|
Post by Mulberry on Mar 13, 2007 11:24:22 GMT -5
The only ML episode that makes me feel really irritated and one that I rarely watch. They could have done so much more - David breaking up with Annie, Bert and Agnes getting married, then the third thing should have been Dave and Maddie walking off together. I don't care if they had done it in a rush, or written it badly, the only important thing should have been getting those two together in the end. Right up until the last 5 minutes, they could still have done it, but they just go out with a whimper and ruin it.
Mul
|
|
bluemooner
3rd Level
Moonlighting strangers who just met on the way
Posts: 850
|
Post by bluemooner on Mar 20, 2007 9:49:31 GMT -5
right you are! i vote 1.
|
|
|
Post by Veronica on Mar 25, 2007 5:55:53 GMT -5
We'll be Together Again and flashbacks of the past 5 years... that's one reason why I vote 2 not 1.
|
|
|
Post by maddieaddisonjr on Apr 20, 2007 14:26:35 GMT -5
Ummm… What did I see when I watched this episode just now? I’m asking because I can hardly believe my own eyes. This is the first time I’ve seen the ML series finale and I’m so glad I missed it eighteen years ago I feel like celebrating. I just knew it was going to be bad when the first thing we see is David happy in bed with Annie. I felt physically uncomfortable b/c of how wrong that was. How could they have such a scene in D/M’s finale? How was this awful mistake going to be resolved so that David and Maddie could ride into the Sunset Strip together as they should? Why not a two-hour finale pulling out all the stops and going back to the writing that made the show great and letting our couple go out deservedly like a supernova? That should have been the title - instead of the shadows of a "Lunar Eclipse", we should a have gotten a bright "Supernova." At the very miniscule least the executioners could have had a moment of mercy with D/M sharing a thorough promising kiss in the last shot. Breaking the fourth wall at the end they way they did was time wasted that could have been spent on that kiss and the declaration of undying love we never got. Gosh, they didn’t even hold hands! *sigh* That ending was so awful for them and for us – just absolutely awful. And I don’t see how that could have been an accident. (Another thing, I didn't like how casual David was about Annie having a husband. Was this the pre-Blue Moon David making an appearance? Or did this just emphasize the point he indirectly stressed to husband Mark that it was just a fling for him? If it was just a fling then the only reason he'd just have to pursue Maddie's kinfolk is to have more of Maddie's attention - which means he still loves her I think.) From what I read in other posts about the commentary to this episode, I think I’ll pass because I don’t ever want to see LE again. This is why I don’t get into TV shows to the same degree anymore. You’re at the mercy of advertising and studio execs with their quest for the holy dollar; the writers who may suddenly want to tell a completely different story; and these folks' collective life or death power over the shows you love. It’s happened to me time and time again and I just don’t put myself through it anymore. I give this a 1 for the brief but not well done montage at the end and the classic scene where Agnes stands in the middle of the mall in her white lace lingerie.
|
|
|
Post by Frontier on May 14, 2007 14:47:40 GMT -5
A 2 at the most, only for the endpart with the flashback of ML great moments. The worst possible ending for the best 80's series and one of the best series ever. I agree with most said above, I just have one thing to add: Imagine how Glenn Gordon Caron might have felt after seing his creation, his child, shot to death so badly, especially after working so hard on it and putting your soul to make it breathe. Sad My only tiny bit consolation was the song and the phrase "We'll be together again". I just want to believe that the two of them will fullfill that wish some day. The worst of it is that I saw this when it first aired - the one and only time it aired in Greece - back on 1990, during my teens and it did had some effects on me.
|
|
|
Post by davnee on May 29, 2007 22:26:00 GMT -5
This gets a 0 from me. What a horrid, cruel ending. Maddie and David take the executioner's order lying down, offering just a few half-hearted slapstick air kisses as a protest. They should have died with their boots on and their lips engaged dang it!
