I have to say that I really enjoyed the finale and I thought the writers were very clever in putting the audience and Sam in the same existential dilemma. You get to decide how it ended, you get to choose the reality that suits you, just as Sam did. Aside from that, Sam is an exploration of an idea, not someone to mimic. You could even say he is a cautionary tale, an illustration as to why we need to find a balance between fact and emotion
( ... )
Actually, I agree that art does not need to be moral. However, it needs to make a coherent statement (unless its point is something else entirely, which of course also happens; hey, I went to art college for three years, and I'm studying literature now, among other things - I'm not entirely ignorant about what art does/can do/is allowed to do ;-) - but we're in the realm of tv here, so forgive me if I judge it by tv rules to some degree) - and Life On Mars failed to do that for me
( ... )
Re: Art and morals.candogirlApril 12 2007, 07:55:04 UTC
Hmm, we disagree about what the jump back to 73 meant. I never felt like it was a happy ending and I think at most it could be considered bitter sweet. I'm sure some people are all "Aww, Annie and Sam together 4evah!!!" but I thought the darkest moment of the show was when she said stay forever and he said he would. It was his death knell
( ... )
Re: Art and morals.echo_voiceApril 12 2007, 10:29:07 UTC
"I thought the darkest moment of the show was when she said stay forever and he said he would. It was his death knell." THAT is very interesting. It didn't occur to me in the slightest, and I'm not entirely sure that I agree, but I like it nonetheless
( ... )
Heh. I wrote a lengthy rant on my own LJ - which is linked in the official review post, which then got lost in the reams and reams of posts by other people who completely ignored the existence of that official spot for their ranblings - in which I adore the episode, but am deeply unhappy with the ending for the reasons you've stated here.
I choose to disregard whatever the writers wanted us to think, and believe that Sam never actually woke up, he only thought he had. Fantasy within fantasy. He either died on the table, or remains in his coma.
I agree with absolutely every thing you said here. You did an especially good job at covering the nuances of the geek's idea of "escapism=good and defensible" with the, well, rather disturbed suggestion within the show that "fantasy>your health and life and sanity".
I was wondering how I'd approach explaining my reaction to the finale - now I can just point them at your post.
The two best explanations I have are: 1) Very similar to your "he never woke up" theory - the tumour wasn't as benign as they thought (odd thing for a doctor to miss but you know, could happen), it metastasized (sp?) and he went, well, literally insane.
2) Which Adrian came up with and is due entirely to his mind's over-saturation with Anime, but in this instance it works sort of well. I would note that the fact the explanation I find "best" requires an actual reinterpretation of the entire world says something. But anyway, onwards
( ... )
Also, I'm kind of reassured that a relatively high number of people whose opinions I've been valuing for years (selenak, you, stabbim...) seem to agree with me. I was beginning to feel rather like a freak in the fandom. *g*
Also, I am filled with frenzied 'fix-it' fanfic writing urges. I'm afraid it's all going to be very 'fanficcy fanfic', not 'art'. ;-) But I *really* need it now. And it's oh so good to just be able to write an entire page in a day! *bg*
I'm not actually all that articulate at the moment, and you do have some good points but I don't quite agree with you. Perhaps it has something to do with my stubborn belief that 1973 IS real, that Gene and Annie is real, so on so forth
( ... )
See, and my main emotional and intellectual point here is:hmpfApril 13 2007, 00:00:00 UTC
"2007 is not a cage".
And also, if it *were* a cage, I believe we'd have a moral obligation to break down the bars.
Of course, this attitude of taking the way of least resistance and maximum fun is very popular nowadays. It's, of course, a universal human desire, but I do think that we're living in a very hedonistic age where people are maybe encouraged a bit too much to always think of themselves and their own - often superficial - happiness first. It's almost become a kind of moral imperative of our time: "Do what makes you happy, squeeze the maximum of fun out of every moment..." It is, of course, rather in keeping with the neoliberal world-order - the idea behind that, after all, is that if everyone's looking out for number one, everyone will be fine. Of course, Sam's example shows perfectly why this kind of approach is flawed: if we start looking out radically for our own happiness and only our own happiness, we are likely to hurt other people.
Just want to say YES to everything you wrote. I just feel betrayed, the idea of who I thought Sam was...now some of your wonderful commentators bring up the point that Sam may not have ever woken up in 2007 and that we are witnessing his end...it makes me feel better this interpretation.
But its not really what we saw on screen.
I had written in a comment to selenak that I wanted that Wizard of Oz ending. Afterall, they had been feeding us a steady stream of Oz references. But Sam isn't as strong as Dorothy or as Buffy (BtVS Normal Again). This leaves such a bad taste....and they used that wonderful version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
Ach!
Now I have to wait for some talented fic writer to write the ending that we needed not wanted. Shame on you LoM writers for tripping at the finish line.
Comments 97
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
I choose to disregard whatever the writers wanted us to think, and believe that Sam never actually woke up, he only thought he had. Fantasy within fantasy. He either died on the table, or remains in his coma.
Reply
I was wondering how I'd approach explaining my reaction to the finale - now I can just point them at your post.
The two best explanations I have are: 1) Very similar to your "he never woke up" theory - the tumour wasn't as benign as they thought (odd thing for a doctor to miss but you know, could happen), it metastasized (sp?) and he went, well, literally insane.
2) Which Adrian came up with and is due entirely to his mind's over-saturation with Anime, but in this instance it works sort of well. I would note that the fact the explanation I find "best" requires an actual reinterpretation of the entire world says something. But anyway, onwards ( ... )
Reply
Also, I'm kind of reassured that a relatively high number of people whose opinions I've been valuing for years (selenak, you, stabbim...) seem to agree with me. I was beginning to feel rather like a freak in the fandom. *g*
Also, I am filled with frenzied 'fix-it' fanfic writing urges. I'm afraid it's all going to be very 'fanficcy fanfic', not 'art'. ;-) But I *really* need it now. And it's oh so good to just be able to write an entire page in a day! *bg*
Reply
Reply
Reply
And also, if it *were* a cage, I believe we'd have a moral obligation to break down the bars.
Of course, this attitude of taking the way of least resistance and maximum fun is very popular nowadays. It's, of course, a universal human desire, but I do think that we're living in a very hedonistic age where people are maybe encouraged a bit too much to always think of themselves and their own - often superficial - happiness first. It's almost become a kind of moral imperative of our time: "Do what makes you happy, squeeze the maximum of fun out of every moment..." It is, of course, rather in keeping with the neoliberal world-order - the idea behind that, after all, is that if everyone's looking out for number one, everyone will be fine. Of course, Sam's example shows perfectly why this kind of approach is flawed: if we start looking out radically for our own happiness and only our own happiness, we are likely to hurt other people.
Reply
Reply
Just want to say YES to everything you wrote. I just feel betrayed, the idea of who I thought Sam was...now some of your wonderful commentators bring up the point that Sam may not have ever woken up in 2007 and that we are witnessing his end...it makes me feel better this interpretation.
But its not really what we saw on screen.
I had written in a comment to selenak that I wanted that Wizard of Oz ending. Afterall, they had been feeding us a steady stream of Oz references. But Sam isn't as strong as Dorothy or as Buffy (BtVS Normal Again). This leaves such a bad taste....and they used that wonderful version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
Ach!
Now I have to wait for some talented fic writer to write the ending that we needed not wanted. Shame on you LoM writers for tripping at the finish line.
Reply
Leave a comment