Best Season Finale This Year? Spoliers...

So having watched a whole bunch of season finale's in the last couple of weeks I just wanted to go over which one I enjoyed or hated the most and why...

Warning I'm going to give away major spoilers so don't read on if you haven't seen these finale's yet!!!

Chuck Season 3:

Being probably my favourite programme currently on T.V. it's a given that Chuck featured one of my favourite finale's. The season has been exemplary with Morgan and Ellie discovering that Chuck is a spy, Morgan becoming part of Team Bartowski, Sarah and Chuck becoming a true couple and Shaw turning to the darkside with a whopper of a twist and Chuck literally kicking ass all season. Then by the last episode Chuck was going nutty from the intersect and his flashes were playing up, dad created a device to control it all and then gets killed by a resurrected and Intersected Shaw (gasp!), Chuck and Team Bartowski defeat the ring and Shaw and then we find out that Mrs. Bartwoski (Chuck's Mum) is still alive and something to do with one of the spy organisations and his dad was a spy working for himself all along... Great T.V.! No real quibbles except that I didn't like the way that Captain Awesome seemed to be a bit neutered this season and Ellie was just a little annoying, not sure why.

10/10

Lost Season 6:

My second favourite show is, or should I say "was" LOST. Losing it's way slightly after the first couple of seasons LOST picked up strength and plowed it's way into season 5 and 6 with a vengeance. It certainly lost (no pun intended) a huge amount of fans and followers on the way, literally dumbfounding most with it's labyrinthine plots, sub-plots and confusing supernatural undertones, but by the final season it's loyal followers were ready to take the final journey and have their encyclopedia of questions answered once and for all. Unfortunately they were let down when only a handful of answers were actually handed out and most were washed over completely as if they'd never happened. Showing very strongly that the creators never actually had a full plot arc to begin with and were winging their way through the final few years hoping the confused masses would all think they knew what they were watching and would come to their own conclusions, the show finally gave us a reason all (or most) of the characters came to be there. A sacred light in the centre of the island that needed to be protected by a successor to the current protector Jacob who was in danger of being killed by his evil and supernaturally monstrous brother (Smokey/Locke/Evil dude in black)... The finale was as crazy as ever but was unbelievably emotionally charged and a full circle for Jack and his first moments on the island in episode 1. We found out that the alternate Losties were in fact dead spirits from way after all their own deaths who had unknowingly created a limbo where they would all meet up once again and travel with each other to the other side (Heaven?). They had all indeed been on the island for real for the whole time experiencing all that crazy crap... Cop-out and complete twoddle of course but I enjoyed watching it and was completely red-eyed by the final few seconds. Let it be known that there's more to come with a 12 minute epilogue featuring Hurley and Ben post finale for the season 6 DVD!

9/10


Fringe Season 2:

Fringe is my third favourite series and will probably jump to second now that LOST is gone forever ;(
You can't deny that Fringe started off like a blatant rip-off of the X-Files but as time has gone on the series has evolved substantially, playing out more like Sliders in the final moments of season 2. We finally see a shed load more of the alternate dimension that Peter was stolen from, including a whole other Fringe team and very hot red-headed version of Olivia. We finally confirm that Walter's double from the other side ("Walternate") is in fact the "Secretary" we keep hearing about and the instigator of all the shape-shifters and bad guys coming over from the other side. We find out that Walter's trip to grab Peter created holes on the other side that are far more devastating that anything we've seen in this world on Fringe and that William Bell is actually stuck over there and is a good guy after all, who eventually sacrifices himself to get everyone back to their own dimension. The final twist however (which I personally saw coming a mile off) is that the alternate Olivia is now on our side posing as our Olivia whilst our version is locked up by Walternate... Oh oh.

