*If you are a Younger fan and haven’t seen the series finale, this is your spoiler alert*
This is exciting—my first review of a TV show’s series finale. I don’t know about you, but the last episode of a TV series can literally make or break the entire show for me. I could absolutely love a show, but if the series finale is trash, the show is immediately ruined for me. The reverse can also happen. If a show is mediocre, but then has an epic ending that ties everything up exactly how I wanted, I gain a newfound respect for it. With that being said, this morning when I got ready to watch the last episode of Younger (one of my favorite shows), I was very nervous. While it wasn’t the worst series finale I’ve ever seen (last episode of Secret life of the American Teenager currently holds that title) it certainly wasn’t the best. That’s why this blog post is going to be a bit different. This isn’t a review of an episode that I loved, it is just a review of an episode that I need to talk to someone about, and I guess that someone is you.
A bit about Younger:
Younger is a comedy-drama series created and produced by Darren Star—creator of Sex and the City, 90210, Melrose Place, and Emily in Paris. The show follows the life of Liza Miller (Sutton Foster), a 40-year-old divorcee who has faked her identity as a younger woman in order to land her dream job in a publishing company in New York. Now she has to manage this huge secret, her job, and relationships. The show has been on for seven seasons and its final episode premiered today.
A bit about Season 7, Episode 12 — “Older”:
Okay, so there was a LOT that happened in this last episode. I think that was honestly my biggest issue with it. There was so many stories to tie up and I feel like due to time, they were rushed. One of the main things that happened in this episode was Liza and Charles (Peter Hermann) get back together, but ultimately breakup. Yes, they got back together AND broke up in one episode—a roller-coaster.
Quick Liza/Charles/Josh backstory:
Throughout the whole series, one of Liza’s main love interests has been Charles. He is the editor and chief of Empirical (the publishing company Liza works at), and many fans have rooted for them to be together. Charles and Liza are the same age, are both parents, and for a lot of reasons, this relationship made sense. However, fans of team Josh (me) would have to disagree. Josh (Nico Tortorella) is the opposite of Charles in many ways. He is much younger than Liza, he is a tattoo artist, and he’s easygoing, whereas Charles can be very uptight.
Okay back to what happened in the episode:
- Kelsey, Liza’s co-worker and friend (played by Hilary Duff), leaves Empirical to run her own company.
- Charles leaves Empirical to work on becoming an author and makes Liza the editor and chief.
- The episode ends with the implication that Josh and Liza will get back together (YAY)
My Favorite Scene:
As a die-hard team Josh fan, my favorite scene is obviously the final scene of the episode that eludes to Liza and Josh being end-game. Liza and Josh are at a bar and after a sweet exchange (Daren Star wrote the scene to mimic the scene in the very first episode when they met), Josh tells Liza that he has always been there. By the look on Liza’s face when he says this, you can almost guarantee that they will end ep together.
What They Did Oh So Wrong:
My main gripe with this series finale is that I felt like it failed at time management. There were so many scenes that could have been scrapped to save space/time for storylines that were more important.
- The random play—what the heck was that?! Liza and Charles went to see a weird play and it was totally and completely unnecessary/a waste of time.
- The scene with Lauren and the doctor. Only people who have watched will understand this, but it had to be mentioned. I love Lauren’s character (played by Molly Bernard), but this scene was another waste. Just not important enough to be in the series finale.
- Josh was literally only in the last five minutes. WHY did they give a main character such a small role in the last episode?? Maybe if they would have taken out the aforementioned scenes, there would have been time and space for my Josh.
What They Did Right:
- All the characters ended up in a good place. For the most part, everyone’s storyline was nicely wrapped up, and I’m grateful for that.
- They finally made Liza the boss of Empirical
- The Liza/Josh scene that mimicked their first scene together was perfection. I love when shows do nostalgic/sentimental things like that for their final episodes.
- Kelsey’s goodbye speech. In the episode Kelsey gave a goodbye speech directed at Charles because she was leaving Empirical. However, the speech also felt like Hilary Duff was saying goodbye to the fans, and it was very sweet. I’m pretty sure this was intentional, and it was a nice addition to the episode.
If you were also a fan of Younger, please let me know what you thought of the series finale!
Alayna Elyse Media 