(Rare but Important Trope) The unsatisfying/anticlimactic ending that's perfect for the story being told
(I had a lot to write, so my apologies!)
- BoJack Horseman, S6E16: "Nice While It Lasted" (2020)
BoJack and Diane meet for one final time, with Diane ready to cut BoJack off for good but the two ending with a nice little chat stemming from BoJack telling Diane a story from when he was in prison. After BoJack's final words, he glances over at Diane but Diane never looks at him and ends with the two just sitting there thinking about what they're going to do next, with both of them seeming to want to say something more but understanding that nothing more needs to be said/done.
I remember audiences hoping BoJack would die in some way at the end of the series, but I think this ending was the right way to handle things because it doubles down on the whole "conflicts don't get wrapped up neatly by the end like they do on TV" message that this show hammers home time and time again. BoJack was an incredibly toxic person to Diane (and everyone he's around, for that matter), but Diane provided BoJack with a genuine friendship of sorts for many years, so while this ending isn't flashy, seeing that they can both finally move on with their lives gives BoJack's story some much-needed closure in a way that's perfectly in line with
- The Sopranos, S3E4: "Employee of the Month" (2001) TW: SEXUAL ASSAULT
This episode is incredibly hard to watch, but is also incredibly important. Dr. Melfi, Tony Soprano's on-and-off psychiatrist, is >!raped in a parking garage. While her assailant is identified and detained, a chain of custody issue leads to him being released. She and her husband argue over who's at fault thereafter. With the legal system completely failing to bring her rapist to justice, Melfi spends much of the episode internally debating whether or not she should tell Tony about what happened to her, knowing that Tony would have her rapist killed on the spot if she tells him. She bursts out crying at one of her therapy sessions with him, and when Tony tries to comfort her and asks her if there's anything she'd like to tell him, Melfi deliberates for a moment before firmly responding "No."!<
A LOT of people really wish(ed) that Melfi would've told Tony about what happened, as audiences would've found Melfi's rapist getting absolutely destroyed by Tony and his crew very satisfying, but Melfi's refusal to tell Tony about what happened to her is an infinitely better moment for her character. She knows that she'd be indebted to the mob if Tony whacked this guy, and that's just not the kind of person Melfi is. Hell, David Chase all too often had to remind his audiences that Tony Soprano and his crew are extremely horrible people, usually through their actions, because audiences were this invested in potential moments like these.
- The Sopranos, S6E21: "Made in America" (2007)
I couldn't mention unsatisfying endings without mentioning This Thing of Ours a second time. Tony sitting with Carmela and AJ and looking up at Meadow entering the diner, with "Don't Stop Believin'" playing in the background, only for the screen to cut to black and dwell on that for quite a while before the credits roll, resulted in the most hotly-debated ending in television history. People were expecting Tony or one of his family members to get whacked on-screen by the guy with the Members Only jacket, but absolutely nothing happened on-screen which let audiences' imaginations run rampant.
David Chase lay down a lot of breadcrumbs throughout Season 6's dialogue to heavily imply that Tony was going to get whacked by the end of the series, but even he openly states that it doesn't matter what happened to Tony by the end of the series to this day, because Tony Soprano was dead one way or another. Most of his crew was either dead, out of commission for good, or likely to turn on Tony to save their own hides from New York or the Feds; meanwhile, one of his Capos, Carlo Gervasi, flipped on Tony after his son got caught possessing drugs and had enough info that the FBI would've locked him away for life. Whatever happened to Tony after that cut to black doesn't matter; Tony Soprano is dead, either literally or figuratively.
- The Truman Show (1998)
I'm not talking about the part where Truman finally manages to escape the show that has been his entire phony life; that part's plenty satisfying. Rather, I wanted to bring up what happens after the end of the in-universe Truman Show: everyone watching the show cheers once Truman walks through that door and leaves the show, but the instant the show's over the two police officers immediately wonder "what else is on?" and one of them asks where the TV Guide is so they can change the channel. Truman's escape from his show was very real, but to audiences it was just another TV show; once the show was over, nobody thought twice about it and just wanted to look for the next thing to watch. There is no "what happens next?" about Truman, both in the movie we're watching or in the in-universe show: the show's just over, and everyone's ready to just move on to whatever else there is to watch. The last five seconds of the movie are perfectly unsatisfying.