REVIEW: Finale of "Jack & Jill" (3/19) (SPOILERS)
Ian J. Ball
REVIEW : "Jack & Jill" season (series?) finale - [title unknown] (3/19/00)
GRADE : B+
(Overall Series Grade?... Well, you'll just have to wait for my Season End
Review! ;> )
SUMMARY: As with the pilot to "Jack & Jill", the season (series?) finale
of J&J comes in with a level of quality slightly below what
we've come to expect from the season. The good news? The "main"
storyline (Audrey & Barto) worked really well for me.
The bad news? I was less than thrilled with the 'B' and 'C'
stories (Jack & Jill, Mikey/Elisa/Rebecca Romaijn).
Spoiler space....
Let's start with what I did like: Audrey and Barto.
I like the (pseudo) conclusion to this particular storyline because,
assuming this is indeed the last episode of "Jack & Jill", it's
"resolution" is left up to the viewer. When Audrey gets on the plane for
L.A., one of several things might happen:
1) Audrey goes to L.A., thinks it over, and decides she wants Barto back.
2) Audrey goes to L.A., bombs as an actress, and ends up crawling back
to New York, and her friends, a broken woman.
(Hey! It happens! A *lot*!)
3) Audrey goes to L.A., is a huge success, meets someone, and never
looks back.
In Barto's case, it's pretty clear that he means what he says at the end:
that he does love Audrey and will think of her the entire time he'll be at
Duke U. (Aside: And, damn! don't those Blue Devils like to squeek out
tight games?!)
But will he continue to wait after the 3 months are up and he's back in
New York, and finds that Audrey is still in L.A. (assuming she is). Or
will he fall into the lap of Elisa Donavan's character when he returns?
Anyway, I *like* this. It leaves the ending up to you, rather than giving
you the pat Hollywood 'happy ending'. (And, being the hard, cynical
bastard that I am, I suspect that neither Barto, nor Jack Barrett for that
matter, will ever see Audrey again.)
This whole Barto/Audrey thing played out well throughout the course of the
last couple of episodes. It's a pretty excellent distillation of the
issues that face two-career couples in this day and age, and its
believable consequences in terms of destroying an (otherwise) healthy
relationship. (Jill should be taking notes, as the same thing may come up
if Jack's TV news career ever takes off.)
Which brings us to the other two subplots in this episode.
I'm not sure *what* they were trying to get at with Jack & Jill's
on-again/off-again 'moving in together' saga, but it didn't work. It
literally felt like they edited two episodes worth of Jack/Jill stuff into
the '*B*' story of one episode (which may very well be what happened when
The WB pulled the plug on J&J early!).
The issues they were trying to get at in this segment were important and
worth depicting, but this story felt slapped together and ended up coming
off like a mere afterthought. An afterthought, that ended up distracting
more from the main action (Barto & Audrey) than supllimenting it. It's
ironic (it's *their* show after all!), but, if they weren't going to do
any meaningful advancement of the Jack/Jill relationship in this finale,
then they probably should have just left it out.
On the plus side, this does leave Jack/Jill wide-open in terms of a
(series) resolution. They are still together, but are taking things slow.
Will they still be together in a year? Two Years?! Well, beats me! And
we're unlikely to find out, unless a miracle saves J&J for another season.
I guess you can file this as another "resolution" that is left up to the
viewer...
Which brings us to the last story (Mikey/Elisa/a/Rebecca Romaijn) which
looked good until the last segment when it crashed and burned. The
resolution to this one, with Romaijn's character revealing that she is a
bisexual who was more interested in Elisa than Mikey bugged me for three
reasons:
1) It's cliche (this chestnut goes back to as early as the
'93-94 season of "Melrose Place").
2) It plays to a stereotype (the closetted, sexual "adventuress"
in Hollywood and/or modeling). And,
3) It ended up not being funny.
This storyline *was* pretty funny in the early stages when Mikey hatcheted
and executed his "plan" of not making any moves on Romaijn's character
until much later on. But, the ending, as I said, was cliched, and (worse)
it really failed to advance the Mikey/Elisa storyline. (Much to Jason
Seaver's consternation, I'm sure!)
So, nice effort, but they could have done more (much more!) with this, and
this particular storyline would have worked better in an episode that
wasn't the finale. Frankly, I wanted something more substantial from Mikey
and Elisa in an episode that looks to be the show's final episode.
And, yeah, color me surprised that Mikey and Elisa didn't end up in bed
together! ;) I guess they were saving that for next season. (Except,
now, there probably won't *be* a next season! Grrrrr!)
