If you’ve seen the finales that aired this week, click through for some of my thoughts on them and chime in with yours!

Nashville

Wow. What a season finale! In fact, the second last episode of the season was even so exciting that originally I thought it was the finale. But it just got juicier.

Just when Rayna and Deacon were about to go public with their relationship, Maddie found out that Teddy isn’t her biological father and everything went off the rails. She was hurt and angry, Deacon was hurt and angry. And he fell off the wagon. The episode ended with a dramatic car crash – Rayna was behind the wheel after refusing to allow him to drive drunk.

The tragic moment in the second-last episode came when Juliette’s mother died of a drug overdose and killed Dante, the evil sober companion. This was about as soapy as it gets, and I think we all had to roll our eyes a bit at the idea that Jolene would think a starlet’s drug-addled mother committing murder suicide would be less scandalous than a sex tape. But Juliette losing her mother did fantastic things for that character, and I think Hayden Panetierre played the hell out of those feelings in the finale. Her final song was very beautiful, and I liked that the character was allowed to look like hell while she was mourning.

* I read recently that Hayden Panetierre almost didn’t get that part of Juliette, and also that Juliette wasn’t originally intended to be as central of a character. What nonsense! I honestly couldn’t love Hayden more, and the character is fantastic.

Oh, and Gunnar proposed to Scarlett. I saw that one coming, but I’m happy just because it will hopefully mean more duets from them available on iTunes. Also, I much prefer Avery as a love interest for Juliette.

Grey’s Anatomy

Grey’s, Grey’s, Grey’s. You do this to me every year! It’s like an annual rip-my-heart-out-fest. I’ve mentioned before in blogs, that I think individual episodes of Grey’s are still very fun to watch, though when you look at the series overall, it is too repetitive. Characters can only withstand so much trauma before you’re like, “Again, with the life threatening disaster?” The characters themselves acknowledge this, but it doesn’t always help.

Still, I watch. And still, I love it. This year, a massive storm and power outage put everyone’s lives at risk. You knew someone would die. Meredith almost bled out on the table after giving birth via emergency C-section, but Bailey finally put the gloves back on, operated, and saved her life. Jackson saved a toddler from a burning bus and almost died in an explosion, but he managed to escape just in time to make April realize that she loves him. (I know a lot of people hate April, but I’ve liked her for a long time now. And I do want her and Jackson to be together, though I feel bad for the cute paramedic.)

I would have been crushed had Meredith or Jackson died. But I think I might be the most crushed that Richard died. Not the chief! I saw it coming, but that didn’t make me any less devastated when we saw him lying, electrocuted, on the floor in the hospital basement.

The writers were a little heavy-handed in the foreshadowing here. Richard went down to the basement and found a maintenance guy unconscious, having had a heart attack. He saved his life and was able to apologize for yelling at him earlier. Things were a little too ominous when the man told Richard all he had to do was flip a switch to turn power back on in the hospital.

Later, Bailey wanted to go apologize to Richard. She’d yelled at him and called him a drunk when he tried to make her operate again, and once she was back in the saddle she felt guilty about it. Richard had his chance to apologize to someone, and at that point I knew Bailey wouldn’t. Gah! It was predictable, but so sad.

Stray thoughts:

• I’m glad Alex and Jo are together, I like them. Can this be Alex’s happy ending, please?
• Meredith and Derek named their newborn son Bailey, because she saved Mer’s life, but now I kind of wish they would name him Richard.
• Arizona cheating on Callie was heartbreaking, and I kind of resent that it turned back into an argument about the plane crash and Arizona’s leg. She was still unfaithful, and there’s no excuse. I think those two are done as a couple, but I hope next season we see Arizona realize what a huge mistake she made.
• Cristina and Owen are also done as a couple. I was never the biggest fan of them together, and I think this relationship was a little too dragged out for me to care that they broke up again. We’ve known for a long time that Owen wants kids, so while I’m glad that difference wasn’t swept under the rug, the relationship has felt over for a long time.

Favorites

Sarah Simmons was probably my favorite this week. I haven’t loved all her performances, but I’ve never doubted that she has an amazing voice. I’m glad she changed things up and requested a fun, rockin’ pop song and still managed to blow the roof off the place. Very well done.

I liked Judith Hill again, but not as much as previous weeks. I didn’t love the arrangement of the song, and to be honest I have a little bit of a hard time understanding the profound sadness she still feels about Michael Jackson. I know, I’m heartless. But…move on.

