Tag Archives: season finales

Grading the Season Finales 2013: Castle

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Title Watershed (5.24)

Written By Andrew Marlowe

What Happens? As the team at the 12th precinct investigates the murder of a Harvard student and computer hacker posing as a prostitute in a seedy motel, they uncover ties between the victim and a political dynasty which was behind the cover-up of a young woman’s death years before. The case also proves to be possibly Beckett’s last homicide as a member of the NYPD, as she takes an interview in Washington for a job with the attorney general—without telling Castle. Although she’s encouraged by Captain Gates, Beckett struggles with the decision after Castle finds the boarding pass for her trip in her coat pocket and gets angry over the fact the she shut him out of such an important decision. While Castle discusses their relationship and its challenges with his mother, Beckett is counseled by Lanie and her father. Both Beckett and Castle seem to be questioning where their relationship is headed, but both are too scared to broach the topic with the other.

After Beckett is officially offered the position, she begins to feel the weight of leaving her home at the precinct bearing down on her. Both Ryan and Esposito can tell that something is wrong, but neither can figure out what it is. Instead, Ryan lets Esposito in on a little secret of his own—he’s going to be a father. Fatherhood also proves to be a challenge for Castle, as he deals with his fear of letting Alexis go on a summer trip to the rainforest by avoiding the situation—until he can’t any longer and simply has to realize that despite his fears and worries, he loves his daughter and wants to do right by her. That same emotion goes into his meeting with Beckett on the swings where they once talked about Beckett’s emotional walls and where Beckett decided to let those walls come down with Castle. Castle tells Beckett that he understands she’s always going to have walls and won’t always let him in easily, but he isn’t going to give her an ultimatum. Whatever she chooses, he wants to be with her—and he proves this on one knee with a ring and question left unanswered until Season Six begins in the fall.

Game-Changing Moment Yes, Beckett being offered the job with the attorney general was a major moment, but it wasn’t the episode’s true game-changer. No, that title belongs to seven little words said by Richard Castle on the swing set that has come to mean so much to these two characters are their relationship:

Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?

No matter what Beckett answers and no matter what she decides, those seven words have forever changed their relationship and the direction of the show, which we all know has always been first and foremost a love story (with some murder thrown in for good fun). I know some people hated this twist and others loved it (my own feelings are quite complicated), but there’s no denying that this proposal was one of the most shocking moments in Castle’s five-year history. Whether you thought it was romantic or ridiculous, I bet you had a reaction—and that’s what a good finale cliffhanger should do. This was a moment that people will be talking about all summer, from the most passionate fans to the most casual observers. And that’s what season finales are all about.

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Grading the Season Finales 2013: Once Upon a Time

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Title And Straight On ’Til Morning (2.22)

Written By Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz

What Happens? Picking up where last week’s “Second Star to the Right” left off, this episode begins with the characters dealing with two tragedies: one recent (the shooting of Neal and his disappearance through a portal) and one impending (the destruction of Storybrooke and all of its residents born in the Enchanted Forest, meaning everyone but Henry). Regina believes she has the power to slow down the destruction of the town enough for everyone else to escape, sacrificing herself in the process. In order for the townspeople to escape, though, they have to open another portal, which means getting at least one magic bean from Tamara and Greg. Charming is aided in this quest by Hook, who believes in self-preservation rather than dying for his cause as Tamara and Greg do.

Once Charming retrieves a magic bean, he and Snow decide to take a chance and send the self-destruct mechanism to another realm through the portal instead, saving Regina in order to do what’s good even though it might not be easy. However, once the Charming Family reaches Regina, Emma discovers that Hook took the bean for himself, leaving them with no option other than to prepare for their death and leaving Henry alone without his family. While Emma says goodbye to her parents and Henry shares a moment of understanding with Regina, Rumplestiltskin prepares for the destruction of this world by restoring Belle’s memories (thanks to a magical potion made by the Blue Fairy and given to him by Grumpy, who never forgot the kindness Belle once showed him) and allowing himself to grieve for his son.

