Post by maddiendavefan on Oct 1, 2010 17:11:32 GMT -5
Hi everyone, this is my first post I wish it could be a more positive one but I feel so let down right now! I just watched the series finale for the first time ever, and I can't believe what I just saw. I was only a baby when the show first aired, but I discovered Moonlighting on Bravo reruns several years ago one summer while I was home from college. I think I caught the end of season 3, season 4 and the very beginning of season 5. I fell in love with the show, but after going back to college I was unable to watch anymore. Fast forward about 5 years to me now at age 26 and I come across season 1 and 2 on dvd in a used movie store this May. I picked it up and started watching from the beginning and fell in love all over again, even more so given how amazing the first few seasons are. I ordered the rest of the seasons from Amazon and am half way through season 3. I've been watching a couple episodes on my nights off each week and I've even noticed my boyfriend closing whatever sports page he's browsing on the internet to watch along. This show built such an incredible relationship between Maddie and David, gave it so much attention and time to grow and develop into something real and special with all the nuances and intimacy of a real relationship. And by the end of the show, they belittled it as if it was all a joke! To have two characters whose relationship we have grown to know and understand completely abandon those feelings and act so indifferent to each other is baffling to me!
Anyway, as I said, I'm half way through season 3 and was unaware that the show ended badly, but I started reading through the boards recently and got a pit in my stomach when I started to realize what everyone was saying about the finale and how things turned out. I intended to watch the show in order straight through till the end, but I was so disheartened by talk of the finale that I had to watch it, just hoping there was SOMETHING in it, some remnant of the chemistry and affection I've fallen in love with watching... one of those "looks" they always share, an unfinished start of a sentence where they don't say whats on their mind but you know anyway... and the best we got was their holding hands. Which was sweet, but coming on the heels of the exec's speech about their romance being over and them insisting they were friends, well, it didn't quite carry the same meaning. Their holding hands in earlier episodes could melt my heart to mush because it felt real and conveyed true emotion. How could the writers acknowledge that they KNEW what the fans wanted and what made the show so special and then knowingly go against that!? The rushing to the alter to "save the show"rather than out of genuine motivations from the characters was cheap. As were the fake kisses as they unbelievably said how in love they were to convince the priest to marry them. The writers did NO justice to the characters or their relationship. They were not acting like themselves and their relationship did not resemble the one I'd been watching build in the seasons prior.
There were a few small glimmers of hope that I'm holding onto though. Although the opening scene in bed was heartbreaking, it softens the blow somewhat to know that it wasn't love David was feeling as the scene with Mark and David shows. He considered it a "fling" and a bit of "fun" which is easier to swallow than thinking he was over Maddie enough to fall in love with someone else. And the song at the end seemed to imply no matter what the exec said to them in the screening room, maybe it wasn't really over, maybe somehow they would be together again. I just can't understand why on earth the writers decided to take away the magic that made their relationship and the show so compelling. To write out the moments and dialogue that gave their chemistry a chance to shine. It's so sad that they would take such beloved characters and do them such a disservice. Maddie and David belong together. To me, that is the point and the ultimate, inevitable destination of the show. To purposefully go in the opposite direction and put another woman in David's arms for the last episode seems like a slap in the face. Honestly like they're making a joke of the show to detour so far from what it was all about. It was like the writers just decided to piss people off and write a completely different show. Or as if they hired someone who had never even SEEN the show to write this episode. Because this episode was not true to the show I've been watching nor was it true to the characters to just seemingly fall out of love, become "pals" and start acting without any emotion or even remembrance of affection for the friendship and love they shared. It's honestly as if even their friendship was undermined and belittled. At the very least, they would show deep care and respect from 5 years of depending on one another/"you'd be the one I turn to when push comes to shove or even when push didn't come to shove" friendship. At the very least! And they'd been falling in love for years on top of that friendship. After all they've been through and after the strength of the relationship that was built over the years, even if they didn't end up together for the time being, they should at LEAST have had the affection and the nostalgia to show some real emotion. To say and do all the things they've said and done over the seasons to show how deeply they care for one another and how connected they are, they set up the relationship as the kind of relationship that no matter what happens, whether they have to be apart for a time before coming together again, they will always be special to one another and will have always have that deep connection... the kind of bond time, distance and even disagreements couldn't break. Instead they act like all the love and romance is forgotten and seem to ignore everything that has transpired to give them what I imagine would be an unbreakable bond. They act so nonchalant and disinterested by the end. Not even one genuine gaze or sigh. I'm sorry I'm rambling on, it's just I've had a pit in my stomach since watching this and need to rant to people who will understand. I've felt this way about a show one other time, the X-Files which parallels this one in many ways. Other than that, I'm a casual tv watcher these days and don't really get so involved in shows and characters. But Moonlighting has really done a number on me lol. That's just how special it is, and it deserves a special ending that does justice to 5 years of friendship and love.
