TV Finale Speed Round

West Wing ended with quiet grace, though the short-changing of the original cast members is slightly inexcusable. Toby doesn't even appear in the finale? Are you kidding?

Grey's Anatomy showed it has easily the most potent and well-rounded ensemble on television today. Denny's inevitable demise and Izzie's response were heartbreaking. The Burke-Christina dynamic was a little frustrating, but ended on the right note. My immediate reaction to the Meredith-Derek hook-up is "not again." Actually it was more like "This is on a network?" Talk about too hot for TV. While I'm skeptical of going back to the Grey/McDreamy merry-go-round, this show's been smart enough to avoid the pitfalls of standard TV fare, so I'll withhold judgment for now.

Prison Break is done. For a show that built up tension so well, it was amazing how little I cared once the fugitives got over the wall. When Michael's plan is so intricately detailed inside the wall, you'd think he'd have a better plan for once they got over it. The run-for-your-life stuff was out of character for Michael and out of character for the show. I have no interest in the conspiracy side of this show, so there's a high likelihood Prison Break will be the Desperate Housewives of next fall; solid first season followed by a meandering, weaker sophomore effort.

If 24 has a flaw (in my mind) it's that it's finales often falter trying to wrap up so many lose threads and cliff-hangers. While they've been fairly entertaining, they still come off as mildly anti-climactic. Well, not this season. The battle on the submarine was one of the more intense sequences in 24 history (anybody notice they went 20 minutes without a commercial break). We got some cold-blooded retribution for Palmer, Tony, and Michelle. Then we not only got our dream face-off of Jack Bauer and President Logan, but one of the best character-driven scenes in the show's run. Following that up with the nasty argument between Logan and Martha was like icing on the icing of the cake. Even the fact that the show ended on such a grim note played fantastically. I'm gonna have to watch 4 and 5 back-to-back to eventually decide which was the better season, but one thing's for certain -- 24 continues to defy the odds and get better with age.

What could be better than House vs. House? Well, that's essentially what we got with House battling his subconscious after being shot by a former patient. Or wait. He wasn't a former patient. We don't really know who he is. This was a terrifically twisted episode that ended on a rather morose note -- with House resolved to death while his team tries to save him.

One of the remarkable things about this season of Scrubs is its ability to mold lovable characters from supporting players who would have been after-thoughts on any other show. Intern and love interest Keith has proved a versatile comic talent. The janitor continues to steal every scene that he's in. And the finale featured a tremendously endearing turn by Elizabeth Banks as J.D.s new love interest. Like Arrested Development before it, the show features too many jokes, too many clever jokes that I would only spoil trying to recap. We'll just say this is the best, sweetest comedy on TV, and the finale showed us all why.

Once again Veronica Mars tied up a season's worth of mystery in both a sensible and dramatically engaging fashion. For the most part, the loose ends were tied up, and Rob Thomas and Co. even reached back to season one for closure (Veronicas rape, Aaron Echolls). As much as I enjoyed this season, I have to say that at the end I felt the show's writers were almost too smart for their own good. I could barely keep up with all the twists and turns in this show's season. That probably would have been fine had I watched the show on DVD, but with all the breaks and preemptions this season VM required so much effort to follow that there's no wonder its ratings were dismal. Hopefully, indications of three separate mysteries for next season will open the show up to a wider audience. Actually, I'm really fond of this idea. I think VMs narrative talents will only be more evident when we can actually follow all the twists and turns. Sidenote: All this love is showered on Kristen Bells performance, but I want to give some credit to Jason Dohring for his remarkably rich characterization of Logan Echolls. So much attention is paid to Dohring because of his looks and the will-they-or-wont-they Logan/Veronica relationship that his skillful performance is often overlooked. The way Dohring is able to dance from sarcastic rich boy to damaged kid to knight in shining armor is so fascinating he is easily one of my favorite characters on television.

