Well, it's that time of the year again and the writers strike has left all of my shows in an odd quandry; faced with less time to resolve this season's plot points, some shows featured thrown-together finales that rushed to pre-determined plot points and left us feeling a little cheated! (Okay, mainly "Gossip Girl." Most of the other shows were about the same quality, strike or no. And I promise, this is likely the last time you'll have to hear about "Gossip Girl" until next fall. Probably...)
THE COMEDIES:
In the positive column, the comedies didn't seem to suffer as bad. "How I Met Your Mother" resolved the Ted/Barney standoff with relatively little contrivance (if you don't include TWO car wrecks involving major characters in one episode, which I don't) and they also managed to sneak in the adoring BARNEY LOVES ROBIN shot! I am such a sucker for the bad boys who turn out to have super-soft, gooey cores (Logan Echolls, Spike, Chuck Bass, etc.) because there's nothing better than watching a jackass twist because he can't admit he's in love! At least for me.
"The Office" also suffered few setbacks. The Toby departure and Pam/Jim impending engagement both seemed a little quick, but also in character, so their being foisted upon us didn't really bother me. Because it bears repeating, the "mentally challenged" Kevin and new HR rep Holly storyline was so wonderful, well-written and took advantage of Kevin's particular character history. Excellent! And, as I think we covered on Heather's blog, the finale actually felt like good ol' vintage season 2 and 3 "The Office." That's quite an accomplishment! Finally, the secret's out on Dwight and Angela! Can't wait to see the fallout!
GOSSIP GIRL:
Of all the shows I love, the chief casualty of the strike seems to be "Gossip Girl." After a truly excellent freshman season (including 16 well-executed, character building, organically developing episodes) the last two episodes were in a bit of a tailspin. But it was all the strike, I think. Rather than have 9 episodes to close out the big, bad Georgina/Serena killed someone! arc, the show had to make do with only 5. Four episodes is a lot to lose when you're still planning on ending the season at the originally determined plot points.
Good about the finale?: First up - the title was "Much 'I Do' About Nothing" which rocks on so many levels! Also, Serena and Dan needed to break up. I was glad the Lily/Bart union actually happened so Chuck and Eric still get to be step-brothers! Yay! Nate and Chuck made up and are finally best gay friends again! As it should be! And the bestest? Although too rushed, Chuck was all kinds of awesome, helping out Nate, admitting he loved Blair, using his best man toast to win her back and kissing her on the dance floor. Even his reversion back to sleaze in the final minutes was tinged with tragic sadness and acted to perfection by Ed Westwick! Love him! And check out his and Leighton Meester's (Blair) amazing chemistry in the photos below. So hot! (Sorry, will stop indulging my inner fangirl now....)
Bad about the finale?: The scene of Blair finally taking down the much-despised Georgina Sparks was shockingly short, easy and lacked a real confrontation with Serena, the girl she's been stalking, blackmailing and torturing. That's wrong. Even though he was kinda in the right, Dan came off as even more a sanctimonious ass than usual. Chuck's relationship stalemates with both Nate and Blair were solved with only a few lines of dialogue. Rufus and Lily finally had the sex, but seemed to decide not to be together in a scene we didn't get to see!!! Also, while I like where the one week flash-forward has left all the characters (everyone's poised for new relationship drama next season) we didn't get to see Nate/Vanessa break-up (or find out why), we missed all of Chuck's romantic overtures, and the realistic behavior of Chuck in the last 5 minutes seemed wrong because of how it was written. However, I attribute almost all the flaws to the shortened and tampered time frame, because I like all these developments, just wish they were dealt with more gradually. Damn writer's strike!
GREY'S ANATOMY:
That was a lovely season finale! After some other storyline atrocities committed in Season 3 and the first part of this season, if was refreshing to see some actual character development, some happiness, and lot of smooching. Keeping up an impressive streak of good acting from it's guest stars, this week's patients included a boy who had encased himself in cement, and two young kids in love, both addled with the same brain tumor. Really good acting from all of them - got me crying.
