S03.E10: Essex Strong

[AnimeMania]

(Season Finale)

With a protest looming on campus, the girls find themselves standing up for themselves, for what they need, and for each other.

Premiere Date: January 23, 2025   Max    9pm  

[chitowngirl]

Professor Friedman-“oh and I won’t be holding office hours today. Not because I’m busy, because I’m not in the mood.” 😆  Tig Notaro never disappoints!

[wknt3]

[aghst]

Don’t know if that was really her singing.  Can’t imagine they’d keep featuring her performing though.

Kind of seems out of place with the rest of the show, though it was a wonderful performance.

Maybe they will no longer show Whitney playing soccer so they will show Taylor on the stage frequently if the show continues.

[Angeleyes]

This was the series finale. HBO/MAX told them before the season began that this would be their final season. Mindy has already moved on to a new series starring Kate Hudson that starts next month on Netflix. 
Gracie Lawrence is a real singer and she even has the band Lawrence with her brother. 
For a series finale this felt rushed (especially given that they knew going in how to structure their final season). Part of e wishes they would have done a bit of an epilogue for each character, but I guess we’re just supposed to be left with the hope that they are just getting started and their future looks bright. 
Also, was the virginity conversation at the end a retcon because I clearly remember Bela wanting to be done with being a virgin at the beginning and she just wanted to get it over with. 

[peachmangosteen]

Quote

TVLINE | This finale really had a sense of closure and happiness and acceptance for the girls, especially during that final montage. It was much less cliffhanger-y than the previous two seasons. Did you go into the finale with the intention to craft an episode that could serve as a satisfying finish if the show isn’t renewed?
It wasn’t that. In fact, frankly, I was just kind of choosing joy and celebration of these girls, who have been through a lot this season, which felt like the right creative ending for them. I got excited about this kind of symphony of wins that all of these girls could have together, and then it felt antithetical to that to tack on a cliffhanger for logistic TV-writing purposes. That started to feel fake to me. The execs, who have been so wonderful to work with our entire series, were like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t you want a cliffhanger?” and I was like, “I don’t think I do.” I’ve done cliffhangers my entire career, and I’m starting to feel like they’re a little fake a lot of the times. I don’t think that an audience, generally, really cares for them as they used to, either, in linear TV days. I don’t think whether or not we tune into the next season of a television show depends on whether or not we must know what happened to a character, and I’m talking, specifically, in a comedy. So many comedies will just change something up, and then all it really does is it means that the next two episodes of your show at the beginning of the following season, you’re kind of mopping up the muck of what you set up in the finale just so that you can get back to the show as it is and as the audience likes it. So it was much more about me having a sort of creative thought about the purpose of cliffhangers and stepping away from it and seeing how that felt, which other people were less sure about, but I don’t know… I love the idea of a little happy ending for these girls at the end of that big chapter of our show of Season 3.

TVLINE | Do you worry at all about people tuning in and thinking, “Oh, this is the end of the show. That felt like a series finale”?
I don’t worry about it because at the end of the day, if it’s a nice feeling for them as they click home or whatever on the remote that they’re watching and go about their day, that feels like a good thing. I also think that modern audiences, particularly younger modern audiences, are increasingly disinterested in anxiety-driven storylines, and a cliffhanger, by definition, is perpetual anxiety. It’s anxiety that will go for 12 to 18 months until you get resolution on it. So I just don’t think that the pros and cons, creatively, for me, at least in this show, lend themselves towards choosing a tacked-on wrench thrown at them.

That being said, Kimberly Finkle is currently in a jail cell moments before the end of the finale and worried that the school that she spent her life trying to be in and the career path she’s trying on [is] completely derailed. And Bela is now out and dating different types of people. There’s plenty of throws forward and new doors to go through. There’s movement. There’s new story on the horizon. It’s just I don’t need Dalton, the soccer coach from Season 1, like sticking his head through the bushes and being like, “Whitney, if you don’t give me 50 grand, I’m going to the press,” and nor do I think an audience, generally, would want it, frankly.

TVLINE | What are the prospects of a Season 4? Where would you put the show’s renewal odds?
Oh, I have no idea. The funny thing about TV writing and producing — and I’m sure that industry insiders like yourself know this, but readers don’t — is I know just as little as an audience member. So the only thing that I see is, like, the Top 10 list in Max, and for, like, 60-something days straight, Sex Lives was either the most-watched scripted show on Max or the second-most watched scripted show for, truly, months now. So I would feel good, but I can’t control anything beyond that.

This interview with the showrunner doesn't read like he was told this was the series finale. He could be lying though, I suppose. Showrunners do tend to do that lol.

Where are you getting your information, @Angeleyes?

I haven't been that into this season and everything felt very rushed in this episode in particular and the ending was very stupid but I won't lie, I loved the ending and I did cry lol.

