Final Episodes

--Jason DeRose

Today, our TV critic Andrew Wallenstein talked about his favorite and not so favorite TV series' final episodes. Since Day to Day goes off the air on Friday, it's something I've been thinking about a lot as well. My list is kind of quirky. My top five:

1. Six Feet Under -- I completely agree with Andrew on this one. I cannot hear Sia's "Breath Me" without crying. I cared deeply about these characters. I identified with many of them. And knowing how they spent their dying days brings a lot of comfort to someone like me who's an empathy junkie. The day we were told Day to Day was canceled, I played "Breath Me" over and over on my drive home. I plan to do that this Friday as well.

2. Newhart -- This is the one where Bob Newhart wakes from a dream, and it turn out the entire eight season series was a dream. Bob nudges his wife in bed, and it's Suzanne Pleshette, his TV wife from the earlier Bob Newhart Show. The blond wife, absurd maid, creepy neighbors and clueless handyman were all just musings in the psychiatrist's dream. As a fan of both series, it was great get the joke.

3. Will & Grace -- Like Six Feet Under, the Will & Grace finale flashes into the future to see the two make up after a big fight, become friends again and eventually attend the wedding of their kids Laila and Ben. The relationship that could never be in their own lives would be played out in their respective daughter and son. The series was a meditation on friendship and the finale was a comment on what true friendship can endure. The very last scene has Will and Grace and Karen and Jack all sitting at a bar in the late, late middle ages. And when they think of their friendship over the years, they become young again.

4. Golden Girls -- The series is one of my favorites. And the finale reminds me why. Dorothy gets married and moved to Atlanta with her new husband. Her mother Sofia and her two friends Rose and Blanche will continue to live in Miami. There's a speech by Dorothy near the end. She tells her dear friends that their friendship is something she never expected at this point in her life. But it has meant the world to her. And she will wrap herself in the warm memories of their lives together when the world is cold..

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- There's a particularly moving scene in which Buffy tells a group of would-be slayers that she will give them her power. Instead of there being just one chosen one to fight evil, ever girl every where who might be a slayer will be a slayer. It's a great scene about feminism and empowerment and standing up. She asks the great question, "Are you ready to be strong?"

Tags: final episode | goodbye | tv

9:38 AM ET | 03-18-2009 | permalink

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