Last night two shows that I watched aired their finales. Agent Carter aired its season finale and Parks and Recreation aired its series finale. I’ve yet to watch either because we’ve got youth group on Tuesday nights.
Also, I figure if I don’t watch the Parks and Rec finale then it’s like the show really isn’t ending.
I hate series finales; they’re like saying goodbye to good friends who you’re never going to see again. I cried after watching the finale to Star Trek: The Next Generation and, in recent years, I’ve had a hard time saying goodbye to The Office and 30 Rock. Now, even though I haven’t watched it yet, I know I’m going to have to say goodbye to Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, Andy Dwyer and the rest of Pawnee’s crazy characters.
Goodbyes are always difficult, especially when we’re leaving behind loved ones or comfortable situations.
One of my hardest goodbyes occurred when I left the church at which I’d grown up. I spent 15 years at that church, from the fourth grade through my first year of seminary. I learned so much about following Jesus and serving him in ministry over those years. God used those years to transform my life and prepare me for the path on which I now find myself. As much as I loved those years and that church, though, eventually I had to say goodbye.
It’s never easy to say goodbye because we’re leaving behind what we know and love for something unknown and foreign. I love Parks and Rec and I’m sad to see it go, mostly because I don’t know if I’ll find another show to replace it. When it comes to loved ones and fruitful situations, though, we can trust that God will meet our needs when we say goodbye.
I knew that God was calling me out of my old church and into something new. Even though it was difficult to leave I trusted in God’s will. For every goodbye I said I knew that he would bring another person or a new experience into my life.
Finales are never easy but, if they’re within God’s will, we know that they’ll be worth the pain. Television show finales aren’t life altering and we can get through them alone. But for the finales that are life altering, we don’t have to get through them alone. We can trust that God will help us persevere and open us up to entirely new and even more fruitful possibilities.
What series finales most impacted you?
As a kid, I watched the series finale of M*A*S*H with my mom, who was a devoted fan of the 4077th. Even though I didn’t know much about the show, I still found it really impressive, partly because of how much of a social event it was. We don’t have many mass TV events like that anymore.
Mostly, my own experience with series finales has been inevitable senses of let-down ranging from slight to massive. BSG was one of the lousiest excuses for a series finale I’ve ever seen, embodying all of the slipshod, make-it-up-as-we-go-along balderdash of that show’s final year-and-a-half. I kept hoping against hope RDM and his crew could pull it all together in a satisfactory way, but, alas, no.
“Dollhouse” was a great finale, but suffered from the second season of the show being rushed. At least it got to finish telling its story.
Like you, I adored TNG’s finale. Didn’t make me cry, but left me feeling just so darn good about being a Trekkie. And what a perfect, symmetrical bookend for the whole series. It’s a better finale to TNG than any of the films were.
“The Big Bang,” the season finale for series 5 of Dr. Who, also capped off the most perfect season of television I’ve ever watched. But I don’t imagine Dr Who as a whole will ever have a Series Finale in the sense you’re talking about, even if it is (horrors!) one day canceled again. Wiser heads will leave the TARDIS door always ajar for more…
My hardest good-bye was having to move from North Carolina to Texas in the middle of high school. Some good things came out of it, but it sure did suck at the time.
Thanks for another great post, Scott!