lights out, series finale

I guess I’ll just start thinking of these one-season wonders as mini-series … then I won’t be so sad when they are cancelled.

The entire first season was completed before the first episode aired, so when it was made, Warren Leight and company were not planning on the season finale being the series finale. That said, it worked either way. I thought the buildup to the fight itself was a bit long … it wasn’t unnecessary, far from it, but it could have been in the previous episode. There was something a bit unbelievable about the way everyone went about their business in the days before the fight.

As for the fight itself, kudos to Leight for setting up a situation where you really didn’t know who was going to win. Death Row Reynolds was the easy favorite: the champ was younger, bigger, and had more recent bouts under his belt. Lights Leary was the star of the series, so you had to accept that he might get the win just for the sake of a good storyline. In the latter case, you also had to make something unlikely into something plausible. Because of all of this, I didn’t have the slightest idea who would be the heavyweight champ at the end of the fight.

Lights Out has been compared to The Fighter, for obvious reasons, and I’d add one more similarity. Both TV series and film featured powerful performances from secondary characters that were just flashy enough that you couldn’t turn your head. In the case of The Fighter, the result was two acting Oscars; in the case of Lights Out … well, maybe an Emmy will fall into their laps, but in the meantime, Reg E. Cathey and Eamonn Walker took care of the acting flash department, and the show was better for it. But, just as Mark Wahlberg’s excellent performance in The Fighter was lost amidst the accolades for his co-stars, so, too, Stacy Keach and especially the show’s star, Holt McCallany, showed how far you could go with a more understated style. McCallany was the revelation of the series.

(Here comes a spoiler alert, although I can’t imagine anyone has gotten this far without seeing the finale … well, I don’t think I know anyone else who watched the show, so I don’t suppose I’m spoiling anything for anyone. But I want to talk about the last scene, so you’ve been warned.)

One of the continuing threads of the series revolved around the fact that Leary had been diagnosed with “pugilistic dementia.” He shouldn’t be fighting any longer … in fact, it was already too late in some ways. So, when Lights took such a beating in the championship fight, you had to know that, if the series had continued, that dementia would play an increasingly important role. And as Lights looked at himself in the mirror after the fight, you knew a lot had been taken out of him in that ring. As he wandered the hallways, not sure where he was, the feeling of dread grew larger. Leight wrote it just right, McCallany played it just right, which made Lights’ final words heartbreaking: “Who won?”

Grade for finale: A-. Grade for series: Hard to say. I’d call it a B+, except it was the rare show in the DVR era where I had to watch it as it was first aired … I didn’t want to wait. And I don’t do that for a B+. So I’ll go with an A-.

Comments

[Karoline]

I was disappointed when I heard 'Lights Out' wouldn't be renewed for a second season. But I'll have to say that, having now watched all of season one, I'm not sure how they could've continued with the storyline. Like you, as soon as I resigned myself to the fact that this was just a terrific mini-series, I could appreciate it for what it was. The last scene was utterly heartbreaking.