October Road


I am not really sure what to say about this two hour series finale. If I thought the show had a fighting chance at being renewed, I might not be as disappointed. However, with ratings lower then George Foreman Grill infomercials on post midnight vampire television, I highly doubt we will be heading back to Knight's Ridge in the fall.

The drama was all there as they gave us much of what they should have given us over the last 12 episodes. It actually played out true to form like a soap opera with lots of bad acting, random people "turning gay" and running off with their new lovers (to free up high school sweethearts) and crucial plot points being resolved with five minute limo rides (conjoined with the appropriate background rock medley.)

First of all, Janet is a retard very confused girl. She was right to react to the situation of Eddie making out with another girl, but she went from an equatable response to nuclear war in two steps (Alcohol + Rooster.) Sure she had a right to be livid and hurt, and yes in her head Eddie slept with his ex, but damn girl! Maybe you should have hopped out of that vehicle when you saw him and did something about it (like kick him in the nuts) rather then head to the trough and gorge on the lower quality feed. This is Eddie Letekka we are talking about! If I was dating Jessica Alba and I saw her kissing another guy, I'd damn sure give her anther shot (although she might find sand in her gas tank and her email inbox might be filled with all the Zoophilia porn she signed up for.....er.....but that is neither here nor there. Ya messed up girl. Bad Janet.

Eddie's reaction was the obvious one. When someone you love crosses that sexual line in the sand, there is no going back. "I'm sorry" just doesn't cut it and excuses only inflame the situation.

The only thing that goats me about how that entire scene played out was the fact that the writers had her sleep with Rooster. Why not at least make the affair with a half good looking guy? They really made Janet walk the plank.

The commander having cancer was somewhat predictable and touching at the same time. On the other hand Nick's reaction was ridiculous and the contrived U2 tour was even more ridiculous. I don't have much to say as I can not get my head around why the Nick we know would leave for 5 months right after hearing his dad was going into treatment and even harder is trying to figure out why U2 would want Nick on their tour.

It was good to see that Ickey was forgiven (even though Big Cat was just playing him.) I am surprised no one questioned why Ickey didn't show up at the start of the fight if he cared that much, but I guess we are not supposed to question that "tiny" discrepancy.

Hannah is a loser. Hannah is a loser. How can she not tell that Ray is evil? Isn't she supposed to have some sort of motherly instinct? Oh, I know why! The writers give Big Cat the dialog of two different people. Even the actor (Warren Christie) seems confused half the time. There are heart string pulling moments where he is the village savior and then there are the not so subtle moments where he is the big bad wolf.

Then there is Ray's ex-wife. The scene with Christine and Hannah was lame. As if Christine would all of a sudden see Hannah's side of things (after a less then compelling speech) and make the assault charges go away. Also, is it that common to invite the ex-wife to your engagement party (especially after she just had you arrested and is threatening a protracted custody dispute?) I think the kids would be fine with Dad for the afternoon without the motherly guidance.

Oh my, the Ronnie and Aubrey scene (in which the previews showed SEVEN WEEKS AGO) was the biggest "As If" moment of the entire two hours. She didn't even spend that much time with him and then all of a sudden they are sucking face in spite of the fact that Nick is staying and was actually only gone for 8 minutes. I understand that they wanted to set up Aubrey leaving Nick so he could get back with Hannah after she finds out about Ray spearheading the Eddie attack, but come on. Give me a break.

As for the ending, it was fun and I was happy that they tied it all back up and showed Ickey playing the air drums with the band. That put a smile on my face. Again, if this was episode six rather then the SERIES FINALE, it would have been fine. We were bombarded with tons of twists and overall the story was quite entertaining (albeit completely far fetched and lacking closure.)

Of course the elephant in the room was never addressed. We leave the Ridge without even a hint of who sired Sam. Well, in all fairness there was a hint when Sam said his dad was Gavin, but that was it. Dead shows tell no secrets, and we will always be left to wonder what could have been.


Update: The ratings are in:

Bacchus that was a much better review than I could have given...mine would have been much more scathing.

Even though it was an ouch moment, I cheered Eddie on when he looked dead at Janet and said "the football quarterback is rejecting you".

Like you said, I can certainly emphasize with Janet and any women with those insecurities would read into the situation as she did. But you know what honey, your not in high school anymore and this is what a grown up would have done:

A. Stopped the jeep and started busting balls and asking questions later...then walk away and if the loser loves you or cares about you then he'd come crawling. or..

B. You drive home and lick you wounds. Drink a bottle of wine or eat a quart of ice-cream and start practicing your speech for when he comes to dump you or how you are now going to dump him because he's the scum of the earth for not treating you the way that you deserved to be treated.

The scenario where you grab Rooster and get plastered and have sex is never an option. As a viewer it was a disgusting moment to see but then added to that was poor clueless Eddie getting the crap kicked out of him by three guys and this situation became despicable.

I kept thinking the same thing about Nick, why would U2 want a one-time bestseller to tour with them??? Makes no sense as Nick isn't an autobiographer. I'm guessing his over the top agent pulled some strings or something. Speaking of, why was this the first time we saw his agent, with that personality you'd think we would have been privy to numerous phone calls hounding Nick.

I have to admitted that I was stupid and bought into Big Cat. I'm an idiot. Even though I was saying what the crap you can't dock someone's pay for three weeks and the reward to someone else....I still bought that he had nothing to do with it. So where do I turn in my smart card?

I'm really disappointed in the writers for thinking that their efforts of this second season was going to buy them a third and therefore not give us any closure. If it wasn't for the strike I would like to think that after the airing of the second episode they would have ran right back to the drawing board and re-worked the last for episodes so we could walk away knowing the paternity of Sam.

Now we'll never know and that bums me out because there is no way ABC is going to give them a third chance.

The only hope is that one of ABC's sister networks (like ABC Family) picks it up or the show moves to another network altogether, like The CW. A lot of fans are talking about it being nabbed by someone, but I think that is more well wishing then reality (WWK did mention the possibly of it moving and it stirred the hornets nest.) The ratings were horrid and if it goes to a smaller channel it is likely to just collapse. Also, they will probably have to cut the operating budget if they left the deep pockets of ABC, which is never a good thing.

OR has a lot of promising young actors and I think they would generally be better served to look for the next big thing rather then stay aboard this sinking ship, even if they are thrown a life preserver.

Death warrant signed. Game over.

There might actually be a series finale for October Road!