Edited Saturday at 02:29 PM by peachmangosteen

[Irlandesa]

50 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

This interview with the showrunner doesn't read like he was told this was the series finale. He could be lying though, I suppose. Showrunners do tend to do that lol.

They can but I don't know why MAX would.  The trend for series that last beyond one season has been to advertise "X and Final Season" even if it's only the second season if they are certain about it in advance.  People do tune in for final seasons, especially if they know it won't end on a cliffhanger. 

I thought the episode was pretty good.  The past few have been.  I found that interview interesting.  I liked that he addressed the not-so-great ways the boyfriends behaved throughout this season even if I do understand Cooper's POV and even Arvind's.  But it turns out they're more normal than initially presented. 

I thought for sure Bela and Taylor were going to kiss too. 

I continue to love Tig.  I was a bit disappointed in the play director.  I have a hard time believing she'd be so overwhelmed by Kasey's performance that she'd need to step out.  It was good but I bet she's seen equally as good or better.

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

I thought for sure Bela and Taylor were going to kiss too. 

I haven’t been someone who really saw anything between them like many did but I totally thought they were gonna kiss there, too.

[Irlandesa]

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I haven’t been someone who really saw anything between them like many did but I totally thought they were gonna kiss there, too.

Me neither until that moment. Then again, I didn't really see bi Bela coming even though others apparently did.  It's not that I was shocked.  I just didn't anticipate it until 3 seconds before she kissed Hayley.

 

[peachmangosteen]

I did see it immediately with Hayley. The Bela actress was making eyes at her right away lol. Although, I guess having seen all the 'Bela is bi' spec when it came to Taylor might have made me look for it more when Hayley was introduced.

[zenithwit]

On 1/25/2025 at 5:46 AM, Angeleyes said:

This was the series finale. HBO/MAX told them before the season began that this would be their final season. Mindy has already moved on to a new series starring Kate Hudson that starts next month on Netflix. 

If this was a series finale, that determination must have been made after the fact.  They were clearly trying to set up several storylines to be explored further, particularly for Bela and Kimberly.  Hell, they literally set up a love triangle for Kimberly in this episode.  What would be the point of introducing Noah, a completely brand new character, if this was intended to be a series finale? 

Also, I think Mindy Kaling can manage multiple projects at once. So I don't think her show with Kate Hudson is necessarily indicative of this show ending.  

 

Overall while I still like this show, I feel that the tone and characterizations have shifted slightly this season, particularly for Kimberly.  Season 1 Kimberly was earnest, naive, a little bit over her head with school work and a really great friend.  I loved Season 1 Kimberly.  She was such a great, nuanced character.  This season's Kimberly just feels a bit off.  I'm not sure if Kimberly the academic overachiever who's concerned about how sexting may impact her future career prospects is a natural evolution from the season 1 Kimberly who tried cheating on a test just so she could pass a class and was caught literally trying to have sex on her professor's desk.

[Empress1]

On 1/25/2025 at 5:22 PM, peachmangosteen said:

I did see it immediately with Hayley. The Bela actress was making eyes at her right away lol.

I saw it too. The “they have a connection” seed was planted early. The moment with Bela’s mom was lovely.

Still not interested in Kacey, and I don’t think Cooper did anything wrong. Kacey was the one who immediately ramped up their relationship to level 10. Too much, too fast.

Did Whitney rejoin the team?

[peachmangosteen]

23 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

Still not interested in Kacey, and I don’t think Cooper did anything wrong. Kacey was the one who immediately ramped up their relationship to level 10. Too much, too fast.

I didn't mind Kacey as much as most seemed to but I do agree with this. I figured they would make Cooper a creep and was glad they didn't but I guess the show did present it as him being messed up for what he did.

Edited Monday at 11:09 PM by peachmangosteen

[Irlandesa]

25 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I figured they would make Cooper a creep and was glad they didn't but I guess the show did present it as him being messed up for what he did.

A little bit, although I was happy to see that the writer in the article you linked above did see Cooper's POV and I don't think he intended us to see him as the villain.  Kacey did take things too fast relationship-wise after the sex. 

It's just that the story, just like with the other girls, was centered on Kacey's POV.  And her POV in the situation is that she felt she needed to push herself into doing things other college girls do.  It's nice that the pressure wasn't from Cooper.  Or any of the other girls.  It was her thinking she was more ready than she was for the big step. I think if they decided to focus on her need to speedrun the relationship after having sex, we'd be seeing his POV a bit more.  But since he didn't push her into doing the things she felt pushed into doing, his deciding to break up with her felt a bit unfinished and his side of things lacking.

17 hours ago, zenithwit said:

Also, I think Mindy Kaling can manage multiple projects at once. So I don't think her show with Kate Hudson is necessarily indicative of this show ending.

Yes she can.  She had this show and the Never Have I Ever running at the same time for a few years.  Most of her shows have co-showrunners who are probably more a part of the day-to-day than she is if she's juggling multiple projects.