I haven’t been loving Sasha Allen lately, mostly because of song choice, but I loved her this week. “Next To Me” was a great, current choice. (It was done recently on Idol as well, right?) I also liked Amber Carrington on the Kelly Clarkson song, I think she has a lot of potential.

Week after week, I say that Danielle Bradberry is one to watch. She’s young, pretty, has great stage presence and a fantastic voice. I can easily see her being a country star right now.

Watching Michelle rehearse “Just Give Me a Reason”, I was worried. It didn’t sound like she was hitting it at all. But once onstage, she pretty much nailed it. I didn’t love the performance as much as the coaches, but it was good.

Flops

Like last week, while I think Holly Tucker has a beautiful voice, she is simply not my thing. The same goes for the Swon Brothers – they’re fine, but that song is not my cup of tea.

I like Josiah Hawley very much, but I don’t think “Clocks” was the right choice for his voice. I wish they’d give him an Avett Brothers song or something.

I’ve thought that Kris Thomas was out of his league for a while now, and I thought the Miguel song really showed that. He’s just never been as good as everyone hopes he’ll be.

I definitely think Kris Thomas should go home tomorrow night, and I think the Swon Brothers should also be eliminated at this point. What do you guys think?

This is how I felt, too.

Well. I didn’t watch Mad Men last night when it aired, because it’s a holiday weekend in Canada and I was busy eating all the BBQ food. But I did catch glimpses of a few dissatisfied tweets before bed, and having just watched the episode, I concur. That was weird, disjointed and unpleasant to watch. Maybe some people loved it. Personally, I’m rarely a fan of drug-hazed episodes. If you’ve seen “The Crash”, click through for my review.

When Roger took LSD, I thought it worked because it revealed things about the character, it was funny, and it wasn’t the entirety of the episode. In “The Crash”, most of the yet-to-be-named ad agency was either on drugs, or babysitting peopleon drugs. And it was tedious.

We were often seeing things from Don’s skewed perspective, so several hours would go by without him or us knowing it. Everything was confused, manic, and entirely unproductive. No one got any work done, they were just acting like lunatics. Peppered amongst this nonsense was flashbacks to Don’s young life in the brothel – a lot of coughing, losing his virginity to a prostitute, and being beaten and scorned for having done so. I’ve never been a big fan of these flashbacks, so their strong presence here is another reason I didn’t love the episode.

Don Draper has issues with women. All kinds of women – mothers, wives, lovers. This is a fact that has now been beaten into the ground, but will anything ever come of it? I like Mad Men a lot. But for the show to continue to be great, it can’t just rely on us watching Don be troubled. Something has to change in him, rather than the same damaged man watching the world change around him.

There were other things about the episode that felt off. Yes, Peggy was frustrated, but she was more passive than I’d expect. The way she dealt with Stan’s sexual advances didn’t really ring true. I assume she knew that Wendy was Frank’s daughter yet did nothing to stop her from having sex with Stan. I suppose it was too late to do anything other than throw her hands up in the air and yell “I’m going home!” Still, something felt off to me about her scenes – though the exception is when she spoke to Stan about the death of his cousin. That conversation felt genuine, and I hope it means Peggy and Stan are friends again.

I’m on the fence about Sally’s storyline. I adore Sally, and I think the stoic, sullen teenager she’s become is exactly what I’d expect of the neglected eldest child of Don and Betty Draper. She’s trying to be a grownup because she cannot wait to escape this world and these people, and I liked watching her deal with a crisis. I liked that it helped her realize, even more than she already had, that she knows nothing about her father. But there was something so bizarre about the way the woman went about robbing the Drapers. Why did she lie? Why wouldn’t she just take the stuff and leave, once she realized only children were home?

The episode concluded with Don behaving in a hypocritical way that’s so typical for him. After a weekend of drugged debauchery and foolishness, Don declares that he won’t work on Chevy but will only critique the work of others. “Every time we get a car, this place becomes a whorehouse.” Don Draper, ladies and gentleman. He can’t come up with his own work, so he pretends that he shouldn’t have to. He’s one of the messiest partakers in the wild weekend, but pretends it didn’t happen and looks down his nose on everyone as soon as he’s pulled himself together. He’s a philanderer who judges whores. He’s an empty man who pretends his full of mystery.

