Worst Series Finale EVER

[sanalayla]

 What happens when a show you love goes off air and their series finale is just absolutely terrible? So terrible that you want to pretend that it never happened? That you just want to write a fanfic and pretend that fanfic was the REAL ending? 

This just happened to me with the series ending of "Medium". For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, I'll just give a brief synopsis without trying to bore you too much. 

"Medium" was the story of a woman who is a psychic and she has a husband, along with three beautiful girls about 11, 5, and 1 respectively. The psychic gets a job with the DA's office and helps them solve cases (usually gruesome and scary cases) using her "gifts".

The fundamental thing that makes this show worth watching (for me) was the relationship between Allison (the main character) and Joe (her husband). They had a pure soulmates connection and were exactly the sort of healthy, sweet, romantic, and loving relationship that you just rarely get to see on TV. (Another example would be the couple in Friday Night Lights.)

They weathered her crazy visions and dreams, they dealt with raising a teenager, tried riding out the horrible economy, etc. They would argue about who would drive the kids to school and they'd figure out what to do when the bills were piling up and the money just wasn't coming in. 

And - so - I sat down to watch the final episode of this 7-year series. And what do they do? THEY KILL JOE. 

Yes. 

I'm still rather upset about this. Needless to say. So, what about you guys? Any show end in a way that made you want to send poop in an envelope to TPTB? 

(As a random aside, I realized that I am damn glad that "SV" didn't end in S8. I think that I am DUE the ending we're getting in S10.) 

Comments

[ginchy.livejournal.com]

OMG, thank you. No one else besides my mom watches Medium and the finale didn't bother her. I just... just... WTF??? I mean... Allison didn't get a dream about this? Joe's dad (or recently departed mom) couldn't show up and say, "Hey, tell Joe not to get on the plane." And they spend 40 minutes telling some story about Joe being washed up in Mexico--but that doesn't really matter cause it never happened??

*bangs head against wall*

I loved Medium because it combined the supernatural with one of the most real families I've ever seen on TV. I loved the kids, and Allison and Joe's relationship and now I have to think that he just died and ... what? What about Lee and Divolos (sp?)? Is Joe's vision just supposed to show us that they'll be in Allison's future?

FEH. I expected more.

[supermandy77.livejournal.com]

The show that immediately comes to mind is one that actually wasn't allowed to even air for a full season. The show started a nice little murder mystery and then FOX cancelled "Reunion" with something like 10 episodes that never aired.

Not a situation where I wanted to give a flaming bag of poo to TPTB, but instead the network that axed a show and never gave us the murderer.

[flatlined.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Medium in a while but THEY DID WHAT? WHO WOULD THINK THAT'S A GOOD IDEA?

[sanalayla.livejournal.com]

Yup. The finale was a mess. First, they make it seem like he's been working for a Mexican drug lord for 7 years and then they show that he really IS dead. And then they fast-forward 41 years and let us know that Allison and girls were OK after he died, but - 41 years later - Allison died and then she & Joe went to heaven together.

Medium's Finale

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Sana,

I know of you from "DI". YES! ITA with you about Medium's Finale. I'd been out and didn't get home until after it had started, but I'd set it to tape with my DVR. It was too chaotic to really listen to the show with family visiting, so I just had it on from about half way through. I could hear enough to understand what had happened when it got to the end, and I was APPALLED! I feel the same way that you do about this series, and FNL. I know it's not common for marriages on TV, or in RL, to actually have Loving couples, with or without children, who make every effort to allow their relationship to work.

What Alison and Joe shared was always so heartfelt and Realistic. It was a Huge PLUS for the format of Medium smack dab in the middle of all the 'strange' and 'supernatural' happenings in their everyday lives. I watched it from the beginning after everyone had left and if I hadn't already seen the horrific ending, I don't think I could've watched it all the way from the beginning twice. I felt drained. It was unbelievable that they could do that to us fans. It was as if they had the chance to give us an appropriate ending, but didn't care after the cancellation. I promptly deleted it. I'm shocked that a series I enjoyed so much for 7 years disappointed me so much when it ended.

Re: Medium's Finale

[sanalayla.livejournal.com]

I can't believe they did that after 7 years of watching these two be so madly in love. Allison says, "There's no me without you." And it's true. I cannot believe she can survive without him. Whose going to hold her when she wakes up at night? Who will help her figure out what's real and not real? Who will be the stable influence on their kids who helps the realize there is life outside their visions?

I hate it. They could have shown us these two grow old together and then go off to eternity in each other's arms. Instead, they tell me that Allison will be alone for 41 years without the love of her life. Even now, I get so sad thinking about it.

[lois-88.livejournal.com]

Really, one of the best and most essential parts of this show was Allison waking up after a dream - in their bed - and immediately tell Joe about it. So what now? Are we to believe that for the next 41 years, she woke up alone, having no one to turn to in these traumatic moments? Are we to believe that she would have been fine without the support of her husband? And really, did he leave? And if so, why? She could see him, their kids could. And like Marie said in Allison's dream, dying wouldn't have been his choice, but leaving them would - they would have had every right to be angry then.

So when Allison said "You waited" in the end - it just sounds like she hadn't seen him in all that time, which is ridiculous given how often their dead relaitves showed up unanounced in their house before. It would have been cruel to her and their kids, and nothing the Joe they had shown us for 7 years would have been capable of. The last scene was just unbelievably cheesy - they could be together forever, so? His kids still had to grow up without a father (not to mention that Allison didn't look at all like the old woman she was supposed to look like). Did I cry during the scene? Sure. But only because I started when he left Allison all alone in their bedroom "41 years" before.

