7 TV Shows To Stream Before The Final Season Comes Out
We all love starting a new show we’ve never seen before, but there’s nothing more annoying when you get things spoilt for you when you’re only part way through. With so much to watch, it’s easy for you to fall behind on “that show” everyone you know is talking about, and suddenly your best mate has told you who dies in the next episode. We’ve put together a list of some of the biggest and best long-running TV shows that are ending soon so you can catch up before the series finale and get up to speed so you don’t miss out.
Long-running TV shows to stream before they finish
Succession
One of the biggest shows to end this year, Succession is in the midst of its fourth and final season. Premiering back in 2018, the family squabbles of the Roy family soon became the latest unmissable HBO drama, and things will finally resolve themselves in just a few weeks. It was something of a surprise when it was announced that this season would be the last after four seasons, compared to HBO’s other shows like Game of Thrones which ran for years, but then someone has to succeed Logan (Brian Cox) eventually. At the time of writing, there are some 34 episodes of catching up to do if you’ve never started and you’ve got until the final episode airs on 28th May to do so (or before the internet or your flatmate spoils it for you.)
Watch it on: Sky Atlantic
The Crown
There’s a lot more time to catch up on this one, and is based on real events there’s less need to know “how it all ends”. Netflix’s hugely popular and sometimes controversial The Crown will see its last season air later in the year, with filming beginning last year.
The Crown has always slowed down or expedited time frames to fit around dramatic storylines, and while Season 5 was set entirely in the early to mid 90s, Season 6 is set to go from Diana’s death in 1997 and into the 2000s, including covering the beginning of William and Kate’s relationship. It’ll also see the Royals’ interactions with Tony Blair as Prime Minister and is currently rumoured to end on a positive note with the Wedding of Charles and Camilla in 2005. There are 50 episodes to catch up on- but filming is still ongoing, so you’ve got a while.
Watch it on: Netflix
Barry
Assassin drama Barry is another four-season HBO show ending this year and ends the same day as the Roys make their final bow. In contrast to Succession, Barry has been somewhat thrown under the radar, but those who’ve seen it have given it rave reviews. Starring Bill Hader as the depressed titular Barry, it sees a hitman trying to pull himself out of his murderous life and into a new path pursuing his hidden love for acting. Both Hader and co-star Henry Winkler have both received Emmy awards for their performances, and the dark comedy-drama has only gotten better with each season. The fourth season began airing a few weeks ago, and if you’ve yet to discover this excellent series, then you can dive into the previous three seasons, each with only eight episodes apiece.
Watch it on: Sky Atlantic
The Handmaids Tale
The darkly dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale is adapted from Margaret Atwood’s best-selling novel of the same name, and stars Elizabeth Moss as June/Offred, a woman, and handmaid trying to break free from the chains of the oppressive society in which she lives. The show began on Hulu in 2017 and has had five seasons and 56 episodes so far. The most recent season premiered last year and it’s clear that things in the Republic of Gilead are moving toward their conclusion. The final season is currently in production and is likely to arrive on our screens at some point toward the end of year, so you’ve got a fair bit of time to get yourself up to speed. However, while this series is coming to an end, it’s been confirmed that a sequel series, focused on adapting the 2019 novel The Testaments, with some of the cast returning.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
The Marvelous Mrs Masiel
One of Amazon’s first big streaming successes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel first premiered in 2017 and has received critical acclaim and plenty of Emmy and Golden Globe awards. It has a pretty simple premise: 1950s housewife and mother Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) discovers one night that she has a knack for standup comedy after her husband leaves her for his secretary. She finds herself pursuing a professional career in the comedy field, despite it being an era of male-dominated nightclubs and one in which obscenity can lend you in jail. As she moves up in the world of comedy and meets some of the biggest names in the industry, Midge makes a name for herself as more than an outspoken housewife. The fifth final season began on 14th April, and comes to an end on 26th May.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Stranger Things
Stranger Things will come to an end with its fifth season, but despite how big the previous one was, you’ve likely got a pretty long time to catch up on all 34 episodes before the series concludes. While there are no definite details on what the final adventures of Hawkins will entail, it’s been rumoured that there’ll be a time skip and that production may wait until the principal actors have aged a little more before filming. The series began as a piece of 80s nostalgia and horror in with a Stephen King-like setting but has snowballed to become a phenomenon and Netflix’s most valuable property, shooting cast members like Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour to international stardom. If you’ve always had a curiosity about the pop culture sensation but have yet to pull the binge watch trigger, there’s never been a better time.
You
Another Netflix staple, You has gathered a cult following for its story of the life and crimes of serial killer Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley.) The series sees Joe develop an extreme and disturbing obsession with various women that enter his life: Guinevere Beck, Love Quinn, and most recently Kate Lockwood. Season 1 was set in New York, with Seasons 2 and 3 in LA, before Joe relocated to London in the fourth season. It’s helped make a name for actors like Victoria Pedretti, Elizabeth Lail, Jenna Ortega and Charlotte Richie, and has had 40 episodes so far. It was confirmed after the end of Season 4 that there’d be one more season, with things being well and truly tied up.
