I've watched tv all of my life and I'm 64 year old. I don't know if I have ever felt so satisfied after watching a series finale as I have after watching that of Rectify.
Aden Young really created a memorable character in his portrayal of Daniel Holden.
So even though I know the ending I am going to enjoy rewatching the entire series.
Agreed. I was so hoping they got the finale right and they did. So many other great shows didn't seem to make the landing just right, Rectify did for the most part. My hope is that others through Netflix or whatever else, discover this show and see just what they missed. Everyone needs a little bit of what this show offers in their lives. It's just superb art, does exactly what art is supposed to do in terms of both reflecting and informing the human experience.
THANK YOU Rectify writers! Thank you so very much. 👍
"If it doesn't make sense, it's not true." -- Judge Judy
It really did seem like the writers did learn from the failed ending of so many other series, even good ones, whose writers did not respect their loyal audience and sort of hit them with an "in your face" kind of ending with the pretense that it was somehow great art. It's not.
No, everything doesn't need to have a nice and cozy happy ending. We don't know for certain that Daniel would be cleared of all charges, but it clearly looks like that will happen. Just like we don't know for sure if Daniel will ever be with Chloe either but at least he has that hope now. Daniel was set up as the protagonist, the character we were rooting for because he had been wrongly convicted even if he couldn't remember but having served that many years in prison and in solitary it amazing he was even sane when released. Of course we didn't want to see it end with him really having done it.
Would the ending of "The Fugitive" have been so memorable if it turned out that Richard Kimble had killed his wife? No, the ending of "Rectify" left me with the feeling of "that was nice" and in life these days when things so often end badly we could sure use that.
whose writers did not respect their loyal audience and sort of hit them with an "in your face" kind of ending with the pretense that it was somehow great art. It's not.
Straw man. Misrepresent the writers intention, then tear down that misrepresentation.
To paraphrase Joss Whedon, give the audience what they need, not what they want. To respect or to pander, that is the question.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Straw man. Misrepresent the writers intention, then tear down that misrepresentation.
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LOOOL yeah... whatlarks is the troll
shareYou can't know what the writers intended; it's made up. And it happens to be easy to knock down. Your disappointment is legitimate on its own, but the moral righteousness attached to it is unfounded and unfair.
In that view, writers didn't make a choice for creative reasons, take a risk you didn't personally like; instead, they were motivated by the personal flaw of pretension. Nobody likes that, so a personal complaint becomes universal.
I know something of that world, and the thing is, most professional writers don't actually think like that. Their motivation isn't to be arty, whatever that might mean. They may, however, settle on an ending that's provocative in a way that seems right, that has a pleasing sense of fitness to it, that delivers emotional effects that feel appropriate for one or more reasons. And it may fail. It may actually have been a bad choice. It's not easy.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. I have never been moved so much by a series and that says a lot because The Wire and Six Feet Under are amongst my favorites.
shareIt's a knockout, it really is. I thought the finale struck a great balance. Everyone is moving on, but it's fully and searingly recognized that none of the damage done can ever be truly rectified, what is lost cannot be restored. For some of the characters, it's that very realization (however belated) that allows them to begin moving on finally.
"Oh, I'll be polite. Right up until I'm rude."
The last episode managed to be both realistic and beautiful. The series ended with hope, actual hope, not just the "hoping to hope" feelings Daniel had had. And, we the audience, responded with hope; we hope the vision in the field becomes a reality.
It would have been easy to have had a huge scene in which Trey is hauled into court, but the subtler scene in which he talks about the loss of his family, the loss of his house, and realizes he can no longer play Carl or the law, was much more effective. While Daniel has hope, Trey is finally starting to face not only his horrific crime, but the consequences of years and years of lies. His time has run out. There's satisfaction in seeing him standing on his driveway, screaming.
That's very well observed, the point/counterpoint between Trey and Daniel. Even if Trey is never convicted, his life, effectively, is over. Daniel's is finally beginning.
"Oh, I'll be polite. Right up until I'm rude."
If he's not convicted, look out. A violent psycho who now has nothing to lose and is full of rage.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Would watch a sequel about this. Miniseries format ideal, I think.
"Oh, I'll be polite. Right up until I'm rude."
Was Trey Hanna's murderer, or was it Chris? I thought they left it ambiguous.