Anyway, overall, I did like this episode a lot, based on the Audrey/Barto
developments. It's just unfortuante that the other two segments didn't
butress the seriousness and gravity of the Audrey/Barto story better.
--
Ian J. Ball | "I'm not going to have somebody probing my mind,
Ph.D. Chemist, | looking for things that aren't there!"
& TV lover | - Trisha Dennison McNeil, CBS's Y&R
ib...@socal.rr.com | http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/TV.html
Jason Seaver
Ian J. Ball wrote in message ...
>Well, Jason hasn't showed up with a review yet, so I'll beat him to the
punch...
Hey, I actually had to be to work on time Monday morning (as you can see
from the timestamp, Tuesday doesn't seem to be a problem).
>GRADE : B+
>
>(Overall Series Grade?... Well, you'll just have to wait for my Season End
>Review! ;> )
Lemme guess... It's A-ish.
>Spoiler space....
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>Let's start with what I did like: Audrey and Barto.
It was sort of rushed, I thought - but then, I get the distinct impression
that the writers were trying to cram 9 episodes into 6 over the last month
and a half.
>This whole Barto/Audrey thing played out well throughout the course of the
>last couple of episodes. It's a pretty excellent distillation of the
>issues that face two-career couples in this day and age, and its
>believable consequences in terms of destroying an (otherwise) healthy
>relationship. (Jill should be taking notes, as the same thing may come up
>if Jack's TV news career ever takes off.)
That was great - I recalled how my parents already had two kids by the time
they were my age, whereas I haven't had the kind of stability to really even
think about that. One of the issues that TV shows about relationships or
twentysomethings generally fail to deal with, because they've got the cast
under contract, is that you don't always know what state you'll be living in
a few months down the road. The possibility of just packing up and moving
on is omnipresent, and you just can't show it in a show with a steady cast
and setting. J&J's making an attempt, and I think they probably will kept
Audrey in LA for a while if the show gets renewed - just to make folks
twitch.
As to Jill taking notes cuz it's going to happen to him - yup. It looks
like the writers are setting him up to be able to handle it easier, what
with being unemployed and all. (May I take this moment to grip about a
perfectly good design/engineer character being turned into a more
conventional artist? I mean, damn, it's not like us nerds can't be sexy and
lovable)
>The issues they were trying to get at in this segment were important and
>worth depicting, but this story felt slapped together and ended up coming
>off like a mere afterthought. An afterthought, that ended up distracting
>more from the main action (Barto & Audrey) than supllimenting it. It's
>ironic (it's *their* show after all!), but, if they weren't going to do
>any meaningful advancement of the Jack/Jill relationship in this finale,
>then they probably should have just left it out.
Or just gone for comedy.
>we're unlikely to find out, unless a miracle saves J&J for another season.
>I guess you can file this as another "resolution" that is left up to the
>viewer...
Hey, enough of the defeatist attitude. I'm hoping WB will pull a
"SportsNight", and keep the low-rated but worthy show they own and give it
another chance. (Hint: Thursdays at 9, after Charmed) As Dan posted, the
season finale actually posted a ratings gain, and I think it's been on an
upswing lately... who knows, maybe some of those folks who saw "The Whole
Nine Yards" actually stopped by.
>Which brings us to the last story (Mikey/Elisa/a/Rebecca Romaijn) which
>looked good until the last segment when it crashed and burned. The
>resolution to this one, with Romaijn's character revealing that she is a
>bisexual who was more interested in Elisa than Mikey bugged me for three
>reasons:
>
> 1) It's cliche (this chestnut goes back to as early as the
> '93-94 season of "Melrose Place").
> 2) It plays to a stereotype (the closetted, sexual "adventuress"
> in Hollywood and/or modeling). And,
> 3) It ended up not being funny.
>
>This storyline *was* pretty funny in the early stages when Mikey hatcheted
>and executed his "plan" of not making any moves on Romaijn's character
>until much later on. But, the ending, as I said, was cliched, and (worse)
Now, I thought it was funny. It would have been funny if Mikey's plan just
blew up in his face, but the way it blew up in his face had me rolling. I
think this complemented the J&J plotline fairly well - Plans Are Bad, and if
you do anything other than let things happen naturally, it just doesn't work
out. I also liked that Mikey wasn't doomed from the beginning - he screwed
up, but it wound up being a mistake in ways he couldn't predict.
