Sunday, May 29, 2011

Finale Season, Part II

The main TV season is officially over, and here are my final thoughts. Brace yourselves...



Glee
I really liked the finale. My kids LOVED it. There was a little bit of everyone, and it was mostly positive and funny with good songs. I loved the kiss and the main production numbers during Nationals, and when Blaine told Kurt he loved him. I know they've exchanged those words before, but it was in response to something that was all Kurt, and it made my heart happy. I thought they were too good to have missed the top 10 in the competition, but of course they couldn't win it. They need to work up to that next year.

Modern Family
Such a perfect finale. Sweet and funny, recalling the most hilarious bits from the season ("baby cheesus!") without sledgehammering us with them. Setting up future storylines (Lily needs a brother!) and adding depth to characters who could easily be caricatures. Loved it!

Bones
Okay, here's the brace yourself part.

I've never been the die-hard Bones fan. I started late, watching the first several seasons on DVD, and was very disappointed with the last couple of seasons compared to the first four or so. Still, it's one of those "better when it's weak than half the other stuff out there" shows, and I'm invested in the Booth/Brennan outcome, of course.

So I can only imagine (because I didn't go looking LOL) the outrage of those die-hard fans at how they handled Seely and Temperance finally getting together. I don't think it could have been handled any worse.

First, no romantic tension. When Brennan first went to Booth's room crying over Vincent, there was a little breath bating. Would it lead to...? Never mind how cliché that would be, it would still be something. But no, they just lie down so he can comfort her.

And then Brennan tells Angela that she climbed into bed with Booth. Not completely accurate, but I'm pretty pedantic about word choice, so we'll let that go. When Angela assumes that means they had sex, Brennan doesn't contradict her. So we're going "so did they or didn't they?!" And feeling cheated because if they did, we didn't get to see any part of it.

The finale was supposed to address it, but 99% of the episode was a weak, basic case. B/B go undercover with bad wigs. Despite Brennan saying repeatedly that she wants to be there when Angela has her baby, she doesn't bother. The baby's birth at least takes all episode/many hours, something uncommon on network television, but I kind of wanted the baby to be blind, because that would be some interesting conflict. Angela and Hodgins are the most awesome couple, I love how they deal with things. But no, they went the easy route.

And THEN. Brennan tells Booth she's pregnant and it's his. I guess Hanson (the showrunner who's always blabbing on about why all the other shows aren't as good as his, and how they're going to keep B and B apart forever) thinks this moves their relationship ahead somehow without eliminating the tension of will-they-or-won't-they. It just made me mad.

There are two possible paths next season can take, and I'm an optimist. Maybe we'll get some slow development and lots of rich, meaty conflict, but frankly, I'm not expecting it. It will be really hard to convince me there's any reason those two shouldn't get together.

What do you think?

2 comments:

MJFredrick said...

My husband and I have been saying, "Baby Cheesus, Baby Cheesus, Baby Cheesus" all week. Love that show. LOVE Gloria.

And when Blaine told Kurt--sigh!

I stopped watching Bones after the coma-drama cheat. I would be PISSED if I didn't get to see them play out the tension!

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Gloria is fantastic! :)

Yeah, this is like the coma-drama cheat redux, only this time it's real.