The Handmaid's Tale is finally wrapping up with season six.
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00:00Deciding when to end a TV show is incredibly tricky. Race to the end and you can wind up
00:04with a very clearly rushed catastrophe, but let it drag on for years longer than the story needs
00:09and you get something that fizzles out long after its audience have moved on.
00:13And so while fans will usually be sad to see their favourite shows go regardless,
00:17these 10 TV series feel like they're getting an ending that's been one hell of a long time coming
00:22indeed. I'm Sy for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 TV shows that are finally ending.
00:2710. The Walking Dead
00:29It's often repeated among The Walking Dead's long-suffering fans that the show itself has
00:34become a shambling zombie that simply refuses to die. But after 11 seasons,
00:38it will finally air its last ever episode on November 20th.
00:42Even though many have dubbed the last few seasons a fair return to form,
00:45The Walking Dead is a show that clearly just kept going far beyond its actual
00:49creative threshold because the ratings remained relatively high.
00:53But when protagonist Rick Grimes departed the show midway through 2018's season 9,
00:58the ratings entered a seemingly irreversible death spiral, with a recent episode garnering
01:02an all-time low of just 1.55 million viewers compared to its all-time high of 17.29 million
01:09for the season 5 premiere. Though AMC already has numerous spinoff projects in the works,
01:14one centred around Daryl and Carol, another around Rick and Michonne and one focused on Maggie and
01:19Negan, it will nevertheless be a relief to see the flagship show finally put out to pasture
01:24many years after it reached both its narrative and ratings peak.
01:279. The Flash
01:29When the CW's The Flash launched back in 2014, who could have predicted that it would run for a
01:34whole nine seasons and in turn become the longest-running Arrowverse series, beating out even
01:39Arrow itself? Back in March, the CW confirmed that The Flash was wrapping up with a shortened
01:44ninth season, and given that it's the only Arrowverse show left standing, it will also
01:48effectively bring the entire franchise to an end. And it's certainly long past due.
01:53Though The Flash enjoyed strong reviews and ratings during its first few seasons,
01:57things eventually tapered off and in season 7 last year, the ratings finally dipped below
02:021 million viewers for the first time. After three or four seasons, The Flash
02:06settled for being too much of the same, and it became increasingly clear the central cast
02:10members had largely lost their enthusiasm for their roles, beyond a paycheck of course.
02:15For all but the most hardcore fans, audience passion had dried up too.
02:198. The Crown
02:21Though it only premiered back in 2016, it feels like The Crown has been on our screens for a
02:26damn long time, perhaps because its end point has seemed within sight for almost three years now.
02:31In early 2020, creator Peter Morgan stated that the historical drama series would end with its
02:35upcoming fifth season, deeming it the perfect time and place to stop. But a few months later,
02:41Morgan backpedalled and revealed that the show would indeed run for an additional season,
02:45with six seasons having been his original plan when conceiving the show. Season 5, set to premiere
02:49in November, will begin the show's final arc for Queen Elizabeth, now portrayed in the later
02:54decades of her life. Season 6 began filming in August, meaning it likely won't air until late
02:592023 at the earliest, but it's nevertheless reassuring to know that the acclaimed series
03:03has an end point. Despite the sure temptation to drag the show on in an attempt to forensically
03:08detail every major event in Elizabeth's life up to her recent death, it's good to know that
03:12Morgan will be employing a little restraint. 7. Riverdale
03:17It's been something of a running joke that nobody hates Riverdale more than the actors
03:20starring in it, and with the show being renewed for a seventh and final season back in March,
03:24many remarked that the young cast members were finally free from this commitment.
03:28There's little denying that the CW's supernatural drama series started to go
03:32off the rails in its third season, with a glut of increasingly silly storylines,
03:36though fans are sharply divided on whether this was a good thing or not.
03:40To some, it elevated Riverdale into the canon of guilty pleasure schlock,
03:43while some felt it strayed too far from the comparative modesty of its earlier seasons.
03:48In recent years in particular, the Riverdale cast hasn't made much of an effort to disguise
03:51their own half-joking disdain for the series, and given that many of the primary cast members
03:56are gaining momentum outside of the show, their eagerness to move on is understandable.
04:00There will be those who miss Riverdale and its flagrant trashiness,
04:03yet its time to wrap up feels thoroughly overdue.
04:066. Stranger Things
04:08On paper, Stranger Things doesn't feel like it's majorly outstayed its welcome,
04:12but due to both the big-budget nature of its production and the pandemic,
04:16its four seasons to date have been spread over six years.
04:19One of the key problems with the show in recent years has been the passage of time.
04:23The four seasons to date have taken place over just two and a half years,
04:27despite the central cast members having all noticeably aged considerably more
04:30per the series' shooting schedule.
04:32And though Season 5 will reportedly have a time jump of some sort,
04:35it feels like the credibility of these youngsters both being youngsters
04:38and remaining in Hawkins will reach snapping point if it continues on much longer.
04:43Plus, Season 4 so brilliantly set the stage for an epic,
04:45apocalyptic final season that going on any longer would feel like a massive mistake.
04:50At least in that regard, the Duffers appear to have mapped things out and conceived Season 4
04:54and 5 as effectively a two-part finale centred around the villainous Vekna.
04:58Here's to hoping they stick the landing.
