Chuck- Last Action Beardo

Morgan Grimes- "Reach for the sky dirt bags!"

In one of many moments of this two hour finale where Josh Gomez made his case for renaming the show "Morgan", the bearded wonder screamed this as he wildly waved his machine gun around attempting to capture the Elder leaders of the Ring.

When the show began it was about Chuck as a nerdy guy who helped out a couple of CIA and NSA agents. Sure he had a mega-computer implanted in his brain, but he also helped out by using his geek knowledge and sometimes simply by accident.

That's exactly the role Morgan has taken on since Chuck has become a real spy. Like Casey said, "Don't know when it happened, but our boy became a man." And as Chuck became a man, Morgan became a CIA boy. He's helped out the team immensely. Probably better than Chuck in his first year with the company.

And Morgan definitely is more inclined to make things dramatic as he claims, "No plan? Never stopped me before." Obviously Awesome shuts him down immediately. But the two work together to save the day, if only by arbitrarily pushing buttons a la the guy in the background of Goldmember.

His love for action hasn't stopped him from yukking it up as the crew embarks on their mission to take down the Ring. Chuck pondered stoically stated "the only ones who could pull it off would have to be the best spies in the world." To which Morgan squeamishly accepted the compliment with "Chuck...you're embarrassing me."

With the final bit of Morgan love, I'll just say that it was sweet how much props he gives John Casey on multiple occasions during the episode. First to Ellie and then to Casey's daughter Alex. The student to mentor love is awesome. It was great foreshadowing for when Morgan valiantly accepted Casey's order to break his own thumbs in order to escape from handcuffs. Great partnership there.

(Buy) More Thoughts

- I love that everyone close to Chuck now knows about his spy life. It was a necessary step to make sure the series stays fresh. Ellie has always been the most important person in Chuck's life. If she can accept it than everything will be fine. Woops, she doesn't accept it.

- Speaking of Ellie not accepting Chuck's spy life. Can he really just give it all up because his sister wants him to? Does the CIA allow that sort of thing? Doesn't he have to be killed or go into hiding at least?

- Shaw is alive (I dislike this, but I'll go with it because he's such a fantastic villain). He killed Papa Bartowski which makes him even more of an evil monster.

- So many epic Chuck episodes have been graced by a Jeffster performance. This season's finale had the honor of showcasing the first ever music video by the talented duo.

- So Chuck downloaded a mini-intersect when he was a kid? I'm sure we'll get answers to this next season, but what kind of info did he get from that? And did he ever flash?

- As Chuck doesn't have the ability to murder Shaw with his bare hands the villain claims, "That's what makes you weak" Sarah, like the rest of us, explain "No. That's what makes you great."

- So I guess Schwartz and Fedak didn't think they were getting canceled, because that was quite the little cliffhanger they had there at the end. Papa Bartowski had been looking for Chuck's mom for a long time and now Chuck himself is going to start searching for her? Since he promised Ellie he wouldn't work for the CIA, he'll be doing this all rogue I assume.

Lost- See You All In The Next Life, Brotha

Jack Shephard- "All of this matters."

The two and a half hour series finale of Lost was quite honestly the best one sitting watching something I've ever gone through. No other tv episode or movie has ever moved me in such a way. There were so many moments on and off the Island that were of great importance that I can in no way discuss how all of them made me bawl like a little girl.

One of, if not the biggest question of this entire last season, has been what is the sideways universe and how is going to relate to the Island lives we've been watching these characters live for the past six seasons? Well although it ended up being one of the first ideas that people talked about when the season started, I was still a good deal surprised when it became clear that the sideways world was some type of purgatory.

After Juliet died in Sawyer's arms during LA X, Miles relayed her final thought, which was "it worked." Now most people took this and ran with it, thinking it meant that once someone dies on the Island they transfer over to the sideways world where the bomb actually changed history and everyone can live happily ever after with no Island. After a while this theory fell out of vogue as it seemed more and more likely that these two worlds were coming to some kind of convergence.