Alias ended in a satisfying, if not ground-breaking two-hour finale. We got the moments we wanted. I loved Jack taking down Sloane (after Sloane gained immortality from Rhimbaldi), trapping him inside a cave for eternity. "You couldn't beat me." A great final line for my favorite character on the show. The Vaughn/Sark pairing worked on a different note, with Sark showing his mercenary leanings after one bullet to the leg (Marshall made Sark look like a girl with his ability to withstand torture). Though it lacked the dramatic weight of Jack/Sloane, the scene worked for general amusement. The Syd/Irina showdown was particularly brutal, and Lena Olin wrapped up the most enigmatic Alias character appropriately enough -- reaching for Rhimbaldi rather than her daughter. We now know where her allegiance lies, even as she claimed "I really did love you" to Sydney before kicking her in the face. Ah, Alias. You will be missed. I'll admit I teared up a little watching the Alias family walking towards the ocean at the show's end. Though they jerked me around quite a bit towards the end, and the passion I had for the show in its first two seasons has long since dissipated, I am still sad seeing the show go.

I'm a big fan of Web Gems on Baseball Tonight, and once in a while there's a play that defies the laws of logic and science and there's no other word to describe it but "ridiculous." That's what I thought about the season finale of Lost. Ridiculous. And I don't think there's a higher compliment I could pay it. I don't want to say too much, because my brother, who is currently stationed in Iraq, hasn't seen it and I already spoiled Edgar's death on 24 for him this season. He's coming home for midtour in June and we're going to watch it together then. Still, how could I even begin to describe everything that happened in those two hours last night. The tube to nowhere. The fail-safe. The station in the snow. One thing I can say, Lost has maintained a very real sense of dread since killing those two characters several weeks ago (my brother hasn't seen that episode yet, either). Watching those three characters tied up at the hands of The Others, especially THOSE three characters, was horrifying. I'm actually scared for them. That's a very different feeling compared to the curiosity of the contents in the hatch from last season. I was wavering on Lost in midseason, but after the last five or six episodes I'm back to my unabashed adoration for the show. Ridiculous. That's all I can say. Ridiculous.

The saddest hour of my TV season was watching the unfortunate final episode of my favorite new show, Invasion. While every other show had its ups and downs this season, Invasion started slow but maintained a consistent acceleration through out the season so that by the time the finale came it was flying faster than any other show on television. Unfortunately it was too late to pick up the viewers it lost early on. I have two things to say about this show. 1) I'll be pushing everybody I know to watch the DVD. 2) There was not a single character on television this year more fascinating than Sheriff Tom Underlay. The look on his face as Russell grilled him, "What did you do?" was stunning considering how Underlay essentially started the season as The Villian. Losing this show hurts more than either Alias or West Wing. I'm very sorry to see it go.

All you can really say about The OC is they killed Marissa. I honestly don't remember a single thing about the episode other than that. Oh, except Mini-Cooper saying she's going to rule Harbor. Still the staging or Marissa's death was well-done, what with the flashbacks to the series' tremendous first season. Plus the use of minimal dialogue kept it from going head-first into groaner melodrama. Like Prison Break, everything in this episode depends on how next season is handled. They're both on the borderline between evolution and jumping the shark. Stay tuned.

Smallville is a master of season finales. From the Godfather-esque closing of Season 3 with Chloe's apparent death, Lex's apparent death, and Clark's disappearance, to Season 4's meteor shower and debut of the Fortress of Solitude, this show always closed with a bang. This year was no different, yet I couldn't help but feel that the writers had dug themselves too big a hole this year. Metropolis is breaking down. Zod has arrived. Clark is stuck in the Phantom Zone. Martha and Lois are God knows where. That's a lot of balls in the air. I liked that things got a shade darker for the Boy of Steel this season, but next year will clearly be an important year in Smallville's mythology. I hope they can pull it off. They certainly set the bar high with this finale.