[jeffford76]

 kenberg, on 2014-December-11, 21:25, said:

I have just watched the final episode of Gracepoint. I had planned to post here my frank opinion of this series but then I remembered that this is an international forum and the laws in some places discourage frank assessment. So I will just say that I am not a fan. I can't be sued for saying that, can I?

I watched the whole series, and found the finale so poor that I turned it off after fifteen minutes (after confirming with my wife that she felt the same way). I think this is the least satisfying "reveal" I've ever seen on tv.

[kenberg]

For those who only saw the British version or for hose who got fed up, here is how i went;
In the
British version, I gather that itt was Joe Miller, Toy's father and Ellie's wife, who killed Danny. He had had some sort of relationship with Danny but exactly what I don't know. In the American version there is a strong suggestion that the relationjship had not yet becoime sexual but that Mille was pushing for it to be and Danny was calling an end to their encounters. Something like that. Tommy Miller had followed his father and while inteding to protect Danny from Tommy's father accidentally kills his friend Danny. As evidence starts to point toward Tommy, mostly because one by one, in predictable and boring fashion everyone else is put up as a suspect and eliminated, Joe Miller confesses that he did it.

OK, very far fetched. But the worst is yet to come.Ellie, the mother, learns of Joe's relationship with Danny and is of course distraught. When Tommy tells his mother what has happened, and asks what they should do, she decides to let Joe continue to take the blame. In my opinion, this goes beyond moronic. Tommy will have to live with the fact that he killed his friend. But with this ending, he will not be able to talk it out and get the support that he needs. He will also be living with the fact that his father is in prison for confessing to an act that he didn't commit. Talk about a burden. Good grief, the child was 12, he had no intention of harming his friend, anyone can understand that. The explanation seemed to be that nthis was Ellie's revenge. Well Ellie is a tough woman but she is not insane. Anyone with any sense coould see what this lie woud do to her son. it is simply not possible that a sane woman would make this choice.

Much that came earlier was unsatisfying but the ending was absolutely beyond anything I have ever seen. It makes the old Perry Mason shows, where at five minutes before the and of the hour the guilty person suddenly has an emotional moment of confession, look Shakespearian by comparison.

I gather this was one of those things where the original authors turned it over to a re-write team and failed to keep dramatic control. Or something. At any rate, it stunk.