Critiques by me on the season/ series finales of the shows I watch
7th Heaven
I've hated this show for a while now, but I've watched it for the last ten years and have to watch it through to the very end. I watch for the sake of "I always have". Anyhow, as most everyone knows, 7th Heaven is preachy, uber-right-wing, and ridiculous. The what was to be the series finale but has now been extended for at least thirteen more episodes was no exception and if possible, was even MORE ridiculous than the past ten years have been. I haven't the foggiest idea of why this is the top-rated show for the WB. Anyway. Moving on to actual discussion of the particular episode. Let's see, plotline: Simon and Rose, who should not get married because Rose is just awful and Simon could do much better, were supposed to have gotten married in this episode. They didn't because Rose realized that she loves her ex, Umberto, still. Eric and Annie were their usual, useless, preachy, judgemental selves and I don't think anything at all important or interesting happened with either of those characters. Ruthie finds a nice Scottish boy to date while biding her time before studying abroad in... you guessed it, Scotland. The twins say some stupid things in unison, finish each other's sentences and are as unimportant in the plot as they always have been. Meanwhile, Lucy and Kevin, who are pregnant, find that Lucy is pregnant with twin boys. Matt and Sarah show up to the wedding unexpectedly and are also expecting. Twins. Boys. Oh yeah, and just to add more sickening sweetness to the story, Mary and Carlos (supposed to be that Mary ran off and left Carlos with their first child, Charlie) are back together. She graduated college and is also pregnant. With twins. Girls. Yippee. A trio of twins. How very likely that that should occur. At the very end of the episode, Sandy shows up and tells Simon that they need to talk, thus alluding (and not at all subtlely) that her baby may in fact be Simon's and not actually Martin's. Frankly, this episode took the show so far down the toilet that it really doesn't have much hope of resurfacing. I do not know WHERE the stupid show can go from this point because it really doesn't get much more moronic than that pile of crap finale (unless we're going into Spongebob Squarepants territory and that's a whole 'nother category all it's own).
Everwood
Everwood, WB's ninth best rated show, was given a premature death and did not make the cut for the new CW network. Tough luck for those four million viewers that watch every week, I guess. With Everwood being murdered and 7th Heaven zombified, I just can't come up with any other conclusion than that the head/s of the CW are utter and complete idiots and wouldn't know good tv if it punched them in the face. ANYway. Fortunately for the fans, Everwood producers had the foresight to make a series finale in case this scenario should occur. The series finale for Everwood was wonderful: classy, intelligent, sweet and beautiful, just like the show itself always was. It was also two hours long. In the episode preceding, Irv died due to a heart attack. Edna, who was always portrayed as a practical, unemotional, hard ass of a woman, broke down and admitted that without Irv (he was her husband), she's lost and can't see things ever getting better. She lies to Harold and tells him that she is joining his sister in Africa to work with sick children. He discovers that it is a lie and he and Rose create a room for Edna and ask her to move in with them. Harold and Rose had also been trying to adopt a child, but were denied due to her history with cancer coming to light. A patient of Dr. Abbott's, a schizophrenic woman who has just had a baby and lost her husband because of some rare medical condition, decides that she cannot raise her daughter alone in her condition with her meds not working like they previously had. She leaves her baby on the Abbott's doorstep and through time and legalities, Harold and Rose are able to "adopt" a child as they had so wanted to. Delia has her Bat Mitzvah and "becomes a woman". Hannah is torn in the decision for which college she will attend after receiving full scholarships to Notre Dame (her dream school) and Everwood Community College (where all her friends are). She and Bright discuss it and thought Bright is unselfish and advises her to go with Notre Dame, she turns in an acceptance to ECC in the end. So there is hope that Hannah and Bright could get back together in the future. Jake and Nina were supposed to have moved to LA together; but when Jake realizes that Nina still is and always will be at least partially in love with Andy, he tells her that he can't be with her if he can't have her whole heart and goes to LA without her. Nina and Sam return to Everwood, but because they've already sold their house, stay with the Browns. Andy finally asks Nina to marry him and she accepts. And now, on to the most important relationship in the whole show: Ephram and Amy. Ephram dates this annoying girl who totally isn't right for him, which causes Amy to realize that she still loves Ephram. She has a hard time telling him, but in the end gets a ferris wheel to set up in front of his apartment (reminiscent of an early episode and one of Ephram and Amy's important moments together) and admits that she still loves him. He tells her that he remembers all of their time together and that she's always been the one. It was a fantastic end for the show and will remain in my mind as one of the best series finales that I've ever seen; but I'm really going to miss Everwood.
CSI
You'd think that with this being my favorite favorite show, I'd have a lot to say about it. I doubt it. The season finale was in no way as well-done or riveting as season five's; but then, I really doubt they can ever top that one. Quentin Tarantino IS overrated and not as good as he's hailed as being, but DAMN can he make a great CSI episode! Back to THIS season, though. I thought it was a bit of a cop-out that they didn't kill off Brass, but on the other hand, I'm really glad he's still around. I like him. There are no other really major characters in the show that I'd have rather had killed off. I like them all equally. Though killing off that female detective/ former CSI/ blonde chick who's so unimportant that I don't even know her name or that cocky, arrogant ass that works in the lab or Eckley wouldn't have hurt my feelings any.... :P The crimes solved in the episode were good, not great. I give it an A- because although it wasn't spectacular, it's still CSI. A last note though. I'm bitter about the hooking up of Grissom and Sarah. I always wanted Lady Heather to get Grissom (that is, since I can't have him myself). A mediocre finale, but I still LOVE LOVE LOVE my CSI!
