Many are calling this the golden age of television, with shows like House, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, and American Horror Story setting a whole new level of quality for the medium and shaming shows from years gone by, with Game Of Thrones even beating the Olympic Opening Ceremony for the 2012 peoples choice BAFTA award. However, that doesnt mean a few slimy turds dont slide through the net every now and again, such as Anger Management or the horrendous US adaptation of The Inbetweeners. These shows arent what cause the most outrage though, as such visual harassment is often removed from the public consciousness by the ease of which it can be simply ignored. No, as a viewer the only real slap in the face we get in when a show weve grown to love gives us a finale that is not only undeserving of such a great programme, but downright undermines everything that has come before, like someone giving you oral and vomiting on your stomach just as you approach the moment of ultimate excitement. So heres our list of five shows which utterly destroyed their legacy with finales that had them go off-air in an explosion of rectal seepage, ruining their clothes and leaving us with an impression that wed severely overestimated them...
5. Only Fools and Horses
Well in truth this one went out as more of a slow wet fart than a spectacular follow through, but it soiled itself sufficiently enough to make it onto our not-so-prestigious list. The programme was about a working class family attempting to gain a better life for themselves with a series of moneymaking schemes and illegal shenanigans, quickly becoming one of the most popular comedy programmes in Britain and running for over twenty years. Its popularity was down to not only the shows humour, but also how relatable the characters were and how its themes captured Britains materialistic yet family orientated zeitgeist. The show originally had a pretty perfect ending, with the family becoming millionaires after discovering they had the most valuable pocket watch in the world.. and it had been in their garage all along. Their departure from the three roomed apartment theyd lived in since childhood was deeply moving and the episode provided great closure for the fans whod come to think of the characters as not just fictitious beings on their television, but real people that they were rooting for to do well. No ending could have been more satisfying. Sadly, a few years later, the series producers decided to bring the show back, initiating the revival with a special that had the characters lose every penny theyd gained from the previous episode and be forced to move back into their old apartment. A few specials later a main character had their second kid and the show just.... stopped. Although it was a moving final episode, the family were still ruined and living in abject squalor, providing no real ending to the series and leaving viewers feeling like theyd been conned. It undermined the struggle the characters had been through, portraying them as hopeless idiots rather than representatives of the working class (as theyd previously been viewed). It became a show about unavoidable misery instead of hope, and now most people can no longer watch even the good episodes of the show due to the knowledge of its final conclusion. Saying that it at least made sense, which is a lot more than we can say for some of the other show finales on this list.