Scribbles About TV: Finale Reviews+ Predictions for Next Year- Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, American Crime
So these 3 shows that I thought were really good this season had their season finales this week... and I'm going to say overall... a little underwhelming. These weren't the best most intense cliffhangers of the year... that is for sure. But they've all had quite exciting years so... yeah.
Grey's Anatomy
I'm going to be honest... usually I don't pay 100% attention to Grey's anatomy because if I'm too into watching that, I won't pay as close attention to Scandal... and I really wanted to see the end of Scandal and American Crime, and if I didn't watch those live... they would definitely get spoiled for me. I follow too many tv things on social media that I would have found out the end. I figured Grey's wouldn't have the same intense spoiler because it already did its exciting thing this year... so yeah.
I did watch the second half of it though and... I think the biggest cliffhanger thing for me was the break up of April and Jackson. Its sad, but April kind of left him when he needed her... and yeah she was doing something she needed to do... but she needed to let Jackson grieve with her too! That was really sad to me. And I mean getting together after he interrupts your wedding... kind of a red flag... but still. It was a sad moment. I thought.
I liked the "dance it off" thing. I thought that was a good way to end it. Cheesy... but I mean its like the early days of Greys! Lol. I think Meredith needed that and so did her sister and Derek's sister.
I liked the thing with The Chief and his wife. That was cute, the wedding was cute.
I didn't like Karev's girlfriend until recently... and I don't think its going to work out between them, but I thought their whole thing was cute. He seems to have a thing for Meredith's sister... so yeah. My parents and sister didn't pick up on that but I was like "NO HE TOTALLY COMPLIMENTED HER AND THEN AT THE END HE WAS LOOKING AT HER LIKE HE LIKED HER! HE LIKES HER!" This might be why I'm single... and possibly a bad wingwoman... but whatever.
I could have used more Calzone.... or just more Cal. Callie is my favorite and I forget what ended up happening with her and the cop. So yeah.
I think thats it. It was a good episode, but it wasn't super finale-y. I would have liked to see the doctor that Meredith yelled at from the other hospital come back into play... Meredith shouldn't have yelled at her like that, she was trying to do the right thing and it wasn't her fault that Derek died. So I felt little closure on that end.
Scandal
Alright... this wasn't really a bad finale... but it was such a let down! It may have just been because of the commercials for this... but it had one of my tv pet peeves.
The commercials kept saying the finale was "explosive." It seemed like someone good would die. Kerry Washington said on Fallon, she wasn't sure how the show would continue after the way this season ended. Some of the stars weren't even sure what was going to happen in the finale...
So here is my pet peeve: Promising an exciting finale with a ton of deaths and then killing off A BUNCH of random people that we don't know and we don't care about. I don't care about the amount of tv deaths, I care about who dies... if it had been someone like Fitz or Mellie... THAT would be an explosive finale! That would be something that everyone would be talking about for the rest of the week! It would be insane and just, sad but amazing. 16 unnamed jurors is good... but that only gets me talking for half an episode. I was all excited by it at first... but in the last 5 minutes... the finale was too happy. It was half Scandal, half The Brady Bunch the way it ended.
I do think that something bad is going to happen to Fitz... but that won't be until next season. Scandal does a lot of foreshadowing. For example: At the beginning of this season Olivia was seen reading Gone Girl by the beach when she was on vacation with Jake. I thought "ohh thats a popular book right now. That makes sense that Olivia would read that." And then when she was kidnapped mid season I thought "ohhh... so the Gone Girl book was a clue." It foreshadowed a little bit, I think, to something bad happening to Fitz because it kept showing him in a frame. He was literally framed in a picture in the White House, they showed him through a window passage when he was kissing Olivia and a little before that. And they showed him through a mirror. One thing I learned from taking film classes: If they're shooting your character through a frame... you're probably a goner. Maybe he's not a goner... but its not going to be the picture perfect ending that they showed.
American Crime
So this was... very unsatisfying. Partially because I couldn't really enjoy it because I was so mad at the Scandal finale... but also because I had no idea what was going on... still don't at all... and everyone I kind of cared about died and... we learned nothing from the finale... at all. We still don't know who killed Matt? Or Mark? I forget. We still don't really know everything about his wifes affair... I'm not sure how Aubrey died... and yeah.
So in going with the overall storyline of the show... the final episode had basically no plot... but the show wasn't really about plot at all. It was very much a character driven series, and it was really trying to convey more about the message of Race Issues and Race Wars instead of focused on who the actual murder was... which in all honesty sets it apart from any other show on TV and the finale really reflected that aspect of the show... so in that aspect... it did what its supposed to do I guess and was a good finale by those standards. The very end of the show reflected heavily on the idea of "The American Dream" and it was a message that was cut off... and that kind of shows that really the American Dream is kind of dead because of inequality. Pretty heavy message for an hour of network TV right?
I still have some issues with the series as a whole though... I felt that the director of it was brilliant... but it was a little too artsy to the point where I had no idea what was going on and I thought "okay, I'd just like to see a person talking while their talking for once just to know if this is reality and in the present or if its a dream or in the past or something... don't think thats too much to ask for! It was kind of frustrating. Again, if you watch this knowing that its about a specific theme more than a specific plot... it is more understandable.
