Tag Archives: season finales

Grading the Season Finales 2014: Suits

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Suits s3 finale

Source: usanetwork.com

Title No Way Out (3.16)

Written By Aaron Korsh and Daniel Arkin

What Happens? When Mike is taken in for questioning concerning the Hessington Oil settlement and the accusations of bribing witnesses, it becomes clear that U.S. Attorney Eric Woodall isn’t interested in Mike at all; he wants to bring down Harvey. Things get tricky for Mike and Harvey when it’s revealed that another attorney was also brought in for questioning: Harold Gunderson. When a meeting between Mike and Harold leads to their arrest, Harvey enlists Louis’s help to keep Harold from cracking under the pressure, while Harvey tells Mike to put all the blame on him.

It seems Harvey has been taking a look in the mirror, and he doesn’t like the man looking back at him. Despite the refrain of “You’re a good man, Harvey” that he keeps hearing, Harvey worries that he’s becoming the opposite of that, and Mike might pay the price for it. Jessica is also contemplating her role in the firm’s questionable practices and their affects on the family she’s built within Pearson Specter. Scottie’s role in that family changes dramatically when she voices her desire to leave. Harvey’s parting gift to her is to let her in on Mike’s secret, with a promise that he’s done lying to the people he loves.

Scottie isn’t the only one moving on from Pearson Specter. Mike is tired of lying and having other people lie to protect his secret. So he decides to take the investment banking job he was offered, making him a client of Pearson Specter and no longer an employee.

Game-Changing Moment I’m not sure it gets more quintessentially game-changing than Mike quitting Pearson Specter to take a job as their client instead. The entire premise of Suits was built around Mike’s secret and his relationships within Pearson Specter, especially his mentor/mentee relationship with Harvey. But it became clear that this premise couldn’t sustain a long-running series without turning the characters into unlikeable people and turning the plot into a predictable circle of people finding out, people almost finding out, and Mike still emerging unscathed. Something had to change. And something finally did. Mike’s exit was quietly powerful in the way it not only fundamentally altered the entire premise of the show but also in the way it highlighted something that doesn’t always happen on television: Actions have consequences. Mike’s secret took a huge emotional toll on him, and I thought Patrick J. Adams displayed that perfectly in this episode. It was time for him to do the right thing, and it was time for Harvey to give him permission to do the right thing. It’s not just the show’s plot that will change with Mike’s departure (although he’ll stay on as a client); Mike and Harvey’s relationship will be forever altered, too. I thought both Adams and Gabriel Macht gave that scene the emotional weight necessary to convey the impact of this decision on both Mike and Harvey. Will the show be able to sustain itself with Mike not being a lawyer anymore? I’m not sure. But it’s an interesting question to hold on to until we see how this all plays out next season.

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Grading the Series Finales: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

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ouatiw finale

Today, Leah is back to share her thoughts on the finale of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and the series as whole.

Title And They Lived… (1.13)

Written By Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, and Zack Estrin

What Happened? Jafar and Amara finish casting the spell that breaks the laws of magic, which they then both use for various means. Cyrus and Amara head to the Well of Wonders to return the water, while Alice heads off with an army towards Jafar’s castle, prepared to strike. However, their plans are interrupted when Jafar’s new army captures Alice. Jafar threatens to use his magic to change Alice’s past in an attempt to get Alice to reveal Amara’s location, but before he has to use that plan, members of his army arrive with reports of seeing Amara and Cyrus by two red doors, which the love-curse-stricken Anastasia tells Jafar is the Well of Wonders.

While Jafar chases Amara, Will talks to Anastasia and makes her doubt the validity of her love for Jafar enough to get her close enough for him to reach out and kiss her. The kiss is true love’s kiss and thus breaks the spell Anastasia is under. Upon coming back to herself, she immediately helps Will and Alice out of their various confinements.

Jafar interrupts Cyrus and Amara’s attempt to give the water back to the Well of Wonders and kills Amara, which turns her back into the water that gave her life so many years ago. Alice appears—disrupting Jafar for a moment—but he freezes her with his magic before she can really do anything. As Cyrus attempts to put the water back into the well, Jafar takes it for himself, gaining the wrath of the well’s guardian, Nyx, and bringing about his own punishment as a genie. This undoes all of what Jafar’s magic had recently done, and it stopped the effects of Cyrus stealing the water so many years earlier, freeing Cyrus’s brothers and Will from being genies and undoing Jafar’s revival of Anastasia.

