Epilogues

I've just finished watching Stranger Than Fiction, with Will Ferrell, and I must say that it is an amazing movie. The emotion is absolutely real and the story is just happy enough to not make me want to jump off a building.

Why is it that I'm always more interested in what happens to people (or characters) after their stories have been told? For instance, I took the movie out of my DVD player, placed it neatly in the return envelope that Netflix is nice enough to include, and I'm still curious what Mr. Crick and Ms. Pascal will be doing the following days of their imaginary lives. How will Dave enjoy his trip to Space Camp?

I've thought about it for a few minutes and I'm remembering asking these questions for basically everything that I've ever watched. Not that I've managed to see the last three seasons of 'NYPD Blue', but what is Sipowicz up to these days? I know that this is a very lame example, but I only bring it up because Ray and Christine have all of the seasons of 'Friends' on DVD and I'm looking right at them. So what happened to the characters in 'Friends' after the show ended? (Except for Joey, who got his own show that subsequently tanked.) Poorly executed spinoffs aside, maybe that's why we're better off not knowing. The answers aren't always as glamorous as the dreams we're lucky to have. I suppose that's slightly depressing.