On Series Finales

And my approach to watching them.

Those of you who know me, and some of you who don’t but have been reading my television reviews for a long time probably know this about me, but in case you don’t: I hate series finales. I mean, I love them, they’re often my favorite episodes of a show, but they’re so SAD. Even the happiest series finale is still a goodbye, and goodbyes hurt so much. So, more often than I’d care to admit, when a show I love is about to end for good, assuming I’m not being paid to review it, I sometimes just...don’t watch the ending. It’s never over if I never finish it. I’ll always have new episodes to watch, theoretically, if I never watch the last episode or two. It’s avoiding hard feelings to the nth degree. And if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s avoiding feeling the hard feelings. And avoiding media that I know for a fact will make me cry.

So when it came time to watch the final two episodes of Hacks, a show I love very much, I found that I just...couldn’t. I’ve cried watching the series finale of a show I had NEVER SEEN A SINGLE OTHER EPISODE OF before, what would saying goodbye to my favorite dysfunctional platonic soulmates Deborah and Ava do to me!! So I put it off. For days at first. Then weeks. The episodes were there taunting me at the top of my Showly “to watch” list every time I opened the app, but I just couldn’t. Why would I willingly put my hand on the stove!

Today was exactly two months since the finale and I knew I couldn’t keep putting it off. If I waited much longer we’d have a Good Place situation on our hands; I waited so long to watch that finale that by the time I was ready I had to (well, got to) rewatch the entire series. Plus, I’ve been crying on and off all week about an internet personality I’ve never met putting down her dog I’ll never meet so what better time than now when I’m already weepy to watch a series finale. (Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about it generally and talk about my feelings but I will not give away any specific plot spoilers in case you haven’t watched the show—or just the finale!—yet but plan to someday.)

I thought maybe, just maybe, since this show is so silly and ridiculous most of the time that they would save the emotional gut punching for the last scene or two. But no. This show decided to make the entire final episode 46 minutes of FEELINGS. I think I cried for like 42 of those minutes. It was insane.

But the show was just so well-crafted, top to bottom. There were so many call-backs to the first season in the last, so many full-circle moments. You could see how far the characters have come, and how they learned from each other. I know this from the post-episode interview I watched because I was too busy crying to close out of HBO Max, but also I could tell from the writing that they planned the arc of this show from the start. They knew exactly how this show was going to end, and they were given the right amount of time to get there. Too often shows just disappear between seasons, and we’ll never know how they were intended to end. (I’ll never, ever get over the “series finale” of Legends of Tomorrow, which felt more like a mid-season finale than even a season finale, let alone the last episode of the series.) Or, sometimes worse, they reach their natural conclusion, as far as the writers planned, and have a beautiful season finale that serves as a series finale...then get picked up for more seasons. The network puts them in a cannon and shoots them right out over that shark. And you have to watch a show you love devolve into something confusing and inscrutable and so different from what you signed up for. OR you THINK they know where they’re going and are trying to enjoy the ride knowing it will all come together someday only to discover a never-even-hinted-at British twin out of nowhere and it’s clear they had no idea what they were doing all along, or at the very least lost the plot a long time ago.

All this to say, Hacks is a masterclass in show writing. It was funny and smart and heartfelt and devastating and silly and fun. It began and ended exactly as it should have. And I’m sorry for putting off that beautiful finale for so long.

I would say I’ve learned my lesson, but I respect you too much to lie to you.

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