All seasons must end, but not all season finales are created equal as the following shows proved…
The Good Wife…What a mess of a season finale, and also my pick for the worst episode of an otherwise stellar season. By now, “The Good Wife” is actually at its worst when it’s about, well, The Good Wife a.k.a. Alicia so it wasn’t exactly a thrill that this episode had her in nearly every scene and we barely saw Diane, David Lee, Eli, and even Carey. [Wouldn’t it have made more sense if Carey had been the one Kalinda said goodbye to since she’s been romantic with him for years but has barely had a friendship with Alicia since season 2?] The real climax of this season was a few episodes back when Alicia was forced to resign from the state’s attorney’s post, but because broadcast networks are rigidly sticking to this “22 episodes or nothing” format, the season limped along for a few more episodes than they needed. Low Lights: the now-tiresome character of Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox nails this role, but they ran out of stuff for him to do a year ago) plus his wife; Finn Palmer’s always-meandering flirtation with Alicia and the shifting job offers it entails (first she offers him a job working for her law firm, then offers him deputy state’s attorney, then offers to start a brand new law firm with him); the stale “cliffhanger” of Louis Canning asking Alicia to start a brand new firm only a year after an identical cliffhanger when Eli asked her to run for state’s attorney; and—worst of them all—Alicia’s ice-cold reaction to Peter being considered for Vice President. Chris Noth is always terrific, but I wasn’t impressed at all that Alicia’s “big ambition” for independence involves telling Peter not to run for President so she can devote more time to getting low-end drug clients out of bottom-feeder criminal charges. A stagnant lead character who doesn’t even realize that they’re repeating themselves isn’t exactly thrilling television. And with Kalinda leaving the show, there’s even less to look forward to for season 7. Grade: C-
Wolf Hall…Also last night, you could have watched the finest telling to date of the whole Henry-the-8th/Anne Boleyn/divorce-marriage-beheading historical hot mess. “Wolf Hall” is based on the first two books in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of books told from the point of view from the royally-misunderstood Thomas Cromwell, too often portrayed as an officious villain in this chapter of history. Sure, it’s a squeezed-orange of a story that’s been told umpteen times, but Mantel’s inspired choice is to tell the story the way I always felt it: mainly, that Thomas Moore is no saint, Cardinal Wolsey wasn’t that bad, and Thomas Cromwell was a brilliant mind that has never been given the credit he deserves. Cromwell’s popper-to-power player story is the ultimate rags to riches tale as the abused son of a butcher gets mentored by Cardinal Wolsey and becomes the highest ranking “commoner” in British history as King Henry’s right hand man. Even if last night’s finale (the end of the second book detailing Boleyn’s downfall but before Cromwell’s own) treaded familiar territory, the earlier parts—complete with faux-pious Thomas Moore’s little-known, obscene violence against “blasphemers”—are fresh, and it’s interesting to see the understated Cromwell (Broadway star Mark Rylance, who turns silence into an art form, hooking you with what Cromwell’s not saying behind those haunted eyes) navigate the constantly shifting alliances inside the royal court and King Henry’s even-quicker moods. Grade for Season One: A…Grade for Season Finale: A-
Red Road…The good news: the second season of this Native-American-crime drama—that has an aces cast including Juliette Nicholson, Martin Henderson, and especially Jason Momoa, radiating menace and charisma in every scene—is vastly better than the first. The bad news: it’s still hampered by the tendency to let certain plots run on too long (like Nicholson’s familial discoveries, anything involving “Junior” the Momoa character’s sullen half-brother, or Lisa Bonet’s sanctimonious character) while ending others much too quickly (the potential end of Momoa’s character’s mother and Studi’s interesting Indian chief/casino mogul, who is never quite the simple villain the show wants him to be). But thanks to some compelling intrigue, the relatively-tight pacing of a six-episode season, and a few gonzo scenes with Tom Sizemore’s whacked-out ex-mafioso, “Red Road” is a series that shows real promise for the future. Grade for Second Season: B+…Grade for Season Finale: B-
Vikings…At long last, a show that knows exactly what audiences want in a season finale: satisfaction. “Vikings” has long been underrated because of the network it appears on (The History Channel isn’t exactly known for stellar scripted programming) but the show understands that a quality season finale is all about satisfyingly tying up the old while getting you excited for the new. The third-season ender saw Viking King Ragnar finally complete his episodes-long quest to ransack the city of Paris (by far the toughest nut the Vikings have tried to crack), and nothing I’ve seen on TV lately has been more satisfying than seeing a wounded but triumphant Ragnar walking through the gateway containing his invading army as they head the other way into the city to plunder it. Of course, they also wisely set up some interesting conflicts for next season like most of Ragnar’s inner-circle possibly moving against him: his ex-wife romances a traitorous Earl, his brother Rollo is being seduced into going against him by the Parisian princess, and even loyal-sidekick Floki killing Ragnar’s great friend (a Christian priest they had kidnapped in season 1) out of fear that the Gods were unhappy with Ragnar’s declining devotion to Norse mythology. [Floki’s tortured appeals trying to please the Gods show “Vikings” is working on a higher level than some might initially suspect.] Trust is in short supply for King Ragnar’s court these days—as evidenced by his reluctance to tell his brilliant fake-death strategy to his court, leaving them unaware of his plan to get him (through a Trojan-horse coffin) inside those seemingly impenetrable Parisian walls—and his tense final conversation with a once-loyal lieutenant shows things aren’t getting better anytime soon. Grade for Third Season: B+…Grade for Season Finale: A