Here’s a look at the summer season finales of the shows whose new seasons I’m most looking forward to this September!
Desperate Housewives
Currently, my favourite show on air, Desperate Housewives has really evolved these past few seasons. While every season has a new mysterious neighbour on Wisteria Lane, the last one, Angie Bolen (Drea de Matteo) was my favourite, and I wish she would stay on with the cast, but de Matteo is sticking to her one-season deal with ABC. However, S7 brings Paul Young back, and that has me very excited, because even though Paul is hated by many, I always felt for him because he’s really suffered right since Mary Alice put a gun to her head in the pilot. He became a victim of circumstances, one time after another. His departure in S2, when he was arrested for killing Felicia Tillman, and the unwillingness of his ungrateful son Zach to help him, in S3, really left me wishing he would have justice one day. I do hope they bring back Felicia and Zach, so that Paul can straighten things out with those who wronged him! And with Susan Delfino as his landlady, I’m sure there’ll be some very interesting storylines to look forward to.
Among the last few frames was Bree Hodge telling Gaby Solis the secret of Andrew running over Carlos’ mother over ten years ago. What happens to their friendship is something I just can’t wait to see. Also, with Orson walking (or should I say, wheeling) out on Bree, and her company now owned by Sam Allen, Rex’s illegitimate son, there’ll be so much to look forward to in Bree’s story. How will she get her company back, and is her marriage to Orson really over?
The biggest cliffhanger was the matter of the switched babies. One child from Wisteria Lane is not actually the child of the parent/s who raised him or her! Now there aren’t really any spoilers online on this one, so I’m just going to do some guessing... Initially thought it would be Andrew Van de Kamp, which would make Sam Allen greedier and want a bigger pie of the Van de Kamp trust fund, making Bree’s chances of getting back her company even tougher. Lots of drama there! There’s also the chance of it being Julie Mayer, or Danielle Van de Kamp, but for that the writers will really need to cook up a lot for it to have any repercussions beyond the emotional chaos their mothers would go through. As I’m watching re-runs of the show right now, I observed the beginning of S5, when they track the birth of MJ Delfino and of Paige Dash, who were born on the same day, in Fairview Memorial Hospital. What if they were exchanged? Imagine the drama if Susan and Mike realise that they were responsible for killing their daughter in the car accident they were in several years ago. And if they bring back Neal McDonough to reprise his role as Dave, he might stake his claim on MJ, since he will turn out to be MJ’s biological father. For one, they didn’t kill Dave; he was just admitted into an asylum. His return would make for so much interesting material for the writers!
Of course, we all know that Vanessa Williams will move to the Lane, as Renee Perry, Lynette’s college frenemy! So there’s Lynette’s story for S7, along with the continuing challenges of raising her kids. Now she has five! And I hear the actress who plays Penny Scavo has been signed on as a series regular. More Penny storylines to come!
Grey’s Anatomy

The nailbiter that was the finale of Grey’s Anatomy S6 was one of the best episodes of any show I have ever watched. Of course, unlike most other seasons of the show, this finale had no real cliffhanger as such, because everything was pretty much resolved. We know Derek Shepherd survives, we know Meredith Grey loses her baby, we know Callie Torres and Arizona Robins are back together, and we know that Christina Yang and Owen Hunt might still have a future together. But is everything really resolved? Things might be pretty clear, but every character is left with scars that’ll take a long time to heal. I’ve heard that S7 will take a time leap of a few months, giving everyone at Seattle Grace Mercy West some time to recover from the shooting rampage. But the new season will bring so much more to the table. While Meredith recovers from her miscarriage, she and Derek might actually start planning a family. Arizona is now on board with wanting a child, so there’s a lot of hope for her and Callie together. Of course, Christina and Owen might just work out together as a couple, much to my dismay, because I would much rather see her with Dr Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams)! Williams has been signed on as a series regular S7 onwards, and we all know that Avery and Yang have had some chemistry, so what was the Teddy-Owen-Christina triangle might now become the Jackson-Christina-Owen triangle. I cannot wait for that to happen!
Speaking about triangles, the turmoil that Lexi Grey will go through over being torn between Mark Sloan and Alex Karev, is some drama I am certainly looking forward to! While Lexi is still with Alex, Mark has let her know that he wants to make a life with her. And, Alex did take Izzie’s name while Lexi and Mark were trying to keep him alive after he was shot. Does that mean that Lexi will see that as a reason to run into Mark’s arms, or will she stay on with Alex because she’s afraid of what it would do to him if she leaves him? That’s an answer everyone wants to know!
