Poll: Did SEAL Team, NCIS, Lucifer, STAR, The Blacklist, or another show deliver best finale?
It was hard for us to really narrow things down, but within this piece, we’ve compiled ten of our personal favorite finales from these past few months. (In describing them, we’ve tried to make it as spoiler-free as possible; there are minor teases from some of these shows, but that’s about it.) At the bottom of this article, we’ve got a poll for you to vote for your favorites! This poll is going to be open until Saturday, June 1 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern — be sure to vote as often as you’d like until then. (If you’re having trouble voting, technical info can be found at the bottom of the page.)
Arrow – Was it sad? Absolutely, and we firmly expected it to be given the departure of Emily Bett Rickards. Yet, getting hope for Oliver and Felicity’s future, at least at some point in the timeline, was certainly a reason for a smile, and this finale set the stage for Crisis on Infinite Earths better than any other Arrowverse show.
The Blacklist – It’s certainly a frontrunner up there for the craziest finale of the season, given what we saw with the injection in the closing seconds — let alone the arrival of a mysterious character known only as “The Stranger.” Once again, the mythology of the show is blown open and we’re left to pontificate the future.
The Good Doctor – It may have ended a little earlier this spring, but we still remember it thanks to knockout performances from Freddie Highmore and Richard Schiff, plus also a breakthrough for Shaun both personally and professionally. They gave us a lot to ponder over looking ahead to season 3.
Gotham – It was the last-ever episode and while we certainly want more, we’re glad that there was an opportunity to close the door on the series with Batman. With that, Gotham has delivered its most exciting Batman adaptation we’ve seen in some time, one that felt tonally right as a representation of the source material.
Hawaii Five-0 – This was everything that a Five-0 finale should be — there were moments of humor, sure, but also a high-stakes mission over powerful cyber-weapons, a big-name guest star, and one of the show’s biggest cliffhangers in quite a long time.
Lucifer – The Tom Ellis series is the only show we’re mentioning here that isn’t from a broadcast network, but it’s impossible to ignore given everything that transpired — think in terms of a powerful confession of love to a character making a hellish decision that could shape the show’s future.
NCIS – THOSE FINAL SECONDS. We don’t know what else there is to say, though we also gotta credit Mark Harmon and Joe Spano for some fantastic performances as their storyline explored everything from family to vigilante justice and the right and wrong way to solve problems.
The Orville – While there may not be much of a cliffhanger here, we do think that this finale, anchored in part by Adrianne Palicki playing a slightly altered version of Kelly, showcased extremely well the series’ broad imagination and capacity for risk-taking.
SEAL Team – If you want a story that proved to be both incredibly intense and deeply personal at the same time, SEAL Team brought it — heck, we’d argue that this was one of most-improved seasons of any show out there. The finale just helped to bring it home by focusing on the characters as opposed to just cultivating a cliffhanger that didn’t make sense.
STAR – Here’s an example of a cliffhanger that did make sense — it’s within this series’ DNA to end the story as big and crazy as possible. The only problem here is that there isn’t going to be a season 4, at least on Fox, on the other side. We can’t blame the writers for this, since we personally expected a renewal and we’re sure they did as well.
Photo: NBC