Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars Finales TONIGHT

With the WB/UPN merge known as the CW launching next year, word is Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars will be back-to-back. For now, though, you just have to change channels at 9. I've been watching both shows rather religiously this season, finally catching up with Mars after the network decided not to put it up against Lost. As for Gilmore, the writing has been rather shaky, but I'm beginning to feel very sentimental knowing that the Palladino's won't be coming back next season. Tonight will be their final episode, and though it apparently has a major cliffhanger - it will be an ending of sorts. Last week was classic Gilmore - a quirky subplot (Sookie and Jackson trying to dispose of bundles of marijuana), and a significant appearance from Emily, who has been rather absent for much of this season. I almost wept upon finding out that she was trying to buy a house for Lorelai and Luke. Tonight's episode promises a guest appearance from Sonic Youth - so that should be rather exciting.

Veronica Mars has been one of television's underrated gems for the past two seasons. No show - ever, as far as I'm concerned - manages to pack so much plot and character development into one episode. The show continues the grand tradition of Buffy the Vampire Slayer of using heightened drama and mystery to express the angst and confusion of high school. True to their roots, this season has featured guest appearances from Buffy alums Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan and even creator Joss Whedon. While Desperate Housewives steadily decreased in quality once the season one mystery was solved, the Mars writers have effectively introduced new mysteries while showing the consequences of last year's. With a diverse cast, this season delved deeper into the issues of class struggle, and with all that has happened this season, revelations as well as hold-your-breath cliffhangers should be expected.

If you have never watched either show, do yourself a favor and watch the DVD's. You will get hooked like a maniac.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

it feels like all last year's best shows suck this year except for Veronica Mars; Lost, the OC, Desperate Housewives, Battlestar Galactica (which is still pretty good though).
It feels like all these shows are using really low concepts ideas by having really closed off communities, and quickly running out of ideas. My theory is that most of these shows are made really low concept because it's assumed most shows won't last very long and are trying to be shortlived and make their money on DVD sales after their quick cancellation

Anonymous said...

Putting TV shows on DVD is a great way to cash in while the iron is still hot.

I don't watch much TV anymore, since the quality of shows isn't so great. Grey's Anatomy has been pretty good though.

Anonymous said...

oh, it's definitely a good way to make money. look at all the Star Trek boxsets which are at least $100 per season. More recently the new BBC version of Doctor Who which was only 12 episodes and is $100 too (Canadian at least).

Anonymous said...

True, Prozak and Phoenix ... Those HBO box sets are especially expensive. You would think, though, that you would want a quality show (or at least a popular one) to help DVD sales. It seems the canceled shows that do best on DVD (like Firefly) were good, just failed to catch on.

I agree that this season has pretty much sucked. Maybe the writers of Desperate Housewives and The OC had great first season concepts, but just didn't know where to go from there. Lost has been a bit better than those two shows but it still seems to be dragging its feet a bit.

Anonymous said...

Sonic Youth did bring the rock, albeit acousticly ... it was pure bliss to see Kim Gordon bouncing around like that with daughter Coco in Stars Hollow!