It’s official: I hate season finales

Warning: finale spoilers ahead!

Photo: sidereel.com

I guess that’s not entirely true, I’m just really frustrated by all the cliffhangers. But that’s the idea, right? It seems like lots of finales are happening earlier this year than they usually do. So far we’ve said goodbye (for the summer) to New Girl, Bones, How I Met Your Mother, Hawaii Five-0, Private Practice and Suburgatory, just to name a few. And tonight, Grey’s Anatomy and The Mentalist are both wrapping up. I already know Grey’s is going to be one of the most frustrating finales ever; I’ve come to terms with this. But here’s a run-down of some of the others…

New Girl | Not surprising at all – Nick and Jess still aren’t together. I’m ok with this, though, because I get that it shouldn’t happen right away. I’m just glad Nick didn’t end up moving in with Caroline. If they had ended it with them together I may have screamed.

Castle season finale: Are you satisfied?

Warning: Major spoilers!

Photo: insidetv.ew.com

So, how about that Castle finale? After some very, very frustrating episodes this season, we finally got some resolution. But, the question is, are you satisfied with how it ended?

The first “oooh!” moment of the episode came when Castle and Beckett were walking to their crime scene. Castle mentioned his plans to watch movies alone after Alexis’ graduation and somewhat timidly asked if she would like to join him. Instead of turning him down, she said she would love to, leading Castle to look quite pleased.

But, the episode was not without its drama. It turns out the victim had broken into Captain Montgomery’s house to steal his old files. The team quickly assumed it had to do with Beckett’s mom’s murder and Beckett’s shooting — and they weren’t wrong. Beckett insisted they keep their investigation a secret from Captain Gates, which Esposito was very willing to do but Ryan didn’t agree with. The mystery man who called Castle earlier in the season about keeping Beckett away from the case called him again with the same warning. Realizing there was no stopping Beckett, Castle went to her apartment to plead his case.

The Voice: Live Semi-Final Eliminations

And then there were four!

Tonight, each team got cut in half yet again, and there was no shortage of emotions. Interspersed among the eliminations were performances from last year’s final four – Dia Frampton, Vicci Martinez, Beverly McClellan and Javier Colon. It was weird not hearing feedback from the coaches after they performed, but I guess they’re beyond that now.

The eliminations work the same as last year – both the coach and America has a say in who advances. The coach splits 100 points between his/her two singers, and the scores from America get added to that number to determine who stays and who goes.

The Voice: Live Semi-Final Performances

I’ve been slacking the last couple weeks with this show, and I’ve learned my lesson. It turns out it’s almost impossible to avoid spoilers for The Voice, so this week I decided to watch it live like I used to. Much better, I must say.

A couple things I noticed before the show really got started: Christina opted for her bright red lipstick, which I’m not a fan of. I also don’t like the intense eye shadow or the random tiara, but I guess that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The girls in the audience seemed to be screaming louder than usual for Adam this week. I can’t say I blame them. 🙂

But on to what matters – the performances.

Team Adam’s Tony Lucca kicked the show off with his rendition of “How Do You Like Me Now,” which I loved. I’m a fan of the song in general, but I also thought he did a great job performing it. The judges agreed, too. Christina, of course, talked too much. She really should quit while she’s ahead – Carson cut her off, she called him out, he let her finish, and all she did was say that if the show doesn’t work out for Tony, he and Adam can start a Britney Spears cover band. Not really sure that was the best use of time on a live show, but maybe that’s just me.

Next up was Erin Willett from Team Blake performing “Without You,” by David Guetta. Her version was slower than the original, and I’m not sure I was really feeling it. Although I did like that she put her own spin on it. Objectively, she sang it well, but I was kind of bored during the performance. She was crying by the end of it, so I can appreciate that the song meant something to her. The judges all agreed they liked her performance and thought she sounded great.

The Voice: Live Quarter-Final Performances and Eliminations

I’m switching my post up this week and writing about both the live show and the eliminations at once – and I won’t go into as much detail about the performances either. Instead I just want to share my thoughts on some of what went down (in no particular order).

RaeLynn’s performances of She’s Country – I’m a country music fan and I love this song, so I was excited to hear her version. And I must say, I think this was her best performance yet. She tends to do this thing where she really exaggerates her drawl, and I don’t understand it. I think I enjoyed this performance the most because she didn’t do as much of that.

