Three Australian outlets—Brisbane Times, The Age, and the Sydney Morning Herald—publish a similar feature that ranks television series finales from worst to best. All three articles frame the exercise around the challenge of ending long-running, widely loved shows, presenting a list that moves from poorly received finales to those judged more successful. Each piece also signals that the ranking’s top position is not occupied by “Breaking Bad,” explicitly stating “Breaking Bad isn’t No.1.” While the outlets share the same premise and framing, they also reflect the subjective nature of such rankings: placements depend on critics’ evaluations of how well each finale resolves storylines, delivers character conclusions, and lands with audiences.
Across the three articles, the common focus is on “iconic series” and their concluding episodes, described as getting key elements either “right” or “very wrong.” The pieces do not present a single objective measure for quality, but instead offer a comparative critical perspective on how different shows finish.