9/10


Smallville Season 9:

Smallville is a very strange animal... On the one hand it's the story of how a young Clark Kent, living and growing up in Smallville, becomes the man we know and love as Superman, the worlds greatest superhero of all time. On the other hand the creators of Smallville have been force feeding us a giant plate of horse-poop-smelling alternate dimension/timeline stories (a la JJ Abrams Star Trek) which have almost nothing to do with the history we know for the Man of Steel. Season 8 was only just passable with the hugely dissatisfying Doomsday storyline and season 9 came into play with a lot of worries on its shoulders and a lot of grovelling to do to its loyal fans. It failed in most respects but then did a total 180 with the JSA episode featuring Hawkman, Dr. Fate and Stargirl. Fans bowed down to the power of Geoff Johns and forgot about the entirely crappy and sickeningly awful inclusion of Major Zod and the Kandorians. What the hell happened again this season? Did we forget that Smallville is on it's last legs and needs to give us much more? Obviously so as it recently got renewed for it's tenth and final season... The finale certainly had its moments, not least of which were the beginning, five years in the future, where we get the "look up in the sky!" moment and a glint of Clarks Superman outfit in a box from his Mum etc later on. But all in all no matter whether Clark gave Zod an amazingly cool uppercut whilst they battled in the rain with no powers, no matter that Zod was finally defeated and that Mercy was burnt to death by him moments earlier, no matter that Ollie has been attached in the vents by unknown super powered assailants (Omacs? Darkseid's Parademons? P'd off Smallville fans?), no matter that we saw some JSA and JLA members on T.V. screens briefly (COP OUT!!!), no matter that Clark was stabbed by a blue Kryptonite dagger and fell off of a skyscraper roof in the shape of Jesus on the cross... It's not enough. (Let me just point something out here as well. Blue Kryptonite takes Kryptonian's powers away. It does not change DNA. The Book of Rao that transported the Kandorians to another world should have taken Zod and Clark regardless of whether they had no powers due to the Kryptonite or not. It would be based on Kryptonian DNA, not bloody powers... I give up!).
I didn't like the very end really either. There's no cliffhanger in pretending Clark's going to die when he's invulnerable (OK so no powers with the blue Kryptonite but c'mon, it's Clark and this is Smallville), it's not like they'll do a "Jimmy" and kill him off, replacing him with his younger brother also called Jimmy... Also we need to get with the flying already. Tom Welling may well be the one holding this moment back but it's just getting too old now. Every Kryptonian that gains powers can fly within 60 seconds but Clark can't get off the ground after almost two decades? Jesus...
Love Smallville, hate all the niggly things about it!

7/10


Flashforward Season 1:

Flashforward was a bit of a difficult series to enjoy. The missus and I sat and watched this together every week, and every single week we found something to complain about. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it wasn't great T.V. either. And now that it's been cancelled after only one season it seems we weren't the only ones thinking that. It had twists, it had suspense, it had a finale that everyone had been waiting a full 21 episodes to see, but in the end it wasn't enough. Most of the characters turned out to be too whiny and annoying, certain plot points didn't fit and felt so wrong the missus kept doing facepalms all the time. It was just too niggly to make it past season 1 and even with the second Flash Forward hitting in the final seconds giving us a 5 year jump, it all ended up being for nought. Goodbye Flashforward we didn't get to know you for long enough!

6/10


V series 1:

Hmmm... What can I say about V? Elizabeth Mitchell and Laura Vandervoort were pretty to look at for a whole season?... Well that's about it really.
V is a series that seemed to be fighting an uphill battle. It's running for its life on a steep treadmill and not actually getting anywhere. I never watched the original V T.V. series so I don't know if that was any good, but the 2009 version I would have to say is just plain bland. Not sure if it's the ropey green screen, the dodgy and tired acting by the cast, or the fact that the story each week is boring and uneventful... Either way it's not one I'll be sorry about being cancelled. The last episode only really had 3 moments of redeeming quality for me. Anna getting emotional, Lisa finally turning on her Mother and Joshua getting killed and then resurrected by Marcus (is Marcus Fifth Column like I thought?). Other than this the series has reached it's end as far as I'm concerned. Not even another scene with Miss Vandervoort stripping down to her undies could bring it back from the brink for me! Although it couldn't hurt to try of course...

5/10