The Long Goodbye

My favorite time of the TV year has to be season premiere month. Least favorite? Easily this week as most shows wrap up the year and head to rerun season. I hate how most shows will leave with a cliffhanger that I won't remember come September. And I hate how every stinking commercial tauts the season finale as the most shocking thing to happen EVER. So far this year, House, Lost and Heroes have all claimed to be putting forth the most amazingly incomprehensible specimen of TV programming since the invention of TV for their finales. Which means that each will likely suck.

And along with the season finales also come the inevitable series finales. Some may come out of the blue. For instance, I love the show How I Met Your Mother. I won't find out for a couple more days if it's coming back. It's had 2 great seasons, but rumor has it that some CBS execs don't exactly love it. So until then, I'm keeping it in my DVR in case it's the last episode of that wonderful show. It sits nicely next to the Robin Sparkles episode that will not be deleted until I have Season 2 dvds.

And there's the show that's had a long eventful run but must come to an end. Sometimes I watch series finales of shows I never even watched an episode of (The OC). And I'm saddened. Or I catch the last episode of a show that I liked in the early years but abandoned long before the end (Alias, Dawson's Creek).

Tonight I had to say a tortured farewell to Gilmore Girls. It's been a long 7 years. I have a very distinct emotional attachment to the show, which I actually will not discuss here as it is a little more than I would like to share with the anonymous public. Suffice to say that I loved the show for the first two seasons. I was lukewarm about Season 3, didn't watch 4, but got sucked back into Season 5 and had to catch up on what I'd missed on DVD. Then Season 6 started the decline to what was a barely tolerable Season 7. But I watched. Reluctantly. Because when you've invested that many years in the show, you feel obligated to finish it out come hell or high water. At last, it is finished. I won't deny that I'm a bit sad at it's passing. I also won't deny that I'm thankful I won't have to stare at episode titles in my DVR for weeks past their viewing wondering if I should actually go through with watching or just read the TWOP mini recap and delete. But I made it and now say a fond farewell to GG. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. There have been much better shows to come before you (SportsNight), and there will be many to follow.