I've been bingeing steadily on this series for the past couple of weeks. The setting is great, the cast, the plots, the era-- I like it all. The soundtrack is incredible! I was a young adult in the 1960s and know every one of these songs. How did they afford the royalties (excuse the pun)? Beatles? Simon & Garfunkel?
When you binge on a series, you can observe a trend that likely isn't apparent when you watch one episode a week and then wait a few months for a new season ("series," to you Brits) to begin. What I have observed is that over the years the situations have gotten darker and darker, more troubling, more challenging, and with fewer satisfactory endings. Maybe this reflects those troubled times. However...
MAJOR SPOILER FOLLOWS!! . . . YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. . . . . . . . This episode is the epitome of this trend toward darkness-- toward the abyss, in fact. I watched it last night and wish now I hadn't. I can't get it out of my mind.
The whole episode deals with the collapse of an amusement arcade and the attempts (some successful, some not) to rescue the people trapped in the rubble. A philandering couple, a boy with hemophilia-- resolved well. A father comes to the site of the arcade looking for his daughter, Louise. Stella impulsively rushes into the massive wreckage to look for the girl. Some of the structure collapses and traps her--although she does find Louise and comforts her.
When Frankie arrives on the scene, HE impulsively rushes in to rescue Stella, naturally, against all efforts to stop him. He has become aware that he is in love with Stella. He finds her and now they are trapped together, he comforting her and she allowing it. Frankie discovers that Louise is dead. This happens (if I recall) about 30 minutes into the hour. The rest of the time sees other plot points furthered and resolved back at The Royal, with frequent checkins with Stella and Frankie in their dark, dusty, dangerous trap.
Then there is the discovery of leaking gas.
Then the unthinkable happens.
The whole place goes up like a fireball and Stella and Frankie are killed.
I was stunned. I didn't expect that in THIS show. To make us suffer for practically the whole hour and then dramatically kill two main characters in the last few minutes? I really felt as though my emotions were being toyed with and manipulated. I feel like this was the violation of some sort of producer-writer-viewer agreement. I'm not saying this has to be a 100% "feel good" show-- it never was that. No show about a hospital could be. But this constituted Jumping the Shark in my opinion. The Royal went off the rails.
I AM curious to see where it goes now, and I only have a season and a half left, so I will continue to watch. Is this supposed to be "modern"? Nothing is sacred, no one is safe? Cop shows do it, other mainstream hospital shows do it. I didn't think The Royal was of that genre, (shrug) What do I know?
When you binge on a series, you can observe a trend that likely isn't apparent when you watch one episode a week and then wait a few months for a new season ("series," to you Brits) to begin. What I have observed is that over the years the situations have gotten darker and darker, more troubling, more challenging, and with fewer satisfactory endings. Maybe this reflects those troubled times. However...
MAJOR SPOILER FOLLOWS!! . . . YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. . . . . . . . This episode is the epitome of this trend toward darkness-- toward the abyss, in fact. I watched it last night and wish now I hadn't. I can't get it out of my mind.
The whole episode deals with the collapse of an amusement arcade and the attempts (some successful, some not) to rescue the people trapped in the rubble. A philandering couple, a boy with hemophilia-- resolved well. A father comes to the site of the arcade looking for his daughter, Louise. Stella impulsively rushes into the massive wreckage to look for the girl. Some of the structure collapses and traps her--although she does find Louise and comforts her.
When Frankie arrives on the scene, HE impulsively rushes in to rescue Stella, naturally, against all efforts to stop him. He has become aware that he is in love with Stella. He finds her and now they are trapped together, he comforting her and she allowing it. Frankie discovers that Louise is dead. This happens (if I recall) about 30 minutes into the hour. The rest of the time sees other plot points furthered and resolved back at The Royal, with frequent checkins with Stella and Frankie in their dark, dusty, dangerous trap.
Then there is the discovery of leaking gas.
Then the unthinkable happens.
The whole place goes up like a fireball and Stella and Frankie are killed.
I was stunned. I didn't expect that in THIS show. To make us suffer for practically the whole hour and then dramatically kill two main characters in the last few minutes? I really felt as though my emotions were being toyed with and manipulated. I feel like this was the violation of some sort of producer-writer-viewer agreement. I'm not saying this has to be a 100% "feel good" show-- it never was that. No show about a hospital could be. But this constituted Jumping the Shark in my opinion. The Royal went off the rails.
I AM curious to see where it goes now, and I only have a season and a half left, so I will continue to watch. Is this supposed to be "modern"? Nothing is sacred, no one is safe? Cop shows do it, other mainstream hospital shows do it. I didn't think The Royal was of that genre, (shrug) What do I know?