MovieChat Forums > M*A*S*H (1972) Discussion > Why does the finale feel different than ...

Why does the finale feel different than the series?

posted 8 years ago by wordsatplaytoday
2 replies | jump to latest

To me it always felt clunky or somehow abstract and not as smooth and linear as a regular episode.
Maybe it's because they had to fill in about 2 1/2 hours somehow and were running out of ideas or ways to do that? Like they were more used to writing, acting and directing for 23 minutes instead of 2 1/2?

What do you think?

And help me out here.
I think there were 2-3 different subplots in a lot of the shows.
How many were there in GFA?
1. Charles and the Chinese musicians.
2. Fr. Mucahey goes deaf.
3. Beej leaves and comes back.
4. Klinger finds someone, falls in love and gets married. This time it's all in man's clothes.
5. The fire and bug out.
6. Hawk and his therapy.

Did I miss any?

Maybe keeping track of all these is also a reason for the different feelings.

Let me know if I'm on your ignore list.
Thanx!

[–] crockett_john 8 years ago

The trip to the beach was kind of a subplot of its own, both with and without Hawkeye's insanity.

I think the episode had a different vibe partly because of the different sets used in the episode, especially the mental hospital where Hawkeye was kept. It resembled a prison more than a hospital in a lot of the scenes.

Also, the bus was different. I never thought of this before, but in this episode, the bus had seats from front to back. In every other episode, there were only a few bus seats in the front for ambulatory patients and litters in the back for other patients.

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I blame autocorrect.

You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.

[–] crypticanomaly73 8 years ago

To me it always felt more like a string of episodes played back to back rather than one long story. They use Hawkeye in therapy to try and tie it all together but it just doesn't work and is dealt with poorly throughout.

Father Mulchey's deafness is barely looked at and as we see with After MASH he has recovered anyway. And by recovered I mean they have forgotten about it.

Not sure if you would consider it a sub plot but how they deal with everyone leaving towards the end, the speeches, how they leave in different ways all over the place. That also left me really underwhelmed. And why does Hawkeye get a chopper ride out? Asides to see the love note from BJ?

Which brings me to my other bugbear, what was the big deal if BJ never got to say goodbye to Hawkeye? They were going back to the same country, could they not meet up anytime they chose to? Just seemed overly melodramatic to me.

Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.