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For the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, (if I have their name right),sure. For the audience, not so much. No need for the final Sheriff Daggatt/Trey scene if Daniel is still the likely murderer.
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I liked the way the writers ended this very enjoyable series.
shareFantastic series ending. It reminded me of the ending of Six Feet Under.
shareIt was a lovely ending, but I do have to say this season was weaker than previous ones in my opinion.
Anyway, this show will be missed very much. :(
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I thought the scenes from the first half of the season set in Paulie dragged some, but found the second half of the season incredible. I can't recall ever seeing so many lovely, emotionally charged scenes as I watched in the final four episodes of this show. There are few dramas I've seen with as many memorable moments in their entire run.
shareLoved the series finale. Especially Daniel's phone conversations with Amantha and Tawney; his dinner with his housemates, and his "drive" with Kerwin. "I hope your life is filled with wonder, Daniel." Perfectly last words from Tawney.
I thought his recollection of the day Kerwin was led away for execution was incredible. Would have named the episode "Because I know you."
Daniel's cradling Chloe's child at the end could have been a reminder of his cradling Hanna's dead body and looked forward to his hope of being capable of nurturing, rather than being nurtured.
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I didn't hear Teddy asking Daniel for forgiveness; just saying he was sorry for what happened to Daniel. And I think that came out of his last conversation with Sheriff Daggett, who now thought Daniel was most likely innocent. (And that conversation came before the final Daggett/Trey conversation, which clinched it for me that Daniel was not the killer.)
Did Daniel and Tawney ever sleep together?
RE Daniel and Kerwin's friendship; if there cells were next to each other for months or years, I would guess Kerwin knew a lot about Daniel. They scenes shown of the two of them were only examples; not the entirety of their conversation. Kerwin likely knew Daniel better than anyone in Daniel's family knew Daniel by the time Kerwin was excecuted.
Did Daniel and Tawney ever sleep together?
I've read multiple posts where sign_in_1234 claims that Tawny cheated on Ted, presumably with Daniel. She never cheated on him. She only wanted to help Daniel and at the point where Daniel took it the wrong way, she rebuffed his advances.
shareShe had a more complex relationship with Daniel than just wanting to help him. She became emotionally intimate with him. Their meeting in the motel was popping with sexual and emotional chemistry.
When she says "We can't be together," her tone isn't indifference. There's emotion there, a sense of regret. And when she says "I want to dance with you," of course that's about wanting to be physically close to him anyway, in a form that's not so "bad," so transgressive. In another life, where they are both free, they would be lovers.
Tawney never cheated on Ted Jr. sexually. But she did give her heart to another, and she did receive the same from him.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
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Kind of harsh to me. The problem was that Tawney and Teddy never should have been
married. Daniel's release from prison only started a process in which first Tawney, then Teddy, realized that.
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At least we know Teddy loved Tawney.
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is because they care too much
This is partly the reason why a lot of battered women in relationships go back to their abusive man, because they do see and feel that their abuser loves them.
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The idea that an abusive man does not love their abused spouse on the sole basis that they used violence is blatantly untrue. Nobody is arguing that an abusive relationship is unhealthy. It is unhealthy. Period. But it will be wrong to say the abuser doesn't love their spouse. In many instances, the abuser do love their spouse.
If abusers didn't care about their spouses and didn't love them, they likely wouldn't care enough to use violence. Just let them walk off, who cares?
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There's a well-known pattern by abusers of going hot and cold on their victim with the dispensing of affection. The violence and the threat of it is to control them, and the 'love' to draw them back. This is used not just by lovers, but by controlling parents on children as well. Unfortunately, a lot of such women and children eventually end up dead at the hands of their 'loving' partners/parents.
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Love, in these cases, is typically confused with dependency. What "love" the abuser can muster is more like sentimentality. It looks in some ways loving, but it's paper thin.
The source of the fact that they "care enough to use violence" is not love's passion, but massive insecurity. They "care" to eliminate the overwhelming anxiety that happens when they are made vulnerable because of separation. The partner can't be allowed to "just walk off, who cares?," because the abuser almost literally feels the threat of personal disintegration. That is a powerful source of motivation.
