Netflix's 26-Part Sci-Fi Series Has Hands Down The Platform's Best Finale

Published Oct 28, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While Netflix has a handful of original shows with satisfying endings, there is no doubt about which of the streaming service’s titles had the best series finale of all time. All too often, streaming shows will end not with a fittingly explosive bang, but with a disappointing whimper. To be fair, both traditional network shows and cable shows have also historically been infamous for their disappointing finales, but the unpredictability of streaming renewals makes this more pronounced.

Even though Twin Peaks season 2 was badly derailed years before the streaming revolution even began, its infamous cliffhanger ending was still better than the many Netflix shows that were canceled midway through their stories. The OA, Santa Clarita Diet, Mindhunter, Inside Job, and many, many other Netflix shows were cut short at the juiciest moments in their stories, leaving viewers wishing for just one more season.

Fortunately, the streaming service has a few shows that not only avoided this fate, but even had perfect endings that brought their stories together. Alice in Borderland’s twisty series finale wrapped up its story perfectly, but still left the door open for a potential spinoff with one mysterious final scene. Meanwhile, the iconic German sci-fi drama Dark had the greatest series finale of any Netflix show, perfectly tying together the plot of the complex three-season series.

Dark's Finale Is Better Than Any Other Netflix Original Series

Set in the small German town of Winden, Dark’s story focuses on a mysterious cave that facilitates time travel, and the people of the small town around this enigmatic setting. Across three seasons and 26 episodes, Dark takes the disappearance of a local child and uses this incident to set up an immersive fictional world. A polyphonic story, Dark utilizes a large ensemble cast to explore Winden’s story through various perspectives across three different timelines, in 2019, 1986, and 1953.

Although the story of a child going missing in a small town thanks to a sci-fi mystery might sound familiar, viewers shouldn’t mistake Dark for Stranger Things, or even a conventional time travel show like NBC’s Journeyman. Instead, the show feels more like Lost crossed with The Wire, utilizing sci-fi plot elements like time travel to keep viewers guessing while focusing on a large cast of believable, human characters like that iconic HBO crime drama.

Of course, if there is one thing that most viewers remember about The Wire, it is that happy endings are hard to come by in the series, and the same is true for Dark. The show isn’t relentlessly bleak or downbeat, but Dark has moments of heart-wrenching tragedy that feel as honest and earned as they are devastating. This is part of why, even though it is far from a happy ending, the show’s fitting conclusion is undeniably the best series finale of any Netflix show so far.

Dark's 3 Seasons Are A Near-Perfect Home Run

Fortunately for anyone planning on starting the series, Dark’s perfect ending isn’t a last-second redemption after a string of weak episodes. The show’s brevity means that, especially when compared to other ambitious sci-fi shows of the 2010s like Westworld, Dark has almost no filler episodes or superfluous subplots.

Everything that could potentially feel pointless comes back in an ending that ties together loose ends and makes the entire story feel predestined. This makes Dark’s series finale a rare ending that makes the entire series feel sharper, smarter, and deeper upon a re-watch.

As it becomes clear that some surprising storytelling choices were secretly setting up future twists, the true genius of Netflix’s sci-fi drama comes into focus, and the storyline ends up feeling all the more tragically inevitable and strangely perfect. This combines to make Netflix’s Dark a truly unmissable watch, thanks in large part to its flawless finale.