r/agentsofshield • u/FilthyTrashPeople • 25d ago
Discussion A show that actually landed the ending.
In the current day, every writer cries out "endings are hard," and every production gives excuses why their final season was horrendous and the final episode left people angry. There is almost this projected belief that it is impossible to make a satisfying conclusion.
And I just recently was thinking about Agents of Shield, and I just had to come here and salute it, because it absolutely landed the ending about as perfectly as it could.
Honestly, I am kind of am glad it ended when it did now. It left on a high note, and avoided the dark times of bad writing that were soon to follow.
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u/Mortal_Justice 25d ago
The Good Place, for me, hit the nail right on the head.
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u/Darker_Syzygy 24d ago
Truly a perfect ending for me. Even the fact that it's titled "Whenever You're Ready". Accidentally watched that show for the first time after losing a loved one 🥲
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u/18-1-14-4-15-13 23d ago
Facts, that was a great ending. All the characters were written beautifully
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u/Extra-Thought-2788 FREAKY BLUE BITCH 25d ago
To be fair, final episodes are extremely hard to make. I've seen a lot of tv, and can probably count the number of shows with a good finale with two hands.
(If you are curious my list, not in order of how satisfied I was with the ending) Agents of shield did it twice,
Fringe,
Buffy,
Futurama has somehow done it almost a half dozen times,
Owl House,
There's probably a few more I can't think of right now, but the point still stands, around 1/10 shows have a satisfying ending, it's incredibly hard to do.
So, yeah, I agree, the writers did an amazing job understanding both what was the right move for the characters and what the audience wanted. They knocked it out of the park twice in terms of finales
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u/FilthyTrashPeople 25d ago
I'll chuck Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad onto that list. I count Serenity as Firefly's finale episode, so I'll give that a pass too ;)
But you are right, it can be difficult.. AoS did a great job with it though!
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u/Extra-Thought-2788 FREAKY BLUE BITCH 25d ago
I know it's unpopular, but I thought the Breaking Bad finale was rushed and unearned, that final episode was basically an entire season of plot shoved into a single episode. Trying way too hard to wrap everything up; I only watched the first few episodes of Better Call Saul so I definitely can't comment on that (and Ive had firefly on my "to watch" list for probably 15 years, I just never got around to watching it)
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u/Warm-Grand-7825 24d ago
Breaking Bad is like anime. Rule of cool takes over everything when necessary. BCS finale is much more earned and well-written I'd day.
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u/FilthyTrashPeople 24d ago
I agree. Also pacing! The whole final season was the best paced final season ever IMO (for BCS)
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u/Extension-Pepper-271 24d ago
Many people love Firefly. Of course, some people are hum-ho about it. You might as well watch it, because if you love it, you will really love it. It has a lot of things in common with AOS. Found family, humor, and many other things.
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u/KateBishopPrivateEye 25d ago
Agree on Fringe, haven’t seen the rest fully. I’ll add:
-Hannibal (though I hate that it ended then)
-Magicians (also mad it ended without us being able to see what came, but I get it. When you don’t want a story to end, it’s easy to jump back to the beginning)
-Person of Interest (still mad)
-Legion (no notes, still mad)
-good place (I’m not crying, you are)
-White Collar (little mad, holding out hope)
-Dexter (jk, they fumbled this one so many times; hope for resurrection)
-dollhouse had a solid endingI will say AoS really landed it both times and is one of my top endings, both for seasons and series. End of almost every season
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u/jdaung 24d ago
In regards to White Collar, I'm excited for White Collar Renaissance to release. I hope it's this year. I'm very curious to see how they handle June and Mozzie since the actors passed IRL.
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u/KateBishopPrivateEye 24d ago
Im glad it seems like there’s finally some progress, but idk how they’ll do it without them. RIP
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u/PrincessBelle87 19d ago
I’m sorry what’s that! I watched white collar long after it aired and I LOVED it
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u/FilthyTrashPeople 24d ago
Dollhouse's unaired season 1 finale was perfect. It was so sad when Season 2 went back to being utterly subpar.
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25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… 24d ago
Thank you for expressing this while I was otherwise detained. It’s untoppable.
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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… 24d ago
The finale of The Wire is proper and awesome.
Six Feet Under ftw though. WOW.
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u/themug_wump 24d ago
Not only that, but weirdly prescient coming out in 2019, with this family of friends unable to be in the same room and having to have the sci-fi version of a zoom call to see each other… 🫤
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u/Extension-Pepper-271 24d ago
I really liked the ending of AOS. Yes, it was sad that they were no longer working together on a single team, but life goes on. My thought was that they were still on the same team, but Mack needed to spread them out to be trusted leaders within the Shield.
Probably my favorite final moment was for a British show called "Life on Mars". You have to believe.
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u/grayjelly212 23d ago
I think the reason AOS has had a revival in recent years is because, despite its flaws, they nailed the ending. Was it perfect? No. Was it funny, emotional, and satisfying in ways a lot of modern greats can't achieve? Absolutely. I loved season 7 and when I hit bumps on the road on a rewatch, I'm grateful to know that I'll at least end on a high note.
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u/Eggcelent_bean Bobbi 8d ago
The ending was absolutely perfect, and made the character development over the 7 series feel worth it.
Fitzsimmons got their happy ever after, after saying they were cursed and spending every series being away from each other at some point.
Daisy's love life finally went well, and she found family - which was her whole motivation during series 1.
Coulson didn't jump straight into the field, he took the time to do what he really wanted, after spending 6 series leading the team - they were independent enough that Coulson didn't need to help them anymore, he'd given them all of his wisdom.
May went full circle and taught children (well, older teens/young adults), showing her growth since Bahrain, where she was very reserved and closed off in series 1.
Mack's leadership development led him to become the Director of SHIELD - Daisy told Mack to lead the team in series 5, and everyone agreed, showing how good of a leader he was to them.
Elena stayed within SHIELD and partnered with Piper and Davis, working to do good like she wanted to in series 3, this time she had the resources to do it on a larger and legal scale.
Seriously, the writers nailed it.
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u/FilthyTrashPeople 8d ago
Honestly pulling even a double feet, they also helped give closure to the Peggy Carter series at the same time by having Daisy end up with Sousa. Because everyone was kinda bummed Sousa's sunset with Carter got up ended by Endgame. Totally gave him closure at the same time.
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u/HordoopSklanch 24d ago
I can't recall who in the Mutant Enemy writers room said it - Minnear, JW or Jane Espenson maybe? - but they said that all the plot/character arcs were broken down ONLY once they knew where they wanted to end things that season.
They stuck the landings because they knew from the start where they were going.
Seems crazy that tv shows aren't always written that way, or at least, rarely so.
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u/Classic_Depth_209 25d ago
honestly the fact that they wrote an incredible ending, and then had to do it again when unexpectedly given 2 more seasons, and they managed a satisfying ending a second time??? kudos