Television Finales

In honor of the much anticipated series finale to Breaking Bad,  Professor Frost will discuss the power of television and the special relationships we make with our favorite characters as well as the grand importance of the finale.

Television has an interesting ability to connect to an audience unlike any other medium.  I remember Wednesday nights as a kid, watching The Wonder Years with my Dad.   I couldn't have been more than  seven years old, but week after week we invited Kevin Arnold and his family back into our home until the show came to its inevitable end years later on a thundery May night.  It sounds almost ridiculous to say it, but I grew up alongside these characters, and when I was no longer able to watch them continue on their journey, I felt like I was losing something.  This is why I believe the finale to every television series is the most important (and remembered) component to a show's legacy, not only because it's what it has been building to week after week, year after year, but because it must send the viewer on a path that made the journey worth it.

The finale of The Wonder Years, which I've seen probably half a dozen times over the years, is a home run...and you should watch this show on Netflix spoiler free if you haven't!   Some other finales have unfortunately left a bitter taste. (SPOILERS TO COME)  The Seinfeld finale, which was universally lambasted, functioned as more of a clip show/recap than a conclusion.  In a show that was essentially about "nothing," the final episode became about something.  Although the finale didn't exactly tarnish its legacy because at the very least, these beloved characters didn't behave in a manner  different from any other episode, a show of such greatness should have rode off into the sunset.  Friends and Sex and the City were enjoyable but predictable, based largely on giving its audience what it wanted.   Whether they were a good couple or not,  it was a given that Ross and Rachel were going to end up together....and a small, somewhat tiresome miracle that their dance went on for two seasons even after Emma was born   Carrie needed to stop putting her faith into men, and yet, it's the former bad boy (now lonely) lover who has suddenly changed, who rescues her.  The Sopranos implemented water cooler vagueness with it's shocking cut to black.  On one level, it was the perfect ending to the continuously drifting existentialist show, but it also reminded me of the greatness within the first couple of seasons was rooted more in great story, rather than unease and malaise. Entourage and Weeds fell apart over their last few seasons, so it was hardly a surprise that their tie everything together finales were anything but overreaching and unnatural.   I haven't watched Dexter's finale yet, but I have high hopes for Breaking Bad.  This is the one show where I think every season has been better than its predecessor.  But, in a show that has been methodically building up to tonight for five years, its legacy and place in television history is definitely on the line.

TV is evolving, or at least the way we view it is.  Between TiVo, Netflix, On Demand, etc., the idea of watching a show week after week, year after year, might not be the way "television" is consumed years from now.*  I hope there are still Monday mornings like tomorrow, where everyone will be talking about  Breaking Bad, but we shall see...


*There are signs of this already with strong Netflix original content that can be consumed all at once.

Souvenir

That was the viscous juice that sealed my fate.  It tasted so sweet as it touched my tongue only to burn all the way down.  It settled somewhere deep in my chest, inebriating me for the better part of a year.  All I could do was hopelessly hope until it was gone.

I thought I had sobered up.  I thought time had made Her nothing more than a postcard addressed to my forgotten dreams.  But as I lie awake, I can feel that she's still here.  A souvenir that I can never give away.

Prisoners: A Battle for the Soul

(No Spoilers)

When a religious man's daughter and her friend go missing, he sacrifices his own humanity and faith in an attempt to save her.  Dennis Villeneuve's Prisoners may not be a great movie, but it certainly is a thought-provoking one.  I'd like to believe most parents would trade their lives for their children's, but would they sacrifice their souls too?    That is the question I've been pondering since leaving the cinema late last night.  Without having children, I can only speak to the mother and child dynamic I've been a part of and the transference I've experienced within this bond. We've been taught to view this idea largely in the negative, a parent's hopes and dreams put upon their children and the overwhelming pressure it creates.  I don't see it that way.  I believe the worst thing I could say to my Mom is "I'm unhappy," because for better or worst, I understand that her happiness is tethered to my own.  So in Prisoners, when a child goes missing and is feared to be in the worst possible scenario, I felt that it wasn't just a girl's life at stake, but an entire families' spirit since his being was inexorably tied to his children.  And thus the paradox:  A father fights for his soul as he simultaneously destroys it.   I guess as my thoughts on this picture continue to evolve, I question whether that is a good thing. To have one's happiness tied to someone else?

