A roundup of season (series) finales

Sorry for no post yesterday. I posted three on Monday, though, so that should make up for it. Right? Damn, you people are so demanding.

Since it’s May, that means that many TV shows are having their season finales. Here’s what I’ve been paying attention to on the teevee:

  • Better Off Ted is my favorite new show. Portia de Rossi’s character has taken a while to grow on me, but now I see the funny in her mannered, stylized speech and body language. But, seriously, the two geeks in the lab are the best part of the show.
  • I’ve written about Dollhouse before, but last Friday they aired the season finale. I have to admit, Dollhouse took some time to get where it was going. I admit I only watched out of some kind of loyalty to Joss Whedon, and a hope that it would become less dark and creepy. I’m glad that my hope was misplaced, because once I caught on to the central thesis – Devilstower at Daily Kos explained that it was meta-commentary on television shows as a whole – it became far more interesting to me beyond the eye candy of star Eliza Dushku in lacy white thigh-highs. And as the show slowly revealed that there were many more Dolls than were first revealed. “Are you a Doll?” should have been the tagline for the show (I stole that from the internet). With such poor ratings, and with the season finale being overshadowed by the movie release of “Star Trek”, there’s little hope that the show will be renewed… although the star, Ms. Dushku, is hinting that Fox is talking to the producers even as I type this.
  • Tonight, of course, is the season finale of LOST. The producers and writers have done such an amazing job of telling their tale of a group of people bound together by a tragic plane crash, and the bizarre island on which they were once lost and are now returning to. I’m sad that this is the end of the next-to-last season. But then, I’ve been known to not finish a book because I didn’t want it to end. I’m bad at goodbyes. And I’m upset that my favorite new character, Daniel Faraday, appears to be dead dead, like Charlie Pace, instead of kinda dead, like, say, John Locke or Christian Sheppard. And what’s the deal with Richard Alpert? Is man-mascara the key to eternal youth or what?
  • On How I Met Your Mother, I love Barney (played by the awesome Neil Patrick Harris) and his as-yet unrequited love for the Canadian news anchor chick whose name I can never recall, but Ted’s pursuit of the titular mother is less interesting to me than how the writers managed to make Lily (Alyson Hannigan) disappear for several weeks with just a simple scene.
  • The Office, with its mini-arc of the Michael Scott Paper Company, and 30 Rock and its amazing ensemble cast, has been very very funny this season. Feel free to catch up during the summer; they’re both worth it.

What mindless TV entertainment have you been watching lately?