05:01Number 5 – Grey's Anatomy
05:03To be clear, no, you haven't missed any sort of official announcement
05:06about Grey's Anatomy finally coming to an end,
05:08but as of its current 19th season,
05:10it's clear that Shonda Rhimes' medical drama series has entered its endgame phase.
05:14Though its ratings have declined substantially since its peak in 2006's Season 3,
05:19where it regularly pulled in over 20 million viewers,
05:22the recent 18th season still averaged more than 4 million viewers per episode.
05:26That longevity is largely credited to one person, star Ellen Pompeo,
05:31who has appeared as protagonist Dr Meredith Grey in almost all of the show's 400 episodes to date.
05:36Pompeo and Rimes have stated numerous times that the show will come to an end when Pompeo is ready,
05:41and given that the upcoming 19th season will see Pompeo only appear physically in 8 episodes,
05:46while still narrating all of them, the writing feels very much on the wall.
05:50Pompeo is reducing her role to work on a new drama series for Hulu,
05:54which will mark her first major non-Meredith acting role since Grey's Anatomy began back in 2005.
06:00Ergo, putting two and two together,
06:02it seems that Grey's Anatomy will likely end within the next few years.
06:064. Community
06:08If you're thinking that Community wrapped up its 6th season run all the way back in 2015,
06:12remember that this wasn't ever the plan of creator Dan Harmon.
06:15Ever since the Season 2 episode Paradigms of Human Memory birthed the line
06:20in a movie, fans have championed the idea of Community lasting long enough to fulfil that prophecy.
06:25And just recently, Peacock announced that the Community movie is indeed finally happening,
06:30with most of the original cast all confirmed to return.
06:33The statuses of Yvette Nicole Brown and the ever-busy Donald Glover are meanwhile currently
06:37unknown, though hopefully they can at least be corralled for a cameo
06:40to decisively tie their character arcs off.
06:43It's safe to say that, in finally delivering 6 seasons and a movie,
06:46this will almost certainly be the final piece of the Community puzzle.
06:50A dew-eyed reunion which hopefully provides fans with the closure they deserve
06:53around 15 years after it first began airing.
06:573. Mock the Week
06:59Mock the Week is an undeniable institution of British TV comedy.
07:03A topical panel show which launched in 2005 and,
07:06offering up a more irreverent riff on Have I Got News For You,
07:09quickly became a major ratings success for the BBC.
07:12Viewership has remained relatively consistent throughout the show's run,
07:15yet this past summer it was revealed that Mock the Week
07:18was finally coming to an end with its current 21st season.
07:21The BBC's official reasoning for the cancellation was to create room for new shows,
07:25yet many industry commentators noted that the decision
07:28reflected a general decline of panel shows over the last few years.
07:31For one, panel shows now have to compete with the immediacy of social media,
07:35which is a losing battle given that they're typically taped a day or two before airing.
07:39Mock the Week's formula also feels rather long in the tooth in 2022,
07:43and with the decline of shock comedy the series was known for during its peak,
07:47with Frankie Boyle many years ago, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
07:51Nothing can ever take away what a cultural monolith Mock the Week was for the British public,
07:56but it's been time to go for quite a while.
07:582. The Handmaid's Tale
08:00The Handmaid's Tale was an undeniable cultural juggernaut during its first two seasons,
08:05at once a massive critical and award success,
08:07and a watercooler show that everybody was talking about.
08:10Yet the series, adapted from Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel,
08:14is also another classic case of a hit TV show that just didn't know when to stop,
08:19as it became clear with each passing season
08:21that the narrative was being artificially elongated past its natural end point.
08:25Since season three, The Handmaid's Tale has frustratingly spun its wheels time and time again,
08:30enough that even Elizabeth Moss's outstanding performance can't entirely prop it up.
08:34And so, there was a sense of relief when Hulu recently announced that the sixth season,
08:38due to air next year, will be its last.
08:41This runs counter to showrunner Bruce Miller's original vision for a ten-season run,
08:45which, given its current trajectory, would surely have been excruciating.
08:49That won't be the absolute last we see of Atwood's universe on the small screen though,
08:52as Miller is already prepping an adaptation of her recent sequel novel, The Testaments.
08:571. The Good Fight
08:59It's incredibly tough to predict how a spin-off series will do.
09:02They can either be Frasier and arguably outperform their source material,
09:06or more commonly they struggle to retain the original fanbase no matter how good they are.
09:10And so, when a spin-off to legal drama series The Good Wife premiered in 2017,
09:15few expected it to get anywhere close to the original series' seven-season run.
09:19But never underestimate the appeal of the great Christine Baranski,
09:22as The Good Fight recently began airing its sixth and final season.
09:26Yet it's not unfair to say that the recent seasons haven't quite
09:29matched the catty brilliance of the earlier ones,
09:31even if it's remained consistently entertainingly absurd.
09:34Six seasons is an incredibly respectable run for a spin-off
09:38that could so easily have fallen off a cliff after a year or two.
09:41Whilst many could watch Baranski play Diane Lockhart forever,
09:44best to close things off before there's a more noticeable decline in quality.
09:49And that's the list.
09:50Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below.
09:53Which of these shows are you going to miss the most when it finally does end?
09:56And let us know of any other shows that are currently ramping down.
10:00Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends,
10:02subscribe and hit that notification bell.
10:05I've been Sy for WhatCulture, and have a good week.