(Updated below)
SPOILER ALERT: If you're waiting till this weekend to get caught up on this week's season finales, skip this post.
So wtf is up with the season finales of a bunch of my fave shows being totally depressing? I mean, I'm used to cliff-hangers -- that's expected -- but it's like all the writers came back after the strike and decided that we, the audience, hadn't been bummed enough by the abbreviated season, so to make up for it they'd make the finales as bleak as possible. Cases in point:
- CSI: The entire ep is spent with Warrick a murder suspect. He's finally cleared (turns out someone inside the department was trying to frame him), the whole team goes out for a happy breakfast, and then that same someone shoots poor Warrick in the head to cover his identity.
- Bones: The ep starts out with a happy twist -- yay, Booth was just faking his death to reel in some unnamed murderer! -- but finishes with a reveal that Zack, the cute-like-a-puppy-dog youngest "squint," is actually the apprentice to a serial killer. Wha...?
- House: Wilson asks House to risk his life to save Amber (whatever happened to bros before hos, dude?), but Amber dies anyway -- but only after being temporarily resurrected to be told she's about to die -- and House, having had a seizure (on account of his bff asking him to undergo deep-brain stim even though he'd had a severe concussion and a heart attack in the past 12 hours), may or may not have lasting brain damage. I'm guessing not, but still. Oh, a 13 has the Huntington's gene. Cheerful.
- NCIS: Jenny is killed before she can hook up with Gibbs, then the team gets split up by the new Director. Much darker and more serious than the normal tone of the show.
- Criminal Minds: The whole f'ing team is blown up by terrorists. Every. Single. One. The only possible upside is that this opens the door to a return of Gideon. ("Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.") Update: My bad... watching it again, it looks like only one SUV blew up... I thought the montage showing each team member get into an SUV, followed by the explosion, was supposed to imply that every vehicle exploded, but now I think it was to make us wonder which one team member was killed. Still depressing.
Those five shows ended with particularly sad moods, but even Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs had pretty bleak cliffhangers. All of them have been renewed, so maybe some of the death and destruction will have somewhat positive resolutions in the fall, to whatever extent that's possible... but still. Life is depressing enough as it is, ya know? Hopefully the two-hour finale of LOST next week won't be a total downer, too, but I'm not putting money on it.
(On the up side, Chuck and my beloved Pushing Daisies have also been renewed, so there's at least that to look forward to.)