I thought the last episode was really great. I am Spoiler really disappointed Charlie Sheen didn't appear. But I was absolutely shocked that they got the kid to come back after the horrible things he said about the show. And who the hell thought ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WOULD APPEAR?! It was also great how they brought back almost every single character from the history of the show back. I loved learning that Rose has been keeping Charlie in a pit for four years. And the CGI cartoon of their honeymoon in Paris was hilarious. It's just such a shame that they couldn't get him back. I also loved the idea of Charlie coming back to kill them all. That would have been a great ending too bad they didn't do that. The only real complaint I have about the show is they got WAY too meta with their jokes, right down to the actors looking at the camera. They pretty much broke the reality of the show... though it was funny when the cop was commenting on their history. I know, this isn't a show to be expecting realism from Unfortunately my DVR cut off at the last second. Did anything happen after the spoiler hit the spoiler?
I thought the show being meta was the best part of the finale! It's like I told a friend "If the show was always this meta, I might have watched it more often.
You obviously saw the piano ... Spoiler: final second drop on fake Charlie. Then the camera pulled back and we saw the producer sitting in a chair in front of the set. He turned to the camera and preened as he said, "WINNING." Then another piano dropped and killed him.
Well, my wife and I watched the show from the beginning, and we both thought the finale was awful. Spoiler: STOOPID! If Sheen wasn't going to appear (which I totally understand) then they shouldn't have spent an hour teasing it. They should have ended with Alan and Lindsey's wedding. Everyone gets together, Jake and Rose show up, they move out and Walden and Louis start their lives post-Alan. Or hell, maybe Alan and Lindsey stay at the beach house forever. I appreciated the guest stars (Christian Slater was good!) and the self-referential stuff wasn't terrible I guess. But to have all of that build-up just so a piano crushes a fake Charlie was maddening. The whole thing was just a big one hour "Fuck You" from Lorre to Sheen. Very disappointed.
I was a good, not great, ending. They tied up all of the loose ends. The "Breaking the fourth wall" moments were obvious but funny. I liked Charlie on the show but he was a huge jerk to Chuck Lorre publicly. For Chuck to take a minute for revenge was understandable. It was a fun ride. Always loved Rose, glad she had a role in this. The card Chuck puts up at the end of every show explained Charlies absence.
This was a bad ending on so many levels, just because of the childish behaviour of the producer. In a couple of years, when you watch re-runs of the show and totally forgot about what that "winning" stuff was all about, it makes no sense whatsoever. I like the idea of breaking the 4th wall in the finale, but not like that.
It is a couple years later and no one remembers or cares what winning was. Anger Management was a massive success since it was a syndication bitch. They needed 100 episodes for syndication and got 100 episodes in 2 years, as if the show was a factory and then stopped by design. Mission accomplished. Was the boy not in this episode? They couldn't afford the kid, or was the kid some minor dipshit's brainchild that had to take a back seat after Chuck came back from a 2 year holiday (Similar to Berman's return to the final of Enterprise.)?
Well.. i liked the show most of the time, even the switch over to Ashton Kutcher and the new stories it made possible (even though the lesbian unknown daughter character bombed). It was a fun 22 minutes a week with or without Sheen but especially in his last season you could visually see his deterioration and it shocked me. We all know what happened during that time and one should be sorry for Sheen but at the same time it was entertaining as hell.. i still want to see a movie about Vatican Assassin Warlocks! The finale was so so.. it was 45 minutes of making fun about the show itself, a proof that everybody was well aware of the criticisms (and maybe shared them in private but who's gonna kill the golden goose that feeds you this well?) but at some point it just became tiresome and not all that funny. It seemed like everybody just went "Fuck it!" and let loose. The end though i felt was petty and childish which shows that even as a mature adult you're not immune to it. Well.. the show had a good run so here's my raised glass to many laughs and hours of entertainment! Good bye.
I'm glad I missed Chuck Lorre appearing then I think the piano falling on Charlie and that's it being a better ending. Here's another thought. Even if you couldn't get Charlie back, couldn't they legally use audio clips from his 8.5 seasons to create him talking off-screen?
I guess since it belongs to the show during the time he was working there. I'm no lawyer but then all the flashbacks in all the shows showing characters/actors that have left the show would be impossible (or at least expensive if they had to pay the actor again even if they didn't do any work). However i also expected at least some audio when he was in the pit but apparently Lorre was in full on revenge mode after Sheen turned them down for the finale so this got done they way it was done.
I pretty much agree with 1001001's thoughts about this. I went into watching thinking that either Charlie Sheen or Chuck Lorre would be the bigger man, and in the end - neither was. The final scene with the piano doesn't make much sense, but I guess Lorre didn't really care. I appreciate some subtle breaking the fourth wall and self-referential jokes, but this was too heavy handed. Loved the cameos and guest appearances, and the focus on most of the important women in the lives of Alan, Charlie and Walden. I had been wondering if we would see Judy Greer appearing again, so that was a pleasant surprise. I can only imagine what would happen if The Big Bang Theory tried a series finale like this. There would be rioting in the streets. Lesson: Don't piss off Chuck Lorre.
Having not watched the series in a long time I thought it was a good run down memory lane. Right up until the ending with the pianos was good. After that, you have to understand your outside the stage and not in the show anymore, which was the point. Drama off screen is why this all happened. It was all good.
I stopped watching THM three or so seasons in, after Charlie was involved in a long-term relationship that promised actual character growth, and ended that in favor going back to Charlie drinking too much and chasing tail. That I can get in The Sopranos, and done better besides. I like the idea of a piano falling on Charlie Sheen, however. Pianos for everyone!
And they absolutely wasted all opportunity for a good Hot Shots 2 reference, which happens to star Charlie Sheen. Hot Shots 1 and 2 also featured Jon Cryer and Ryan Stiles.