While a growing body of scholarship explores narrative beginnings, much less is known about narrative endings or narrative ‘deaths’. In this article I draw on media studies as well as gerontological and thanatological literature to explore the endings of US serial television, focusing on the criteria required for a ‘good textual death’. Situated in the notion that cultural objects have a biography or a life span much as individuals do, I ultimately explore the implications of a thanatology of media studies.