Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait an someone explain her breakup with Suzie and when did they get back together? I watched it all but maybe I forgot. I think they broke up because of the money / gambling and. Joel fixed that - but when did midge and Suzie reconcile?

They broke up because Susie got mixed up with the mob and in order to clear midge of it, Joel quietly gave over control of his club businesses to Susie’s mob associates. Midge found out when Joel eventually went to prison and midge lost it at Susie for getting them in this deep. That was in the mid 1980s.

They made up after Susie’s roast in 1990. Midge extended an olive branch

It was more than that. She was mixed up with the mob and gave them a cut of all of Midge’s earnings, which Susie failed to tell Midge. That’s why Joel wanted to clear Midge from being entangled and indebted in any way to the mob.

I liked the flashback to the Chinese restaurant and Lenny Bruce but did not like Lenny’s downfall at all. I felt there were a lot of things that weren’t needed at all this season: the kibbutz scene, the daughter and the psychiatrist, the scenes at the preschool, every scene with the maid (her marriage and compulsion to continue working), the marital problems of Joel’s parents and then their stupid fur coat/shower reconnection scene, the stupid scenes with Susie and the woman in the office across the way (where the bucket was stuck), the dad agonizing about having a typo corrected in his article, etc. just a lot of wasted time that could have been better spent developing another aspect of the show.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It was a terrible ending to a nice show. I didn't recognize it as over until I came here. It was so unfinished.

I agree. I found it upsetting that she didn’t end up with Joel despite them having resolved their issues and still loving each other. Seemed inconsistent with the story they told, and only served to prove a purpose that a person can’t be successful and have a happy marriage.

My interpretation was that Joel had died but they'd remained close, thus the wedding picture on her desk

I think the bittersweet angle was that they loved each other but couldn't be together, their priorities and the lives they wanted were too different from each other. It's implied they remained close until Joel's end.

Right- but it felt like it was bittersweet for the sake of it and not because any insurmountable obstacle kept them apart.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It was a terrible ending to a nice show. I didn't recognize it as over until I came here. It was so unfinished.

I agree. I found it upsetting that she didn’t end up with Joel despite them having resolved their issues and still loving each other. Seemed inconsistent with the story they told, and only served to prove a purpose that a person can’t be successful and have a happy marriage.

My interpretation was that Joel had died but they'd remained close, thus the wedding picture on her desk

I think the bittersweet angle was that they loved each other but couldn't be together, their priorities and the lives they wanted were too different from each other. It's implied they remained close until Joel's end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It was a terrible ending to a nice show. I didn't recognize it as over until I came here. It was so unfinished.

I agree. I found it upsetting that she didn’t end up with Joel despite them having resolved their issues and still loving each other. Seemed inconsistent with the story they told, and only served to prove a purpose that a person can’t be successful and have a happy marriage.

My interpretation was that Joel had died but they'd remained close, thus the wedding picture on her desk

I loved this season and the finale! Some thoughts/reflections:

- This season seemed much more realistic about the trajectory of how a career is made. The first few seasons were too fairy-tale. But this season seemed realistic about the ups and downs and big breaks and lost opportunities.

- One thought I had was that this show is a love letter to women working. Every scene shows a woman doing her job seriously and competently and like a boss, even if its just the coat check. You see how all the "small" jobs make the world go around. Every woman's work is taken seriously. It's like a walking Bechtel test. The main relationship is about work! Even Midge in season one returning the burlesque dancer's pasty-tassel to her shows how women's work is work, taken seriously by other women no matter what it is.

- Somehow this season tied up all the stories in an emotionally satisfying way, without being treacly. I loved the subplot of Esther being a genius. The goodbye to Lenny was devastating but not overplayed at all. I wish we found out what happened to Mei.

- I wanted to know who else Midge married! Does she marry Gordon Ford for a while? I think so!

- The finale was really emotionally satisfying too. I loved seeing how Susie makes it and brings everyone up with her (reference to Dinah becoming a powerful manager on her own). Do we think Susie was in love with Midge? Or maybe it doesn't matter? At the end, you can tell that even if so, they are best friends.

- I really really loved the end credits of the finale with all the sets and locations!

- loved loved LOVED the scene with Abe and his friends in the steakhouse in episode 8. This is a show, no doubt, about women and their friendships. But this whole scene was like a love letter to men, specifically the way men get sappy as they get older. The ASP snappy dialogue/patter is really perfected here with the counterpoint of the waiter against the seriousness of the men. Abe's monologue at the end had me bawling and thinking about my own dad.

- Finally ... one thing I love about ASP which she really perfected in this show is the diegetic dancing and music. (Diegetic - fancy film studies word for music that is part of the action of the movie, not the soundtrack added over the action. I think it can apply to dancing as well.) Loved it in Bunheads too. The culmination was the little sitcom with the sitcom of the show that Susie pitched (made up on the fly) on the golf course - with Sutton Foster (LOVE her) and Hank Azaria starring as an odd couple. Hank's song at the end to his daughter was just *chefs kiss.*

What happened to Ethan?!!

Anonymous wrote:
It was a terrible ending to a nice show. I didn't recognize it as over until I came here. It was so unfinished.

I agree. I found it upsetting that she didn’t end up with Joel despite them having resolved their issues and still loving each other. Seemed inconsistent with the story they told, and only served to prove a purpose that a person can’t be successful and have a happy marriage.

It was a terrible ending to a nice show. I didn't recognize it as over until I came here. It was so unfinished.

Anonymous wrote:Wait an someone explain her breakup with Suzie and when did they get back together? I watched it all but maybe I forgot. I think they broke up because of the money / gambling and. Joel fixed that - but when did midge and Suzie reconcile?

They broke up because Susie got mixed up with the mob and in order to clear midge of it, Joel quietly gave over control of his club businesses to Susie’s mob associates. Midge found out when Joel eventually went to prison and midge lost it at Susie for getting them in this deep. That was in the mid 1980s.

They made up after Susie’s roast in 1990. Midge extended an olive branch

Anonymous wrote:I thought this was a great finale not just for the show but an example of how a series should end. Have some respect for the viewers who have stuck with you and tie up all the loose ends.

I didn’t feel like the loose ends were tied up in a satisfactory way. I still had a lot of questions. It also really bothered me that she messed up her children’s lives but seemed to have no recognition of that at all.

And, yes, I get it, she’s all about me, me, me but not even a smidgen of recognition of her role and a tiny bit of sadness that she doesn’t have strong relationships with them.

This last season just seemed all over the place with the flashing back and forth in time and never pulling everything together. I really liked the show at the beginning but I felt let down by how it ended.

I thought this was a great finale not just for the show but an example of how a series should end. Have some respect for the viewers who have stuck with you and tie up all the loose ends.

ASP recently did an interview that she shouldn’t be doing during the strike.

Anonymous wrote:can’t stand Midge’s face and voice anymore.

Shrug. If you kept watching and didn't like it, that's on you.

Anonymous wrote:Wait an someone explain her breakup with Suzie and when did they get back together? I watched it all but maybe I forgot. I think they broke up because of the money / gambling and. Joel fixed that - but when did midge and Suzie reconcile?

Midge reached out to Suzie when they did a roast for her at the Friar's Club. It's somewhere in the second half of this season.

Wait an someone explain her breakup with Suzie and when did they get back together? I watched it all but maybe I forgot. I think they broke up because of the money / gambling and. Joel fixed that - but when did midge and Suzie reconcile?