10 Most Hated TV Finales Of All Time

Hailed in 2004 as a revolutionary reimagining of the original 1978 television space opera, Ronald D. Moore’s updated version substituted themes and production designs ripped off from Star Wars for a grittier, more nuanced take on a similar plot structure. Practically wiped out by the cybernetic Cylons, the remnants of the human race survived as a wagon train of spacecraft escaping the holocaust and searching for a new home.

The excellent reviews continued through Battlestar: Galactica’s second season, but began to tail off in the third. The tightly plotted structure deteriorated and the alluring mystique of the high concept degenerated into oblique mysticism which seemed to posit an Orphic view of spirituality. Humanity, overseen by some inexplicable god-figure, was doomed to repeat a ‘grievous circle’ of events over millennia until it broke the pattern.

That downward spiral wasn’t course-corrected by the final season. ‘Daybreak’, a three-part culmination of that narrative, actually doubled down on those obscure cod-religious aspects, proving that it was Moore’s endgame all along.

For the most part, the audience was furious, feeling cheated by lack of closure and the vagueness of the climax. No less a fan than George R.R. Martin dismissed the denouement, writing that, “a deus ex machina is a crappy way to end a story”.