Finale fever

Sorry for the lack of posting the past few days. I just got tied up with a few things. So, here's some brief thoughts I've had on the big finales of the past few days.

Heroes: I have mixed feelings on the finale. I thought it did a nice job of having events connect with how the show began. I also think it set the stage for some interesting things for next season. But the actual action of the episode was fairly anti-climatic. This is why I had been saying the finale should have been two hrs. long. The showdown between Sylar and Peter wasn't nearly as exciting as it should have been. And I thought having Nathan fly Peter away wasn't the best way to avoid the bomb. Peter should have just flown away (for the reason why he didn't, click here.) or Claire should have just shot him.

But letdown on action aside, I'm extremely excited for where things are going. I think we're going to see a lot of history behind these characters, which should hopefully answer some questions. We also, thanks to Molly, have been set up with a new big bad guy for next season, who apparently can "see her". Sadly, it seems that the show killed off a lot of their cooler characters and left some of their weaker ones alive. Gone are Thompson and Linderman, yet Nikki/Jessica, DL, Parkman, and Mohinder all seemingly survived. Thank goodness HRG (ooops, I mean Noah!!!) escaped relatively unscathed and I can't wait to see what his plan is for Volume two!

24: I'm not sure who's more relieved that the day is over, Jack Bauer or the audience? The show tried to bring some excitement to its finale, but sadly, even blowing up and off-shore oil base couldn't salvage this show. The best thing I can say about the finale is that it seemed to wipe the slate clean so that when it returns next season, it can be taken into a different direction and retain the elements that fans loved about this show in the first place. Namely Jack being a bad ass. Like so many TV characters, I'll act like I've had amnesia and try to forgot this season took place.

House: Great finale! Oh wait, that's right, the finale hasn't taken place yet because those idiots at FOX wedged their crappy new reality show after Idol this week instead. It serves them right that the show only retained 38% of Idol's audience. Now that FUX has made me have to wait another week to see the season ender, I've become as cranky as Dr. House himself.

Lost: After such a struggling start to the season, they really got their act together and finished with a bang. So much going on in this episode, both from a good TV perspective and from a mythology perspective. The show has once again left us with a ton of questions that need to be answered and now we have to wait until Feb(!) to get them resolved. Namely:

- What is the narrative structure for next season? Will it all take place back home or have we just switched from flashbacks to flashforwards from now on?
- Who died and had no one but Jack attend their funeral? Locke? Sawyer? Ben? Michael?
- Who is the "he" that Kate had to return home to? Sawyer? Nathan Fillion? Parole officer?
- If that's not Penny's boat, then who does Naomi work for? Could Ben have been telling the truth for the first time in his life?

Aside from the puzzling questions, there was a ton of "Wow" moments that also made this episode awesome. Sayid snapping the guys neck. Hurley to the rescue with the VW bus. Sawyer shooting Mr. Friendly. WALT!! Rousseau reuniting with her daughter by tying up Ben. Locke shooting Naomi.

I should also give credit to Charlie who was the most likeable ever in this episode by messing with the two Looking Glass ladies' "good cop, bad cop routine". Of course, his awesome performance is rewarded with him being killed off. Some will say that there were plenty of ways he could have saved himself, but I think he knew he had to do it, if everything was going to be ok for everyone else. A nice farewell that capped off a fantastic episode.