Anyone else think the final montage is overrated?
Often by people who underrate the rest of the series?
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My top 250: http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=SlackerInc&perpage=250
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.
shareAs 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.
Well said. This was once my all-time favorite show, and is still #2 after "Breaking Bad". I hate to see it become known primarily for the final montage.
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