Many people now consider the finale to be brilliant, but I was just wondering if people liked it back in 1988.
Who wants to live forever?
It was as controversial then as it is now. I don't really care for it myself.
shareSt. Elsewhere is my all-time favorite show. But I did not like the ending.
shareOne of the cast called it a "swindle perpetrated on the viewers." People rose up an howled.
shareIt's funny that people cared, because it's just a TV show and doesn't exist in the first place. Then Newhart sort of copied the idea with its final episode, and that was hilarious! But I guess Dallas tried the whole idea first.
shareMaybe...but the entire point of actually investing in a show in a character driven drama is being able to relate to these characters and to care about them. Emotionally they feel real even as we mentally know they are not.. But that's sort of the fun of it.
Very few shows are capable of eliciting this response (for me)...but those that engage me in this way become very special.
To pull the wool over our eyes in this way kind of ruins the whole show.
And before you make fun of people getting to involved in fictional characters just remember that this sort of emotional investment has been going on since people started telling stories. ...before Shakespeare. It's not an alien concept.
You can be emotionally invested in characters, but still realize that they are fictional. I used to watch the show from time to time as a kid, and I've just finished watching the entire series (over the past few months). I think the issue is that it can be devastating for any fans of a TV show that's ending to realize that a show isn't returning, and that they won't be able to find out what "happens" to these people. I think the show's creators were just trying to make some commentary about what constitutes reality, but not trying to ruin the show.
shareI think they were trying to be clever...and it didn't work.
They might as well have had any one of the main characters wake up to find it was all a dream.
Well, people are still discussing and writing articles about it 30 years later. I think with the final episode, the creators were trying to avoid the cliched endings of other shows, while at the same time paying homage to them. The series had seemed to end the previous season with the hospital being bulldozed with Dr. Auschlander inside. Now that's the sort of ending that would have made me very sad.
shareYes
shareGenerally, well received but even then there were critics of it. I for one did not like it.
sharePut me in the column of those who didn't mind the ending and thought it was clever.
As I recall, I did have to ponder over it, as to why exactly this was how they chose to wrap it up.
Certainly was puzzling, but I thought it was their own artistic license to end it as they chose, and ultimately found it touching and charming.
Dreams aren't real but I often find them to be very intriguing, much more so than being awake.
I was disappointed in the ending when I first saw it. But I didn't get angry. I've seen some far worse series finales.
I questioned why they chose to have the series be the dreams of an autistic boy? There was some fairly sophisticated and adult situations going on. How would a child imagine all of that?
My personal response is --
I don't think the whole series should be tied up and judged by the whim of the last episode.
Of course one can poke holes in the whole scheme if you try hard enough, but like The Sopranos, I wouldn't let the final episode cloud my estimation of the whole endeavor.
Thanks for the response.