Before Storybrooke is demolished, however, Emma realizes that while Regina may not be powerful enough on her own to stop the destruction, her magic may be able to work with Regina’s to stop it—and she’s right. But as soon as the moment of relief ends, panic sets in when the Charmings and Regina realize that Henry has gone missing. It turns out he’s more valuable to Tamara and Greg than the destruction of Storybrooke, and they take him through a portal to another realm.

Just as all hope appears to be lost for Henry, Hook returns with his ship, a magic bean, and a change of heart. It turns out he has a soft spot for abandoned boys with selfless streaks and big hearts, as we discover his relationship with Bae through flashbacks. What was at first a chance for Hook to find family and redemption in raising Milah’s son and keeping him safe from the shadow hunting him, turned into one of Hook’s darkest moments when he let the “Lost Ones” take Bae after the boy learned the truth about his mother, Hook, and his father. In the present, Hook wants to redeem himself for what he did to Bae by saving his son since everyone believes that Bae/Neal is dead (although we see him at the episode’s end being discovered by Aurora, Philip, and Mulan). Hook’s knowledge of Neverland will surely come in handy on the journey to rescue Henry, as Rumplestiltskin sees that’s where the boy is headed. Leaving Belle behind to keep Storybrooke safe and hidden as he goes to rescue his grandson (although Henry was once said to be his undoing), Rumplestiltskin sets foot on Hook’s ship with Charming, Snow, Emma, and Regina to save Henry from Peter Pan—the shadow who has been hunting a boy who looks just like Henry since Bae was a child in Neverland.

Game-Changing Moment Following last week’s big moment where Neal was sent through a portal, this episode also used a different realm to change the course of the show in a major way and set the stage for a very interesting Season Three. I definitely thought this season’s cliffhanger was going to be Henry going to Neverland somehow, but I honestly believed Hook was going to kidnap him for some reason. I didn’t see Tamara and Greg’s involvement coming at all (and I can’t say I’m thrilled about it). However, the quest to find Henry has the potential to create some fantastic storytelling and powerful moments between the men and women who I feel are the best actors on the show. It unites all of these characters against a common enemy, and that can only be a good thing after a season of so much fighting and so many fragmented stories. Also, the introduction of a new realm and a new villain have me excited for next season to start already—and isn’t that exactly what a finale should do? I think the choice to make Peter Pan evil is fascinating (and actually pretty believable—his story was always darker than it looked at first glance), and making a beloved fairytale character a kidnapping shadow creature is exactly the kind of twist on a classic story that makes Once Upon a Time compelling television. This is how you create a mysterious, interesting villain—not the haphazard way Tamara and Greg were thrown into the show. With Henry and his family’s journey to Neverland setting the stage for Season Three, I feel optimistic that this show, which has felt disjointed for some time now, will find its direction and heart once again.

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Grading the Season Finales 2013: Parks and Recreation

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It’s that time of year again—season finale time! Last year, I had a lot of fun grading the season finales for all the shows I watched, so I decided to try my hand at that again this year, starting with the season finale of Parks and Recreation.

Title Are You Better Off? (5.22)

Written By Mike Schur

What Happens? Leslie celebrates the conclusion of her first year as a city council member with a town forum where she asks the people of Pawnee, “Are you better off now than you were a year ago?” Unfortunately for Leslie, most of the townspeople feel they aren’t better off, and they launch into a litany of complaints aimed at her perceived attacks on their personal freedoms (campaigning against giant sodas, keeping Lot 48 from becoming a Paunch Burger location) and moral indecency (teaching sexual education to senior citizens, turning the video rental store into a porn store). This impassioned group of angry Pawnee citizens then begins a campaign to recall Leslie from her office, but Ben encourages her to stand strong in the face of this adversity because he knows she truly believes Pawnee is in a better place than it was before.

