News Tip: Novels Offer Choices for How to End 'Friends'
Like the serial novels of the 19th century, television series have a choice of endings that give the entire story a "shape" over time, says Marianna Torgovnick
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Like the serial novels of the 19th century, television series have a choice of endings that give the entire story a "shape" over time, says a Duke University English professor.
Three classical endings to a novel would be to have a death, a marriage or movement to a new place, says Marianna Torgovnick, author of "Closure in the Novel," a book about how novels end. But none of those choices seem ideal for a situation comedy such as "Friends," whose last episode is scheduled to air May 6 after a 10-year run.
In the 19th century, long novels were often published over a year's time, and each separate installment of the story had to have its own ending. Readers had an experience similar to that of modern viewers watching weekly episodes of a television show, she says.
"Novels involve the passage of time. They take a long time to read, and strong emotional bonds form," Torgovnick says. "That's very much like the situation of a TV sitcom viewer."
Sometimes the nature of the story dictates the ending: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" required an apocalyptic finish.
More likely possibilities for "Friends" are an "omnibus" ending, in which there's a revisiting of past episodes, such as the endings of "Seinfeld" and "Sex in the City." The series also could have an "open" ending, in which the series ends in a state of suspense. Another possibility is a parody ending in which, for example, there might be a wedding making fun of the wedding in the "Godfather," or a parody of a previous episode of the show, she says.
"Any reader or viewer is looking for some kind of 'shape,'" Torgovnick says. "The ending is extra important because it influences your sense of the whole."
