Thursday, May 27, 2010

FINALLY....

So, in the shower this morning, I was thinking about  the series finale of LOST(I'm not quite able to get it out of my head yet)some of the Series Finales I have seen in my life, and I know that this is far from original, but I thought that I might share my thoughts on some of the Series finales of shows that I watched fairly regularly.
  So, here we go.In no particular order, except for how they are popping into my head. And, I assume it goes without saying that there are spoilers afoot.And for those of you who might remember, I did do this before, so call this an update, or "re-boot" to use the Hollywood parlance of our times(I totally misused "parlance of our times" didn't I? Oh well, who gives a rip?).

 St.Elsewhere: This is one that receives a lot of ridicule, but I remember watching this show, and I remember quite liking the Series Finale...In the end, we find out that the series was all going on in the head of an autistic boy who had a snow globe with the St. Eligius building in it.I thought it was pretty brilliant.If I remember correctly, there were also a ton of references to other tee vee shows in the dialogue. there's a barber in the episode and his name is Floyd, and someone says "yeah, old  Floyd, he may bury(Mayberry?) us all." and there is a runaway stretcher nad someone yells "Grab that Gurnee, Hal!!" and Hal Gurnee was the director of Late Night with David Letterman at the time.There were a lot more that I am not remembering.



Quantum Leap : This was absolutely brilliant and heartbreaking.In the final episode, Sam leaps into a bar, and actually sees himself in the mirror(he usually sees the face of the person he has leaped into.The owner of the bar is named Al(also the name of the guy who helps Sam with his leaps) and he seems to know a lot about Sam and his leaping(is he God? They never say). Sam sees someone else i n the room turn blue and disappear, just like he does when he leaps.
  Sam thinks that this Al is the person who is leaping him, but comes to the realization that he has been at least partially in control. He wonders about the use of helping one person at a time, but Al tells him that all the lives ah has touched have touched others,and those lives, others, and so on.
  the bartender asks Sam where he wants to go, Sam replies: I want to go home, but I can't I have a wrong to put right for Al.But you knew that didn't you?" the bartender puts his hand on Sam's shoulder and says"God bless, Sam". And Sam leaps back to a time when he leaped into the life of Al's ex-wife, but did not tell her that Al was still alive(all was a POW in Vietnam and his wife thought he was dead and remarried. Al was never the same) because it was not while he was there.He proceeds to tell Al's wife that Al is alive, and that he's coming home.The camera closes in on a picture of Al that turns all blue...the screen goes black, and then reads(I'm paraphrasing):  Beth never remarried.
  She and Al have 5 daughters and will celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary.
  Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home.
Sniff, sob.

  Newhart: Bob wakes up in bed and tells his wife about the dream he had.Emily(Suzanne Pleshette), his wife from the old Bob Newhart Show rolls over in bed next to him. Best spoof "of it was all a dream EVER." Just Awesome!



(You might recognize Lisa Kudrow as the  middle bride of Larry,Darryl and Darryl.)

 X-Files:You know what? I do NOT remember the series finale of this show.I do remember that I thought it should have gone off the air like 3 years earlier, but I simply do not remember a moment of it.

 Sopranos: I don't really remember much about this finale except for the last scene, which I simply thought was brilliant.They build this tension, and it just ends. Cuts to black.You don't know what happens. Will someone kill Tony? Maybe. Will it be in that diner? Maybe. Maybe not.But it will always be lurking there, won't it?







 Seinfeld: I thought this was a brilliant and completely appropriate end for this show.I didn't think the episode itself was that great, but I thought the ending of them in jail for not helping someone was funny and completely appropriate for them. And then reprising a conversation from the first episode was brilliant as well. They learned NOTHING.



 Twin Peaks: All these cliffhangers that go nowhere. Absolutely brilliant. "How's Annie? How's Annie?"



Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I liked the first series finale two years earlier better than this one, but I did like this one as well.Buffy distributes the Slayer power to all the potential slayers in the world. Destroys the Hellmouth(or one of them) and defeats the first Evil. I nitpick on the fact that they sort of disrespected Anya after she died, and I would have liked it if they killed off the Principal(never liked his character), but overall, it was a satisfying ending to the series.

Freaks and Geeks: Great show. Can't believe it was only on one season. Loved this final episode.Lindsey gets introduced to the good old Grateful Dead, and then leaves to go on tour instead of going to mathlete camp.The look on her face when she says goodbye to her Mom seems to say she's not sure she's coming back. Greatness: great scene, great episode, great show(great band :) ).




And, of course..."I Married Dora"




So, what else is on?

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