June Fandom Meme Question 6

[potentiality_26]

What fandom that got a series finale was that most appropriate/most satisfying.  Bonus: What about it would you have changed, if anything?

This has to be Justified. 

I'm sure there are a lot of finales that I've sort of... passively enjoyed and don't think much about now; Justified is special because it surprised me.

See, I never believed Boyd Crowder would survive the series.  He was supposed to die at the end of episode one, and I guess a part of me always saw this show as a six season long reprieve for the guy that would ultimately end with him back where he started: drawing against Raylan and losing.  That the show could go there, but also end it pretty well for both of them, was a revelation.  (I mean, Boyd's in jail as he certainly deserves to be, but the series really sells that as a happy ending and it genuinely feels like one.)  I probably would have loved any finale that gave me that, and that wonderful final scene between them, but I was really happy with where everyone else ended up too.  

I actually spent a lot of the final season not loving the arcs of most of the major characters (except Loretta, that was flawless) but in the end it all turned out so very right.  I think in fandom we all have moments, when characters or relationships aren't going in a way we particularly like, where we think, "I know these characters better than the people writing them.  This is not how things would go."  And sometimes I think fans are absolutely right about that.  But the Justified finale managed to do something else: it reminded me that they did know the characters better than I did.  Everyone ended up right where they needed be, even if I wouldn't have picked how they got there.

(Using my Justified icon since I just remembered I have it.  I may do a revamped version since I'm not sure I could let it go.  Oh man.  I do miss Boyd's hair)
   

Comments

[leahclaire]

It's so nice when there's a show where you can actually trust the writers to finish it well. And sad that it so rarely happens! I loved Justified, but I think I might have stopped watching before the final season, because I can't remember the ending.

I'm trying to think of shows I've seen that ended perfectly, and I think Black Sails might have been the closest, at least in recent memory. The (UK) Office was also great, but that's because they had only planned to write two seasons and a christmas special, so they had the natural limitation to tighten those character arcs, etc. I wish more shows had an end mark like that, so writers could really pay attention to narrative and character arcs, instead of going off the rails as soon as they need to stretch a series out into more seasons.

[potentiality_26]

Yeah, there's a depressingly small amount of shows that don't go off the rails in some way. And it's always good when shows know when they're going to end and can write to it ahead of time. (In fact, the problems sometimes start when a show was meant to end at a certain point, but then went on beyond it... *tries not to look at SPN and fails*)