i hadn't watched House in a few years, but I liked the ending. Too many shows are killing off main characters in the series finale, and I always thought that's a big screw you to the viewers.
It did suffer from only being an hour long though; it should have been at least 90 minutes to fit all the former stars in.
The ending was fine. Not great, but they didn't Seinfeld or Lost it.
Some definite character advancement with House so that you could conceive of him living a quiet, content life after the show, a reasonable gimmick that allowed all the old crew to show up, and a scene where they got to ride off into the sunset.
I was such a fan of the show that I don't think I was ever going to be really happy with a finale, so fine is. . . . fine.
It was finale-esque. It seemed safe. It's not really the finale that you'll hear about in a history of great finales (M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere, Newhart, etc). It's funny though, because I think those early hallucination/bus episodes with House and Amber would have made much a good finale.
At the end though, when House exclaimed, "I am dead", for an instant I thought that meant that Wilson was dead/near death and hallucinating about House.
What a freaking great episode. Wonderfully done and I am leaving fulfilled and wet eyed. Just as Eastern Girl said "the story was about Wilson and House" and the set up was like that from the beginning. They came across as life long friends and they will end their relationship as such.
Bringing back the other cast members in a remembrance episode and giving us the clues to the episode history through them was fantastic. Pretty much what you would expect from what the series has offered in the past.
I am such a softy for this show; once I saw Kushner and the realization that the series was going to end I had a dam in my eyes struggling with the back-load! Each old character brought back forced me to remember the story-line through the 8 years and it definitely left that nostalgic feeling. House has consistently struggled with life through these years and finally he was given a choice by his own stupid hand. Of course this is because, and they hint this through Wilson in the cafeteria, only you can change you. Now how much of a lie would it of been if he left that building once he understood and lived life happily ever after right there! Oh that would be such a lie to the loyal fans and to the character House! THERE WOULD BE BLOOD! Nope instead they trick us and make us think he dies right when he has his epiphany! For me instant tears, after-all, "Everybody dies", right? How could they end this brilliant and addictive series in such a stupid predictable way!? Then, as I wipe the tears away, Foreman comes out from the coroner's office and confirms that it is indeed House that had died in the explosion. HA! YOU MANIPULATIVE S.O.B.S! He is not dead and you are just writing with opposites! BASTERDOS!
Still wiping my tears we watch the funeral and listen to each individual talk about House with logic and admiration. Akin to a Vulcan delivery because only a Vulcan can work with such a man who teaches lessons in such a unique and dis-respective way. *And more tissue.* Wow, I know what's happening and I am eating it all up like the dirty hooker and blow House whore I am.
Wilson comes up to the podium and you know he's going to deliver the opposite due to their conversation in the cafeteria, and, because Wilson is Wilson after all. But, that is why we love that do righter! Furthermore, it is what House would have wanted if he was actually dead. House would want to tell everyone to shut up and do something constructive and stop being idiots!
House, without betraying his character, ends up winning from the hand that he is dealt and gets away with it. Spending the last days with his best and only true friend... *I actually grab a tissue again writing this*
Man I will miss this show and I am a picky bugger... I haven't been this emotional about a TV show ever.
Last edited by To Be Quite Honest; 05-22-2012 at 02:09 AM.
Reason: add spoiler
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I actually thought it was above average because they didn't try to overreach. They didn't try to make it too awesome or too all encompassing.
I think we all saw House faking suicide early on. (I did anyway, even from last episode, I thought it might be how he tries to get out of his situation). Still I like the way they did it and didn't feel cheated. The episode dealt with his daemons and we are left to believe he might be further at peace with himself.
I still can't decide if it would have been a better ending with him actually dying or not though. The funeral had some real emotion behind it, especially with Wilson doing his thing, and then it all went out the window.
But I expected that anyway, House always gets his way. It was a good finale.
In fact, when you think about it, the journey from episode 1 to 177 was about how to fix House. He started a miserable SOB, was an SOB through all the episodes, had a bunch of people try to fix him and in the end he diagnosed himself...
In fact, when you think about it, the journey from episode 1 to 177 was about how to fix House. He started a miserable SOB, was an SOB through all the episodes, had a bunch of people try to fix him and in the end he diagnosed himself...
Plus the one guy he couldn't fix was his best friend. And he had to learn to cope.
Duh? Obviously cliche?
I think there is a bit of too much reading in, because the series has gone in a few different directions they didn't expect. A few characters left that had to be written out unexpectedly, and there were a few cheats a long the way.
To say there was a plan from the beginning or even along the way would probably be incorrect.
But there are few shows that can say that. Lost is a perfect example. Just winging it but pretending there is a plan.
The characters they did create though made it so they could tie things in, and it was a satisfactory conclusion.
In the end it was about great acting and some great back and forths between characters. It was one of the most formulaic shows on TV and I'm not sure there was ever any huge plan for an arching storyline. But the humanity of House and even the staff brought us back.
And they didn't disappoint. And because of that, I don't feel cheated by it being cliche, which it was.
I thought the finale was pretty decent. I didn't like it as much as TBQH, but rarely does a finale satisfy. I think I was looking for a bit more...it seemed rather "fluffy" and self-indulgent, but then again, this is House so...
Plus the one guy he couldn't fix was his best friend. And he had to learn to cope.
Duh? Obviously cliche?
I think there is a bit of too much reading in, because the series has gone in a few different directions they didn't expect. A few characters left that had to be written out unexpectedly, and there were a few cheats a long the way.
To say there was a plan from the beginning or even along the way would probably be incorrect.
But there are few shows that can say that. Lost is a perfect example. Just winging it but pretending there is a plan.
The characters they did create though made it so they could tie things in, and it was a satisfactory conclusion.
In the end it was about great acting and some great back and forths between characters. It was one of the most formulaic shows on TV and I'm not sure there was ever any huge plan for an arching storyline. But the humanity of House and even the staff brought us back.
And they didn't disappoint. And because of that, I don't feel cheated by it being cliche, which it was.
The "plan" of House being a broken man was always there and it isn't far fetched to believe that the plan was for him to some what fix himself in the end. That's the character development; how the show may have been designed and sold to a network. For example, I had a writing group and we wrote a TV series based on Superheros who were just normal people. We had a rough plan on how each character was going to be and how the main character would roughly go through his trials. However, the meat of the story wasn't planned. It could have been a year series or a 3 year series or longer.
Lost was only supposed to be a mini series, and the creators and network didn't expect it to be such a huge hit. That's why they flew by the seat of their pants. They already finished the original story line.
Cliche's are fine when they make sense, and aren't just written in to get the job done. The House finale was executed with class and didn't excessively manipulate the viewer to get to the end.
For example, the 2004 movie Crash. It was manipulative POS movie because it overreached, made unrealistic connections and it contained so many cliches that you knew exactly what was going to happen. So you were stuck there just waiting for it to unfold and finish.
While we all sensed
Spoiler!
House wasn't dead at the Coroner's office, we didn't really know how it would unfold and the funeral was a nice touch.
It didn't overreach or make unrealistic connections and you didn't want it to end.
Last edited by To Be Quite Honest; 05-22-2012 at 01:00 PM.
Reason: remove unnecessary wording.
Just got around to watching it and I really liked it.
As a fan from the beginning, I simply could not accept a "sad" ending where House fails to figure it out. What would have been the point of the series? I thought they were going to Charlie Sheen us for a second there.
Cheesy? I don't think so. I wanted it to be a happy ending, and it was as happy as I could ask for. I needed it to be happy.
I thought the series got better every season. More about House.
Very sad to see it end. No other show has captured me with this one character. Don't think another will.