Tuesday, 22 May 2012
This evening, my wife and I watched the final episode of Little House on the Prairie. There are more disks to come, but those are just bonus features. So, finally, we are done watching this series.
We began watching the Little House episodes in September 2006. We had just completed watching every episode of Star Trek: Voyager (that only took 8 months because we watched nothing but), and Jennifer said she wanted to get more shows via Netflix. This made sense – we had a one year old son at the time, and he was (IS) a pain to get to sleep every night, so we often had too little time to watch an entire movie. A short TV episode was more our style.
That fall, we began rotating disks of not only Little House episodes, but also Quantum Leap, Northern Exposure, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We gave up on Deep Space Nine near the end of the first season, and we finished watching Quantum Leap’s five seasons by January 2009 and Northern Exposure’s six seasons by August 2009. Little House, however, has more than five or six seasons. It has ten. And, in between watching those episodes, we also watched every episode of several shorter-run shows, including: Wonderfalls, Freaks and Geeks, Firefly, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica, The Addams Family, Better off Ted, Pushing Daisies, and Rome. Currently, we are working our way through the Sopranos, Modern Family, and Seinfeld. Through it all, there’s been Little House.
I’ve seen this final episode, “The Last Farewell,” before, so there we no major surprises. Both Jennifer and I had forgotten the long intro to the episode, which takes place in Burr Oak, Iowa, though Jennifer suggested that this portion may have been axed during reruns (to make room for more commercials). She’s probably right.
It seemed everyone got in one last hurrah in this episode: Dr. Baker heals one more townsperson, Charles gets one more shot at fiddle-playing, the Reverend preaches one last sermon, Ms. Foster comes running out of the post office one more time with urgent mail, Mr. Edwards get another opportunity to use terrible grammar, Mr. Montague proves once again that he’s pretty much perfect (he plays a stunning rendition of “Flight of the Bumblebee” on Charles’ fiddle, then claims that he’s “a bit rusty”), Laura cries one more time, Rose cries one more time, and Nancy once more accuses whoever will listen that “You hate me!” The only thing missing was Mrs. Oleson (though she is mentioned) and Hester Sue – who inexplicably has gone MIA in this episode.
Parts of the episode were surprisingly weak, which, I guess, was typical for the last two seasons. For one thing, there’s a terribly contrived subplot to get Pa and Ma back into the little house one more time. Later, Ma and Laura have what, I think, is supposed to be a touching conversation while washing the dishes, but it is so syrupy sweet (“If you weren’t such a good Ma I wouldn’t be the person I am today”), that I nearly cringed – and that’s saying something in a show that frequently employs sentimentality. In fact, earlier in the episode, I laughed when Ma and Laura saw each other, paused, then ran into each other’s arms. God, I love when they do that in the show.
Other parts of the show were unexpectedly good. I had forgotten about the scene where all the menfolk in the town start preparing their guns to defend their land. Laura says something like: “I don’t understand, no piece of land is worth losing your life over!” and Pa says, “You’re right, you don’t understand.” Ohhh….good zinger.
Later, during a meeting to discuss their forced eviction from the town, everyone gathers in the church. Reverend Alden asks the questions his flock is always wondering: Why do bad things happen to good people like us? Why do rich robber-barons get to make all the decisions? He spins this into a refreshingly non-religious argument that this is a chance to start fresh, to support one another, and to feel the love of friends. His speech is interupted by the always shoot-from-the-hip Mr. Edwards, who says, “Well I’m feeling something else right now, Reverend. I’m feeling anger.” In a moment of righteous indignation, the Reverend then cuts him off and says, “Do you think I don’t? Do you think, just because I am a man of the cloth, that I don’t feel anger, too?” Very cool. The conversation that ensues from that point is too long to write here, but it’s good.
Finally, I also liked that the town itself was treated as a character; after all, after ten seasons, it sure felt like one. The human characters spoke of the town being “buried” and that it was a “friend that held them together.” As they prepare to walk off their property for the last time, Reverend Alden gets the last spoken line: “Walnut Grove did not die in vain,” he assures his flock. And they march out together, fully aware that the developments of the last few minutes of their time together proved him right.
So long, Little House, and farewell.