Anyway, I'm going to go back where I left off, right after Big Man on Mulberry Street, which wow, is like a different show with different characters... the power of emotion between them in that episode... there's no way that can disappear two years later! I'm still in disbelief from watching those back to back. But anyway, I'm a little scared. I remember vaguely the continuance of the storyline from when I first watched the reruns.... I know they end up making love, another guy enters the picture, Maddie leaves for a while and there is a baby. But I was wondering at what point do Maddie and David start to really loose that spark, that chemistry... at what point do they start to seemingly ignore all that they've been building over the years? Because at this point, I can't bear to watch more torture of them acting like strangers who don't seem to care or remember how they feel about one another. What would you say is the last episode where they truly act like themselves, where we as the audience are assured of their love for one another? Because I honestly think I may watch up till that point and then pretend whatever happens after never occurred.
Sorry again for the long post! Just one more question before I wrap this up though... since I've just rejoined the Moonlighting community I'm not too up to speed on the current state of the potential for a movie or reunion. I read a lot of articles from the mid 2000's up till 2009 that seemed very positive and encouraging that everyone wanted to do one and that it may be in the works, but after early '09 the buzz seemed to die out from what I can see. I'm so hopeful they will bring the show back to the big screen, or even the small screen for a tv movie.... just ANYTHING to give us a happier ending and resolve their relationship properly. The show and the characters deserve so much more. They were done a disservice and were written off far too disrespectfully and too untrue to themselves. If people like me can discover this show 20 years later and become so passionate about it, then I know there's an audience out there for a reunion! I signed the petition but does anyone know the status of that? Thanks for reading everyone, nice to meet you all, and sorry again for the novel!
Anyway, as I said, I'm half way through season 3 and was unaware that the show ended badly, but I started reading through the boards recently and got a pit in my stomach when I started to realize what everyone was saying about the finale and how things turned out. I intended to watch the show in order straight through till the end, but I was so disheartened by talk of the finale that I had to watch it, just hoping there was SOMETHING in it, some remnant of the chemistry and affection I've fallen in love with watching... one of those "looks" they always share, an unfinished start of a sentence where they don't say whats on their mind but you know anyway... and the best we got was their holding hands. Which was sweet, but coming on the heels of the exec's speech about their romance being over and them insisting they were friends, well, it didn't quite carry the same meaning. Their holding hands in earlier episodes could melt my heart to mush because it felt real and conveyed true emotion. How could the writers acknowledge that they KNEW what the fans wanted and what made the show so special and then knowingly go against that!? The rushing to the alter to "save the show"rather than out of genuine motivations from the characters was cheap. As were the fake kisses as they unbelievably said how in love they were to convince the priest to marry them. The writers did NO justice to the characters or their relationship. They were not acting like themselves and their relationship did not resemble the one I'd been watching build in the seasons prior.
