Anyone else think the final montage is overrated?
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ADBruns — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 11:47 AM)
Overrated? No. By people who underrate the rest of the series? For sure. I don't think that it's even because it's "the best" so much as it set a standard for finales. What bugs me is Keith's death. Yes, it makes sense for his story, but why did the one major black character get a premature and violent death? I don't think it was inherently racist, but unnecessary, probably wouldn't have gone that way today.
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NinetyPercentGravity — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 06:16 PM)
As someone who consider this show their all-time favorite, I'd have to agree with the above poster regarding people who underrated the rest of the series.
While I'd be lying if I said I didn't still love the Sia montage, I certainly don't think that those nine minutes should be the entire summation of the show's legacy. While undoubtably effective, the show is simply so much more than Everyone's Waiting. Hell I don't even consider the montage the most impressive aspect of the finale, let alone of the series.
Now of course, the people who visit IMDb message boards, critics, the people who can appreciate the larger scope of drama television, understand the impact that the show in terms of evolving the drama genre and balancing the macabre with the humorous and abstract, all that great stuff. But for the average consumer, I think it's realistic to say that they know the show largely for the finale, if they've even heard of it at all.
While the series was certainly not without moments of spectacle and showiness, the show truly excelled in the moments of subtlety and nuance. Superb writing, the masterful handling of the subject matter, completely believable and immersive characters and developments, those are the types of reasons why I consider this show the best of all-time, not because it throws together a Sia montage and eradicates the entire cast in the series finale.
As the poster above me said, it did set a standard for other finales, and of course this upcoming point is largely tied into the fact that I've seen the finale montage 50 times, but I personally don't see the ingenuity and marvel of it. From an outside perspective, as someone who wasn't familiar with the content and bravery of the show, I could absolutely understand how the idea of watching every central character die seems enthralling and groundbreaking. That being said, the other 62 episodes were just as inventive and masterful as the finale was, to the point where after watching and conceptualizing the tone of the entire series, the conceit of the montage does not seem nearly as innovative.
Like I originally said, I still absolutely watch the montage and become emotional, I am completely fine with it as an ending to the show, but I don't believe that it works as a representation of the greater series. The show approached mortality through so many different lens' and with so much care and open-mindedness, but in the end the concept of death became just as straightforward and one-dimensional as it was on any other television show, just another water-cooler gimmick. I would have preferred something a little less garish and a little more poignant.
The show, at its best, was grounded in subtlety and poise, at its worst (looking at you, Season 4) veered off into clumsy directions of a network drama. I think the finale borrowed too much from the latter. -
GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(August 22, 2016 06:17 PM)
Agreed.
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GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(December 21, 2016 01:09 AM)
There you go. I don't think I hated it as much as you, but it absolutely would have been cool with the dinner table toast. Or what about a shorter version of Claire driving east to the Sia song?
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bkguy182 — 9 years ago(January 04, 2017 10:45 AM)
even though this is my favorite show of all time, i do think the ending is vastly overrated and borders on silly at points. but the more poignant moments (ruth seeing her men, david seeing Kieth, the non death stuff), make it all worth it.
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GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(January 04, 2017 11:16 AM)
Sounds like we are pretty close to agreement.
Do you think the focus in media/online culture on the finale (and implicitly, on the montage) is harmful to the show overall? Or is it helpful in keeping it in "the conversation" in terms of the best cable dramas of all time?
My top 250:
http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=SlackerInc&perpage=250 -
bkguy182 — 9 years ago(January 04, 2017 01:59 PM)
Do you think the focus in media/online culture on the finale (and implicitly, on the montage) is harmful to the show overall?
nope!
Or is it helpful in keeping it in "the conversation" in terms of the best cable dramas of all time?
yup!
so while it may set some up for disappointment, the journey they'll have experienced up until that point will make whatever they feel about the ending moot. i cant imagine someone saying, "i watched 70 hours of tv for THAT?!?!" they'll have connected to the story and characters the same way we all did, and the ending, at that point, wont matter. regardless, the vast majority of the people are going to love it. whether its because they actually do or theyve been primed to think they do. they will. -
GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(January 04, 2017 10:12 PM)
Unless they just skip to the end
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flaiky — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 05:35 PM)
Yeah, as much as I love the show I'm not crazy about the montage. It's a great concept but not so great in execution. The obituaries HBO released for the main characters tell us everything about their lives (and deaths!), so they would have been sufficient.
To be honest, I find the whole finale a tad overrated. It's a very good episode and brings nice closure, but episodes 9, 10, and 11 of Season 5 are the ones that deserve all the attention. They are am.az.ing.
Ill be waiting, with a gun and a pack of sandwiches. -
GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(January 07, 2017 12:09 AM)
Those are great, but my all-time favorite episode is still the Season 5 premiere.
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flaiky — 9 years ago(January 08, 2017 05:43 AM)
That's an interesting choice. My #1 actually isn't from those episodes either - it's probably A Private Life (season 1, episode 12). That stretch from S5 is next, but it's all so depressing and hard to watch..!
Ill be waiting, with a gun and a pack of sandwiches. -
GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(January 10, 2017 02:33 AM)
Is "interesting" a polite way of saying you think it's an inexplicable choice?
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flaiky — 9 years ago(January 10, 2017 04:38 AM)
Haha well I think it's a solid, memorable episode so not "inexplicable" but it's an unusual choice. Personally I find the flashback scenes a little jarring, which is why it isn't a favorite, but the Brenda stuff is fascinating and I always like when the characters are brought together.
Ill be waiting, with a gun and a pack of sandwiches. -
GuyOnTheLeft — 9 years ago(January 10, 2017 05:15 AM)
The wedding/miscarriage is so raw and harrowing. Brenda's mom shows a side we don't often see. Every conversation by every character at the wedding is perfectly written and acted. Even the title is amazing.
The opening death is, more than most of them, like a little movieand a good one. (Were there ever any others that showed a substantial period of time before the death?)
My top 250:
http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=SlackerInc&perpage=250