User Reviews

Okay, yes, the ending is a hard pill to swallow (ahem) but it is also poetry and realistic and shouldn't that, above all, matter most in fiction? Jackie was an addict, through and through, and her tale is more a cautionary tale than a fairy tale. Everyone wants to know whether she lived or died but no one is asking the important question: what happens to those affected by her decisions? The very team she inadvertently taught compassion to are the same who are to save her from herself. Do you believe these people, who have spent the entire show saving others, have the capacity to save her? And if they can't, will they be able to save themselves during the aftermath?

Such a brilliant, quickly little show. I'm so sad that it's over. Thank you!

The end of the line for finally arrives for the staff of All Saints. After 7 seasons of ups and downs the show comes to a finale with a great episode. Together with the regulars there are some familiar faces returning to say goodbye in what is an excellent blend of laughter and drama, cheers and tears as the clock ticks down. Both writing and acting is spot on in every scene as the doctors and nurses smooth over the cracks of a turbulent few months in order to move on to their new lives. Of course it's not all plain sailing as the best laid plans cannot account for each and every personal drama, private or public, and certainly not unexpected waving of guns...but then its one ER where it seems no day is ever 'normal'. Maybe the final twist isn't totally out of the blue but it is perhaps the jigsaw of clues along the way that makes it more than just predictable and instead illicit cries of 'don't' at each step. Well never know the answer to what lies ahead - Life or Death? .... So its goodnight to Jackie, Zoey, Eddie, Gloria, Thor and the host of cracking support players. ..... Loved it - both the ups and the downs. A perfect 10/10

After a long break from the show, I returned to the sixth season and really enjoyed it. It seemed determined to drive to the bottom, rather than having a repeat of previous seasons where Jackie falls apart then tricks people she is willing to be helped, or conversely tricks people by doing drugs while getting help. The sixth season had a malice to it, and Jackie was very much burning every bridge – even hurting those that look up to her (Zoey) or have been her friend and colleague for decades (Gloria). I was hoping that the seventh season would continue the direction.

Perhaps this is why mostly I was disappointed with the final season then, because I wanted it to be as dark as the subject matter deserved, to give the main cast members something to really get their teeth into – for it to be cathartic for the characters and thus for the viewer to finally understand Jackie, and for Jackie to finally hit a resting bottom (for better or worse). This season doesn't do that though, and instead it seems to reset the work of the sixth so easily. With one word Zoey (so broken by Jackie a few days ago) decides to delete the photo of the dead nun and totally trust Jackie again. The criminal charges are explained away, which leaves only the nursing license to drive the drama but enable the writers to remain within the hospital, not the courts. Onto this we have the hospital being shut and developed for flats, Coop leaving, characters getting married, patients coming and going, and lots of various subplots.

In the middle of all of this, Jackie returns to her spinning and surviving. It is engaging in the way it always has been, but it lacks teeth and, more importantly, it lacks the direction and drive of the previous season. The events happen and I watched, but I did not feel drawn into it. Somehow Jackie keeps it going, and the show's tone returns to not being totally sure if we hate her or not – and therefore it has the characters all in that same limbo. Perhaps this could be true since they like her but not her addiction, but it is not written this way. Instead it is event driven throughout, and we lose the character of Jackie in there. Some of the events are harsh but they are not well delivered due to the season being somewhat lacking. The fate of several characters are examples, but of course the main one is Jackie herself. The show allows her the unlikely success that it always has, and gives her a reasonably open 'out' to close on – like they knew her destruction was the most likely conclusion to the story, but they didn't have the guts to let her destroy herself in a way that would have made sense and followed nicely from the sixth season. It is a real shame that the final episode matches the final season in its lack of intent – wheeling out old characters like a farewell parade, while also casually letting major events happen for the sake of tidiness.

The cast do not all deserve better, but for sure the handful of main actors certainly do. Falco in particular convinces deeply when given space to do so, but her great work in the previous season in undone, and although she remains good, this season is not what it should have been for her. Wever also deserved better – her pain in the last season is minimized for the sake of narrative; similarly, Deavere Smith should have had more to do. The selection of what cast/characters are sidelined and who is given time is odd too – the family for instance seems to be left out more than I would have liked.

In the end, there is enough in this season to please those who have stuck with it for seven years, however this is not the same as saying it is a strong season – because it is not. On the contrary it goes through the motions, feels overly familiar and unfocused, and fails to build on what the sixth season did really well.