10 Most Controversial Series Finales In TV History
5. Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liars: like Gossip Girl, only worse.
That’s a fairly accurate summary of Pretty Little Liars overall, but it counts double for the finale. While Dan being Gossip Girl was clearly stitched on at the last minute with no planning, it at least made some sense.
You can poke holes in it, sure, but it’s not like they said Gossip Girl was Blair’s evil British twin...
Pretty Little Liars though did exactly that. After having pretty much every non-Liar feature as A at some point (before turning out to just be a minion of the big bad), they were struggling to find anyone to be the overarching villain.
Fan theories were abound that it was one of the main cast themselves (Aria Montgomery was the leading candidate) who was the ultimate villain. The theories weren’t prefect, but they at least didn’t need to invent a new character at the last second to work out.
The show had already jumped the shark by this point, but to go so telenovela at the end was just ridiculous. While Gossip Girl fans at least got a satisfying (if threadbare) popcorn finale, Pretty Little Liars fans were left in the lurch, with huge negativity spilling over online.