There were also a lot of characters. All of the acting was amazing, probably one of the best casts on tv... but because there were so many characters, I just stopped paying attention to a lot of the stories. The one guy that was like the leader of the gang, the one that has the last line of the show... I thought he was a brilliant actor and I really felt for his character... did not pay attention one bit to his story though. There was too much going on with all the different families and it was just hard to focus on any one person, and he's the one thats overall story wasn't very interesting to me until meeting his girlfriend and his daughter. If it follows the same story come season 2, his storyline is what I'm most interested in.
And I feel like this is the type of show we need right now because in all honesty the message of Racial Inequality in the show is what the American Crime is. And it isn't like "Ohhh this show ended racism" not at all. But it did kind of show the different types of racism going on in the world and it gave a viewpoint from every person... which is a very interesting thing to do.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and compare this to a couple other things with the same message. Its a lot like the movie Crash, which is an excellent movie that showed a lot of the terrible things going on in the world, also from different viewpoints. I feel like American Crime is better at showing the different perspectives because in Crash it just seems like everyone is a disgusting racist. American Crime gets a little deeper into the characters and more of an understanding I guess. Not saying that makes any of the characters likable, I think it actually makes Felicity Hoffman's character less likable... but I think its an important difference.
Another really powerful show that has a similar theme but more of a plot is The Wire... Amazing show. A lot of people would probably consider this the best show of all time, and it definitely is up there. Omar Little is absolutely amazing and one of the best fictional characters ever... but that show gives you sooo many perspectives of sooo many different characters. Lots of different backgrounds, races, sexualities, nationalities and different types of criminals and crimes represented... I don't even know where to begin with this one, but the characters are actually brilliant. This definitely is an interesting show to watch, especially now with all the tragedy in Baltimore... its interesting.
One thing I liked from The Wire that I feel like they could have done on American Crime is compare two characters. There was one episode where Bunk, one of the cops realizes that he went to the same school as Omar, the informant that steals from the drug dealers... it just shows that cops and criminals... not that different. Not at all really. And its those kind of things that make the show. I took a class on The Wire, which is why I know a lot of detailed information about it... lol. If you liked American Crime and haven't seen the Wire yet... I highly recommend it. It is brilliant and awesome all around. Lol.
So that is my little finale wrap up... I think I've discussed all the finales for shows I actually watch now... unless I did a comedy one on Modern Family and Blackish... but I don't think I'll have much to say about those... so yeah. Lol.
Hope you guys liked this and found it useful!
Byeee!
-Shannon
Grey's Anatomy
I'm going to be honest... usually I don't pay 100% attention to Grey's anatomy because if I'm too into watching that, I won't pay as close attention to Scandal... and I really wanted to see the end of Scandal and American Crime, and if I didn't watch those live... they would definitely get spoiled for me. I follow too many tv things on social media that I would have found out the end. I figured Grey's wouldn't have the same intense spoiler because it already did its exciting thing this year... so yeah.
I did watch the second half of it though and... I think the biggest cliffhanger thing for me was the break up of April and Jackson. Its sad, but April kind of left him when he needed her... and yeah she was doing something she needed to do... but she needed to let Jackson grieve with her too! That was really sad to me. And I mean getting together after he interrupts your wedding... kind of a red flag... but still. It was a sad moment. I thought.
I liked the "dance it off" thing. I thought that was a good way to end it. Cheesy... but I mean its like the early days of Greys! Lol. I think Meredith needed that and so did her sister and Derek's sister.
I liked the thing with The Chief and his wife. That was cute, the wedding was cute.
I didn't like Karev's girlfriend until recently... and I don't think its going to work out between them, but I thought their whole thing was cute. He seems to have a thing for Meredith's sister... so yeah. My parents and sister didn't pick up on that but I was like "NO HE TOTALLY COMPLIMENTED HER AND THEN AT THE END HE WAS LOOKING AT HER LIKE HE LIKED HER! HE LIKES HER!" This might be why I'm single... and possibly a bad wingwoman... but whatever.
I could have used more Calzone.... or just more Cal. Callie is my favorite and I forget what ended up happening with her and the cop. So yeah.
I think thats it. It was a good episode, but it wasn't super finale-y. I would have liked to see the doctor that Meredith yelled at from the other hospital come back into play... Meredith shouldn't have yelled at her like that, she was trying to do the right thing and it wasn't her fault that Derek died. So I felt little closure on that end.
Scandal
Alright... this wasn't really a bad finale... but it was such a let down! It may have just been because of the commercials for this... but it had one of my tv pet peeves.
The commercials kept saying the finale was "explosive." It seemed like someone good would die. Kerry Washington said on Fallon, she wasn't sure how the show would continue after the way this season ended. Some of the stars weren't even sure what was going to happen in the finale...
