TV Finale Ranking
Now that I've seen the finales for all the shows I care about, I thought I'd rank them. As finales, my ranking is naturally influenced by how I feel about the season and show as a whole, but mostly this is an episode evaluation thing.
7. Gilmore Girls - 7.22 Bon Voyage
As a farewell to a show, this episode worked well enough. It was sentimental and kind of sappy, but that's appropriate for a show that's run 7 years. Still, as an episode, it was a bit frustrating. For one thing, the writers had precisely one episode to take Luke and Lorelai from tentatively friends to back together. In of itself that's not a problem, but it highlighted the stupidity of the extended Chris/Lore saga that gobbled up so much time this season. And then there were things that just annoyed me, such as Luke hand-sewing a large tent by stitching together ponchos and anoraks. I loved the scene with Lorelai and her parents though. And the final image of Lorelai and Rory in the diner was highly appropriate and of course called back to the Pilot nicely.
6. Supernatural - 2.21, 2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose
I found the revelation of the YED demon's grand plan to turn his chosen ones evil rather stupid. Sticking them in a town and forcing them to kill each other off just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I also didn't like the use of Jake as the Big Bad. And it drove me crazy that Dean and co. did not just shoot him in the cemetery before he opened the portal. The delay was quite inconceivable to me. While the angst over Sam's death was a bit much, I did like how the next season has been set up as a quest to save Dean from the demon he unwisely made a bargain with. I always end up being harsher on this show than I mean to be, so I'll just stop there.
5. Heroes - 1.23 How to Stop an Exploding Man
Considering how much I loved this season, it really surprised me how much I didn't love the finale. Maybe this was a case of setting my expectations too high, but mostly I think it was the writers not playing to their strengths. In the end, I wanted something a little more action-packed, more urgency for the characters. Instead, they went for an emotional climatic moment which fell kind of flat for me, particularly considering how much fanwanking I had to do afterwards. There was plenty of stuff to enjoy in this episode, like Claire jumping out a window and Sylar, but overall, I wanted more.
4. Ugly Betty - 1.23 East Side Story
Now this had everything in it that I love about this show. Every character had a massive world-changing moment and yet none of them felt implausible. Well, implausible for a show that fundamentally is a mock soap opera. Some of the storylines were less compelling than others (does anyone really care about Claire escaping prison?), but others were unexpectedly heart-rending. The final scene which interlaced Justin's performance in West Side Story with his father getting shot and Hilda being told by Betty was brilliant. This was an "everything and the kitchen sink" finale and I loved it.
3. How I Met Your Mother - 2.22 Something Blue
This show has really been a surprise find for me. You say "sitcom about friends living in NYC" and I think "crappy Friends remake." But this show has really broken through standard sitcom stereotypes to become much, much more entertaining and this episode is no exception. Finally, finally! two characters break up on a show for real-life reasons. No one cheated or got mad and this does not feel like the first of many break-ups as on so many other shows. No, Robin and Ted simply realized that they wanted different things out of life and so parted amicably. Even more amazingly, they decided to keep this information from their friends for a couple of weeks so as not to put a damper on Lily and Marshall's wedding. Even the framing of this situation was unique as we found out about the break-up through Barney begging Robin and Ted to tell him their secret. We were then treated to a series of flashbacks after which Barney (and the audience) in sequence fears that Robin and Ted got engaged (no no, no no no, you can't do this to me, no), that they were moving to Argentina, and that they were pregnant. Throughout all of this Lily and Marshall were kept hilariously distracted by attempting to find food while everyone tried to talk with them. It's true, you don't actually get to eat at your own wedding. But you will be handed lots and lots of champagne. As Barney would say, "This will be legen-wait for it ..."
2. The Office - 3.22 The Job
My 'shipper's heart was made very happy by Jim finally! asking Pam out and her accepting. Her smile was breathtaking. Also awesome was Ryan getting the corporate job. From temp to the boss in three years ... this promises to be fun. But really it was all about Jim and Pam for me. I just hope he told Karen.
1. Veronica Mars - 3.20 The Bitch is Back
This may surprise some of you. It certainly surprised me. While I've always loved VM, the third season has been admittedly rather shaky. The lack of season-long mysteries hurt, as did the loss of two episodes and the cutting of the final mini-mystery arc. Not to mention the excessive focus on romance and general fluffiness all year. But really, this last episode made up for it. The bitch was back and with a vengeance. Nothing is more satisfying than Veronica getting her well-deserved revenge on. And most importantly, we got a fantastically noir ending. It wasn't happy, but then I never thought it should be. Veronica walking away in the rain really is the perfect final shot for this show.
I have ditched some shows since my mid-season review. I don't watch Grey's Anatomy or Smallville anymore (okay, for now), Studio 60 was canceled, and I'm behind on Scrubs. I'll probably catch up on the latter eventually, but I don't care that much anymore. Sadly, out of these seven shows, only five are coming back. Maybe this means I'll get more work done. Nah.
