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Earlier this week, the beloved HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm left our screens after 25 years and 12 seasons, delivering a finale that tapped perfectly into the long-running discourse on TV finales.
As the man responsible for writing the Seinfeld finale, one of the most criticised TV endings of all time, Larry David, Curb’s creator, knows the pitfalls of dropping the ball better than anyone. But rather than worrying about sticking the landing, David stuck to his guns, turning Curb’s farewell into a redo of the Seinfeld court case, except this time, it worked.
Larry David’s ability to nod and wink at his previous mishap while simultaneously going out on a high is remarkable. What makes his achievement even more impressive is how hard it is to wrap up an iconic TV series.
This week on The Drop, the weekly culture podcast from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, we discuss the mechanics of what makes a good (or bad, or boring) TV final and revisit some of the best and worst of all time to unpack what they had in common.
Along the way, it becomes clear there is no real formula for ending a show in a way that is guaranteed to satisfy both the creator and the audience, but there are some hard and fast dos and don’ts that are worth remembering.
Do: Offer some closure.
The very nature of a finale means there are often loose ends that require tying up, and offering some closure can be a good thing, provided it makes sense. Last year’s Succession finale was widely viewed as a flawless end to a near-perfect series. Given the entire show hinged on who would succeed Logan, the finale delivered an outcome that made sense to the series yet never seemed obvious. A king was crowned, but no one really “won.”