YMMV / Forever (2014)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Adam a sadistic stalker who enjoys making Henry suffer, who never actually cared about other people the way Henry does? Is he a fallen good guy who now wants to prove to himself that his own loss of compassion was inevitable by making sure the same thing happens to Henry, afraid to let Henry be happy because that might prove he was wrong about its inevitability? Or is he someone who once cared just as deeply as Henry does, who is genuinely trying to help Henry by toughening him up so that he won't feel the absolute misery Adam knows from long experience Henry is going to endure?
  • Before Adam comes into Henry's life, Henry has spent years avoiding "messy emotional entanglements" and having no friends except Abe. Adam is completely walled off, emotionally, claiming not to care about anyone anymore. We saw how devastated Henry was after losing Abigail, and that he's going to lose Abe too, all too soon. Adam may have had his own Abigail, his own Abe, his own Nora, his own Jo, several times over for each of them. Does Adam genuinely believe that the pain of losing loved ones is bad enough that it's better to never let anyone in? Or, is he actually playing a long game, using what he puts Henry through to teach him to reach out and stay connected with his friends, so that he won't end up like Adam? The practical upshot of "Skinny Dipper" was that Henry shared a secret with his co-workers, and they rallied around him, offering help and support. Could that have been Adam's real goal all along? Did he try to have Jo see Henry die in the finale to mess with him and ruin his life, or did he believe, just like Abe does, that Henry should take Jo into his confidence and share his secret with her, but knew that Henry was incapable of choosing to do so on his own and the issue would have to be forced to make any progress?
• Awesomeness Withdrawal: Get to the end of the series, and suddenly realize there's no more coming.
• Genius Bonus: In "The Frustrating Thing About Psychopaths," material on the Black Dahlia murder is checked out using the alias J. Ellroy, after the author who became obsessed with the case and eventually wrote a fictionalized resolution to it.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show was a surprisingly big hit in France, averaging 5.7 million viewers during its broadcast; French fans also joined in the campaign to save the show after it was cancelled.
• Jerkass Woobie: Adam is revealed to be this, having suffered torturous experiments at the hands of the Nazis in WWII after his immortality was discovered. Henry and Abe acknowledge this, but also point out that it doesn't excuse his behavior or change the fact that he's a sociopathic asshole and murderer.
• Moral Event Horizon: In "The King of Columbus Circle," if the killer going after the completely innocent Lydia in his quest to eradicate Urkesh's royal bloodline didn't push him over, leveling a gun on Lydia's infant child did.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize:
  • When Burn Gorman shows up as Henry Morgan's psychiatrist, viewers are led to believe it might be the start of a recurring comedic role... as it turns out, he's actually Henry's fellow immortal/stalker "Adam."
  • Cuba Gooding Jr. shows up in "Dead Men Tell Long Tales". He subverts it by not playing the murderer, though this was actually spoiled when the announcement of his casting, a month before the episode aired, outright stated that he would be cleared of murder.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: During the first half of the series, Matt Miller and others on the creative end repeatedly said in interviews that Henry and Jo were meant to be a growing friendship without any romantic angle, although they eventually started teasing that romance could develop later. Many viewers were way ahead of them, seeing a romance far in advance of when the writers intended.
• Too Good to Last: The show was warmly received by viewers, with a great cast, a fascinating premise and plenty of unexplored potential to fill up later seasons. Unfortunately we'll never know how it would've panned out as it was cancelled after just one season, with low live viewership ratings being cited as a reason, along with competition from other shows sharing the timeslot; fans campaigned hard to save the show (aiming for either a renewal or being picked up by another network) but were unsuccessful.
• The Woobie: The poor biochemist from "The Fountain Of Youth." All she wanted was to help people, and her serum did work, but her business partner made her cut corners, forcing her to rely on substandard chemicals and human brain tissue rather than expensive stem cells, turning it into a toxic brain-damaging formula. And when the police start getting too close, her brother—who'd been providing the brain tissue for her from unclaimed bodies at the morgue—kills her partner. By the end of the episode she's so guilt-ridden and distraught that she's ready to jump in front of a train.