Critics weigh in on "Oprah"'s swan song (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Oprah Winfrey ended her show after 25 years on Wednesday without celebrities or car giveaways. Instead, she addressed her audience solo from her studio in Chicago, alternating between tears and laughter and recounting her life lessons. What did the critics think of her send-off?

"The hour perfectly embodied how complex it is to analyze or critique the woman behind the message," wrote The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman on his Bastard Machine blog. "On the one hand, it's hard to argue how deeply Oprah has touched her massive audience and how much good the self-help emphasis has done for so many people, celebrities included. On the other hand, for those outside the sphere of influence that Oprah holds over her worshippers (they are too numerous to be a cult), it's impossible to miss some of the God-complex patina that she wears so proudly."

Still, Goodman joked about Oprah's religious and at times over-the-top message. "Freeze-frame the DVR yourself: No bongs in sight."

The New York Post's Michael Starr also called out Winfrey's religious undertones. "And On The Final Day, she wept," he wrote. "Oprah Winfrey signed off yesterday after 25 years as TV's reigning daytime queen -- sounding more like an evangelist than a talk-show host.

"Coming out to a standing ovation from her rapturous, squealing studio audience, Oprah held court on stage, alone, for the show's full hour, striding back and forth and spewing fluffy, New Age-y aphorisms offset by occasional clips from past episodes," he went on.

But the Washington Post's Sally Quinn lauded Oprah for her religious leaning. "Oprah's final show was a sermon. She finally came out as a true religious leader, an image she has skirted around for these last 25 years," wrote Quinn. "She is America's high priestess."

"This is ministry at its best and something that more religious leaders should pay attention to," she added. "She managed to touch something in a lot of people and changed countless lives by giving her audience a spiritual message that they could apply to their own lives. Her message was inclusive and pluralistic rather than exclusive. Everyone belonged. Everyone had value."

"The pope couldn't have done better," Quinn ended.

The U.K. Guardian's Hadley Freeman didn't think Oprah spent enough time on "any of the new age baloney she has increasingly peddled" -- and she was grateful for that.

"The celebrity dazzle might have brought more media attention but that is not her true appeal," Freeman also noted of her decision to not have guests on her last show, which aired after two-days of major celebrities wishing her farewell in Chicago's United Center, packed with 13,000 audience members.

"There were plenty of needlepoint truisms -- 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you' -- but she keenly emphasized the social issues she has focused on over the years (sexual abuse, alcoholism) and the words 'Jonathan Franzen' were not mentioned once, nor, thank heavens, was any of the new age baloney she has increasingly peddled," wrote Freeman

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

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Oprah's Book Club a Seal of Approval that Goes a Long Way (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | This Wednesday marks the end of Oprah Winfrey's 25-year-long streak as America's number one day time television talk show host. The authenticity of her interviews, whether serious or light-hearted, will leave the day time talk show circuit wanting. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will surely be missed by many, and even more by those who, every year, looked forward to her famous Oprah Book Club selections.

I was first introduced to the "club" when I was 16, a junior in high school, who needed to find a way to pass some time in a math class in which I was the teacher's aide. "She Comes Undone," by Wally Lamb, immediately grabbed my attention at the school library. I saw that it had Oprah's blessing and figured I should give it a try.

The story circled around the character of Dolores Price and followed her life from her toddler years all the way till she was 40. I found it funny and at times haunting, especially when real life lessons were brought to life with Lamb's words through the eyes of Dolores.

At times, I was so deeply entrenched in the book that when the bell would ring to signal for us to go to our next period, I wouldn't hear it. It was the kind of book that you tell yourself you will only read one chapter before you go to bed, and then the next thing you knew it was well past midnight and you still didn't want to put it down. Yes, it was that good.

Over the years, I have read other books from Oprah's Book Club, such as "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch and "The Deep End of the Ocean" by Jacquelyn Mitchard. Both deal in some aspect with the dysfunctions of having a mother and being a mother, something both my sister and I could identify with.

In "White Oleander," I poured over the story of Janet Astrid and her search for her place in this world, from foster home to foster home, and the hold her mother had over her despite the fact that she was imprisoned.

"The Deep End of the Ocean" centered on Beth, a mother whose child goes missing and the ensuing grief and depression that followed, only to have him miraculously show up at her front door one day, nine years later, to ask if he can mow their lawn.

Though Mitchard could have put a period and ended it at that, she continues on to cover what goes on in a family after something like this has happened, and how, though it is a blessing, it is not necessarily a happy ending. For me, I could feel the desperation through Mitchard's words: the desperation of a family falling apart and trying to pull itself back together despite all of it.

I cannot possibly say if I would have ever read these books had they not had Oprah's seal of approval. Not because I am extremely selective of what I read, but because Oprah's spotlight allowed them to be noticed when perhaps they might not have been. The stories in these books have caused me to reflect on my own life and relationships. They have allowed me to read thoughts and emotions described in ways that, at times, I thought were indescribable.

"The Oprah Winfrey Show" will be missed indeed. Thankfully, we shall not have to fret too much because we still have OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network on cable TV. However, the fate of the Oprah Book Club is still unknown; there has been no further mention of if it will make it to OWN or not. Hopefully it will make a crossover, but if not, then I and millions of readers will forever be grateful for the Oprah Book Club and the 65 books we might not have read because of it.

For a complete list of the Oprah Book Club selections, please see:

http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Complete-List-of-Oprahs-Book-Club-Books

Source:

Carolyn Kellogg, "Oprah's Book Club: She spoke, we read" Los Angeles Times

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Oprah's Finale: Was it Too Much Hollywood? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Did Oprah Winfrey go for too much "Hollywood" as she wrapped up her 25-year run of the most popular talk show on television this week?

Die-hard Oprah fans wouldn't think so. Oprah could've trotted out Charles Manson and the crowd would've gone wild. But some critics of Oprah feel as her show grew, Oprah went away from what made her show special in the early years and became more of a continuing episode of "Oprah's Favorite Things."

Her final guest list included A-list celebs like Madonna, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and Oprah seemed shocked that they would all show up. "Let's do away with the notion that Oprah was shocked by every guest who trotted out, This-Is-Your-Life Style, to the delight of thousands of her most loyal fans," wrote Rebecca Traister of The Los Angeles Times. Over the years, Oprah used to sprinkle in celebrity appearances, but they always were a small part of a bigger issue she was discussing. In recent years, the show became more about Oprah as a celeb and her embracing celebs any chance she could.

The U.K. Guardian thought the star power at the final show also may have been a little too much. "The list read like the cream of the Vanity Fair Oscar party," it added.

Through all these years, Oprah kept her base and kept filming her show in Chicago. This was a sense of pride for all people in the Midwest. Oprah felt at home in Chicago and the people loved her back because she thought like a Midwesterner. When Oprah became a big star, did she lose touch with the fan base that made her so popular?

I think so, but it wasn't all Oprah's fault. Our society changed, and not all for the better. Celebrities became front page news, and it all kind of started when O.J. Simpson took that slow ride in a Ford Bronco, and his trial that followed. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" kind of evolved right with society and pop culture, that is why people kept tuning in, even though she stopped tackling hard-hitting issues on regular basis.

Singer Aretha Franklin summed it up so well at a concert that was thrown for Oprah following her final taping. "She has set a tremendous example for women, professional women and certainly, [she's] a leader, a humanitarian."

Rick Limpert covers sports, technology and politics in and around Atlanta. He'll be watching to see what Oprah comes up with next.

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