Game of Thrones Sopranos Ending All Over Again
How the Game of Thrones finale compares to other controversial TV endings
The Game of Thrones flavor 8 finale has been and gone and, whether y'all thought it stuck the (Male monarch'due south) landing, or if its terminal moments saw the show go up in a blaze of Wildfire in your eyes, it's undoubtedly going to be a swansong we'll be talking about for years to come. But how does it compare to some of TV's other controversial closing chapters?
From black screens, to Coke adverts, and even a second life as a lumberjack, here are some of telly's nigh teeth-grittingly frustrating final episodes and, crucially, how they stack up to the concluding Game of Thrones episode. Spoilers, of course, follow.
The Sopranos
What happened in the end?
Fifty-fifty if you lot haven't seen a single 2d of mob drama The Sopranos, chances are you lot know about its ending. With the net endmost in on Tony Soprano, he sits down for a (last?) supper with his family.
You know something is going to get down, but y'all simply don't know what. Meadow'due south 54-betoken turn heightens the tension, and the power ballad Don't Stop Believin' reverberates effectually the diner as people come and get and then: a blackness screen. That'southward it.
Why was it so controversial?
In perhaps the nigh hotly-debated Telly ending of all time, information technology was the complete lack of closure that irritated many. Famously, there were fifty-fifty some viewers who contacted HBO to complain that their cable had been cut during the terminal minutes of the episode because of how disruptive the sudden cut to black was.
Still, the fact people however talk about whether Tony was or wasn't whacked and left to die in a basin of onion rings suggests that, though this is a controversial ending, it definitely isn't a bad i.
Is it amend or worse than the Game of Thrones finale?
Better. So, and so much better. The concluding Sopranos episode may have been immortalised by the black screen of death, merely what came before information technology was then much more measured and genuinely heartfelt. Tony got to say goodbye on his own terms without beingness shoehorned into a shootout in a diner and, crucially, it felt like a gut-punch of a closer rather than something you lot just wish would end already.
Lost
What happened in the end?
Ane final showdown between Jack and the Man in Black takes place on the infamous isle. Jack, somewhen, gets the upper manus and kills the Man in Blackness before succumbing to his wounds.
The kicker, though, is the yard reveal that the 'wink-sideways' nosotros've been watching all season is actually one big look at the characters in the afterlife. Jack turns up aslope his dad in a church every bit the major characters (though a few are weirdly missing) walk into the Great Beyond together.
Why was it and then controversial?
Viewers' expectations were sky high for Lost from the beginning with its realm of riddles and mysterious goings-on but the crux of the issue hither is that the finale'south answers aren't very satisfying.
Sure, everyone was redeemed in the end but, unlike Damon Lindelof's other big box of mysteries The Leftovers (which wisely chose to leave an ambiguous answer every bit its departing shot), everything was wrapped up a fiddling too neatly. It betrayed the overall message of the bear witness and macerated everything that came before information technology by trying to paw moving ridge it all away with one big finish.
Is it better or worse than the Game of Thrones finale?
Honestly? About the same. Both Lost and Game of Thrones accomplished eerily similar final seasons insomuch equally they ripped up everything that was carefully set before it, while simultaneously attempting to answer everything at once in a series of scattershot concluding scenes.
Lost might simply edge it because everything was set up for a large terminate in the terminal hr while Thrones was still stumbling almost one-half an hr into its finale. Both characteristic the serial' leading man walking off into the unknown, too, which is a squeamish piece of symmetry.
Sons of Anarchy
What happened in the stop?
Jax ties up the remaining loose ends for himself and his SAMCRO biker gang, including mopping up the few remaining baddies left in the show. When Irish gangsters and the authorities inevitably come gunning after him, the blonde biker, played past Charlie Hunnam, decides to end it all by ploughing into the back of a truck.
Why was it so controversial?
Sons of Anarchy'southward unabridged final run read like an do in box-checking an 'epic' catastrophe. At that place were plenty of deaths, backstabs, and betrayals, but each episode felt bloated. So much so that, past the end, much of the audience was wearied and exchanged eye-rolls at the uncharacteristic way its lead graphic symbol, Jax, went out.
Decease by truck. Actually? Later several seasons of genuinely thrilling TV, the clamber of a motorbike chase to end it all makes y'all wish they put the brakes on years ago.
Is it improve or worse than the Game of Thrones finale?
Worse. Sons of Anarchy was so concerned with ripping off Hamlet'due south plot beats that it didn't stop to think well-nigh whether anything made any sense. Game of Thrones season 8, meanwhile, ripped off George RR Martin's advisedly-constructed prepare of books, but at least had the congenital-upward enshroud of several seasons of love characters and story arcs at its dorsum.
Thrones, even in its terminal moments such as Jon's reunion with Ghost, carried with it a level of complexity and dash that was years-in-the-making. Sons of Anarchy took us habitation with all the subtlety of, well, a bike driving into the back of a truck.
Mad Men
What happened in the end?
