It’s been ten years and 200+ episodes, and Smallville has officially come to an end. So how did Friday night’s finale wrap things up?

Obviously full spoilers follow.

Smallville has had some amazingly great moments over the years, and I’ve been a loyal watcher for a long time. But one thing the show has typically been not-so-great at was season finales. The finales tended to focus more on build-up to whatever stories were happening before, with a tacked-on, not particularly satisfying resolution, followed by a cliffhanger where it seems as every major character is going to die. Still, I was holding out hope that the series finale would do a better job at wrapping things up.

And it did.

Was the show perfect? Definitely not. But it did a great job at showing Clark Kent finally embrace his destiny and become Superman.

One of the things that initially hooked me on Smallville was Martha and Jonathan Kent, perfectly played by Annette O’Toole and John Schneider. I’m not gonna lie – I cried when Jonathan Kent died, and as nice as it was seeing the character pop up earlier this season, in the finale he really got a chance to have some great moments with Clark. The scenes with Clark and his departed father were very emotional, especially when Martha joined the mix. Clark’s adoptive parents made Clark into the honorable hero he became, so it was only fitting they be there to push him on his way. And Jonathan handing Clark the costume in the Fortress was a great moment.

The return of Lex Luthor was also well done. I liked that he wasn’t really the main focus of the episode – there was a lot of other stuff going on, and Lex’s return served as an excellent addition to the story without being a distraction. Tess’s wiping away his memories was a bit convenient, but it did always seem inevitable that future Lex wouldn’t be able to remember his younger days with Clark. But Michael Rosenbaum – as he had for the first seven seasons of the show – was great as Superman’s once and future foe.

The fight scenes in the show were, as usual, a bit lackluster. We had just seen Clark and Ollie fight in slow-motion in the Phantom Zone just a few weeks ago. And the battle with a zombified Lionel/Darkseid was over very quickly. But for my money, emotional content beats physical destruction any day, so no great loss there.

It seemed like a safe bet that, having Chloe survive this long, she was going to make it through the series, and the show’s opening scene made it a guarantee. Which is fitting – she was a great addition to the Superman mythos, so why shouldn’t she get to raise a junior hero with her arrow-shooting husband?

OK, so there were a few things that just didn’t work. How did Ollie dispatch Darkseid’s minions exactly? Who were all of those random people at Lois and Clark’s wedding? Stretchy Pete Ross couldn’t make it? And did we really need to hear Lois and Clark’s vows twice? Presumably, Apokolips has been coming towards Earth for a while now – why are we (the audience) just seeing it now? It might have amped up the drama this season if we had seen it slowly heading our way all year long. And if a planet is crashing into ours, why would the President go airborne in a freaking plane?? Shouldn’t he be deep underground in a bunker somewhere? And if Lois and Clark are so in love, why wait seven full years to get married? And in last year’s season finale glimpse into the future, it was 2013, Lois and Clark were married, Lex was running for President, and Jimmy Olsen was already working at the planet. Clearly these timelines don’t match. But I guess the season nine flash-forward was just a dream, so the details may have been off.

And yeah, it would have been nice to see Clark Kent in full costume, instead of just glimpses of his face with the cape behind him and a CGI Superman doing all of the heavy lifting.

But quibbles aside, it was a great end to a pretty damn good show. I know I complained about things along the way, but overall I think the show did a good job giving a new spin on a classic (and a personal favorite) character. The show ended on a high note – literally, by using John Williams’ brilliant theme. I’m going to miss the show, but I am glad that the producers and writers were able to give the show the send-off it deserved.

Advance warning: This post is about Smallville, and it contains spoilers about the current and past seasons.

Last Friday, like all good fanboys, I was furious when I read that Michael Rosenbaum, the actor who played Lex Luthor for seven years on Smallville, would not be returning for the show’s series finale.  I wasn’t just peeved at Rosenbaum; I was also none too happy with the show’s producers.

See, in Season Eight, after Rosenbaum left the show, the writers used a stand-in (he was disfigured and hooked up to machines and in the dark so it sorta kinda worked) to tie up loose ends with his character, and they killed him off.  They did all they could to make this death seem permanent and legit.

