#nooooo the ds is sick

[itsawritblr]

I am SO fucking sick of "shock" endings.

SPOILERS for the British version of "Professor T," Season 3.

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So. I've been only moderately interested in the crime drama Professor T. I only watched it because Ben Miller plays the titular character, and I loved him in Death in Paradise. So far I haven't really enjoyed the series, because it's yet another attempt to amp up the quirkiness factor of the main character in a detective series in a not very likeable way. He's Monk, really, but with plastic gloves.

Anyway I tuned in to the Season finale just because I was cynically curious how they would end the season. I was already pissed about what they'd done with his ex-lover, DCI Christina Brand, who allowed the already fucked up professor to go to jail rather than reveal the truth which would have cost her her job. After he'd been there for a while and was on trial for attempted murder she finally confessed and quit. Asshole.

I was stupid enough to allow the finale to raise my hopes. Jasper learns the truth about his father's death, reconciles with his mother enough to peel off his ever-present gloves, and to cry and feel happy. Meanwhile, DS Dan Winters proposes to DS Lisa Donckers and she accepts. Huzzah! Happy endings all round!

But this is British TV. They don't do happy endings. (Looks like this story arc was part of the original Belgian series. If so, fuck you Belgium.)

In a nutshell, this happens to DS Lisa Donckers.

So she's run over and dies slowly, and Jasper arrives just in time to witness his protege's dying gasps, and is so traumatized he puts his gloves back on, signalling that he is again separating himself from the world. And of course she hears her fiance's voice calling for her on the phone as she dies from being crushed by a car. And of course DS Winters arrives too late and there's the woman he'd asked to be his wife dead in the road.

Are we having fun yet?

The writers wanted the audience all happy for Jasper and looking forward to his full recovery from a terrible childhood, but oopsy do, they were just jerking us around. Fuck you and your Happy Ending, we can't have Healed Jasper because the series can only exist with an emotionally crippled, psychologically screwed up main character. We'll add new characters next season, but don't get too attached, because we may kill them off as well just to keep you on your toes.

Maybe some people like to play "Who Dies This Season?" I don't. I don't like books, movies, or TV series that mistake emotional manipulation for good storytelling.

I miss Richard Poole . . . Oh. Wait. They killed him off, too. They didn't have to kill him. They could have just had him return to London, to his roast beef, perfect tea, and the snug in his local. But nooooo. It's funner if the character the audience luvs diiiieeeess.