season

    What happens? Will she marry the wrong guy? Will the right guy speak up? We’ll never know…since it never came back.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      Good one. I’d forgotten about the Caroline cliffhanger.

  • Bitchilla

    I totally agree with My So Called Life!

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      And I totally agree with anyone named Bitchilla.

  • bd

    I was right there with the NOOOOOO to Sarah Connor Chronicles.

  • Garvey

    Anyone ever catch that show Journeyman? No? Just me? Yeah, it was pretty bad, but I always really liked the concept. If they’d let it go a few more seasons, it might have come around. Regardless, it’ll always bug me that I’ll never know how it was supposed to end.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      I liked Journeyman, but I didn’t really start watching it until it was nearly done. And then it was done, just as it was getting interesting.

    • Kemi

      Yes! Journeyman! Loved that show! I thought his giant i-phone was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

      I wish another network had picked that show up.

    • arrrrgggh

      ohhhhhhhh, I really like journeyman. reminded me of quantum leap!!!! also anyone remember a show on fox about a guy that wakes up in the woods of seatle and can’t remember who he is but has knlowdege of pretty much everything else? one of the Guys from prison break was the lead, the brother that was in jail 1st.

      • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

        That was John Doe, with Dominic Purcell as the title character.

  • Kemi

    Las Vegas was a cheesy, campy, completely idiotic show that my husband and I watched faithfully each week. It ended abruptly with a march down the aisle, or someone standing alone at the altar, or the bride getting kidnapped, or something. (Clearly I was a die-hard fan.) I remember looking at my husband in shock when it ended, and we were both angry that the producers knew it was going off the air, and instead of giving the (few remaining) viewers a nice resolved storyline, they gave us the finger, so to speak.

  • http://hoperoth.com/blog Hope

    My Name is Earl ended on a bit of a cliffhanger as well. Who was Earl Jr’s real father?

  • norm

    I have to dispute that “The Prisoner” was cancelled. According to McGoohan he only had enough material for seven episodes, and made up the rest on the fly because they wanted to try to sell the series to a US network and they wanted more episodes (miniseries hadn’t caught on yet in the states).

    I loved that show soooo much. Of course I watched it at too young an age and I had bad dreams about Rover (also the giant chessboard).

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      Hmmm. I may have been playing fast and loose with the word ‘cancelled,’ if you take the term to mean that a show went off the air because the network pulled the plug. However, you’ll note that I didn’t say The Prisoner was cancelled. I just said that the last episode was well-nigh incomprehensible. And a great ending – apparently McGoohan sat in his trailer and typed the script up over the course of a weekend.

      You can tell that the show was already hitting a creative impasse by the time they hit Do Not Forsake Me, Living In Harmony and The Girl Who Was Death. It felt like McGoohan and crew were riffing more than building something new. Mind you, the penultimate episode was amazing. I bought the series on Blu-ray a little while ago, and the show is still great. I warn you, the Blu-ray transfer will show you a lot of British teeth. Not for the faint of heart.

  • http://abigailroad.ca abigailroad

    Thank you for the Deadwood rant. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

    I don’t know if anyone else remembers the show Models, Inc. ( used to come on after Melrose back in the day)…the first season ended with some guy shooting a gun at a wedding, and it made you think that he accidentally shot a child, instead of one of the models…and it never came back.

  • http://plasticsardine.livejournal.com Becca

    Deadwood was cancelled because that jackass Timothy Olyphant tried holding out for more money, so HBO told David Milch (who was getting tired of doing a regular series anyway) that he could end the series with two movies and call it a day.

    Still, Olyphant held out for money. The other cast members, especially the fantastic Ian McShane, turned down acting roles one after the other waiting to finish Deadwood. They finally gave up the ghost because Tim was being an asshole. And now, he’s back on TV because movies didn’t work out.

    I hate Timothy Olyphant.

  • Kris

    Dollhouse. Epitaph 1 and 2 and huh?

  • http://www.amalah.com amalah

    Pushing Daisies tried so, so hard to wrap things up rapid-fire once the cancellation news was official…which basically meant they had time to tack on a 30 second epilogue at the end of whatever episode they’d just finished filming.