And technically they were. All of these characters that we have grown to love over the past six years have been living in this in between state of life and the afterlife. In an ironic turn of events, the first major theory about was Lost really was ended up being a major factor in the end game. Not at all in the way people thought four or so years ago, but these people were in purgatory.

Now I am not a religious man by any means, but I was completely satisfied with this ending. I'm curious as to what people of religions that don't have anything resembling this type of life/afterlife situation, would feel about this type of ending to Lost.

Everybody dies at some point. And for our watching purposes, everyone on the Island died at some point. Some before Jack Shephard (Boone, Sun, Libby, etc.) and some long after the good doctor's eye closed in the bamboo forest (Hugo, Ben, Kate, etc.). They all died and somehow they all created this sideways universe in order to find each other, remember, and let go. How they created this world I'm not sure. Was it the a-bomb back in the incident? Or something completely different that we'll never understand?

With the help of one another, beginning with Charlie helping Desmond, which led to Desmond and Hugo helping everybody else, everyone began to remember their lives and let go. In this sideways purgatory they might have thought they were living, but it all seemed like a shallow existence once each one of them remembered the life they once lived. And once they all did this remembering and letting go, they were ready to move on to what some might call heaven.

And it was in these flashes of remembering that I completely lost it every single time. It was almost as if Cuselof figured how they could make the finale in a way that it would be impossible for the audience to not get multiple chills moment, and then came up with doing the sideways universe. This entire season of sideways moments led us to these moments where we got to see these Zombie-like versions of our favorite characters turn back into the ones that we love right before our very eyes.

Whether it was Jin and Sun snapping back to themselves and immediatly learning Enlish after seeing Ji Yeon on the baby monitor, or Sawyer and Juliet crying in each other's arms once all of their memories of each other come flowing through, I couldn't help but be extremely happy. And it was just that. Flash after flash coming at us time and time again until everyone that we've watched over the years had remembered their time on the Island and was ready to move on to the next life, brotha.

But how did this story of our friends finish up on the Island before they all eventually died and met up in purgatory? Well it was in fantastic fashion as well. Before this journey concluded, almost everyone got their 'moment' and that is what I was happy with. Whether all of the intracies of the Island actually make sense to me, I could care less. But the fact that we got to watch Jack sacrifice himself, Kate save the day by shooting MIB, or Hugo take the reins as the new protector of the Island, was a completely satisfying ending to this story.

As the story began to unfold, the Smoke Monster wanting to feel human became a great irony as returning to human form for a few minutes was what gave our heroes the time they needed to kill him for good. In the first of several heroic moments on the Island, Desmond was lowered down the Waterfall into the glowing Light. The MIB thought bringing him down there would help destroy the Island, while Jack believed it would help save the day and kill Smokey. Although they both claimed they were each wrong, they ended up both being right.

After Desmond released the plug to the Light, the Island did start to destroy itself. It also took away Smokey's smokiness. It returned him to a human form which made it possible for Jack to make him bleed when he did a jump punch on the cliffs that would have made Johnny Cage extremely proud. Fake Locke one the battle between the two, as he stabbed Jack in the gut, but the castaways won the war as Kate came up with her heroic moment, shooting MIB in the back.

Now the terrible beast that haunted this Island for a long time was dead, but the Island was still destroying itself and Jack wasn't going to let everyone die. So in the biggest stud moment in television history, Jack decides that he is going to sacrifice himself by plugging the cork back into the light whole in order to save the Island.

But he's the protector of the Island, how could he go on such a suicide mission? We all asked the question, including Hugo. The simple answer. This is what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to protect the Island for one day so that he could sacrifice himself to save it. He would obviously have to pass the torch on to someone else. And how is everyone in the world not happy that Hugo got to take on this new role. And that was the biggest moment of all for me. When Jack said "it needs to be you Hugo" I completely lost it.

So after Jack saved the day by plugging the hole, Hugo took on the job of protector. In a truly epic good guy moment, Benjamin Linus was right there next to Jumbotron, ready to help him accept his new responsibilites. Hugo is scared and Ben helps him understand that he is someone who has always helped people. As the new ruler of the Island he can help as many people as he wants to. He doesn't have to run things the way Jacob did. And in that moment Ben had his redemption, and Hugo makes the whole thing that much better when he asks Dr. Linus to be his #2.

