You know the quickest way to derail my life? Give me a new TV show to get hooked on. TV is my non-guilty pleasure. The better a show is, the more borderline obsessed I become about it. And now there's a new show to add to the pile of DVR-hoggers I already watch. "Helix" is a show on Syfy (stupidest spelling for a network ever) about a group of CDC peeps who are dispatched to the Arctic to investigate an outbreak of an unknown disease. Ground zero for this outbreak is a highly secure, incredibly remote company that masquerades as a pharmaceutical testing facility, but is actually experimenting with various viruses and cures on both humans and animals. Of course, the CDC knows none of this and, by the time they find out, it's too late. I'd never heard of this show until a friend told me about it last week and said it might be the kinda thing I dig. Lucky for me, Syfy ran a "Helix" marathon on Friday that included the entire season. And it was a good way to spent 12 hours. The show reminds me of "Lost" in that every episode brought all kinds of questions and "SHUT THE FRONT DOOR?!" moments. You're almost compelled to watch the next episode...and the next...and the next. And after each episode, I thought it was a great thing I didn't find it sooner and watch it week to week because it woulda driven me crazy the same way "Lost" did. I was all kindsa excited when I heard it was renewed for a second season. Until I heard the second season isn't due until 2015. Then I went a little Hulk-ish and broke some stuff. Methinks an entire year is way too long to wait for a TV show, no matter how good it is. But unfortunately, that's the way it is for cable shows. And it's not even a totally fair payoff for that wait since you only get 13 episodes. But it could be worse. You could devote nine years of your life to a show, only to be let down when the series finale arrives. Such is the case with a buncha peeps today after the "How I Met Your Mother" finale.
I never got into HIMYM. The characters just never appealed to me. But I do have a general understanding of what's going on and, having read the recap of the finale, I'd probably be blind with fiery rage too had I been a fan. What an awful ending. What a giant leap back in character development. I mean, didn't the dude start out as a nerd with a crush on his gal pal when the show began? And he basically ends up the same guy, only with two children in tow. Sounds like someone just got lazy. There's chatter about this being listed as one of the worst finales of all time and I can't say I'd disagree. I've suffered through a few other terrible finales myself. I LOVE "Roseanne" to the point where I can quote just about every episode. Except for the final season and a half. It was some kind of fuckery when Dan Conner had an affair after the family won the lottery. He was always a good husband and father, not the kind of guy who would step out on his wife after nearly 30 years of marriage. As if that weren't enough, it's revealed in the finale that everything after his heart attack was a figment of Roseanne's imagination, a way of coping with the death of her husband after he had a heart attack on their daughter's wedding day. Honestly, that's where the show ended for me. I don't watch anything that came after that because it just got ridiculous. And it was no longer funny. The appeal of this family was that they were just like everyone else and, although times were not always good, they navigated their way through it all with humor. Once they won the lottery, everyone changed and the jokes became stale and overly contrived. It was no longer believable and that took all the fun out of it. Equally unbelievable was the finale of "Will & Grace". I was a little late to the W&G party. I dipped in and out of watching it as it was at the height of it's popularity, but did not watch the series beginning to end until just a few years ago. I don't recall if I watched the series finale at the time it aired, but caught it on TV last year and was underwhelmed. The greatness about that show was that Will and Grace's friendship endured through everything that happened to them; him coming out after having proposed to her, good boyfriends and bad boyfriends, family drama and even her having basically cast him aside when she met and married her Jewish doctor (I like Harry Connick Jr. but could never get on board with his character. Especially after he cheated and lied about it.). Neither of them ever had to choose between their own happiness in a relationship and each other. So it was a bit ludicrous that the finale involved each of them to do just that; choose between each other or their relationships. First off, neither would ever stay involved with someone who wanted to force the other out of their lives, as Vince tried to do to Will. Second, I don't care how desperate she was for a man, there's no way Grace would ever be able to be happy with Leo again after everything that happened. I don't care if you have five of the dude's kids, once trust is broken it is incredibly difficult to get back, if you ever can. And then there's the fact that they just abandon their friendship so easily and let it go to hell for almost two decades, only reuniting when their kids fortuitously end up in college together. Great friendships are rare as hell, anyone with any kind of sense doesn't just let that person walk away. The whole thing was ridiculous and a total letdown. Their kids should've grown up together, not had to meet once they were in college.
