10 TV Shows That Went One Season Too Long

The final season of House of Cards faced the most challenging of creative circumstances - wrapping itself up with the absence of its main character.

Shortly after production started on season six, Kevin Spacey was fired from the show due to sexual harassment allegations levelled against him, leaving the political thriller series without its deliciously conniving schemer Frank Underwood for its final batch of episodes.

Underwood's wife Claire (Robin Wright), who became the President at the end of season five, was then transitioned into the protagonist role for season six, yet despite Wright's spectacular effort, the season was fatally crippled by Spacey's dismissal.

It's painfully clear that the writers rushed to re-jig the season, with Frank being mysteriously killed off-screen, and the final run of episodes indulging in a near-unbearable amount of melodrama.

Though it's great that the show's cast and crew weren't suddenly out of a job due to Spacey's transgressions, season six was bad enough to make fans wish they'd just left it at season five.

All things considered, season five's final scene of Claire breaking the fourth wall - a typical Frank trick - and telling the audience, "My turn," would've been a powerful full stop on which to end the story, allowing audiences to ponder Claire and Frank's future for themselves.

Instead, House of Cards took a rather undignified, messy limp to the finish line, ending on a ridiculous final scene which spectacularly demolished what little of the show's dramatic integrity remained.