Yet in Season Nine, Lex was referred to as Clark’s future enemy, and a glimpse into the future showed a headline of Lex running for President.  Huh?

In the Season Ten premiere (that being the current and final season) it was revealed that there were clones of Lex that had been made.  And when all of the clones were destroyed, wouldn’t you know it that one survived.  Ah-ha!  So everything was working out for a new Lex to emerge as Clark/Superman’s eventual archnemesis.  Perfect!

Except that behind the scenes, the show runners had yet to secure Rosenbaum to return to the show.  When I saw the apparently false reports that he wouldn’t be coming back, it occurred to me that the people behind the show had written themselves into quite a predicament.  I’m sure they had a contingency plan, but without Rosenbaum, this plot line would have most likely had a pretty lackluster resolution.

But there is good news – Rosenbaum has since confirmed that he will in fact reprise his role for the series finale.  He had said in the past that he was eager to put the character behind him, and he mentioned looking forward to not having to shave his head ever again when he left the show.  But he said that he decided to come back to the show in large part due to the wishes (and threats) of the fans.  Hey, whatever the motivation is, the fact that we’ll see Lex once again is fantastic news for the show.  Yes, Smallville has a history of screwing the pooch when it comes to season finales, but despite that long-standing record, I am remaining optimistic that the show will be able to go out on a high note.

It’s been a while since I weighed in on my thoughts on TV’s finest programming, so without further ado (or Apu, if you prefer), here are some quick thoughts on the current season through the halfway point. Beware of spoilers.

The Simpsons – Still funny after all these years, The Simpsons continues to be funny, occasionally touching, and culturally relevant. (Their triumvirate of jabs at Fox News got some positive and negative coverage.) I’m not sure about how I feel about their pretty racy Katy Perry gag, not because it wasn’t funny, but because it seemed like the kind of thing that would have felt more at home on Family Guy. And speaking of…

Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, and American Dad! – I lump these three shows together because they are pretty similar in tone, though I do stand by my assertion that of the three, the funniest and best written remains the under-appreciated American Dad! Cleveland has its moments, but it still feels like a Family Guy clone (as did American Dad before it found its own footing). And Family Guy has been pretty inconsistent – the murder mystery premiere was pretty lame, but the recent Christmas show had some good moments. Which proves that they CAN tell a story well, if and when they choose to actually do so.

Boardwalk Empire – Does it feel pretty similar to The Sopranos? Sure. But was it pretty damn entertaining anyway? Yup. There is plenty of gratuitous violence and nudity, but the characters and stories are really well fleshed out. And though I wasn’t totally sure about buying Buscemi in a lead role, his supporting cast goes a long way at making the world seem real.

How I Met Your Mother – HIMYM is still making funny observations about life in clever ways, like the “Where’s the poop?” bit and “The Mermaid Theory.” And while I do wish that Ted would actually start to come close to maybe perhaps finding the damn Mother already, the show’s use of flashbacks and flashforwards are still used to great effect. My main complaint with this season so far is the Zoey storyline – I’m just not feeling it. We know she’s not the Mother, so it feels like the show is just spinning its wheels.

The Event – Look, I’d love for TV to have another Lost-esque show on the air. But you can’t force a square peg into a round hole, and despite starting off promising, The Event got really lame really fast. Too bad.

Parenthood – Why aren’t more people watching this show? And why does it so frequently got pre-empted by The Biggest Loser? Parenthood is an amazingly well-written and well-acted show, with a realistic depiction of family life. Check it out! It’s honestly a lot better quality than…

Glee – Sure, I love the music. But this season it just seems like the writers are trying to shoehorn as many songs as possible into every show. I get it – iTunes downloads are what makes the show profitable, but when there are 7 songs and no story, the show suffers. And for every interesting storyline – like Kurt being bullied – there are many more retreads – Emma breaks Will’s heart by getting married, Rachel and Finn fight, Sue turns evil then good then evil again.

South Park – SP had a strong fall season, with the Jersey Shore spoof and Randy’s obsession with Food Network being standouts. The Coon arc could have been a two-parter instead of a trilogy, but the payoff at the end made it all worth it. Mint Berry Crunch!