So Hurley and Ben rule the Island for who knows how long after that moment. Sawyer, Kate, Miles, Claire, Lapidus and now an aging Richard Alpert leave the Island on the Ajira plane. Rose and Bernard will continue to camp out like Robinson Crusoe. Desmond is still hanging out on the Island, but I'm assuming Hugo found a way to get him off the Island quickly so that he could spend the rest of his life with Penny and baby Charlie. And this part of the story ends in a complete full circle moment. Jack is spit out by the waterfall and travels around the jungle until he lays down in the bamboo forest and dies as his eye lid closes ever so slowly.

Thank you all for a great six years. Through it all, Lost was the best television series I've ever watched. And it ended in a way that I am completely happy with. I will re-watch this show from The Pilot to The End many times over to enjoy the journey time and time again.

Other Thoughts

-There were more Sawyer jokes in the first segment of this episode than the rest of this entire season.

-I loved that we got a couple of Star Wars lines from Hurley..."He's worse than Yoda"..."I got a bad feeling about this."

-I honestly don't think I could have been more excited than when I heard Juliet's voice say "am I interrupting?"

-The quick moment when Miles pulls a grey hair off of Richard's head was so poignant because of how good Ab Aeterno was in showing us the man that Ricardo was.

-As Locke, Desmond and Ben meet Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hugo in the field we got a classic encounter as UnLocke claims, "well this is gonna be interesting" and then tells Jack what we've all been thinking "you're kind of the obvious choice don't you think?"

-Even though Desmond says none of it matters, in fact like Jack said "all of this matters." They are living life, and although they get to end up with the ones they love in the afterlife, the current life still matters. And saving the Island is a major achievement. Why does Desmond think that they can just go to the sideways and live happily ever after. It seems like he knows exactly what's going on in the sideways, but doesn't really seem to have a grasp on what the sideways is while he's on the Island.

-Almost a comical moment by MIB as he tells Jack "if there was a button down there to push we could fight about whether or not to push it. Just like old times" Doc then gives Locke his heroic moment in giving him almost all the credit for Jack saving the day, "turns out he was right about most every thing. I just wish I could've told him that while he was still alive."

-Why are Linus and others not ready to move on? Does he have a different group of people he needs to move on with? Unlike Faraday and Charlotte who haven't quite flashed, Ben seems to remember everything and still isn't ready to leave? Interesting.

Thursday Comedy- Guest Starry Night

Because there's never that much to talk about when it comes to comedies, I like the idea of reviewing all of NBC's Thursday night shows in one post. Last night was finale time for comedy night done right, and who came up big? The wily old veterans that's who. In a season in which The Office and 30 Rock are getting trashed (somewhat by me, but mostly be critics other than Tim Goodman), both stepped up to the plate and out did the up-and-comers known as Community and Parks and Rec.

Community
Two things held it back this week for me. The abundance of recurring characters that returned for the finale kind of took away from the stars that we should have following more closely as the season came to a close. I really don't need to see Vaughn, the British professor, or John Michael Higgins seizing the day, if it means that I get much less of Abed and Pierce. Which is exactly what happened.

The other thing was how much sappy romantic stuff there was. As Alan Sepinwall loves to complain about, the Jeff/Britta thing was terrible for this show and it definitely hurt it again tonight. The whole scene at the Tranny Dance when Jeff was caught between Slater and a Buzzkill was terrible. That is until the entire crowd started getting in on it. Now that is the type of stuff we watch Community for. The crowd yelling out, "Team Britta!" or "Bring Conan back!" was hilarious.

Parks and Recreation
I definitely haven't turned to the dark side yet, but Ron Swanson is definitely getting better in the last few episodes. He's being much less like Ron Swanson, that's what's better about him. If his character can continue this turn around into someone who hates on city government openly and giddily, instead of quietly and boringly, I'll enjoy him much more.