Alice and Cyrus arrive with water from Nyx to bring Anastasia back because it was not her time to die. Back in England, the Rabbit marries Alice and Cyrus ,with Alice’s family, Will, and Anastasia all present to witness their happy day. The last scene of the series shows us Alice telling her daughter the stories of Wonderland, while Cyrus brings them more treats for their teatime setup as the Rabbit looks on from afar.

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Grading the Season Finales 2014: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

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Source: Fox.com

Source: Fox.com

Title Charges and Specs (1.22)

Written By Gabe Liedman & Gil Ozeri

What Happens? Jake is told to stop investigating a prominent community leader who he believes is laundering drug money. The whole team from the 99th precinct comes together to support Jake: Gina, Rosa, Terry, and Boyle advocate for him at his hearing; while Holt and Amy join Jake in an undercover operation at a dance contest to prove that he was right about the money laundering. It’s later revealed that Jake’s investigation could have compromised a larger FBI investigation into a major crime family. He’s asked to go undercover for six months to infiltrate this family, which means he has to make it appear as if he’s been fired from the NYPD.

The uncertainty of the next six months of his life leads Jake to tell Amy that he wishes they could be together—“romantic stylez”—but he knows that’s not possible because she has Teddy and he has to disappear without any contact for six months. Boyle also faces a relationship crossroads as Vivian calls off their engagement, leaving him pathetically heartbroken. Terry and Rosa try to help him cope by offering their best advice (although Rosa admits she’s not often heartbroken because she doesn’t give her heart to nice guys like Boyle), but he seems to find some solace in a drunken hookup with Gina, waking up next to her in the morning as the episode ends.

Game-Changing Moment Jake deciding to take the FBI undercover job didn’t just have huge ramifications for the plot of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it furthered more than one important character-development arc as well. As far as plot progression goes, the show could choose to spend time next season with Jake as he goes undercover, or it could (and I think it will) use the six-month period to keep the show in real-time, picking up just after Jake’s time undercover has ended. But it’s certain that Jake will be a different character and a different detective because of these experiences, and everyone at the 99th precinct will be different after working for six months without Jake.

The real “game-changing” aspect of this plot twist, however, was what it revealed about Jake and Holt’s relationship, as well as it what it led to in terms of Amy and Jake’s relationship. Holt trusted Jake’s abilities enough to encourage him to take the undercover job, and Jake trusted Holt’s judgment enough to do what he was asking of him without knowing any details. The level of trust shown by these two characters towards one another represented a huge step in their relationship, which has steadily and believably developed since the pilot. Jake’s new assignment also forced him to come to terms with his feelings for Amy, whom he won’t be able to see for the next six months. The danger inherent in this assignment made his confession feel as appropriate as it could, and it will be interesting to see how those cards being laid on the table come into play next season.

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Daily Dose of Feelings #18

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Sorry for the unannounced hiatus from these posts. I was all set to start writing when I suffered a bout of narcolepsy…or just couldn’t stay awake any longer after too many days of staying up too late to write.

Sometimes emotional moments catch you off guard. They’re the ones that leave you shaking your head as the tears form in your eyes, wondering how a show or an actor can manage to surprise you after you thought you’d seen it all from the world of television.

The ending of this season’s finale of New Girl caught me off guard, and that seems fitting for a show whose best moments have come when I didn’t expect them. After the way the finale had built to Nick and Jess deciding to call off their budding relationship, I expected the finale to end with tension and angst in order to create suspense going into this coming season. Much to my pleasant surprise, however, the season ended on an incredibly happy and hopeful note, with smiles, laughter, and one hell of a kiss.

While so much of New Girl works on an emotional level because of the complexity of Jake Johnson’s performance, this scene works because of Zooey Deschanel. I love her vulnerability at the start of this scene because it feels so genuine. Her eyes are red, her nose is red, and her voice sounds like she’s been crying ever since she walked away from Nick earlier in the episode. Those little details may not seem like much, but added together they make her emotional investment in this man and this potential relationship so subtly powerful. At this point in the season, we knew how much Nick loved Jess, so it was such a gorgeous moment to finally see how much Jess loved Nick when her voice broke as she asked him to “un-call it.”

