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Breaking Bad tops “best ever” finale list

But what show is voted worst finale of all time?

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Breaking Bad‘s 2013 finale has topped a list of the best TV finales of all time.

According to IMDb data, it ranks above finale episodes for Six Feet Under, The Office, Spartacus: War of the Damned, Parks and Recreation and Friends.

Two and a Half Men hit rock bottom at the other end of the scale, ranking below Dragon Ball Z, Dexter (deserved!), True Blood, Star Trek: Enterprise, How I Met Your Mother, Baywatch and The L Word.

The list has been ranked according to the ratings provided by IMDb users, as assembled by Github user OrganicIrradiation.

Sitting rather unfairly in the middle is MASH (still one of the highest rating episodes of all time) while Lost is fittingly towards the bottom.

You can see the full list here.

30 Responses

  1. Buffy would be my #1. A great ending to a great show. Went out on a real high. Interesting to see the relatively poor rankings for all of the Star Trek series. Trekkies are just notoriously hard to please. I’ve always thought the finale of Voyager was quite good. Totally agree with the bad ranking for True Blood as well. A lazy, terrible ending to an overall poor final season.

  2. With lost, it’s not the final episode. That was actually good. The issue is the final season. They ditched so many plotlines that could have been resolved and explained in the previous time travel season. They then seemed to change direction every few episodes that it was just a disaster and a final season wrapping up storylines we weren’t aware of, ignoring the mysteries we had been wondering about. With the odd, often randomly seeming old ‘mystery’ which generally were ones that didn’t need an explanation being given one. The final episode rose above the final season, but it was not the ending we wanted from the first 5 seasons.

  3. Good to hear all these views. I agree with raves for Ozymandias. If you step back and look at a series like a movie arc, then that was BB’s climax. The other two episodes were really the resolve.

    Lost remains one of the defining series of the last decade, mostly for what it did in S1. But the ending was an unsatisfactory pay-off after hours of investment. I wasn’t happy.

    Agree that Sopranos and Six Feet Under’s bold moves remain memorable. I also think IMDB’s list skews towards younger viewers and modern history.

    Dexter -don’t get me started.

  4. I don’t understand why the Breaking Bad finale is so adored. For a show that always kept you guessing, for me it was a little bit predictable and just not as –
    Actually the only real problem is that Ozymandias was two episodes earlier, and that’s maybe the best episode of TV ever. It’s kind of the climax and the last two episodes are epilogue.

  5. I really liked the finale of Justified, Will & Grace, Friends, Weeds, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos. There are shows I would like to see the finale of that I can’t remember or maybe haven’t even seen like The Nanny,Home

  6. Breaking Bad’s finale was great, but there were better episodes throughout (‘Ozymandias’ anyone?). True Blood’s legacy was ruined by that extremely below average final season culminating in an awful finale. I didn’t hate Dexter’s finale as much as everyone else, however I realise it wasn’t great.
    Sons Of Anarchy’s finale (and indeed final season) were recently added to my plus list, I thought it ended well. However my favourite finale of all time is Scrubs’ season 8 finale. It was a perfect way to end a series… And then that season 9 thing happened…

  7. IMDB ratings for episodes in themselves aren’t that accurate, especially for old shows. They are based on a few ratings by people watching the show on cable while drunk. And hard core fans, and people sleeping with the producer, will give anything a 10. People who think that’s ridiculous will give it a 1 to even things out.

    The fact that he’s also compared the finale episode rating to the average episode rating does tell you what fans thought of final. The Sopranos rates very highly as a series but the ending pissed off a lot of people so it rates very lowly, just above Dexter’s. Lois and Clark is down there too, but fans didn’t mind it final, the whole show is just rated lowly.

    I guess the moral is don’t try anything creative, and hence risky, if you want a good fan IMDB rating for the final episode.

  8. Dexter and True Blood are the worst finales I’ve seen

    Buffy and Angel were excellent. I also enjoyed the Lost and HIMYM finales, didn’t agree with the hate at all

  9. ‘Breaking Bad’ should have ended at what was the second last ep-the last one was superfluous. No one’s mentioned the finale for ‘The Sopranos’…cut to black.

  10. 100% agree, Breaking Bad was best of all time (at everything really!) with honourable mentions to Friends, Family Ties and Buffy.

    Dexter was the worst, dishonourable mentions to Entourage, Lost and How I Met Your Mother.

    Hope GOT gets it right when their time comes!

  11. It’s alway interesting to compare the Breaking Bad finale to the Dexter finale as they were about a week apart in airing and this again confirms what most people were thinking at the time.

    1. The timing didn’t help Dexter’s case did it, was such a stark contrast. Such a shame they didn’t use the original showrunners idea, I’ve watched that in my head, it was good! 🙂

    1. I’ve heard this comment over the years from others who seem to consider themselves superior because they enjoyed a TV finale (the true measure of genius). I absolutely hated the Lost finale, it was an absolute cop out and made me regret watching the whole series which was a shame because I was fascinated throughout the run of the show with endless hours spent discussing it. But I guess that’s because I’m simple.

      1. Count me as another idiot, or maybe half-wit, as I didn’t hate it but I was disappointed with it. It did feel as if the last few eps were rushed as the creators/writers tried to cram everything in to the limited number of eps granted to them by ABC. Think it could have comfortably done with extending S6 out to 24 eps or, perhaps better, a 6-8 ep mini season to wrap things up properly.

        Breaking Bad and Six Feet Under finales were both fantastic, as were the entire series. I found The Wire’s to be a bit flat but still a lot better than most TV. I thought Fringe’s was fitting, too, altho’ I would have preferred another season before the jump.

        1. From one idiot to another, I agree, it felt crammed in and too many new things were introduced in the final season leaving long term mysteries unresolved. What annoyed me so much about it was they knew 2 seasons in advance when it was ending so had plenty of time to plan a decent conclusion to the series – particularly if they always knew where it was heading (as they claimed but I don’t believe at all). For me that last episode was like you’ve suddenly realised your thesis is due the next day and you still haven’t written the conclusion.

          Am finally bingeing on Six Feet Under, have heard it’s a great finale! I missed too many eps when it was on FTA so gave up, such a good show, am glad to be able to watch it back to back now.

      2. I agree with Kristi, the Lost finale was rubbish. I remember being so disappointed after all those seasons. It made me realise they were just making it up as they went along and that there was no clear ending to the show when they started it.
        One Lost scriptwriter to the next- “I’ve got it, Let’s just say they were dead all along”
        “Perfect” he replies “Just like that dream season on Dallas”

        1. They were not ‘dead all along’-they were all dead by the last ep, as all people die (see ‘Six Feet Under’)-everything that happened on The Island really did happen.

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