Through two episodes with guest stars Adam Scott and Rob Lowe and the latter is stealing the show. Again, Scott is being completely under-utilized as a dull straight man, considering the hilarious comedy chops he showed in Step Brothers. Lowe's character reminds me of his Benjamin from Wayne's World on cocaine. Between his "goal to run to the moon," pointing at Ann Perkins every time he sees her, and telling Ron to "focus up buddy" when he stopped massaging for two seconds, Lowe's Chris should definitely stick around in Pawnee.

The Office
Michael Scott absolutely held this season together. Last night that didn't change, he continued to shine the brightest, but everybody else seemed to step their games up as well. The cold open was again good with a great moment of Michael hating that the baby otter video was being watched over his, and then obviously gave into the cuteness and couldn't turn away from the screen while watching it. I also loved that his plan for punishment was make them work...and pay them...and give them their Christmas bonuses.

There was good Kevin stuff, we finally got an awesome Creed moment and Ryan was on point with his Woof bit. I love that he had a "woof on line one." And to boot, Jim didn't make me want to punch him in the face. He wasn't funny, a la the early seasons when he ragged on Dwight constantly, but at least he wasn't detestable like he's been the rest of this season.

30 Rock
Now maybe because it's because he is a two-time Oscar nominated actor, but boy did Matt Damon make his straight man guest starring role on 30 Rock look Oscar-worthy in comparison to Adam Scott on Parks and Recreation. Then again, maybe it was the writing by this once fantastic group at 30 Rock. It's hard to make lines like "Does that sound like more fun than me eating alone at the LaGuardia Chilis?" not hilarious. But then again Matt Damon did have a way of making it funny that he wished he had a terrorist on his plane, so I don't know.

The scene in which the loud music was playing and you couldn't hear Jack's voice was classic 30 Rock silliness without the complete weirdness they've had lately. The only man sitting there with a stereo? Great gag. That being said, I hope the whole Jack deciding between women thing is over because that got old half a season ago. We need new stories for Jacky D and quick.

The Good Guys- The Mustachioed Gentleman

The network upfronts were this week and I'm going to do some coverage on them next week once most seasons are over, but FOX brought out of one its new shows last night as a preview event. The Good Guys, starring Bradley Whitford, Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford's mustache, premiered last night before Idol. It's basically a buddy cop action/comedy that feels very 1980s-esque.

Why does it feel 1980s-esque? Well besides the kitchy editing and graphics, it's because Whitford's character Dan Stark is a cop legend from the 80s that is still bumming around today. After one episode, Whitford is killing it and making it worthy of a watch. The jokes are corny, but funny. Everything about Stark is ridiculous and that works. He has a giant mustache, he drinks on the job, and he hates new technology. I'm pretty sure he used the phrase 'computer-machine' three times in this episode. He also brings to the table a great nostalgia for his glory days of the mid-80s. Every time he starts to tell a story about him and his famous partner from the good old days it was funny.

The Goody Guys had a very Chuck Season One feel, in that it is an action show that isn't taking anything serious at all. There is ridiculous crime going, guns a blazin' and everything is a joke. It's a nice change of pace to all of the serious action shows out there.

The editing and graphics that I mentioned earlier, plus a bit of weird pacing to the pilot, are a couple of the early mis-steps. The pilot should have focused a bit more on the two partners and less on the criminals. Kind of like Justified split its stories in half, between Raylan and the criminals early on, The Good Guys kinda did that last night and it felt weird. Maybe it was because Mikhail from Lost is supposed to be Russian, not latino, but nothing clicked on that side of the story.

One other thing that didn't work for me at all was Colin Hanks. I know he's basically the straight man in this situation but he couldn't have been less entertaining in the pilot.

The Good Guys will air again this summer and be on the fall schedule for FOX in 2010.

Fantasy Idol Results- Personality of a Mailbox

Pops- "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go put my head in the oven."

That is absolutely how bad the conversation between Seacrest and the final three contestants was last night. I envy those who fast forwarded to the end last night, don't watch the results show at all, or have quit on Idol all together, because the ten minute heart to heart between Seacrest, Casey, Lee and Crystal was brutal to watch. Honestly I haven't heard a more boring conversation since Andy Stitzer rambled about making an egg salad sandwich. At first I thought that they need to stop talking to the contestants because it's just completely awkward, but then I realized that it was just the fact that no one on this season has a speck of personality. If Adam Lambert were being asked the questions, I'd be engaged. Even David Cook was a good speaker. But these three? Terrible.

