‘Your favourite TV show owes you nothing. Outraged viewers need a reality check’

Opinion: This week a digital apocalypse unfolded as millions were up in arms over the series finale of Euphoria, and they all desperately need to touch some grass.

X was in flames with viewers slamming the ending as a “complete joke”, TikTok creators filmed themselves weeping in their cars and so-called fans threatened to sue the streaming service HBO.

It’s time everybody got a grip. We’ve become too entitled and outraged TV fans have only themselves to blame after expecting entertainment to operate like a smiley customer service operation.

Say it with me now, they’re just actors in glitter eye shadow. Nobody was harmed in the making of this fictional disappointment.

Of course, Euphoria isn’t the first show in television history to let down its loyal fan base.

When the infamous final episode of The Sopranos aired in 2007, there was widespread panic as the final sequence of the Soprano family gathering in a diner while Don’t Stop Believin′ played abruptly cut to a black screen.

The lack of any audio or visual in the drama’s last moments had millions of viewers furiously pressing remote buttons and checking their television wiring before they eventually realised the glitch was intentional.

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Game Of Thrones viewers had a total meltdown over Daenerys Targaryen’s assassination by lover and the show’s traditional hero Jon Snow in 2019.

The internet didn’t just dislike the conclusion; they took it as a personal declaration of war. Over 1.8 million people signing a Change.org petition to remake the season – a hilarious reminder of just how far audiences will go to get what they want.

Sitcom lovers felt betrayed when How I Met Your Mother revealed the titular mother, Tracy, had been dead the whole time and the nine-year story ended with on-again-off-again couple Ted and Robin getting back together.

At the start of 2026, Stranger Things devotees were in flat out denial when protagonist Elle died with deluded fans conjuring up a totally non-existent ninth episode to help them cope with their fictional heartache.

While there’s no denying or disapproving of our personal connection and emotional attachment to characters we’ve spent years following, I fear that many of us have missed the point of storytelling.

Good art is supposed to provoke, surprise and sometimes even deeply annoy us and true narrative power often lies in the tragedy of a lesson learned too late.

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The bad guy winning, the innocent character getting screwed over, or the cycle of trauma continuing – it stimulates a profound real-world emotional response.

We love characters because they break our hearts, because they make the wrong choice, and because we have to watch them bleed. Joy only resonates in a story because we’ve spent seasons navigating the trenches of misery with them.

We live in a culture obsessed with optimisation, reviews, and five-star ratings. If an Uber driver takes a wrong turn, we demand a refund. If a restaurant undercooks a steak, we send it back. But storytelling isn’t supposed to function with this the ‘customer is always right’ ethos.

If writers only ever gave us the endings that we wanted then every series would end with all the characters (alive), sitting in a circle and flashing a cheesy smile like an episode of the Teletubbies – there would be no tension and certainly no redemption.

The ultimate complaint about modern finales is often ‘that wasn’t fair!’ but life isn’t fair and art is meant to be a mirror, not a weighted blanket.

And no Euphoria fans, you are not owed a refund on your subscription.