Saturday, April 9, 2016

The series finale for Hulu's '11.22.63'.

For me it wasn't that easy to start watching the final episode of Hulu's miniseries, '11.22.63'. I wasn't really that motivated to check the finale, because for so many episodes the series had managed to disappoint me.

Probably the biggest problem I had had with the series was how little it had to do with actual history. There were so many problems with the facts that for any serious student of the assassination it was very hard not to get frustrated. 

Yet, even though I had not liked at all the episode that had aired before the finale, I decided to give the series one more chance. The show had already failed us when it came to being accurate, so it couldn't get much worse.

Surprisingly enough, even though the last episode still tried to sell us the idea that Oswald was the assassin, it turned out that it wasn't that bad. I actually managed to enjoy it much more than I had thought at first.

I mean, yes, it is true that in the finale James Franco's character does prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating the president. He manages to pull off what he was supposed to do when he decided to go back in time.

At the same time, what I liked about the series finale is that there was a lot of emphasis on things that happened after Franco's character manages to save JFK. All these things mattered at least as much, if not even more. 

For example, when Franco's character got arrested, it was fascinating to watch when the feds and the Dallas Police Department go after him. It becomes obvious that he's in huge trouble, especially considering what his 'explanation' was.

What I also liked about the finale was that it wasn't only about stopping the assassination from happening. It was also about Franco's character's personal life and how he tried to manage and control it as much as possible.

By that I mean that the final episode was also about how he wasn't able to change history the way he wanted. In his personal life he had to make difficult decisions and grow as a person, which I found to be rather touching and even uplifting.

In any case, when it comes to judging the series as a whole, it helped that the finale turned out to be better than I thought. The fact that it was entertaining enough more or less saved the miniseries from being a total disappointment.

Even though there clearly were a lot of problems with the facts - like that Oswald didn't kill JFK -  I have to say that I still managed to like '11.22.63'. There were enough redeeming qualities that made me enjoy watching the series at least most of the time.

At the same time, if only the show should have been better researched and historically more accurate than it was. In that case Hulu's '11.22.63' would not only have been a more truthful show, but it almost certainly would have been a better series too.

No comments:

Post a Comment