I've been finishing going through some favorite episodes of mine from the "West Wing," and I just got to the finale. Now, I love this series, and think it's probably one of the best things done on television--especially that it started strong, fixed mistakes it might have made (Moira Kelly, for example), and had an end-game in mind. That last is very important, because they could have easily kept the show going with Matt Santos as President, but it wouldn't have been the same.
But my one beef is the final line. The President and Abbey are on the plane, and Abbey asks "Jed, what are you thinking about." Now, anyone who's watched the series (and, really, why would you watch the finale if you haven't watched the series), know that the best line--nay, the perfect line--would have been "What's next?" Instead, he says "Tomorrow," and then they zoom out to the plane flying through the sky.
What a wasted opportunity. Bartlett must have said "What's next?" dozens of times, establishing it as probably the only catch-phrase from seven seasons. I remember watching the finale when it first aired and feeling cheated when they didn't grab that opportunity.
Ah, well.
In new TV, I'm really excited about "Justified". I've generally liked previous adaptations of Elmore Leonard books (Get Shorty, for example), but I've never read any of them. "Justified" has the same flavor of Get Shorty--it's violent and darkly funny--and the main character is both charming and menacing. I especially like the casting of Timothy Olyphant, who I though was underrated after Go and even Gone in Sixty Seconds. I look forward to what FX can do with this series, and I hope it sticks around for a while.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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