TV Season Wrap-up

Well, since my DVR is alarmingly empty and the regular TV season has wrapped up, it seems like a good juncture to do a postmortem analysis on my cadre of preferred shows.  Generally speaking, it seemed that the trend this year was less focused on sensationalistic cliffhangers and more toward complicated, nuanced storylines with a smidge of ‘feel-good flavor’ thrown in for good measure.

1. NCIS: I have to admit, I figured that some day, Gibbs’ past actions would pop up in a storyline somewhere but I was left feeling a little…underwhelmed…at the execution.  I found the Col. Bell / skanky-lawyer-chick angle difficult to follow this season.  I liked the way they twisted Franks in at the end of the season closer, but have to say that I found it fairly predictable overall.  Leon continues to carry a bit of mystery in his aura, but overall they seem to be working hard to nudge him further and further into the “good guys” club.  I miss the long-past sophisticated and subtle character spectrum showcased by undercover Tony-in-forbidden-love.  How much longer can they ride the sexual tension factor between him and Ziva? yawn. 
2. Bones: True confession: this season closer made me cry.  They have great character chemistry here but I’m getting pissed off at the inevitability of them stringing along the non-relationship thing for another upcoming season.  FF contends that I should get over it and accept that if Bones and Booth got together, the show would end.  I still think it is pretty lame to indefinitely ride the whole show on the tension of unconsummated love.  For gods’ sake, couldn’t they still effectively tackle interesting cases in between rounds in the sack and long moony love-stares?  Side note: I am kinda happy that Angela and Hodgins reunited but I wish she had had a few more interesting girl-girl flings first!
3. Medium: This season closer really disturbed me, so I guess in that sense, it worked as an objective story line, but HOLY CRAP, really?!  Not the part about her dying by any means, but the horrifying substory with Ariel.  It just made me cringe inside on a parental level.  I know, I know, it was necessary in order to pull the whole storyline through, but I still feel slightly….disgusted…as if the story was asking us to bear silent witness and passively enable insidious emotional child abuse / manipulation.  Double-cringe.
4. Law and Order SVU:  Another what I’d call “generic” and “typical” season-closer story, but on a personal level, I was really disturbed watching the guest actress in all her Euro-glory because she reminded me of our last landlady…still a raw and upsetting chapter in my life.  Anyway, I thought the gratuitous shooting of the medical examiner was a little silly and forced, but I could still roll with it.  I still miss the cutey Chester, and I wish they had brought Wong in more episodes this season – he’s my favorite!  Not sure yet about the Sharon Stone thing…I have a really hard time thinking of her as a lawyer OR cop.
5. House: I admit; I’ve become something of a House fan this season.  I never really watched the show regularly before this season but I just kept getting more intrigued with the characters over time.  Regarding the closer: HOLY SHIT!  I was totally rung-out mentally and emotionally by the end of that hour!  They definitely busted out all the dramatic stops, but for the most part, it worked. I was genuinely surprised at the ending, and yet pleased too.  It will be really interesting to see where they take it from here.  I still don’t like Wilson getting back together with his ex.  Just for the record.
6. Human Target: This was a filler show for us this season.  For all its improbability and silliness, it still has a bit of boyish charm.  I’m not sure if it is going to be renewed or whatever, but oddly enough, this is the only season closer I saw that actually had what I would call a traditional cliffhanger ending.  Go figure. 
7. Legend of the Seeker:   Meh.  Reportedly, this show has not been renewed for another season, but it was just getting really…out there, so I am not too heartbroken.  I finally got around to reading the book series this spring (more about this in a future post), and even though the show has diverged significantly from the books, I still enjoyed it in a compartmentalized kind of way.  However, towards the end of this season, the storylines kept getting weirder and feeling a lot more…forced.  The closer episode was conventional and pretty much exactly what I expected.  It ended on a positive note, so I can mentally put it to bed with no distress.  Kind of like the feeling of relief one might get when a significant other says they want to break up, after you’d been trying for weeks to figure out a way to end it gently.    So long; no hard feelings; have a nice life!
8. Ghost Whisperer: I could copy almost word for word the last paragraph and apply it to Ghost Whisperer.  Even though I have been inexplicably obsessed with this show and JLH for years, I am really not that sad to see it go.  Over the years, I have found their “continuous” storylines to be highly incomprehensible.  The discrete individual ghost stories were always pretty formulaic, yet satisfyingly interesting.  Like eating a few cookies for a snack; sweet and satisfying, but not in the same ballpark as a hearty steak dinner.  The point is, they should have stuck to their identity as snack cookies, and never tried to be a steak dinner — it was just way too confusing.  So long GW – I loved you, but I won’t really miss you.