10 TV Shows That Almost Had Much Better Endings

The Ending: Dexter opts to fake his own death in order to start a new life by driving his fishing boat into the eye of a hurricane. Later, he's revealed to be alive, but now sports a beard and flannel shirt and works for a lumber company, 'cause that's what exile does to a man, don't you know?

The Alternative Ending: Clyde Phillips' unused ending was far more creative and brilliantly meta, as he explains below:

"In the very last scene of the series, Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, 'Oh, it was a dream', and then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realise, 'No, it's not a dream.'

Dexter's opening his eyes and he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery, and in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed."

The ending the show opted for was pretty average, whilst this discarded ending would have been great in its playing around with audience expectations and riffing on the overused "It was all a dream!" cop-out. It's also interesting because it chooses to kill off Dexter and also gives him a moment before he dies to reflect on all those murders.