Criminal Minds
Awesome show! Just in it's kindergarten season, but it has been consistently great with super loveable characters. Love Gideon. Love Hodges. Love Reed. I love those three the most, but Penelope Garcia (the self-acclaimed computer genius) is so arrogant and cocky and on her, I like it. The others I can give or take, but eh, they are good characters too. The season one finale was awesome and gripping. I am still wondering and thinking about what's going to happen in the season two premier. In the season finale, a killer who is abducting and murdering young women invites the BAU to join him in a game. The game has rules. Only the original players may participate: Gideon, Hodges, Reed, that guy who's name I can't think of, Garcia, Elle and that media lady who's name I also can't remember. They must capture him at a certain time. He has left clues around. You know, the classic "murderer and good guys" kind of game. Anyhow, he murders a few people, leaves some very specific clues behind and communicates with the BAU. He hacks the FBI database through Garcia's INCREDIBLE STUPIDITY of hooking up her own private laptop to the network and playing an online role-playing game. So he knows all sorts of information about the members of the BAU. He leaves a baseball card that has some connection to something in Gideon's past as evidence. He leaves a framed rare butterfly somewhere else, which matches up to the media lady's past. He also kills someone with a sword with some kind of connection to someone or something, but I can't remember what the connection is. I'll certainly have to watch the episode again before the start of the next season. The murderer also frames Elle while on vacation in Jamaica by killing someone and leaving a trail of blood that leads up to her door. The killer also leaves messages on the walls, but I don't remember what it was (I watched a different episode of the show a few days ago and I think I'm confusing the two and blurring them together a bit. It looks like I need to watch the season finale again this weekend. :P). At the end of the episode, a very sleep-deprived Elle is sent home and the media is alerted to help in the investigation of a man connected to the killer by means of having delivered one of the big clues to someone who then gave it to the BAU. This angers the killer, as it is breaking one of the rules and the show leaves us hanging at the end as it appears that he shoots Elle in the face. This season finale was riveting and I CANNOT WAIT until the next season starts up. I am really curious to see if the show really is going to kill off one of the main characters in it's very first season, plus, it's a great show. I can't wait to see all of what will happen. :) Loved it!
Close to Home
This show, also in it's first season, has been really cool too. I've quite enjoyed every episode. The season finale did not disappoint. A duo of devious teens found a way to make mega money by filming their female friends stripping and doing other sexual types of behaviors and broadcasting it on the internet via webcams. The boy is only in on it because he is madly in love with the girl who is in charge of the whole child porn internet ring. While the case in the story was really great, there's really not a whole lot more that needs to be explained about it. This show IS, after all, a lawyer show; so most of what goes on in the show is legal back and forth and doesn't make for exciting commentary. However, at the end of the episode, Annabeth's husband is killed when hit by a drunk driver while on his way to pick up their baby from the day care. I was absolutely heartbroken by this and cried (even while just remembering it now). I really can't wait to see next season for Close to Home either; but this finale was tragic and great all at the same time. I loved this season finale too.
Edit: I had to go to dinner, but realized that I had forgotten one of my favorite shows' series finale.
Will and Grace
This series finale was flat out pathetic for being Will and Grace. For being such a generally well-written show, they sure did use a lot of really crappy gimmicks. For instance, the flash forward in time gimmick. It's LAME. Simple as that. You do not age your tried and true thirty-somethings characters up to fifties. You just don't do it. I hated that the writers aged any of them. I found the Grace taking Leo plot to be highly unbelievable and unlikely. Grace was far too stuborn and even if she were pregnant with Leo's baby and neurotic as usual still truly, deep down loved Will. And no matter that he was the father of her baby, he still cheated on her. Blech. A cop-out for the storyline, if you ask me. How nice that it freed up Will to get "happily ever after" with Vince. Vince was never Will's One. They weren't perfect for each other and despite Will's sexual orientation, he really was in love with Grace as well. Another cop-out for the "ideal ending". Ick. Add in the time forward travel and the children of them falling in love and you've got a bit of a vomitorium in your own living room. Plus the whole "breaking up" thing. Not believable. Nope. I just don't buy that even THAT disagreement is strong enough to break up the dynamic duo that is Will and Grace. So the whole "break up make up" nonsense is proven false and the whole foundation for the ending of Will and Grace themselves has been crumbled into a pile of dust at the producers' feet. The ending for Jack and Karen, on the other hand, was quite amusing and fitting, despite also employing that ridiculous time warp ploy. I adored that Jack became Karen's Sugar Daddy and annoying Leslie bit the dust and was the one to finance the two. I wish Karen hadn't divorced Stan, because that was a dynamic of the show that I really liked, but I did enjoy the direction the storyline of Jack and Karen went. Overall, I give the Will and Grace finale a grade of C because it just barely passed by the skin of its teeth.