Grading the Season Finales

With both Lost and Alias wrapping up tonight, I think I’ve officially reached the end of my personal 2004-2005 television season. If you see the name of a show that you like below and haven’t watched the finale yet, it’s probably best to go watch it and then come back to read this later. These are listed in roughly the order that they finished, oldest finale first.

Arrested Development - the fictitious “scenes from next season” were great. No huge surprises, the big cliffhanger here was whether the show would come back for season 3 or not. I give it a B for the George-Oscar switcheroo.

The Amazing Race 7 - Boston Rob and Amber were in the finals, but came in second. Ironically, they’re like the Yankees — they needed to be in contention, but you sure didn’t want them to win. Uchena and Joyce winning it all was probably one of the most satisfying reality show conclusions ever. I give this one an A for a strong season and great finish.

Veronica Mars - Another show where the biggest cliffhanger was the suits deciding whether it was worth renewing. The wrap-up of the season-long murder mystery was very satisfying and this was a great final episode with a number of loose storylines wrapped up. However, I give this only a B- because the end-of-show “who is at the door?” cliffhanger is lame (and Friends did it like 5 years ago). That, and they missed the boat on setting up a season 2 whodunnit.

Survivor: Palau - Survivor’s a weird show when it comes to the finales. For all of the week-to-week drama, the ‘remembering fallen Survivors’ stuff drags on unnecessarily and no final tribal council can possibly top the Susan Hawk blow up from season 1. However, the reunion hour immediately after the finale is the best of any reality show I’ve seen. (and has been since they let Jeff Probst do it). I’d give this finale a C for the actual finale, but bump it up to a B for a very satisfying reunion hour.

Smallville - This was a rough season from a storyline perspective as they spent a lot of time going after mysterious artifacts and teasing some involvement from Lana Lang in the Superman mythology. However, they also introduced Erika Durance as Lois Lane which earned mega-points. From a strictly season finale perspective, this was a good one. They tied up the mystery of the stones, left us with cliffhangers involving the Kent parents and Lana next to a spaceship, plus you had Clark in a snowy area tossing a Kryptonian artifact that seems to be teasing the introduction of the Fortress of Solitude. A-

Deadwood - An excellent sophomore season ended with an excellent finale. My only complaint? After a season of simmering developments from a storyline perspective, the finale seemed to speed up when it didn’t need to. I think they could have ended before the wedding, for example. However, a season-ender that involves the town becoming part of the Dakota territory, a death/marriage arc that further complicates the Alma-Seth relationship, revenge against Cy Tolliver, and more. Well, I was very satisfied. Another A-

24 - Let’s put it this way, 90 minutes into this finale, I realized that my palms were sweaty. That’s pretty freakin’ cool. By far, this is my favorite of the four 24 seasons. The “Jack’s dead” twist at the end was a little bit predictable, but having the season end with hero Jack Bauer forging ahead with a new identity and only four(?) (Palmer, Tony, Michelle and Chloe?) people knowing that he’s still alive was great. Plus, it leaves you with a “Now What?” sensation that is perfect for this series. A

Lost - God, I love this show. I had super-high expectations for this finale. I mean, I demanded to be left with a cliffhanger at the end. And, I’ll tell you what, this show delivered. Not only did we get to see all of the key characters in the airport before the flight with even more hints about their characters, but we also had Hurley and poor Arzt spending 5 minutes covering all of the real-life questions we ask about the show (like, “how come we never noticed Arzt before?”). Perfect. Add to that Walt getting in a line featuring my favorite ongoing joke of the year (Scott vs Steve) followed by the twist of what the raft encountered AND the opening of the hatch. A+ for a series that I will miss more than any other as the summer drags on.

Alias - Honestly, the first 59 1/2 minutes of this finale pretty much sucked. I mean, to start out with you had the absolute ridiculousness of that evil giant red ball, followed by more teases about Sloane’s allegiance. Sure, there were some satisfying moments involving Weiss and Marshall throwing in some humor and Jack punching Sloane while Irina punched Elena. But it wasn’t until that final 15 seconds when I went, “Holy crap, I need to watch this next fall.” This totally went from an F to a B+ in that final moment. For the record, that makes JJ Abrams the big winner in this little finale eval!