I also didn't get the idea that Paris was closeted. She didn't exactly say
"you didn't know?", but her behavior in that last scene was like she
expected Mikey and Elisa to be aware of her sexuality or at least have
picked something up.
>it really failed to advance the Mikey/Elisa storyline. (Much to Jason
>Seaver's consternation, I'm sure!)
Hey, I'm pretty happy as long as I get to look at Sarah Paulson. :-)
Speaking of which, who's got this show on tape? I missed the first couple
episodes and haven't been archiving.
Erm, anyway, back to the Mikey/Elisa storyline - I'm happy with that one
being taken slow. It's not a matter of destiny (Jack & Jill) or winning
someone over (Barto & Audrey). It's two people just liking each other and
getting closer until they realize that they've found someone without ever
having looked.
And, it also gave us another chance to see John Pyper-Ferguson playing a
relatively normal human being. Which, let's face it, is wierd.
>So, nice effort, but they could have done more (much more!) with this, and
>this particular storyline would have worked better in an episode that
>wasn't the finale. Frankly, I wanted something more substantial from Mikey
>and Elisa in an episode that looks to be the show's final episode.
Which I liked - too often, finales and premieres, be they season or
otherwise, tend to get so caught up in transition that they forget to tell a
good story.
>And, yeah, color me surprised that Mikey and Elisa didn't end up in bed
>together! ;) I guess they were saving that for next season. (Except,
>now, there probably won't *be* a next season! Grrrrr!)
Chin up. Power of positive thinking.
axel heyst
"Jason Seaver" <JayS...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>>
>>Let's start with what I did like: Audrey and Barto.
>
>It was sort of rushed, I thought - but then, I get the distinct impression
>that the writers were trying to cram 9 episodes into 6 over the last month
>and a half.
There's just NO DOUBT about it; this is exactly what's been happening. The
few posters commenting on J&J have all remarked upon this apparent cut 'n'
pasting, and whether it occurred in the scripting stages or in the cutting
room, it's definitely been happening. Sunday's story positively reeked of
two (at least!) episodes worth of material being crammed into one, and I'm
semi-convinced that even at that last-minute changes were made. For
instance, what happened to the "surprise wedding" of the week before's
promos? Do we dare hope that the absence of said wedding bodes well for
the future of the show, or was it typically cynical network hype-speak?
Whichever, it seems obvious that scripts were reworked to capitalize on
Amanda Peet's comedic skills vis-a-vis her performance in TW9Y, and perhaps
that's all there is to it, but I don't think so. The writers have to be
aware that the Audrey/Barto relationship engages the audience at least as
much the title saga, if not more so, and on several occasions they've used
*that* relationship to explore the darker dilemnas confronting modern
couples, as is discussed below. I find it sort of ironic that if the show
-or even merely the season- has ended, that it ended with the greatest
drama involving the supporting characters, and not the leads.
>>This whole Barto/Audrey thing played out well throughout the course of the
>>last couple of episodes. It's a pretty excellent distillation of the
>>issues that face two-career couples in this day and age, and its
>>believable consequences in terms of destroying an (otherwise) healthy
>>relationship. (Jill should be taking notes, as the same thing may come up
>>if Jack's TV news career ever takes off.)
>That was great - I recalled how my parents already had two kids by the time
>they were my age, whereas I haven't had the kind of stability to really even
>think about that. One of the issues that TV shows about relationships or
>twentysomethings generally fail to deal with, because they've got the cast
>under contract, is that you don't always know what state you'll be living in
>a few months down the road. The possibility of just packing up and moving
>on is omnipresent, and you just can't show it in a show with a steady cast
>and setting. J&J's making an attempt, and I think they probably will kept
>Audrey in LA for a while if the show gets renewed - just to make folks
>twitch.
As well they should. Several weeks ago had A&B recognizing that they had
vastly different plans for their future, and with that came the realization
that at some time...in the future... their relationship would probably end.
Knowing that, they still decided that it wasn't time yet to end it.
Simplistic though it is, I see their place in the series as being a look at
purely romantic love, and how it has a way of fooling you into thinking
that being in love is enough to sustain itself, until inevitably reality
sneaks in to bite you in the ass. A theme as old as the hills, to be sure,
and the Audrey and Barto romance definitely touched upon some well-trodden
ground, as in the Audrey-meets-Barto's-parents episode, but the writers and
actors, notably Jaime Pressly, never tumbled into overt triteness, and it
played extremely well, I think, expecially in the last few stories.
