Thursday, May 14, 2009

Season finale report card Pt. 1

I haven't done a whole lot of discussion on my thoughts on TV shows lately, so to make up for that, I'll give my thoughts on how each of my favorite shows have ended...

Chuck: The show really came into it's own this season and delivered a great finale. Bringing in Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula into the mix was a nice touch. As for the end moment where we learn that Chuck has a more powerful Intersect in his head, I'm mixed. If they play it right, it could be really cool. If they don't, all they'll be doing is adding unnecessary drama to the show. I really hope this show returns, because they had a wonderful option to tie up everything and end it leaving the fans satisfied. But they opted for a cliffhanger ending, which means it better return or else there will be a lot of angry Nerd Herders. Grade: A-

Heroes: Wow, what to say about this show. How the mighty have fallen. This show just can't seem to regain the momentum they had from season 1. While the show improved in the second half of this season, it's still terribly flawed. And despite their efforts to address fans' complaints, the finale seemed so much like a retread. Once again, Nathan is apparently dead, but they found a way to keep the character around. I'm so ready to be rid of so many characters from this show. Let's hope some new blood (and not Claire's deus ex machina blood) can be infused into this show and help it become watchable again. Grade: C+

The Big Bang Theory: The finale played like a greatest hits album in a way as we got to see a lot of great gags return: Shelon's knocking, Howard's mother, etc. This show has quickly moved up to one of my must see comedies and I look forward to seeing some more antics from these guys at the North Pole next season before they return. I also love Penny, but din't have any real urgency to see her together with Leonard, so that aspect of the storyline didn't do much for me. Aside from that, this was great. Grade: A-

House: The bait and switch that they pulled certainly didn't endear me to this show anymore. Yes, I felt sorry for House now that he's been sent to the loony bin, but I never thought the point of the show was to make me empathize with him. This is a show that has tried to do too much, when it wasn't necessary. We didn't need a new team for House, we didn't need forced relationships, we didn't need psychoanalysis of House. Just give us strange medical mysteries and witty one-liners and I'm content. Yes, the formula may get tiring for some, but the formula works for a reason. For the most part, this finale did not. Grade: B-

Better Off Ted: Not much of a season finale since the season only consisted of about 6 episodes, but I still wanted to mention it. Currently the show is on the bubble, but I felt this show continued to grow with each episode and deserves a second season. If they keep expanding the cast like they started to in the final episode, it has a chance to be quirky and fun. Grade: B

Fringe: Man, this episode blew me away! If you're not watching this show, you should. They did everything right here. They wrapped up some storylines with the gruesome death of David Jones. And they also opened up a whole new can of worms with this alternate universe storyline. Not only did we find out Peter is really dead, but then we get that awesome shot of Olivia standing inside the World Trade Center building. Very cool stuff! This has been the most satisfying finale thus far. Grade: A

Lost: Last night's finale left me equally enticed and frustrated. You mean to tell me they couldn't give us one small scene to let us know what happened to the castaways once the bomb went off? Come on. The Jacob stuff was really interesting, but it once again opens up a whole new set of questions. I just keep worrying with only one season left of this show how they can possibly answer everything we want to know. There were a lot of cool small moments last night like Rose and Bernard, Ben at his most vulnerable to date, and our first look at the whole statue. Still it's going to be tough to truly evaluate this episode until we see it in the context of next season for now. One way or another I think we've said goodbye to time travel, which I'm happy about. Even I was starting to get nose bleeds from it. Grade: B+

The Amazing Race: In reality, the better episode was the one before the finale where a team's pee break cost them a chance to be in the final three and compete for the million dollars. That was truly stunning. This final episode did have a come from behind finish, which is always impressive; it's just a shame I didn't like the winning team more. Tammy seemed nice enough, but I couldn't stand Victory. He showed no growth whatsoever throughout the race and maintained a superiority complex over his sister. On top of that, both of them are Harvard law grads, so they probably weren't hurting for money. A lackluster finish to what had been one of the better races in recent years. Grade: B-

More to come in part 2 including NBC's Must-See TV comedies, Animation Domination, How I Met Your Mother, 24, CSI, and Survivor.

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