I'll never understand why shows do that and why the writers agree. This ending includes major differences, compared to the book. For one, Hope does end up dead which puts Laurie's decision in a much different light. After the second victim she is sure her son is mentally sick and potentially dangerous to anyone he comes in contact with. The show makes it seem like, despite the Hope scare, nothing really happens and Laurie simply decides to kill her son, because she doesn't believe him and refuses to live with constant doubts. Sorry, but that's not good enough.
Also, the show tries to rush the family drama into basically two 60-minute episodes after having 8 episodes of classical tense court drama/mystery and it feels tonally uneven. They should've focused on this element earlier in order to develop it properly. The family feud seems rushed, even weird at times. I mean last week they all of a sudden talked about how their marriage only depends on Jacob. What?! How, why, when did that happen? There were literally no clues beforehand. A minor disagreement here and there, sure, but considering the situation, they looked like a pretty solid couple overall.
I get that having Hope alive further underlines the message that Jacob will forever be viewed as a guilty person, but that was a pretty obvious plot point 2-3 episodes ago, they didn't need to change a major part of the book to spoonfeed it to the average viewer.
Overall, great acting and great episodes for the most part, but changing the original, much more meaningful ending for no apparent reason was hardly the wisest decision on behalf of the writers staff.
Also, the show tries to rush the family drama into basically two 60-minute episodes after having 8 episodes of classical tense court drama/mystery and it feels tonally uneven. They should've focused on this element earlier in order to develop it properly. The family feud seems rushed, even weird at times. I mean last week they all of a sudden talked about how their marriage only depends on Jacob. What?! How, why, when did that happen? There were literally no clues beforehand. A minor disagreement here and there, sure, but considering the situation, they looked like a pretty solid couple overall.
I get that having Hope alive further underlines the message that Jacob will forever be viewed as a guilty person, but that was a pretty obvious plot point 2-3 episodes ago, they didn't need to change a major part of the book to spoonfeed it to the average viewer.
Overall, great acting and great episodes for the most part, but changing the original, much more meaningful ending for no apparent reason was hardly the wisest decision on behalf of the writers staff.