What's really so cruel about this ending was that it was a true ending. Maddie and David had lost their spark and therefore the show had to go. The truth is always bitterer than a lie. But the truth was to the real world. That was not the truth the audience wanted for their goodbye. The show broke the Fourth Wall at a moment when they needed it firmly in place the most. As its parting bow, the show hoisted itself on its own clever petard. The audience that had stuck it out with David and Maddie, that had been equally in denial with David and Maddie about the "truth" that it was all over, were no longer in on the joke of Moonlighting, they became the last joke Moonlighting would ever tell. Terrible, terrible case of the people behind the curtain being too clever for their own good.
|
|
|
Post by dollface on Jun 6, 2007 9:30:43 GMT -5
I thinks it's kind to give this episode a 1. I remember watching this back when it originally aired. The set up was that die hard (no pun intended) Moonlighting fans were already on a downward spiral. Those of you who were there can relate. We had already been put through the torture of weeks between episodes from season three, the painful ambivalence of Maddie toward their post consummated relationship, the escape to Chicago, the Walter fiasco, the horrific stillbirth, the shocking mean streak that emerged from David AND the piece de resistance....the ANNIE disaster. There we were, fans that had been beaten to a pulp, yet tuning in with hope and faith that the powers that be would make it all better with one hell of a series finale of our beloved show. I mean, this was the most creative, innovative show of its' time, right? How could they disappoint? I remember sitting there, watching the events unfold.....yuck, more Annie.....ho hum, Burt and Agnes (beloved characters, mind you, no offense). The clock was ticking and then panic set in. I literally watched the rest of the episode while watching the clock tick by. As the minutes passed, more and more panic set in....this can't be! Any minute now this will all turn around and these two idiots will fall into each others arms, sparks will fly!!! Not. As we headed into the countdown of the last ten minutes, sheer defeat was setting in. Once the fourth wall was broken, it was despair....this can't be happening. The final blow, the montage of what it used to be and then fade to black. I know it was just a TV show, but honestly, after that painful hour was over I felt so cheated, used, angry. Can any of you who were there at the time relate? It really was a big let down, to say the least. What a season....it started with the death of the baby, and it ended with the death of our beloved Maddie and David. Boo hiss! As an aside here, as much as a fan that I am, I still have not been able to bring myself to purchase season 5. I will......but I just can't do it yet. All I can say is thank goodness for Virtual Moonlighting and kudos to the writers of that series who have proved that the spark and the magic DID NOT have to die just because they slept together!!!!!
|
|
bluemooner
3rd Level
Moonlighting strangers who just met on the way
Posts: 850
|
Post by bluemooner on Jun 6, 2007 17:09:19 GMT -5
oh, i can totally relate, dollface. i remember watching eine kleine and saying to myself, "oh, it looks like things might be on their way back to normal. maddie and david back together. can't wait to see the next episode and have this tragedy resolved." i went out and bought a special tape to record the episode. i had my Sundance (carbonated fruit beverage. i was only 12, so it was my special occasion drink). HA! special occasion? what was I thinking? i was sooo disappointed at how moonlighting ended. i know, dollface, i feel like you do, "it's only a tv show." but, i still can't believe it, the fans that stuck w/ the show, who continued to have hope, were given this as a final episode. oh my God, i'm getting annoyed just thinking about it.
i agree with everything you wrote. so nicely put. ugh, i hate this episode.
|
|
|
Post by maddieaddisonjr on Jun 9, 2007 21:00:16 GMT -5
I feel what you're saying, dollface, bluemooner, everyone. I'm not sure what else I can add except to say - and it might sound very strange but - I have imagined in detail how the the series and this particular episode really ended. And when I hear two particular songs I 'see' a rerun of the last imagined scene. (Little David Jr. is alive and well, by the way. Yay!) LOL Well, it makes me feel better to have dreamt such a thing up and now 'my' ending is more real to me than the one they filmed!
