Season finales a little uneven

If you ask me, the season finales have been a little unsatisfying so far. Not all of them, of course, and I haven’t even managed to see all the ones that have aired this week. But some of them.

Chuck

I’ll start with one of the better ones. NBC has announced next year is the fifth and final season for “Chuck.” And I know there are people who are going to be upset by that. But from my perspective, “Chuck,” the spy dramedy starring Zachary Levi in the title role as computer geek turned secret agent, and Yvonne Strahovsky as Sarah, has had a really good run. It’s been on the bubble for years and it’s always managed to nearly pay for itself, (especially with borderline intrusive product placement), and it has managed to develop some characters and present a complex, intriguing story along the way.

Heading into the final season, Morgan has been zapped by the Intersect as well, and newlyweds Chuck and Sarah – beautiful ceremony, by the way – are operating as freelance, independently wealthy spies, which I hadn’t anticipated our intelligence community would be too thrilled about, underneath the Burbank BuyMore Chuck just bought. The stage is set for a rambunctious final season and it’s one of the main things I’m looking forward to this fall.

Castle

One of the finales that was just mean was “Castle,” in which Kate was presenting a eulogy at the funeral of her boss, and was gunned down by a sniper. The story arc for Castle involves NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett tracking down the men who killed her mother, and her boss had targeted the gunman, losing his life in the exchange. Beckett had pushed mystery writer Rick Castle away earlier in the episode but he was at the funeral and tried to protect her from the gunshot. It’s hard for me to believe anyone would get away from taking a shot at a cop speaking at a cop’s funeral, within the confines of a graveyard, yet, but the main thing is “Will Kate survive?!”

My guess is yes, she will. I think they’d lose a lot of audience if they lost that “Hart to Hart,” “Remington Steele,” “Moonlighting” vibe they’d worked so hard developing in the first two seasons and then allowed to more or less stagnate in season three, here. As Castle said, they’d kissed, they’d kept each other alive in the wake of an attack by a mad bomber and they never spoke of it again.

So more to the point, “Will they or won’t they?” At some point, Kate and Rick are being more than just obtuse about each other’s feelings for each other. I dislike the fact that every time they’re about to have some sort of actual conversation about anything, someone pops out of nowhere and interrupts – and they let them! It’s like “Go away, the grownups are talking.” I hope they are able to make some kind of connection in season four. Hurry back.

Grey's Anatomy

Another finale that was just cruel was “Grey’s Anatomy.” I talked enough about that one last week so I’ll just mention here that Derek Shepherd is going to lose this one, and he deserves to. Meredith was sent home to care for Zola on her own and Derek is sleeping outside in the dream house he was building as part of his proposal to Meredith. Sleeping outside in Seattle, I might add, where it mostly rains.

So here’s the question. If normal people who look like normal people can manage to make mistakes and decisions the other doesn’t necessarily agree with and still stay married, how insane is it that OK, so, Owen wants a baby and Christina really doesn’t, so she makes an appointment to have an abortion and is kicked from her home. She didn’t decide it on her own. She had a conversation, Owen had input, and she made her decision. She can’t both have a baby and not have one. It’s not really open to compromise. Arizona made a huge compromise with Callie. Not everyone is going to come to the same conclusions.

And as soon as Derek knew what the deal with the study was – that it was Adelle, and the chief was pressuring Meredith to do precisely the sort of thing she did, he needed to take that into account and back off. Meredith wasn’t acting solely on a moral code he feels is flawed and wow is that open to debate. He doesn’t need to reject her as his wife even if he can’t fully accept her as a colleague just now. So Meredith is alone in a house with a crying baby and her forsaken friend, the waiting room was full offamily members to a lake full of accident victims who as it turns out mostly didn’t need medical attention and wow did everything come to a really sad end.

Desperate Housewives

The “Desperate Housewives” finale left its seventh season in a strange place. After a suspenseful standoff, they had Paul Young carted off to prison and may or may not have killed Felicia Tillman in a head-on collision with a semi-trailer.

Then Gaby faced down her abusive stepdad not once but twice, and Carlos killed him. So Gaby knew some of the details about Carlos’ mother being killed by Andrew Vandekamp in a hit and run, and Carlos killed Gaby’s abusive stepfather, and the neighborhood helped cover it up, which was a neat trick since Bree is dating a detective.

Tom and Lynette seem to be breaking up because despite her earlier turn as Lady MacBeth, Lynette can’t handle him being actually successful.

That seems like a really dumb reason to break up.

It’s sort of amazing that this show has decided to jump up and down on this one note with those two. There have been opportunities for Tom to miss Penny and the boys and to try to establish some boundaries at work. I mean, why be successful if your life is going to fall apart? P.S., Lynette, Renee is sitting right there across the street, rich, gorgeous and hot for Tom, so maybe you could’ve focused on how wonderful it is that he was planning to take all of you to Hawaii, and not the fact that he neglected to mention it until he’d pretty much arranged it.

Maybe it’s just me, but Lynette seems to really be shooting herself in the foot here or, more to the point, behaving like a character on a television program than like a human person.

Bones

The finale of “Bones” was even less believable, but how are you going to argue with the birth of Angela’s baby – while she was helping to solve a murder – a murder that almost certainly didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI, by the way, but when has that ever stopped them? It took place at a bowling alley so naturally Agent Booth needed to wear a fake mullet and Brennan came in as Wanda from 1982, but she still talked sometimes like she watched PBS on purpose.

It’s just that we know Brennan is sexually active with a variety of partners. As she’s described it, she has men in her life she retains because they are sexually satisfying and other men she retains for more emotional connections. So her sleepover at Booth’s, that wasn’t some unheard-of thing for her, so she had to be using some sort of birth control. It’s really improbably irresponsible of her to have had unprotected sex and it is certainly irresponsible of Booth, knowing what he does about her. I get emotions were running high, but … roiiiiiight.

Coming up

So those are the ones I’ve seen, I’m sure there are a few other ones coming up and yet to view. Coming up this week I’m looking forward to the season finale of “Glee” Tuesday on FOX, they’re airing that after an “Idol” showdown. ABC’s “Cougar Town” is pulling a “Brady Bunch” with a trip to Hawaii in a one-hour special. And we’ll be waiting another week for the second half of this weekend’s “Doctor Who” on the BBC America because they’re running a show-so-far season six marathon of “Doctor Who” episodes next Saturday. Well, it’s a holiday weekend. I just know that I’m really looking forward to part two, set to air June 4. It’s going to be awesome.