Ending a TV series is hard. The whole idea behind a TV show is that it doesn’t end. It keeps going. Sure there are season finales, but they usually end in a manner that sets up more drama and conflict to come. The list of truly great series finales is actually rather short. Most shows, if given the opportunity to go out on their own terms, end in a satisfactory if somewhat forgettable manner. Some get cancelled before the story has any semblance of conclusion. But a fine few TV finales actually find a way to end the long-running story in a truly unique or memorable way. That can either mean everything is wrapped up in a nice bow, or the show concludes on a compellingly ambiguous note.

With Game of Thrones poised to end this coming Sunday, we at Collider felt what better time to look back on some of the best series finales ever made. Given the breadth of TV programming over the years, we decided to limit our list to TV finales that aired in the 21st century. So below, we run down the best series finales of the 21st century so far.