I Wanna Be Your Superhero

The time has come, as I always knew, hoped and dreaded that it would.

Entourage has begun it's final season.

Believe it or not, I'm more emotional about this than I was about Harry Potter.

I think it has something to do with the moment of the thing. Harry was an era. Vince and the boys, they're just a moment. A very distinct moment, that is now over.

Last season ended on a low note, even for Entourage. Vince was being arrested for coke posession after Eminem kicked the crap out of him. Sloan had just asked Eric to sign a prenup, Turtle's tequila deal was running away from him, Ari's wife had kicked him out and Drama was, well, Drama.

When we open for season 8, Vince is on his way out of rehab (relieved exhale), Eric and Sloan broke up (again, this story line is boring and they should get married already), Turtle's tequila was actually doing quite well, as was Drama's impending cartoon, Johnny's Bananas. (This is a bizarre flip in Entourage-land, when Turtle and Drama do well, and Vince and Eric don't.) And Ari's wife asked him for a divorce.

As much as I've appreciated the extra time with the boys, I think that the show was given a satisfactory conclusion in season 6, Vince leaving to shoot Ferrari in Italy, Ari getting the agency back on track after the disaster that was Andrew, and Eric choosing to stay in LA with Sloan rather than go to Italy with the boys.

Because for all that Vince gets the attention, Entourage is really the story of the team behind the man. This is Eric and Ari's story.

And if this story ends anywhere but with those two happy with the women they love, Doug Ellin will be receiving many angry letters from me. (Except he probably won't. But I will whine about it, a lot.)

Take to the skys

Smallville ended last night. And since my roommate and I decided to stay in, get drunk and make fun of it. (Neither of us had actually watched the show in about 3 years, but finales get exceptions.)

It was a 2 part finale and we were able to follow pretty well:

Part 1 was an hour long love letter to Smallville stupidity. I love some stupid shows, but Smallville is one of the stupidest of all. It has taken more completely retarded plot elements and elevated them to TV melodrama gold more times than every other teen drama before or since. Why? Because this one has superheros, so you get retarded superhero plots and retarded teen drama plots.

Part 1 featured Lois and Clark's aborted wedding, Clark having conversations with his dead father, Oliver being brainwashed by the remnants of Veritas (Yeah, that's are still around) and Lionel Luthor (who I thought was dead, but sure) reviving a clone of Lex by selling his soul.

Part 2 was way better. In my roommate Steph's words, "Wow, that made up for 3 years of complete sucking." And it really did. By 9:30 Lex was back, had made several speeches on "important men of history," and had relived his Smallville journey, losing his hair to the meteors, getting beaten by his father, baby Gabriel's death, getting bullied at boarding school, meeting Clark, falling in love with Lana, marrying Lana, etc. Plus he had told Clark he needed to save the world to fulfill both of their destinies.

Then Clark headed to The Fortress of Solitude, chatted with Jor-El and relived his Smallville journey, saving Lex, saving Lana from that Tornado (awesome), saving Chloe over and over and over, Saving Lois. He realized he had to embrace his destiny. And then he got the suit.

The suit, let's talk about the suit. First of all, it looked good on Tom Welling, I can't find a picture yet, but I'll update later in the day if I find one. It was way better than the Superman Returns suit, and it worked perfectly.

Anyway, then Clark lifted a plane, smiled at Lois and flew off into space to stop a planet that was hurdling towards earth.

Then came the scare. The picture changed and it became a comics drawing of Superman, and Chloe was holding it, reading it to a small blonde boy. For a second, you thought that the whole series had just been Chloe telling a story to her kid. Horrifying. Then you saw the kid look over at a quiver of toy arrows. (Oh right, did you know that Chloe and Oliver were married? I didn't but they were, so you know, cool, I guess?) That's when we knew the show was "real" Thank God!

The final, final moments took place in the best place possible, The Daily Planet offices. Lois exited Perry White's office while Perry yelled, she talked to Jimmy Olsen (who we can assume is real Jimmy, not you know his secret dead big brother, but was still played by an Ashmore, and I kind of hope he's the other one, because that would be funny.) Then she and Clark bumped into each other and quipped about their upcoming wedding. We saw on TV that Lex had been elected president and then Clark had to go to the roof and fly off to save the world.

And they played the Superman theme and it was over and it was epic.

We got all the iconography and it was epic. Well done Smallville.

Our time now

3rd Post of the day...I'm going to have to cut back.

But I couldn't not discuss the end of something great.

Last night was final episode of ABC Family's completely awesome Greek. Yes, after four seasons, the guys of Kappa Tau and Omega Chi and the girls of ZBZ are gone forever. Except that they're on Netflix instant, and I think I'm going to have to watch the whole show from beginning to end again.

