One of the small but irritating disappointments of life is when a show that’s had a solid run fails to stick the landing of a finale. The ur-example of this is the universally detested Game of Thrones finale, which owes at least as much to George R.R. Martin’s legendary procrastination as it does the choices made by the showrunners, but other examples abound: Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Lost, Gilmore Girls, How I Met Your Mother, The X-Files, Gossip Girl, and scores of other long-running, once-beloved shows ended in a fashion that struck many as off-key, untrue to the heart of the show, or just plain unsatisfying, and the proportion of dissatisfaction with the ending seems directly related to how popular the show was at its peak.
40 in 40: Luis Castillo guards the castle
