All good things must come to an end, as they say. And this inevitably applies to today’s hit TV shows, not least Emily in Paris. One of Netflix’s biggest hit series in recent years, the show starring Lily Collins has become a phenomenon not only on television but also in style and pop culture. Last January, a renewal for a sixth season was announced, but in the last few hours, coinciding with the start of filming in Greece, news broke that the upcoming sixth season will also be the last: “Thank you for letting us be a part of your lives, inspiring your travel dreams and your love for Paris. We’ll always have Emily in Paris!” said series creator Darren Star, quoting the famous line from Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris.” Star of the show, Collins, also commented on the announcement of the finale with a video on social media: “I can’t wait for all the magic that lies ahead, and to celebrate our final season with you in the chicest way ever.”
But will fans really be willing to let go of their favorite show in a chic way? And, above all, in a chill way? There’s this strange trend lately to treat TV shows as an integral part of one’s life—not just as a source of passionate devotion and identity, but also as something to constantly question. In the case of Emily in Paris, it’s obvious that many also view it as a sort of guilty pleasure—lighthearted and so surreal that it gives us a reason to talk about it endlessly. There’s a kind of perverse pleasure in watching the incredible adventures of Emily, a young and naive PR executive from Chicago who gets catapulted to Paris (and Rome, Venice, etc.), among clients with unlimited budgets, super-hot flings, and above all, a mind-blowing wardrobe—and with no plausible connection to her bank account. And even though many agree that the latest seasons have become increasingly absurd, it won’t be easy to accept the conclusion that will be presented in the next run of episodes.
But that’s how it is these days with almost every hit series. Just recently, The Boys wrapped up on Prime Video—one of the most brazen, irreverent, and, for that very reason, beloved series of recent years. An adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys has won over a loyal following thanks to its immoral and bloody portrayals of superheroes willing to do anything to preserve their power and the few ordinary mortals determined to take them down. But even here, the die-hard fans had to admit that the later seasons veered off course too often, and especially this fifth and final season—as evidenced by various memes—seems to have significantly lowered the narrative tension just to reach a decent conclusion.
We’ve seen something similar recently with Stranger Things: the fifth season, released in late 2025, wrapped up the story of the kids in Hawkins, but viewers were so entertained that some even came up with the theory that the final episode was actually a deceptive narrative ploy leading up to a mysterious, true conclusion that would arrive as a surprise. Which, of course, never happened. But we only need to go back a few years, to 2019, to recall that one of the series that defined that era, Game of Thrones, seems to have ruined everything with a final season that was heavily criticized even by the most die-hard fans—compounded by the fact that it more or less spoiled the conclusion of George R.R. Martin’s literary saga (assuming it ever arrives, and we get to enjoy it). And even before that, the same frustration arose with the finale of Lost, which aired in 2010 but is still hotly debated online today.
Do we perhaps have a problem with endings? Writer and literary critic Loredana Lipperini asks the same question: “What is our problem with endings? Of movies, novels, and especially TV series, I mean,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post: “I wonder why the fates of our favorite villains never—or almost never—satisfy us. I know it’s hard to write about Evil and even harder to find a way to eradicate it, knowing it can never be completely eradicated. But what do we want from the antagonist? For them to die in excruciating agony over the course of an entire episode?” The reference—without spoilers—is obviously to Homelander from The Boys but also to Daenerys from Game of Thrones. But we could expand the discussion beyond villains, because we’re sure that even Lily Collins’ Emily—who isn’t a villain, despite having numerous haters—will be torn apart by a horde of dissatisfied commenters.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering that even Arthur Conan Doyle—back in 1903—was forced to resurrect Sherlock Holmes, whom he had sent plunging into a waterfall just ten years earlier, due to the insistence of his most devoted readers. Works of fiction, especially when serialized, accompany us over the course of several years and cultivate in us a habit we are reluctant to give up, even when we feel annoyance or dissatisfaction with that very habit. If we add to this the tendency to comment on (and criticize) everything through the megaphones of social media, we end up with a global dissatisfaction that will never allow us to enjoy an ending in the healthiest and most peaceful way. However, there is a consolation even in this: the almost absolute certainty that all our most beloved titles will return sooner or later in the form of sequels, reboots, or revivals. Hoping, even there, to avoid the And Just Like That… effect.
