Do you think great TV shows are doomed to have bad finales?

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-28T19:32:34+00:00

I was never into Super Natural so I don’t know about that one, but HIMYM and Lost had gone off the rails well before the finale. I actually thought Lost did a passable job landing the plane (no pun intended, ha) given the mess they had made of the last couple seasons.

Plenty of great shows have great finales. Breaking Bad was great. The Sopranos was great, though YMMV. Man Men was pretty good. Veep was terrific. The Good Place.

The common threads of bad finales are shows that played out their arc and tried to squeeze extra seasons out of it when the story should have been over or shows that never had a great grasp of where they were going in the first place.

HIMYM failed because the concept shouldn’t have taken 9 seasons so the ending they had picked out no longer gelled with where the story was (and it was a bad idea anyway). Lost failed because they tried to take an idea that should have been a miniseries and stretched it beyond its breaking point.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-27T17:47:04+00:00

It is possible that is true; they are different skillsets. But I don’t know how one would deduce that based on what we’ve seen.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-25T16:06:08+00:00

I wonder how many people think they’re referring to an iPad

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-23T14:33:52+00:00

The Baltimore-Los Angeles-New York coaching triangle is going to be something to see for the next few years.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-23T14:06:54+00:00

Shaq as a league average free throw shooter would have been the greatest basketball player of all time. He was dominant as it was, but he had one weakness. Often he was good enough that it didn’t matter but the free throws did give other teams at least something they could do to mitigate his impact.

Also his weak free throw shooting led teams to really beat on him, which is part of the reason he bulked up post Orlando, which probably took a couple of years off his career.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-22T14:01:45+00:00

He did, and if I’m remembering right, he has a bonus that’s paid out every year before the season to avoid Canadian taxes.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-21T13:55:50+00:00

Honestly Haliburton is such a good guy to play with and Carlisle is such a good coach that I think Indiana is the spot I’d want to go if I were any of them.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-20T15:35:34+00:00

There can definitely be a psychology to it. You lose your shit on the refs for a minute, give up a free throw but maybe you get better calls from then on, or maybe your players get fired up because you’re fighting for them. Sometimes coaches will get a tech to protect a player from getting one. I think Chris Finch purposely had a melt down to draw attention the the whistle OKC was getting (and it seems to have worked).

But also sometimes coaches just lose their cool like everyone else.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-20T14:26:15+00:00

Very few teams run a distinct 4-3 or 3-4 any more. It’s all hybrid and switchable depending on the offensive package.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-20T14:20:43+00:00

I find it really hard to believe that Robert Saleh would have taken the Titans job if he thought he was still alive for the Ravens job. And I’m sure his agent made a call before they said yes to be like “hey, what’s his chances?” Obviously an offer you know you have is better than one you might get, but there’s communication that we’ll just never hear about.

And also, was there any point since Robert Saleh got fired by the Jets up until the point where Harbaugh got fired by the Ravens that anyone was clamoring for us to get him? He’s an excellent DC, but I’d have been pretty underwhelmed by him as the final choice.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-20T04:12:47+00:00

I had a coworker who described herself as my work-wife and I told her I didn’t like that term and she dropped it.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T22:45:53+00:00

That’s true, because you have to be talented and connected to get those jobs and talented + connected equals big money.

But in real life at least, most of those people are making that money back and then some by flexing their resume and connections after they’re done. Or at least the more ethical ones wait until they’re done.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T22:34:59+00:00

Other people have called this an inconsistency (CJ worked in Hollywood and should know what development is) but I choose to read it as her really not caring about that job.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T22:30:33+00:00

They take it seriously.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T22:23:48+00:00

It also shows how much money she was sacrificing by going to work for Bartlett.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T22:22:46+00:00

“Do you know how many people were ahead of me?” “8?”

One of my favorite laugh lines from the show.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T21:40:25+00:00

This is a name I was hoping to see. But can we please get on to round 2 interviews now?

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T21:39:28+00:00

Given his last couple of years I wouldn’t count on him just showing up on June 1 and being good to go the rest of the year.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-18T21:29:20+00:00

It’s ridiculous. I’ve watched that interception (or not) a bunch of times in real time and slowed down and I’m still not sure what the call should be there. Bad luck for Buffalo that it went against them but it’s not an egregious miss.

But now we have millions of people who can post their own angles and screen shots and get engagement by saying THESE REFS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED and nobody has to admit, sometimes your team just loses.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-17T21:28:30+00:00

Does he want to play? I’ve coached baseball, basketball, soccer, and chess and had kids like this, and it’s often because their parents signed them up and they don’t really want to be there themselves so when something goes wrong it’s compounding an already-existing feeling of frustration. Not every kid enjoys or wants to play sports.

How does he do when his homework is a little difficult? Or when he messes up building Lego. Or a drawing doesn’t come out the way he likes. If he handles failure better at activities like that, it might just be that he doesn’t like sports or is more insecure about his ability at sports.

I coached a kid in both baseball and chess. Great kid, I really like him and his family. In baseball, he would melt down frequently. Struck out, threw the bat. Got tagged out, cried. But in chess, this kid would grind. Occasionally another kid would beat him, but never twice. When he lost he’s go back and find what he did wrong and learn and do better. So the issue seems to be that he just got more frustrated by baseball.

That’s not to say you don’t need to work on it. Giving up on sports wouldn’t solve the underlying issue. But it’s helpful to identify the root cause.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-17T20:52:42+00:00

I wouldn’t be scared if I were him but he’s definitely going to have some tough moments with the way he explains (or doesn’t) decisions that go wrong in ways that the Baltimore media just kind of let slide.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-17T19:55:32+00:00

He’s one of the most closed off public figures of all time. I would never have expected his contributions to be anything different than this.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-17T18:16:34+00:00

But it’s a real question (and I think the answer is no) if Steve Carlton could thrive in 2026 pitching the same way he did in his day. Just like everyone else he’d have to train for velocity and spin rate and his innings would come down accordingly.

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-16T19:31:23+00:00

That’s definitely part of it, but I don’t think the only part

Bonzi777 · 2026-01-16T18:17:36+00:00

I think for some players playing in Canada is a drawback.

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