That’s all, folks. On the final episode of Still Watching, Vanity Fair’s TV recap podcast, hosts Hillary Busis, Richard Lawson, and Chris Murphy share their favorite series finales of all time during one last rousing roundtable discussion.
Lawson’s choice for best series finale of all time? HBO’s Six Feet Under. On the final episode of that HBO drama, “Everyone’s Waiting,” we see what becomes of the Fisher family, which runs the funeral home that has served as the centerpiece of the show for five seasons. As Claire (Lauren Ambrose) drives off to New York listening to Sia’s “Breathe Me,” we flash forward to see what becomes of each of her family members, ending with Claire’s own death in the year 2085. “I think that’s a really lovely grace note to end a show on,” Lawson says of the finale. “At the end of everything, the real finale is [death]. I think it really balances a sort of hopefulness with a sort of mortal awareness.”
Murphy’s pick, somewhat expectedly, was the finale of Sex and the City, “An American Girl in Paris: Part Deux.” The series finale finds Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) swapping her beloved New York for a new life in Paris, before choosing to return to Manhattan, her friends, and the true love of her life: John, a.k.a Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Although “An American Girl in Paris: Part Deux” wasn’t really the end for the gals from Sex and the City, as a series finale, the Still Watching hosts found it a nearly perfect encapsulation of the series as a whole. “I like the girl getting her man and her city and her friends,” Murphy noted. “One woman can have it all.”
Busis got the final finale, and chose an all-timer: the last episode of Friends. Fittingly titled, “The Last One” finds the Central Perk gang embarking on the next chapter of their lives, with Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) welcoming twins and moving to the suburbs, and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) choosing Ross (David Schwimmer) over a new job in Paris. Both hilarious and emotionally satisfying, the Friends finale represented the true end of an era both for the friends and for television. “There is no network sitcom that is better than Friends,” says Busis. “These performers are just so good at what they do.”