Stray thoughts:

• I wasn’t surprised to see Betty blond again, because I felt that reversal was implied when Henry announced he’d run for office. She’s also continuing to lose weight, a little faster thanks to the motivation of being in the public eye. And, of course, she used the robbery as an excuse to criticize Don and Megan’s parenting skills and haughtily inform them that Henry is running for office. Betty Francis, ladies and gentleman. Making everything about her, once again.
• Where was Joan? She’s the one person who really would have put a stop to this madness, and I didn’t catch an explanation for her absence. I did enjoy watching Dawn try to navigate dealing with Don, though. She did a good job.
• I didn’t love the episode, but there were a couple things that you can’t help but laugh at. Ken Cosgrove tap-dancing, of course, is at the top of that list.
• “Are we Negroes?” Bobby Draper is not the smartest.

Daenerys

Usually I find seasons of Game of Thrones very slow to start, only getting exciting during the last couple episodes. But this season has been different, I’ve liked almost every episode – even though there have been individual storylines that leave a bit to be desired. Sunday night’s episode, “Second Sons”, is the third last of the season and a lot happened. I’m looking forward to the final two installments.

Arya and The Hound

Move aside Jaime and Brienne, there’s a new pair of unlikely traveling comrades in Westeros. Last week, Arya got taken by The Hound. Seeing as he’s one of the people on her hit list, it was both dangerous and an opportunity. But he’s not as villainous as Arya thinks. He’s an opportunist. When she was about to smash a rock over his head in his sleep, he saw her and told her she had one shot – kill him and be free, fail and he’d cut off her hands. She didn’t take the chance.

Later, The Hound told Arya that she could be in possession of worse people. Men who would rape and kill people, and he told her that he’d saved Sansa from the mob. I’d actually forgotten about that myself. He plans to take Arya back to the Twins so he can sell her back to her family, so they’re both happy.

Second Sons and Dragon Mothers

There were some fantastic Daeny scenes again this week. I love when she gets to be powerful, but also incredibly calm and cool. This week she met with the leaders of an army to try and reach an agreement instead of attacking. The men were misogynistic and gross. One was very handsome, and not as rude as his pals. The handsome soldier beheaded his comrades when they demanded that he kill Daeny. He’ll fight for her now, as will the rest of his army. That felt a little too easy, but I’ll take it.

Leeches

Melisandre has Gendry, and plans to kill him. She took him to bed first, tied him up, and then covered him in leeches. Ew!Honestly though, I just have no interest in the Stannis stuff. He went to visit his friend in jail, and it took me a minute to even remember what had put him there.

It’s a Nice Day For a Drunk Wedding

There was a lovely moment between Tyrion and Sansa before they married. Tyrion is always so glib, the way he struggled to express his feelings to Sansa showed how tormented he was by their wedding. He can’t tell her that he loves someone else and that their marriage will simply be a sham that keeps her safe, but that’s the truth. Instead he just promised not to hurt her.

I hated that Joffrey got to give Sansa away in place of her father, who HE killed. Disgusting. Then he removed Tyrion’s step stool, just to make the whole thing more humiliating. But! The payoff! First, Tyrion refused Joffrey’s demands to go on with the bedding ceremony and threatened to cut off his own… well, you know. He was drunk, trying to cope with the idea of bedding a fourteen year old girl. Instead, he decided to go against his father and told Sansa that he wouldn’t share her bed until she wanted him to. Which, for Sansa, would ideally be never.

Another sweet moment came when Shae arrived to change the bedding and realized that Tyrion had not slept with Sansa.

White Walkers

The episode ended with Sam and Gilly, two characters that I’ve never really cared much about. They were looking for shelter and got attacked by a White Walker, and Sam killed it with a fancy dagger. I know this should be exciting, but I’m just not as intrigued by these White Walkers as I’m supposed to be.

Still though, I thought it was a great episode. What did you guys think?

This has been a great season for women, and a wonderful season overall. Lots of talent, and it’s too bad that the ratings were down so much. Both women looked beautiful, and while I was rooting for Candice, I like them both.

So. The winner is Candice Glover! I’m super happy. No one deserved it more. Yay! THREE YEARS! I can’t believe this amazing vocalist didn’t make it through two prior years, and then won the whole damn thing.

I watched a few of the performances (though I took the liberty of skipping over the top five guys performing together).  Candice and Kree’s duet was a little weak. They’re both talented ladies, but very different. Their voices don’t go great together. Candice and J-Hud, however, well I could watch that on a loop all day. Unfortunately, Kree didn’t get as good a pairing – Keith Urban? Really? It was rather lackluster.

I liked Amber’s song, even though I don’t know who Emeli Sandé is. I liked how Amber sounded on the song, and I liked Keith’s nerdy dancing even more. Someone please make Amber a pop/R&B star. I liked Angie’s performance with Adam Lambert better than her song with Jessie J. I really just thought that the Aretha Franklin performance was a bit sad. She’s cancelled performances recently due to health problems, and certainly didn’t seem well.