7. Gilmore Girls - 7.22 Bon Voyage
As a farewell to a show, this episode worked well enough. It was sentimental and kind of sappy, but that's appropriate for a show that's run 7 years. Still, as an episode, it was a bit frustrating. For one thing, the writers had precisely one episode to take Luke and Lorelai from tentatively friends to back together. In of itself that's not a problem, but it highlighted the stupidity of the extended Chris/Lore saga that gobbled up so much time this season. And then there were things that just annoyed me, such as Luke hand-sewing a large tent by stitching together ponchos and anoraks. I loved the scene with Lorelai and her parents though. And the final image of Lorelai and Rory in the diner was highly appropriate and of course called back to the Pilot nicely.
6. Supernatural - 2.21, 2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose
I found the revelation of the YED demon's grand plan to turn his chosen ones evil rather stupid. Sticking them in a town and forcing them to kill each other off just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I also didn't like the use of Jake as the Big Bad. And it drove me crazy that Dean and co. did not just shoot him in the cemetery before he opened the portal. The delay was quite inconceivable to me. While the angst over Sam's death was a bit much, I did like how the next season has been set up as a quest to save Dean from the demon he unwisely made a bargain with. I always end up being harsher on this show than I mean to be, so I'll just stop there.
5. Heroes - 1.23 How to Stop an Exploding Man
Considering how much I loved this season, it really surprised me how much I didn't love the finale. Maybe this was a case of setting my expectations too high, but mostly I think it was the writers not playing to their strengths. In the end, I wanted something a little more action-packed, more urgency for the characters. Instead, they went for an emotional climatic moment which fell kind of flat for me, particularly considering how much fanwanking I had to do afterwards. There was plenty of stuff to enjoy in this episode, like Claire jumping out a window and Sylar, but overall, I wanted more.
4. Ugly Betty - 1.23 East Side Story
Now this had everything in it that I love about this show. Every character had a massive world-changing moment and yet none of them felt implausible. Well, implausible for a show that fundamentally is a mock soap opera. Some of the storylines were less compelling than others (does anyone really care about Claire escaping prison?), but others were unexpectedly heart-rending. The final scene which interlaced Justin's performance in West Side Story with his father getting shot and Hilda being told by Betty was brilliant. This was an "everything and the kitchen sink" finale and I loved it.
3. How I Met Your Mother - 2.22 Something Blue
This show has really been a surprise find for me. You say "sitcom about friends living in NYC" and I think "crappy Friends remake." But this show has really broken through standard sitcom stereotypes to become much, much more entertaining and this episode is no exception. Finally, finally! two characters break up on a show for real-life reasons. No one cheated or got mad and this does not feel like the first of many break-ups as on so many other shows. No, Robin and Ted simply realized that they wanted different things out of life and so parted amicably. Even more amazingly, they decided to keep this information from their friends for a couple of weeks so as not to put a damper on Lily and Marshall's wedding. Even the framing of this situation was unique as we found out about the break-up through Barney begging Robin and Ted to tell him their secret. We were then treated to a series of flashbacks after which Barney (and the audience) in sequence fears that Robin and Ted got engaged (no no, no no no, you can't do this to me, no), that they were moving to Argentina, and that they were pregnant. Throughout all of this Lily and Marshall were kept hilariously distracted by attempting to find food while everyone tried to talk with them. It's true, you don't actually get to eat at your own wedding. But you will be handed lots and lots of champagne. As Barney would say, "This will be legen-wait for it ..."
2. The Office - 3.22 The Job
My 'shipper's heart was made very happy by Jim finally! asking Pam out and her accepting. Her smile was breathtaking. Also awesome was Ryan getting the corporate job. From temp to the boss in three years ... this promises to be fun. But really it was all about Jim and Pam for me. I just hope he told Karen.
1. Veronica Mars - 3.20 The Bitch is Back
This may surprise some of you. It certainly surprised me. While I've always loved VM, the third season has been admittedly rather shaky. The lack of season-long mysteries hurt, as did the loss of two episodes and the cutting of the final mini-mystery arc. Not to mention the excessive focus on romance and general fluffiness all year. But really, this last episode made up for it. The bitch was back and with a vengeance. Nothing is more satisfying than Veronica getting her well-deserved revenge on. And most importantly, we got a fantastically noir ending. It wasn't happy, but then I never thought it should be. Veronica walking away in the rain really is the perfect final shot for this show.
I have ditched some shows since my mid-season review. I don't watch Grey's Anatomy or Smallville anymore (okay, for now), Studio 60 was canceled, and I'm behind on Scrubs. I'll probably catch up on the latter eventually, but I don't care that much anymore. Sadly, out of these seven shows, only five are coming back. Maybe this means I'll get more work done. Nah.