Photo: starpulse.com

Team Christina’s performance of Stronger with their coach – Christina has been dressing so much better during the live shows – I’ve been very impressed! She looks great when she wears clothes that fit her appropriately and tones down the red lipstick. So why did she come out in a leotard? That was a major step backwards, in my opinion. I did enjoy her brief performance of Hillbilly Bone, complete with male stripped all over Blake. I also think Christina herself sounded good during her song, as did some of her team members (mostly Ashley).

Maroon 5’s performance of Payphone – Here’s some very simple math for you: I love Adam Levine, therefore I love Maroon 5, therefore this performance was automatically perfect. (I never said my math made sense…). That’s really all I have to say about that…

The Voice: Live Eliminations, Week 2

I finally got around to watching the week two eliminations even though I accidently read a tweet saying who the winners were. I still decided to watch the show and just pretend I didn’t know the outcome 🙂

Photo: starpulse.com

Jessie J kicked off the show with a performance of Domino. I didn’t know she’s a judge on The Voice UK; that’s interesting. Christina’s team joined her for the end of the performance, although all they really did was jump around and sing back-up.

Carson started with Adam’s team when announcing who was safe and who would get to perform again. From his team, America saved Mathai, Tony Lucca and Pip, so Kim Yarbrough, Karla Davis and Katrina Parker each sang one more time for Adam’s save.

From Team Cee Lo, America saved Juliet Simms, Jamar Rogers and James Massone. So, Cheesa, Tony Vincent and Erin Martin got another chance to sing and be saved.

TV Round-Up: Bones, Hawaii Five-0, Modern Family and Suburgatory

Warning: Some spoilers

It’s been a busy week, and sadly my TV-watching has suffered! I have yet to watch the eliminations from The Voice; but thanks to Twitter I know who went home. I still plan to watch and write about it, so stay tuned for that.

I did manage to watch a handful of shows, and by the end of the weekend I hope to have watched the rest. Here’s a rundown on what I did see.

Bones

Photo: entertainment.gather.com/

It’s nice to see that a baby and a relationship haven’t changed this show very much. This episode had Bones back in the field working a murder while her new baby was at daycare. Finn Abernathy, the extremely southern squintern, was back for this episode as well, but not without some drama. Finn and Michelle, Cam’s daughter, hit it off early in the episode and had a very successful first date. Cam, however, tried to put an end to the relationship before ultimately relenting at the end. Personally, I found that aspect of the story to be irrelevant, especially since both of these people are adults, but it worked out in the end.

The Killing: We’re still figuring out who killed Rosie Larsen

Photo: hollywoodreporter.com

I love this show! Last year, before I started watching it, we had a guest post from the only other person I know who watches it. I don’t understand how I don’t know more people who are as into it as I am, but I won’t get into that. I managed to catch up just before the controversial season finale, and unlike many fans, I was excited for the return of season two.

I’ve noticed that fans of the show seem to fall into two groups: Those who were extremely upset that Rosie’s killer wasn’t revealed at the end of season one, and those who appreciate that it’s an ongoing plotline that keeps the show interesting. I will say that I was annoyed they left the season with such a question mark, but a lot of my concerns were about the other issues raised. Specifically, the development that Holder seemed to be a dirty cop.

The Voice: Live Shows, Week 2

Photo: offcolortv.com

This week, Team Adam and Team Cee Lo took the stage to sing their little hearts out, while Team Christina and Team Blake got to rest after last week’s performances and eliminations. Adam and Cee Lo both dressed up for the occasion, while Blake took the opportunity to dress down. After Adam called him out for that, he said “This is how little of a crap I care about y’all’s teams.” Oh, Blake…how I love you.

Here’s a rundown of the performances.

Team Adam

Katrina Parker, Tonight Tonight – This performance didn’t do much for me. She didn’t sound bad, but it didn’t wow me in any way. At first I found it difficult to even hear her sing, but that got better after awhile. Christina said her voice immediately captivated her, but she wanted to see more rocking out. Cee Lo called her performance “a commendable effort,” but he felt the song is meant to be cathartic and should never be staged when it’s performed. Adam disagreed and said he thought that overall, she killed it. Meh…I wouldn’t go that far.

Saying goodbye to One Tree Hill

Wednesday night we said goodbye to one of my favorites: One Tree Hill. For nine long seasons, we got to watch these characters grow from struggling teenagers to adults and saw all the ups and downs in between. Over the years there were nasty high school rumors, teenage pregnancy, deaths and goodbyes to old friends. And through it all, Brooke, Nathan, Haley, Lucas, Peyton, Skills, Mouth and so on, were by each other’s sides.

To me, a good TV show is when the characters and their families feel like your own. When a good show ends, it’s like you’ve lost a friend. And that is true of One Tree Hill.