We the viewers of course have no way of knowing what the fictional future
holds for these two, if anything at all, but I can't help being preoccupied
with that wedding promo, and if indeed my last vision of 'Audrey' is of her
weeping her way to LA, I'm going to tack on my own ending that has them
getting back together at some point. What the hey.
>As to Jill taking notes cuz it's going to happen to him - yup. It looks
>like the writers are setting him up to be able to handle it easier, what
>with being unemployed and all. (May I take this moment to grip about a
>perfectly good design/engineer character being turned into a more
>conventional artist? I mean, damn, it's not like us nerds can't be sexy and
>lovable)
>
>>The issues they were trying to get at in this segment were important and
>>worth depicting, but this story felt slapped together and ended up coming
>>off like a mere afterthought. An afterthought, that ended up distracting
>>more from the main action (Barto & Audrey) than supllimenting it. It's
>>ironic (it's *their* show after all!), but, if they weren't going to do
>>any meaningful advancement of the Jack/Jill relationship in this finale,
>>then they probably should have just left it out.
(Just noticed Ian's "ironic" remark. 'Scuse the cribbing)
>Or just gone for comedy.
As they did.
>>we're unlikely to find out, unless a miracle saves J&J for another season.
>>I guess you can file this as another "resolution" that is left up to the
>>viewer...
>
>Hey, enough of the defeatist attitude. I'm hoping WB will pull a
>"SportsNight", and keep the low-rated but worthy show they own and give it
>another chance. (Hint: Thursdays at 9, after Charmed) As Dan posted, the
>season finale actually posted a ratings gain, and I think it's been on an
>upswing lately... who knows, maybe some of those folks who saw "The Whole
>Nine Yards" actually stopped by.
Maybe enough people have tired of "The XFiles" endlessly plagiarizing
itself!
>snip the rest
Except to say that the Paris/Mikie/Elisa storyline played well to my eye,
and I too was surprised that Mikie and Elisa didn't end up in bed together.
Elisa's raised eyebrow toward Mikie in the end of that scene was
tantalizing, to say the least, and again I'm hoping against hope that we
get to see more. Elserwise I'll let them live happily ever after too, I
guess. Least I can do and all.
Axel
Jason Seaver
axel heyst wrote in message ...
>In article <Y7EB4.17872$YU2.4...@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net>,
>"Jason Seaver" <JayS...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>
>>It was sort of rushed, I thought - but then, I get the distinct impression
>>that the writers were trying to cram 9 episodes into 6 over the last month
>>and a half.
>
> There's just NO DOUBT about it; this is exactly what's been happening. The
>few posters commenting on J&J have all remarked upon this apparent cut 'n'
>pasting, and whether it occurred in the scripting stages or in the cutting
>room, it's definitely been happening. Sunday's story positively reeked of
I'd be really surprised if it happened in the cutting room, just because
there's a rerun scheduled for next week. If there was material for another
episode, I think they would assembled another episode.
>two (at least!) episodes worth of material being crammed into one, and I'm
>semi-convinced that even at that last-minute changes were made. For
>instance, what happened to the "surprise wedding" of the week before's
>promos? Do we dare hope that the absence of said wedding bodes well for
>the future of the show, or was it typically cynical network hype-speak?
A "surprise wedding PROPOSAL". Which is what we got.
> Whichever, it seems obvious that scripts were reworked to capitalize on
>Amanda Peet's comedic skills vis-a-vis her performance in TW9Y, and perhaps
>that's all there is to it, but I don't think so. The writers have to be
I'd be sort of surprised by that. I'm not sure how much lead-time the show
has (they were obviously able to drop a reference or two to TW9Y) to refocus
the character, but "The Whole Nine Yards" was a surprise hit - the
conventional wisdom was that Bruce Willis in a non-action movie with a cast
member of "Friends" wouldn't do that much.
>>upswing lately... who knows, maybe some of those folks who saw "The Whole
>>Nine Yards" actually stopped by.
>
> Maybe enough people have tired of "The XFiles" endlessly plagiarizing
>itself!
There are plenty of reasons to watch this show; it's unfortunate that the
general public never seemed to twig to it.
>get to see more. Elserwise I'll let them live happily ever after too, I
>guess. Least I can do and all.
Damn right - if we never see these folks again, I at least hope things went
well for them (isn't that what good writing's about - making people care
about the characters).
axel heyst
"Jason Seaver" <JayS...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>axel heyst wrote in message ...
