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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,
00:07but 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.
00:2810. 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 it will finally air
00:40its last ever episode on November 20th. Even though many have dubbed the last few seasons a fair return
00:45to form, The Walking Dead is a show that clearly just kept going far beyond its actual creative
00:50threshold because the ratings remained relatively high. But when protagonist Rick Grimes departed
00:55the show midway through 2018 season 9, the ratings entered a seemingly irreversible death spiral,
01:01with a recent episode garnering an all-time low of just 1.55 million viewers compared to its all-time
01:07high of 17.29 million for the season 5 premiere. Though AMC already has numerous spinoff projects
01:14in the works, one centered around Daryl and Carol, another around Rick and Michonne, and one focused on
01:18Maggie and Negan, it'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.
01:28Number 9, The Flash. When The CW's The Flash launched back in 2014, who could have predicted
01:33that it would run for a whole nine seasons and in turn become the longest running Arrowverse series,
01:38beating out even Arrow itself. Back in March, The CW confirmed that The Flash was wrapping up with a
01:44shortened ninth 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. Though The Flash
01:54enjoyed strong reviews and ratings during its first few seasons, things eventually tapered off,
01:58and in season 7 last year, the 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, and it became increasingly
02:09clear the central cast members had largely lost their enthusiasm for their roles, beyond a paycheck of
02:14course. For all but the most hardcore fans, audience passion had dried up too.
02:19Number 8, The Crown. Though it only premiered back in 2016, it feels like The Crown has been on our
02:25screens for a damn long time, perhaps because its end point has seemed within sight for almost three
02:30years now. In 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 backpedaled 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
02:50in November, will begin the show's final arc for Queen Elizabeth now portrayed in the later decades of
02:54her life. Season 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. Despite the
03:05short temptation to drag the show on in an attempt to forensically detail every major event in
03:09Elizabeth's life up to her recent death, it's good to know that Morgan will be employing a little
03:14restraint. Number 7, Riverdale. It's been something of a running joke that nobody hates Riverdale more
03:20than the actors starring in it, and with the show being renewed for a seventh and final season back
03:24in March, many 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 third
03:33season, with a glut of increasingly silly storylines, though fans are sharply divided on whether this was a good
03:39thing or not. To some, it elevated Riverdale into the canon of guilty pleasure schlock, while some
03:44felt it stray too far from the comparative modesty of its earlier seasons. In recent years in particular,
03:49the Riverdale cast hasn't made much of an effort to disguise their own half-joking disdain for the
03:53series, and given that many of the primary cast members are gaining momentum outside of the show,
03:58their eagerness to move on is understandable. There will be those who miss Riverdale and its flagrant
04:02trashiness, yet its time to wrap up feels thoroughly overdue. Number 6, Stranger Things.
04:08On paper, Stranger Things doesn't feel like it's majorly outstayed its welcome, but due to both
04:13the big budget nature of its production and the pandemic, its four seasons to date have been
04:18spread over six years. One of the key problems with the show in recent years has been the passage
04:22of time. The four seasons to date have taken place over just two and a half years, despite the central
04:28cast members having all noticeably aged considerably more per the series' shooting schedule. And though
04:32season five will reportedly have a time jump of some sort, it feels like the credibility of these
04:37youngsters both being youngsters and remaining in Hawkins will reach snapping point if it continues
04:42on much longer. Plus, season four so brilliantly set the stage for an epic apocalyptic final season
04:47that going on any longer would feel like a massive mistake. At least in that regard, the Duffers appear
04:52to have mapped things out and conceived season four and five as effectively a two-part finale centred
04:57around the villainous Vecna. Here's to hoping they stick the landing. Number 5, Grey's Anatomy.