This season was so great, if I were to stop watching the show now I’d feel like I was going out on a high note. Rather than feeling disgusted with a string of weak winners, I watched a season filled with talent and the right woman won.

Warm, touching, sweet, funny. Those are other adjectives I could use. The reasons this was a great series finale are that it gave us little moments with characters new and old, it let us know that the characters we care about will be OK, it was funny, and it provided incredibly touching moments with the characters we care the most about. There was some truly beautiful stuff with Jim and Pam, and sweet moments with them and Dwight. I choked up a little when Dwight said “Pam Beesly is my best friend.”

There was also Erin connecting with her birth parents, Nellie weirdly adopting Ryan’s abandoned baby, Michael showing Pam photos of his kids (!!!), Phyllis and Stanley reminiscing about their friendship, and countless other moments that made me smile. Now I want to throw it over to you guys -please tell me what you guys thought of the finale, and what moments stood out for you!

* Rumor has it that the judging panel will be clean-slated next season. Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj have already confirmed that they won’t be part of the show. I’m truly disappointed to not have Nicki, since I found her critiques both genuinely kind and brutally honest. If the show fills the panel with teen dunces like Justin Bieber, I’m out.

Round One – Picks From Simon Fuller
Kree singing “Angel” vs. Candice singing “Chasing Pavements”

Kree sang very well, but that song is reeeeally not my jam. Someone did it on The Voice last week and I said the same thing. Candice’s deep, soulful voice always sounds great on Adele songs, and this a lovely performance. Not her best ever, but a great way to kick off the night. Round one goes to Candice.

Round Two – Singles
Kree singing “All Cried Out” vs. Candice singing “I Am Beautiful”

This round is often easier judged on who was given the better single. First, I’m just glad that the contestants aren’t made to sing those awful “I’m so happy that I’ve achieved this amazing thing” songs. Kree’s song is great – I can easily imagine it being #1 on the country charts. The title of Candice’s single is reminiscent of a Christina Aguilera single. The song itself is OK, but not particularly catchy or memorable. Round two goes to Kree.

Round Three – Favorite Performances
Kree singing “Up To The Mountain” vs. Candice singing “I Who Have Nothing”

Kree’s performance was beautiful, and I don’t think I saw her original performance of it. It’s a gorgeous song, and very well-suited to her voice. I really do like Kree, and this was a great performance. But. But. Candice. This performance really showcased Candice’s raw talent as well as her growth throughout this competition. Holy crap, it was amazing. Round three goes to Candice.

To me, there is no question who should win. Candice has consistently the best singer in the competition all season long. She’s delivered countless performances that I’ve wanted to watch over and over, and have given me goosebumps. She’s amazing. Kree is also lovely, and against Phillip Phillips she would have deserved the win hands down. But this season, this belongs to Candice.

Tomorrow night will be interesting. Candice is the most talented person from the season and should win, but Kree is very likable and sings songs from a more popular genre. (That’s not to say Candice is unlikable. She’s also very likable. But Kree has that whole dead parents, small house in Texas, knows every crew member’s name thing going on.) So who will win? I don’t know.

Winners

Last week I didn’t love Sarah Simmons’ on the Sarah MacLachlan song, but I adored this. Great song, powerful performance. Judith Hill, of course, also really stood out this week. She’s fantastic.

Every week, Danielle Bradberry impresses me. I loved her singing the Carrie Underwood song, and I can absolutely see her having a great country music career. I also enjoyed Amber Carrington this week, but as far as country divas go, I think Danielle has more potential.

Michelle Chamuel is so different each week, it’s like a totally different artist singing “Call Your Girlfriend” than “True Colors”. But I dig her, and this was fun.

The Swon Brothers were really good this week, and since I didn’t know the song I thought it really came across like their own tune. I liked Josiah Hawley on that song by The Script even more. The kid is so talented and good looking, I can’t believe he wasn’t already famous.

Losers

Shakira warned Sasha Allen not to sound to Broadway-ish, but her performance still came across that way. Her voice doesn’t have the grit for that Heart song. It’s huge and beautiful, but I didn’t like her on this song.

I thought Holly Tucker was good this week, but forgettable. That song, “Broken Wing”, is kind of a staple of these kinds of shows, so I almost tuned out while she sang it. By the end of the episode, she’d been overshadowed by the other singers, which gets her on the Losers list this week.

I don’t think Kris Thomas is a fantastic singer, and I doubt he’ll last too long with such stiff competition this season. But I enjoyed his performance of “I’ll Be There” enough to include him on the Winners list.

