So, anyway, how’s that Beatles song go? “The Taxman… Ye-ah, the Taxman…”
Let’s look forward to the final run of new episodes on various channels:
This Wednesday’s “Angel” on the WB channel – sigh… I hate that the WB is going to cancel this show, which has certainly had a pretty good season this season (storywise, emotionally-wise, etc.). This week’s episode was unbelievable. Like, how many more people from Team Angel will fall on the sword and make a sacrifice? First Quinn back in Season 1; then Cordelia going to another dimension in Season 3, but coming back to wreck havoc in her possessed form (was she really possessed? Who possessed her? Hmm, no one really answered those questions) and she then fell into a coma only to permanently say goodbye to Team Angel this season; and then the very sad thing the writers did to Fred six weeks ago, as her body loses her soul which was replaced by Illyria, a former evil (? – amoral would be more accurate) goddess; and this week, Charles Gunn, who choses to remain in the alternate suburban hell dimension to atone for his part in losing Fred, who he once loved and may always love. Ack. And, this is the beginning of the end – 1 episode down, 5 left to go before saying goodbye to Angel? No fair!!! And, meanwhile, Angel realizes that it’s that time again – he has to fight the good fight – it’s the end of the universe (again) and he has got to be so tired of it.
Previews promise the return of Angel’s son (!) – mind you, Angel sacrificed his friends’ one-year’s worth of memories and free will so that Connor could have a normal life and peace of mind. How will Connor make his return? Will he still be irritating, self-righteous, hate-my-daddy-’cause-he-doesn’t-love-me-enough? Hmm. And, what about Wesley, the Englishman who hates himself more than anything else, because he lost the love(s) of his life in the past two years and surely has lost his mind? Hmm…
“Alias” – also going running down to its last few episodes of the season; ABC is hopefully going to renew it (considering what else does that network has to look forward to? A “Practice” spinoff; more “NYPD Blue” which is aging; and (ugh) more “Bachelor”?). Secret Agent Sydney and Crew are almost on to the traitor in their midst. Meanwhile, is The (usually) Evil Sloane really evil or is someone getting him into trouble? Will Sydney’s trecherous mom, the deceptive and evasive Irina, going to return? Will we ever get answers to any of the questions?
“The Practice” – coming to an end on ABC. How is it that they can make the remaining partners, Ellenor, Eugene, and Jimmy look both sympathetic, dignified, but dim-witted all at once? How is it that guest star William Shatner is playing a more wacky character than James Spader? How is it that James Spader’s Alan Shore character suddenly being the one with any moral high ground? He’s still a psychologically dubious character – he admittedly doesn’t know what he wants in his life, loves his dear friend Ellenor and enjoyed torturing the rest of the practice – but knows he can’t stay. So, what does he want and who the hell is he really? Will Alan Shore grow up already? Methinks that the James Spader-as-Alan Shore spinoff will be more Ally McBeal-esque rather than serious, in that David E. Kelley mode.
The final three episodes of “Friends.” I’m so bad; I keep missing the episodes. Then again, I keep watching the syndicated reruns, so I don’t feel that guilty. But, it’s going to feel weird to see no more “Friends.” What will NBC do? More “Average Joe”? Blech. Can’t they put “Scrubs” in a decent time slot so that I can actually watch a funny sitcom, instead of struggling to remember what time slot to program the VCR? “Scrubs” on NBC and “Arrested Development” on FOX deserve better treatment to let them develop as sitcoms and make us laugh.
“The Apprentice” last night – I do feel sorry that Kwame got the wrong end of the stick in the finals; his teammates did not make it easy for him (I mean, really, losing singer Jessica Simpson in Atlantic City? come on!), and as much as he didn’t like to micromanage, he should have done so when he had such flakes on his team (Troy and Omarosa didn’t make themselves look too bright in the last episode). Bill did all right, so he was the winner, even if his own team kind of undermined him too (they didn’t make themselves look that stupid at least). Donald Trump – well, let’s just say he does not make for a good post-game show host. Couldn’t they have gotten Jeff Probst (“Survivor”) or Bryant Gumbel or someone half-way more talented than Trump to ask the contestants follow up questions? Oh, well. It was a guilty-pleasure kind of show, thanks to the good-editing and showmanship efforts of producer Mark Burnett.
Enjoy the spring weekend…