In the season finale of I'm Dying Up Here, pretty much everyone had to hit a wall before they realized what they really wanted to do with their life or current situation.
If I'm Dying Up Here has been struggling all season, its finale was probably one of its strongest episode. It ended the old "Goldie's v; Teddy's debate" by showing most of the comedians finally picking a side, with some of them losing trust in Goldie since she had not had a comic on the Tonight Show for a while. To fix that, she contacts her buddy on the show and gets Bill a gig on Carson. It's a big deal for him, especially after all that he's been through lately.
Meanwhile, Eddie works for Kenny's radio show but is far from finding that gig satisfying, mostly because Kenny is a jerk. Their >collaboration does not end very well when, after a prank call from Ron, Kenny gets his butt kicked by Eddie. Things are going pretty well for Ron on the other end. He gets a longer arc than he first expected on his TV show, which boosts his ego. Speaking of TV shows, Cassie, who first refused to follow Goldie when she learned she was fired from "Girls Are Funny, Too," quickly learns that Goldie was right and regrets her decision to stick with the show. And as Bill gets ready for The Tonight Show, Nick participates in a dating daytime program to please his new agent, but realizes this is just not his jam and leaves the set. He is still struggling with his comedy but ends up finding his confidence again with the support of this other comics.
The tension between Goldie's and Teddy's is still heavy, and it also is between Royce and Teddy, who is not enjoying the tighter grip Royce has on his club. The tension between Ralph and Adam is also very high, and it ends up pushing Adam out of Goldie's door and towards Teddy's. But once there, Ralph comes see him and tells him he believes Adam will become a big deal and hints that he should go back to Goldie's. In the end, there is a lot of realization in "Creative Indifferences": Eddie realizes that he wants more than just write jokes for others, Cassie figures out that she wants to do whatever it takes to make it, Nick accepts that his drug addiction is not what defines his comical abilities, Sully comes to terms with the fact that he is more of a salesman that a comic, and Bill realizes that despite their differences, he would have wanted for his dad to see him on the Tonight Show.
At the end of the episode, everyone is pretty happy and celebrating Bill's success on Carson. We see that Bill is up to something, and that something is going on with King Theordore's, and it does not take long to put one and one together and realize that Goldie asked Bill to set the place on fire, and that Teddy is aware of that. If that storyline is a bit too on the nose, this season finale remains quite effective and offered viewers a satisfying ending. The whole cast was very convincing, Melissa Leo in particular, who really brought Goldie to life throughout the season. It's too bad though that it took almost the whole season for the characters to finally be touching enough for me to empathize with them. It's good that it happened, but I'm Dying Up Here probably achieved that too late.
What about you, what did you think of I'm Dying Up Here's finale?
I'm Dying Up Here - Creative Indifferences - Review
Aug 19, 2017
I'm Dying Up Here MA Reviews
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