If you don't know Greek, I'm sorry for you, because it's one of the smartest, funniest bits of fluff to come out in a while. I've recently come up with a good way to view fluff. A lot of the stuff I like is literary and performance junk food. But it doesn't have to be the processed from a can or a bag kind. It can be hand crafted deserts, which while they don't exactly have nutritional value, are still delicious. Greek was like a Magnolia Bakery cupcake. Yummy as can be, but totally fattening, empty calories.

It centered around the lives of mainly eight members of the Cyprus Rhodes University Greek System. (Cyrprus and Rhodes are Ancient Greek cities. See, the show was already smarter than you thought!) There were the girls of ZBZ, the "number one sorority on campus," with every cliche that goes with it, Casey, Ashleigh and Rebecca, the preppy boys of Omega Chi, Evan and Calvin, and finally the misfit party animals of Kappa Tau, Rusty and Cappie. Plus, Rusty's nerdy roommate, and eventual Omega Chi pledge Dale.

What made Greek great was the way its characters were never exactly what they seemed. Casey seemed bossy and determined, but it turned out to be a compassionate soft touch. Evan appeared to be only the bad guy in a John Hughes script, but was actually an intelligent, conflicted young man. Cappie seemed only a stoner lay about, but was really a philosophical genius who would do anything for the woman he loves (Casey, btw). The love triangle between these three was the catalyst behind the show, but stayed away from the cliche of others because the three characters all also were fun to watch by themselves. Ashleigh could have been a throwaway sidekick but instead outshone Casey on several occasions. Rebecca's bitchiness stemmed from her desire to fit in. Rusty and Dale were nerds with hearts of gold, who didn't always do the right thing. Calvin was the most obvious twist, a gay football playing preppy, with a desire to change the world.

The element of Greek that I always loved was the realistic portrayal of the relationship between siblings Rusty and Casey. They had their insecurities about each other, Casey felt always intimidated by Rusty's high intelligence, and Rusty by Casey's golden girl status, but they always had each other's backs.

The finale did that thing that I love when finales do, it brought about closure while still giving a distinct sense that this world will continue. Casey and Cappie left CRU for Washington, after he graduated by accident, and we learned after his diploma that "Cappie" is in fact short for "Captain" which is his first name. Ashleigh and Rusty began a new relationship (not a storyline I was rooting for) Evan and Rebecca saw that they could maybe have a future together, Calvin headed abroad to do volunteer work with boyfriend Heath, and Dale began a real relationship with longtime fling Laura. Satisfying conclusions for all. Although the destruction of the Kappa Tau house was sad and did get me teary, I was thrilled that they brought back season 1 bad guy Jen K, and that Kappa Tau Pledge Peter "Spidey" Parker was actually good all along.

Goodbye Greek. I will miss you!

Swan Song

Alright, I know I've been a bad blogger. And maybe someday I'll finish out the best of the decade. But right now, there's just one thing that I have to write about.

Dollhouse finale!

I just finished watching it on DVR. I was thoroughly satisfied, especially for a show that I watched every episode of, but didn't ever love.

I knew what to expect going in. This is Joss Whedon, there are certain markers. Main characters were going to die. Redemption would be found. Vagueness would ensue.

The finale picked up where the unaired "Epitaph" left off, with Felicia Day, that guy and Molly from Heroes racing away from the zombie like "butchers" in LA to find Echo and the others. They were eventually captured by Rossum soldiers, one of whom was Paul. I knew not to expect things to be the same, but it seemed odd that Paul would be with Rossum. As it turned out it was all a plan. Rossum had kidnapped Topher to create a sort of mind bomb, that would wipe the entire world. Already a little bit unstable, for having been Topher, they drove him completely insane by shooting a someone in front of him every time he messed up. After rescuing him, Echo shot Clyde in his latest form and the fugitives headed to a farm, where Prya and Adelle and a young boy were picking strawberries. We find out that the boy is Prya's son. Anthony is conspicuously absent.

After explaining what was done to Topher and why, Topher reveals that he figured out a way to do the bomb but backwards, restored anyone who was ever wiped to their original "actual" status. Thrilled by the prospect of a returned world, but worried for their own existence, the gang realizes that they need to get someplace underground. They need to return to the dollhouse. An alarm goes off, and every one panics, fearing Rossum found them. But instead a group of Mad Max style fighters show up, speaking russian, among them is Anthony. As it turns out a small group of people have enhanced themselves further to help fight Rossum, allowing themselves to download various skills, but only able to keep so many at a time they wear the imprints around their necks in flash drives. We soon find out that although they had the child together, Anthony's decision to become one of these super soldiers, and forever revert to Viktor, drove a wedge between him and Prya. They head to Los Angeles, and the Dollhouse.