>>In article <Y7EB4.17872$YU2.4...@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net>,
>>"Jason Seaver" <JayS...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>>
>>>It was sort of rushed, I thought - but then, I get the distinct impression
>>>that the writers were trying to cram 9 episodes into 6 over the last month
>>>and a half.
>>
>> There's just NO DOUBT about it; this is exactly what's been happening. The
>>few posters commenting on J&J have all remarked upon this apparent cut 'n'
>>pasting, and whether it occurred in the scripting stages or in the cutting
>>room, it's definitely been happening. Sunday's story positively reeked of
>
>I'd be really surprised if it happened in the cutting room, just because
>there's a rerun scheduled for next week. If there was material for another
>episode, I think they would assembled another episode.
>
>>two (at least!) episodes worth of material being crammed into one, and I'm
>>semi-convinced that even at that last-minute changes were made. For
>>instance, what happened to the "surprise wedding" of the week before's
>>promos? Do we dare hope that the absence of said wedding bodes well for
>>the future of the show, or was it typically cynical network hype-speak?
>
>A "surprise wedding PROPOSAL". Which is what we got.
I wish you hadn't told me that...but you're right. I was so happy with my
delusion, and now I GOT SQUAT!* F-Fwd'd through the promos too quickly,
apparently.
>snip
>> Maybe enough people have tired of "The XFiles" endlessly plagiarizing
>>itself!
>
>There are plenty of reasons to watch this show; it's unfortunate that the
>general public never seemed to twig to it.
Timeslot, I think. I read a thing today in a local (Denver Rocky Mountain
News) media column about Sunday's FELICITY being the lowest rated show in
its slot. That's not a good lead-in to compete against THE XFILES and
whatever else is on, no matter how good a show is. Yet, FELICITY gets the
DAWSON'S slot, and J&J gets [prolly] tanked. Talk about man's inhumanity to
man!
>>get to see more. Elserwise I'll let them live happily ever after too, I
>>guess. Least I can do and all.
>
>Damn right - if we never see these folks again, I at least hope things went
>well for them (isn't that what good writing's about - making people care
>about the characters).
Yes, and for reasons inexplicable, since it's not really the kind of
programming I would normally fall for, I do care about these characters,
and wish them well. Like you, Jason, I didn't bother to archive the shows,
and regret it, but I have saved this last episode digitally, something I've
never done before, or wished to do. That's as high a compliment as I can
pay the writers, and they deserve it.
Axel
* Well, I got the JP nudies and stuff, so I'm a notch above squat, but I'd
gladly trade them for a second season, no question.
Jenn & Jay Winberry
"Ian J. Ball" wrote:
<snipped in the interest of brevity>
SPOILER SPACE for those who haven't seen it yet:
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
>
> So, nice effort, but they could have done more (much more!) with this, and
> this particular storyline would have worked better in an episode that
> wasn't the finale. Frankly, I wanted something more substantial from Mikey
> and Elisa in an episode that looks to be the show's final episode.
>
> And, yeah, color me surprised that Mikey and Elisa didn't end up in bed
> together! ;) I guess they were saving that for next season. (Except,
> now, there probably won't *be* a next season! Grrrrr!)
>
When Mikey told her he's want her even if he wasn't a lesbian, and Elisa told him
he wasn't, my jaw dropped! Especially when I saw that OH MY GOD look on Mikey's
face. And then they (TPTB) just went nowhere with it!
I really liked this show, even as cheesy it was a lot of the time. I really hope
it doesn't get canned.
<snipped Ian J. Ball's comments again>
Jenn & Jay Winberry
axel heyst wrote:
> In article <Y7EB4.17872$YU2.4...@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net>,
> "Jason Seaver" <JayS...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>
>
<snipped>
>
> We the viewers of course have no way of knowing what the fictional future
> holds for these two, if anything at all, but I can't help being preoccupied
> with that wedding promo, and if indeed my last vision of 'Audrey' is of her
> weeping her way to LA, I'm going to tack on my own ending that has them
> getting back together at some point. What the hey.
>
<snipped again>
>
> Except to say that the Paris/Mikie/Elisa storyline played well to my eye,
> and I too was surprised that Mikie and Elisa didn't end up in bed together.
> Elisa's raised eyebrow toward Mikie in the end of that scene was
> tantalizing, to say the least, and again I'm hoping against hope that we
> get to see more. Elserwise I'll let them live happily ever after too, I
> guess. Least I can do and all.
>
> Axel
Do I see fanfic in your future? : )