Ending a TV show on a dark note is a gutsy move. Even if it's a show about bad people, showrunners will likely face backlash if the ending is just too dark, although in some cases, people have come to accept downer endings in time. However, if you end a sitcom on a dark note, you better really stick the landing, or viewers are going to have a bad taste in their mouth every time they watch a rerun. From the ending of The Sopranos that was literally pitch black to the apocalyptic exit of Dinosaurs, let's take a look at the darkest TV finales in history.
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00:00Every good story has an ending. Sometimes, all of the characters you've come to know
00:05and love get happy endings. But other times, our heroes are left to the worst possible
00:11fate. Here are a few of the bleakest finales in TV history.
00:16Fans either loved or hated Seinfeld's final episode. Whichever side you're on, you have
00:22to admit it was a pretty bold way to end a lighthearted sitcom.
00:26What makes Seinfeld's ending so dark isn't just that it throws Jerry, Elaine, George,
00:32and Kramer behind bars. Co-creator Larry David clearly wanted to put viewers in the uncomfortable
00:38position of acknowledging that these characters, as funny as they might be from a distance,
00:44simply weren't good people. And just in case you think the show is being way too easy on
00:49the gang, the final episode makes sure to bring back just about every single side character
00:55who ever got humiliated or harmed over the course of Seinfeld to ensure that the protagonists
01:01face actual consequences. There's no mistake, they belong in jail.
01:06For the most part, fans disliked Seinfeld's finale at the time, but maybe that's the point.
01:13It's a punishing hour of television, and while it's probably not the finale anyone wanted,
01:18it's definitely the one they deserved.
01:21Quantum Leap was an entertaining blend of science fiction, drama, and comedy. The premise
01:27of Dr. Sam Beckett leaping through time with only the holographic image of his buddy Al
01:31for support is pure sci-fi, and the idea that he could presumably only move forward by repairing
01:38the past meant that, from week to week, he could jump from crime thrillers to feel-good
01:43romances to straight-up just being a monkey.
01:46And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once
01:53went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home."
02:00The series finale begins with Sam realizing that he's leapt into his own body, but in
02:05an unfamiliar reality. Finding himself in a coal mining town in 1953, at the same moment
02:12of his birth, Sam chats with a mysterious bar owner, who tells him that he's been in
02:17control of his own fate the whole time. Sam's need to help people has kept him from making
02:22the leap home. The divine bartender asks Sam if he's ready to finally have a normal life
02:28again, but Sam wants to take one final leap to prevent his friend Al's heartbreaking divorce.
02:34Successfully changing the course of Al's life, Sam leaps again, and the screen fades to black.
02:41A hastily misspelled caption proclaims that Sam never returned home. Despite Sam's good
02:47will, he's still out there, forever, thanks to the show being canceled at the last moment.
02:54Felina, the last episode of Breaking Bad, might be the most satisfying TV finale of
03:00all time. Every question gets answered, almost every loose thread is tied up. Still, Jesse's
03:07big rescue aside, Felina is every bit as dark as the rest of the series.
03:13Ultimately, the finale proves that, despite Walt's good intentions, his secret life as
03:18a drug dealer fractured the lives of every single person he knew and loved. Yes, poor
03:24Walt Jr. is going to inherit a hefty sum of money eventually, but it's still blood money,
03:30and that certainly won't undo the trauma of finding out his beloved father was such a
03:34rotten guy. Although Walt manages to find it in himself to mount a big rescue mission
03:40for his partner Jesse, this hardly redeems his past actions. One of the darkest moments
03:45of Felina is Walt's final conversation with Skyler, when he admits that building his meth
03:51empire was never about his family.
03:54I did it for me. I liked it."
04:00Luke Cage was an honorable figure in Netflix's dark corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
04:05Although he'd claimed that he wasn't heroic, his actions spoke louder than words. Whether
04:10Luke was bouncing bullets off his chest or facing down bad guys with his intimidating
04:15swagger, it's no wonder that he quickly became Harlem's hero. Yet, as the show's finale demonstrates,
04:23even Luke Cage is vulnerable to the dangers of power.
04:27When Luke's archenemy Mariah Dillard finally dies, poisoned by her estranged daughter Tilda,
04:33she has one last trick up her sleeve. She leaves her nightclub, Harlem's Paradise, in
04:38Luke's name, making the hero a de facto crime boss. Although Luke hopes he can stay true
04:44to his morals, his cold stare into the camera in the episode's final moments reveal an emerging
04:50dark side. Unfortunately, Netflix pulled the plug, leaving this culturally important
04:56series with a serious bummer of an ending.
04:59Dinosaurs was a cheerful ABC sitcom featuring a working-class family of prehistoric lizards
05:05dealing with the ups and downs of life, and if you grew up in the 90s, you probably expected
05:10it to appear here. Why? Because while plenty of sitcoms end on a bittersweet note, there's
05:16only one where the doofus dad helps cause the apocalypse. The show's finale, Changing
05:22Nature, is a subtle but powerful climate change allegory. Although the show doesn't beat its
05:27audience over the head with its message, it's nonetheless some incredibly depressing viewing.