    “AND EVERYBODY WAS OKAY AND HAPPY IN THE END. BUT WE DON’T REALLY HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN WHY OR HOW BECAUSE THE STUDIO IS LOCKING THE DOORS OH SHIT BYE THE END!”

    So not really a full-on cliffhanger (and I know they’ve done comic books since the show went off the air), but still. The show’s mythology and mysteries deserved so much more and I’m still mad about it.

    • http://www.heresyourgravy.com Maxine Dangerous

      I was JUST talking to my mom about Pushing Daisies earlier tonight. Too much happened for their ta-da-epilogue ending. The writers should’ve just had everyone die in a massive earthquake fire landslide drowning.

      I’m still mad that Mercy got cancelled. Maybe I was the only person watching it, but I liked it. Veronica was fucked UP and I, in a very Cuba Gooding, Jr., way, DUG THAT ABOUT HER. I’m, like, Deadwood mad.

      I might need a hobby.

  • diamondcait

    Arrested Development wasn’t cancelled, but it ended way too soon. Man, I loved that show. And I know it didn’t end with a cliffhanger, but I wanted to complain about the shitty treatment it got from the good people at Fox.

  • http://kdiddy.org kdiddy

    Oh, Carnivale. Such a bummer. I was also really sad about John from Cincinnati not getting a chance to really develop.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      John from Cincinnati was so fucking strange. And good.

    • http://draftdaysuit.com Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah

      We’re rewatching “Carnivale” now. I really miss it AND “Deadwood”.

      I men really, they are still making “Two and a Half Men” and they cancelled “Deadwood”.

      There is no God.

      • http://southcityconfidential.com KBO

        Ummm, pretty much what Sarah said. Which makes me hate 2.5 even more.

  • http://frolicndetour.wordpress.com/ Jennie

    All I can say is, “Where’s Annie? *smash* Hee hee hee. WHERE’S ANNIE?!”

  • JD

    I was super upset with how they ended Veronica Mars until I saw what they had planned for season 4. I’m glad they didn’t have a chance to do that to my beloved program. Personally, I just ignore all episodes after Veronica and Logan get back together the last time because that’s how I like to imagine it ended. Except for every once in a while when I pretend that Logan dumps Veronica for me.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      I’m betting that the combined powers of Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell could have made it work. Ten bucks says that they would have brought back Logan in some form.

      • JD

        I think they would have had to for the fans. I mean, I’m not the only one unhealthily obsessed with him. Right???

  • http://andsosheblogs.com Carrisa

    I still miss you Veronica Mars. I’m sorry I waited until season 3 to start my fan blog.

  • http://unicornpara.de Tanie

    I know no one watched it except for me and like, two people I know online who actually live in Ocean Beach, but the show Terriers (which was amazing and pitch perfect from start to finish) had, like Angel, an oddly perfect cliffhanger ending.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      Terriers was an awesome show. I didn’t include it on the list because the ending, while cliffhangery, seemed to wrap everything up so nicely (with the exception of the still-lurking Big Bad).

      • http://unicornpara.de Tanie

        I’m just glad someone else watched it!

  • http://flotsamblog.com/ Alexa Stevenson

    Did anyone buy me watch Wonderfalls? Anyone?

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      Yes. I think it got four episodes on the air before Fox cancelled it. It didn’t even have time for a cliffhanger.

  • http://appalachianexpress.wordpress.com/ Random

    Maybe this is too geeky to be considered “pop culture,” but FIREFLY, people, FIREFLY. Oh, I grieved at the treatment that show received at the hands of Fox. First, they didn’t air the episodes in their intended order. Second, they made the pilot episode into the finale. And third, they didn’t even let the show HAVE a finale – neither the pilot nor the episode they “designated” into the final slot worked as a finale.
    And yes, there was Serenity – thanks, by the way, entirely to the fans and to the cast-and-crew’s spirit, but Serenity wrapped up one… maybe one-and-a-half… plot threads. It was wonderful, but it was just one movie. Just two hours. Give us resolution!

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      Too geeky? There’s no such thing here, especially where Whedon is concerned. I didn’t include Firefly on my list simply because of Serenity – not to mention the comics. Plus the show was aired in such a weird random order that there really was no cliffhanger – just a head-scratching ending that was actually the beginning of the series. I would have loved to see five seasons of Firefly.

