spoiler
The end of the episode loops seamlessly into the pilot. When I first watched it live they played both episodes back to back without an ad break. It took me a few minutes to realize what they had done and I started crying.
It’s a perfect loop, a perfect end to Fry and Leela’s relationship, and bittersweet in its existential implications
The “new” episodes they released afterwards don’t count. I acknowledge that they exist but I do not grant them the title of canon.
Toy Story 3.
EDIT: And to elaborate, the movie showed a conclusion to a longer narrative thread of Andy growing up and his toys needing a new home. There was a satisfying ending.
Well with an ending like this they didn’t really leave anywhere to go.
I watched it with a guy on my floor in college. First time for both of us. He was told before that that was the ending so we were both tearing up and he thought it was about to roll credits.
Andor is probably the last Stars War that I’ll watch unless they come out with another one that learns from it. DS9 took Star Treks seriously and the result was a show that has relevant ideas 30 years later. Until Andor, none of the Stars Wars I’ve seen have taken the universe seriously. They’ve expanded on it in unnecessary detail and obsessed over that detail, but intellectually they’ve all felt flat and liberal. Andor spends three episodes showing the Death Star through Foucault and you get one brief shot of it after a full film-length of watching how a gear is made using slave labour. That dialectical materialist analysis of the empire is so much more interesting than any battle or Jedi scene across the whole canon.
I really liked the Acolyte. Not necessarily for its acting but it leaned into the idea that dark side and light side are not so different and the Jedi can cause a lot of suffering by sticking their noses where they don’t belong. Also, there are force users that don’t fit neatly into those two categories and just want to do their own thing.
Sadly, we won’t see a second season, because some “fans” on the internet got mad that women, people of color and - very shocking - queer people exist in the Star Wars universe.
Sadly, we won’t see a second season, because some “fans” on the internet got mad that women, people of color and - very shocking - queer people exist in the Star Wars universe.
It sucks that these people exist, for many reasons. One of these reasons (surely not the worst one, but the one I want to focus on) is that it muddies all criticism of a project. Your comment implied that this was the sole, or main, reason that The Acolyte was canceled, so I want to jump in here to say:
Having more women, people of color, and queer characters was the only refreshing thing about The Acolyte, and I wish more Star Wars projects took notice. Other than that though, the show is an utter disaster. It was incompetently written and directed, its story and characters make no sense, and the effects can be jarring.
Characters either have no defined motivations, or their motivations flip flop at the drop of a hat. Scenes dealing with the Jedi order and the republic fuck with established lore and do lasting damage to the Jedi order (not in the sense that they are shown as morally gray, but in that they are utterly incompetent and seemingly don’t remember the appearance of the Sith during living memory, for example).
Speaking of which, yes, the show tries to portray Jedi/Sith as a gray area, but
a) that has been done to death at this point, seriously, every other SW project tries to do a “ooooh but maybe Jedi not completely good!”, and b) The Acolyte is probably the most incompetent version of that I have seen (so far!).
I hope I have demonstrated that this show can be critiqued bar any bigotry, and I think it should be acknowledged that that, together with the giant sum of money it ate, are the reasons it got canceled - I am sure Disney also does not like the bigotry, but sadly, they get that with every project, even those that do not get canceled…
In any case, there is no comparison to Andor to be made, SMH.
Terminator 2 (T2) is a masterclass in combining CGI with practical effect and its ending is a rare cinematic full stop.
The T-1000’s liquid metal form was revolutionary, the morphing effects were cutting-edge in 1991, yet Cameron used them sparingly and only where practical effects couldn’t work. That restraint made the CGI more impactful and has made it so they still hold up 35 years later.
The truck chase through the storm drain, the helicopter flying under an overpass, the Cyberdyne building blowing up; it was all real and you can feel that when you watch the movie. There is no way any movie studio would do that nowadays when they could just CGI giant Michael Bay explosions.
The destruction of Cyberdyne and the Terminators meant the timeline was reset. Judgment Day was averted. The T-800 lowering itself into molten steel is an iconic moment; a machine choosing self-sacrifice for humanity. It’s a perfect final note, not just for the character, but for the franchise. Bringing him back again and again weakens that sacrifice. Any sequel has to undo all of this just to exist. Which is why to this day, I have not watched a single Terminator film after T2.
Which is why to this day, I have not watched a single Terminator film after T2.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but you might be interested in knowing that some of us feel that Terminator: Dark Fate avoids the issues you mention, and works as a direct and worthy sequel to T2.
The Matrix
Aliens ended the franchise. Slightly different answer, nothing occurred between the release of Predator and Prey.
The Office when Michael moved away. It was never the same after that.
I’m currently watching The Office Superfan Episodes (would recommend, if you haven’t. They add a lot of new scenes and jokes that have cracked me the hell up) and I feel like I am progressively moving the “jumped the shark” line up every time I rewatch the show.
At one point I thought it was around the time Andy got on the boat. Then around when Robert California came around. Then, when Michael left. Now I’m kinda feeling like the show has taken a significant change in tone at the point when the original corporate office is bought and cleaned out by Sabre. That’s not to say that there aren’t good episodes forward from here, but I literally feel like I’m not starting to watch the show “waiting for it to end”
Season 5 of Supernatural was the logical endpoint
Episode 25 of Death Note would have been a dark, but logical place to end the series. After that point the entire dynamic of the show changes. There are some good and interesting moments, but it doesn’t really feel like the same show.
I feel compelled to say Scrubs s08e19, which is weird because they only ever made eight seasons of Scrubs.
JD walks down the corridor to Peter Gabriel singing The Book of Love while I’m weeping like a baby.
And that’s that. There was no more Scrubs.
Now, if you decide you want to see more of the gang and their shenanigans, there is a single season of a spin-off show called “Scrubs: Med School.” It’s okay. Not great. It’s certainly not Scrubs though.
I liked s9 🤷🏻♀️
Psycho-Pass ended at Season 1. There are no further seasons or movies.
Misfits ended at S2E6.
Rocky ended at Rocky. Even Rocky 2, the second best movie if you’re judging its qualities with the same ruler Rocky’s measured, feels off compared to the original. Rocky is a love story/character study with a little bit of boxing at the beginning and at the end, whilst the rest are boxing movies primarily/solely.
Also, while everyone knows Terminator ended with T2, did you know Kung Fu Panda also ended with KFP2? 🙏
Rocky is so all over the place. You make great points and I don’t disagree. Another metric is how watchable they are and by that standard you could argue it makes it up to and including Rocky IV. I don’t even know what to do with the newer ones.
The Office when Michael left.
Terminator 3 is the last of that series in my eyes. The others - although not too shabby (excluding Salvation of course) - I regard as fan fiction.
Arrested Development - that last season just did not agree with me.
Community - things dropped off quickly when Troy left.
Vikings ended like an episode or two after Ragnar died. It didn’t need to drag on with everyone’s stories so Ling after amd it all just went nowhere. It needed to end after the sons got their vengeance and celebrated. Everything after that was stupid.
- die hard ended at 3
- highlander ended at 4 (and there is no 2)