The beginning of this scene may be emotional because it’s such a realistic depiction of the vulnerability that comes with loving someone, but the end of this scene gets the tears flowing for me because it’s such a realistic depiction of the happiness that comes from loving someone. The sound of Nick’s confident steps towards Jess is such a perfect touch—it makes my heart race in anticipation. And then he kisses her in that way only Nick Miller can kiss her, and the sheer happiness she feels with him causes her to laugh in one of the sweetest, most honest moments of love I’ve seen on television in a long time.

That’s what love is; it’s happiness. It’s someone who makes you smile, someone who makes you laugh. This is one of those scenes where understanding the characters and their journeys makes a scene even more emotionally resonant. Jess Day loves to be happy—she likes happy things like singing and dancing and polka dots. And Nick Miller has trouble finding and holding on to happiness—he’s grumpy and cynical and thinks people are the worst. So it’s a beautiful, surprisingly emotional thing to see these two people find each other and make each other this happy.

Love doesn’t always have to be dramatic and angst-ridden. It should be something that brings you joy. The same can be said for TV shows. New Girl brings me joy, and I’m so happy it chose to end such a great season on such a joyful note.

Daily Dose of Feelings #9

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My favorite TV episodes are often the ones that make me cry the most. A good example of this is “Chuck vs. The Cliffhanger,” the Season Four finale of Chuck. I’ve seen this episode a few times since I first started watching the series on DVD last year, and it still makes me cry in multiple places every time.

One of my favorite things about Chuck is the warm and genuine chemistry between Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski as Chuck and Sarah. This episode celebrates that chemistry in the most beautiful of ways: with a much-anticipated wedding. But before the actual ceremony can take place, Chuck has to save Sarah from a deadly dose of radiation poisoning she contracted at their rehearsal dinner. Life and love are never simple in the spy business.

Though things may never be simple for Chuck and Sarah, what moves me the most in this scene is how simple and easy their love feels. Sarah’s “practice” vows are such a genuine reflection of who she is and who Chuck has been for her. She was sent to protect him and teach him how to be a spy, but he ended up teaching her how to be someone who is capable of being so much more than just a spy. Chuck brings out the gentle side of Sarah, the side that smiles almost shyly when she’s done telling the man she loves exactly what he means to her.

And then there’s Chuck—sweet, open, big-hearted Chuck Bartowski. If you asked me to draw up my dream man, it would be Chuck, and this scene shows exactly why. You will never see a man on TV as devoted to the woman he loves as Chuck is to Sarah. Levi plays this character with such beguiling earnestness that it’s impossible not to believe in the love story he’s selling. The moment when he whispers “Perfect” with tears in his eyes before saying it louder to Sarah gives me goose bumps every time I watch it. You can feel how much this character loves the woman he’s going to marry, and that believability is both incredibly uplifting in that scene and incredibly heartbreaking as we watch Chuck sitting at Sarah’s bedside, holding her hand and silently begging her not to leave him. As the scene ends, you get the sense that this man is willing to do anything to bring back the woman who so brightly lit up his life in the flashback we just witnessed.

Sarah wants to show Chuck that he is a gift she deserves, and what’s so emotional about this scene is that we can see that Chuck believes Sarah is a gift, too. These two beautiful characters deserve each other and the happiness they clearly have even in a practice wedding. And nothing makes me cry like two worthy characters finding happiness with each other—and fighting to protect that happiness in the face of huge obstacles.

Daily Dose of Feelings #3

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When I think of television moments that make me cry from pure joy, there’s nothing better than Jim and Pam discovering that they’re going to be parents at the end of the “Company Picnic” episode of The Office. What begins as a heartfelt moment of reflection from Michael Scott about his relationship with Holly perfectly transitions into a moment of complete bliss from the couple Michael was obviously thinking of and hoping to emulate.

The Office: Company Picnic.