30 Rock – Still brilliant. Tracy still gets a never-ending stream of hysterical and quotable lines. The humor works on every level, and the meta stuff never crosses the line of being “too meta,” if that makes sense.

The Office – Also going strong in Michael Scott’s final season. I have to say that after each episode I become more and more convinced that the honorable thing to do is to end the series on a high note with his departure, but the odds of that happening seem slim.

Community – Another under-rated show that is very funny. Their parodies are always spot-on, and the show seems to be embracing the whole cast now instead of being focused primarily on Jeff and Britta. Although it does seem that every episode has a theme about what great friends all of our characters are.

Fringe – Damn this show is amazing. The whole Olivia/Fauxlivia storyline played out beautifully over the first half of the season, and the upcoming battle between the two universes looks very promising. I personally don’t mind that the show is being moved to the “death slot” of Friday nights since we DVR everything anyway, but at least the new promos show that the producers are willign to make light of their new night.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – This has to be some of, if not the, best political commentary around today. These are war stories, but they also focus on corruption, greed, and the behind the scenes machinations of the military-industrial complex. Heavy stuff for a kids show on the Cartoon Network, right? Well, there are plenty of fights and lightsaber battles, too, for good measure. And even though the last few episodes have been Galactic Senate-heavy, the second half of the season looks to heavily feature action – and Darth Maul’s brother!

Smallville – You gotta give it to the team behind Smallville – they are doing all they can to make this season memorable. Storylines are moving at a furious pace, and the Lois-Clark relationship has never been so fascinating, and as much as I loved Lana, her romance with Clark pales in comparison. Having less main characters has given the show much more focus, although I do miss Chloe. And it’s been nice seeing some old familiar faces, with the appearance of Lionel Luthor particularly well done. (Although I have to wonder why Earth-2’s Clark is named Clark also – the Kents named their adopted son after Martha’s maiden name, so it seems strange that Lionel would pick the same first name. Whatever.) I’m looking forward to more guest stars in the second half, as well as seeing more of Darkseid and his minions. The show has a nasty record of flubbing season finales, but I will hold out hope that it can nail the series finale.

It seems like there’s a lot of Superman stuff on the net today, so I thought I’d share:

Christopher Nolan is narrowing down the list of his director choices for the next Superman movie. The list is said to include Tony Scott, Matt Reeves, Jonathan Liebesman, Duncan Jones, and Zack Snyder. As much as I liked Cloverfield and 300, neither of those movies scream “This guy would make a killer Superman movie,” (and I thought Watchmen was good, but not great) and I don’t know the other guys’ work well enough to really comment.  In my mind the perfect choice is Nolan himself, but no one asked for my opinion…

At Entertainment Weekly, there was a spirited discussion about Superman II.  I fall in the camp of “Loved the movie/wish it was more Donner than Lester,” but some good points are raised on both sides.

And lastly, IGN has put together a special piece on the things Smallville has done wrong over the years.  I’m a fan of the show, but yeah, there have definitely been some missteps along the way.  There was mention on the site of a companion piece on what the show has gotten right, but it hasn’t been posted yet.  Any way you slice it, the show has had its ups and downs, but I will definitely be watching the upcoming tenth and final season to see how it all ends.

The Eighties
A decade of amazing pop culture milestones, sitcoms in the 1980’s knew how to do a theme song. The crème de la crème:

Perfect Strangers – the greatest TV show ever about a guy named Balki and his cousin.

Family Ties – the “sha-la-la” at the end is legendary,

Who’s the Boss – “the choice is up to you, my friend” – how inspirational!

The Dukes of Hazzard – technically the show began in the 70’s, but come on, this is a classic.

The Greatest American Hero – I never watched a single episode of this show, but what a song!

The CW
Sure, most of the shows on the WB/UPN/CW are aimed at teeny boppers, but there have been some gems – gems with killer theme songs no less.

Veronica Mars – The Dandy Warhols brought it with their theme song, although they really did make it lamer in Season 3.

