Which Shows Got Their Finale Right, and Which Didn't? A Statistical Analysis
Which Shows Got Their Finale Right, and Which Didn't? A Statistical Analysis
A data-centric study of TV endings.
That site is cancer
The complaints against Lost mostly come from completely misunderstanding what the finale was saying.
Fan complaint: "They were dead THE WHOLE TIME!!! WE TOLD YOU!!!"
What actually happened:
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All the flashbacks were real.
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Everything that happened on the Island was real.
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The "flash forwards" to escapees living in LA was the afterlife.
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The finale is showing you that EVERYONE dies on the Island, nobody escapes, nobody makes it to LA.
Once everyone on the Island dies and ends up in LA, they collectively move on to the next phase of the afterlife.
LA is the purgatory holding room, not the Island.
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Using DuckDuckGo, and scrolling behind the sign-up pop-up, I was able to read the story, and even the author admits that his statistical analysis didn’t seem to always match the internet chatter. It was mildly interesting.
Using Firefox I just scrolled and selected skip when the popup happened.
The data was good enough, but obviously misses a lot of nuance. For example some shows, like Game of Thrones, had an already subpar last season that then ended in rubbish. Whereas Dexter (at least by IMDB ratings) was having an ok last season, which then ended in rubbish.
You also have shows like Seinfeld or Big Bang Theory that can really end anywhere. Sure they have a finale but it's not like we're building to a grand finale across the entire show. Compare this to How I Met Your Mother, which could only ever end with Ted meeting the mother, which the show took an interesting but ultimately mistaken approach with.
You also have shows like House of Cards which, yes that is the finale we got, but obviously not the planned finale. Or shows like Scrubs, where the finale was a season earlier.