Current Events > Just saw the Scrubs finale, made me think *HIMYM, Scrubs spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just saw the Scrubs finale for the first time in years, and it hit a lot differently now after seeing the How I Met Your Mother ending and being expected to settle for an ending I didn't like for how "clever" the championed "greater point of the show" is.

Sitcom endings really are hit and miss. You have classic endings that pander to the base and wrap everything up, like Cheers, but then you have the ones that split the fanbase down the middle at best - like How I Met Your Mother - where they take a shot at one last memorable twist to go out on top.

I think sentimentality is underrated nowadays, with Scrubs harkening back to the more emotional sendoffs in the style of Cheers, whereas shows like HIMYM go for a more postmodern, deconstructive angle for the sake of being different. It depends on the property, but ultimately I think I prefer a straightforward, earnest ending over an ending that tries to make its fame reinventing the wheel.

Like it can be argued that HIMYM's ending serves a greater point or whatever, but it does hurt to have followed that show for nine years, only for them to trot out a plot point that they cover like three, four, five times over the show's lifetime - which concluded negatively every time, and was consistently painted as a bad idea - instead of just giving people the carrot they'd been dangling in front of them for years. I guess Ted/Robin was that carrot for some people, but I don't think it's unreasonable for people watching How I Met Your Mother to have wanted the eponymous mother to be the end point of Ted's narrative.

I think the difference between my feelings on the Scrubs finale and the HIMYM finale is that HIMYM felt the need to make this greater point, to pull the rug out from under you like it has this galaxy brain level idea. But it felt like it completely undermined the characters and the journey they had for the sake of that twist, even as recently as 2 episodes before the finale. JD and Elliot had that will they or won't they relationship like Ted and Robin did, where they kept getting together and breaking up over the course of the show, but the last season of Scrubs didn't build up to JD and Elliot building separate lives and growing as people before tearing it all down for the vague notion of "maybe it'll stick this time! what a pair of cards!"

It could be argued that the ending of Scrubs is schmaltzy, self-absorbed and lacking depth, but it does close the book on JD, and it's a nice, sentimental send-off to the show's central character. JD has the rest of his life ahead of him, and things are looking up. That's all it needs to be - I'm happy that the characters are happy. I spent 8 years in the shoes of JD as a kid, and his sendoff just felt like a great moment of closure.

After nine years of following HIMYM, it ended on a plot they had beaten to death, and to make it work they had to throw out the point of the show they had been building up to the entire time. But what makes it so much worse is that the last season was building to a greater point of maturity and emotional clarity - not just to Ted meeting the mother of his children and settling down, but to Robin and Barney moving forward with their lives. But it had to make the plot this bigger, more intricate, greater scope ending where the story was never about the mother, it was about Ted's feelings for Robin.

Having the idea 8 years before the show ended isn't much of a consolation, because it just meant they had to throw so much more character development, history and viewer engagement in the garbage at the end of season 9, compared to if they pulled that shit at the end of season 3.

It's nice just to have a happy, feelgood ending in a character-driven sitcom, where this chapter of these characters' lives is wrapped up and everything is okay.

This topic isn't an indictment of any and all unexpected twist endings, or endings that try to impart a broader theme or concept to elevate the material. But just having a nice ending in a show like Scrubs, where it's like a nice bow on top of a decent present - I miss that. I feel like there's not enough earnest endings like that any more, everything wants to get that last twist in to try and elevate it to the point of art.

I feel like the HIMYM ending kind of killed something innocent in me, and the ensuing defence of the Ted/Robin ending as the greater point of the show brought me into a more critical mindset that's reliant on discourse. I'm glad that the Scrubs ending holds up as well as it does for me, because I really needed something that I consider totally, unambiguously enjoyable like that.

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at least it didn't pull a Sopranos and ju

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Do people generally consider Friends to have a good ending?

Ross and Rachel getting together seemed pointless considering they had been on and off for ages. Nothing to say they won't break up again for the hundredth time.

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SpaceBear_ posted...

Do people generally consider Friends to have a good ending?

Ross and Rachel getting together seemed pointless considering they had been on and off for ages. Nothing to say they won't break up again for the hundredth time.

My understanding is that the Friends finale is considered one of the great TV show endings. The fans got what they want, and it was a satisfying conclusion in the eyes of the media I was too young at the time to really get the show, so I don't remember shit from the time, but I do remember buzz about the ending from years after the fact.

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