There were a few small glimmers of hope that I'm holding onto though. Although the opening scene in bed was heartbreaking, it softens the blow somewhat to know that it wasn't love David was feeling as the scene with Mark and David shows. He considered it a "fling" and a bit of "fun" which is easier to swallow than thinking he was over Maddie enough to fall in love with someone else. And the song at the end seemed to imply no matter what the exec said to them in the screening room, maybe it wasn't really over, maybe somehow they would be together again. I just can't understand why on earth the writers decided to take away the magic that made their relationship and the show so compelling. To write out the moments and dialogue that gave their chemistry a chance to shine. It's so sad that they would take such beloved characters and do them such a disservice. Maddie and David belong together. To me, that is the point and the ultimate, inevitable destination of the show. To purposefully go in the opposite direction and put another woman in David's arms for the last episode seems like a slap in the face. Honestly like they're making a joke of the show to detour so far from what it was all about. It was like the writers just decided to piss people off and write a completely different show. Or as if they hired someone who had never even SEEN the show to write this episode. Because this episode was not true to the show I've been watching nor was it true to the characters to just seemingly fall out of love, become "pals" and start acting without any emotion or even remembrance of affection for the friendship and love they shared. It's honestly as if even their friendship was undermined and belittled. At the very least, they would show deep care and respect from 5 years of depending on one another/"you'd be the one I turn to when push comes to shove or even when push didn't come to shove" friendship. At the very least! And they'd been falling in love for years on top of that friendship. After all they've been through and after the strength of the relationship that was built over the years, even if they didn't end up together for the time being, they should at LEAST have had the affection and the nostalgia to show some real emotion. To say and do all the things they've said and done over the seasons to show how deeply they care for one another and how connected they are, they set up the relationship as the kind of relationship that no matter what happens, whether they have to be apart for a time before coming together again, they will always be special to one another and will have always have that deep connection... the kind of bond time, distance and even disagreements couldn't break. Instead they act like all the love and romance is forgotten and seem to ignore everything that has transpired to give them what I imagine would be an unbreakable bond. They act so nonchalant and disinterested by the end. Not even one genuine gaze or sigh. I'm sorry I'm rambling on, it's just I've had a pit in my stomach since watching this and need to rant to people who will understand. I've felt this way about a show one other time, the X-Files which parallels this one in many ways. Other than that, I'm a casual tv watcher these days and don't really get so involved in shows and characters. But Moonlighting has really done a number on me lol. That's just how special it is, and it deserves a special ending that does justice to 5 years of friendship and love.
Anyway, I'm going to go back where I left off, right after Big Man on Mulberry Street, which wow, is like a different show with different characters... the power of emotion between them in that episode... there's no way that can disappear two years later! I'm still in disbelief from watching those back to back. But anyway, I'm a little scared. I remember vaguely the continuance of the storyline from when I first watched the reruns.... I know they end up making love, another guy enters the picture, Maddie leaves for a while and there is a baby. But I was wondering at what point do Maddie and David start to really loose that spark, that chemistry... at what point do they start to seemingly ignore all that they've been building over the years? Because at this point, I can't bear to watch more torture of them acting like strangers who don't seem to care or remember how they feel about one another. What would you say is the last episode where they truly act like themselves, where we as the audience are assured of their love for one another? Because I honestly think I may watch up till that point and then pretend whatever happens after never occurred.
Sorry again for the long post! Just one more question before I wrap this up though... since I've just rejoined the Moonlighting community I'm not too up to speed on the current state of the potential for a movie or reunion. I read a lot of articles from the mid 2000's up till 2009 that seemed very positive and encouraging that everyone wanted to do one and that it may be in the works, but after early '09 the buzz seemed to die out from what I can see. I'm so hopeful they will bring the show back to the big screen, or even the small screen for a tv movie.... just ANYTHING to give us a happier ending and resolve their relationship properly. The show and the characters deserve so much more. They were done a disservice and were written off far too disrespectfully and too untrue to themselves. If people like me can discover this show 20 years later and become so passionate about it, then I know there's an audience out there for a reunion! I signed the petition but does anyone know the status of that? Thanks for reading everyone, nice to meet you all, and sorry again for the novel!