Last minute hopes, fears and a rec
With shows approaching their finales left, right and center, here are a few not so secret wishes on my part to the show runners:
Ashes to Ashes: you guys have been amazing with the ensemble development, which is one of several reasons why I prefer the spin-off. Keep it up right until the end and give Shaz, Ray and Chris as good a goodbye als Alex and Gene. Speaking of Gene, I'm okay with redeemed, tragically-flawed-yet-heroic Gene Hunt, but please, please, do not, especially after a season that showcased his flaws like no other, including the first of LoM, suddenly pull a "was right all along in everything and is the bestest copper who ever existed!"Gene Hunt. Also, I'm with
londonkds: no Sam Tyler cameo as the grand climax. He's an important part of the backstory, yes, but he's not the hero of this show. Which brings me to Alex, and my ideal ending for her is what I've outlined in the last reviews: Alex, realising the "everyone, including Gene, is dead" truth, affectionately yet firmly makes Gene face this and helps him finally move on, replaces him as the psychopomp in charge of helping dead coppers transition, and in the last scene welcomes the first new arrival. It's fitting for the character (if she's dead, in which case Molly is not an option anyway), who is something of a "mamma bear", to quote ep 2.08, but not in a stiffling, can't let go, my way is the only way manner, which was the trap Gene fell into, and a trained psychologist, and it would work on a symbolic level - the age of Gene Hunt is past, no matter how much the tv audience and the characters, including Alex, have come to love him, you can learn something from him, sure, but you really have to do things differently and on your own in the new age.
The Good Wife: has remained excellent so far, but I have a few caveats. . I've always guessed that if Peter gets out of prison before the finale, Alicia will divorce him for the grand climax. (She wouldn't if he had remained in prison.) Which as a gesture of independence and not repeating the past I'm absolutely on board with, as long as it's not presented as a choice between two men, and "independence" does not come in the guise of getting out of the marriage with Peter only to get into a full-blown romance with Will. I don't think that's just my Will dislike speaking. (Which is more intense than ever. No, the "see, Will saves babies!" episode didn't help.) Between Will being her boss and Will being at least as morally ambiguos as Peter, I don't see how a relationship with him would be in any way indepedent. Ideally, I want her to reject Will and start divorce proceedings with Peter anyway (though Peter, who is an interesting character and still the father of her children, should stick around on the show and have sometimes tense and sometimes comfortable interaction with her). Also, please, show, don't demonize Cary, who might have started out as "the competition" but became a very enjoyable character with his own sense of honor. Not that I see him joining the Man in Black aka The Smoke Monster Childs as demonizing so far, it's very understandable, given the way the competition between him and Alicia ended. Regarding Kalinda, I have no fears, and am game for anything the show comes up, given all they've done with her so far.
Lost: oh, where to start? Instead of a long list, I'll simply say: be magnificent, guys. I don't care whether this includes being partly frustrating as well, because, well, tradition, but I want something splendid for the finale, and I know you can do it. Also, because the internet is like that, look what I found: The John Locke Rap, summing up Locke's life until mid-season 5.
Non-impending tv show finales related links: A hilarious send-up of Christopher Hitchens' autobiography, Hitch-22 : By the early 1980s I had grown tired of the self-satisfied London parochialism that refused to honour me as the greatest thinker of the Far Left, and moved - taking only my first editions of Proust and Rosa Luxemburg - to New York, where I quickly became America's lone moral force against the crass relativism of intellectual pygmies such as Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Saul Bellow - all of whom have since conceded I was right.
Merlin fanfic rec:
(Possibly not) The End of the World: in which Arthur overslept by fourteen centuries. He blames Merlin. Also Morgana, but mostly Merlin. Especially awesome for the way it uses Gwen, who usually gets the short stick in reincarnation fic, but here plays a crucial part. Choice excerpt: “Wasn’t Lancelot supposed to be looking after you?” asked Arthur as they picked their way down the hill to where the boat was waiting to take them back to shore. “He was. He did. He stopped reincarnating after he and Merlin had words about five hundred years ago,” responded Gwen distractedly, more concerned with not falling over a treacherous tussock in the lingering twilight. “Words?” “I believe the conversation ended along the lines of: ‘Wake me up when you wake Arthur for the Apocalypse and not before.’