Smallville – this song is best sung by James and myself in the highest pitch possible.

Smallville Theme
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It’s Not TV, It’s HBO
Remember when HBO used to just air movies, and not amazing series with fantastic theme songs?

The Sopranos – how else can you make a drive through New Jersey seem cool?

True Blood – everything about this show is cool, especially the way it starts.

Kid Friendly Fare:
Shows for kids need to have an amazing theme song to hook the kids in – it’s just good marketing.

The Muppets – no one from our generation does not have this song memorized.

Spongebob Square Pants – a true modern sing-a-long classic.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – They’re heroes in a half shell… and they’re green!

Lyric-less
Sometimes, a great theme doesn’t need any (or just a few) words in order to be super catchy.

The Simpsons – universally know because of the show’s popularity, but a great theme in its own right.

30 Rock – a great tune that lets you know you’re in store for hilarity.

The Office – this was Courtney’s ring tone for a while, and it never got old.

A bunch of my favorite TV shows have been renewed for new seasons – here is a quick round-up.  (Yes, some of these are old, but so what?)

Fringe was just given the go-ahead for a third season, which is fantastic news.  The show’s ratings have been down thanks to its hyper-competitive timeslot, but the stories this season have been phenomenal, and the show is really coming into its own.  If you’re not watching it, you should be!

Smallville, which has seen every season since #7 potentially be its last, has gotten a pick-up to continue for a Season Ten.  As a fan of the show, I have been hoping for years that it would come to an end; it’s not that I don’t love it, I just think that based on the concept of the show – Clark Kent growing into the hero he will be – needs to eventually come to its logical conclusion.  For years, the show seemed to be dragging its feet, but no more.  The show still has its issues, but it has proven that it still has legs, and I am excited that they will continue for another year.  I still stand by my assertion that the show does need to come to a satisfactory conclusion, and that the showrunners should negotiate an end that will leave them and the fans happy.

NBC picked up the three Thursday night shows we watch, The Office, 30 Rock, and Community, for additional seasons.  Similarly to Smallville, The Office, as much as I love it, needs to end at some point as well.  What on earth is this documentary crew still doing in Scranton?  Are they *ever* going to take all of this footage and make it into something?  Or are we supposed to now think that the cameras are there as an ongoing reality series?  Has that ever been established?  I still like the show, and I’ll keep watching it, it just seems like it’s gotten a little too silly for its own good.

Community is also pretty funny, and while I can’t see it staying on the air forever (community college is only for two years, right?), another season is good news.  And 30 Rock is pure brilliance, and they need to keep that show going as long as they can keep Alec Baldwin on it.

How I Met Your Mother got a green-light for a sixth season, which is also great news, but once again, the show is going to need to come to an end based on the premise of the series.  Eventually, Ted’s gonna have to meet the Mother, and all of the story lines will have to pay off.

Big Love was given an order for a fifth season, which isn’t terribly surprising given that the show pulls in pretty solid numbers for HBO.  This season seems to be moving at a breakneck pace, which is a nice change from a lot of the other scripted shows on the air that seem to plod along.

And for what it’s worth, here is my official opinion on these shows that are still “on the bubble:”

24 – I could go either way on this one.  The show is still entertaining, but the formula has gotten a bit stale.

Heroes – Yeah, I have stuck with this show despite swearing off it several times.  I didn’t finish this past season, but now with the last few episodes on FiOS’ On Demand, I am planning on it.  The show is also past its prime, so I wouldn’t be heartbroken if it went off.

Scrubs – They never should have brought Scrubs back from the dead after last season, but to cancel it now would just be extra insulting.

V and FlashForward – Both of these shows have potential to live for a few seasons, if the writing can stay strong.  I personally have a little more faith in V, but I’m looking forward to seeing how both shows play out their seasons.

Every December, a ton of “Best of the Year” lists pop up everywhere, and they can get old pretty quick, but I’m digging the “Best of the Decade” lists that I’ve been seeing lately. So I figured I’d jump on that particular bandwagon, and so I now present my list of some of the best pop culture trends of the past ten years.