While Leslie is fighting her detractors, her friends all face various other long-term challenges. Andy finds a positive pregnancy test in the garbage at Ron’s cabin, and he resurrects his Bert Macklin persona in order to discover the identity of the mother-to-be (with Ann’s help, as we soon learn the test isn’t hers). With Leslie and Donna eliminated from the hunt, Andy is led to believe the woman is Mona-Lisa. Tom is initially terrified of the idea of his unstable girlfriend brining a child into the world. (Plus, he already has problems of his own with a new competitor for Rent-a-Swag—who may or may not be Diddy—opening a store across the street.) Thankfully for all involved, the test isn’t Mona-Lisa’s, but then Andy is left with only one other option—April. However, April also isn’t pregnant, though she does have big news: She got into veterinary school in Bloomington, and Andy is more than happy to support her as she chases her dream. In the end, Andy believes his detective work was all for naught—until Diane enters Ron’s office and asks to talk to him.

Game-Changing Moment The end of this episode featured two big moments that set up major changes for some of the most beloved members of Parks and Rec’s supporting characters. First, the news of April’s acceptance into veterinary school was surely a shock to many (including myself) who’d assumed she was going to be the woman behind the pregnancy test. I have to admit it; I liked this plot twist a lot better than the idea of April and Andy being parents because both of them clearly aren’t ready for that yet. However, April’s new career path felt right after a season of watching her grow, and I loved seeing Andy be so supportive of her.

The second of these major moments was the reveal of Diane’s pregnancy. I did not see that twist coming at all (although my mother did!), and I loved being so surprised by it. For most of the episode, I was wondering why there was such a lack of Ron after he’d been on the receiving end of some really great storylines this season, and then I got my answer. After that ending, I found myself already getting excited to see where this will take Ron next season. His relationship with Diane was a welcome addition to Season Five, and I can only imagine that impending fatherhood will be a welcome addition to Season Six as well.

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Grading the Season Finales: Glee

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Title Goodbye (3.22)

Written By Brad Falchuk

Major Characters Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), Santana Lopez (Naya River), Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron), Noah “Puck” Puckerman (Mark Salling), Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), Brittany S. Piece (Heather Morris), Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss), Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.), Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz), Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale), Burt Hummel (Mike O’Malley)

What Happens As graduation day draws closer for the seniors at William McKinley High School, the Glee club finds itself back where it began – with Mr. Schue watching Kurt, Rachel, Tina, Mercedes, and Artie performing “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” just like they did in the pilot episode. Mr. Schue’s trip down memory lane concludes with a performance of Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young” for the group of students that he’s watched grow from underdogs to national champions. The nostalgia continues with Burt’s graduation gift to his son: his own rendition of the “Single Ladies” dance he saw Kurt perform when he was a sophomore, which he notes as the moment he and Kurt started to come back together as a father/son team.

Back in the choir room, Kurt serenades the boys of New Directions with Madonna’s “I’ll Remember,” and all of the seniors pass the torch to the underclassmen with the New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give.” As the episode reaches its midway point, we learn the fates of various New Directions seniors: Mercedes was signed as a backup singer and will be taking classes at UCLA; Mike is joining the Joffrey Ballet; and Quinn will be heading to Yale but keeping in touch with Rachel, her graduation gift to Rachel is a Metro pass to travel between New York and New Haven (Quinn has one for herself, too).

After a discussion in which Rachel reveals that she always thought Quinn would end up with Puck, Quinn realizes that she has to help Puck pass the one exam he needs to retake in order to graduate because she’ll always love him and they shared the experience of having a daughter together. After a kiss from Quinn restores his confidence, Puck passes his exam and is able to graduate (leading the “Glory Days” performance at graduation).

And what about Santana and Brittany? Brittany, it turns out, has a 0.0 GPA, so she’ll be sticking around WMHS for another year as a Super Senior. Santana was unaware of this but is aware that she doesn’t want to go to Louisville on a cheerleading scholarship anymore. She wants to go to New York and be a star, but is she ready to leave Brittany behind to do so?

Finn is still struggling with his discovery that his father did not die a war hero but rather a dishonorably discharged, broken man who left his family. He wants to pursue his acting dreams, but he still feels as if he’s letting his father down by not doing something to change his legacy. As Finn worries about his future and his impending marriage to Rachel, his support for his fellow Glee club members is praised with a rendition of The Beatles’ “All My Life,” by the New Directions underclassmen.

