My favorite show this week, SONS OF ANARCHY Season Finale

Welcome to a week in review. Thankfully, it was a rather slow week, with a lot of big shows going into repeats, so I really had time to focus on some quality TV!  It’s a long read, so take caution as you  jump in, and be careful of spoilers if you haven’t seen something this week!

SUNDAY, November 29

THE AMAZING RACE is really starting to pick up steam as it heads towards the end.  At this point, I would be surprised if Meghan and Cheyne didn’t win in the finale, but the luck that Brian and Ericka have had and Sam and Dan’s ability to stay right in the raace could be total upsets.  It’s a shame that the Globetrotters took the 4 hour penalty in last week’s episode.  There are only so many combinations of the letters Z, R, N, A, and F, especially knowing that it started with an F, thanks to the brother’s help.  I would never have taken the 4 hour penalty, no matter how frustrating it was!  Maybe if I was actually in the race, and under the pressure, I would change my mind, but I doubt it!  Anyway, at this point, I don’t mind seeing any of the top three folks take the prize!

Talk about about ramping up to an amazing finale – DEXTER Season 4 has been completely on fire, am I right?  So many twists and turns.  With Dex figuring out the latest twist in Arthur’s seriously effed up world, that he kills 10 year old boys first, and then finishes the cycle.  Creepier than creepy, if you ask me.  And then there’s Christine.  I have to admit, I started thinking she was up to no good right around the time she stole information from Quinn, but I never would have guessed that she had shot Deb, never! Speaking of Quinn – I am suddenly shipping Deb/Quinn and I hope that that doesn’t mean we’ll see the end of Harrington’s Quinn in the finale!  I’m so over the whole Rita thing.  SO over it.  Part of me really thinks that Arthur will kill Dex’s family, giving him something to do in Season 5, get revenge, or go off the deep end or something genius like that.  According to an interview with Jennifer Carpenter on E!, the finale will have us asking “What can’t they do next” instead of “What can they possibly do next” so that should be insane.  Cannot wait to see what happens next!

Is CALIFORNICATION becoming the most depressing show on the planet?  I think it is, but for some reason, this season is my favorite.  Hank Moody is the most dysfunctional person in the world, yet women throw themselves at him.  I’m over Kathleen Turner, I’m over Rick Springfield, and I’m interested to see what happens with Hank and Karen.  I’ve heard from some friends that the finale is depressing, but that’s just par for the course, so we’ll see what happens in the next 2 eps!

Monday winner - LIE TO ME

MONDAY, November 30

I don’t miss Cameron on HOUSE, but I still wish she hadn’t been written out as callously as she was.  I’m totally over the House and Cuddy relationship, and poor Wilson having to deal with House making him feel bad for having friends that aren’t House.  A solid episode, slightly predictable as House goes out of his way to be a jerk to Wilson, and makes every effort to get Lucas and Lisa broken up, while picking on his team.  So, just another typical episode, really.  Joshua Malina was fantastic in this episode as “Jim’s” old friend, suffering from cancer, and then a wide variety of House team related illnesses.  It wasn’t the best episode of the season, and I’m still tuning in because I enjoy the show, but it’s not really “must watch” these days.

On the flip side, FOX’s other Monday night show LIE TO ME has become one of those “need to watch Monday nights and not later in the week” shows that I never expected!  I love the team dynamic of this show, I’m shipping Cal and Gillian hardcore, and I love the addition of Mekhi Phifer.  This season is awesome, and I cannot wait for the special SHIELD-cast episode of the show!

TUESDAY, December 1

I’m half and half on this season of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.  I love Ellenore and Jakob.  I really like Ryan and Ashleigh, and Russel.  I’m over Mollee, I’m over Kathryn, and Legacy.  And I’m totally over the consistency of the judges.  Love Adam, but we need rotating judges.  Seriously.

SCRUBS returned this week for a 9th season that we probably didn’t need, but that I’m not upset to be watching.  Set at a medical school now, instead of Sacred Heart, our favorites are teachers and there’s a bunch of new people learning how to be doctors.  The humor is still there, and I still enjoy the cast.  It’s a shame that there will be no Carla this season, but I’ll deal with that, because I love the addition of Dave Franco and Michael Moseley (Cole and Drew).  It’ll keep me watching, for sure!

I was really enjoying MELROSE PLACE when it started, but I have to say, the addition of Amanda to the show has caused issue for me.  I’m kind of slowly moving over it.  Can’t wait until Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is gone.  CANNOT WAIT.  Hopefully the show will make it that far.  Previews for next week look intense, with Jonah and Ella getting down and dirty.  I’ll keep tuning in, but not right away, like I had been!

The season finale of SONS OF ANARCHY blew my mind.  Blew my mind.  I was crying at the end when Jax was screaming at the Irishman.  I was brought to tears when Sack was stabbed so brutally.  I was on edge for the entire episode and don’t think I exhaled until after the show ended.  The acting on this show, the stories, the cast, the lack of predictability – this show is 100% my favorite thing currently on the air, and the news of a 3rd season pickup was such a great delight! Amazing – you have 10 months to get caught up on S1 and S2 before S3 starts up!!!

WEDNESDAY, December 2

I should have picked Nathan in the SYTYCD Fantasy Dance Lark  over at John’s site.  Then I would be even further in the lead and able to “cage” up  my opponent next week.  No big surprise that Noelle was kicked off.  I kind of didn’t even remember her name for the majority of the season…

Is anyone else still tuning into, and loving, THE MIDDLE on ABC?  The family dynamic of this show is so awesome.  I just think it’s a really great comedy, and that I’m so glad that ABC is giving it the fair shake, and the full season, to continue picking up viewers.  LOVE IT!