Fantasy Scores

The Rock Bodega
Casey James- Eliminated (-26)= -26
Janell Wheeler
Tim Urban
Lee DeWyze- Safe (79)= 79
Week 13= 53 Total= 670

Splash Downs All Around
Todrick Hall
Crystal Bowersox- Safe (79)= 79
Tyler Grady
Michelle Delamor
Week 13= 79 Total= 369

Diabolical Haters
Didi Benami
Lilly Scott
Lacey Brown
Michael Lynche
Total= 159

You're Coming With Me Leather
Andrew Garcia
Paige Miles
Aaron Kelly
John Park
Total= 150

The Curlgar
Ashley Rodriguez
Joe Muñoz
Haley Vaughn
Siobhan Magnus
Total= 92

HashTag Katie Stevens Is Only 16
Katie Stevens
Jermaine Sellers
Katelyn Epperly
Alex Lambert
Total= 19

Lost- Fireside Chat

Jacob- "You should get your friends...we're very close to the end Hugo."

It's as if Cuselof were sitting back and enjoying all of the criticism that came from Across the Sea, because they knew that everyone and their mother was going to love What They Died For. Like it or dislike it, the back story of both Jacob/Man In Black and The Island Light completely enhanced the pleasure of this fantastic penultimate episode of Lost.

The whole episode had more of a 'we're leading up to the end' feeling than anything I've ever seen. In both timelines we got everyone coming together to start the formation of what the finality of Lost is going to be.  What that actually is, well that's yet to be determined.

In the sideways we got Desmond doing his best 'get the band back together' roundup as he pushed Locke towards Jack, before turning himself into the police for running Locke over with his car and beating up Dr. Linus. Everything in that parallel seems to be leading to this concert in which Kate will be wearing a pretty dress. After Desmond figured out a way to sneak Kate and Sayid out of police custody (paying off Ana Lucia with Hurley's money), the gang of fools was on their way to the concert. How awesome was Hugo when he pulled up in his Hummer with all of his Island memories asking if Ana Lucia was coming too?

On the Island it was MIB and a Widmore-killing Ben on their way to find the remaining candidates so that Ben could kill them too. MIB says this is to get him off the Island and allow Ben to have it all to himself. Is Ben going along with this or is he now pulling some sort of hoax on old Smokey in order to help bring him down?

On the other side of the Island little Jacob shows up to steal big Jacob's ashes from the tubby Hugo. I'm still a little fuzzy on this because when Hugo runs him down, he finds big Jacob sitting next to a fire. What was up with that transition?  This whole section of the episode was one of the best moments of all time. After telling Hugo that the ashes are in the fire and once it goes out he will be gone, he explains to Hugo that the end is near and he needs all of his friends to come.

"Come and sit down and I'll tell you what they died for," Jacob tells Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hugo. Powerful stuff here. Hugo asks why he brought them to the Island and Jacob explains that they are all flawed and weren't good people off the Island. He talks to them about protecting the Island because one of them will have to start doing it. Instead of picking one of them, he gives them "the one thing he was never given, a choice." (Another moment that is amplified by the great character story of the last episode) Of course Jack volunteers for the position unwittingly. After all, he is supposed to do it. Absolute stud moment for the doctor. What were the other three thinking in that moment? (well we know Hugo was just happy it wasn't him) Jack drank the holy water that Jacob gave to him as he proclaimed, "now you're like me." I could feel all of that Island power flowing through Jack at that moment and it was glorious.

Now we have a new Protector in Jack, an old one's ghost that claims to be disappearing in front of our eyes, and still this feisty Smoke Monster coming to kill everyone so that he can go home. This final two and a half hours has the potential to be masterful.

Other Thoughts

- Who is Jack's ex-wife in the sideways? By not showing or mentioning her the entire season it has to be someone important right? Juliet? Kate? Could it still be Claire Dunphy?

