7 TV Shows With Near-Perfect Endings

The HBO prohibition-era drama series started off incredibly strong; with a critically-acclaimed director at the helm of the first episode and the mighty acting chops of Steve Buscemi, Michael Shannon, Michael Pitt, and Kelly Macdonald leading its first two seasons.

The show dove brilliantly into the lives of mobsters and prohibition agents in 1920's America, treating fans and history buffs to actual events and real-life criminals played by an exceptional supporting cast. Admittedly the show started to come away at the seams and become animated after season two, but its fifth and final season went back to the start show Nucky's childhood and the moment he became corrupt.

And who would have thought that moment came when he executed an act that would set off the chain of events that led to his eventual downfall? Every season focussed on a different villain challenging Nucky Thompson for his wealth and his empire, and every one of them he defeated in a different way, but it was the unpredictable actions of a young boy that became his undoing.

In his final moments, the son of Jimmy Darmody shoots Nucky dead out of revenge for killing his father and betraying his grandmother. The shot catches him in the side of the face the same way Nucky had slain Jimmy, and as the government agents tailing him run to his aid, a dying Nucky Thompson reflects on his youth one last time before dying on the Atlantic City boardwalk he spent years trying to govern.