Finale Countdown

The last shot of Alias last night just about gave me a heart attack. The show has shied away from it's original formula of Sydney being in mortal danger at the end of every episode, and I think the show has suffered for it. It's good to see a return to form, although I am very skeptical of this sudden character turn for the man formerly known as Vaughn.

I was also certain that Irina would be killed in the episode, and her continued survival gives me hope. Her interaction with her husband in particular was a highlight of the finale.

A close second was the general shempery of Weiss and Marshall. I hope that since Greg Grunberg's show wasn't picked up next season, we can look forward to more shenanigans: it's a nice counter-point to the overly-serious tone that is adopted by the rest of the cast.

Lost was OK. I sort of hope that the flashbacks diminish in year 2, because occasionally they seem to bog the story down, and undermine the dramatic impact. It also occurred to me that the reason why Hurley has lost no weight, and the reason all the men never seem to shave, but never actually grow beards, is because they need to look the same for the flashback sequences. Julie said she assumed that they had shot the flashbacks first, but I pointed out that, in that case, they would have needed all the scripts written before the season even started, which just wasn't possible.

Overall, Gilmore Girls had the most pleasing season finale: it managed to effectively set up next season, while at the same time resolving a couple of items satisfactorily. But then again, it had a very strong year, and has actually supplanted all other shows as my very favorite. Here's hoping that I move somewhere that has The WB available. The last two episodes of the season will be re-broadcast next Tuesday, because so many people had the last (crucial) moment cut off when they relied upon their DVRs to record it.

On a related note, Clint (of the blog Blue Fairlane) has an interesting criticism of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over on his new blog. I have to say, a lot of what he says, I agree with, and I have other issues with Buffy as well. It'll always be one of my favorites, though.