Jewish Dieting Tips

The Jewish people have been trendsetters in the health and fitness world for ages.    It started with  Moses about three thousand years ago when he introduced the Atkin's Diet under the guise of bread being unable to leaven.  By combining his Low-carb diet with daily walks in the desert for forty years, Moses whipped the Hebrews into shape so they could enter the promised land minus unbecoming guts.  Unfortunately,  at some point Judah and those overweight Maccabres revolted and had the toned and tanned Jewish people binging on Potato Latkas with sour cream and apple sauce like they'd just emerged from the famine of '72....3772 BCE that is.  Balance was only restored upon the arrival of Yom Kippur, when the Jewish people were reminded to atone for all those unhealthy meals by partaking in a much needed fast.

The Nightdreamers

A major part of my adolescence was spent discussing the future. For the first two years of high school, my three friends and I would hang out, drink whatever cheap beer we could get our hands on, and assuredly talk about how great things were going to be for us someday soon.  The parties, the girls, the insanity of teenagedom that would rival any fictitious account of youth.  It was all going to happen when we could drive.  That's the way it was supposed to be at least.  Unfortunately, it didn't really go down as we planned it.  Those coveted licenses that were supposed to be the key to our foursome's triumph, well, they ironically became the vehicle in leading us apart.

There was one night though, before the chain inevitably broke.  We didn't have our licenses, but we did drive. Off the road and onto farmland in the middle of the night.  Under the moonlight and the headlights of a minivan, we drank cheap beer and gazed towards a creek.  Like every other night, we talked about how great things were going to be.  But for a split second, I think we realized that this was the moment to hang onto.  There would be plenty of parties, girls, and insanity, but right then and there, it was about us.

Don DeLillo wrote that "nostalgia is product of dissatisfaction and rage. It's a settling of grievances between the present and the past." While it's true that I grieve for the past and long to once again clasp onto that fleeting moment, I also believe a night like that should never be forgotten.

Corporate Effects of Marijuana

As more and more states put forth legislation that will ostensibly legalize (or at least decriminalize)  marijuana usage, has anyone stopped to think about the poor smalltime drug dealers that will be adversely affected by the new laws?  You know who I'm talking about,  Joe College and Johnny High School.  Dudes and dudettes looking to make a few extra bucks while getting their smoke on for free.  What will these once invaluable resources and lifelines to recreational drug use do when their economically blessed friends/clients trade in shadier dealings for pot cards?

If we view marijuana within the scope of the legitimate business world (which it is now entering), smalltime dealers who once rather harmlessly served a valuable purpose in their respective communities will naturally be overwhelmed by larger shops.  In Denver, marijuana dispensaries now outnumber Starbucks 3 to 1.  And while that might have been every pothead's childhood fantasy, the idea of franchised weed shops on every street corner seems to run counter to counter culture.  Within a few years, I predict weed will go corporate.  The weed lobby, aka The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, will change its name and grow powerful, ultimate outlining policy in Washington just like every other special interest group.  Prices for weed will astronomically rise (What did coffee cost before Starbucks?), which in effect will once again make the dealings of Joe College and Johnny High School necessary for the economically less fortunate.  Although by this point, the weed lobby will have aided in legislation aimed at extreme sentencing guidelines for unsanctioned dealers, thereby putting the illegal weed trade in the hands of the no longer white collar Joe College and Johnny High School.

Having written that, and it's just one extreme (albeit possible) future based on how this all plays on the federal level over the next few years, I still think marijuana should be legal.  Nonetheless, something isn't sitting right with the thought that one day, marijuana joints will be sold in packs like cigarettes behind the counter at convenient stores across the country.

The Freshman of 2001

It was just shy of autumn the morning fall came.  At first it was a tragedy.  Then an attack.  By the afternoon, it was over.  As our initial shock and fear turned into anxiety and confusion, we longed to be comforted.  By our Parents. By our School. By our President.  Perched up against a bay window, we quietly waited.  When nothing came, we looked to each other...