If you don't feel wacky doing it, I'd recommend imagining your own Moonlighting series finale too - as well as reading the delightful 'Virtual Moonlighting' of course. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Mulberry on Aug 2, 2007 10:41:33 GMT -5
The show broke the Fourth Wall at a moment when they needed it firmly in place the most. You're so right! If there was ever a time NOT to break the 4th wall, this was it. The 4th wall was great when the whole feel of the show was fun and sparky. The ending of ML needed realistic storylines and even a bit of fantasy and fun. Not a real slap in the face "ah well, we don't exist anymore folks, that's it, pack up and go home". I still hate this episode, even tho I love the fact that Agnes and Burt get married and Dave breaks up with Annie. Talk about going out with a whimper. Grrr... Mul
|
|
graycav56
3rd Level
I can't imagine not rewatching with you next week.
Posts: 948
|
Post by graycav56 on Aug 9, 2007 20:40:50 GMT -5
Yea, I know this is "just" a TV show. But I have never felt more kicked in the......knee than I felt at the end of this episode.
I agree with many of you that up until the very end, there remained a hope, a spark, that a proper finale would appear. Even up to the final scene in the church you just KNEW the writers, the director, the producers would come up with a fitting way to send off the best television show of the decade and maybe of all time.
Nope. What you got instead was a final couple of shots absolutely devoid of the passion, humor and character that defined Moonlighting. No wedding for D&M, no riding off into the sunset like an old western. Not an embrace or a lip lock for the ages. Just a look of complete resignation on the parts of our two favorite fictional characters.
You know, up to that last scene, the show wasn't all that bad. This was one of the few episodes I do remember from Season 5's first broadcast. I remember seeing the goodbye ad in TV guide. I remember like always, turning off the phone and getting comfortable in front of the tube. I remember glancing at the clock at every commercial, feeling like the doomsday countdown was progressing and I could do nothing about it.
There were good things. David finally getting his head out of his butt and stopping his affair with Annie. Burt and Agnes getting hitched. Seeing Allyce in that lingerie. (Who would have known!)
Some less than stellar things. Like does anybody really believe Lou LaSalle would hire that gumshoe? The silly model helicopter scenes.
I guess the clips at the end summed it up. They were almost all from the first few seasons, when the show was funny and irreverant and witty and unique. Where the heck did that go?
|
|
Turbo Grom
1st Level
A gnat with a lobotomy could fool you!
Posts: 179
|
Post by Turbo Grom on Aug 10, 2007 10:06:00 GMT -5
David and Maddie ended up like two strangers, without anything they had in first 3 seasons Like every spark, every sing of passion was just to satisfy people who watch the show, like David and Maddie are not themselves, but two actors who are trying to satisfy us... I was so disappointed and sad because of that feeling
|
|
|
Post by maddieaddisonjr on Aug 11, 2007 17:46:24 GMT -5
Who were the writers of this episode?? I would love to know why they thought the show should have that particular ending. I so wish that those writers could have been brought back for the dvd commentary for it. I mean, did they somehow see it all differently than us? Did they think they were writing a good ending for David and Maddie? Does anyone know of an interview or quote by the writers about LE?
|
|
|
Post by lin212 on Aug 11, 2007 19:27:56 GMT -5
jr., the Season 5 insert attributes LE to Roy Clark, the only episode he wrote. As a matter of fact, except for a couple of episodes at the beginning of the season, all the others were written by "strangers". No wonder we got what we got.
|
|
|
Post by maddieaddisonjr on Aug 18, 2007 17:56:39 GMT -5
Wow. Sounds like everybody was jumping ship and leaving Moonlighting behind before the last curtain, lin. I respect people who see projects through to the end - but oh well. Do you think maybe Roy was the 'last man standing' and was more or less forced into the job of making the series finale? This could be true as well as anything else because it certainly shows in the end result. Too bad Glenn couldn't have written the last ep! It would have been much better than what we got I'm sure.
|
|