After graduation, Finn, Rachel, and Kurt all get letters from the colleges they hope to attend. We learn that Finn didn’t get into The Actors Studio at Pace University, and Kurt failed to get into NYADA despite a solid audition. But Rachel’s performance at Nationals was enough to make up for her botched NYADA  audition; she is the lone member of this trio to hold an acceptance letter. However, Rachel decides to turn down her dream school to stay in Lima with Kurt and Finn as they perfect their auditions for the next year.

On the way to what she thinks is her wedding to Finn, Rachel realizes that her fiancé is driving to an unfamiliar destination: the train station. Finn knows she should be in New York, so he bought her a train ticket to go with her dads to look at NYADA’s dorms. Despite Rachel’s tearful protests, Finn tells her that he’s setting her free to chase after the dreams she wants to put aside for him. Finn also discovered his own dream, and it’s in a place without Rachel: the army. Heartbroken and shocked, Rachel still boards the train bound for New York after saying goodbye to all of her friends, singing Room for Two’s “Roots Before Branches” as she walks, alone but finally smiling, through New York City – her new home.

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Grading the Season Finales: Parks and Recreation

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Title Win, Lose, or Draw (4.22)

Written By Michael Schur

Major Characters Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe), Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), Donna Meagle (Retta), Jerry Gergich (Jim O’Heir), Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd), Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn)

What Happens It’s Election Day in Pawnee, Indiana, the day Leslie Knope and Bobby Newport square off in a showdown for a spot on the city council. As Election Day heads into Election Night, various subplots unfold: Chris getting his groove back after a one-night stand with Jennifer; April and Andy panicking over the deletion of important parks department files; and Jerry fearing that his failure to make it to the voting booth on time could be the deciding factor in the election. At its heart, though, this is an episode about change, and the most important storylines in this finale deal with big changes that loom on the horizon for important members of Leslie’s team.

Change comes to Ben in the form of Jennifer offering him a job on a congressional reelection campaign. The new job requires him to move to Washington, D.C., for six months. At first, Leslie is less than supportive of this plan; she’d hoped they could finally have time to really enjoy being a couple after her campaign was over. Hearing this, Ben tells Leslie that he’ll turn down the offer. Leslie has bigger problems than just Ben, though; the initial election results reveal that Bobby won by a very slim margin. This triggers an automatic recount, and, while waiting for those results, Leslie has a talk with Ron that opens her eyes to the fact that caring about someone means supporting their dreams, just like her friends did for her.

With Ron’s words echoing in her head, Leslie finds Ben and tells him that he should go to Washington, and they’ll make it their relationship work despite the distance between them. As they contemplate what the future has in store for them as a couple, Ann delivers the results of the recount: Leslie Knope is Pawnee’s newest city council member.

After delivering a heartfelt victory speech (Ben reveals to her that he never wrote the concession one), Leslie joins her friends to celebrate the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to serve Pawnee as an elected official. As the victory celebration rages on, Ron declines Chris’s job offer (for the assistant city manager position). Andy, however, might be pursuing a new career path next season, as April encourages him to think about joining the police force. Ann and Tom drunkenly decide to move in together, promising not to take it back when they’re sober. Big changes are coming to Pawnee, indeed…

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Grading the Season Finales: Once Upon a Time

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Title A Land Without Magic (1.22)

Written By Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz

Major Characters Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), Regina Mills/Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), Henry Mills (Jared Gilmore), Mary Margaret Blanchard/Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin), David Nolan/Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), Jefferson/Mad Hatter (Sebastian Stan), Belle (Emilie de Ravin), August W. Booth/Pinocchio (Eion Bailey)

What Happens First, we’ll tackle the Fairytale Land side of this finale…Prince Charming escapes from the Evil Queen’s dungeon with a little help from the Huntsman (Jamie Dornan) and proceeds on his quest to find Snow White. However, the queen transports him to a forest that is impossible to navigate…without a little magical help, of course. That help comes in the form of Rumpelstiltskin, who offers Charming the Fairytale Land equivalent of a GPS device (he’s enchanted a ring given to Charming by his mother to glow brighter as he approaches Snow White). But of course, all magic comes with a price. In this case, Charming has to hide a potion (made from Charming and Snow’s true love) inside the dragon form of Maleficent. After a daring fight with the aforementioned dragon, Charming succeeds, and, as promised, Rumpelstiltskin gives him the ring, telling Charming that he has a vested interest not only in true love but in what true love creates.

