The Finales

[tari_roo]

My thoughts on the finales of: Hawaii 5-0, Castle, Big Bang, HIMYM, Blue Bloods, Glee, Greys, Justified, The Mentalist and Survivor. *yes, I watch a lot of TV and that means spoilers* - so if you don't want to be spoiled, DON'T click on the video and watch Hawaii 5-0 :)

I haven't watched the SPN finale yet, I'm kinda savouring it, as its always a long summer. And I've had the laziest day in years today - literally I have not gotten out of bed except to get food and go to the bathroom. Its been a sucky year and a sucky month and sucky week, so I've been watching vampires all day. And Hawaii 5-0 fanvids. And thinking thinky thoughts.

Lets start with the good:

The Mentalist and Castle

Both shows have similiar themes around amateurs helping the police, and that amateur being hilarious. But that's where the symmetry ends. I've always like Patrick Jane, thought he was a very interesting character, a con man who hates guns and violence and is hell bent on revenge. All of which makes the finale of season 3 all the more .... wow. The raw emotion, the on the edge of your seat... is he, isn't he? And then... wham. He shoots the guy who is maybe Red John ('cos I suspect he isn't.) I think he's a patsy Red John has blackmailed into confronting Jane. Either way, the aftermath is just ... chilling. Really, really awesome show.

Castle on the other hand had me shaking my head. Near the beginning I suspected the twist, that the Captain had been involved from the beginning, and ... it didn't sit right. BUT it was an awesome finale in that it covered the emotions so well and then the real twist... that damn cliffhanger! I'll be tuning in for show for sure.

and then on a similiar note, but not under the good column: Hawaii 5-0

Another boss betraying their team, another twist. This twist, I didn't like. And Danno suddenly getting back together with Rachel, removing his reason for being on Hawaii, Chin's by the book attitude and Kono's IA investigation. Yes, we all saw it coming, yes, the writers did a good job of being very consistent with dropping hints and clues and this axe has been hanging over the team since the episode with Chin and collar. My but is with the Governor. Maybe its because I liked her, I like Jean Smart and it really doesn't make a lot of sense her setting up the team as a distraction for Steve or keeping him close. Do you really want Steve McGarrett on the island poking around? No, you give him time to find Hess and then you make sure he's deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq so he's not poking around his father's investigation. Yeah... I don't mind the cliffhanger, I don't mind Steve getting arrested (leads to a lot of ideas about prison fic) but... yeah... not a good finale but not a bad one either.

The Mediocre:

Glee and Grey's

I figured the Glee kids wouldn't win in NY. I figured Grey's would have some drama over the Alzeheimers trial. I just didn't figure it be so ... average. Glee shot the lights out with Sectionals and Regionals. Nationals felt a little flat. Grey's shot the lights out with last season's finale so I am ok with a less stressful and non-'whose gonna die' finale, but pretending to break everyone up and leave them on that mediocre cliffhanger. It'd be better not to do the cliffhanger at all in my mind. Just end happy ... for once :)

Glee though had a some good songs and I like that Sam and Diva-girl are an item. And I like that Teddy kissed her Ben. :)

The "I don't Know"

Big Bang and HIMYM and Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods has kept my entertained 95% of the time. One or two iffy episodes. And I liked that Danny had nothing AT ALL to do with his brother's death but... here's the I don't know - it felt rushed at the end with the Blue Templars. Yes, the moment you tell Papa Commissioner that his son was murdered by crooked cops, the hammer is going fall on the Blue Templars... but they could have dragged it out over two or three episodes.

Big Bang... I liked right uptil the end. I didn't mind Leonard breaking up with Pria and I didn't mind Penny flirting with Raj. But the end felt like drama for drama's sake.

and HIMYM. I love this show. Really I do. I love Barney to bits. But please, PLEASE, can we meet their mother already!!!

And last: Justified and Survivor.

Kudos to Rob for finally winning. No really. You have to give that Boston Liar something for persisting. The other people on his tribe should have voted him out first chance they got, because if he made it to the final, he was going to win for sheer ballsiness. I don't like Survivor usually as I don't think lying and cheating should be rewarded but this, I had to see.

