The Last Word

Here's a piece in Variety about great TV finales.  You see these every now and then, usually around the end of the TV season (not that there is a TV season any more).  Such lists usually include classic endings like Newhart, maybe a controversial pick like The Sopranos (which I thought worked) and will even mention disasters like Seinfeld or St. Elsewhere or Lost.

The whole list, to save you a click, is:

30 Rock
The Americans
Breaking Bad
ER
Halt And Catch Fire
Happy Endings
M*A*S*H
Newhart
Nurse Jackie
Parks And Recreation
Six Feet Under
The Wire

A strange collection.  Let me make a few comments:

I never watched The Americans, ER, Happy Endings or Six Feet Under, so there's nothing for me to say. (Though I understand Six Feet Under ended with each character's death, which fit in with the style and funereal theme of the show.  Doesn't sound bad, though this had already been done in the novel The World According To Garp.)  And I gave up on Nurse Jackie after a season or two. Perhaps their finale worked--guess I'll never find out.  Edie Falco took part in The Sopranos finale, of course, so if Nurse Jackie had a classic ending, she must be especially pleased.

Newhart made it.  What did I tell you?  Though I don't see The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ended just right.  Are people forgetting?

I thought 30 Rock and Parks And Recreation had decent endings, but were they classic?  I might add on comedies, the endings, where we send the characters off to something new, feel unsettling.  Sure, things change on sitcoms--people get married, have kids, move--but what we like are the characters being themselves, and if we end the show with them trying new challenges, it might make sense artistically, but it's not how we want to remember them.

Breaking Bad has become acknowledged as a classic finale.  It certainly wrapped things up, but I considered it just a solid episode, not a great one.  There's nothing wrong with that--in fact, a solid episode of BB is very good indeed.  But perhaps the finale is a bit overrated.

Not unlike Breaking Bad, though not nearly as watched, Halt And Catch Fire ended well, though I don't know if the finale, or even the last season, was the show at its absolute best.

And now, the most confusing additions to the list, M*A*S*H and The Wire.  Yes, CBS had a happy ending with monumental ratings, but that M*A*S*H borefest took forever, and went for sloggy sentiment over comedy (which, to be fair, was closer to the balance the series had moved to in its later seasons).  It should be on the list of the worst finales.  And something similar needs to be said for The Wire.  Just about everyone agrees its last season was its weakest, and while the final episode gave all the characters (still living) a future, it just didn't compare to the show at its height.

The list is packed with modern shows--better to attract readers, I guess.  But as such, I'm surprised they didn't mention The Leftovers, the best finale in recent years.  The show was always as much poetry as plot and, coming from the guy who made Lost, there was worry that they wouldn't know how to end it.  But they did it just right.