I don't remember the finale of My So Called Life involving time travel or showing what happened to the characters. As I remember it, it was unresolved because the hope was that it would be picked up for a 2nd season which it wasn't.
The finale as I remember it is Angela (Claire Danes) getting into Jordan's (Jared Leto) car and they drive off, implying that their relationship will work better this go round, but it left several other storylines unresolved.
'Felicity' used time travel to wrap things up by solving the question of 'what if she chose...' which was a weird way to end a reality based series. The point was could you imagine a show like 'Everwood' or 'My So Called Life' using such a contrivance to end?
Maybe it was just because of the makeup and the character she was playing, but she didn't look too good last week when she guest starred on Without A Trace.
I just want to mention that I LOVE the X-Files finale. Not so much because Mulder & Scully finally get together after the short reunion in season 8 - nice, sure, but mainly because I think it is really well done. A lot of important characters, a great atmosphere and the fact that Mulder is feeling the dead speaking to him - a wonderful continuation from the "Sein & Zeit"/ "Closure" two-parter where he saw his dead mother and sister (among others).
Actually, it didn't really even finish season 1. ABC asked for 6 more scripts to be written (which they were) and then never had them produced. The show was kind of left with 19 episode... then ABC decided not to even pick it up for season 2.
As for Felicity, I liked the way they ended the show. It would have seemed out of place had she actually climbed into a time machine, but the fact is that the show started losing the touch of reality around the end of season 2. By then it was reaching for stories...
Season 1 was really the only season that was grounded in reality, and even most of that was a little too far-fetched.
My So-Called Life is one of the few shows that was able to show teen life in the way it really is/was for most people. I've yet to see a single show come so close.
Are we talking about the same episode, with the "trial"? Carter tried to show how all the events of the series made sense together, but it just didn't work. Mulder and Scully getting back together was probably the best part.
I would say that My So-Called Life never got a finale, it just got cancelled, like most shows.
Yes, but I mentioned it because the discussion was based on whether or not the character of Frasier would even go back to Cheers or if he had gotten too snobby for it.
I think one of the best finale for a sitcom was Newhart and I wasn't even a fan of the series. Pure comedic genious in tying up his older series with the new one.
One of my favorites is the Family Ties finale which I found it to be sad and poignant. That show is very dear to me and is a shame that a season DVD set has not been produced yet.
Actually, although My So-Called Life didn't have an actually series finale(Which I don't understand because it was such a great and well written show) The series did end with much of it resolved.
Throughout the episode we are revealed that Angela's mother had a "JORDAN" when she was in high school and she chose him and all that, but her relationship ended and she chose a more "BRIAN" character. Some may interprit it as like she is with Jordan now, but she'll end up with Brian or someone like Brian. Not a bad series finale, it was actually one of my favories.
Thiinking about it, I always liked the way the original run of Doctor Who ended. At the end of the story 'Survival', the Doctor and Ace walk away, and the Doctor delivers this great speech that really just summarised the entire show.
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
Actually, if I remember reading correctly (I forgot where, though), the last messages put up at the end of the final episode of Quantum Leap were placed written and placed there by NBC; Bellisario and his crew had nothing to do with that, they had left it open-ended for the next season.
As for quality, it all depends on one's viewpoint. Everyone has different tastes. They weren't perfect, but I enjoyed the final episodes of The X Files and Seinfeld.
Benson: that would be Lieutenant Governor Benson running for Governor as the official party candidate, and the Governor running as an independent (loophole he used to get around term-limit), and it ends on election night while they're sitting in the kitchen together to find out how it went?
Not sure how it would be resolved satisfactorily, in the sense that if the series is to end, leaving it open seems one way to do it: no doubt if you continued the show you could answer the question as to who won and continue from there, but to literally end the show with a winner and a loser, and nothing more, seems a bit of a downer?
Loved the series finale of Quantum Leap. Sam's interactions wth the bartender were just wonderful, especially the bartender's tearful, "God bless, Sam", when Sam realized what he had to do. I still get a bit emotional when I think about that exchange. That was a consistently great series.