Funny Music from Artists Besides Weird Al
Don’t get me wrong – my obsession with Weird Al Yankovic, the king of parodies and musical comedy, is still strong as ever. And he had a great decade in his own right, with the fantastic albums Poodle Hat and Straight Outta Lynwood, as well as his several Internet Leaks songs and videos. But he also had some competition in the funny music department. Tenacious D’s first album is side-splittingly funny. Though the movie and its soundtrack were less hilarious than they could have been, the genius of their first batch of songs more than makes up for it.

Then there’s Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island crew. The videos for Lazy Sunday, D*ck in a Box, I’m On a Boat, and others are brilliant in their lyrics and their visuals, and the digital shorts have been some of the best stuff on Saturday Night Live in recent years.

And who could forget the brilliance of Flight of the Conchords? Their two seasons on HBO, their two albums, and their EP were full of catchy, quotable, fantastic, and hysterical songs. I cried a little bit (on the inside) when I heard the show was officially done. Hopefully they’ll keep putting out music into the next decade.

The Renaissance of the Serialized Drama
The aughts may be remembered as the decade when hour-long, serialized dramas came back with a major vengeance. The best of the bunch has to be Lost – a show that not only blows your mind every week, but it has you obsessing in between episodes, talking over theories and trying to guess what it all means. The season 1 and 3 finales are two of my personal favorites in a standout series.

While the writing may not be as strong at 24 as it is on Lost, it’s still an extremely entertaining show, and it’s made Jack Bauer an instant kick ass pop icon. Sure, it’s cheesy when he screams “Dammit, we’re running out of time!” yet again, but it’s hard to resist the show’s real-time Die Hard feel. Then there’s Smallville, which has gotten much better at telling long stories over multiple episodes instead of just relying on freak-of-the-week episodes. And Fringe straddles the line of stand alone episodes with a greater mythology, and so far has been doing a great job of both. I also have high hopes for FlashForward and V, but it will remain to be seen how well those shows pay off long arcs, but they’re both off to good starts.

Even when theses kinds of shows haven’t worked all that well (Dollhouse, Terminator, Heroes) or when they were good concepts that were canceled too soon (Eli Stone), it’s still good that network executives are giving their audience some credit, understanding that we have patience, and can appreciate the kind of story-telling where everything isn’t all wrapped up in a tidy package in 42 minutes.

There is a great, albeit very long article about this topic at GQ.com with the guys from Bad Robot – I recommend it if you have a half-hour to kill.

Sit-coms Are Amazing Again!
It wasn’t just hour-long dramas that rocked the decade; the sit-com was reintroduced as a medium of clever comedies, and not just full of pratfalls and one-dimensional characters. Arrested Development was able to use bad puns, sight gags, kissing cousins, and The Final Countdown to great effect for powerful belly laughs. The British version of The Office gave us an amazing new brand of painful and awkward humor that would live on in the American series, as well as Ricky Gervais’ show Extras. 30 Rock is written so brilliantly and the jokes come so fast I find myself having to constantly rewind back to listen to jokes again. How I Met Your Mother gave a new twist to the story of urban singles looking for love. And we got 8 great years of Scrubs – even if Season 9 leaves a little to be desired.

The Superhero Is Cool Again
It seems like ages ago, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past that superhero movies weren’t really anything to get that excited about. Then in a single decade, we got four fantastic films in the genre: Superman Returns, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man. (I know I’m going to get mocked for making those the ones I single out… but I just can’t get behind Spider-man. I tried, really, I did. And I enjoyed X-Men and X2, but I don’t know if they were amazing.) Too often, superhero movies were considered formulaic drivel, and could be released, hated, and forgotten about quickly. But the aughts made them not only bankable hits, but films that both nerds and critics agreed were actually good. I’ve defended Superman Returns so many times I’ve lost count, so I’ll just make this quick – it had its fans, and its share of people who hated it, but I loved it, so it goes on *MY* list, OK? The rebooted Batman films were also incredible, and they made that world so dark and believable it’s hard to not be foaming at the mouth for more sequels. And even though I knew nothing about Iron Man, I thoroughly enjoyed that film as well. Sure there have been some bad superhero movies in the past ten years, but the good ones were so great, it almost doesn’t matter.