Amongst the main characters, Callie finally recognized her feelings for Hahn, and at Mark's prodding, laid a big ol' lesbian kiss on her that was actually kind of sweet and hot. Oh, Mark. I hope next season the writers give you your own love story because Eric Danes is quickly becoming one of the best reasons to watch this show. Justin Chambers rocked as Alex had to deal with hell from Rebecca, but Izzie was there to hold him as he cried. So great to learn some of his shitty childhood backstory, finally! George talked the Chief into letting him retake his intern exam, yay, and had Lexi to thank for helping him rejuvenate his moxie. Lexi was a little annoying, but mostly cute, and George kept up his recent streak of cuddly, snuggly adorableness. And last but not least, Meredith made great strides in therapy, realized she didn't want to let Derek get away, and made a big romantic gesture. Derek did a little growing of his own (baby steps, people) and was on board with the Mer/Der reunion. Now writers, just keep them together from now on, please.
I lied. The most awesome was, of course Bailey. Chandra Wilson continues to own both this character and this show. In the finale she got to give great speeches to both cement boy and Izzie, decided to put her family ahead of her career, and impressed everyone with her knowledge of Star Wars factoids. She is a wonder.
I don't know if I'll be back to talk about the most likely amazing two-hour finale of "Lost" next week, but there may be a second edition of Season Finales. Be prepared.
So I don't usually write daily recaps of my favorite shows, but this week was freaking awesome for me! Not only were there amazing episodes of Battlestar Galactica and The Office, but I got Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost back as well!!! I felt the need to gush a bit, so here are this week's highlights!
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: I just discovered this show this season (at the excited insistence of Heather) and it is really great. This week featured another flashback into Robin's past as pop singer "Robin Sparkles." In addition to another painfully bad music video, we were treated to THE BEEK (that's James Van Der Beek aka Dawson Leery, for those of you not in the know) as her former Canadian paramour! Bad accent, beer gut, hair loss....so awesome! These are the kind of roles he should be playing - much more fun than that sanctimonious ass, Dawson! Also, BARNEY AND ROBIN!!!!! OMG! They have some good chemistry! Here's hoping they don't ruin it! Also, loved Marshall's concept of "revertigo," and Lily, unaware, reverting to her pathetic gangster self.
GOSSIP GIRL: How I have missed this show! When we last saw these deliciously devious kids, Blair was overthrown as Queen B by frenemie Little Jenny Humphrey after her sorted sexual past with boyfriend Nate and his best friend Chuck was revealed to the entire student population. This week's match-up had Blair conniving to expose Jenny's poverty to her rich friends. Little J came out on top, but only after stealing a designer gown (twice), and pimping Nate out to win back her place. I'd watch out for Blair - this is gonna be a nasty, drawn-out cat fight and I can't wait for the day Blair crushes Little J into dust!
In other stories, Chuck was creepy and slimy to the extreme (and dressed in one of his most ridiculous ensembles yet, see left (the character's not even gay, which makes his wardrobe even more hilarious)), but quite cutely giddy to have a new family. Too bad that was ruined when Serena accused him of sending her lewd presents designed to get her in trouble. However, the final trump was on Serena when she learned the gifts were from the ominous "G" - even Chuck looked nervous at this revelation, although it served to form a tentative truce between the soon-to-be-step-siblings. Can't wait for next week when more hellfire is gonna rain from the sky with the arrival of the much dreaded Georgina!
THE OFFICE: There were a lot of things I loved about this episode. First, it was good to see all of the Officemates, with special screen time given to Stanley and Toby. In what may be a first, Toby got a genuinely great awkward and laugh-out-loud moment from me with his lingering hand on Pam's leg, followed by his mortification, decision to move to Costa Rica, and spry escape over the fence. That alone was worth the price of
admission! But there was also crazy, coke-head Ryan, happy to hang out with Michael and Dwight, dancing like a spaz, making frequent trips to the bathroom, rubbing his nose, looking like shit....it was awesome, and about time, drug-addled or not, that we finally saw that prick loosen up. (On a negative note, why do the writers insist on drawing parallels between Michael and Jim? I'm cool with all the other mistakes Jim made this episode, he does not need to be perfect, but why must he make the incredibly Michael-like guffaw of assuming the cleaning staff only spoke Spanish? That felt all kinds of wrong. I'm sure it can't be readily assumed that all janitors in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area are Mexican. It would be fitting for Michael to think so, but not Jim.)