- Again we get reference to how special Desmond is. In an ironic choice of words MIB explains to Ben that he is Jacob's fail safe. He is Jacob's last resort to save the Island just in case MIB kills all the candidates. Is this important because all of the candidates are going to die? Yikes.

- Kate was only crossed off the list because she became a mother. She shouldn't be relegated to a life on the Island if she has a baby to take care of. Didn't stop him from keeping Kwon on the cave wall though.

- Jack stitching up Kate at the beginning of the ep was a great call back to the Pilot when Kate stitched up Jack.

- "We insist. Even if we have to kidnap you," Rousseau explained to sideways Linus. Funny how a bunch of these lines come out the other way around in this parallel universe.

- Did the MIB as the Smoke Monster kill Richard. I thought that wasn't possible. He asked to never die, not just never age.

Your thoughts?

American Idol- Dear America

Dear America,

In case you haven't noticed, we want Lee DeWyze to win this season of American Idol. We see him as a much more commercial artist than Crystal Bowersox and therefore it would be in our best interest to have him win our reality show. Last night we did everything we could to get Lee into the finale and hopefully continued our run of making him the champion come next week. Honestly what else do we have to do? We gave him the pimp spot of singing last. For judges pick, he got his song from the most respected reality man in the biz. His pick? Only one of the best songs, and one of the easiest to perform extremely well, Hallelujah. Even Tim Urban had a moment with this song. To cap it all off we brought back the gospel choir for the first time since what seems the Ruben/Clay finale to perform with Lee. Thankfully Mr. DeWyze helped us out by doing Hallelujah really well. In doing so he made it much less uncomfortable when our judges made him out to be the best thing since The Shawshank Redemption without even paying attention to the performance. So if you didn't pick up on it from last night's show, we want Lee to win and we will stop at nothing to make this happen. Good luck voting. Remember we have AT&T employees sent out all over the country teaching how to cheat in order to mult-vote for Lee.

Thank You,
American Idol Producers

That about sums up last night show for me. Don't get me wrong, Lee was really good on the night. Maybe slightly better than MamaSox, but I might be being swayed by the choir and the judges. Who knows? All I know is if Lee and Crystal aren't in the finale it will a travesty of the Fantasia vs. Diana DeGarmo nature. Goodbye Casey James.

Chuck- I Can't Kill It

Big Mike- "You have the hips of a six year old girl."

This marks the second week in a row where I've had a problem with a storyline in Chuck. Last episode it was all of the dream stuff and this time around it was Daniel Shaw still being alive. We never actually got to see his face, so if we find out next week that it is an impostor, I will be relieved. But if Shaw is still alive that will be disappointing and Heroes-esque. When you have an epic, heroic moment like Chuck did when he saved Sarah and killed Shaw, it's time to move on to the next stage. Don't bring him back just because you liked the job the actor was doing. This is just another example of why it wasn't a smart move to give Schwartz and Fedak six more episodes. What can you do with six episodes? Come up with silly ideas like bringing Shaw back to life apparently.

On the other hand, we got the return of Chuck's dad. Scott Bakula doesn't really bring much to the table in this role, but it was nice to see him getting all gung ho about making Chuck a governor 2.0 to keep his brain under control and out of dementia.

One of Chuck's best attributes is the way they cut from a semi-serious moment to something completely ridiculous that parallels the previous conversation. We got two of these great moments this week. The first was when Morgan is specifically told to not touch anything when he gets to hide out in Castle and then we cut to Morgan trying on bullet proof vests and playing with the guns. The second was when Chuck was lying to his dad via a serious convo about not being a spy anymore, and then they cut to him struggling with climbing up the face of a building. Brilliant work.

Finally, my favorite moment of the night was the convo between Awesome and Morgan in the kitchen. I can't figure out which was better, Awesome rambling about all of the ridiculously awesome stuff he does for Ellie, or the trance that Morgan gets in listening to the whole thing.

Let's hope that the end of this six episode season 3.1 ends with some sort of cliff hanger now that we know we're getting a fourth season next year.