Ashes to Ashes: you guys have been amazing with the ensemble development, which is one of several reasons why I prefer the spin-off. Keep it up right until the end and give Shaz, Ray and Chris as good a goodbye als Alex and Gene. Speaking of Gene, I'm okay with redeemed, tragically-flawed-yet-heroic Gene Hunt, but please, please, do not, especially after a season that showcased his flaws like no other, including the first of LoM, suddenly pull a "was right all along in everything and is the bestest copper who ever existed!"Gene Hunt. Also, I'm with
londonkds: no Sam Tyler cameo as the grand climax. He's an important part of the backstory, yes, but he's not the hero of this show. Which brings me to Alex, and my ideal ending for her is what I've outlined in the last reviews: Alex, realising the "everyone, including Gene, is dead" truth, affectionately yet firmly makes Gene face this and helps him finally move on, replaces him as the psychopomp in charge of helping dead coppers transition, and in the last scene welcomes the first new arrival. It's fitting for the character (if she's dead, in which case Molly is not an option anyway), who is something of a "mamma bear", to quote ep 2.08, but not in a stiffling, can't let go, my way is the only way manner, which was the trap Gene fell into, and a trained psychologist, and it would work on a symbolic level - the age of Gene Hunt is past, no matter how much the tv audience and the characters, including Alex, have come to love him, you can learn something from him, sure, but you really have to do things differently and on your own in the new age.
The Good Wife: has remained excellent so far, but I have a few caveats. . I've always guessed that if Peter gets out of prison before the finale, Alicia will divorce him for the grand climax. (She wouldn't if he had remained in prison.) Which as a gesture of independence and not repeating the past I'm absolutely on board with, as long as it's not presented as a choice between two men, and "independence" does not come in the guise of getting out of the marriage with Peter only to get into a full-blown romance with Will. I don't think that's just my Will dislike speaking. (Which is more intense than ever. No, the "see, Will saves babies!" episode didn't help.) Between Will being her boss and Will being at least as morally ambiguos as Peter, I don't see how a relationship with him would be in any way indepedent. Ideally, I want her to reject Will and start divorce proceedings with Peter anyway (though Peter, who is an interesting character and still the father of her children, should stick around on the show and have sometimes tense and sometimes comfortable interaction with her). Also, please, show, don't demonize Cary, who might have started out as "the competition" but became a very enjoyable character with his own sense of honor. Not that I see him joining the Man in Black aka The Smoke Monster Childs as demonizing so far, it's very understandable, given the way the competition between him and Alicia ended. Regarding Kalinda, I have no fears, and am game for anything the show comes up, given all they've done with her so far.
Lost: oh, where to start? Instead of a long list, I'll simply say: be magnificent, guys. I don't care whether this includes being partly frustrating as well, because, well, tradition, but I want something splendid for the finale, and I know you can do it. Also, because the internet is like that, look what I found: The John Locke Rap, summing up Locke's life until mid-season 5.
Click to viewNon-impending tv show finales related links: A hilarious send-up of Christopher Hitchens' autobiography, Hitch-22 : By the early 1980s I had grown tired of the self-satisfied London parochialism that refused to honour me as the greatest thinker of the Far Left, and moved - taking only my first editions of Proust and Rosa Luxemburg - to New York, where I quickly became America's lone moral force against the crass relativism of intellectual pygmies such as Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Saul Bellow - all of whom have since conceded I was right.
Merlin fanfic rec:
(Possibly not) The End of the World: in which Arthur overslept by fourteen centuries. He blames Merlin. Also Morgana, but mostly Merlin. Especially awesome for the way it uses Gwen, who usually gets the short stick in reincarnation fic, but here plays a crucial part. Choice excerpt: “Wasn’t Lancelot supposed to be looking after you?” asked Arthur as they picked their way down the hill to where the boat was waiting to take them back to shore. “He was. He did. He stopped reincarnating after he and Merlin had words about five hundred years ago,” responded Gwen distractedly, more concerned with not falling over a treacherous tussock in the lingering twilight. “Words?” “I believe the conversation ended along the lines of: ‘Wake me up when you wake Arthur for the Apocalypse and not before.’