This scene was the first one that made me fear breaking the rewind button on my DVR—and it’s all because of John Krasinski’s face. The decision to use no sound in the moments when they first found out about Pam’s pregnancy was genius. It forced us to focus on their reactions, and Krasinski is the king of reaction shots. The complete surprise on his face was adorable, but the tears started flowing for me when he hugged Pam. I love how real it still feels after so many re-watches; when he holds her, it’s such a genuinely beautiful moment. It feels like you’re watching a private moment between these two characters, and that only adds to the emotional power of the scene.

And once Jim calls Dwight back, I lose it every time. The little crack in his voice, the tears in his eyes, and the gloriously shocked look on his face when he finally faces the camera say it all. There’s no need to directly say what’s going on in the scene; we can see it, and, more importantly, we can feel it. There’s no better example of the “show, don’t tell” mantra of great storytelling.

The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (5/19 – 5/26)

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As this TV season continued to draw to a close, this week gave us more finales and episodes featuring big moments that will surely be remembered for a long time. Game of Thrones featured the first of many important weddings as Sansa married Tyrion, reminding us why Tyrion is such a great character, why Joffrey is such a hated character, and why Sansa is more than deserving of our sympathy and even our admiration for surviving amid such horrid circumstances. Dancing with the Stars ended with perhaps the strongest final four ever. Modern Family ended its season on a high note, with big laughs and big emotional moments. And Nashville‘s finale featured more cliffhangers and dramatic scenes than most shows have in one whole season. 

While there were more than a few fantastic television moments this week, my favorite came from the finale of Dancing with the Stars. As someone who’s been a dancer for 20 years, I watch shows like this (and So You Think You Can Dance) and wait for the one dance every season that moves me to chills and tears because of the raw emotion that mixes with sheer talent to create a truly wonderful example of the best that dance can be on national TV. For this season of DWTS, that dance was Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough’s freestyle performance. While the other choreographers chose to make their freestyle routines loud and splashy, Derek stripped this freestyle down to simply focus on Kellie’s gorgeous lines and wonderful technique. It was a gamble that paid off; the two of them created a true moment of beauty and grace that put tears in my eyes and made me feel proud to be a dancer.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (5/12 – 5/19)

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What a week this was to be a fan of great TV! Season finales often bring out the most memorable and thought-provoking moments each year, and this year was no exception. This past week gave me so many phenomenal choices for TV’s best of the best that I needed another day to finally make up my mind!

It seemed that each show I love had at least one moment that I’ve watched again and again and could talk about at length to anyone who’ll listen: Emma finally calling Snow and Charming “Mom” and “Dad” on the finale of Once Upon a Time; Brienne and Jaime sharing a heartfelt goodbye that perfectly captured the nuances of their relationship on  Game of Thrones; Castle laying all his cards on the table and proposing to Beckett on Castle‘s season finale; Danny and Mindy’s game-changing glasses-cleaning moment on The Mindy Project; Michael Scott’s return and all of the sob-inducing final talking heads on the series finale of The Office; and Stefon and Seth’s big moment on Saturday Night Live.

Each of these were incredible television moments, but no moment on TV this week made me as happy as the final scene of New Girl‘s season finale.

 

Yes, I love a good cliffhanger as much as the next girl, and sometimes a season finale needs to end with me reaching for the tissues in order for it to be a great one. But sometimes you just want to go into the summer hiatus with a smile on your face and hope in your heart—and that’s what New Girl gave its fans with that final scene. This scene was a great representation of everything that’s right about New Girl: Its emotions were honest (I think this scene was Zooey Deschanel’s best work yet), it showcased the blinding chemistry between Deschanel and Jake Johnson, and it simply felt real and earned.

Some finales are like a punch to the gut, making you feel like the wind has been knocked out of you. But this finale was like a happy sigh of relief, a warm laugh as genuine as Jess and Nick’s laughter after yet another stunning kiss.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week? What moments are you looking forward to with the summer TV season right around the corner?

Grading the Season Finales 2013: The Mindy Project

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Title Take Me With You (1.24)

Written By Mindy Kaling and Jeremy Bronson

What Happens? After Mindy decides to go to Haiti with Casey, she attempts to prove herself capable of surviving in that environment during a camping trip with Danny, Christina, and Morgan. However, she soon finds herself wanting to go back on her decision and stay in New York instead. Rather than let Casey down, she decides to scare him off during their going-away party by demanding they get engaged before taking the trip together. Her plan backfires, though, when Casey attempts to propose, and Mindy is forced to tell him the truth: She doesn’t want to go to Haiti with him.