Reylan. Reylan, you approached Dean-like angst for me. I wanted you to get hit a few more times with the bat (heaven help me). I wanted Boyd to shoot you. I even was kinda hoping on some sort of cliffhanger 'apple pie' mix up. Because boy ... you sure do hurt pretty. Like my Dean. I'm glad as well that you weren't hit, shot (more than you were) or poisoned. 'Cos you just too darn pretty with the angst too. Sigh. 13 episodes is not enough.

Comments

[auntmo9.livejournal.com]

Okay...so I don't feel so bad, because I watch just about as much television. I don't watch all of the same shows...but about half of those.

I felt the same way as you did about The Mentalist and Hawaii Five-O. Loved the shock of the Mentalist and am looking forward to what they come up with next. And yeah, Five-O wasn't a complete shock, but I didn't like the governor thing either...

Glee is hit or miss for me, and I missed the finale, and I don't think I missed much.

Survivor..yeah, I will give kudos to Rob for hanging in there and finally winning. But I bugs me that people dont see that they are being played, especially by someone like him who has played the game so many times before.

You are also dead on about Big Bang and HIMYM...we just need to meet the mother already! It could still be funny.

Looking forward to hearing what you think of SPN finale, when you get around to seeing it.

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

Oh, there a few series I haven't got around to watching the finales of, like NCIS, NCIS LA, SPN, Private Practice and Fringe. Summer is going to be catch up months. :)

Hawaii 5-0: I love Jean Smart so much, ever since Designing Women and I'm sad that she's not going to be in season 2.

And that image of Patrick justing sitting down and drinking his tea... sigh. I really feel for him and Grace as well. Such a good show.

Boston Rob on survivor continues to fascinate me. People KNOW he lies, they've seen him do it 3 times! And they still believed him. Gah ...

HIMYM could so continue on after we meet Ted's wife. There is infinite amount of funny situations - break ups, Barney's tricks. Altho - I do think Barney and Robin should get married and I hope they do.

I'm kinda nervous about SPN's finale. I always am... *bites nails*

[auntmo9.livejournal.com]

I love Jean Smart, too. She was great in Designing Women..and it will be sad to see her leave

Yes...Barney and Robin make a wonderful couple.

don't bite all of your nails now...your will need some for when you actually watch that SPN finale...

I still need to watch the NCIS finale, too...

[auntmo9.livejournal.com]

One other thing....this is a huge reason why I miss SG-1 and SG-A. I always looked forward to July for new episodes of something decent to watch. There are still plenty of cable series out there now that premier during the summer, but I don't watch a huge number of them. I am mostly a casual viewer of shows like White Collar and Covert Affairs. I still miss Stargate during the summer. Falling Skies seems promising, but then again, we know I am a sucker for a (hopefully) good resistance story about human banding together to work against a common enemy after some type of post-apocalyptic event.

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

*ponders* so true! I had forgotten that (what with downloading episodes as I needed).

Falling Skies sounds very promising indeed, I will have to check it out. I do like White Collar and a few of the summer fillers, but I still have plenty to catch up on too.

and work, strangely enough :)

[auntmo9.livejournal.com]

Yes, work will keep me pretty busy, too. I have a new assist manager to start training tomorrow. But it will be a good 6-12 months before she will really be able to handle things on her own...so very busy for me

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

*climbs in the same boat with you and makes some room* Yeah... I'm still looking for an asssistant (to replace the one who just walked out on me) and that will mean training again, at some point. sigh.

I hate that the week looms ahead like some dreaded monster... but anyway, back to happy things! Do you watch Justified at all?

[auntmo9.livejournal.com]

I have watched it some...inconsistently at best...it has been at war with my love for Top Chef. I watched it more once the regular Top Chef was over (I really don't care for Top Chef Masters)...I do like Timothy Olyphant, though

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

Oooo... scheduling conflict. Ouch. I know your pain. I'm busy enjoying Masterchef Australia and have three episodes to catch up on our version of TiVo because they screen the show at the oddest times.

Timothy is good :) If you get a chance, and it shows on reruns, I recommend it as a lovely summer filler

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

The H50 finale was so damn angsty. I get what Chin was doing, being the inside man so he can help Steve, so that didn't bother me. The Danny Rachel thing really bothered me. Not the getting back together plot, but the stupid pregnancy plot. Did she stop taking the pill while fooling around? And why this sudden must leave the island tonight rush? Ack. I hope the baby is Stan's or that it was a mistake, because I don't want Danny's whole arc revolving around having another kid next season.

