Yeah, that one sucked. The worst part was one of the dream sequences where one of their friends/neighbors sings the entire song of ‘3 Times A Lady’. It was brutal to endure.
Yes, but it was explained within the confines of the show that the characters were being messed with. That’s fine.
In the Buffy episode, it was left open as to whether or not there was a “real” Buffy which was imagining all this (at the end, mental patient Buffy decided to stick with her fantasies, much to her parent’s distress). Which isn’t fine.
When Dallas did this, it never again was the #1 show on TV and was cancelled 4 years later:
And, before one brings it up, I think the finale of Newhart broke the same contract with its viewers and can be (unpopularly, I know) placed on this list for the same reason.
As I recall, the episode came down slightly stronger on the side that the whole series was a dream, and Buffy was just a comatose patient in a mental hospital, than on the side that only that episode had had dream elements. If it had been a standalone 1hour tv drama, no one would doubt that the conclusion of the episode meant that the real Buffy was imagining Willow/Spike etc.
Exactly. (And I clarified this point in an edit.) And I wouldn’t argue that it “came down slightly stronger”, I would argue that it stated the entire show was just a figment of another characters imagination.
Yeah, I shouldn’t have said “slightly stronger”
It’s a fair comment. Any change, ending that obliterates past history is problematic. With Newhart, Mary Frann was understandably not happy with that ending for good reason. Bob Newhart to some extent tried to make amends for that.
It’s the same deal with St. Elsewhere. Do you want the ending to be the ONLY thing that is remembered?
Most of first-season Star Trek: The Next Generation was pretty awful, as were several season two episodes, like “The Outrageous Okona”.
Deep Space Nine was my favorite Star Trek series, but the worst episode by far was “Let He Who Is Without Sin”. Worf joins an eco-terrorist group for… reasons?
But honorable reasons, I’m sure. 
I don’t see it matters that much. Did you enjoy The Princess Bride? 95% of that is explicitly not real, just a story a guy is telling his grandson. Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the story if it plays within it’s own rules, like “mental patient” Buffy’s Buffyverse does.
But the Buffy one doesn’t play within the rules - it literally introduces a ‘real’ universe and states ‘hey, this show you’ve been following is nothing but a figment of another character’s imagination’, and leaves it at that. In short, the “Buffy”… and her Universe… we’ve been following (for six years) isn’t even real within the characters existence. And that’s a cheat, and bad storytelling.
A ‘story within a story’ does not do that because the ‘story’ itself exists within the characters existential framework. There’s nothing in TPB which states that the storyteller doesn’t exist, but that’s precisely what happened in the BtVS episode.
Samurai Jack had several damn near iconic episodes, but at the other end of the spectrum we had “Chicken Jack”: Jack gets magically turned into a chicken. Some of the series’ episodes were light-heartedly whimsical, but this was just plain stupid.
I get the dislike for “Isaac and Ishmael”, but consider that episode was conceived, written, cast, filmed, and broadcast three weeks and a day after the 9/11 attacks. A typical West Wing episode would take three weeks for post-production between the end of shooting and the broadcast date. Aaron Sorkin felt like he had to acknowledge 9/11 in some way with his show … and it wasn’t great, but I give him a little credit.
“Access” (the flash-forward PBS special about CJ that 1) never mentions that she becomes Chief of Staff, because that hadn’t been thought of yet by the showrunners at the time of production, and 2) hinges on a key event early in Bartlet’s presidency that we’d never heard of before) is pretty bad. Also “Ninety Miles Away” (in the past, Leo runs into superspy Kate in disguise! In Cuba!) is truly forgettable. And “The Long Goodbye” (CJ goes home for a class reunion, hooks up with Matthew Modine, and deals with her Alzheimer’s-stricken dad) isn’t even really a West Wing episode.
This is a reply to the last Buffy post, reply doesn’t seem to be working on tapatalk.
No it doesn’t, the episode allows for the Idea that this is the case.
It is still up to the viewer to choose whether they want to accept your interpretation, or the in-universe interpretation about it being a ploy to weaken Buffy. The last scene does point a bit to the former, but not to the extent that no other interpretation is possible (imho).
Verstuurd vanaf mijn moto g(6) met Tapatalk
I just rewatched the final 10 minutes and it’s more explicit than I remembered: the final scene is of the ‘real’ Buffy in the asylum with the Doctor saying “she’s unresponsive. We’ve lost her.”, fade to black, roll credits.
The last scene with ‘imaginary Buffy’ is her regaining her powers, then asking for an antidote. But it’s followed by the above, implying that taking the imaginary antidote (fake Buffy) led to the ‘we’ve lost her’ diagnosis from the doctor (real Buffy).
OK, so a mediocre L&O is still better than a magnificent Full House. And I, too, have watched every episode multiple times (except “Aftershock”-- only once for that one). But “Castoff” is actually outstanding as being just, offkey, or something, and a number of critics agree with me.
Regarding “Aftershock,” Dick Wolf himself has expressed regret at the way he wrote out the Claire Kincaid character. He said he wished he could have Jill Hennessey back as a defense attorney the way he had Carey Lowell back a few times.
“Cold Case” had consistently excellent episodes, except for a very brief run where they had a very explicitly anti-man bias. We got it, really, WE.GOT.IT.
I agree. I don’t know if you remember, but the month or so following 9/11 was a very strange period of time. Everybody felt like they had to say something, whether or not they had anything to say. Considering the alternatives, I think Sorkin did a pretty good job.
Revelation…what was THAT all about??? Callbacks…fan service…a RIDICULOUS mystery box. And then:
“JESUS IS BACK AND HE’S PISSED!”…God I hate Abrams. He and his bullshit deconstructions.
I mean, I agree it jumped the shark way back with The Resurrection and slowly went downhill, but the final ep? Gimmicky stunt writing/directing.
#NotmyJesus
You’ve evidently forgotten Major Fred C. Dobbs. Executive meddling at its worst.
Evert sitcom in which the central figure
(e.g. Rosanne) decides to have a baby. Some non-sitcoms, too.