Season Finale Round-up

Last night was the was the last of my season finales for this television year. :) None of my shows had major, end of the world, who-will-live-or-die types of moments this year, but all of them finished off the season in style, bringing up enough questions to make me want to see where things will go next year.

These are my non-spoilery, you-can-understand-even-if-you-do-not-watch-this-show thoughts/ rants about a couple of the finales I watched this week.

This was an interesting year in terms of Lost for me. Last summer it was the fandom with which I was totally obsessed. I played their game all summer and eagerly awaited its return because I was enthralled with the mysteries of the island. That enthusiasm waned as the season progressed as some of the storylines faltered, in my view, and seemed to invalidate some of the "rules" I thought the show was playing by. That also brought to the forefront how little I have invested in the characters- the mystery is all I really care about. (This is a stark contrast to SN, where even if the storyline falters for a few episodes, I still have a deep connection with the characters to keep me interested.) The last part of the season regained its momentum and pulled me back into the mysteries of what is going on on the island as well as off of it. The finale last night did a good job of pulling in all of the characters, tying up some loose ends, and unraveling the fabric of the show- something every Lost finale has done so far. I enjoyed it a lot. Too bad it's probably going to be 9 months before the show returns. :(


The Veronica Mars Finale (or why I *heart* Kripke)
The VM finale the other night really makes me appreciate Kripke, et al. I really can't stand when show runners/ creators/ writers end up sticking it to thier fans while trying to stick it to the network (read: AS Palladino with last season's Gilmore Girls finale and Rob Thomas with this year's VM). It doesn't make me interested in watching future projects they are involved in. Kripke and co. gave us resolution and a direction for the future- great stuff, whether a season or a series finale. The finale of VM was probably the best episode all season and probably its most expensive (judging from the # of guest stars). All of the characters had interesting storylines, and other important characters from the first two seasons were brought back (though too bad if you hadn't seen those seasons, because you wouldn't have any idea in hell who they were or why it would be shocking to see them based on this episode alone). I started watching VM this fall after it's move to the CW with a vague understanding of what it was about and found it enjoyable. The resolution of the first mystery was very good and kept me watching. Then I had a chance to watch the first two seasons on DVD. They were excellent, with mysteries that kept me guessing until the very end. It made me feel like the show I was watching in the third season was a completely different show. Almost nothing of consequence about the characters from the first two seasons was carried into the third. That is, until these last few episodes of the season, at which point it was too little too late to try to bring in continuity for the characters. (It would be as if Sam and Dean didn't bat an eye over the fact that their father died last year until the last couple of episodes of the season and then went bonkers over it.) They should have kicked the year off with an episode like this instead of leaving it to the end as sort of an after thought once it was clear to the writers that the show's ratings probably wouldn't allow them another season unless they did something big. Would VM's ratings have been higher if they had started off the season with a bang instead of a whimper? Probably not, but it would have made for a lot more interesting season. Too bad they only figured it out when Rob Thomas wanted to make it hard for the network to cancel the show by not wrapping anything up. /End rant.