Tonight brought the season finales of two shows that——-for once——-don’t have to worry about tying everything up. Both shows have been renewed for another season, as The History Channel is impressed with Vikings ratings performance and CBS is thrilled that somebody besides paranoid shut-ins is watching one of their shows, hence The Good Wife remaining despite the fact that its time slot is terrible and regularly pushed back for football/basketball/golf.
The Good Wife…This is one of those intelligent, character-rich procedural shows that always seems like something big is about to happen, but it never quite does. However, this was a nicely kinetic episode that pushed the plot forward: [Spoilers] Cary put the finishing touches on this new firm, Peter won the governorship, Alicia admitted she still had feelings for Will, and——in part to deal with those feelings——-she agreed to follow Cary out the door and be a name-partner in his new firm. This may be the show’s most technically exciting season finale yet, but only time will tell if that impact is lasting. As always with this show, it’s two steps forward, three steps back…[Oh, and please don’t have Cary/Robin hook-up, I think Cary/Kalinda is the hook-up everyone’s been waiting for.] Grade for the finale: A-
Vikings…What a contrast with The Good Wife. Vikings often has more action than it knows what to do with, but not enough character building/political intrigue. This episode completely changed that. No one was killed (although plenty died of plague), there were no big battle sequences, and Ragnar Lothbrooke (the appealingly insane Travis Fimmel) went most of the episode without dried blood on his face. It was much more about a tense negotiation between Denmark’s King Horik (speaking of insane, Donal Logue) and Sweden’s Jarl for a mineral-rich piece of land, showing that for all mankind’s change, there’s not much change. I’m shocked that I actually grew to really enjoy a show on The History Channel (this is the only series I’ve ever watched on the network, as I don’t usually gravitate towards reality shows that feature people that make me grateful I went to college), and I think every episode this season was a little bit better than the one before it. Grade for the series: B…Grade for finale: B+