Have we ever had the 'what would your ideal ending have been?' discussion here? I feel like we must have, but maybe it's time for a jumping_off refresher.
The show had all of these elements that could have worked, have told us something about ourselves. But in the end, we got rampant indulgence with an added theme that is highly disturbing.
To me, that is the key to the problem; there were SO many elements that could have played out (Sam really being from 1973; Sam being a time traveller; this is all Sam's subconscious, but where does that leave Sam? etc.) that were just, literally, thrown off the roof. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think the writers needed to tie it up because they knew there was only going to be that second season and grabbed what they could. I've read conflicting stories about what they intended to do from the beginning so I do not buy Graham's assertations that he intended to kill Sam off all along.
Personally, I don't think there IS a way to end it. I would have been happy with an ambiguous ending, really; I think the whole "mad, in a coma, or back in time?" tag could have worked as a resolution. Sam doesn't know, and neither do we. I could have lived with that.
But if a resolution had to be made, I don't think and I just CANNOT believe that Sam would fly off the roof leaving his family to grieve, not after all the angst he put into wanting to see them again. I'd have rather seen him go crazy in 2006 and start having Gene et al as his invisible friends or something. heh.
If the goal was deep philosophical quandry, then I'm with hmpf with the idea of 'accepting inevitable death by never waking up' ending. Tragic, yes, but a more holistically pleasing resolution.
And, quite frankly, I *could* accept Sam committing suicide, under the right circumstances. Some fanfic has explored this: Sam being haunted by ghosts, Sam slowly going insane in 2006, etc. It would have taken nearly a whole third season to work up to that, though, IMHO, and shoving it into one final episode "because we say so" just raped the character.
That's what makes me the most angry about it: the ending was untrue to what we knew of Sam. Well, again: IMHO.
I should really get back to uni stuff, but... ;-)hmpfJanuary 10 2008, 14:36:21 UTC
>I would have been happy with an ambiguous ending, really...
Yes, I would have liked that, too. That would have been a third good way of ending it.
>I'd have rather seen him go crazy in 2006 and start having Gene et al as his invisible friends or something. heh.
And that would have been a fourth good way of ending it. Sheesh, how is it that we can think up four better resolutions in a couple of hours than a whole team of writers could in weeks??
>Tragic, yes, but a more holistically pleasing resolution.
Yup. Could actually be played as a real, proper happy ending, if done right.
>And, quite frankly, I *could* accept Sam committing suicide, under the right circumstances.
Yes, me too. It's not suicide per se (in stories) that I have a problem with. I think the ending of Thelma and Louise makes sense, for example. (On the other hand, I've always just wanted to shout at Romeo and Juliet. *g*) In some situations, for some characters, it makes sense. Depending on the circumstances it could have made sense for Sam.
>Some fanfic has explored this: Sam being haunted by ghosts, Sam slowly going insane in 2006, etc. It would have taken nearly a whole third season to work up to that, though, IMHO, and shoving it into one final episode "because we say so" just raped the character.
Also, in none of the cited cases it would have been a happy ending.
>That's what makes me the most angry about it: the ending was untrue to what we knew of Sam. Well, again: IMHO.
When he talks about 'it was always going to have this ending' I think Matt must mean 'Sam was in a coma', because he always contradicts it in the next breath. He's never said he intended to kill Sam off all along.
The ending was untrue to what we know of Sam, for a variety of reasons.
And this is what annoys me most about the ending. Because if all the events of LOM were just meant to be what Sam's subconscious thought up while he was in a coma, the entire series is just about Sam. And if you mess with his character, in the end you're just left with... a mess. Basically nothing is left at all.
And, quite frankly, I *could* accept Sam committing suicide, under the right circumstances. Some fanfic has explored this: Sam being haunted by ghosts, Sam slowly going insane in 2006, etc.
Do you know the links to these fics by any chance?
To me, that is the key to the problem; there were SO many elements that could have played out (Sam really being from 1973; Sam being a time traveller; this is all Sam's subconscious, but where does that leave Sam? etc.) that were just, literally, thrown off the roof. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think the writers needed to tie it up because they knew there was only going to be that second season and grabbed what they could. I've read conflicting stories about what they intended to do from the beginning so I do not buy Graham's assertations that he intended to kill Sam off all along.
Personally, I don't think there IS a way to end it. I would have been happy with an ambiguous ending, really; I think the whole "mad, in a coma, or back in time?" tag could have worked as a resolution. Sam doesn't know, and neither do we. I could have lived with that.
But if a resolution had to be made, I don't think and I just CANNOT believe that Sam would fly off the roof leaving his family to grieve, not after all the angst he put into wanting to see them again. I'd have rather seen him go crazy in 2006 and start having Gene et al as his invisible friends or something. heh.
If the goal was deep philosophical quandry, then I'm with hmpf with the idea of 'accepting inevitable death by never waking up' ending. Tragic, yes, but a more holistically pleasing resolution.
And, quite frankly, I *could* accept Sam committing suicide, under the right circumstances. Some fanfic has explored this: Sam being haunted by ghosts, Sam slowly going insane in 2006, etc. It would have taken nearly a whole third season to work up to that, though, IMHO, and shoving it into one final episode "because we say so" just raped the character.
That's what makes me the most angry about it: the ending was untrue to what we knew of Sam. Well, again: IMHO.
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Yes, I would have liked that, too. That would have been a third good way of ending it.
>I'd have rather seen him go crazy in 2006 and start having Gene et al as his invisible friends or something. heh.
And that would have been a fourth good way of ending it. Sheesh, how is it that we can think up four better resolutions in a couple of hours than a whole team of writers could in weeks??
>Tragic, yes, but a more holistically pleasing resolution.
Yup. Could actually be played as a real, proper happy ending, if done right.
>And, quite frankly, I *could* accept Sam committing suicide, under the right circumstances.
Yes, me too. It's not suicide per se (in stories) that I have a problem with. I think the ending of Thelma and Louise makes sense, for example. (On the other hand, I've always just wanted to shout at Romeo and Juliet. *g*) In some situations, for some characters, it makes sense. Depending on the circumstances it could have made sense for Sam.
>Some fanfic has explored this: Sam being haunted by ghosts, Sam slowly going insane in 2006, etc. It would have taken nearly a whole third season to work up to that, though, IMHO, and shoving it into one final episode "because we say so" just raped the character.
Also, in none of the cited cases it would have been a happy ending.
>That's what makes me the most angry about it: the ending was untrue to what we knew of Sam. Well, again: IMHO.
I agree.
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The ending was untrue to what we know of Sam, for a variety of reasons.
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Do you know the links to these fics by any chance?
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