Like Ted Jr., the abuser's past is in control of their present: they are constantly trying to get and keep the intimacy they crave through force - manipulation, emotional bullying, and/or physical punishment. They don't know any other way.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
As an academic, you should recognize an abuser often does love their spouse. Your dislike for this concept does not change anything. The abusers feel they love their spouse. They will say so to that effect, and their affection for their spouse will be true. Their emotions are what they are. Your dislike for the whole situation won't change their emotions. But what do the abused feel? They may not feel 'loved' during moments of abuse, but they may also have instances where they can recognize 'love' and a 'caring' nature of the abuser. An academic will recognize the fact there is a level of affection and love there in abusive relationships. This is a well know fact.
My sense was that Ted Jr. came to realize genuine love for Tawney once they were well down the road to the end of their relationship. And I think that development was what allowed him to ask for divorce, on her behalf, despite the pain.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Yes. I think it is the greatest gift you can give, to release someone who is unhappy.
shareIt occurs to me that a mirror scene was Ted Jr. releasing his father as well, even though that made Ted Sr. unhappy because it was the only way he knew to support his son.
Now dad was in a very anxious place: neither son nor wife wanted him to remain in his role as Mr. Practical, sacrificing in silence. They wanted the man.
Ted Jr. had to relearn what empathy is, and to risk experiencing love, because he'd learned to take emotional vulnerability as only dangerous. When it came to intimacy and love he'd only experienced rejection and pain. He'd learned to associate these qualities with weakness.
To protect himself he shut himself off from these qualities to the point that he became alienated from ordinary human feeling -- a kind of solitary confinement. His dad's situation was along that spectrum too, although not as far as to make him cruel like Ted Jr.
Ted Jr. gave a great gift to his father, because his was the second big jolt, after Janet's, to the imprisonment that was his father's identity. Their loosening it was the only way Ted Sr. could let intimacy in -- literally so, as when he allowed Janet to enter his bathroom seclusion where he sat in the tub, vulnerable as a baby, so she could scrub his naked back.
The result of this gift showed up in the finale, when Ted Sr. for the first time expressed himself with at least one enthusiastic hug, so unlike his usual persona.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
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If they truly loved their partner, the people with a short fuse would make a conscious decision to stay away from him/her to keep her/him safe.
shareBut then they would not be able to say "I'm doing this because I love you."
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Teddy's gonna lose all teeth. It looks like he keep grinding them in anger.
Or frustration over being a beta nancy boy.
You seem to have forgotten Jimmy Carter's admission abut lusting in his heart for another.
shareThe shield, breaking bad and six feet under did it better
shareSix Feet Under went into great detail to tell us what happened to the major characters.
Rectify's ending was more like that of The Sopranos.
I didn't see The Shield, but I did see the others, and I would rate Rectify alongside them, but I thought what Rectify did--instill in the viewer a sense of hope for its characters--is more resonant. In that sense, I would equate its series ending with my other all time favorite series, Enlightened.
BB's ending was emphatic finality, while SFU was simply devastating. But Rectify really left me sad, but as hopeful as Daniel about his and his loved ones' futures, and connected me to their humanity in ways that the other two didn't.
I'm just about to start Enlightened after hearing about it so much. It's so sad that it's only 18 eps long though. I'm kinda wary of getting too attached to it for that reason. It's a bit like Firefly with a measly 14 eps of great work and a whole undiscovered world of tantalising potential (those Fox execs are sadists - it was just enough to reel you in and leave you hanging).
Another really interesting show very much in the Rectify/Enlightened canon is Eli Stone. It also only got 2 half seasons. It might've survived longer if it was on cable/Netflix and produced a few years later - it came a bit early, before the TV revolution had truly worked its magic.
As I recall -- it's been a couple of years -- Mike White managed to wrap things up pretty well on Enlightened. Might've felt a tad foreshortened, but still a satisfying experience overall.
Not a spoiler: My fave episode in that series was #109, "Consider Helen," focused on the mother. "A day in the life of Helen as she deals with her frustrated daughter, her irate ex-son-in-law, and her own haunting memories." A small gem, like a perfect short film.
It's one of those episodes that finally lets you into a character who's purposefully made herself a closed book. Sometimes frustratingly so. And suddenly the book opens, and it's lovely and devastating at the same time. So great to see an entire episode devoted to a female character in her late 60s or so. And Diane Ladd, wow, she blows it out of the water.
Treme had to wrap up relatively quickly, but I found its last season very rewarding. Very moving. I miss those characters.
Its police brutality subplot got an update today. The real-life victims' families spent 11 years trying to get justice:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/12/apology_police_brutality_cases.html
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson