I'm not sure I quite like how this ended if I'm honest. This entire season has been phenomenal, but this finale felt forced.
Let's recap: what did the entire first half of this season feature most prominently? Harvey. It was all about Harvey and him learning from his mistakes. We learned a lot about his past and why he is the way he is from his therapy sessions. What I'm trying to illustrate is how well the writers set up his road to redemption. But this entire season then becomes illogical since it isn't Harvey who ends up going to prison.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Harvey's not going to prison - and I'm not pleased that Mike is - but the way the writers framed this entire season geared the finale towards Harvey taking the fall, and this ending completely contradicts all their hard work. It doesn't make sense to have focused on Harvey so consistently and to have so carefully constructed his character arc for this season only to throw it all away in the final episode.
This honestly feels as though near the end of writing the scripts someone senior came over to the writers and said: "Woah, Harvey going to prison? No way, we can't have that. It's gotta be Mike guys, sorry!" And then they just had to reverse their work at the last minute. That's what this feels like.
If you totally disagree with everything I'm saying, I urge you to go back and watch this season again from start to finish and you'll see what I mean.
Overall, this was a slightly underwhelming end to an otherwise fantastic season. I'll of course be tuning in later this year for season six, where I hope I'm proved wrong about this misdirection in the season finale.
Let's recap: what did the entire first half of this season feature most prominently? Harvey. It was all about Harvey and him learning from his mistakes. We learned a lot about his past and why he is the way he is from his therapy sessions. What I'm trying to illustrate is how well the writers set up his road to redemption. But this entire season then becomes illogical since it isn't Harvey who ends up going to prison.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Harvey's not going to prison - and I'm not pleased that Mike is - but the way the writers framed this entire season geared the finale towards Harvey taking the fall, and this ending completely contradicts all their hard work. It doesn't make sense to have focused on Harvey so consistently and to have so carefully constructed his character arc for this season only to throw it all away in the final episode.
This honestly feels as though near the end of writing the scripts someone senior came over to the writers and said: "Woah, Harvey going to prison? No way, we can't have that. It's gotta be Mike guys, sorry!" And then they just had to reverse their work at the last minute. That's what this feels like.
If you totally disagree with everything I'm saying, I urge you to go back and watch this season again from start to finish and you'll see what I mean.
Overall, this was a slightly underwhelming end to an otherwise fantastic season. I'll of course be tuning in later this year for season six, where I hope I'm proved wrong about this misdirection in the season finale.