Don't try and make excuses for that DUMPSTER FIRE It was trash of the utmost ordsr. NOTHING made sense. Dragons CANNOT be taken out by medieval grounded projectiles... and yet those projectiles had the strength of MODERN RAIL CANNONS and defied the laws of gravity. Lawl. Just ... no. They assassinated everyone's characters, threw away arcs in the blink of an eye, failed thematically at every turn, and gave characters Valerian steel plot armour. It was absolute NONSENSE.

I think the making of a good series is whether the makers have a plan from the start and that's what makes the best endings. A set number of seasons - usually no more than 5 and clear foreshadowing to the end throughout makes a great series. Seasons that go on for more than six I'm very hesitant towards as they almost always lose their quality and you can tell that money is replacing the heart.

Probably the best I can think of are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which topped off a 10-episode arc resolving all of the conflicts and various arcs within the series, and Assassination Classroom, which proved it really was telling a very tight story despite its carefree nature. Higurashi (original 2 seasons), Steins;Gate, Fate/Zero all had an absolutely amazing finale too, I need to rewatch some of those. Shows which stay in my favourites tend to have a really strong final.

Breaking Bad too - that was brilliant!

I remember the biggest disappointment I had was Darling In The Franxx, a show from a couple of years ago, it had a really absolutely excellent first 15 episodes. The next 4 were okay. The last 7 were absolute trash of the highest order, that took everything possibly interesting about the show (a post-apocalyptic wasteland) and tossed it into space for some reason.
none of this is why the finale was... underwhelming. Not bad, underwhelming. Basically everything that was in the finale would have been in a perfect finale, but the issue was we just weren't given the time to have the extra bits and conclusions that we needed to make it a strong show.

and btw, it is one of those that's an exception to my rule, I just now consider Game Of Thrones (Seasons 1-6) to be one of my favourite shows. The other two exist when I decide they exist.

With American network TV dramas it can be really difficult though as the networks want the show. So a prime example of this is LOST - for what it is worth, I think the ending of the show is really fitting and a really sensible ending. A lot of the problem fans have with the shows is because Lindelof/Cuse had created storylines which got cut as they were not important and were merely there as filler because they did not know how many episodes they had to go.

Game of Thrones gets a lot of hate but people make out it's the worst thing ever - it's not. Yes, the pacing is off in some parts and they did not have the quality of GRM to help with the source material. But a lot of the hate comes from people are pissed off Bran ends up on the Throne. This is common with lots of TV shows, people dislike the endings because it is not how they wanted it to be. Ending a TV show is near enough impossible. It's really hard to think of a example of a GOOD ending.

Anyway nobody has actually found the worst of them all yet, which is Dexter. I've never seen the show but How I Met Your Mother seems universially derided too.

No. Read up. Those are GLARING ISSUES. It is also nonsensical that Bran becomes king the way he did. It is utter GARBAGE.

people dislike the endings because it is not how they wanted it to be. Ending a TV show is near enough impossible. It's really hard to think of a example of a GOOD ending.

Which just proves my point Michael, people don't like it because they don't like what happened.

Bran was and will be the King in GRRM's books too. The difference is there was no source material to flesh out the other seeds of how it happened as it takes GRRM 10 years to write a book.

The issue isn’t Bran being king or the ending per se. It’s how they got there and how little sense it made. They could have made him king and done it well but instead it boiled down to “wHo HaS tHe BeSt StOrY 🥴” which was just.. what? None of that final season made sense because none of it was actually set up. Bran becoming king, Arya killing the night king, Dany going crazy. It was all just for shock value instead of actually making a single lick of sense.

It was an awful season because it was rushed, poorly written, didn’t make sense and was more about shocking gags than actual quality. D&D were even offered more seasons and more episodes by HBO but didnt want it. No one expected GOT to have a happy ending but we all expected it to make sense, which is where they failed.

Which just proves my point Michael, people don't like it because they don't like what happened.

Bran was and will be the King in GRRM's books too. The difference is there was no source material to flesh out the other seeds of how it happened as it takes GRRM 10 years to write a book.