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Question: I'm shocked and delighted by Fox's announcement about bringing back 24, but honestly, I think this points to the future of television. It's the same thing with The Following: Give us shorter seasons, TV Gods! Seriously, 22-episode seasons just don't work for so many shows, especially the serialized ones. How much filler was there in any given 24-episode season of real-time 24? A ton, inevitably. And every other heavily serialized show you can point to is eventually going to fall back on filler episodes, or extended (and frustrating) wheel-spinning, etc. It's just inevitable, and the best serialized shows are the ones that best manage this reality: for instance, The Vampire Diaries splits its season into three or four tightly focused mini-arcs that pack as much into each mini-arc as most shows cover in a whole season.
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[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Thursday's Season 2 finale of Scandal. Read at your own risk!]
The same week another network had a mother of a reveal, ABC's Scandal shocked viewers with a patriarchal reveal no one saw coming. Fine, some fan sites may have suspected, but the final line of the Season 2 finale was such a surprising twist, not even members of the cast knew about it in advance — except one.
Scandal Finale: Did Fitz and Olivia get their happy ending?
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[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Scandal's season finale. Read at your own risk!]
And we thought Scandal would have a hard time topping the intrigue of its Season 1 finale!
Thursday's season-ender put the first season's to shame with several jaw-dropping reveals, mostly coming in the episode's final moments. Before we get there, let's talk about what happened leading up to those moments...
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Our top moments of the week:
13. Most Fly Proposal: When Mindy decides she can't (read: doesn't want to) go to Haiti with her boyfriend Casey on The Mindy Project, she tries to back out by giving him a crazy ultimatum: She will only go if they are engaged. But since this is a sitcom, her plan backfires...
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Given the fanfare with which NBC is closing The Office after nine seasons (at least two too many), you'd think it was a Cheers or Seinfeld-sized hit from the "must-see" glory days, instead of the show that presided over the slow fade of a once-powerful comedy brand on the back of too many same-seeming niche comedies specializing in preciously arch irony. At its best (the Steve Carell and early Jim-Pam years), The Office had heart as well as range, as it found comic magic in its ensemble once the show emerged from the large shadow cast by the classic Ricky Gervais original series. But now it just hits the same beats over and over to lesser effect, which hasn't stopped NBC from pulling out the stops. The celebration (eulogy?) begins with an hour-long behind-the-scenes retrospective (Thursday, 8/7c) produced by NBC News — which didn't have more pressing business? — featuring interviews from cast members and producers. The main event is a super-sized finale (9/8c) that has swelled to an hour and 15 minutes, staged as a mock reunion of the Dunder Mifflin gang several months after the airing of the mock documentary that took nearly a decade to finish.
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