Following the successful delivery of triplets, Mindy and Danny both make big decisions about their relationships. Mindy realizes that Casey is worth the year in Haiti, and she proves this with a late-night trip to his apartment building and a pixie cut. Meanwhile, Danny decides to take a step back and slow down his reunion with Christina. After telling this to Mindy, the two share a moment that blurs the line between friends and something more—before Mindy tells him that she got back together with Casey and is going to Haiti for the year.

Game-Changing Moment With just one look, the dynamics on this show were suddenly changed forever. Danny’s quiet intensity and surprising softness as he looked at Mindy after cleaning her glasses couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than an intimacy far beyond friendship. For this whole season, the audience has been able to see the potential between these two characters, but it appeared that the characters were either unaware of it or unwilling to acknowledge the obvious chemistry between them. After this moment, though, neither will be able to ignore it any longer. Danny made himself vulnerable with her in a way we’ve never seen from him before, and that’s going to fundamentally alter their relationship—even if they both try to pretend like the moment didn’t happen. For someone as obsessed with romance as Mindy Lahiri, it’s going to be hard for her to ignore the fact that her closest male friend put himself out there in a romantic way with her, and it’s going to be interesting to see how that moment is handled at the start of Season Two.

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Grading the Season Finales 2013: New Girl

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Title Elaine’s Big Day (2.25)

What Happens? It’s Cece’s wedding day, but Schmidt infers from an accidental look at the bride that she may not want to go through with it after all. Claiming to be working as her friend, he plans to “sabo” (aka sabotage) her wedding with the help of Nick and Winston. However, Nick is initially against this plan, not wanting to upset Jess and hoping to prove her father wrong about his immaturity. However, Nick is betrayed by his own “Cotton-Eyed Joe” CD; when it’s played during the ceremony, Jess assumes Nick is in on the plan and tells him he acts like a child. Feeling hurt, Nick decides to help Schmidt and Winston with the next phase of the sabotage operation, but things take a turn for the worse when the badger they plan to let loose escapes in the air ducts.

As Jess climbs into the ducts to try to stop the madness, Nick confronts her about her concerns about a relationship between the two of them, and Jess admits that a part of her is afraid that he’s too much of a mess to have a functional relationship with her. Their talk is interrupted, though, when they fall through the ceiling and literally crash the ceremony. The destruction seems to allow Cece to finally speak her mind: She doesn’t want to marry Shivrang because she’s in love with someone else (Schmidt). As for Shivrang, he has a secret love of his own named Elaine.

With the wedding officially called off, Nick and Jess do some calling off of their own, deciding that the one night they had together was enough, although it’s clear neither of them really wants to walk away from whatever they have. While Nick goes to drown his sorrows at the bar, Winston emerges from the air ducts with a nasty wound and some sage advice: Drinking and running away were the moves Nick’s dad always fell back on when things got hard, but they’re not the only moves. Schmidt seems to have never gotten that memo, though, as he runs from the room when faced with the choice between Cece and Elizabeth.

Unlike Schmidt, Nick doesn’t want to run away anymore. In fact, he’s ready to run to Jess, who he finds standing outside in tears over their decision to end whatever was happening between them. She asks Nick if they can un-call it, and he replies with a smile and a kiss. Laughing and bickering, the two drive off into the night towards a destination neither of them knows yet.

Game-Changing Moment While Nick and Jess’s relationship has been the driving force behind most of this season, the real emotional journey has been Nick Miller’s development from a man paralyzed by anger and fear to a man who can embrace uncertainty and hope. That arc found beautiful resolution in Winston’s speech about Nick not having to use his father’s moves. For much of Season Two, we’ve seen how Nick’s father and his abandonment had such a profound impact on his life and his decisions even after his father’s death. So it was hugely important for Nick to make a stand and show that he’s not his father; he’s better than his father ever was. There are other moves—better moves—and Nick is finally ready to choose another move. That moment of deciding to run towards Jess instead of running away signified a huge leap forward for this character we’ve watched grow all season. It was the culmination of a truly wonderful arc, and it hinted at even more growth to come next season.

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