Once again, Sky has been keeping up with the US nicely, so everyone with a Sky box should have seen this by now. So we can just babble on spoilerifically after the jump, if you'd so like.

Continue reading "Season finale: Battlestar Galactica"

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Well, you should all have seen this now. It was on US TV last week, Sky One last night, so that's all the bases covered. Nevertheless, follow me over the jump, to preserve the sensibilities of those who Sky+-ed it.

Continue reading "Season finale: Lost (season four)"

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Normally, around this time of year, I'd be putting out copious reviews of all the US season finales. This year, I haven't, although a few escaped earlier in the year and at the end of last year. There's a list of reasons why I haven't done so many this time around:

1. With the writers' strike messing with everything, most of the series haven't been at their best, so it might be wrong to judge them too harshly
2. I didn't realise some series had ended
3. Some series had ended permanently so there was no point
4. There's a great big backlog of episodes that we haven't watched yet
5. I've been busy

So no Scrubs, My Name is Earl, House, Moonlight, Aliens in America, Eli Stone, et al, coverage this year, I'm afraid. Lost is still to come next week, I think. But, after the break, I'll give abbreviated rundowns on 30 Rock, Smallville, CSI, CSI: Miami, Numb3rs, Gossip Girl and Supernatural.

Continue reading "Season finales 2008"

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Some shows know when it's their time to die and head off to the other side gracefully. New Amsterdam, which ironically told the story of an immortal Dutchman who was waiting for the one woman who could kill him, not only knew it was going to die, it knew it was doomed even before it aired, with only eight episodes ever shot.

Again, ironically for a show whose main message was that the candle that burns the dullest lasts the longest and that death has its place, it never really hit levels of greatness. Bar its intriguing central character, played by equally intriguing Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, none of the other characters were that interesting. The plots, while a cut above the standard crime fare, never really inspired and were usually solved by some bizarre skill (grifting, knot-tying) that our hero picked up during his 400 years.

All the same, it had a certain something. It was never quite what you expected – as the season finale showed.

Continue reading "Season finale: New Amsterdam"

So it's all over. It was cancelled; it was renewed after a peanut-based fight back; now Jericho's been cancelled again, after a second season of just seven episodes.

Was all that effort worth it? Has this last mini-season left Jericho a better show than it was at the end of its first season?

On the whole, I'd say yes.

Continue reading "Season finale: Jericho"

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So this is it. The last episode of The Wire ever. What are we going to do with ourselves now?

Possibly the best TV series in the world ever, The Wire has spent five seasons changing the nature of television itself – all with minimal viewing figures. It's examined the nature of institutions and society. It's created characters that will last in the memory for years to come.

It's made us think.

And now it's over.

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The thing about the writers' strike is that shows are ending before their naturally allotted time.

Sometimes, the show runners prepared for it and the series ended on a relative high (for example, Heroes).

Sometimes, the show runners were unprepared for it and the series just stopped (for example, Las Vegas, Bionic Woman), although that usually coincided with the series being cancelled (cf Las Vegas, Bionic Woman).

And sometimes the show runners were prepared for it and the show tried to go out on a high, but failed. I'm thinking of Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles here.

Continue reading "Season finale: Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles"