M: how much more how i met your mother?!

I feel like this is said about How I Met Your Mother at the end of every season, but seriously, when are we going to meet this mother?!?! How much longer can this show possibly continue on without the mother becoming a part of the story? It's now FIVE seasons, FIVE years without meeting the mother. At this point we know she has a bright-colored umbrella, likes the same music as Ted, plays the bass guitar, has a really hot roommate (Rachel Bilson) and I think we saw her toes in one episode.

FIVE years.

Next season will be year 6. Ted's love life pre-mother is just getting boring and played out. Robin and Barney, Robin and Ted, Robin and anyone -- played out. Barney as a man whore, Barney pining over Robin -- played out. Lily and Marshall being cute -- well, that can continue. But even that will get old at some point. And perhaps Lily will spend part of next season preggerz, but that's only 2 out of 5 of the main characters having a storyline that goes somewhere, while the 6th (title) character hasn't even shown up! If they don't hurry and start moving this show and its storyline forward, I really do think I'm going to have to call it quits. :( And I really don't want to call it quits!

SO C'MON, I WANT TO MEET THE FRIGGIN' MOTHER!

M: gossip girl finale -- i really need to give up this show!

So before I actually saw the finale of the episode, I decided to read a bunch of very complete recaps of the show. In reading these recaps I was horrified with the insane direction the finale had taken. C takes J's V-card?! D picks S over V, but can't chase S to Paris because G shows up preggerz?! C proposes to B and we almost get C and B back together again but D punches C for sleeping with J?! Then C gets mugged and shot?! Oh and N is now channeling his inner C and sleeping around with girls after breaking up with S. And J is finally sent off packing.

Yeah, I read all that, rolled my eyes, and proclaimed that I was ready to be DONE with Gossip Girl! In the same way I completely dropped 90210 and Melrose Place this past season, or The OC before it ended. I tend to have difficulty dropping shows completely, but there is a level of extreme absurdness or extreme wow-I-just-don't-care-anymore. And I decided after reading all those recaps that Gossip Girls had hit that level.

Then I watched the episode.

I don't know what it is about this show. It has NUTSO storylines; it is lacking of truly likable characters because every single character has proven to do truly unredeemably evil, bad, selfish things... But I've watched every single episode to this day. To the show's credit, it does pack a lot into 40 minutes of TV, and maybe that's why I enjoy it? It's ability to zoom right through all its crazy storylines? I have no idea. Maybe I just like Kristin Bell's narrating? ;-) Truthfully the only character I still like on the show maybe 80% of the time is Blair, and that's 50% because of Dorota. Everyone else falls into a likable 20% of the time or less category. So tell me... Why did watching the season finale *not* make me want to give up the show? Reading about it did. But watching it... Now I'm curious to see where they'll take it next season! Is something seriously wrong with me?

I still want C and B to end up together. D is just annoying and V gone is kinda nice. S is a bitch and I hate her. J is finally gone (for a little while at least?). I actually like E a lot, but whenever E is on the screen more than 5 minutes he starts getting evil and annoying, too. N is boring. I used to believe that the best "ship" on the show was B and S but even they're so boring and played out now! So um... Why am I planning on watching more Gossip Girl?!

M: life unexpected, finale & renewed!

So I have a whole series of posts in our draft box on season finales but I haven't had time to sit down and finish any of these posts. Now, season finales are hitting me right and left and I definitely know I may never catch up... but here's to trying anyway! I'm going to start with the earliest of these spring season finales -- Life Unexpected!

This is a show that I didn't expect to love and care about, but I really do. For the finale, I was super scared that they would screw with the season finale and let Baz stop Cate and Ryan's wedding. I mean Cate and Baz have this really interesting chemistry and they have Lux between them, but so very obviously Ryan is her perfect guy. And I'm a major shipper, I loooooove ships, but I do not root for Cate + Baz, I'm definitely Team Ryan. My hope is the show producers and writers and powers-that-be recognize this and don't mess with it. Please, please, please don't let the nice guy finish last here. While Baz may be Cate's high school crush, and possible "first love" (I say possible because I don't really believe she could've been "in love" with him back then, just completely "in crush") and for Baz, Cate may become the "girl that got away," they work better separate. Their individual dynamics with Lux as her parents are much more interesting, and Ryan is such a great guy! (Even though I snicker a bit that he's Kerr Smith, also known as Jack from Dawson's Creek.)

In any case, the finale was extremely satisfying for me: Cate and Ryan got married; Lux was fully on board with it and let go of her childish dreams of her real mommy and daddy being together in a nuclear family; Baz realizes what he missed out on with Cate. I think that those were all important events/revelations for each character and I really hope that the next season (yay for renewal! even if it's only 12-13 episodes...) doesn't mess with that, but rather builds on it.

This show is really interesting to me because it does really remind me of Gilmore Girls in feel, even though it's set in a completely different place (Portland, not Connecticut), is grayer in feel, and doesn't have a cast of quirky supporting characters. *shrug* But it definitely satisfies that void in my life left behind by Gilmore Girls (the good, Lorelai-Luke years). :) I hope that the half-season renewal of Life Unexpected eventually becomes a full season renewal. How the heck does The CW justify 20 years of stupid One Tree Hill but only half a season of this show that has actual heart?! *sigh*