Series Finale

What a disappointment the final episode is. Fans of this show spent five seasons invested in David and Maddie, but when it comes time for them to declare their inability to live without each other, bickering and all, they have to resort to breaking that damned fourth wall for the thousandth time by professing their undying love so the show isn't cancelled as they appeal to network execs which absolutely cheapens the investment viewers made in their will they/won't they relationship. The final minutes were a weak attempt for Maddie to come to her senses about David along with a weird montage of David and Maddie's best moments from the prior seasons.

I've decided what I believe to be the fatal reason the show lost so much steam which has been the subject of much debate since its run. By breaking the fourth wall over and over and over again in nearly every episode starting about halfway through the show's run, the viewers are constantly taken out of the fantasy world of the characters and their yearning for each other. We were constantly reminded that Bruce and Cybill were playing coworkers/friends/lovers/haters David and Maddie. Doing this just defeats the purpose of why people watch TV and movies -- to escape! The show's attempt to be edgy and cute backfired.

I think of other shows that had and currently have protagonists in friendships on romantic slow roads -- Niles and Daphne from Frasier, Joe and Helen from Wings, Cormoran and Robin from Strike to name a few. I cannot even imagine these characters turning to the camera in every single episode to remind the viewers they are actors in a TV show, nothing they are saying and doing regarding each other is to be believed, and then they take a stroll off set onto the studio lot to further punctuate the point. What a joke.