05:33When series co-creator Michael Jacobs first proposed killing everybody off, ABC balked,
05:39but after some consideration, everyone saw that it was the right choice. Jacobs told
05:44Vulture,
05:45He said,
05:46"'It's not the cast that we are trying to destroy. It's the entire world. My source
05:51for doing this is history.'"
05:54While Superman the Animated Series was a quality cartoon, it never quite escaped the shadow
06:00of its predecessor, Batman the Animated Series. However, while the Man of Steel's adventures
06:05often seemed lighthearted compared to the exploits of the caped crusader, Superman's
06:10finale left him hanging in a dark place.
06:14The two-part final episode, Legacy, features a mysteriously brainwashed Kal-El who believes
06:20that he's the adopted son of Darkseid. This evil Superman is waging war on Earth in his
06:26villainous father's name. Of course, Superman soon recovers and delivers an unholy smackdown
06:32to Darkseid. But the people of Earth aren't about to just forgive and forget. Thanks to
06:37Darkseid, Superman's reputation on Earth is shot. Aside from Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen,
06:43no one will move to help the disgraced Man of Steel.
06:47"'Ey, if you ask me, the bum oughta go back where he came from."
06:51That's how it ends. When the animated Superman returned in Justice League, this plot thread
06:57was never revisited.
06:59Now that Mark Ruffalo's Hulk is recognized as an honored member of the Avengers, it's
07:04easy to forget that the original, on-screen depiction of the Green Goliath was a true
07:101977's The Incredible Hulk was a tale of true superhero tragedy. The sight of David Banner
07:17hitchhiking off to an uncertain fate as the famous Lonely Man theme plays remains a touching
07:23TV moment.
07:24The series itself took great pains to depict Banner as a decent man facing horrible circumstances.
07:30The Hulk wasn't a superhero but a big green disease, and from week to week, Banner's goal
07:36was to find a cure, clear his name, and return to a normal life. Sadly, David Banner never
07:43gets a happy ending. The original show ended in an anti-climax, but thankfully, the story
07:49continued in a series of TV movies. The last of those was titled The Death of the Incredible
07:55Hulk.
07:56In the film's climax, Banner's kindness towards so many others goes unrewarded. He's never
08:02cured, and he dies in the body of the Hulk after falling out of an airplane. Suddenly,
08:08the Lonely Man is even sadder.
08:11A medical drama set in a run-down Boston hospital, St. Elsewhere was known for its gritty, realistic
08:18storylines. Often cited as one of the most influential shows of all time, St. Elsewhere
08:24also ends with the weirdest twist in television history. In the show's final moments, the
08:29camera pulls back from St. Elijah's Hospital to reveal the building inside a snow globe.
08:35A young, autistic boy named Tommy Westfall is staring into the globe, while his construction
08:41worker dad, whom viewers will recognize as Dr. Donald Westfall, one of the show's main
08:47characters, discusses the boy's condition. The entire show has apparently taken place
08:53within Tommy Westfall's mind.
08:56Here's where it gets stranger. As postulated by the late comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie,
09:02if St. Elsewhere was a figment of Tommy's imagination, then so are a shocking number
09:06of fictional characters and settings. St. Elsewhere boasted a surprising number of crossovers,
09:12if you connect the dots. Other shows that happen in Tommy Westfall's imagination include
09:18Frasier, Homicide Life on the Street, and The X-Files. Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe
09:24is subject to the Westfall theory. The animated series Ed, Ed, and Eddie always had a bit
09:30of a dark side. Despite the show's light tone, the trio of Ed's still seem isolated from
09:35their peers. Eddie, a boastful loser who's always trying to scam others and worships
09:40an older brother who looks down on him, is an especially sad character. That depressing
09:46subtext hit the foreground in the show's original finale. Take this, Ed, and shove it. The episode
09:52begins like any other, but during the second part, Eddie gets hit on the head and awakens
09:58as a bitter old man. The entire series has been Eddie remembering his lost youth. Old
10:04Eddie spends the rest of the episode trying to escape his fate, but in the end, all he
10:09can do is accept it.
10:11For a cartoon, that's a pretty depressing way to go out. However, the show proved popular
10:16enough to spark a revival, and an additional two seasons followed. Nonetheless, the fact
10:22that this episode was intended to be the last we saw of the Eds is definitely a shocker.
10:28No list of dark TV finales is complete without the final episode of The Sopranos. What's
10:34darker than leading the audience to believe something horrible is about to befall the
10:38main character, and then cutting to black?
10:41In the decade since The Sopranos ended, creator David Chase has expressed no regrets about
10:46being so cruel to his audience, and continues to be ambiguous about Tony Soprano's fate
10:52while admitting that the finale was more controversial than he expected. In a 2019 interview with
10:58the Directors Guild of America, Chase stated,
11:01"...I thought the ending would be somewhat jarring, sure, but not to the extent it was,
11:06and not a subject of such discussion."
11:08Nonetheless, you have to give Chase credit. There's a reason people still debate this
11:13ending today.