      • http://dona-sol.livejournal.com/ April

        Not to get all fangirl on you guys, but I’d watch 5 more seasons of Firefly! I try to enable all my loved ones and every time I win over another fan, I mourn the show anew.

  • http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com Sara H

    SO. After I got all emotionally invested in the BBC series Survivors via Netflix streaming, I realize that it was cancelled. And it ended on a cliffhanger. Bastards.

  • http://whiskeyinmysippycup.com Mr Lady

    VERONICA MARS WITHDRAWAL HAS SET IN. SEND HELP.

  • http://raisingzoeyjane.com Zoeyjane

    I concur about My So-Called Life. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention The L Word. I waited the whole damn series for Jenny Schecter to disappear and then finally, she dies and the world would be wonderful. BUT NO.

  • http://www.debontherocks.com Deb Rox

    You straight people owe Ilene Chaiken props in this category. The L Word is a tragic, much-discussed cliffhanger to a milestone series that inspired rants, protests, and long-lasting memes. The last shot is the main characters walking through a wind tunnel to be interviewed in a police station, with fans screaming WHO KILLED JENNY SCHECTER? Really, you can still get a group of lesbians riled up by simply saying “Chaiken.” Try it at your own peril.

    Sopranos cliffhanger was amazing.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      The L Word’s first season was great television. The rest of it irritated the hell out of me. Mind you, I still watched it.

  • Melissa

    I have Deadwood PTSD and actually have a hart time committing to HBO shows because I think they will pull that bullshit again.

  • http://www.lisagaumond.com Lisa

    I’m fairly certain that I have the worst taste in TV shows ever, but Swingtown tops my list of frustrating cliffhangers. Did Susan sleep with Roger? Did Bruce sleep with Melinda? Did Trina have an abortion?? So many questions!

    And not really a cliffhanger, more of a rug-pulled-out-from-under-the-show, but what happened on Eastwick? I loved that stupid show.

  • Kristi

    I really miss Moonlight. It was on before all this Twilight crap. I remember checkig to make sure the season finale was set to record the day before it aired and then watching it recorded and seeing the words series finale. I was shocked and so angry that it just ended and we never found out if Beth got turned.
    CBS did something similar with Jericho. Loved that show as well and it was suddenly canceled as well. I hate that try don’t give good shows time to develop and yet they keep reality shows on forever. I’m sure it’s because reality is cheaper to produce than a real show, but I think it so unfair to the viewer.

  • http://muirnait.blogspot.com Heather

    I was actually really enjoying the nursey drama on NBC, “Mercy”. There aren’t enough good nurse shows and everyone knows surgeons are mostly douchebags anyway. GOSH.

    • typicalquirk

      Omg, Mercy was the most frustrating finale. Did one of the men in her life die? If so, which one? I am still trying to figure out what would have happened. The show was light and fun while also having a really sarcastic edgy side. It was great candy.

  • jennifer

    EZ Streets.

    Still mad at CBS.

  • Megan

    No one may have watched this either, but Blood Ties got the whack unexpectedly and the cliffhanger ending was bleak as hell.

  • Jessica

    Clone High — not sure if MTV even aired the whole season in the US, but I really want to know what happened when they thaw all the clones out.

  • Melinda

    Because I’m a HUGE nerd

    Dark Skies, Space: Above and Beyond and Firefly. At lease Firefly got a movie to kind of tie things up. But it still left a hole in my heart.

  • emily

    “dead like me” left SO MANY QUESTIONS unanswered. and NO, i refuse to include the TRAVESTY of a movie that came later as any sort of “sequel”. i’m still upset about that. god. now i’ll never know if crystal was a reaper too.

    • http://www.thepalinode.com Palinode

      The Dead Like Me movie was just terrible in comparison to the series. It was done on the cheap and had none of the imagination and humour of the original.

  • Devon

    I am one of the few that really liked Trauma. It ended with the female lead being seen by her studly lover (the guy from The Mummy) making out with a random guy on an alcoholic bender. No resolution. NBC is famous for that crap. Remember TRINITY? Assholes.