The Handmaid's Tale is finally wrapping up with season six.
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00:00 Deciding when to end a TV show is incredibly tricky, race to the end and you can wind up
00:04 with a very clearly rushed catastrophe, but let it drag on for years longer than the story
00:08 needs and you get something that fizzles out long after its audience have moved on.
00:13 And so while fans will usually be sad to see their favourite shows go regardless, these
00:17 10 TV series feel like they're getting an ending that's been one hell of a long time
00:21 coming indeed.
00:22 I'm Scythe for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 TV shows that are finally ending.
00:27 10.
00:28 The Walking Dead It's often repeated among The Walking Dead's
00:31 long-suffering fans that the show itself has become a shambling zombie that simply refuses
00:36 to die, but after 11 seasons, it will finally air its last ever episode on November 20th.
00:42 Even though many have dubbed the last few seasons a fair return to form, The Walking
00:46 Dead is a show that clearly just kept going far beyond its actual creative threshold because
00:50 the ratings remained relatively high.
00:53 But when protagonist Rick Grimes departed the show midway through 2018's season 9,
00:58 the ratings entered a seemingly irreversible death spiral, with a recent episode garnering
01:02 an all-time low of just 1.55 million viewers compared to its all-time high of 17.29 million
01:09 for the season 5 premiere.
01:11 Though AMC already has numerous spin-off projects in the works, one centred around Daryl and
01:15 Carol, another around Rick and Michonne, and one focused on Maggie and Negan, it'll nevertheless
01:20 be a relief to see the flagship show finally put out to pasture many years after it reached
01:25 both its narrative and ratings peak.
01:27 9.
01:28 The Flash
01:29 When the CW's The Flash launched back in 2014, who could have predicted that it would
01:33 run for a whole nine seasons and in turn become the longest-running Arrowverse series, beating
01:38 out even Arrow itself?
01:41 Back in March, the CW confirmed that The Flash was wrapping up with a shortened ninth season,
01:45 and given that it's the only Arrowverse show left standing, it will also effectively
01:48 bring the entire franchise to an end.
01:51 And it's certainly long past due.
01:53 Though The Flash enjoyed strong reviews and ratings during its first few seasons, things
01:57 eventually tapered off, and in season 7 last year, the ratings finally dipped below one
02:02 million viewers for the first time.
02:04 After three or four seasons, The Flash settled for being too much of the same, and it became
02:08 increasingly clear the central cast members had largely lost their enthusiasm for their
02:12 roles, beyond a paycheck of course.
02:15 For all but the most hardcore fans, audience passion had dried up too.
02:19 8.
02:20 The Crown
02:21 Though it only premiered back in 2016, it feels like The Crown has been on our screens
02:25 for a damn long time, perhaps because its end point has seemed within sight for almost
02:29 three years now.
02:31 In early 2020, creator Peter Morgan stated that the historical drama series would end
02:35 with its upcoming fifth season, deeming it the perfect time and place to stop.
02:39 But a few months later, Morgan backpedalled and revealed that the show would indeed run
02:43 for an additional season, with six seasons having been his original plan when conceiving
02:47 the show.
02:48 Season 5, set to premiere in November, will begin the show's final arc for Queen Elizabeth,
02:52 now portrayed in the later decades of her life.
02:55 Season 6 began filming in August, meaning it likely won't air until late 2023 at the
02:59 earliest, but it's nevertheless reassuring to know that the acclaimed series has an end
03:04 point.
03:05 Despite the sure temptation to drag the show on in an attempt to forensically detail every
03:08 major event in Elizabeth's life up to her recent death, it's good to know that Morgan
03:13 will be employing a little restraint.
03:15 7.
03:16 Riverdale
03:17 It's been something of a running joke that nobody hates Riverdale more than the actors
03:20 starring in it, and with the show being renewed for a seventh and final season back in March,
03:24 many remarked that the young cast members were finally free from this commitment.
03:28 There's little denying that the CW's supernatural drama series started to go off
03:32 the rails in its third season, with a glut of increasingly silly storylines, though fans
03:36 are sharply divided on whether this was a good thing or not.
03:40 To some, it elevated Riverdale into the canon of guilty pleasure schlock, while some felt
03:44 it strayed too far from the comparative modesty of its earlier seasons.
03:48 In recent years in particular, the Riverdale cast hasn't made much of an effort to disguise
03:51 their own half-joking disdain for the series, and given that many of the primary cast members
03:55 aren't gaining momentum outside of the show, their eagerness to move on is understandable.
04:00 There will be those who miss Riverdale and its flagrant trashiness, yet its time to wrap
04:04 up feels thoroughly overdue.
04:06 6.
04:07 Stranger Things
04:08 On paper, Stranger Things doesn't feel like it's majorly outstayed its welcome, but
04:12 due to both the big-budget nature of its production and the pandemic, its four seasons to date
04:17 have been spread over six years.
04:19 One of the key problems with the show in recent years has been the passage of time.
04:23 The four seasons to date have taken place over just two and a half years, despite the
04:27 central cast members having all noticeably aged considerably more per the series' shooting
04:31 schedule.
04:32 And though season five will reportedly have a time jump of some sort, it feels like the
04:35 credibility of these youngsters both being youngsters and remaining in Hawkins will reach
04:40 snapping points if it continues on much longer.
04:42 Plus, season four so brilliantly set the stage for an epic, apocalyptic final season that
04:47 going on any longer would feel like a massive mistake.
04:50 At least in that regard, the Duffers appear to have mapped things out and conceived season
04:53 four and five as effectively a two-part finale centred around the villainous Vekna.
04:58 Here's to hoping they stick the landing.