Would it have been so hard for them to let her have whatever dream they wanted, only to wake up the day before the crash to tell Joe not to board that plane in the first place? Or to be there when he was being washed ashore - and then a few happy scenes with them - together - being there for Bridgette and Marie growing up, for Ariel giving birth to their first grandchild ...

Really, would that have been so hard? - Well, apparently.

Anyway, sorry, I'm done rambling now.

[sanalayla.livejournal.com]

Are we to believe that for the next 41 years, she woke up alone, having no one to turn to in these traumatic moments?

Yes, I think so. And that's what's so weird to me. Because when Allison says, "There is no me without you." I believe her. There isn't. She can't survive without Joe. Joe keeps her sane.

If Allison died, I could believe that Joe could manage for 41 years. Would he be sad? Yes. He'd miss her. Of course he would. But he would be all right.

Allison? No, I don't believe it. The heart of the story was that Joe kept her grounded and helped her figure out reality vs. dreams. He held her when she woke up in the middle of the night. Talked things through with her.

Without Joe, I don't see an Allison that can survive 41 days - let alone 41 years.

It would have been cruel to her and their kids, and nothing the Joe they had shown us for 7 years would have been capable of.

Yeah. They completely went against the internal logic of their own show. I feel like if they wanted to kill Joe off, then the better way to handle it was to show the DuBois family over the years and a "ghost Joe" hanging around with a smile on his face. Until 41 years later, when he goes off for eternity with his wife.

But they didn't even let us fanwank it, because they had Allison go, "You waited?" So that means that she didn't know he was hanging around for 41 years. (And he even tells her that when he dies.)

What's the point? Did Joe hang around for 41 years and haunt OTHER people's families? To what purpose? That's not who he is. He would have totally taken advantage of the gifts his daughters' had to talk to them every single day. Marie had every single right to be angry at him.

[lois-88.livejournal.com]

Right.

When they killed off Jim on Ghost Whisperer, I didn't have that kind of problem with it. It was a show about ghosts and there was no way they would actually write him out of it. Back then they even made good use of his death - it finally made the character important beyond being Melinda's husband, it gave him something else to do - for once, the show focused a little more on him than on her. And of course, he had gotten himself a new body by the time for the first sonogram of their son.

That ghost just refused to leave his beloved wife behind. He didn't just want to wait for her ... but wait with her.

In my opinion, the Joe Dubois we know and love would have tried to do the same.

[annie-m-in-ldn.livejournal.com]

Hi Sana,

I have to totally agree with your assessment of the finale of Medium.

Now, unlike Smallville, I'm not part of a fan forum or anything when it comes to watching Medium (and I'm in the UK), so I do have to check the net from time to time to figure out when episodes are actually airing.

A couple of weeks ago I read that the show was being cancelled, and I admit I wasn't surprised about it. I think the show's been on a downward spiral for a couple of seasons, but, as you stated, at the heart of the show was a loving, committed, happily married couple, raising three kids.

A rarity on TV anywhere--and I cynically wonder if that contributed to its failure at all.

But this stupid story line is how they chose to go out?

Yeah, I wasn't impressed.

To me, it felt like that season of "Dallas" all over again -- the one where Pam "dreams" that Bobby was dead and she "wakes" up (a year later) to find him in the shower?

Just, ugghh. And I guess I'm showing my age now, too. ;-)

I don't know how much time TPTB had to prepare the series finale, but surely they could have come up with something that resonated in a positive way? This ending just left me feeling all, "Meh".

I'll just have to go back and watch some old episodes ... I think the ones with Angelica Huston as the private eye are some of my favourites.

[sanalayla.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm not part of the "Medium" fandom either. And I there were whole chunks of seasons that I skipped out on. (Sometimes, the crimes would become too much for me.)

But the thing that kept me coming back was the heart of the show - the story of Allison/Joe and their three kids. The best parts of the show was the family life. Especially towards the end, when the "mystery of the week" would be so cliche and phoned in.

A rarity on TV anywhere--and I cynically wonder if that contributed to its failure at all.

You know, I'm not part of the "Medium" fandom either. And I there were whole chunks of seasons that I skipped out on. (Sometimes, the crimes would become too much for me.)

But the thing that kept me coming back was the heart of the show - the story of Allison/Joe and their three kids. The best parts of the show was the family life. Especially towards the end, when the "mystery of the week" would be so cliche and phoned in.

A rarity on TV anywhere--and I cynically wonder if that contributed to its failure at all.

I don't know. Could be? I saw it more like a situation where the writers were trying to go out with a bang as opposed to a whimper. No one was really watching the show anymore and the fact that it was cancelled barely caused a ripple. It could be that they were bitter about that and wanted to go out in a memorable way.

I the process, though, I think they screwed over the fans of the show.

[jirawan.livejournal.com]

Really? They killed Joe? That's not cool after he the trials and tribulations he went through with her and the family all these years. I admit I stopped watching the show after the 3rd or 4th season but I loved the portrayal of their family unit and their support of each other especially his support and understanding of her through all her craziness. I'm sorry it ended that way.

I can't think right off hand any shows I watched that really upset me when it "ended". I do have many shows that got "cancelled" with unfinished story that makes for some frustration such as LnC, Drive, Life, Earth 2, Moonlight, Dresden, and many many more.

Also, there are shows that I only watched for couples and when that's over, I quit watching like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy/Angel), Silk Stalkings (Rita/Chris), and more.

[sanalayla.livejournal.com]

Yup. They killed him off. And then confirmed that he had no communication with his family the entire time. 41 years later, Alison dies and they go off and spend eternity together.