So here is my pet peeve: Promising an exciting finale with a ton of deaths and then killing off A BUNCH of random people that we don't know and we don't care about. I don't care about the amount of tv deaths, I care about who dies... if it had been someone like Fitz or Mellie... THAT would be an explosive finale! That would be something that everyone would be talking about for the rest of the week! It would be insane and just, sad but amazing. 16 unnamed jurors is good... but that only gets me talking for half an episode. I was all excited by it at first... but in the last 5 minutes... the finale was too happy. It was half Scandal, half The Brady Bunch the way it ended.
I do think that something bad is going to happen to Fitz... but that won't be until next season. Scandal does a lot of foreshadowing. For example: At the beginning of this season Olivia was seen reading Gone Girl by the beach when she was on vacation with Jake. I thought "ohh thats a popular book right now. That makes sense that Olivia would read that." And then when she was kidnapped mid season I thought "ohhh... so the Gone Girl book was a clue." It foreshadowed a little bit, I think, to something bad happening to Fitz because it kept showing him in a frame. He was literally framed in a picture in the White House, they showed him through a window passage when he was kissing Olivia and a little before that. And they showed him through a mirror. One thing I learned from taking film classes: If they're shooting your character through a frame... you're probably a goner. Maybe he's not a goner... but its not going to be the picture perfect ending that they showed.
American Crime
So this was... very unsatisfying. Partially because I couldn't really enjoy it because I was so mad at the Scandal finale... but also because I had no idea what was going on... still don't at all... and everyone I kind of cared about died and... we learned nothing from the finale... at all. We still don't know who killed Matt? Or Mark? I forget. We still don't really know everything about his wifes affair... I'm not sure how Aubrey died... and yeah.
So in going with the overall storyline of the show... the final episode had basically no plot... but the show wasn't really about plot at all. It was very much a character driven series, and it was really trying to convey more about the message of Race Issues and Race Wars instead of focused on who the actual murder was... which in all honesty sets it apart from any other show on TV and the finale really reflected that aspect of the show... so in that aspect... it did what its supposed to do I guess and was a good finale by those standards. The very end of the show reflected heavily on the idea of "The American Dream" and it was a message that was cut off... and that kind of shows that really the American Dream is kind of dead because of inequality. Pretty heavy message for an hour of network TV right?
I still have some issues with the series as a whole though... I felt that the director of it was brilliant... but it was a little too artsy to the point where I had no idea what was going on and I thought "okay, I'd just like to see a person talking while their talking for once just to know if this is reality and in the present or if its a dream or in the past or something... don't think thats too much to ask for! It was kind of frustrating. Again, if you watch this knowing that its about a specific theme more than a specific plot... it is more understandable.
There were also a lot of characters. All of the acting was amazing, probably one of the best casts on tv... but because there were so many characters, I just stopped paying attention to a lot of the stories. The one guy that was like the leader of the gang, the one that has the last line of the show... I thought he was a brilliant actor and I really felt for his character... did not pay attention one bit to his story though. There was too much going on with all the different families and it was just hard to focus on any one person, and he's the one thats overall story wasn't very interesting to me until meeting his girlfriend and his daughter. If it follows the same story come season 2, his storyline is what I'm most interested in.
And I feel like this is the type of show we need right now because in all honesty the message of Racial Inequality in the show is what the American Crime is. And it isn't like "Ohhh this show ended racism" not at all. But it did kind of show the different types of racism going on in the world and it gave a viewpoint from every person... which is a very interesting thing to do.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and compare this to a couple other things with the same message. Its a lot like the movie Crash, which is an excellent movie that showed a lot of the terrible things going on in the world, also from different viewpoints. I feel like American Crime is better at showing the different perspectives because in Crash it just seems like everyone is a disgusting racist. American Crime gets a little deeper into the characters and more of an understanding I guess. Not saying that makes any of the characters likable, I think it actually makes Felicity Hoffman's character less likable... but I think its an important difference.
Another really powerful show that has a similar theme but more of a plot is The Wire... Amazing show. A lot of people would probably consider this the best show of all time, and it definitely is up there. Omar Little is absolutely amazing and one of the best fictional characters ever... but that show gives you sooo many perspectives of sooo many different characters. Lots of different backgrounds, races, sexualities, nationalities and different types of criminals and crimes represented... I don't even know where to begin with this one, but the characters are actually brilliant. This definitely is an interesting show to watch, especially now with all the tragedy in Baltimore... its interesting.
One thing I liked from The Wire that I feel like they could have done on American Crime is compare two characters. There was one episode where Bunk, one of the cops realizes that he went to the same school as Omar, the informant that steals from the drug dealers... it just shows that cops and criminals... not that different. Not at all really. And its those kind of things that make the show. I took a class on The Wire, which is why I know a lot of detailed information about it... lol. If you liked American Crime and haven't seen the Wire yet... I highly recommend it. It is brilliant and awesome all around. Lol.
So that is my little finale wrap up... I think I've discussed all the finales for shows I actually watch now... unless I did a comedy one on Modern Family and Blackish... but I don't think I'll have much to say about those... so yeah. Lol.
Hope you guys liked this and found it useful!
Byeee!
-Shannon
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