Dramas that would be a Perfect 10 if not for the ending

Something that I've noticed after watching numerous dramas is that... a lot of kdramas fall apart by the end. 

There are so many that I would give a Solid 9 or 10 to if not for the ending and it's so frustrating that up until that point, the drama was so outstanding in plot, characters, storytelling, characterisation, etc. Maybe it's the way dramas are filmed as they're aired so the ends changes to satisfy viewers instead of the story, but a lot of the times, I feel like the writers just don't know how to conclude the story. 

Some dramas I felt this way about:
- Lawless Lawyer
For a revenge drama, I didn't feel satisfied by how they "beat" the bad guys. It felt underwhelming. The drama just began sizzling out once they started tying up loose ends.
- Mr Queen
I fell in love with the Chef x King together so the last romantic scene with the actual Queen x King didn't make me feel anything. I wish if they were going to do that to have incorporated the Queen's actual personality alongside the Chef, so it felt like the Queen we (and the King) grew to love was still there.
- Into the Ring
I didn't like that the FL was back to Square One in her career at the end. It felt like such a reversal of her character development throughout the drama. It was frustrating to see. 

These are all dramas I loved but felt the endings didn't live up to the rest of the drama. 

Does anyone else have dramas they love that are like this? 

I loathed the ending of Mr Queen, also. It felt inexplicably like the audience was being gaslit. We were shown a couple deeply in love and connected, and I couldn't believe the writers expected us to buy that being separated was no big deal and they were both fine with it. Normally I dislike sad endings, but it would’ve been better for the drama to just end sadly and acknowledge how heartbreaking the situation is, rather than painting it as a happy conclusion.  

Tale of the Nine Tailed kind of went downhill overall but it was still good, but the last episode ruined it. Like I said above, normally I hate sad endings, but in this situation it would've been better if Lee Yeon stayed dead. Everyone was moving on, keeping his memory alive and also finding their own happiness, just like he wanted, but they had to shoehorn in the perfect "happy ending" tied up with wedding bells and a pretty bow. His resurrection made no sense, and I hated that they sacrificed Lee Rang to do it, even though he was finally happy after a lifetime of pain and trauma.

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon had a weirdly dark ending! It was totally fine except for that very last scene, it made them both look unhappy and left it on a sour note.

Color Rush was excellent, I highly recommend it, but the last episode felt too quick and abandoned several plot threads. Part of what made the story so compelling was that dark undercurrent between the boys, and it was suddenly all peachy and sweet with no mention of the potential dangers.

Though, I loved these dramas but last few episodes did not gave me the satisfaction I wanted!!

LUCA : The beginning :- It started with so much bang and suspense...but last few episodes just ruined everything!! 

Start Up :- The story was good at first half but later for last few episodes I felt as if they were just dragging the story-line

Memories of Alhambra: really enjoyed it and then the ending felt like a total cop-out to me!!

Crash landing on you the ending was okay I guess, I mean it wasn't very sad, but I wanted a classic romantic ending

 Sunset:

The Last Empress - hated the ending for NWS, he was supposed to be badass but got taken down by a random car chase/tied up by some random villain added in last minute, and no one even cared about his death in the end.. that stunt body for him looked pretty weird too

Wow I totally agree with you there. I was a little drunk when I watched that episode and the day after I was wondering why he'd disappeared, so I had to rewind and rewatch that worst-ever-kdrama-killing-of-a-important-character-moment scene again. It's like he was killed off because the actor asked for a raise or something and the writers had to make something up in a hurry.  I totally enjoyed Last Empress, but they made a big mistake with how they wrapped up his character.

King Eternal Monarch: Ok I overall liked the series and the end was OK, but I somehow felt betrayed because I had this expectations she would become queen... that's what the ML chanted about the "future queen" and stirred up emotions and stuff,  but that was never delivered, just some parallel reality stuff. I guess they don't know their audience.

 sailorscout:

THIS! 

Oh, that's so true. I understood they wanted it to be realistic but it was actually quite upsetting. Like this isn't meant to be a realistic drama to begin with, so why can't we somehow figure out a way for the two to end up together? I always thought he'd defect tbh. 

same, I was almost completely certain he was going to defect and they would live happy in S Korea.

And I also wanted the other soldiers to go with them, kinda unrealistic, but come on it's a drama :P