GREY'S ANATOMY: My love for this show was seriously waning this season, but they finally churned out a pretty great episode. It was nice to see Izzie back on point after the tragic miscalculation of Gizzie - I was worried the writers weren't gonna be able to rehabilitate her, but she was amusingly crazy this episode and she and George regained some of their great friendship snark! George wasn't as whiny and pathetic either! The Mer/Der drama was minimal, and for once she didn't make the case ALL about her love life, and didn't seem to be pathetically waffling throughout the episode. There was a nice moment between the Chief and Alex, and boy does Mark look delicious with a little trim on that goatee! Also, as if it needed to be mentioned, Bailey kicked all kinds of ass, and the competition between the residents for the sparkly pager was a great idea - theses characters are most amusing when they are competitive!
LOST: Yes! I love that this show is giving us some answers! At least we understand why Sayid is working for Ben in the future (although the validity of the enterprise is of course questionable - aren't all things Ben?), but would he really go as far as to help take out Penny??? I don't think so, at least not based on the Sayid I see now, especially given his current closeness with Desmond, so maybe that will cause some shakeups in the Ben/Sayid dynamic. Here's hoping, because would I hate for one of favorite characters to be chained irrevocably to the most repulsive. Great action sequences this week, and glad Jack finally knows the truth (I think?) about the Boaties and their motives. And Hurley with the baby = adorable! I admit to letting out a little SQUEE!!! (By the way, I totally geeked out over the title of this episode - "The Shape of Things to Come" - because isn't that what Hera represents on Galactica? I just thought it was an awesomely strange coincidence, or maybe my mind is just a little too Galactica obsessed right now!)
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!: This show is really bringing the goods this season. First up, last week's episode featured the emergence of Cylon Tory the badass, and boy is it creepily scary to watch her turn off her humanity like that. SHE AIRLOCKED CALLY!!! I've always hated Cally (perhaps the only series regular I have never warmed to, and have never had sympathy for - what a whiny brat!), but that was a seriously fucked up way to die! Although I'm glad to see her gone, she was so alone and destroyed and unwanted throughout this episode, that when she was killed so mercilessly, it elicited a loud gasp from me!
Roslin, the dying leader, is also going all kinds of hardass lately, and while I still feel sympathy for her, it's weird to watch a character you've always trusted become unrelatable, and terrifying in her logic. (A wonderful TWoP poster noted that her new chemo-inspired wig is very Admiral Cain - does that draw some scary parallels or what!?!) This week's episode had Chief and Tigh going through some very weird and destructive Cylon-related meltdowns (and Tigh's involves bedding a Six! Ahhh! Crazy!), Adama being sweetly forced to confront the reality of Roslin's mortality, and Baltar becoming a Christ-like religious figure. Really raises some interesting and uncomfortable questions about religious fanaticism and what the Cylon religion 
may allow it's followers to excuse themselves for (i.e. destroying humanity, Tory putting Cally out the airlock, etc.) There are also some interesting arguments to be made (not by me, but I'm sure Jacob, the AMAZING TWoP recapper, will explain in his recap of this episode) between Roslin's religious faith and the "cult" of Baltar's! Also, in the most awesome moment of the episode, ChipSix actually physically lifted Baltar off his feet and served him up to the guard punching his lights out! How did she do that? Is she actually an angel or a physical entity!?!?!?! Whatever the reason, it was amazing, and eerily reminiscent of the Fight Club scene where Edward Norton fights himself! Wowza!
Coming up, mutiny on The Demetrius!!! I wanna see how Starbuck handles that, especially if it means a decent storyline for Helo and Athena, who haven't yet had a moment to shine, and who apparently left their hard-won daughter, Hera, alone on Galactica. WTF!
Wow! That was some good TV! And I didn't even mention my guilty pleasures including a cat fight on the Rock of Love II: Reunion, the return of bisexual Tila Tequila in A Shot at Love, a trip to Rome on Top Model, Andrew Lloyd Webber week on American Idol, and, I'm ashamed to admit, the tragically awful Real World: Hollywood, in it's 20th season! I know, these shows are all crap (oh, the shame!), but I have to admit, they have their bizarre attractions. Maybe I'll just blame my addiction on the strike: if they hadn't taken away all my good shows, I never would have been sucked in! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
