Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Science Fiction and Fantasy TV Shows That Tried to Reinvent Themselves in Their Final Seasons

When Eureka comes back for its final season next week, the town of geniuses is going to look very different than what we’re used to. And meanwhile, Fringe changed up its entire timeline for its current season — which is looking more likely to be the show’s last, unless Warner Bros. basically gives the show to Fox for free. But Eureka, and possibly Fringe, are part of a long tradition: Science fiction and fantasy shows that got a total reinvention in their final season.

In Fringe’s case, it was the introduction of a whole new timeline in which Peter died as a child, and everything was different. But some shows have gone much, much further in revamping themselves. Here are X TV shows that did a total reinvention in their final seasons.

To be fair, some of these were shows that regularly reinvented themselves anyway — while others were shows that had had a pretty set format from the beginning, and then shook it up massively in their last year. Let’s hope Fringe doesn’t join the ranks of these shows that rolled the dice... and then went away.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This is the classic example, as far as I’m concerned. It went from the story of Buffy Summers grappling with her destiny as The Slayer and trying to prevent the end of the world with a small Scooby Gang... to the tale of Buffy and her small army of future Slayers, all of whom had their own struggles with their Slayer destiny. It became much more of a show about the Slayer Gang.

Angel

And meanwhile, Buffy’s sister show (brother show?) also went through a total revamp in its final year. Angel went from fighting Wolfram & Hart to running their L.A. office, and the show’s supporting cast and format were completely transformed. And then there’s the fact that Angel got a new sidekick... Spike, the other vampire with a soul.