What happens next is a second look at the opening scene of the pilot episode, with Charming racing to his beloved Snow White and restoring her to life with true love’s kiss. The finale takes this scene one step further with a marriage proposal and a promise to “take back the kingdom” from the evil forces that are now controlling it (King George, who Charming has to pretend is his father in an elaborate “Prince and the Pauper”-type story from earlier this season, and the Evil Queen).

And now to the events in Storybrooke…After eating a cursed apple turnover meant for Emma at the end of last week’s episode, Henry is rushed to the hospital while a helpless Emma learns from Dr. Whale (David Anders) that there is no explanation for his loss of consciousness. This triggers Emma to finally see that what happened to Henry is “like magic,” and upon holding his storybook, she finally believes everything he had been telling her all season: Storybrooke is a town filled with cursed fairytale characters and she is the daughter of Charming and Snow, the savior meant to break the curse cast upon them by Regina. This is confirmed during a raw, emotional confrontation with Regina, during which Emma (Henry’s birth mother) discovers that Regina (Henry’s adopted mother) can’t bring their son back to life because she used the last of her magic to create the apple turnover that Henry ate.

The two women then go to the only other person in Storybrooke with substantial power, Mr. Gold. He tells Emma that she needs to retrieve the potion that her father hid inside of Maleficent, who is being kept in her dragon form underneath the town. Before she confronts the dragon, Emma goes to see August, only to watch him return to his original form (a wooden puppet) right before her eyes. Emma defeats the dragon, but is tricked into giving up the potion to Mr. Gold, who experiences his own shocking twist when he comes face-to-face with his beloved Belle, who was thought to be dead. She was freed by Jefferson and sent to find Mr. Gold with the message that Regina is the one who had been holding her captive.

The happiness of this moment is soon forgotten when Emma and Regina receive simultaneous phone calls from the hospital: Henry is dead. While Regina looks on, Emma says her final goodbyes to her son, telling him she loves him and kissing his forehead. True love’s kiss proves once again to be strong enough to conquer all, waking Henry and breaking the curse cast upon all of Storybrooke’s residents. With their memories restored, Snow White and Prince Charming have an emotional reunion 28 years in the making – as do Rumpelstiltskin and Belle. However, Rumpelstiltskin has bigger plans than love at the moment, dropping the potion Emma acquired into a well and bringing magic to Storybrooke through what appears to be a purple version of Lost’s infamous smoke monster.

As the one who cast the curse, Regina knows she will have hell to pay and must go into hiding to save herself now that the townspeople remember who they are. Before she leaves the hospital, though, she pleads with Henry to believe that, no matter what anyone tells him, she does love him. Her tears upon entering her son’s empty bedroom fade to a cruel smile, though, as she sees the purple smoke of magic returning to the town, presumably restoring her powers as the clock strikes 8:15, the same time that Storybrooke was frozen at for 28 years before Emma came to the town in the pilot episode.

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Grading the Season Finales: New Girl

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Title See Ya (1.24)

Major Characters Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris), Cece (Hannah Simone)

What Happens? Nick wants to leave the apartment he shares with Jess, Schmidt, and Winston to move back in with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Caroline, also known as the woman who turned Nick into “an agoraphobic, turtle-faced borderline alcoholic,” according to Jess. Despite his roommates’ protests, Nick seems determined to move out, leaving the rest of them to interview for a new roommate. They settle on Neil, a self-proclaimed troubadour with his own interesting set of quirks, including a box featuring an unknown animal (“…something growled in that box,” Cece tells Jess).

