THE conclusion of Line of Duty saw viewers completely fooled by a plausible twist, so they’ve decided it must be bad. But these endings were worse:
Game of Thrones
Obvious but true. Daenerys’s heel turn was reasonably well-foreshadowed, but a show that prided itself on murdering protagonists letting Jon Snow live? Giving Bran the Wilfully Random the Iron Throne? Making Tyrion his Hand despite his last two positions as Hand refusing to give him a reference? Balls.
Sherlock
The only explanation for the final episode of Sherlock is that the creators were sick of constant pressure to make more and decided to kill that desire once and for all. Which their Crystal Maze of murder absolutely did. Sherlock has never been mentioned again and the stars are now safely in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has editors.
The Undoing
Another occasion where viewers who’d spent weeks concocting wilder and wilder theories were let down by a realistic, believable conclusion. Instead Nicole Kidman should’ve been behind the whole thing using a combination of hypnosis, puppetry and glass-screen projection.
Star Wars
The ending of the original trilogy wasn’t bad. The ending of the prequels, well, at least they were over. But this latest ending? The Emperor’s granddaughter declares herself an adopted Skywalker and flies off to what, run Jedi Knight Story Hour at the Galactic Library?
The Gulf War
Millions were glued to this cinema verite classic back in 1991, which centred around allied forces retaking Kuwait and had an on-screen budget of billions. But the ending after a mere 100 hours of ground war came out of nowhere, offered no closure and has a 34 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The sequel/reboot in 2003 was even worse.
EastEnders
36 years weaving a story around a London square, and it just ends abruptly with Sharon taking over the Queen Vic, leaving all the other storylines dangling? Yes, there was a pleasing circularity to it, but what about the thing with Denny and the party boat? What about Phil? It was barely an ending at all. What do you mean, it’s back on?
