May 17, 2006
We Watch So You Don't Have To: Series Finale
With a whimper and not a bang. That's how the series ended. A slow and thoughtful episode follows the Santos Administration as they move into the Oval Office and the Bartlet administration as they pack up and leave the White House. Santos takes the Oath of Office (with a series creator Aaron Sorkin looking on) while everyone else just mopes around, at a loss for what to do. CJ and Charlie wander around their now empty offices and the First Family flounders around the empty residence. It's a little sad, but mainly, it's boring.
As he leaves office, the President decides to pardon Toby, who isn't really anywhere to be seen. After the transition, CJ is heading to California where Danny is waiting for her. Aw. Charlie will be going to Georgetown, though we never find out if he and Zoe are still together or what. Josh and Donna, it's implied, will remain a couple. Santos decides to get to work right away, with Josh and Sam looking on. And that's pretty much it. While it was an adequate episode, the wistful and slow moving finale didn't nearly do justice to the brilliance of the series and the characters, which is a shame. Your thoughts on the finale? And who else will be watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip?
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How about the fact that for the finale, the writers for some reason decided to drop any pretense of accuracy? For example, where was the parade?--CJ was walking around on a barren Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day? Why weren't the Santos kids at the Inaugural? And how about the Congressional luncheon? A sad way to end...
Post had a nice roundup of the more obvious errors (though I'm willing to let the oversea approach to New Hampshire slide because they mention in the episode that there's an ice storm in New England. Maybe they flew around the storm).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051600008.html
or try
http://tinyurl.com/m2xdy
I liked the episode. But they mispronounced Haverhill, Massachusetts. It's HAIVE-rill. Not Haver-hill.
I was disappointed, but, then again, I haven't been watching the show since Sorkin left. I can't help but wonder what it would have been like if he had scripted it.
Rest of my thoughts here (scroll past my cheering about the Dallas Mavericks), but I really just thought, Ho hum, which is sad, because this was such a brilliant series that was optimistic and idealistic and made you think warm fuzzies about America. Which is nice, considering that America doesn't exist anymore under Dear Leader.
I imagine the show doesn't have the budget it used too... so things like the inaugural festivites would have to be toned down a lot for the finale.
Still, no excuse for some of the dialogue bloopers.