Reviewing The Season Finales of “Touch,” “House,” “Awake,” “Revenge,” “Parks and Recreation,” and more

So pretty much all season finales are done (except for excellent cable shows like Mad Men or HBO’s Girls/Veep), and since most of them were done weeks ago, I can review without fear of spoilers…

Revenge…What Happened: Emily “finally” came face to face with a white-haired man who apparently killed her father. She beat him up but decided not to kill him, because…well, just because this show is on ABC and they don’t want a killer for a hero. At the end, the white-haired man supposedly blew up a plane to keep Conrad’s mistress and estranged wife Victoria from testifying, but I don’t think there’s any way Victoria was on it. Then, Emily finds out her doppleganger is pregnant and her mother is still alive…Review: A lot of things happened but none of it all that interesting. It used all of the classic season finale gambits (fake deaths, pregnancies, revealing another level of conspiracy) to make it look like a lot is happening but actually keep the plot from really moving forward. Plus, I outright groaned when they said Emily’s mom was still alive, because that same gambit has already been used so many times (Alias, Grimm, Chuck). Grade: C

Grimm…What happened: Nick pursued another killer of the week while also trying to get his girlfriend Juliette to finally, finally, finally open her fucking eyes and see that some seriously weird stuff is going on. Oh, and his mother is still alive at the end…Review: A disappointment. If I wasn’t impressed with the whole “the mother is actually alive!” bit on Revenge, why would I want it on Grimm?…Grade: C

Once Upon a Time…What Happened: Against all odds, the curse was lifted. Yay!…but almost immediately afterward, Eli Gold brought magic to storybook, which is somehow bad news for the characters but good news for us…Review: Perhaps the strongest episode they’ve ever had. They unexpectedly broke the curse, which kicks the series into a more interesting gear and set-up a more compelling gimmick for the second season….Grade: B+

House…What Happened: House was sentenced to six months in prison, which he desperately didn’t want since his best friend Wilson (the Watson to his Holmes) only has five months to live because of inoperable cancer. House gets out of it by faking his own death and riding off into the sunset with Wilson on motorcycles…Review: I’ve never seen a single episode of House, so I really don’t know if this was a good finale or a bad finale. I would have been disappointed if I’d spent eight years watching a show and having it turn out like this, but maybe fans enjoyed it…Grade: B…?

Awake…What Happened: Detective Britton finds out that his lieutenant was behind the plot to kill him, as she was moving heroin with a few other dirty cops. He solves the case and gets her arrested in the reality where his son is alive, but is locked up in a jail cell in the reality where his wife is alive. Then his therapist in the son’s-alive-reality encourages him to accept this as proof that the other reality is a dream, but he walks threw a bedroom door instead and seemingly “wakes up” to discover that both his wife and son are alive and it was all just a dream…Review: So this is confusing as hell, but apparently the creator has said that the ENDING is a dream, the lead character is dreaming that both is wife and son are alive, and the show would have kept up the same “two-realities-but-only-one-is-real” bit in season 2. I kind-of hate that rationalization, and choose to believe that the ending is real. So suck it creator. Not every cancelled show needs to end on a maddeningly ambiguous note, and it really is okay to let your audience have closure. Oh, and Jason Isaacs gives an excellent performance as Detective Britten, the unreliable, sympathetic lead that seems crazy one moment and heartbreaking the next. It’s an awards worthy performance that will probably never win any awards…Grade: B+

Person of Interest…What Happened: An assassin, corrupt cops, and the federal government all try to apprehend the mysterious Reese near ground zero, the most heavily surveilled part of the world. Meanwhile, Finch works interference and the two cops under their thumb (Carter and Bosco) finally find out that they’re both working for the secretive pair. At the end, the Person they were trying to save turns out to be a master computer hacker who wanted to kidnap Finch. She does, and Reese goes on a vow to rescue him. Review: A solid episode but is it enough to get me to keep watching next season? Probably not. This show just isn’t consistently interesting enough to continue. Grade: B-

Touch…What Happened: A lot. The broad strokes include introducing the mysterious Amelia’s mother (played by Maria Bello), confirming that the shady corporation after Jake are bad guys, and tying up the stories of several characters we had gotten to know during the season. The episode ends with Martin having “kidnapped” his own son from a rigged social services hospital and the two being on the run in Los Angeles, where they run into Mario Bello’s character…Review: I know many think this show is corny, but I enjoy it. Good thing, as it’s the ONLY midseason show I like that’s coming back next year. A solid episode that sets up a very interesting second season. They finally get rid of the social-workers-taking-Jake aspect of the show and plunge it into a show where the story could take them anywhere with a nefarious corruption in pursuit. Grade: B+

Parks and Recreation…What Happened: Last but certainly not least is Parks and Recreation. This episode resolves the city council election between Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope and Paul Rudd’s millionaire opponent. I would further “spoil” this episode but you really should see it if you haven’t…Review: A perfect season finale, suspenseful, hilarious, and bursting at the seams with heart tugging moments. After disappointing season finales for Community, 30 Rock, and especially the Office, Parks and Rec proves it’s the ONLY comedy on broadcast that can mix in honest laughs with genuine emotion. Please watch this finale, and see how it’s done….Grade: A