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.
00:03Race to the end and you can wind up with a very clearly rushed catastrophe,
00:06but 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 favorite 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 indeed.
00:23I'm Cy for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 TV shows that are finally ending.
00:27Number 10, The Walking Dead.
00:29It's often repeated among The Walking Dead's long-suffering fans that the show itself
00:33has become a shambling zombie that simply refuses to die,
00:37but after 11 seasons it 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 creative threshold
00:50because the ratings remained relatively high.
00:53But when protagonist Rick Grimes departed the show midway through 2018 season 9,
00:58the ratings entered a seemingly irreversible death spiral,
01:01with a recent episode garnering an all-time low of just 1.55 million viewers,
01:05compared to its all-time high of 17.29 million for the season 5 premiere.
01:11Though AMC already has numerous spin-off projects in the works,
01:14one centered around Daryl and Carol, another around Rick and Michonne,
01:17and one focused on Maggie and Negan,
01:19it'll 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,
01:32who could have predicted that it would run for a whole nine seasons,
01:35and in turn become the longest-running Arrowverse series, beating out even Arrow itself?
01:40Back in March, The CW confirmed that The Flash was wrapping up with a shortened ninth season,
01:45and given that it's the only Arrowverse show left standing,
01:48it will also effectively bring the entire franchise to an end.
01:51And 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,
02:00the ratings finally dipped below 1 million viewers for the first time.
02:04After three or four seasons, The Flash settled for being too much of the same,
02:08and it became increasingly clear the central cast members had largely lost their enthusiasm for
02:12their 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.
02:39But a few months later, Morgan backpedaled and revealed that the show would indeed run for an
02:44additional season, with six seasons having been his original plan when conceiving the show.
02:48Season 5, set to premiere in November, will begin the show's final arc for Queen Elizabeth,
02:52now portrayed in the later decades of her life.
02:55Season 6 began filming in August, meaning it likely won't air until late 2023 at the earliest,
03:00but it's nevertheless reassuring to know that the acclaimed series has an end point.
03:04Despite the sure temptation to drag the show on in an attempt to forensically detail every major
03:09event in Elizabeth's life up to her recent death, it's good to know that Morgan will be employing a
03:14little restraint. 7. Riverdale
03:17It's been something of a running joke that nobody hates Riverdale more than the actors starring in
03:21it, 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 off the rails in its
03:33third season, with a glut of increasingly silly storylines, though fans are sharply divided on
03:38whether this was a good thing or not. To some, it elevated Riverdale into the canon of guilty
03:42pleasure schlock, while some felt it stray too far from the comparative modesty of its earlier seasons.
03:47In recent years in particular, the Riverdale cast hasn't made much of an effort to disguise their
03:52own half-joking disdain for the series, and given that many of the primary cast members are gaining
03:56momentum outside of the show, their eagerness to move on is understandable. There will be those who miss
04:01Riverdale and its flagrant trashiness, yet 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, its four seasons
04:17to date have been spread over six years. One of the key problems with the show in recent years
04:21has been the passage of time. The 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 per the series
04:31shooting schedule. And though season five will reportedly have a time jump of some sort,
04:35it feels like the credibility of these youngsters both being youngsters and remaining in Hawkins will
04:40reach snapping points if it continues on much longer. Plus, season four so brilliantly set the
04:44stage for an epic apocalyptic 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 four and five as
04:55effectively a two-part finale centered around the villainous Vecna. Here's to hoping they stick the
05:00landing. Number five, Grey's Anatomy. To be clear, no, you haven't missed any sort of official
05:06announcement about Grey's Anatomy finally coming to an end, but as of its current 19th season,
05:10it's clear that Shonda Rhimes' medical drama series has entered its endgame phase. Though its ratings
05:15have declined substantially since its peak in 2006's season three, where it regularly pulled in over 20
05:21million viewers, the recent 18th season still averaged more than four million viewers per episode.
05:26That longevity is largely credited to one person, star Ellen Pompeo, who has appeared as protagonist
05:32Dr. Meredith Grey in almost all of the show's 400 episodes to date. Pompeo and Rhimes have stated
05:38numerous times that the show will come to an end when Pompeo is ready, and given that the upcoming 19th
05:43season will see Pompeo only appear physically in eight episodes, while still narrating all of them,
05:48the writing feels very much on the wall. Pompeo is reducing her role to work on a new drama series
05:53for Hulu, which will mark her first major non-Meredith acting role since Grey's Anatomy began
05:58back in 2005. Ergo, putting two and two together, it seems that Grey's Anatomy will likely end within
06:04the next few years. Number four, Community. If you're thinking that Community wrapped up its sixth season run
06:10all the way back in 2015, remember that this wasn't ever the plan of creator Dan Harmon. Ever since the season
06:16two episode Paradigms of Human Memory birthed the line six seasons in a movie, fans have championed the
06:21idea of Community lasting long enough to fulfill that prophecy. And just recently, Peacock announced
06:27that the Community movie is indeed finally happening, with most of the original cast all confirmed to
06:32return. The 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 to decisively tie their character arcs off.
06:43It's safe to say that in finally delivering six seasons and a movie, this will almost certainly be
06:47the final piece of the Community puzzle, a dew-eyed reunion which hopefully provides fans with the
06:52closure they deserve around 15 years after it first began airing. Number three, Mock the Week. Mock the
06:59Week is an undeniable institution of British TV comedy, a topical panel show which launched in 2005 and
07:06offering up a more irreverent riff on Have I Got News For You, quickly became a major rating success for the BBC.
07:12Viewership has remained relatively consistent throughout the show's run, yet this past summer
07:16it was revealed that Mock the Week was 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, yet many industry
07:26commentators noted that the decision reflected a general decline of panel shows over the last few
07:31years. For one, panel shows now have to compete with the immediacy of social media, which is a losing
07:36battle given that they're typically taped a day or two before airing. Mock the Week's formula also feels
07:41rather long in the tooth in 2022, and with the decline of shock comedy the series was known for
07:46during its peak with 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. Number two, The Handmaid's Tale. The Handmaid's Tale
08:01was an undeniable cultural juggernaut during its first two seasons, at once a massive critical and
08:06award success, and a water cooler show that everybody was talking about. Yet the series,
08:11adapted from Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel, is also another classic case of a hit
08:16TV show that just didn't know when to stop, as it became clear with each passing season that the
08:21narrative was being artificially elongated past its natural end point. Since season three,
08:26The Handmaid's Tale has frustratingly spun its wheels time and time again, enough that even
08:31Elizabeth Moss' outstanding performance can't entirely prop it up. And so there was a sense of relief when
08:36Hulu recently announced that the sixth season, due to air next year, will be its last. This runs
08:41counter to showrunner Bruce Miller's original vision for a ten season run, which given its current
08:46trajectory would surely have been excruciating. That won't be the absolute last we see of Atwood's
08:51universe on the small screen though, as Miller is already prepping an adaptation of her recent
08:55sequel novel, The Testaments. Number one, The Good Fight. It's incredibly tough to predict how a spin-off
09:01series will do. They 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. But never
09:20underestimate the appeal of the great Christine Baranski, as The Good Fight recently began airing
09:24its sixth and final season. Yet it's not unfair to say that the recent seasons haven't quite matched the
09:30catty brilliance of the earlier ones, even if it's remained consistently entertainingly absurd.
09:34Six Seasons is an incredibly respectable run for a spin-off that could so easily have fallen off of
09:39a cliff after a year or two. Whilst 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. Let 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, subscribe and hit that notification bell.
10:05I've been Cy for WhatCulture, and have a good week.