05:01 5.
05:02 Grey's Anatomy
05:03 To be clear, no, you haven't missed any sort of official announcement about Grey's
05:07 Anatomy finally coming to an end, but as of its current 19th season, it's clear that
05:11 Shonda Rhimes' medical drama series has entered its endgame phase.
05:15 Though its ratings have declined substantially since its peak in 2006's season three, where
05:19 it regularly pulled in over 20 million viewers, the recent 18th season still averaged more
05:24 than 4 million viewers per episode.
05:27 That longevity is largely credited to one person, star Ellen Pompeo, who has appeared
05:31 as protagonist Dr. Meredith Grey in almost all of the show's 400 episodes to date.
05:36 Pompeo and Rimes have stated numerous times that the show will come to an end when Pompeo
05:40 is ready, and given that the upcoming 19th season will see Pompeo only appear physically
05:45 in eight episodes, while still narrating all of them, the writing feels very much on the
05:50 wall.
05:51 Pompeo is reducing her role to work on a new drama series for Hulu, which will mark her
05:54 first major non-Meredith acting role since Grey's Anatomy began back in 2005.
05:59 Ergo, putting two and two together, it seems that Grey's Anatomy will likely end within
06:04 the next few years.
06:06 4.
06:07 Community
06:08 If you're thinking that Community wrapped up its sixth season run all the way back in
06:11 2015, remember that this wasn't ever the plan of creator Dan Harmon.
06:15 Ever since the season two episode 'Paradigms of Human Memory' birthed the line 'six
06:19 seasons in a movie', fans have championed the idea of Community lasting long enough
06:23 to fulfil that prophecy.
06:25 And just recently, Peacock announced that the Community movie is indeed finally happening,
06:30 with most of the original cast all confirmed to return.
06:33 The statuses of Yvette Nicole Brown and the ever-busy Donald Glover are meanwhile currently
06:37 unknown, though hopefully they can at least be corralled for a cameo to decisively tie
06:41 their character arcs off.
06:42 It's safe to say that, in finally delivering six seasons and a movie, this will almost
06:46 certainly be the final piece of the Community puzzle - a due-eyed reunion which hopefully
06:51 provides fans with the closure they deserve around 15 years after it first began airing.
06:57 3.
06:58 Mock the Week
06:59 Mock the Week is an undeniable institution of British TV comedy, a topical panel show
07:03 which launched in 2005 and, offering up a more irreverent riff on 'Have I Got News
07:08 for You', quickly became a major ratings success for the BBC.
07:12 Viewership has remained relatively consistent throughout the show's run, yet this past
07:16 summer it was revealed that Mock the Week was finally coming to an end with its current
07:20 21st season.
07:21 The BBC's official reasoning for the cancellation was to create room for new shows, yet many
07:25 industry commentators noted that the decision reflected a general decline of panel shows
07:30 over the last few years.
07:31 For one, panel shows now have to compete with the immediacy of social media, which is a
07:35 losing battle given that they're typically taped a day or two before airing.
07:39 Mock the Week's formula also feels rather long in the tooth in 2022 and, with the decline
07:44 of shock comedy the series was known for during its peak with Frankie Boyle many years ago,
07:48 the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
07:51 Nothing can ever take away what a cultural monolith Mock the Week was for the British
07:55 public, but it's been time to go for quite a while.
07:58 2.
07:59 The Handmaid's Tale
08:00 The Handmaid's Tale was an undeniable cultural juggernaut during its first two seasons, at
08:05 once a massive critical and award success, and a water-cooler show that everybody was
08:09 talking about.
08:11 Yet the series, adapted from Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel, is also another classic
08:15 case of a hit TV show that just didn't know when to stop, as it became clear with each
08:19 passing season that the narrative was being artificially elongated past its natural end
08:24 point.
08:25 Since season three, The Handmaid's Tale has frustratingly spun its wheels time and
08:29 time again, enough that even Elizabeth Moss's outstanding performance can't entirely prop
08:34 it up.
08:35 And so, there was a sense of relief when Hulu recently announced that the sixth season,
08:38 due to air next year, will be its last.
08:41 This runs counter to showrunner Bruce Miller's original vision for a ten-season run, which,
08:45 given its current trajectory, would surely have been excruciating.
08:49 That won't be the absolute last we see of Atwood's universe on the small screen, though,
08:53 as Miller is already prepping an adaptation of her recent sequel novel, The Testament.
08:57 1.
08:58 The Good Fight
08:59 It's incredibly tough to predict how a spin-off series will do.
09:02 They can either be Frasier and arguably outperform their source material, or more commonly they
09:07 struggle to retain the original fanbase, no matter how good they are.
09:10 And so, when a spin-off to legal drama series The Good Wife premiered in 2017, few expected
09:15 it to get anywhere close to the original series' seven-season run.
09:19 But never underestimate the appeal of the great Christine Baranski, as The Good Fight
09:23 recently began airing its sixth and final season.
09:26 Yet it's not unfair to say that the recent seasons haven't quite matched the catty
09:30 brilliance of the earlier ones, even if it's remained consistently entertainingly absurd.
09:35 Six seasons is an incredibly respectable run for a spin-off that could so easily have fallen
09:39 off a cliff after a year or two.
09:41 Whilst many could watch Baranski play Diane Lockhart forever, best to close things off
09:46 before there's a more noticeable decline in quality.
09:49 And that's the list.
09:50 Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below.
09:53 Which of these shows are you going to miss the most when it finally does end?
09:57 And let us know of any other shows that are currently ramping down.
10:00 Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that notification
10:04 bell.
10:05 I've been Si for WhatCulture, and have a good week.
10:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]