Ending Well
A Wednesday is for WIPs that unapologetically celebrates FBI: MOST WANTED.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: most television series do not end well. There is only one sure way to make a series end well. Plan it from the beginning and stick to that plan. That’s how you get an Andor. It was very clear, especially in season two, that each arc and each episode in each arc was crafted with deliberation to build to the end. The end that was really the beginning of Rogue One, which in turn feeds directly into A New Hope. All those decisions were made with purpose, and many, if not most, can be attributed directly to Tony Gilroy. He had a vision, and he executed it. And Disney let him.
Television is not built to do that. Broadcast or ‘traditional’ television is mostly meant to do the opposite. It’s meant to keep going. To reinvent itself every so often due to artist contracts or waning ratings or studio oversight, but to keep going. And going. And going. And going, like the Energizer Bunny. Forever. Successful television doesn’t end. But endings are the only way to get a successful story.
FBI: Most Wanted ended this year, after six seasons. It was down in the ratings, but not catastrophically, and it was the kind of formulaic copaganda procedural from Wolf Enterprises that seemed like it could go on and on. I don’t know what happened. I can speculate about CBS/Paramount’s financial woes, about the Wolfverse’s extremely unearned “woke” reputation, about Dylan McDermott’s attention span, or my favorite conspiracy theory that they wanted him back at NBC to ruin Elliot’s (and my) life on Law & Order: Organized Crime. This particular FBI had already reinvented itself a couple of times after cast changes, so maybe it seemed better, or at least easier, to start over with another spin-off (the hilariously named FBI: CIA) than work it out with this one. I don’t really care why, and I don’t really care that it’s gone. I will miss Hana because she was different, and I’ve followed Keisha Castle-Hughes since Whale Rider, and I’m annoyed that they gave us and Roxy Sternberg Barnes in charge, but we’ll never get to see it. But this is not a show I will mourn.
And part of that is because it ended pretty much almost exactly as I wanted it to and pretty much almost exactly how I would have ended it myself. Nobody died. Nobody failed. Every single character got both closure and a new beginning. The last episode was thirty-three minutes of par for the course Wolfverse FBI nonsense and nine minutes of happily ever after, and I came away both fed and happy. Was it realistic? Not at all. Was it fan service? Absolutely. Both of those are Good, Actually. Both of those are why I spent any time at all with the stupid show in the first place.
There are no happy endings because nothing ever ends.
—The Last Unicorn film, screenplay by Peter S. Beagle, based on his novel of the same name
This is one of my most favorite quotes in the history of words, and I think that explains almost everything you need to know about me. Endings are fake. They happen, sure. Planets explode. People die. Relationships end. But all of those can be transformed. All of those can be reborn. All of those can go on. None of those endings is the end.
Let’s look at FBI: Most Wanted. Barnes is promoted to lead the task force. Hana and Ethan (OTP forever) are moving in together. Ray’s wife is pregnant. Nina’s sister is getting a divorce. Remy is retiring to focus on his new restaurant and his hot lawyer girlfriend (LOL, but also good for him!). All of those are a kind of ending and a kind of beginning at the same time. All of those reflect reality, reflect life. All of those are the fake happy endings I want for these fake people I care about. There is nothing wrong with that, and I refuse to feel bad about it. Just like I refuse to feel bad that Bix had a baby. I am allowed to have, and frankly, I am owed, some happiness in the fake endings of the fake people I spend time with. That’s what fantasy IS.
Television is special. It very seldom tells a good story. It ends poorly, or tritely, or not at all. But that weakness is a strength. There are no happy endings because nothing ever ends.
Now
Watching
The fourth season of the Canadian medical series Transplant is finally on Peacock. I looked up the ending because I needed—needed like a white hot exigency—for my OTP to be endgame (I have been burned too many times, okay?) and it gave me enough peace to watch. I jumped back in at season three to give myself some build-up, and I really do love medical dramaz.
Reading
I woke up unsure what I was going to put here. All I’ve read for the past week was emails about work and SVU fanfiction. But then my brother posted about adoption, and it was transformative.
Here’s the thing. My brother, Freddie, is my half-brother. We share a mother but not a father. My mother left my (biological) father when I was two years old, my (step)father adopted me when I was seven, and he raised us as a single father after our mother died when I was thirteen and Freddie was seven. I’m the only one in my family who was born in Florida rather than Connecticut (it matters), and what I know about my birth family is that I was lucky to be raised by someone who begrudgingly accepted me into his care, rather than by someone who willingly gave up his rights to be in my life. My dad (my stepfather) was not particularly good at child-rearing; he was old, overwhelmed, barely present, and could be abusive due to alcoholism, especially to me, the only girl and the one who didn’t belong to him. But I have a better life, and I am a better person because he took me in, because he gave me his name, because he did his best to be my father. And the Adoption is Bad narrative that has taken over my circles hurts me. Adoption can be bad, and I would never tell someone that their lived experience is invalid. But my reality is also real.
Listening
I enjoy podcasts. I mainly listen to those focused on media, mental health, and politics (shocking, I know), but I want to shout out GYMCASTIC, the number one gymnastics podcast in the galaxy. It’s so good, y’all. I started listening while boycotting the 2020 Olympic coverage in 2021. I couldn’t, in good faith, watch the broadcasts during the pandemic, but I wanted to know what was happening, and Gymcastic was there for me with bells on. And they not only deliver excellent Olympic (and other competitions) coverage, they deliver THE BEST gymnastics coverage available. I’ve listened to so much of their back catalogue, I love every single commission (you do not understand how OBSESSED I was with Svetlana Khorkina in 1996-2004, but Gymcastic does!), and no matter what is happening with gymnastics, they will explain it to you with passion and precision. The most recent episode is a replay of a commission from 2019 and a throwback to the 1980s, and it encapsulates so much of what I love about this podcast, gymnastics, and the Olympics in general. IT IS GOLD.
Find Me
Zomg, I am so tired. I was at the Bear McCreary concert, and it was AWESOME. Then I was at Reunion/Commencement and we were targeted (? but like, for real tho) by the military. Then I finally got to meet my baby nephew. Then I went to a car show I didn’t know was happening. And now I am preparing for the summer program in science research I am mostly kind of actually in charge of. tldr; I’m busy offline!
Upcoming
Everything I said last week is still true! But also I invite you to not only follow me on my main ME bluesky account but to follow me on my side STAR TREK bluesky account. Cute, funny, poignant skeets (WHAT a stupid name) to come!