Finales

I was going to write tonight about an excursion I made to a Lost-themed Happy Hour, but I'm going to save that for this weekend because... Holy f***ing s***, did you see the Grey's Anatomy finale?!?

I wrote earlier this week about how good the House season finale was. I watched the 90210 season finale last night and it was good, ending not a little undisturbingly on a student being raped by a teacher while another teacher drives drunk outside (who the hell do they hire at West Bev?). Tonight's Community finale was pretty good until the last five minutes, when it was great. I'd also like to note that the final gag made fun of a TV show that follows only a certain number of students, much like I did two years ago in one of my favorite blog posts.

The C.S.I.: finale tonight was a nother story, totally underwhelming. You build up this big serial killer all season long and then reveal in the last twenty minutes (SPOILER) that he was just a whiny kid who wanted to get back at his daddy for making him be a chef? And you use a great actor, the guy who played Albie on Big Love, and only let him be in the show for maybe ten total minutes? Argh.

And that brings us back to Grey's. I make fun of ER because their stupid emergency room got held hostage like fifteen times. So you'd think that I wouldn't stand for it in Grey's, but a) they built to this gunman story the last few weeks so it made sense and b) the dude didn't just hold the hospital hostage, they killed a somewhat major character in the first ten minutes. Granted, the second hour wasn't as good as the first and there were some questions about how the story progressed and how they didn't really off anyone that important, but that was some excellent TV. Excellent. The first hour had my leg bouncing and me feeling like I was about to throw up. So tense.

I've thought for the last few years that the best network TV episode I've seen was the C.S.I.: finale made by Tarantino where Nick was buried alive. Tonight's Grey's wasn't as well-made, but it was at least as intense. I can't remember being that on edge during a network show. Please note that The Wire, The Sopranos, and Mad Men are not anywhere close to this discussion.

I continue to think we're in a Golden Age of television and it just keeps ticking away. So Sunday is some show or other's finale. Monday is 24, which will be great because it will be the last episode, finally (please kill off Jack). Wednesday is when Lee DeWyze will finally win Idol and put us out of our misery. And then? I have so much Yo Gabba Gabba to catch up on...