Every single episode of The Shield ends like that also. Its the first show I noticed doing it and I thought “Hey, kinda cool” usually because the tunes were kinda cool and non-stream… then I started noticing it in other shows… C.S.I. does it… but not always at the end, Without a Trace, The O.C. as have been mentioned.
It certainly deserves to be referred to as, “Played Out”.
Rock climbing, Joel.
I have been watching the Alias DVDs and have become sick of the sappy music that they play at the end of every single episode paired with some sentimental ending moment. All those songs sounds the same. I think its the same tune, they just change the words. Its always some slow moving, oversentimental song with some sad sounding woman singing. At least when Srubs does it the songs are kind of cool.
ER does it frequently, too.
I actually didn’t mind it very much in Ally McBeal, because they were in a bar with a live pianist who was singing the song…it didnt’ seem any more out of place than the rest of the show. And there are times when it works wonderfully (“Brothers in Arms” in West Wing, “Taking You Home” in ER) but there are times when it just feels like they were too lazy to write actual dialogue (most of the other times in ER. Alias. The current WW)
Overall, I have to say that the Sopranos makes the best use of music in their show. They use a wide range of selections and usually the song adds meaningfully to the scene.
It isn’t always a bad device. Thanks to the use of that device I got hooked on Homicide:Life on the Streets. The episode involved the suicide of one of the older detectives, Crosetti, who was Lewis’ partner. Well, because it was ruled a suicide the department said there would be no honor guard. There was a big fuss about this with the detectives, especially Lewis, but in the end they just wore their plain clothes. Except for Andre Braugher’s character, Pembleton, who put on his dress blues anyway and stood on the steps outside the station and saluted the coffin as the funeral procession passed. The last few scenes switching between Pembleton dressing in his blues and the funeral procession were all done in that musical montage style.
I had barely been watching the show before that, I’d only seen an episode or two but that clinched it for me.
It’s all because of the overpowering influence of visual media in the last 40 years. Even TV news and current affairs programs use the same techniques - it’s easier than being thoughtful. As Moody Bastard wryly says the writers could actually address issues but they don’t have to because this shit works. I watch sentimental stuff in movies and on TV and while it tugs at my heart my brain is screaming “this is sentimental claptrap”.
I became interested in how pervasive this has become with the memorials for 9/11. Mostly things I saw were mawkish and creepy and I stopped watching. Even the architecture for proposed buildings on the site is predictable - lights, spires, towers all soaring to the heavens. Why? Visual impact. As a non-American I can think of several historic sites I would like to visit that don’t soar anywhere - Pearl Harbour, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee and Gettysburg for starters.
I’m pleased to see others hating this manipulation because I am sure that it is cheapening our sensibilities. Before TV and movies, a book made a difference and changed things but books require thought. Movies and TV and the rest of modern culture have a visceral appeal that works on us often without any intellectual involvement at all.
I think the influence of visual cues in modern society is typified by the importance attached to “active listening”. This is a communication technique commonly taught to counsellors to enable them to give the appearance of actually listening to clients.
I know that the principles of active listening actually ensure proper listening, but people who have to perform it by rote are not doing it.
Very first episode I ever saw of Homicide was one where they played the Counting Crows’ Raining in Baltimore (not sure if that’s the name), this was pre-super-popularity for the Crows. Got me hooked on the show big-time.
How can you not like a show that opens an episode by playing Soul Coughing’s Super Bon Bon?
What an awesome show Homicide was.
Of course, using songs in this way also leads to astronomical licensing fees. That’s why you’ll never see Miami Vice on DVD.
Third Watch did it too. Jeff Buckley is everywhere.