05:03To be clear, no, you haven't missed any sort of official announcement about Grey's Anatomy finally
05:08coming to an end, but as of its current 19th season, it's clear that Shonda Rhimes' medical drama
05:12series has entered its endgame phase. Though its ratings have declined substantially since its peak
05:17in 2006's season three, where it regularly pulled in over 20 million viewers, the recent 18th season
05:24still averaged more than four million viewers per episode. That longevity is largely credited to one
05:29person, star Ellen Pompeo, who has appeared as protagonist Dr Meredith Grey in almost all of
05:34the show's 400 episodes to date. Pompeo and Rhimes have stated numerous times that the show will come
05:39to an end when Pompeo is ready, and given that the upcoming 19th season will see Pompeo only appear
05:44physically in eight episodes. While 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, which will mark her first major
05:55non-Meredith acting role since Grey's Anatomy began back in 2005. Ergo, putting two and two
06:01together, it 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 sixth season run all the way back in 2015,
06:12remember that this wasn't ever the plan of creator Dan Harmon. Ever since the season two episode
06:17Paradigms of Human Memory birthed the line six seasons in a movie, fans have championed the idea
06:22of 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
06:42character arcs off. It's safe to say that in finally delivering six seasons and a movie,
06:46this will almost certainly be the final piece of the Community puzzle. A dew-eyed reunion which
06:51hopefully provides fans with the closure they deserve around 15 years after it first began airing.
06:573. Mock the Week
06:59Mock the Week is an undeniable institution of British TV comedy, a topical panel show which
07:04launched in 2005 and, offering up a more irreverent riff on Have I Got News For You,
07:09quickly became a major rating success for the BBC. Viewership has remained relatively consistent
07:14throughout the show's run, yet this past summer it was revealed that Mock the Week was finally
07:18coming to an end with its current 21st season. The BBC's official reasoning for the cancellation was
07:24to create room for new shows, yet many industry commentators noted that the decision reflected
07:28a general decline of panel shows over the last few years. For one, panel shows now have to compete with
07:33the immediacy of social media, which is a losing battle given that they're typically taped a day or
07:38two before airing. Mock the Week's formula also feels rather long in the tooth in 2022, and with
07:44the decline of shock comedy the series was known for during its peak with Frankie Boyle many years ago,
07:49the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Nothing can ever take away what a cultural
07:53monolith Mock the Week was for the British public, but it's been time to go for quite a while.
07:582. The Handmaid's Tale
08:01The Handmaid's Tale was an undeniable cultural juggernaut during its first two seasons, at once a
08:05massive critical and award success, and a watercaller show that everybody was talking about.
08:11Yet the series, adapted from Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel, is also another classic
08:16case of a hit tv show that just didn't know when to stop, as it became clear with each passing season
08:21that the narrative was being artificially elongated past its natural end point. Since season 3,
08:26The Handmaid's Tale has frustratingly spun its wheels time and time again, enough that even
08:31Elizabeth Moss's outstanding performance can't entirely prop it up. And so there was a sense of
08:36relief when Hulu recently announced that the sixth season, due to air next year, will be its last.
08:41This runs counter to showrunner Bruce Miller's original vision for a 10 season run, which given
08:46its current trajectory would surely have been excruciating. That won't be the absolute last we see of
08:51Atwood's universe on the small screen though, as Miller is already prepping an adaptation of her recent
08:55sequel novel, The Testament. Number one, The Good Fight. It's incredibly tough to predict how a spin-off
09:02series 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, few expected it
09:16to get anywhere close to the original series 7 season run. But never underestimate the appeal of the
09:21great Christine Baranski, as 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 matched the catty brilliance of the
09:31earlier ones, even if it's remained consistently entertainingly absurd. Six seasons is an incredibly
09:36respectable run for a spin-off that could so easily have fallen off of a cliff after a year or two.
09:41Whilst many could watch Baranski play Diane Lockhart forever, best to close things off before there's a
09:46more noticeable decline in quality. And that's the list. Let us know what you thought of this video
09:52down in the comments below. Which of these shows are you going to miss the most when it finally does
09:56end? And let us know of any other shows that are currently ramping down. Make sure you like this
10:01video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that notification bell. I've been Cy for WhatCulture,
10:06and have a good week.
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