Ms. Amused

Just WHAT is up with all the season finales these days? A major character (or two) has been shot (or blown up) in just about every show that I watch. Seems like there’s a mass exodus of regular characters as well.

Jesse L Martin left Law & Order (yes I was living under a rock and hadn’t heard of his departure beforehand)

Putting the rest under a cut because we’re getting into spoiler zone:

Two people were (presumably) blown up on ER. Maura Tierney’s Abby and Linda Cardellini’s Sam are two of the possible victims and they’re my favorite characters on the show. The third possible is Mekhi Phifer’s. Plus Goran Visnjic’s Luka was asking Abby to go away somewhere and try to restart their married life fresh before the blast. So that’s a fourth possible departure of the main ensemble (one of the surgeons was having a hissy fit and packing his stuff in a huff in this episode too but he’s a recurring).

I know that next season of ER is going to be the last but I was one of the faithful who has always enjoyed the show on the strength of its ensemble and the relationships between the characters, I would have kept watching if it’d aimed for 20 seasons like Law & Order is doing. But now that it’s ending, are all the rats jumping ship ahead of time? Or is it ending because too many wanted to leave which would leave ER in the same precarious position as Law & Order which now has an all new main cast as of this past season. Precarious because its too much change and even the faithful can get turned off. I know that I’m actually on the fence with L & O cause I really don’t like Anthony and none of the others have really picked up the slack yet. Jeremy’s the closest but that’s cause I’ve always liked his work anyways.

I’m sure I could figure out which characters died or are otherwise leaving the show due to extreme maiming a la Shane West. But I’m going to try and avoid finding out til the premiere of the 15th and final season.

I will admit that for sheer plausibility… the number of accidents and deaths and shootings and disasters that “County” hospital has gone through in 14 years… yea that’s not very realistic but hey some of it has been pretty cool like when they dropped a helicopter on Romano and no one noticed he was gone!

Det Lake was shot then arrested for murder on Law & Order SVU. AND Ice-T’s character puts in for transfer. So I assume that Adam Beach is also leaving the show since it’s pretty clear that he flat out murdered another cop. No way to come back from that. But Ice-T? He was my 3rd favorite thing about SVU and frankly the first two have not been real strong this season. Very distracted. I’m hoping that it was just a tease and that the new season will having him cancelling the request.

Warrick shot & killed on CSI - Well I did know that Gary Dourdan was basically let go from CSI presumably for his drug problems. It’s a shame cause Warrick was one of my favorites on that show but can’t really argue with the producers’ choice not to renew him. I feel bad for Gary and hope he finds a way to kick the drugs soon before he ruins whatever is left of his career. Coincidentially I just rewatched Alien 4 this past weekend which is the first time I saw Gary on screen and noticed him. I had the hots for his dreadlocked badass mercenary character in that movie. But I digress…. they disposed of his character with a murder by another cop. At least this fits into the story arc that has been in play for a while instead of being out of the blue like the rest.

Dr Woods has already left the building and someone is getting shot in the finale of CSI Miami - The finale is next week and while I normally don’t watch the “next on …” previews, I couldn’t help but hear that someone’s getting shot on that show too. Oh and Khandi Alexander left the show last week so we have a shooting and a definite actor departure on this show as well. The shooting may pan out to another character leaving as well.

CSI NY - my DVR missed this week’s episode and I don’t even know if it was the finale. But I’ve a feeling someone was leaving that show too. But I really don’t care if anyone leaves the show because aside from Gary, the only one I ever cared about on that show was Aiden Burn played by Vanessa Ferlito.

Booth is shot on Bones - Shot in the right chest/shoulder area. Probably not a fatal wound so I think its just an audience grabber. Bones is another great ensemble show. However unlike the rest of them, it revolves around the central pair of Booth & Brennan and their partnership. There’d be no Bones without Brennan but it’d be hard to sustain without Booth either. But still… another shooting of a main character.

LOST - I’ve not watched the last several episodes yet so no idea what’s happening there but isn’t the series wrapping up this season? Bound to be a lot of shockers since they’ve shown that only 6 people get off the island. Did the rest die or are they still there?

NCIS - I’ve not yet watched this week’s episode which appears to be about Palmer and the previews I’ve been unable to completely ignore about next week’s aren’t promising. This might be the ONE law enforcement type show that doesn’t have a shooting or actor departure. Jury is still out.

Not shot but House gets severely sick (again) on HOUSE - I’ve deliberately put off watching this week’s episode because it’s a one of two parter so will wait til I can watch both back to back next week. As I alluded to on ER, it’s a little ridiculous all the things that happened in that hospital/on a medical show. House is another medical show but they’re pulling the audience jerk card in the medical way… House gets dangerously ill. Again.

Those are all the shows that I watch (that haven’t already ended some time ago like Eli Stone & Prison Break) and if I’m right about CSI NY, every single one of them has some kind of violence and/or actor departure.

I’ve no idea about Boston Legal since I’ve only just now started watching the season 4 episodes on the DVR. It’s been hard to get into it because I missed the opening episode where they presumably dealt with the replacing of Rene Auberjoinis for John Larroquette who hasn’t hit his stride yet by episode 3. I’m also still taken aback by the massive change in the rest of the supporting cast. But I’m pleased that Saffron Burrows is on the show and she’s already found her niche. Thing is Boston Legal has never been shy about switching around their ensemble cast. And it’s always been fine since as long as the three principal characters are there: Shirley, Denny & Alan, the show has all it needs to keep on going and new characters provide new fodder for plot lines & relationships. Its’ nice to see Hands back. He’s developed nicely and I love the way he changes by using the wooden cig prop.

Ok enough blather… next week I’ll find out what happens with CSI Miami and NCIS. And CSI NY if it didn’t already end this week.