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delgaHave you ever read a story that is just so perfect and just so untrue that you wish it would never end?
I’m sitting here bawling my eyes out because I just finished watching my tape of the DC finale and that show has basically pulled me through the past five years of my life. I’m such a sucker for the emotional ending because seriously, most of this finale was sentiment not acting or writing talent. But I love a good story and I loved this ending because at the end, there was only the beginning – three friends. Three friends who were each others’ lives and hopes and dreams and beyond that could the story be more right?
I talk to people about the series; we laugh because it’s not real. One of the major negative points over the years has been that teenagers are not the way that they are portrayed on DC. But something I never quite managed to say out aloud was that the characters were never supposed to be these real people with these real conflicts. They were supposed to be ideas of real people and in that much, even though the majority of this season’s storyline was a mess, the writers succeeded. Because we feel for them when Jen dies; we want Jack and Doug to make things all right – we want the protagonists to be happy. If they’re happy, at least in that world of fiction we can finally be true escapists. At least that world is perfect and if that world can be, why not our own?
I get a lot of stick from people that I know because I am a TV-addict and the one thing that I am never quite able to get across to these critics is that it’s not just a TV programme – it’s a story and stories are powerful. Stories have built history and stories are doors and windows to other places. Most of all, though, stories are a parallel to yourself. If you can connect with a story then you can connect with your dreams and your hopes. The series ended with hope; the saga continues into the next generation with Joey’s nephew, Dawson’s sister, Jen’s daughter. The story continues and that’s why there’s hope because the end of a story is never really the end.
I’ll freely admit it; when it comes to these pseudo-dramas, I’m a fool for them. I love them. I love the way they’re written, I love the way they inspire people. I love that I’m not the only addict and that there are hundreds of people out there who watch them and have a pretty similar response. The endings make me sad; they make me cry because shows are regular features. They air at the same time every week and in that sense they provide stability. But the underlying themes? They’re important to me. They mark the part of me that wants to tell the stories and they mark the fact that life moves on.
Fiction is fiction and life is life and whilst art can imitate life and vice versa, the two are separate. A lot of what I read is about distinguishing fact from fiction, be it in a criminal novel or an angstful teen drama. A lot of what I write is meaningless but it’s so very, very important to me that I write it down and that, most of all, I don’t forget. Forgetting is the worst thing I could do.
You know, I was doing good. I was ok when the whole Jen-dies saga was happening. I mean, there were tears but they weren’t falling. And then they played that stupid song (Hands, Jewel) and that just made me go. Music is an art in itself and these people who make these shows, these people who create and tell these stories are so clever; they are so intelligent because they know that the music will make sense. What’s slightly more pathetic about this particular song is that I remember it from an episode in the second season. The reason I remember it is because I adore the song but anyway, they first used the song during the Jack-Joey phase of season 2. It was an episode when an old man drank coffee in the café all day and then left behind a hundred dollar bill and a serviette with a poem scrawled on it. There was a full moon. I don’t know why that scene sticks in my head but I love that song and to use it again in the finale was a touch of wit and will.
This marks an end in my life, I feel, which maybe is melodramatic. But the story is a bookmark for events and occasions that happened to me. Why do so many people love the show? Because it’s parallel to our own lives. Because it’s a part of what we are. Because it’s not real.
So, in conclusion, I loved the finale; it broke my heart to see it unfold, even when I knew what was going to happen. I loved every part of the bad dialogue and strange editing. I loved the music, the characters, the setting. And most of all, I loved the story. I loved it because it was an ending and endings mean letting go but they don’t mean giving up.
Have hope: there’s a story within us all.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-05 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-05 12:15 pm (UTC)