It’s painful for me to admit that I thought this week’s GLEE was a little bit too all over the place, and predictable.  Who didn’t see it coming that someone would be disqualified for the commercial?  Who didn’t think Sue would go out of her way to hurt the club?  I will say that I LOVED the Will and Teri scene where we finally saw him realize months too late that she wasn’t actually pregnant.  And the singing was great, but I just felt like “oh ok I guess it was a good episode” versus saying “that was incredible” as I have in weeks past.  Can’t wait for next week’s “Sectionals” episode, where we can finally see their hard work pay off in a little way.  I’m sure it won’t go smoothly!

Wednesday's winner TOP CHEF

My favorite Wednesday show this week was part one of the Season finale of TOP CHEF: LAST VEGAS. I was sad to see Jennifer go, because I would have really liked to see the Brothers Voltaggio competing against her for the top three, but Kevin is definitely a worthy opponent!  I really don’t know who is going to win, but a part of me wants for Michael V to take it all!

On the flip side, how boring was LAUNCH MY LINE?  Now that my least favorite person, Dan Karaty, has been voted off, I have no reason to keep watching!

Lastly on Wednesday, I was super bummed to see that this week’s episode of EASTWICK was truly intriguing.  It totally proved that the show was canceled for good reason though, as it took 10 whole episodes for best friends to admit to each other what we’ve known since day one – they’re witches and they’re powerful, and shit’s about to hit the fan!

THURSDAY, December 3

Let’s talk about SURVIVOR, shall we?  I’m totally rooting for Russell and Mick.  There have been so many blind sides, I go into each vote not having a clue about what’s going to happen!  LOVE IT!

Thursday's winner PARKS AND RECREATION

NBC’s comedies all kind of blended into one long two hour block for me – COMMUNITY was funny, and I think that Abed is my favorite character on Thursday nights, for sure.  The whole Jeff and Pierce double date was great.  I think PARKS AND REC was fantastic once again.  The gang getting together to support the end of Tom’s green-card marriage was great.  When they went around the table saying their favorite things about Tom, it made me laugh out loud.  Seriously, it’s having a genius year, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.  THE OFFICE was actually way too full of cringeworthy moments.  I hate when Michael does something so remarkably stupid that he doesn’t know how to get out of it.  I hate Jim as a hated member of the office.  I hate Dwight’s shenanigans against Jim when they go in Dwight’s way.  Did not like the episode!  30 ROCK was another good episode – my favorite part being that Kenneth is a muppet on HiDef, and Jack is just Alec Baldwin 15-20 years ago.  Frank as Liz was great, too!

Least favorite IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA of the season.  It felt forced, not as funny as the rest of the shows have been, for sure!  Danny DeVito is actually my least favorite cast member, so I’m always looking for less Frank!

Another great episode of BONES, though I could have done without the terribly graphic skin-falling-off scenes – I love Booth and Bones and their chemistry.  I love Cam playing awkward, and having all this crazy going on around her.  And holy Hell, how hot was TJ Thyne when he was just bending metal stuff in his white tank top?  I’m a-crushing on Jack Hodgins!  Angela, go back to him, FAST!  Also, hey Gavin Doosler, from JUST THE 10 OF US!

Friday's winner MONK

FRIDAY, December 4

Say what you might about what ABC has been doing to UGLY BETTY (which is thankfully moving to Wednesdays in a few weeks), this season has been really, really good.  The episode, set in the Bahamas was really great.  Daniel and Marc together was genius!  My only complaint about the episode is actually that they’re putting Betty and Matt back together.  I am not a fan of this pairing, as I’ve suddenly recently become a Betty/Daniel shipper (I know, weird).  Becki Newton is doing genius work this season.  And who is better than Judith Light?  No one!

STARGATE UNIVERSE had their mid-season finale Friday night, and I was definitely taken with the action of the storyline.  I kind of hated Ming Na’s Camille Wray, and totally thought she was the one who framed Young, because of what happened when she visited Earth.  What in the world is going to happen to Rush now?  I mean, he’s going to obviously catch up with the Destiny at some point.  But how.  And what happens when Young and Rush are back together again?

I thought the fall-finale of WHITE COLLAR was pretty good.  I knew as soon as I saw Noah Emmerich that he was a bad guy.  It pains me to expect that I absolutely expected to see what happened at the end.  I love this show, and I love the chemistry between Neil and Peter, so it bums me out that Peter is a part of the whole Kate fiasco.  I’m glad it’ll only be off air for a few weeks, because I really want to see what happens next, but I’m a little nervous.

I was truly impressed with DOLLHOUSE last night.  A solid two hours of “what’s going to happen” with a genius performance by Summer Glau and Enver Gjokaj (as Topher, and Fran did a fabulous job, too!).  I wish that they hadn’t taken so many episodes to get the point of what happens to Echo when she has multiple downloads and she’s out on her own as a doll.  But I am looking forward to the rest of this burn off of episodes, for sure!

And the show of the night was the MONK series finale that had me crying my eyes out as we said good bye to our favorite OCD detective.  I thought that the murder arc was wrapped up a little too neatly, and that they probably could have done a 2 hour movie to say good bye to a show that has brought USA so much acclaim, but this episode was a great ending.  When Monk and Leland had that moment in the hospital, where he thought was dying, and he asked for Leland to kill Craig T Nelson, that’s where the tears started.  And then Monk meeting Trudy’s daughter, Alona Tal, who we just saw die on SUPERNATURAL, and finally the last minute, where we saw MONK getting ready to go to the movies in a new outfit, not the same old suit. And Randy in New Jersey, because he loves Sharona?  It was so great.  Goodbye Mr. Monk!