The Apatow Movie Method
If some strange pop culture villain put a gun to my head and demanded I name the funniest movie of the past ten years, it’s a safe bet that I’d answer Superbad. I was laughing out loud a lot when we first saw that flick, and every time I’ve watched it since, I have the same reaction. That’s impressive considering I know the jokes that are coming. I also feel similarly about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and The 40-Year Old Virgin. And Anchorman and Talladega Nights and Walk Hard and any movie that had Apatow’s name attached to was guaranteed to be at least funnier than your average comedy. Of course, Judd himself didn’t always have much to do with every all of the above movies, but his influence can be felt in them – and others where he had no involvement whatsoever, like I Love You, Man; there are outrageous moments, painful moments, and things that are ridiculous enough to make you laugh so hard your stomach hurts, but they still keep themselves grounded in such a way that you buy what’s happening. Movie comedies will probably continue to evolve, but these movies will always make me laugh.

The Pixar Streak
So much has already been said about the brilliance of the Pixar movies, but here it goes anyway: The folks at Pixar are geniuses, and each and every one of their flicks have been funny, beautiful to watch, and full of great characters and stories. Two of the greatest films of the decade in my humble opinion are WALL·E and Up, neither of which sounded like a home-run concept, but were both executed flawlessly. Sure there are other companies doing similar kinds of animation, but those movies always just fail to impress me with their stories, and often times they are so full of timely references that the jokes will be out dated in a few years. Courtney and I have been watching a DVR’d collection of Pixar shorts, and even the company’s short films are crafted with amazing precision and humor. I sure hope my kids love these movies, because I know I’ll enjoy watching them too.

Nintendo Changes Video Gaming
I’m a Nintendo fanboy – always have been, always will be. And I loved the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance. But what Nintendo pulled off with the Wii and the Nintendo DS is truly incredible. Video-gaming is no longer just associated with nerds playing alone in dark basements – it’s now something that the whole family can do together, something that parents don’t dread if their kids want to do, and it’s even something that women actually enjoy. (And are not just pretending to enjoy for the sake of their boyfriends or husbands.) Wii Sports isn’t my favorite game personally, but I love watching people who have never held a game controller pick it up and play with ease. Wii Fit is a really fun way to exercise at home. The latest iterations of the classic franchises have all been fantastic: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii are all incredible games, as are their counterparts on the DS. (I just beat the first dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks this morning – it’s really fun so far!)

Sure Nintendo has room for improvement – better online capability, HD graphics, etc. But the fact of the matter is what they are doing now works, and it works well, and it works well for a huge chunk of the population.

Better, Clearer, Faster
High definition television. DVR. Portable players that let us watch movies, TV shows, and carry tons of music and photos, too. It’s pretty amazing that when we started this decade, those things weren’t common, and now it’s hard to imagine life without them. It sounds like a sweeping statement, but it isn’t, really. Try to go through a week without using your DVR. Or switch back to a standard definition TV. You’ll be going out of your mind in a week. What are you going to do, record your favorite shows with a VCR? Seriously.

And remember when you had to carry a discman with you to listen to music on the go? You looked strange wearing headphones, and you could only listen to one album at a time! Now you can carry thousands of songs in your cell phone.

And remember dial-up? When it would take a half hour to load a 30 second video clip? Now you can watch entire episodes of TV shows or whole movies on your laptop – or even on your TV – that load in seconds.

It’s hard to imagine so much has happened in ten years, and it’s even crazier that in December 2019, we’ll be looking back at all of this stuff as quaint and old-fashioned.

So, I guess that means he managed to survive at the end of last season, huh? Well, that was one heckuva shocker. Though I gotta admit the lines about Jack not looking like a grandpa got me sort of excited for the new season.

