Podcast Reaction: Endings Edition

This week on the podcast, the Geeks talked about the ends to two long-running franchises and how much they did or did not like the endings.

Did the landings stick or suck?

OK, so, obviously the Geeks really liked Avengers: Endgame, so much so that when they questioned the last time everyone on the podcast gave a movie a perfect string of tens, they totally forgot I was on the show for the Force Awakens talk and I gave that movie an 8.5.  Then again, maybe I don’t count.

Of course, Endgame isn’t really the end of the MCU.  It’s just a hell of a landmark as that particular cinematic universe, and I strongly suspect the Russo Brothers were symbolically showing as much when they had Hawkeye pass a certain large glove off to, in succession, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Captain Marvel.  But I won’t say too much about all that since I wasn’t invited to certain cool birthday parties for the silly reason that I live in a different time zone and over 1,700 miles away.  Plus, it was a school night.

But then there was Game of Thrones.  And…I mostly liked the finale.  Sure, the Daenerys stuff was mostly predictable, but I tend to be very forgiving for ending any long-running show.  I have a hard time saying I outright hated any of the more controversial last episodes for shows I’ve actually watched, usually because I ask myself, “Well, how else could they have ended that?”  My general view of Game of Thrones now that it’s over is the show was about the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.  The series ends with what is probably mostly a figurehead king who is beyond corruption, a small council that will actually run everything made up of a woman knight, two practically disowned sons of jackass noblemen, and a pair of commoners who worked their way up the ranks to their current position, plus each of the Stark kids that aren’t Bran got what they more or less wanted in the beginning of the show.  Sansa is a queen and lady of a great house.  Arya was able to drop out of the system and do her own thing.  And Jon gets to be a ranger in the Night’s Watch, the only thing he ever personally expressed an interest in.  Besides, it does look like Jon can just live with the Wildlings as spring rolls in, so long winters may be a thing of the past.  My biggest gripe was the season-long poor pacing, with the battle with the Night King and the razing of King’s Landing being two prime examples that were (coincidentally?) directed by the same man.  Had Dany’s turn to violence been played out a little better, I think I would have enjoyed the season a hell of a lot more.

Plus, that second episode may have been one of the best of the entire series run.

Beyond that, I was fine with the last season.  It wasn’t quite return to form, but nothing there that retroactively ruined the many other great episodes that came before it.  I did ask Jimmy if he wanted to finish the rewatch at some point, but…well, let’s just say Jimmy was a lot less forgiving than I was.

But hey, at least it wasn’t How I Met Your Mother.