TV Shows That Age Everyone Up For The Finale

In a time before “peak TV”, Six Feet Under was something of a prestige sensation for parent network HBO. An undeniable critical darling and the beneficiary of a cult-like fanbase, Six Feet Under stuck around for five seasons before living up to its humorously morbid title and calling it quits. 

The show’s finale manages the difficult task – just ask Lost – of staying true to both the audience and the characters themselves by paying off multiple storylines in unique and unexpected ways. The episode closes out a multitude of storylines in the present day before capping things off with a seven-minute montage unforgettably set to Sia’s “Breathe Me” that sticks to the spirit of the show by detailing the future demise of every character remaining in the show. It’s a contemplative and melancholic send-off that encapsulates Six Feet Under’s five-season rumination on the nature of mortality and impermanence.

With its final episode, Star Trek: The Next Generation faced the impossible task of ending one of the most generally well-loved sci-fi series of its era. In prototypical Picard fashion, the Starship Enterprise’s inimitable captain finds a way by oscillating between three time periods - the present day, seven years prior, and some 25 years in the future. Three versions of Picards find themselves drawn to a mysterious spatial anomaly orchestrated by the Captain’s intellectual archnemesis Q. Upon reaching the spatial anomaly across the various timelines, Picard is suddenly relocated to the Q Continuum courtroom, in the same trial adjudicating the continued existence of humanity that occurs in the series’ very first episode. 

The trial is revealed to have never ended, all the various events of the series at large leading to one final test. Picard must find a way to solve the spatial anomaly, whose existence grows more and more destructive, the farther back the Captain and Q jump through time. Naturally, Picard comes up with a solution and proves once and for all his prodigious leadership skills, navigating three timelines' worth of Starfleet crews toward a fix. Q and the Continuum are impressed by Picard’s exemplification of the perpetual possibility of human potential and resign to allow the preservation of humanity’s existence. Suddenly, Picard is back in the present day, and at long last, decides to join his crew in their regular poker game. It’s a fittingly heady and optimistic conclusion for a series that always prioritizes intellectual exploration and hope over flashy SFX and cheap nihilism.

The seemingly immortal PBS animated series finally called it a day in 2022 with the episode “All Grown Up.” As the title so plainly suggests, the episode jumps into the future to show exactly what Arthur and company get into as, well, grown-ups. 

For such a long-running part of multiple generations worth of childhoods, the Arthur conclusion serves as a bittersweet goodbye. It thankfully does not include any major character deaths. In fact, everyone seems pretty well-adjusted. Except for maybe D.W., who ends up as a police officer. All good things must come to an end, of course, but not like this, D.W. Not like this.

Parks and Recreation began its life as something of an Office knock-off but eventually found its own distinct comedic voice. The series finale walks the show’s signature line of humor and optimistic sentimentality, opting for a non-linear approach that details the individual futures of each of the program’s primary cast of characters in tandem with their present-day farewells to one another. 

The most notable among the destinies presented shows main character Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) achieving her lifelong dream and becoming governor of Indiana and subsequently (it’s hinted) either the President or Vice President of the United States. For a show that maintains a sense of hopefulness over the fates of its innumerable goofy but well-intentioned ensemble and the United States’ governmental structures in equal fashion, it’s the perfect goodbye. Everyone gets a future worth having, even if it isn’t exactly what they envisioned. And isn’t that just a beautiful metaphor for life – and mundanely dysfunctional local governments, to boot?

Few shows inspire the same level of fan devotion as Supernatural. Luckily for them, the monster-of-the-week smash starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester wraps up the beastie-hunting brothers’ story in simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming fashion. 

Jumping forward six months from the penultimate episode, Supernatural’s brothers go on one last ride to track down some children-kidnapping vampires. The ensuing battle ends with the baddies vanquished, but not before Dean is impaled and dies in Sam’s arms. Sam arrives in Heaven, and after going on (another) last ride in his Chevy Impala - complete with Kansas’ “Carry On My Wayward Son” needle drop - reunites with his friends and parents. Sam, on the other hand, moves on with his life and lives as close to happily ever after as can be reasonably expected until passing away of natural causes. Upon his end, Sam meets his beloved bro once again in Heaven. For such a long-running series, it’s about as satisfactory a conclusion one could ask for.

Star Trek: Voyager suffered from some minor controversies in its day, and while it never reached the towering heights of other Star Trek properties, time has been kind to the series at large. Take the intriguing premise, a stellar cast, and some excellent episodes scattered throughout the seven seasons, and it's clear there’s a lot to love for dedicated and casual fans alike.

The finale takes the cast and crew, led by Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), 23 years into the future, and 10 years after the crew finally make their way back to Earth. Spurred on by regret over the sacrifices that needed to be made along that journey, Janeway decides to go back in time to a pivotal moment, and change the course of the Voyager crew’s fates. So, she hops back 26 years to team up with her younger self, and the two manage to get the best of both worlds - getting Voyager home early and blowing up the notoriously evil Borg along the way. Nothing like a happy accident in time travel, right?