It can be hard to say goodbye to good TV shows. You spend hours invested in the characters and their stories. When you get into a show, the characters become part of your life, the show becomes a part of your routine, and it’s all the same whether you watch on a weekly basis or binge-watch all seven seasons in a week — or less (no judgment). It’s a vicious cycle every TV enthusiast is familiar with, but can never get used to. When the show comes to a finish, it’s like there is a black hole where your heart used to be.
We’re living in an incredible time for television, which makes saying goodbye to shows even more difficult. Seriously, though. Who’s still recovering from Breaking Bad ending? And that was years ago! Alas, this happens every year and each time it happens, it’s still just as hard. So pour one out for these shows, which we will miss dearly after they air their final season.
1. The Mindy Project (HULU)
It may not be perfect, but its characters are delightful and it has done a consistent job of making us laugh for the past five seasons. The Mindy Project almost didn’t even see its way to season five when it was abruptly canceled by Fox. Thank god for streaming services, though, (a phrase we say far too often) because Hulu quickly picked up the sitcom to give the fans more Mindy, Morgan, Jeremy, Beverly and all our favorite OB/GYN staffers. The show’s whole premise revolves around Mindy’s love life, so we’re curious to see what lessons in love she learns by the end.
The last episode ever will air on November 14, 2017, so it’s right around the corner.
2. New Girl (FOX)
Thanks to New Girl, we now have the term “adorkable” placed firmly into our vocabularies. And we can’t say we’re upset about that. Zooey Deschanel brought her everywoman charm to the Jess role, blurring the lines between the actual person and fictional character. Even though the show’s title is a reference to Zooey’s Jess, it was the ensemble cast that made the show so special. All the roommates had their own unique, strange, and at times, douchey personalities that blended together to form a comic masterpiece. We’re not just going to miss Jess, we’re going to miss Nick, Schmidt, Winston, and Cece.
3. Being Mary Jane (BET)
After four seasons and upwards of 50 episodes, Being Mary Jane, it was announced that the Gabrielle Union show was coming to an end. While the season four season finale premiered in late September, the show will be back in 2018 for a 2-hour series conclusion on BET.
4. Veep (HBO)
The show that dominated every Emmys season for the past six is coming to a close. Unlike other White House-centered shows on this list, Veep showed the ridiculous side of politics, making for a perfectly crafted comedy. After star Julia Louis-Dreyfus announced she has breast cancer, this series finale became even more poignant. The woman who has given us so many laughs throughout her career is now in fight mode. We’re going to miss Selina Meyer, but we need Julia to get well.
5. The Middle (ABC)
The wife from Everybody Loves Raymond and the janitor from Scrubs have spent the past nine seasons coupling up. The show’s name is actually quite literal, with two middle-aged main characters, living a middle-class life in middle America. The parents go to work at their blue-collar jobs and come home to raise their three children, Axl, Sue, and Brick. (Yeah, Brick.) The show has been applauded for capturing a working-class family in middle America. (Indiana, to be exact.) The show will still live on in syndication, as well as streaming services like Hulu.
6. Vice Principals (HBO)
It’s perfectly OK if you saw promos for Vice Principals on TV and thought Eastbound and Down was still in production. It happens to the best of us. If it feels like the show just premiered, that’s because it did. After just two seasons, Vice Principals is coming to an end, which was the original plan when the show was picked up by HBO in 2014. Created by and Danny McBride and Jody Hill, the show stars McBride as the titular vice principal. The show includes all you’d expect out of McBride: obnoxious and out of control. Except for this time, he’s in charge of children.
7. Portlandia (IFC)
Oh, great. How are we going to laugh at hipsters’ expense now? Wait… is the hipster trend even still a thing or is Portlandia pulling the plug at just the right timing? Either way, the show has given viewers armfuls of pop-culture references, digestible skits and memorable characters. We can’t imagine Fred and Carrie in any other context, despite their successful careers as an SNL star and Sleater-Kinney member. The moment they launched Portlandia, they became Portlandia. Whew, this is gonna be a tough one. The eighth and final season will premiere sometime in 2018.
8. Red Oaks (Amazon Prime)
This Amazon original has executive producer Steven Soderbergh at the helm, who is the brilliant mind behind the masterpiece, Magic Mike. Red Oaks stars Craig Roberts, who is not Craig Robertson, as a college student living in 1980s New Jersey. Since its first season, the show has been praised for its nostalgic, coming-of-age setting and narrative, even scoring a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The show is a nod to ‘80s filmmaking, and even stars ‘80s icon Jennifer Grey, who you may also know as “Baby” from Dirty Dancing. While the show didn’t last long in terms of critical-darling television, it made the most of its run when the final season became available on October 20.
