Jami and the Perfect Ending

No, not the blog, though I realize posting once or twice a month isn't what I originally was doing. Anyway... This week saw the last episode of Ugly Betty, a soapy, drama-filled, comedy based on a Colombian telenova. I started watching Betty on a whim, really, when the Husband brought home the first season on DVD in case I was interested. I started the first disc and couldn't stop until the credits rolled on the last episode of that season. Smart, funny, clever, unpredictable and even though it had some of the elements of your basic soap opera, it had just enough realism to keep me watching. The snappy writing and clever twists definitely caught me, someone who hasn't ever watched a real soap opera regularly. And so Betty drew to a close this week, in what may have been the BEST finale episode ever, if not, certainly the best in a long, long time. It's hard to write finales for beloved show, I know. Fans want it to be the best episode ever, they want the plotlines wrapped up, but the feeling that their favorite characters will still be going on, they want happy endings, but not magic fairy godmothery endings, they want laughs and tears and love and all of it to be perfect, and normally you get 30 minutes to an hour to do it; I get when some of the finales just can't live up to it. And of course, some shows are cancelled before the writers have time to write a satisfying ending, frustrating all. We all can think of some of the good endings - M*A*S*H probably being the best known, but it was a 2 hour movie, Futurama had a great farewell (followed by 3 straight to video movies and returning this summer) - the Bad: Seinfeld, St. Elsewhere - and the forgettable: Frasier? Cosby Show? Family Ties? By the time they were cancelled was anyone even still watching? So why did Ugly Betty's finale work? Why would I call it "perfect"?

1. The plotlines were all wrapped up, over the last few episodes in believable ways. Even Amanda's MIA dad, a storyline I'd forgotten about, closes up. Is it a little bit too coincidental? Sure, but not outrageously so. In the world of soap operas, it was positively tame.
2. The characters showed they've grown and changed, but they're still themselves. Willie softened a little, but she will never be nice. Mark still made fun of Betty, etc.
3. There were no huge surprise twists. Did you see the ending with Daniel coming? Probably, it was hinted at clearly enough. But he didn't pop the question, or make a grand sweeping gesture at the airport. No one made big silly speeches or had surprise pregnancies, engagements, divorces, or deaths (yes, Halston died, but he was a fairly minor character ;-)
4. You felt good about even the sad parts. Betty leaving, Hilda moving out - it's about time. They're adults. It's bittersweet, but it's right and you feel it. Like the "rightness" of Sam turning out the lights on the final Cheers, it's sad, but it's also time.
5. The plotlines wrap up, but the characters are going on, Betty starting a new job, Mark moving up, Justin coming into his own, Ignacio on his own, you feel like it's a beginning as well. You aren't left hanging, but your imagination gets to carry their stories onward. Joss Whedon did this excellently with Buffy and Angel - both shows ended with big epic battles - but left places for the surviving charcters to live on.
6. The tone of the finale fit the tone of the show. A finale that suddenly changes tone or tries to teach a lesson or does something completely out of the show's "character" (I'm talking to you, Roseanne) can be disastrous.

So farewell, Betty and friends. Thanks for the giggles, gasps and sniffles. And for the perfect ending.

Jami

I have been thinking of the nature of internet friendships. I have a few friends, people I do consider friends, that I have never actually seen in person. People that I care about, confide in, pray for. People that I'd would certainly not have crossed paths with if not for this crazy contraption called the internet. You can go many places to hear about how online friends and communications are making us less social, more isolated, etc. It's true that if I feel lonely and want to go out for a beer, my internet friends aren't going to be able to help. But I also talk to a lot of stay-at-home moms who found a lifeline on the internet - you can't call your next door neighbor when you're nursing at 3am and sure that you are alone in the world, but you can log on and almost always find another mom at her wit's end looking for a friendly "voice". Friendships are hard to start. You usually need to find some sort of common ground, even if it's just a tv show you both like or the fact that you both hate people who fake run across the crosswalk in front of your car, like that's somehow saving you some time. That's where the internet does what hanging out in real life may not. I made some friends at the Firefly fan board years ago. Big dorks, yup, just like me. I had a great fun-filled weekend in Vegas with those guys, an experience that I'd have missed without making friends with them. I guess what I am saying is that friends are valuable, and you can have both the fleshy real ones and the more ethereal internet ones (in fact, you should have at least a few of the former, even if you have tons of the latter). I appreciate having these folks in my life however they have arrived and for as long as they'll stay. In the words of the Golden Girls - thank you for being a friend.

Jami Admits to Being Everyone

Oh my, almost two whole months gone since I posted. Well, for those in the know, March was jammed packed for me, I barely got to breathe the whole month, it felt like, and now that I'm two days into April, all I can say is - whew. Thank goodness. Anyway, besides barely having a moment to write, I've had some other writing projects going on, which meant the blog suffered, but here's the post I've been thinking about. Years ago, someone told me that there are things that everyone does, and everyone suspects that everyone else does, too, but no one will admit to doing them. The person in question was a guy and the instance he used to demonstrate his point was that everyone pees in the shower. Not every time, or even on a regular basis,but everyone pees. My 4th grade health teacher, a man I can remember only as Mr. B, informed our class that everyone picks their noses. He strongly advised against eating the boogers, and said that NOT everyone does that, but everyone, he insisted, picks their noses. I'm going to admit that I have peed in the shower. It's a bold statement, which will come back to haunt me in the tabloids when I'm famous, but hey, when I was pregnant and peeing an estimated every 31 seconds, getting out of the shower, toweling down and getting to the toilet was waaay too much work, so even though I'd go before the shower, there were a few occasions where the water hit me and it was all over. The nose picking, I'm going to have to agree with the teacher on that one, too. Generally with a tissue in hand (or on-finger), we've all felt the annoyance of that one boogie you gotta get out of there. Heck, I'm a mom, I've picked my kids noses, using the handy-dandy booger sucker. So, people of the world, unite! Stand up and admit to your shower peeing and nose picking ways! And, what else does everyone do that you're willing to cop to?