A finale or two

(I know it's a little late to be talking about last weekend, but I figured I needed a "filler episode" because my anime-watching has been a tad light this week...)

Well, May is traditionally the time when my TV-watching (what little there is) draws to a close as the shows I watch end for the season. Ending for more than just the season, though, was "Star Trek: Enterprise". And I guess, like millions of other viewers, I probably won't miss it too much.

I mean sure, over the past few years, I kept watching it regularly. It was kind of out of habit. When I first moved out here, it was in the middle of both "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager", which though I was watching those regularly beforehand, I could no longer receive the broadcast for it because I was too far out of town, and I picked a satellite provider instead of cable for my TV. So I pretty much missed the second half of both of those. (I did happen to gain the early Showtime airings of "Stargate SG1, though, so I didn't miss Trek all that much).

I've since caught up with "Deep Space Nine" (though not "Voyager"), and when "Enterprise" came out, I thought it would be a decent enough idea to generate some interesting escapism. And it was, well, "okay". I'm usually pretty forgiving of plot devices and mediocre performances if there's enough other stuff going on to let me suspend my disbelief. And "Enterprise" pretty much did the bare mininum to do that. It was also disadvantaged by the fact that the local UPN network is a low-power little mom-n-pop operation that had a lousy picture and sound quality (which, as you know, count for a lot with me).

This last season, I had discovered that it was pretty easy to obtain HDTV versions via Bittorrent, so I started watching it that way. I'm not sure that helped all that much, but it was still worth trying. But it also made it easy for me to fall a few episodes behind, so after the last two aired, I had a total of 4 to get through on Saturday.

And now it's done, and it was kind of a cheesy way out (I half expected Riker and Troi to wake up in bed and Riker exclaim "Honey, I just had the strangest dream..."*). And I probably won't miss it. Oh well. There's a new season of "Galactica" coming up, so I'll have plenty to occupy me.

Other finales included Sunday night's "King of the Hill" (more of the same, a couple of good laughs though), and the "Simpsons" (almost funnier than the rest of the season -- yay! -- but mostly because I went to a Catholic high school too, not to mention that it mocked the all-to-real evangelical attitude towards the papacy that's so very much glossed over in the media these days).

"Deadwood" wasn't quite at the finale yet (that's this coming Sunday), but it was a weird mix of tragic-sad and crazy-funny that is really quite a spectacle to see.

Finally, not a finale either, I'm almost caught-up with "Dr. Who", and it's definitely got this charming wit to it underneath the cheesy premise and simple suspensful creepiness. I think there's only a few more episodes to go with this season, but I'll probably scatter it through rainy summer days and not really keep up with it real-time. Still fun, though; I hope it makes it over to the 'States for real instead of just via bittorrent.


*(Some of you might be a little too young to remember that this is a reference to Bob Newhart. Some day you'll understand. *grin*)