The always-enigmatic Don Draper does what he does all-time when things don't go his way: turns tail and heads Westward. The apparently never-catastrophe roadtrip away from corporate monotony at McCann ends with the slick ad man seemingly 'finding himself' in a hippie resort. One last scene plays which shows he'south reached inner peace subsequently a lifetime of lying and debauchery. An advert for Coca Cola starts playing.
Why was it so controversial?
Unless you joined the dots, you either felt Don's sudden nearly-plough into a nice, peaceful guy was a misstep or yous thought the Coke advert, 1971's I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke, was obscure for the sake of obscure. The truth, though, is much ameliorate: It implies that Don continues his destructive bicycle and somewhen ended up crawling back to McCann, using his experiences on the Californian resort to put pen to newspaper on i of the greatest ads ever created. A salesman to the very end.
Is information technology better or worse than the Game of Thrones finale?
Each of Game of Thrones' Big Finale Moments looks so much worse when set alongside Mad Men's ending – mostly because it was dauntless plenty to stray abroad from the traditional trappings of a Tv finale. No one says goodbye face to face to Don Draper in Person to Person, the final episode of the period piece'south 7th season. Instead, Don eventually comes to term with who he actually is: No ane.
Thrones, meanwhile, raced from plot point to plot point – Dany dies, the Iron Throne is gone, now there'due south a new King, and Jon is sent North… and we're done – without much thought given every bit to how each piece falls in the overall story.
With Mad Men, each last conversation is riddled with layer upon layer of build-upward coupled with an outpouring of emotion. Don breaks down with Peggy; Emerge learns to grow upwards in the most tragic of ways; Joan breaks costless of her old life, just each is done then in a way that's a earth abroad from Thrones and its tendency to rush towards the finish line.
Mad Men was often criticised for its glacial pace, but hither information technology gives itself room to relax and let viewers enjoy seeing these characters one last time – even if Don will forever be a leopard who tin can't change his spots.
How I Met Your Mother
What happened in the end?
We finally larn who the mother of Ted'southward children is. Hey, it'southward some woman we've never met earlier! What could've been a dauntless choice slowly turns into a mad dash of a two-parter involving a time skip, Barney becoming a father, and a twist-for-the-sake-of-a-twist virtually how Ted really loves Robin.
Why was information technology then controversial?
The finale smacks of showrunners who were never really committed to answering what the show had set upwardly all along: How did Ted meet the mother of his children? In the terminate, it didn't really matter, equally she shuffled off the mortal roll long before she ever became relevant over the course of the finale.
That, coupled with Barney and Robin'due south season-long wedding arc beingness shattered in the space of a few minutes rubbed many the wrong way. I episode that retroactively makes the entire series look worse takes some doing – merely HIMYM pulled it off.
Is it better or worse than the Game of Thrones finale?
A lot worse. How I Met Your Mother managed to arrive the bad books of many a fan who had stuck past the prove through several seasons. Its plot twists were nonsensical, its destruction of what came before insulting, and it'due south now become a bear witness where anybody volition openly tell new viewers to skip the final season, such is its sudden dip in quality.
At to the lowest degree Thrones stayed somewhat true to its characters, while having them sign off in a way that didn't feel similar it instantly wanted to become a weird watercooler moment where anybody was discussing the "gotcha" moment. It was e'er a prove near how power corrupts. How I Met Your Mother's show was about, well, the clue'south in the name – and information technology barely cared about answering that come the big finish.
Dexter
What happened in the finish?
Finally wanting to get out of the serial killer game, Dexter Morgan takes a boat out into stormy waters after several brushes with those who want him gone and seemingly perishes. No more Dexter, no more bloodshed. Easy, right? But wait, at that place'south more: Dexter survives and is now living a new live every bit a shabby lumberjack in the heart of nowhere. Because of form.
Why was information technology so controversial?
It makes no sense. Dexter, eventually, had to get his comeuppance but the show pulls the carpet out from underneath the states at the very concluding moment. Instead, what we get was something that was casuistic (does Dexter actually dump his loved ones like that?) and acts less similar a definitive ending and more like a show that overstayed its welcome and tried to make amends.
Fumbling about for a sense of closure while leaving things teasingly open for a return wasn't what we wanted from a finale.
Is information technology better or worse than the Game of Thrones finale?
Fifty-fifty at its most casuistic, Game of Thrones tin can never compare to Dexter'due south fuckton of what-the-fuckery that went downward in its final episode. Dany goes mad and is almost instantly killed? Certain, but did she become a lumberjack? Bran is the king at present? Fine, whatevs.
When compared to Dexter, Game of Thrones' final episode isn't actually all that bad. Information technology's an entertaining romp, doesn't experience overly long (like some finales), and just about does justice to the characters we've spent nearly a decade with. Plus, did I mention the lumberjack? It makes Drogon melting the Iron Throne look like the most masterful piece of thematic poetry in recorded history.
Want something fresh to supercede your Thrones fix? Here are the all-time new TV shows coming your way in 2019.
Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/how-the-game-of-thrones-finale-compares-to-other-controversial-tv-endings/
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