A quick review of the “Bent” season finale – which is almost certainly going to be its series finale – coming up just as soon as I eat a tin of lasagna…
The handful of us who have been watching, and enjoying, “Bent” these last three weeks have lamented what seemed like NBC’s attempt to kill the show in the cradle, with the double-pump scheduling, the timeslot, lack of promotion, etc. NBC insiders gave their side of the story to Vulture’s Joe Adalian, insisting certain moves were done with love. They claim the double-pumping, for instance, was designed to get people to more quickly bond with the characters.
I’m skeptical about many of the rationales given, but the decisions made were made, the ratings have been lousy, and if NBC’s going to save a low-rated critical darling comedy for next season, it’ll be “Community.” And for all that people want to hope for Netflix or another network to play white knight, I don’t see that happening. The show wasn’t on long enough, or loved enough, to generate that level of buzz.
So this was it for “Bent,” I imagine, and the only question left is how satisfying the conclusion was, as well as the six-episode run as a whole.
And for the most part, I’m quite happy I got to see these six. “Mom” was too Walt-centric for my tastes (though the Walt/Gary stuff in “Tile Date” was good), and it’s a bummer that we close the series with Alex sitting on the countertop from her dreams, Jackson Browne’s “Rock Me on the Water” playing, as she gives Pete a look that suggests things are about to get very interesting between them. That’s a future we won’t get to see, but the past was quite a bit of fun, and we don’t have to worry about the show entering what’s generally the trickiest territory for any romantic comedy series to deal with. As I’ve discussed many time, the “‘Moonlighting’ Curse” is bunkum (if anything, that show was killed by keeping the leads apart for too long), but it’s definitely not easy to make the maneuver from people bantering to canoodling without losing something in the transition.
But I’m glad we got to hang with the crew for a while, glad Amanda Peet got to appear in a will-they-or-won’t-they story that didn’t skeeve me out like Jordan and Danny on “Studio 60,” and I’m especially glad that David Walton got to show what a terrific – if unconventional – comic leading man he could be.
What did everybody think? Did you enjoy these last two episodes? Having seen all six, would you go back and watch from the beginning knowing there likely wouldn’t be any more?