All Good Things Must End

NOTE: Spoiler alert. This post addresses TV series finales. If you are not caught up with or plan to watch Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos, Big Love or M*A*S*H, then you may want to skip parts of this post. I will bold the show titles, so you can see where I am coming to particular shows and then you can skip that paragraph, or skim over parts of it.

After watching the pretty horrible "Dexter" series finale last Sunday, and as I prepare for the end of "Breaking Bad" this Sunday, I started thinking about the nature of finales in general. I agree that we are in the midst of a golden age for television. Where much of the film world is stalled out in superhero sequels, tired remakes and the like, television has been blown wide open with cable channels putting their resources into series television. HBO, Showtime, AMC and others can go to places that the old networks never could (or would). But the art of a successful, satisfying and even surprising finale is still elusive.

You can't please everyone. Some people wanted Dexter to die for his sins, others wanted him to be able to turn his back on his serial killer urges and finally find happiness with his family and a "normal" life. But the lumberjack coda just made no sense at all, and almost all fans, however you wanted Dexter to end up, were not pleased with what happened. It would have even been better if they had faded to black as he drove his boat into the hurricane, as opposed to tacking on...that. I guess they left some ambiguity there, but what bothered so many viewers was that it just did not make sense, considering the journey the character had taken, it wasn't consistent with who he had become.

ABOVE: Dexter is now a lumberjack and left his son in the hands of another serial killer. Makes sense.

For television, it is even more difficult that coming up with a good ending for a film. Generally, films are self-contained stories that demand a beginning, middle and end. Endings are expected in films. But as television viewers, we have gotten used to it being open ended, to looking forward, year after year, to the next season. When they do decide to end a series, as a loyal viewer, there may be some anger and resentment there. I mean, a movie has to end. A TV series can go on and on, depending on ratings and financing. It is often a creative decision on when a series needs to end. "Dexter," for instance, went on about three seasons too long. It got repetitive, characters had gone as far as they should go seasons ago. They never recovered from having to top the brilliant John Lithgow season.

"The Sopranos" finale upset a lot of people. I didn't like it when it aired, but as time has passed, I find it more satisfying. The last scene was masterfully shot, where it could be a completely banal family meal made tense only by the viewer's imagination and knowledge of what had come before, as well as the expectation of "this is the last scene, something amazing must happen!" Creator David Chase was playing on all of that. Or, Tony really could have been moments away from being whacked. Without taking a stand either way, Chase let you decide what you wanted to happen when it went to black. Was that Tony dying from a gunshot wound and the world going to black? Did the producers run out of film? Did the cable go out? It was great, kind of like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. Chase was almost like, "screw it, you decide what happened."

ABOVE: Is Tony looking down the barrel of a gun? Is he watching the waitress bring his pasta? We don't know, and I've decided that's great. This is the last shot of "The Sopranos" before it goes to black.

Or you could go the way of "The Wire," where other than McNulty and Freamon being forced into retirement (which, by the way, was not a bad thing for either character), the message of the end of "The Wire" was that things will go on in the streets and in the halls of power of Baltimore much as they had before. Maybe different faces, but same story. Depressing and futile for all of these great characters, to be sure (although Bubbles got to a better place), but true to the show. It almost had to be that way. What, are they going to end the drug trade in Baltimore? Are they going to clean up the city machine politics? I don't think so.

ABOVE: "The Wire" ended the only way that it really could.

Then you've got the finale that does try and be definitive, shocking and wrap it all up, like the unsuccessful series finale of "Big Love." A show that I loved for the first several seasons but then got progressively ridiculous (it went downhill after the death of Roman Grant). I don't mind that Bill died, but instead of dying at the hands of the nefarious powers of Juniper Creek, it is just a crazy neighbor that is pissed at one of his wives? Silly, and cheapened what had come before. I see what they were doing in a sense, that danger can come from more unexpected places, as you expected the Juniper powers to get him. But, it seemed tacked on, and there were also many other issues with the show by the end.

ABOVE: Don't kill Bill this way.

Reaching back further to the days of network TV mattering, the celebrated "M*A*S*H" finale worked for me. Yes, it was cheesy and had many tears, but they had earned it. And it was true to the direction of the show once the Col. Potter regime took over. Less slapstick and gritty (and cruel) humor, but a warmer, more sincere, less edgy "M*A*S*H." And after being on the air for over ten years (longer than the fighting of the actual Korean War), they had earned the sentiment. One thing from the finale that hit me was Hawkeye's breakdown (finally, after shielding his pain with humor and booze for ten years and dealing with other character breakdowns), when confronting the horror of being on the stalled bus in the Korean countryside, yelling at the woman to keep her infant quiet while they hid from a nearby North Korean patrol, and then she smothers the child to death trying to keep it quiet. For some reason, after all these years, that has stuck with me, maybe it was the impressionable age I was when I saw it. I'd be curious to view it again and see if it still has the same impact. Perhaps it was seeing Hawkeye finally hit rock bottom emotionally. He had gotten close at times, but always pulled out of it and then was fine the next episode. You got the feeling, in part because there was no next episode, this was different.

ABOVE: As cheesy as it was in parts, the "M*A*S*H" finale felt right

Anyway, here's hoping that this Sunday, "Breaking Bad" can maintain the almost unparalleled greatness of the last five seasons with ending it as darkly and as humorously as this whole journey has been. Walt's got to die, right? Either the cancer will get him, or Jack, or the authorities or (my prediction) Jesse. But then, we are expecting his death. So what if they let him live? But then we are expecting the unexpected. And letting Walt live would be the most obvious unexpected. So then he must die. But...however they end it, it has been probably the most satisfying character arc I have ever seen, over five seasons from meek high school chemistry teacher to ruthless meth kingpin, to finally breaking down completely.

ABOVE: What will happen to Walter White this Sunday?

So, what about you? Any finales of shows that have really stuck with you, either in a positive or a negative way?