unforum

[brianwaka]

Worst ending possible.

[schany]

I was also disappointed in the ending. I was really looking for more answers then Watermark apparently setting up the whole IRS sting thing and making Sloman the fall guy for it. Didnt wrap up well at all.

I've skimmed over the first few pages of the "Push book" and it did answer a few of the questions, or at least in my mind it did. If I've understood what I've read so far, Enoch is Sean Bailey, the old man at Marthas must be TS Eliot (from the cover of the "book") and he also must the mole who sent the fax to Jim drawing him to Push and hopefully to flush out Al. I'm guessing the Jim's dad is the one behind bailing him out of jail. I'll have to read the whole thing cuz I really was enjoying the plot of the show.

[Ozy_y2k]

There's a fair amount of meta-type twisting of reality inherent in the pages of the book which I suspect is just the LivePlanet boys being too postmodern for their own good (and for the good of the attention spans of the average Thursday night TV viewer).

For example, as has already been noted on enochpushdialectic, the book, ostensibly a work of "fiction", opens with a letter from Hyperion publisher Otis Miller (who may or may not be a real person) to Sean Bailey (who undoubtedly IS a real person) regarding T.S. Griffin (who is clearly NOT a real person). The winking implication drawn at several points during the course of the purposefully disjointed narrative in the book is that the Push, NV "experiment" is a method of combining real-life interaction with commercial messaging while blurring the line of demarcation between the two, which is as close to a definition of an ARG as I've ever seen.

Of course, for those of us weaned on postmodern dramatic touchstones of line blurring between reader-and-character, such as Luigi Pirandello's SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR or anything by Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Jacques Derrida or what have you, the inescapable pat-ourselves-on-the-back conclusion is that WE, the players, must be the true "Push, NV experiment", essentially an experiment by ABC/LivePlanet/Toyota/Sprint PCS and other storyteller/sponsors to regulate our viewing and behavior patters by conditioning us to respond to certain types of commercial messages. (After all, we WERE all breathlessly scrutinizing those Toyota ads to find hidden Watermark phone numbers.)

Very self-referentially clever indeed, and done in a sufficiently non-condescending manner so as to make the average audience member NOT feel as used as a cheap $5 Slo-Dance partner, but nonetheless not exactly free from precedent. The idea of "text as subtext, and advertising as message," was a hot theoretical property on college campuses back in the 1960's, and has become increasingly interwoven with the fabric of our daily lives to the point where we aren't even duly horrified by dystopic "your sponsors own your soul" type messages as the ones that Phil Dick and Spielberg programmed into MINORITY REPORT.

So, congratulations, all of you. We are all officially test subjects, Push drones, functioning as the theoretical "100th Monkey" referenced by "Griffin" in the research quoted in his book. My question to each of you is: do you feel used? Impressed? Or somewhere in between?

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's getting close to 9:15, and there's something I think I need to go off to do.

Ozy, contemplative

[brianwaka]

clarification.

[Ozy_y2k]

Oh, I agree. THAT was bullshit.

But the rest of it was pretty okay.

[PSXBoy]

DISCLAIMER: Ranting & raving ahead... proceed at your own risk.

Ok.. I have to jump in here with my 2 cents...

First of all, KUDOS GUYS (Ben, Derek, LivePlanet, etc...) for the ending! That was better than I was hoping for.

Secondly... contrary to popular belief (at least from the posts on this board) there was no "storyline compression" to get the rest of the plot crammed into the few episodes that were scheduled to air after ABC's announcement that they were cancelling the show. The seven episodes we saw were not re-edited... they were part of the total 12 episode arc. The IRS sting in the 7th episode was a Watermark ruse to fool Jim into thinking that the Versailles Casino was a front for some money-laundering operation being run by some mob-guy out in Chicago... so he would go home and not press any further into the mystery of Push, NV.

So Jim goes back to Carson City, gets promoted (likely so he'll be so bogged down with running the office that he won't have time to work on his own investigations... remember, this was one of his demands to Mr. Man... that he be allowed time for 3 personal investigations a year), his wife returns to him, etc. etc. But then we realize that he's beginning to act in the weird way that the citizens of Push were observed acting - notably, the "sex at 9:15" thing. And the scene with the WDM outside his window tells us that this is exactly what they had planned for Jim... to spread their 'experiment' to the world outside of Push, apparently.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that if the show had been allowed to continue and we had seen the remaining 5 episodes, Jim would have eventually uncovered the REAL mystery of Push, Watermark's true nature and their role in the mystery, and exposed the really big bad-guys thus saving the world population from the "Network's" nefarious plan.

But we didn't get to see the last 5 episodes. ABC pulled the plug early, but they let it run until the 7th episode, which contained "a minor plot climax" so that we could "see the outcome of Agent Prufrock's investigation". I was expecting to see hints that the mystery hadn't been fully solved, and lead-ins to the next episode, which we would unfortunately never see. The show would curl up and blow away, never to be heard from again.

...but that didn't happen. Our pals at LivePlanet threw in a twist:
Derek Cecil let us in on a little secret... Watermark is REAL! This is a real story. The "big bad-guys" were so determined that no one find out about their activities that they got the show pulled off the air and were coming after Derek, Ben, etc. In response, they've posted the package of files on Watermark that they based the show on at the PushTimes site so the world would find out who's behind the plot and what they have planned for all of us.

Anyway, that ending gave the show much more credence as an ARG in my opinion... blurring reality & all that. More so than letting the show run for the full 12 episodes, most likely.

Once again, kudos for not just pulling the plug on the story & slinking away into oblivion!

P.S.: I wouldn't mind seeing the last 5 episodes anyway, guys... How about a DVD, or running it again mid-season?

[vpisteve]

Here's my problem with the whole thing. The thing with Push was ostensibly to solve the mystery of Push, NV. At least that's what the producers led us to believe at the beginning of it all. I envisioned seeing evidence during episodes as part of the plot that, when put all together, might lead us out into the desert somewhere to dig up the dough. Or the combination to a safe, or something. Anything.

What we got was a game show. What we got was a bunch of clues that apparently had nothing at all to do with the actual plot, but were just thrown in for the sake of being clues. Then, to add insult to injury, the final clue is being given out during a Monday Night Football game???!!!

Who knows, though. Maybe actually putting these clues together to get the ultimate solve will in fact be incredibly difficult (it is a million bucks, after all). But I'm not holding my breath. If this ends up being a 'fastest fingers' dial-in, I'm gonna just make it my life's goal to hunt down everyone responsible for this at ABC and LivePlanet one by one, tie them to a chair, and make them watch every episode of Joanie Loves Chachi over and over until they wind up a quivering puddle of pablum on the floor.

Oh the potential for something so cool! It's over a million bucks, fer cryin' out loud!! Make us drive! Make us dig! Make us search an abandoned mine or military base. Make us climb! Make us sweat!! Make us think!! Anything! But don't make us watch Monday Night Football!!!!

[bill]

[catherwood]

[dj_mystique]

i also think the manner in which they ended the show detracted from the whole story. but then again, as i posted weeks ago, wasn't there always the subtle hint that the show itself was more than a story about an expirement, but _was_ an expirement in and of itself? (what can i say, with degrees in psych/marketing it all just seemed a little too obvious to me.) don't you also get the feeling it's not all done, just yet...? lol...

enjoy

[guest]

ughh

[Wouldn't u like 2 no?]

u no, the show was only half over. If it hadn't been cancelled, the ending would have been better.