Of course, I am most excited for the upcoming and (definitely) final season of Lost. There’s a new teaser trailer, and even though it shows absolutely no new footage, it’s still sort of cool to get amped up about Lost again:

The new trailer does NOT make up for the fact that the show won’t be running uninterrupted in 2010 – ABC will force the show to take a break during the 2010 Winter Olympics. That’s just super lame. First of all, I can’t imagine that there is a ton of overlap between Lost fans and figure skating fans. And even if people are truly torn between finding out the secrets of The Island and seeing who takes home the gold in Curling, they can just DVR one, and not screw with the rest of us. (Although now that I think about it, a February 2010 hiatus might be a good thing for the Noah family…)

Like 24, Smallville is another show that may or may not be ending, but now there’s word that the Smallville producers are pushing hard to go for another year. This is sort of just par for the course at this point, considering that pretty much the last few seasons have all been considered likely to be the show’s last. Hell, I had been saying the show should have ended long ago as well, but I gotta admit, the show has been pretty cool lately. Sure, it still has its flaws (like last week where they were back to ripping off movies for plot ideas, this time it was “The Game”) but the show has gotten better at long arcs, and they seem to know what they’re doing and where they’re going. Hell, the simple fact that they are even planning ahead to know how to end this season and lead into next year speaks volumes about their “big picture” plans, which I can appreciate.

And last piece of news: the new Scrubs (which, like Smallville, just keeps coming back for “one more” season) is set to return on December 1st. It’s an odd time for a show to come back on the air, and I was really hoping they would at the very least change the title, but who am I kidding, there’s no way I’m not going to watch it.

And just in case anyone missed it/wants to watch it again, here’s Cartman singing “Poker Face” while Stan hunts Japanese whale hunters.

Super fast recap of the non-Lost season finales of the year:

Smallville – Super disappointing battle between Clark and Doomsday. They built up all season for 1 minute of a fight? And Jimmy Olsen wasn’t thew real Jimmy Olsen? Lame. And Chloe didn’t know that her husband had a brother? And she didn’t even try to use her healing power on him? Lame lame double lame.

24 – Tony was sort of kind of a little bit redeemed – he did have somewhat of a motivation for his actions, although he was willing to go to some awful extremes. And Kim in trouble was a tired way to end the season – there was way too much talking and not enough action in a finale where we knew Jack wasn’t going to die.

Fringe – A great end to a great first year. I really think this was one of my favorite new shows of the past season. The twists about Peter and where William Bell holds his alternate-universe meetings were great moments.

The Office – The best moment of the show was Dwight stalling for Pam and Jim. How many people have to get hurt before we do something? One? Two? Three? … FOUR?

Scrubs – What a great way to end the series, except that they’re not really ending the series. On the one hand I’m happy to have more Scrubs, but they did such an amazing job tying everything up, it could feel like overkill. And how wil they top the next series finale they have to do?

Another TV season has come and gone… Now I can begin a summer of watching baseball!

So after I was able to brag and boast and say “I told you so” when it was revealed that Tony was good, it turns out that he’s really evil? I didn’t believe it at first, and it still really pisses me off. For one because I loved the character and he’s been around for so long, but also because it doesn’t make a ton of sense – if he and his anonymous buddies wanted a full scale attack, why did they stop Jonas? He was a loose cannon because he wanted to attack too much too soon, but now they’re doing the same thing? Huh?

This week’s Lost was good, but it was really all set-up for the finale next week, which I am totally psyched for. Can Locke kill Jacob? What is Jacob? And why the hell did the Others appoint Locke as their leader and not bother to explain the rules to him? How can he lead when he doesn’t know what’s going on around him? (Attention bleeding hearts: Insert Dubya joke here…) And now all of a sudden Kate loves Jack so much that she’s willing to allow tons of people to die (Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Libby, everyone else) just so she can hold on to a few happy memories with her ex-fiancée? Oh, and Chang’s questioning of Hurley? Brilliant.

And speaking of shows coming up on their season finales, perhaps Smallville will break it’s recent run of huge buildups to disappointing final episodes. The promo didn’t really sell it, but I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s gotta be better than the Heroes finale at least. They just. Keep. Making. The same. Damn mistakes! Show us a decent fight with Sylar! Let Ali Larter’s characters stay dead! Ugh. I don’t think I’ll be watching next season – they just haven’t given me any reason to in so long.