9. Scandal (ABC)
Scandal has done a lot in its seven seasons. It became a cultural phenomenon, addressed hard-hitting subjects like abortion, affairs and, of course, politics. At the middle of it all is Olivia Pope, portrayed flawlessly by the one-of-a-kind Kerry Washington. The show lends itself to the name: Olivia’s job is to literally cover up and solve political scandals plaguing the White House. The show’s ending perfectly coincides with the hot mess happening within the real-life White House, making the final season even more surreal to process.
Season seven recently premiered in early October and we can only hope this season wraps up nicely.
10. The Americans (FX)
FX’s critical darling The Americans is wrapping up after six successful seasons. The show follows two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American couple with two children during the 1980s Cold War era. Series creator Joe Weisberg is a former CIA employee who left after three years to become a teacher and a writer. The show is about spies, but what drives it is the relationship between Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings, and their American-born children who have no clue about their parents’ secret lives. Also it’s starring Keri Russell and real-life husband Matthew Rhys, both of whom give audiences outstanding performances.
11. Major Crimes (TNT)
Major Crimes was born out of The Closer’s 2012 finale. A spin-off of the successful Kyra Sedgwick show, Major Crimes is set in the same police division as its parent show. The show picks up after Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson’s departure and continues on with new police captain Sharon Raydor. It was only recently that the show’s sixth season was announced as its last, causing series creators and writers to wrap up Major Crimes in a way that would appease its fans in only 13 episodes. Episode one premiered on Halloween.
12. Orphan Black (BBC)
This sleeper hit is wrapping things up after five thrilling seasons. Audiences have been through a lot with Sarah and co., and we were privileged to be able to watch Tatiana Maslany transition seamlessly between characters with such stark differences. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to such a clever, crafty show, but we’re excited to see what else Tatiana is capable of in her career. She already has a handful of films lined up, including this year’s Stronger, in which she’ll star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal as a couple facing the Boston bombing aftermath together.
13. House of Cards (Netflix)
This cancellation gives us a lot of strange feelings. For one, we applaud Netflix for doing the right thing when Kevin Spacey’s alleged sexual assault accusations came to light. They said the next season would be the last and even halted production while they interviewed cast and staff. There is also a part of us that is not ready to say goodbye to Claire Underwood, the show’s real star, tbh. We slogged through a slow-moving season five for Claire and her calculated words, plans, and actions. No other actress could pull off Claire Underwood quite like Robin Wright. If we were to take one stellar thing away from the dark cancellation circumstances, it’s our ice queen Claire. Maybe she’ll get a spinoff show?
14. 12 Monkeys (SyFy)
Based on the 1990s Brad Pitt film with the same name, 12 Monkeys is a SyFy original that loosely follows its source material. Set in 2043, the sci-fi thriller’s main characters have to travel back to 2015 in order to stop a deadly virus that will wipe out the human race. The name comes from “The Army of 12 Monkeys,” an organization behind the virus’ release. The time travelers’ mission is to track down the organization’s leader to prevent the virus from being released. The show’s fourth and final season will premiere in 2018.
15. The Originals (The CW)
Created as a spin-off to fellow CW show The Vampire Diaries, The Originals follows a sibling trio of original vampires in New Orleans as an oncoming war between vampires, witches, and werewolves is beginning. The siblings vow to protect the city (and their power) Oh, there’s also a vampire-werewolf hybrid child thrown into the mix. Didn’t the vampire trend end five years ago? Who knows? It’s so hard to keep up but many will be sad to see The Originals go this season.
16. Game of Thrones (HBO)
After years of plotting, character development and character assassinations, we will finally find out who will sit on the Iron Throne. Will it be the Mother of Dragons? Jon Snow? Cersei? Arya Stark or Sansa Stark? One thing’s for sure: these fans have feeeeeeelings about the show and all the central characters. After an explosive seventh season, we’re left waiting more than a year for the series’ finale. There are so many questions, so many fan theories and so many characters left to kill off. Most importantly, we need to know. Is Tormund still alive? And if so, will Brienne finally realize they are two warriors meant to be in love forever and ever and ever? JW.
17. Star Wars Rebels (Disney XD)
It’s surprising that anything with the words “Star Wars” in the title with Freddie Prinze Jr. involved wouldn’t be a mega-hit. But after only four seasons, it was announced that the fourth would be Star Wars Rebels‘ last. The first episode of the 16-ep last season premiered on October 16.