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labcat
This review may contain spoilers
Cut the last 2.5 episodes or so, and you have a satisfying show
Let me get the biggest spoiler over and done with: the main couple has a sad ending, though the side couple has a happy ending.
In a marked departure from the generally happy endings of the History series so far, Make Our Days Count, has a sad ending for the main couple, and it's sad in a way which involves a sudden death.
I have to admit that despite my own preference for a happy ending, it does not necessarily mean that a story with a sad ending isn't a good story. Unfortunately, the sad ending is rather discordant with the rest of the series, which is relatively lighthearted. Yes, it is perhaps meant to convey the idea of making our days count. Yes, perhaps the suddenness of the death conveys how unexpected things happen in life, but the series fails in its execution of the unhappy ending.
In essence, the character who dies has a really sad life. He is orphaned from a young age and brought up by his aunt. Not wanting to be a burden to his aunt, he works hard to maintain good grades just so that he can have scholarships to continue his studies. When he finds love, he faces the obstacle of his boyfriend's homophobic father. He manages to overcome this problem and enroll in undergraduate studies at the same time as his boyfriend and his boyfriend's family have started to accept their relationship. Yet his happiness is fleeting--just as things finally seem to be going well for this ill-fated person, he dies in an accident.
While the above summary of his life makes him seem like a consistently sad character whose sad ending shouldn't come as a surprise, I have to say that the saddening details of his life aren't really the focus of the series, which tends to deal with much more lighthearted material. (Even the homophobia in one of the side characters' family isn't explicitly shown, and the show largely focuses on teenage infatuation which blossoms into true love. The poor execution of the bad ending is apparent if we compare the series with Trapped (the first series of HIStory Season 3), in which the potential for a sad ending is plausible from the start, and even Trapped has a happy ending.
There may seem to be something "deep" about a bad ending like this, but I think it the writers are going the easy way out. It would be challenging but possibly more satisfying to make the series end in a moving way that also emphasizes how we need to treasure the moments with our loved ones ("make our days count") without resorting to a sudden bad ending. It is not as if the characters had not treasured their moments together or as if treasuring their time together more would have made the death any more bearable for the surviving person.
In short, the series hasn't really gained much with a sad ending. In fact, we are better off watching the series until perhaps halfway through Episode 18 and stopping at the happiest moments. With Trapped, there was something to keep me watching regardless of whether there is a happy ending, and it is easier to accept the story even if it has a sad ending that makes one cry. On the other hand, in Make Our Days Count, the sad ending seems like an unnecessary plot development even if it manages to wring tears out of the viewer.
In a marked departure from the generally happy endings of the History series so far, Make Our Days Count, has a sad ending for the main couple, and it's sad in a way which involves a sudden death.
I have to admit that despite my own preference for a happy ending, it does not necessarily mean that a story with a sad ending isn't a good story. Unfortunately, the sad ending is rather discordant with the rest of the series, which is relatively lighthearted. Yes, it is perhaps meant to convey the idea of making our days count. Yes, perhaps the suddenness of the death conveys how unexpected things happen in life, but the series fails in its execution of the unhappy ending.
In essence, the character who dies has a really sad life. He is orphaned from a young age and brought up by his aunt. Not wanting to be a burden to his aunt, he works hard to maintain good grades just so that he can have scholarships to continue his studies. When he finds love, he faces the obstacle of his boyfriend's homophobic father. He manages to overcome this problem and enroll in undergraduate studies at the same time as his boyfriend and his boyfriend's family have started to accept their relationship. Yet his happiness is fleeting--just as things finally seem to be going well for this ill-fated person, he dies in an accident.
While the above summary of his life makes him seem like a consistently sad character whose sad ending shouldn't come as a surprise, I have to say that the saddening details of his life aren't really the focus of the series, which tends to deal with much more lighthearted material. (Even the homophobia in one of the side characters' family isn't explicitly shown, and the show largely focuses on teenage infatuation which blossoms into true love. The poor execution of the bad ending is apparent if we compare the series with Trapped (the first series of HIStory Season 3), in which the potential for a sad ending is plausible from the start, and even Trapped has a happy ending.
There may seem to be something "deep" about a bad ending like this, but I think it the writers are going the easy way out. It would be challenging but possibly more satisfying to make the series end in a moving way that also emphasizes how we need to treasure the moments with our loved ones ("make our days count") without resorting to a sudden bad ending. It is not as if the characters had not treasured their moments together or as if treasuring their time together more would have made the death any more bearable for the surviving person.
In short, the series hasn't really gained much with a sad ending. In fact, we are better off watching the series until perhaps halfway through Episode 18 and stopping at the happiest moments. With Trapped, there was something to keep me watching regardless of whether there is a happy ending, and it is easier to accept the story even if it has a sad ending that makes one cry. On the other hand, in Make Our Days Count, the sad ending seems like an unnecessary plot development even if it manages to wring tears out of the viewer.
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