Can you tell me if these series are worth finishing?

- House of Cards - watched S1 (great, but not easy to follow. S2-S3 reviews are so-so).
- Vikings - S3 (S1 was better. Not that interesting for me, overall).
- Black Sails - S2 (I'm rewatching this properly from S1. Good, but no heroes).
- The Walking Dead - S1 (stupid and generic characters. The Telltale game was more interesting..).
- Orange is the New Black - S2 (S1 was already 7\10 and S2 is more of the same).

.
Also, do you know what good series (also anime) have better partial closure\acceptable endings before the real one?
Some examples:

- Stranger Things S1 (standalone story).
- Mr. Robot S1 (has a sort of closure).
- Dexter S1 (story about the first killer. Other seasons are so-so, expecially the ending).
- Heroes S1 (perfect closure, except for a short unnecessary open-ended segment. Other seasons are bad).
- Breaking Bad S4 (I liked S5 too, but S4 has a damn cool victorious ending).
- Vikings S1 (one could well stop here).
- The Walking Dead - S1 (same as above).
- Black Sails S2 (I recall there was a possible good closure here?).

- Naruto S1, around ep135, before the filler hell (partial closure, No idea if S2 is worth it).
- Bakemonogatari S1 (story part ended, the rest seems plagued by fanservice).
- Jojo Bizzarre adventure S1 (it ends properly, with maybe a short hint about a sequel, but I read mixed reviews about the rest).
- etc..

P.s: let's ignore episodic series without a main story, obviously.

I think Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex and Psycho Pass are pretty good on that regards, if you choose to watch only one season.

Kuro Mukuro was good to me as well, but the whole series is a single season (even though Netflix cut it in two seasons around here).

I remember a series Wiseguy where every season was its own story (although I think you can get the box set cheap with all of them - although part of one season is missing episodes because they didn't have rights to the music and it involved a music studio). One season the bad guy was Kevin Spacey in his first major role.

True Detective - each season was it's own story - different actors. I liked the 1st season better than the second.

Thanks, expecially for TD.

Anyone else? Other series?

Yes, to both. I like House of Cards more (though both are still airing/yet to air new episodes). Possibly the best example of a perfect first season and bad to terribad following ones.

I'll second True Detective, the 2nd season should be skipped entirely.

I'd add Californication and Prison Break to your list. First seasons are great and all you need to watch.

Other series, like The Big Bang Theory and Bones, I believe had more than one good season before their quality dropped like a bomb.

Westworld, the first season could be watched as standalone. It's an open ending, but I wouldn't mind if it ended there (I'm a bit wary of where they plan to go from there).

Fargo, both seasons are self-contained stories (and awesome).

Edit: I agree, True Detective's 1st season is great.

Edit 2: How could I forget? Utopia is amazing, both seasons are great but you don't need to watch S2.

are you serious? you actually watch naruto? o.O

I actually watched it ages ago, but I still like anime.
I'd check S2 too, if it were decent..

Open-ended, all seasons end in a cliffhanger.

An obscure reference for the older forum members. :P

If I understand you correctly, you're also asking which anime has a better mid-ending than its series finale? The very first thing that comes to my mind is Bleach, just because of how bad its ending/finale really is...

The first two seasons of The Killing comprised a single murder investigation. It then came back for a third season, which introduced a new mystery, before it got cancelled, then picked up by Netflix for one more season. But the season two finale concludes things very well.

People suggested me only the first 60eps or something lol.

Oh, unfinished series are another fugly beast.

That actually is just the 'real' beginning, it's hard to explain without spoiling but I wouldn't call ep.62 a mid-ending. What I was talking about is ep.309/310. It's complicated for such a long series, as there are several filler arcs/seasons which you can skip if you're short on time. I think it's best to just watch the first few episodes and see for yourself if you want to keep watching or not.