As the male roommates drive with Nick to his new apartment, they get more than they bargained for when Nick gets cold feet and takes them on an unplanned trip into the desert. In a fit of catastrophic spontaneity, Nick throws his keys into the wilderness, which prompts Schmidt and Winston to call Jess and Cece to take them home (which proves futile after Jess also appears to throw her keys away). The five friends are then forced to spend the night in the desert, listening to mixtapes Nick made in the 1990s. While there, Schmidt and Cece decide to end their relationship because she thinks he doesn’t trust her and he thinks she’s too good to be with him. Nick and Jess also have a moment of their own, with Jess finally giving Nick her blessing to move in with Caroline because she cares about him and wants him to be happy.

In the end, we learn that Jess never really did throw away her keys, and after a night of desert bonding, the friends take Nick to his new apartment. It’s clear, though, that Nick belongs with his former roommates rather than with Caroline, and the episode ends with him returning home to the sounds of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.”

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Grading the Season Finales: Castle

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Title Always (Episode 4.23)

Written By Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller

Major Characters Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), Detective Kevin Ryan (Seamus Dever), Detective Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas), Alexis Castle (Molly Quinn), Captain Victoria Gates (Penny Johnson Jerald)

What Happens? When a murder investigation leads the detectives to the man who shot Beckett in last season’s finale, she is tempted to once again go down the proverbial rabbit hole and lose herself in the conspiracy surrounding the fatal stabbing of her mother. In order to keep her from risking her life, Castle is forced to reveal to Beckett that he has been withholding leads from her as part of a deal for her life that he made with a mysterious Mr. Smith: If Beckett doesn’t investigate her mother’s death, she stays alive. After his pleas for rational thought and honest confessions of love appear to fall on deaf ears, Castle decides to walk away from Beckett once and for all.

Beckett and Esposito go rogue to try to take down the killer on their own, which ends with Beckett hanging off of a rooftop ledge and Ryan coming to her rescue – after he alerted Captain Gates to what she and Esposito were doing. Though Ryan saved their lives, Beckett and Esposito are suspended, but Beckett takes it one step further. She resigns, turning in her badge as she realizes that she has more to live for than simply avenging her mother’s death; that she wants more than the life she had been living up until that moment. This revelation sends her to Castle’s loft, where she tells him that she is ready to move on from her all-consuming quest for justice and become a whole person – with him. As the two of them kiss and prepare embark on the next chapter in their story, we learn that Beckett’s life is in grave danger as her shooter has found Mr. Smith, taking away Beckett’s greatest source of protection and vowing to kill her once and for all.

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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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I love television. I love it as a source of entertainment and as an outlet for analysis. Besides books, there is nothing I love to analyze more than television shows.

Television gets a bad reputation as being “mindless entertainment,” but I believe that reputation is not totally fair. Like all forms of media, you have to choose to see the positive examples and focus on those instead of the negative ones. Besides, it’s not just television that can be trashy. There are plenty of distasteful, mindless, and just plain awful films and books as well.

For every terrible television show (Sixteen and Pregnant, Bad Girls Club, every dating show ever aired on VH1, etc.) there are great television shows (The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc.). And there are fewer things more enjoyable in the life of a media studies geek than following a great television show through to its conclusion.

Television as a medium is like literature in a lot of ways. Each episode is like a chapter of a book, and each season is like a book in a series. If done correctly, television shows allow for the possibility of deep analysis and thoughtful discussion because of the depth with which stories can be told in this medium. Unlike films, which last two hours (or sometimes more – especially if you’re Peter Jackson or James Cameron), television shows can last for years. This allows for a kind of storytelling which, when done correctly, has the ability to present deeper characters and richer plots with more emotional weight than even a novel can present.

The emotional connection between the audience of a television show and the show itself is often stronger than the connection between other forms of media and their audiences. Viewers let television characters into their homes for an hour (or half-hour) every week for around 22-23 weeks per year (depending on the number of episodes in a season). There’s a sense of familiarity that develops in watching the interactions of characters for season after season of a television show, and that familiarity lends itself to a more emotionally engaging media experience than a standalone book or film. Put in the hands of capable writers and actors, these characters grow and develop over the course of a television show’s run, and viewers are able to watch that growth and personally connect with it.

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