Paul and Echo talk on the trip, about how for ten years they've been dancing around their feelings. He asks why she only ever lets him in when she thinks their about to die, and she blows off the question. When they reach LA, they get ready to fight the butchers, there's some awesome gun mowing down and Penny, uh, I mean Mag (Felicia Day) gets shot in the legs. Paul runs over to check her and is immediately gunned down. Echo seems unshaken and other guy throws Mag over his shoulders and they head down into the Dollhouse.

The Dollhouse seems unchanged, dolls wander around it, one commenting as soon as they enter, "I try to be my best." But the biggest surprise comes when it turns out the person looking after all of them is Alpha. He teases Viktor about his face, and when Viktor playfully calls him a psycho he responds that he's "lapsed." So now, Spike, I mean Alpha is a good guy. The super soldiers try to take control of the situation but Alpha and Echo outsmart them (ah duh) and Prya begins smashing the flash drives angrily. Echo loses it on her, reminding her how lucky she is to have Anthony, and that he'll always love her. Echo finally admits to loving Paul, and Prya introduces her son, T, to his father.

Meanwhile with help from a video of Bennet, Topher builds the bomb and tells Adelle and Alpha that he has to actually explode it himself. Adelle offers to go with him, but he tells her that he "has to fix what we did to their heads, you have to fix the rest of the world. Your job is harder." She hugs him and Alpha takes him upstairs.

Adelle and other guy get ready to take the dolls to the surface, and she and Echo say goodbye. She tells her that Alpha went to destroy the tech and then hide, not knowing if he'll revert when the bomb goes off, but that he's leaving the chair. She tells Echo that the last fantasy the Dollhouse will fulfill will be Echo's. Echo responds that she has no fantasy. Adelle hugs her and they head to the surface. Topher sets the bomb off, and the dolls all collapse and wake up disoriented. Molly from Heroes sees other guy and asks what happened. He tells her he'll explain it. Back in the Dollhouse Echo finds a envelope with her name on it and a drive inside sitting on the chair. She sets up the chair and lies down. As it turns out, it's Paul's imprint. This way he can be with her always. She walks down into the house, past Prya, Anthony and T, and reclines in her pod, finally at peace.

OK, analysis time. Like I said, I saw certain things coming.

1. Paul's death: As soon as Paul and Echo all but said "I love you" in the truck, I knew one of them had to die. It was that simple. I didn't expect it quite as soon as it happened, but thus is the way of Whedon. He giveth Wesley his Fred and then he taketh Fred away.
2. Topher's redemption: Someone had to sacrifice themselves to save the world. Spike, Cordie, Shepherd Book, now Topher. Plus, in Topher's mind, the only way to redeem the destruction which his tech brought about, was to pay with his own life.
3. Human element over tech: It's the old Return of The Jedi model. The Ewoks and rebels win with heart. Maybe this is because I just watched Buffy season four, where magic beats technology, but I'm starting to see a theme.

There were some other Whedon-y touches that I noticed.

1. The scene where they start to fight the butchers was almost exactly like the final scene of Angel. I half expected Echo to grab an ax and say "Let's go to work"
2. The butchers themselves bear a remarkable resemblance to the reavers of Firefly and Serenity.
3. Vague ending with a sense of continuation...We could get a Dollhouse movie, or comic. (I don't want one. I'm glad it's over. DR. HORRIBLE 2!!!!!!)

Surprises

1. Anthony and Prya got to live happily ever after. My dad and I were trying to figure out their tragedy, and guess what, there wasn't one! They have a kid. They get to be happy. I'm still not sure what to do with it.
2. Alpha's a good guy now. I was happy, because between this and V, I was sure that Alan Thudyk was going to be the bad guy forever. And that would make me very sad.
3. Didn't end on a battle that we never get to see. It was kind of a nice sweet romantic ending. Way to grow Joss.

Anyway, did anyone else watch and have an opinion?

Setting the Tone

Before last week it had been years since I watched a new episode of ER...mostly because once Carter left I felt like, "What's the point?" but kept watching for one more season, but then along came Grey's and I didn't need two medical dramas! And then I decided that I should probably get caught up so that I wouldn't be confused when the series finale hits in five weeks (SOB) I am going to miss the show quite a bit.

So, now that I am caught up just in time for next week which is the BIG one...everyone's coming back...Juliana Marguellis, Eriq LaSalle...and uh someone else who's face they didn't show us (hmm...I wonder who it could be?)

Overall it has been a good season for the returns. The episode where we saw Mark, Carrie and Ramano was great, because although it was a flashback (Had to be else, Mark and Ramano would have to be ghosts) it didn't feel contrived.

I'm still hoping for Chen. I love Chen, and Ming-Na is one of the most talented actresses out there, but it doens't look like it's going to happen. Which is kind of a bummer.

But a least we get George...we think.