The Governor thing was unexpected and a great twist. After watching it a few times I don't think we have her full story. I think she did try to protect 5-0 and wanted the island cleaned up on the one hand and keeping tabs on Steve at the same time. Wo-Fat loves to play games, so I think it was just a big cat and mouse thing. I'll be okay if she was kind of wrapped up in corruption, but still trying do the right thing. Maybe? I really liked her...sigh

Steve getting arrested is pretty powerful and the betrayal has to be the worse, I mean bad. He looked so broken. I loved watching him slowly go unhinged and it really showed how tunneled visioned he could get without someone like Danny to anchor him a bit. That I liked a lot.

Clearing him shouldn't be hard with the crumbs left, but it's getting the team back together that I'll be interested in. Maybe with the new governor.

FYI. The fic is hit and miss. Founds some great angsty stuff, but a lot of fic is messy. With authors confusing jail and prison and forgetting that Steve would be solitary because of his position. Those fics, the ones with him coping with the isolation (or not) I've really loved, the others not so much because of the beta in me :-P.

Okay, sorry, for the long reply. I've had time for the finale to sink in.


Hands down was the Justified finale. Raylan is such a pretty, pretty man, but the writing on that show is fantastic is as the whole freaking cast. 13 eppys is not enough but I think it's the limited number that allows them have a higher caliber cast and tight writing.

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

I'm still processing a lot of the aftermath of the finale (mostly by watching fanvids - as you can see).

I agree, I am not so worried about Chin, I figure he's playing a role, doing what's needed and pretty much is going to the 'inside man'. And Kono's IA investigation has been a long time coming and could quite easily taint all of them anyway. For a cliffhanger with a believable - 'this might be the end of the team' I have to give the writers kudos. I so see an AU, where Danny flees Hawaii to escape the investigation and find Rachel, Steve is cleared but looses the taskforce and Kono resigns from the force. Interesting... I just hope 2.1 doesn't start like that and everyone is shoe horned back to hawaii/task force.

I know 1.22 gave us a snapshot into Danny and Rachel getting back together or thinking about it BUT I agree. The new baby thing and leaving Hawaii... eh. I like Rachel, even as much as I loved watching Danny rant about her early on and its difficult to villianise someone when you know them but I wonder about her thinking process and emotional depth. Things get hard... run away (cough, sounds so familiar :))

I don't mind plot lines were it turns out the Champion/Big Boss has some serious skeletons and moral issues. I actually like them when it plays out believably, and I'm holding thumbs that they will do that for the Governor too. Make her decisions as rational and reasonable as possible, no matter how wrong they were in the end. My main concern was that Jean won't be in the next season...

And then there was Steve. Gosh - you hit the nail on the head with the word broken. I'd add shellshocked as well. I think life is very black and white for Steve and usually according to his own rulebook. And people just keep coming along and blurry the edges for him. He really does need Danny to ground him, because that whole situation wasn't a combat sit or op, where getting and demanding answers was going to work but that was his first go to option. Sigh ... that whole chase scene over the roof and going to Kamekono was wonderful. But the best - was at the end. Steve being processed at the station, so utterly 'floored' and then seeing Kono... sigh. So good!

Yeah.. throwing Steve in general pop would be funny, but so unlikely/unrealistic. If you have any recs, I'd appreciate it :)

Thanks for the long reply - it seems I have reciprocated.

The shorter season for Justified also seems to give the writers time to really build depth into the story (somehow). You are right about the tighter writing, and they def don't have any 'dead' or stand alone episodes which works so well for the feel of the show. My personal fav ep. though was the one when Reylan tracked Dickie down and talked about how much he loved Helen. Gah... such powerful writing!

[iyalode.livejournal.com]

It's nice to know there's someone out there who watches as much tv as me:)

Justified and The Mentalist win out in the finale category for mind. I love young Loretta's relationship with Reylan, two peas in a pod they are. Winona loves Reylan, I'm just not sure she gets what drives him to be the man he is and I can't see anything happy in S3 on that front.

Castle...am bitterly disappointed - they can and have done much better.

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

Yep. TV addict that's me :)

Well.. I haven't been that impressed with Castle finales before, actually. So this one, I liked (obviously) but in fact I don't like cliffhangers at all. I prefer happier, more resolved endings. I'll watch the show anyway :)