Seinfeld famously ended his series at the height of its popularity out of a desire to "go out on top". But while Seinfeld's ninth season may have had the highest viewership, I don't think very many people would consider it the nest season in terms of quality.

So my question: Can you think of any TV series for which its last season was its best season?

Obviously, I am excluding shows that lasted two seasons or less. But I can't think of any off the top of my head.

The only one that comes to mind for which a lot people claim the last season was the best is The Shield (which I personally disagree with). There are also shows for which the last season was better than immediately preceding seasons (The West Wing, The Sopranos), while still being inferior to early seasons. But it seems almost impossible for a TV series to actually end at its peak.

six feet under comes to mind, but i could be being swayed by the quality of the final 3 episodes.

lost was supposed to, but didn't really....

Huh?

Lost was "supposed to" in the sense that every story should have a good end- but it's about the best example of not going out on top for me.

Friday Night Lights is one that comes to mind as being close. I'm not sure I'd say the last season was the best, but it was of a quality that was reasonably close to other great seasons and had a really solid last ep that worked as a close to the over arching story.

Angel.

The 5th and final season is the most underrated work in television history. Easily the best season of the entire season, I doubt anyone would argue that either which is rare when dealing with a show which has a cult following. I think it has by far the best series finale ever too.

Seinfeld is the perfect example of going out on top. I disagree about declining quality in Season 9. Ratings were still great as were the episodes. Good naked/Bad Naked, the reverse episode, Kramer's coffee table book, etc... The episode with the Puerto Rican Day Parade is one of the best of the entire run.

Seinfeld was quality pretty much the whole way through.

Angel Season 5 is excellent. The only season in the run I wasn't fond of was 4. The story got kind of heavy so they couldn't really get away from it for any standalone episodes and the whole Cordy/Connor thing got to be a little much. I prefer perky, quipy Cordy to possessed by Jasmine, Cordy.

Also Angel gets huge bonus points for its final episode. Finales are difficult to pull off and almost always a let down. "Not Fade Away" was damn near perfect.

hmm, sports night? quo vadimus

the office. even though s1 > s2 > xmas specials, they're all of such an incredibly high standard that i doubt there'll be a better answer to this question. and part 2 of the special was really fantastic, even if part 1 was a little ropey.

Breaking Bad will, unless the 5th season is bad (highly unlikely).

Seinfeld AINEC.

They were offering Jerry like 200 million for another season or something like that. Plus it was a damn good season.

Most of the shows that end at a high level will be the cable shows with 10-13 episode seasons, too hard to have shows with 20+ ep seasons end on a high note. Seinfeld is probably as close as you can get. I haven't seen many Angel episodes to comment on that show. Fringe probably will end on a high note because it will be cancelled early.

The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, The Shield.

WTF Wire. 5th season was by far the worst. Deadwood was too unfinished.

Yeah, Deadwood definitely didn't go out on top. It didn't get a real ending. The Wire didn't go out on top but did have a great ending and the reason it didn't go out on top wasn't because it dragged on too many seasons. The Shield did go out on top. If you're only going to say shows which final season was its best season, that's different. The Shield's best season was 5 and second-best was 7. To have your two best seasons in your final three and then a spectacular final couple episodes is definitely going out on top. Arrested Development certainly went out at the top of its game, though I'd say your premise should only be for long-running shows of 5+ seasons.

If you're talking about shows that ended when the creative people behind it intended it to end instead of being canceled there are too many to count. But one show I remember that was really good right down to the end and had one of the better finales I can remember was Cheers.

The Sopranos final season was actually my favorite. I believe the series progressed, getting better and better throughout the years, similar to Breaking Bad. It also progressed well with pop culture and timeline wise, seeing as everything was taking place in the present. Although the final episode was kind of meh, it wasn't horrible.

You liked that almost entire season he was in a coma and pretending to be a salesman in his dreams?