Although the streaming wars have challenged HBO’s place as the gold standard for serialized television, the premium cable network is still pumping out plenty of fantastic original programming. Whether it’s an epic, big-budget adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s medieval fantasy novels or a semi-scripted cinéma verité sitcom starring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David as himself, HBO is always turning out fresh and exciting shows that shake up the status quo and influence their peers.
The season finale is perhaps a TV season’s most important episode, because it has to keep fans hooked through the hiatus. So, here are The 10 Best HBO Season Finales Of The Decade, Ranked.
Eastbound & Down: Chapter 21 (season 3)
The season 3 finale of Eastbound & Down was intended to be the series finale. The creators only ever made a fourth season due to popular demand, and they ended that season with pretty much the same perfect ending as the third season. In “Chapter 21,” Kenny Powers achieved his dreams, being saved from the mediocrity of Minor League Baseball and getting a chance to pitch for a Major League team again.
And, in true Kenny Powers fashion, it took until he walked out to the mound in a packed stadium to realize that what he wanted all along was domestic bliss with April. So, in an over-the-top, completely unnecessary romantic gesture – again, in true Kenny Powers fashion – he faked his own death and dyed his hair blond.
Girls: Two Plane Rides (season 3)
There’s something life-changing going on with every major character in Girls’ third-season finale. Hannah is surprised to discover that Adam’s sister has been living in her building with Laird and she’s pregnant with his baby. Then, she gets into the lucrative writers’ workshop at the University of Iowa.
Shoshanna is crushed to discover that she can’t graduate. Marnie’s love life is as much of a train-wreck as ever. And Jessa’s friend asks her to help her take her own life, but changes her mind at the last second. It was, in parts, a touching, heartfelt, shocking way to bow out the show’s third year on the air.
Westworld: The Bicameral Mind (season 1)
The first season of Westworld – HBO’s big-budget, existential adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel about a Wild West-themed amusement park filled with robot cowboys – has been dubbed “The Maze” by the show’s creators. The season ended with “The Bicameral Mind,” which answered a bunch of the fans’ questions and then asked a bunch more before disappearing for a year and a half.
In particular, Anthony Hopkins shines more than ever in Westworld’s season 1 finale. He gets longer, more prominent scenes in the role of Robert Ford as his master plan reveals itself. Plus, it ended on a hopeful note, with Maeve escaping the park.
Vice Principals: End of the Line (season 1)
Vice Principals was specifically designed to have exactly 18 episodes, split across two seasons. There was never talk of a third season, because the story was planned out to the end – it was effectively a two-season limited series.
To ensure that viewers would remain excited to see season 2, which HBO had already paid for, the season 1 finale had to go out with a bang. And that’s exactly what happened: a masked assailant emerged in the parking lot and shot Neal Gamby. Gamby had a few enemies at this point, so this was a “Who Shot J.R.?”-level cliffhanger to leave audiences on.
Silicon Valley: The Uptick (season 3)
Silicon Valley’s season 3 finale “The Uptick” was a rollercoaster. It opens with Gavin Belson recklessly bringing an elephant to a board meeting and indirectly killing it, landing him in a public-relations nightmare. The episode moves at a breakneck pace as Gavin tries to bury the story, even buying a media company named Code/Rag to do so.
By the end of the episode, Gavin tries to buy out Pied Piper. He makes a $2 million bid, and it looks like our plucky heroes are going to lose their company to the evil tech tycoon. However, Big Head and Erlich, whose firm Bachmanity owned half of Code/Rag, outbid Gavin by a single dollar and save Pied Piper. This was a sigh-of-relief ending that was just as effective as a jaw-dropping ending.
Veep: Election Night (season 4)
Real-life election nights can already be nail-biting, but on TV shows, when we’ve come to know the characters behind the policies a lot more intimately, they can be an exciting dramatic tool. As the fourth season of Veep, Armando Iannucci’s searing satire of U.S. politics, bowed out in 2015, Selina Meyer was running in a Presidential election.
It all came down to one state, Virginia, that was going to cast the deciding vote. When a news channel misreports the Virginia vote in O’Brien’s favor, Selina admits defeat and gets ready to call the O’Brien campaign and concede the election. Mike goes down to get some sodas and Dan calls to tell him Virginia is tied, so he drops the sodas and races back upstairs to tell Selina not to concede.
The Leftovers: I Live Here Now (season 2)
The Leftovers could be HBO’s most underrated show of the decade. The show’s season 2 finale can only be described as a combination of spiritual meditation and Mulholland Drive. While the town of Miracle reels in from the revelation that the disappearance of three girls (the investigation into which had been the crux of the entire season arc up to that point) was faked by the girls themselves.
Meanwhile, Kevin remembers committing suicide and unearthing himself from a grave. Then, he’s shot and killed and is forced by a mysterious man to sing karaoke in the world of the undead to grant access back into the world of the living. Very trippy stuff.
Game of Thrones: The Winds of Winter (season 6)
HBO’s TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels, Game of Thrones, had plenty of fantastic season finales, from Daenerys hatching three dragons in season 1 to the Night’s Watch stabbing Jon Snow and leaving him for dead in season 5. But, by a pretty wide margin, season 6’s “The Winds of Winter” is the show’s greatest finale.
Jon Snow is named the King of the North, Daenerys and Tyrion begin their journey to Westeros, Cersei wipes out her enemies by destroying the Great Sept – there’s so much going on in this episode.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry vs. Michael J. Fox (season 8)
In the eighth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry moved to New York for three months to avoid doing a day of charity work. In the season finale, he clashes with his neighbor, Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox. The two shared incredible on-screen chemistry in the episode.
At a charity event for Parkinson’s disease, Fox mistakes Larry miming a violin to Jeff for “the violin sign,” and berates him. Then, the Mayor of New York steps onto the podium and springs to Fox’s defense, kicking him out of the city. It was the Curb-est way to end the season.
True Detective: Form and Void (season 1)
Although this year’s third season was a vast improvement over the unfortunately rushed second season, True Detective’s first season still stands as the show’s finest narrative. Series creator Nic Pizzolatto initially developed the first season of True Detective as a novel, which explains why it’s so much denser and more complex than a regular installment of television.
It follows parallel storylines, with two cops investigating a murder, decades ago, and then revisiting it as a cold case in the present day when their lives have gone completely off the rails. In the season finale, those storylines converged in eye-opening ways.