Seinfeld 3×08 — “The Tape”: “The Tape” might not be a memorable episode for most fans, but I liked it because it dealt with what I thought was a very important issue: the attraction–or at least potential attraction–of the other members of the group to Elaine. She’s obviously a good-looking woman, and is intelligent and funny to boot. We know Jerry had his thing with Elaine, but it was good to finally see George and even Kramer view her in a different light here — all because of the erotic message she left on Jerry’s recorder. I enjoyed how George became all flustered as he realized he was attracted to her, and how the three men looked at Elaine once she fessed up to the deed. Not much else happened in the ep, except that George ordered hair-growth cream from China. IMO, he should have been looking for diets that work instead of a cure for baldness, but whatever. This is still one of my favorites!

24 8×23-8×24 — 2pm-4pm: Well, even though the series finale of 24 received considerably less fanfare than that of Lost, I was still looking forward to these last two eps. Unfortunately, viewers weren’t treated to anything different than we’ve seen over the course of the past 8 years. Jack somehow managed to escape from seemingly imminent death yet again, and though shot, stabbed, and bloody, he’s nevertheless able to wander off to safety on foot. Been there, done that. Several times in this season alone, in fact, and times too numerous to count during the series run.

I do have to say that I liked Jack’s interactions with Chloe. From the time he (almost lovingly) knocked her unconscious to the time he badgered her into shooting him to their final goodbye, I thought those two were definitely the highlight of the show. I admit I teared up a bit during that goodbye scene, and the stopwatch timer ticking down to 00:00:00 instead of up to 04:00:00 was kind of sad as well.

I think I’ll miss having 24 in my regular lineup. Sure, the storylines were pretty preposterous, and most of the “twists” in recent seasons seemed laboriously contrived and inauthentic, but the show was able to bring some decent action on a rather consistent basis and was highly entertaining. I’ll miss rolling my eyes at Jack’s terminator-like properties. I’ll miss all the snarky comments from other viewers about how no one on the show would ever have use for the best diet pills because none of the characters eat or drink during the various crises. I’ll miss Charles Logan’s utter ineptitude (the guy couldn’t even commit suicide properly). I’ll miss Chloe’s smart-ass comments to lesser computer techs. And I’ll miss all the “shocking” deaths from the first show to live by the “no character is safe” mantra. Goodbye, 24 — until the movie comes out!!!

Lost 6×17 & 6×18 — “The End”: There has been a lot written about the Lost series finale already, so I’m not going to go into a detailed recap or anything like that. I just wanted to chime in with a few final thoughts of my own, beginning with the fact that I really enjoyed these eps for the most part and am satisfied with how things ended.

For me, the whole attraction to Lost was the relationships between the main characters. From maybe Season 3 on, I was far more interested in the off-island stuff, the flashbacks, flash-forwards, and flash-sideways, then whatever happened on the island. The various mysteries of the island and the so-called “mythology” never appealed to me at all. It made no sense, and felt as though the writers were making things up as they went along, despite their claim of knowing exactly what they were doing. But I always liked learning about the characters and what they went through before arriving on the island.

I have to admit that I hoped for a “happier” ending. I wanted that alternate universe from season 6 to be real. I didn’t want Jin and Sun to have died on the submarine, leaving their daughter an orphan. I didn’t want Charlie’s death to be in vain. (Speaking of, did Claire ever read the Greatest Hits list he wrote before he died???). I didn’t want Hurley to be stuck as the island’s protector. I was hoping for some kind of magic twist that would make the L.A. alternate universe real, but with the characters finally realizing that they knew each other in another life.

I guess that sorta happened — just in reverse. The island and everything that happened there was real; it was the L.A. scenes that acted as the “holding place” or “waiting room” or “purgatory”, whatever you want to call it. The L.A. life was what the characters hoped for back when they still had a chance to do anything. Christian explained that it was a place they all “created” so they could wait up for each other. That part didn’t make much sense (did they have a bonfire meeting and decide this at some point on the island???), but I looked past that to the final message. It’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey. It’s not what you do in life, it’s who you do it with. The people who are most important to you in life will remain important to you in death, and in that way, no one goes alone.

I liked that message.

As for some of the scenes in the ep, I have to admit that I teared up at every single recognition/reunion from beginning to end. I know, I’m sappy that way. And I kind lost it for real when Jack died, which is surprising because I never particularly liked his character to begin with. But the meaning of his sacrifice, the way it looked like he was going to die alone only to have Vincent come back, the smile that crossed his face when he realized his friends were making it off the island, and the symmetry of this final scene with the very first scene of the series made it quite poignant.

No, we didn’t get answers to any of the mysteries involving the island, so I’m sure a lot of viewers were disappointed. But for those like myself, who enjoyed the characters more than the plot, this finale was damn powerful.