Eliminated

I’m so sad that Garrett Gardner was eliminated! I can’t help but blame Shakira a little, because the Backstreet Boys song choice didn’t do him any favors. Garrett did really well last week though and almost got eliminated, so I think the fan base just wasn’t there. Still, I liked him and I’m disappointed.

I wasn’t sad to see VEDO go; I just don’t think he’s very good, at all, guys. That MJ tune was a decent karaoke performance at best. It was time.

Overall, I think there’s some great potential in the top ten. What do you guys think?

So much happened! In particular, the latter half of the finale was really thrilling.

The first thing the show did right was tighten the focus on who the real villain is: Conrad Grayson. This season, plots became too murky with talk of The Initiative – a faceless, evil organization. The finale set things straight – Conrad is in the inner circle of the organization, a collective of greedy, heartless business people who manufacture fear and profit off it. A plane goes down, sales of airport security devices go up. A bomb goes off at Grayson Global, Conrad is able to look like a hero and win an election. The show needed this focus.

The second thing the show did right was killing off Declan Porter. I have nothing against the actor, but that character never really went anywhere. His storylines this season were too disconnected from everything else to matter. He was interesting only in how his relationship with Charlotte tied Jack Porter to the Graysons. And even then, the fact that Amanda Clarke is Charlotte’s half-sister served that purpose. Having him die just after discovering that Charlotte is pregnant with their child – and at the bloodied hands of Conrad Grayson! – meant he went out in a blaze of crazy, twisty glory. The series will be better off without a useless character, and a heck of a lot of drama came out of the development.

The third thing the show did right was ending the season with Emily revealing herself to Jack as Amanda Clarke. The tension between the two of them was one of the best things about the show in season one, and when Jack went and made a family with the woman he thought was Amanda, it killed some of the drama. Things are more exciting when that relationship, even if it’s unrealized, is at risk. Jack is in SO deep now. His brother and the mother of his child were murdered by Conrad Grayson. He and Emily have a common goal now. This is going to be amazing.

There were a lot of other twists and turns that we could discuss, but I’ll leave those for you guys in the comments. I really think the show accomplished a lot in this finale, and I’m surprised to find myself really looking forward to a third season.

Stray thoughts:

• I don’t know about you guys, but I’m feeling pretty through with Aiden. I wouldn’t have minded if he’d escaped to Italy. Instead, it looks like Daniel killed him. I’m totally OK with that, since the idea of the Grayson heir having some real blood on his hands is intriguing.
• Nolan is now being pinned with the terrorist act. Yikes! What will Ems do without the Q to her Bond?
• Victoria came out of this mess looking less evil than Conrad, but I don’t expect that to last long.
• For a while there, I thought Ashley had overstayed her welcome on the show. But I enjoyed her allegiance with Jack in the last few episodes of this season, and I really wouldn’t mind her staying around in the Grayson universe.

I have a lot of feelings about the How I Met Your Mother season finale. If you’ve been following my Funny Friday posts, you probably know that I haven’t loved this season. I’ve had a lot of problems with the show for a few years now. I’ve only stuck around because next season will be the last, and I know a lot of you are in the same boat. And unfortunately, this episode didn’t do much for me.

Because Marshall and Lily were supposed to move to Rome for a year, I wondered if maybe Ted would meet The Mother in the season finale, and then the show would pick up a full year later next season. Lily and Marshall would be back, and Ted would be getting engaged. No. Instead, Marshall takes a job as a judge without telling his wife and, I assume, they won’t move to Italy after all.

Ted planned to sell his beautiful Westchester house and move to Chicago, a storyline twist that was entirely anti-climactic because we know he won’t. His children will be raised in that house. He’ll meet The Mother and stay in New York. And at least for right now, that long-awaited moment is soured by the fact that up until the minute he meets The Mother, he’s still in love with Robin. Ugh.

I’ve had so many problems with the way Barney and Robin have been portrayed as a couple this season, all of which I’ve discussed in previous posts. So I was surprised that their storyline was easily my favorite of the episode. This is the couple that I love to watch. (And a great guest appearance by Casey Wilson of the now-cancelled Happy Endings helped a lot.) It made me wish the paid hadn’t been ruined for me with all the previous crap this show has done.

So that’s how I feel about the season finale. Of course I’ll watch next fall (I assume the season premiere will show us Barney and Robin’s wedding, and the big meeting), but I likely won’t blog about it regularly. I’ll check back in whenever an episode warrants it. What did you guys think of this episode, and the season overall?