I know it's difficult to put a fitting ending on a show that's been on for four or five or even ten years, but I believe it's also tied to how prepared the writers are as the show progresses. "Friends" was not expected to become the phenomenon it was, but it's writers adjusted to constantly being in the spotlight and keeping the show fresh year after year. That show, and it's finale, is the bar for all long-running sitcoms. They managed to get ten seasons that were overall pretty fantastic and they ended with a wonderful finale that saw everything as it should be; Ross and Rachel together (finally) and everyone still a part of each other's lives, despite growing up and no longer living across the hall from each other. All of those characters grew by leaps and bounds in ten years, but certain aspects of their personalities remained the same. Chandler was a husband and father, but still neurotic as hell. Monica was a wife and mother, what she'd always aspired to be, yet both of those things came to her in very unexpected ways. Ross got the girl in the end, but not the way he'd hoped it would happen. Rachel was still ever so slightly irresponsible, yet also found herself embracing motherhood. And Joey and Phoebe were still...well, Joey and Phoebe, albeit it evolved versions of themselves. It ended the way we all wanted it to, with everyone riding off into the sunset, embarking on a new chapter in their lives while still maintaining their bond.
"ER" ran for a whopping fifteen seasons, the latter of which were mostly 'meh', and still managed to have a decent finale. By the end of it all only one original castmember remained and he was sort of in and out of the show, but appeared enough to have the finale somewhat centered on him and his ties to County General Hospital. Dr. John Carter began the show as an intern who could do no right by his mentor. He ended it as a man coping with the loss of his stillborn son and the toll that took on his marriage. He was also waiting on a kidney to replace his that was failing. In the time it took to get from point A to point B, he nearly died while on a Doctors Without Borders mission in Africa, survived being stabbed by a patient in the hospital, and finally took control of his family's enormous wealth by pouring all of it into a new clinic that would help Chicago's poor get the medical treatment they needed. The love of Carter's life was medicine and that was the one thing that remained a constant in his life. The series finale centered around Carter building his clinic while awaiting a donor kidney. And it brought many of his friends and fellow doctors back to celebrate the grand opening of a part of the clinic and, knowingly or not, help him survive. All but one of the original castmembers returned, as did a few other characters from over the years. The only one who did not return was someone who had been killed off years prior. Even Clooney came back in a wonderfully crafted storyline that showed us whatever happened to he and Nurse Hathaway (they were "ER's" Ross and Rachel, basically). It wasn't a perfect finale, but it was pretty damn good. The hospital remained in business, now with a new round of doctors to take care of Chicago's sick. Life went on, even if we were no longer invited in to take a peek at it each week. And somehow, that was a fitting way to end it.
Without a doubt, my favorite series finale ever was "Lost" (which I've written about here before). It was one of those love or hate kinda finales though. Those who favor science and meticulously took notes throughout the show's run were disappointed that not all of their questions were answered, while those who favor faith and didn't need every single thing to be explained were generally happy with how it ended. I've never heard anyone whose opinion about it falls in the middle, and I think that's a good thing. And all good things must come to an end at some point, including the shows I follow religiously now. I'm in no way looking forward to the ends of those shows, but I know there's always the possibility their series finales will be a letdown. I don't know how "The Big Bang Theory" will end, but I'd like to think it would be more "Friends" and less "HIMYM". "The Good Wife" is having an amazing season, on par or maybe even better than season one, and its creators say they already know how that will end. "Scandal" is basically an American telenovela so that can end however the hell it wants and still have it be believable to some degree. "Helix" is one of those shows that you feel like could be yanked off the air at anytime and so it may not get a series finale. But if the first season finale is any indication, they will wrap up any remaining questions regardless of what happens. The only remaining question is whether or not they will do it in a stupid fashion. Oh, and will we have to wait a year for that too (yes, I'm still bitter dammit).
