An end to the ending that already had began

In 2012, Mike Nesmith said at the time the movie was made and released, their careers as The Monkees was pretty much over, even though the studio had plans to make more movies with them. (The film cost $750,000 to make and brought in less than $12,000 in ticket sales.) The terrible box office response cooked their movie career right there and then. As he put it, it was their swan song, but it afforded them the opportunity to express themselves in ways they couldn't on the TV show. It shattered their image--I mean obliterated it--but over time they combined the good qualities of both the goofy TV series and the disturbing--to me, anyway--movie. I discovered the Monkees in 1986 during their revival as a 15-year-old, so I never experienced the show or the movie...my main focus was their music. I have watched some of the show here and there for the past 30 years, but it wasn't until yesterday that I watched the movie. It did to me what it supposedly did to people in 1968...totally destroyed their goofy TV image. If I was a true fan of the TV show back then and saw this movie, I think I would have had a conniption. Fortunately, my love of the Monkees is, again, focused on their music. I think "Porpoise Song" is crazy and disturbing and weird and I kind of wish they would bury it. But they did play it at the show I saw this past weekend and I kind of just went with it...kind of like a necessary evil. I never did drugs or have been high, but watching that movie...I feel that's what it must feel like, which I have read was kind of the idea. Honestly, I wish I could unsee it, but I know I'll watch it again. The strangeness is addicting, which...again...is like drugs. I guess watching this movie is better than doing LSD, which Jack Nicholson was supposedly on when he finalized the script. That makes sense, I guess. How else would he be cool with his girlfriend making out with four Monkees?