Slings & Arrows 3.6: The Promised End
The last episode of Slings & Arrows airs on Sundance tonight at 8pm. It will also be repeated throughout the week.
Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well.
You can view the archives to discuss past episodes and seasons.
WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, including Canadian readers!
By the way, did you know that the part of the same creative team behind Slings & Arrows wrote a musical called The Drowsy Chaperone? That’s hot.
March 25th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Not to give the game away, but the first few scenes of this episode are absolutely fantastic, particularly the scene between Anna and Geoffrey. It made me cry, and it isn’t often that Television does that to me!
It’s an incredibly good last episode though, with everything and everyone getting an appropriate send-off, and not all having happy endings. Sniff!
March 25th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I’ll look forward to seeing it, and no, that’s not too much to give away. Thanks for visiting! Any fan of Slings & Arrows is an honored guest here.
You seem to have posted earlier this morning. Are you Canadian?
Oops! I seem to have left up my disclaimer asking Canadians not to spoil future episodes, but of course this was the last episode… Okay, now it’s fixed.
And the show has now aired on Sundance, so all comments about anything in the series is fair game. Enjoy!
April 1st, 2007 at 10:39 am
A good episode. Not my favorite, but there were some nice subtleties, and it was wonderful to see William Hutt play King Lear, even if only for a few short scenes.
As Annalisa (or was it DeLisa) predicted, Charles got to do one last Lear and died. After two false deaths (empty bed in the hospital, just before curtain call), the third time was a charm, and nicely done at that. And I liked the way they wrapped up the Charles/Sophie relationship.
I am also glad Sophie ended up with Paul, though I never really saw any evidence that he was any great prize. He never saw Sophie play Cordelia before? Or had they just never rehearsed that scene, because Charles was unable to make it through the play before? Who will Paul see perform and fall for next? Very Midsummer.
Though I did find Sophie likable again in this episode, with her adorable Canadian accent (I was oot of control). Speaking of which, what is that game they called bowling? Is that a Canadian thing? Why is it they can figure out the secret to universal health care, but not ten pin? Belinda? Ellie? Can you help us out here? Or did you stop reading after “adorable Canadian accent”?
I don’t like that Anna was fired, but I’m glad she got to tell Richard off. Knowing that this was the last episode of a series that Susan Coyne (Anna) co-created, made me feel a special empathy for Anna in this episode. Not so much for Richard, though I loved Mark McKinney’s performance in this episode. He clearly wanted Geoffrey to resign in the beginning, and was so transparent in his denial. He was also deliciously creepy with the whole “you’re my friend” thread with Anna. McKinney was fantastic. Richard’s a jerk! And it’s the third season, so I’m just going to go ahead and call him Richard the Third. See, that works because he was lionhearted in the first season with Holly spurring him on, and he was weak and ineffectual in the second season as Sanjay walked all over him, so… Okay, maybe that’s going too far. But Richard’s a jerk!
My favorite lines of the episode were:
That last one is only because it’s Darren Nichols’s only line in the episode. There’s a missed opportunity. I would have liked to hear more of Darren’s vision for the festival. Speaking of missed opportunities, I saw a really good one. Stick with me here.
Kent’s last lines in King Lear are “I have a journey, sir, shortly to go./My master calls me. I must not say no.” But they cut these lines. I think it would have had a nice resonance for Geoffrey to say these lines, given that he has now left the festival. To make matters worse, the part of the play where this speech would have been said is the exact moment in the show when Oliver turns his back and vanishes. He was Geoffrey’s mentor. Geoffrey could have delivered his last two lines to Oliver as Oliver slowly faded away.
Another missed opportunity, I thought, was that – other than a standing ovation, granted – we didn’t get to hear any audience members’ reactions to the play. It’s not enough that Charles got to play King Lear; I needed to see that an audience member was affected. This was the beauty of Richard getting stuck backstage during the performance of Hamlet at the end of Season One.
This could have easily been done in the scene at the therapist’s office, before the chair exercise. It wouldn’t have mattered what the effect was, as long as we could see there was one. The therapist could have been pumped up about the show, or he could have come to a new understanding about human nature, or he could have a renewed interest in the theatre – whatever. My choice would be that he would finally understand what Geoffrey meant when he said that his life was his work.
But maybe Geoffrey doesn’t need therapy anymore. Oliver is gone. His ED is cured. He has resolved with Ellen, and he’s moving to Manitoba.
By the way, the series ended with a death (Charles), a wedding (Geoffrey & Ellen), a change in leadership (Anna out, Darren replacing Geoffrey), and a song (Frank). So is it a comedy, tragedy, or history? To be a true comedy, we’d need multiple weddings, so who can join Geoffrey & Ellen? Sophie & Paul? Cyril & Frank? Anna & the Bolivian revolutionary? Richard & Sharon & Nigel?
And I liked the new song, though I missed the old ones. And Sundance always mangles the ending song anyway, so I guess I’ll have to wait to get the DVDs before I can hear the whole thing.
I’ll miss this show. It was a reminder that there are still people out there who are passionate about the arts, and that there is a fine line between madness and genius.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 am
“Why is it they can figure out the secret to universal health care, but not ten pin?”
Brilliant quote from a mighty fine missive. All of your points were superb. You’ve done yourself a disservice however…see your insights are cogent and inspired that I’ll now have to make you read everything I write. Okay, not everything. But the plays. The short films. Anything with a narrative. You should be a consulting producer on any great show. I now intend to make you MY consulting producer. Your notes, even if I have to wring them out of you by force (don’t laugh – I’m from Detroit, I can be a badass when I wanna be), will be invaluable. Poor you. You have been irrevocably enlisted.
April 5th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Now DeLisa, have you ever known me to be someone whose opinion needed to be wrung out of me?
Thanks for your comments about my comments. What’s your take on the episode? Did you discuss it with AL? The public record wants to know.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Me: I thought it ended rather beautifully – I was amazed that it was able to tie up most things so beautifully. I was sad about Richard – I felt he deserved a more fleshed out resolution, but at the same time, I think there was a great deal of “real-ness” to his conclusion. Needing to have control, feeling left out, not fulfilling his potential as a human by letting ambition get in the way – making a GRAVE error in hiring a familiar, but TERRIBLE pick as an artistic director, etc.
AL: It really did go well – and Charles made it through Lear (barely). Everything was very neat and tidy, and yet not too glossy. Poor Richard – I thought Anna’s final speech to him really summed it up (but the whole thing was lightened CONSIDERABLY by the very comic way Richard was literally the absurd wanna-be outsider on the final shot, his face all pressed up to the glass outside the bar.
But I am SO SAD that there is no more!!!!