And what will become of our favourite ‘mama bear’, Miranda Bailey? She was probably the most shaken of the lot that was being held hostage in the hospital. Will the repercussions of the disaster scar her deeper than anyone can imagine? We know she’s one of the strongest people on television, but will she get past the horror she got dragged into? And Dr Richard Webber, who played a major role in ending the rampage, what’s in store for him? Seeing the responsibility with which he handled the situation, and the maturity he showed us, makes me feel that there are big things in store for him at SGMW Hospital! I say, bring back the old chief!
House MD
I watched House MD S1-6 in a matter of five months. The gripper that it was made it a part of my life, which seemed empty when I finished the S6 finale, which makes me want to watch the next season more than ever. Of course S5 and S6 had the best finales on the show, and it came as no surprise that S6 ended on such a compelling note, given the way it started. The premiere, with House in the asylum definitely had some of the finest writing, directing and acting on television, ever. Forward to the finale, the building crash and House’s desperate attempts to save his patient’s leg and life left him in such severe conflict...we saw what it almost did to him. And I’m probably more thankful to the writers for making Cuddy enter his apartment at that moment than I am for making Cuddy and House kiss at the end. I’m not so sure Cuddy and House together already is what the show needs, or maybe I’m just afraid that this means that the end is near. On the one hand, I’m dying to know how the writers will work on the angle of them being a couple; on the other hand, I want things to continue as they are...
But can things really continue as they are? House has reached a deadend in his progress with getting better. He’s realised that even if he does everything right, things can be just as bad and wrong as they were, so his question is... What’s the point! And can things really remain the same with him feeling that way? That’s why a relationship between him and Cuddy might just be the best way to go for the writers. Maybe this turn is essential in his recovery and progress towards becoming a man who isn’t so damaged.
And what is to become of Wilson in the process? I think that there can be a lot of drama and comedy between House and Wilson over the relationship with Cuddy. While House will try his best to continue being the way he is, relationship or no relationship, he’ll put up a front for Wilson in particular, for various reasons. And of course, Wilson will also continue to be House’s agony-aunt in times of need.
That brings me to House’s team... Remy Hadley (13) quit! Or did she? I hear she’s going to be absent for the beginning of S7, but will be back later. I’m so looking forward to what they’ll write to explain her absence, and all the drama that comes with it. It’ll be an all-male team for House, with just Foreman, Chase and Taob for a while. I’d really like to see more of Chase and Foreman’s personal lives evolve this season. I wouldn’t mind Foreman and 13 getting back together. And I think Chase deserves some happiness after Cameron left him last season!
How I Met Your Mother

I was afraid that How I Met Your Mother would get cancelled after S5. Don’t get me wrong; I still love the show, but I know quite a few for whom the love has kind of gone. I think the name of the show, and the way the writers have been milking the suspense it creates has gone a bit too far. I blame audiences for still seeing this show as the story of how Ted Mosby meets the mother of his kids. But I wouldn’t blame them for being fed up of silly, gimmicky almost-meeting-the-mother cliffhangers. The writers need to move the attention away from the mother to keep the show alive longer. And I don’t care if we never find out who the mother is; I just want the show to go on! And I believe it will. Carter Bays, a co-creator of the show said recently that if HIMYM was a three-act play, the end of S5 is the end of Act 2, and the as Act 3 begins with S6 this fall, the end of the show will start. I see it going on for another two to three seasons. And as Eric Segel (Marshall Eriksen) hinted in an interview a few months ago, the show might go on till an eighth season.
That speculation aside, what did the S5 finale really unfold for us? There were no real cliffhangers. Thank God for that! I would not want for it to have ended with Ted telling his kids that he was in the same bus as their mother, or something like that! All we know is that Lily and Marshall have decided to start a family. I seriously feel like those two are the only ones moving forward in their lives. I don’t know about Robin and Ted moving forward in their individual lives, but I certainly want to see Barney evolve a bit. Neil Patrick Harris does a fantastic job of playing Barney, but his caricature-esque character is getting a little tiring for me, and I’d like to see some evolution there. I know they almost had him evolve when he was with Robin, but that always seemed like a bad idea (maybe not as bad as Rachel and Joey on Friends, but still bad).
As far as Robin is concerned, call me a sucker for the whole idea of someone being ‘the one’, but I would still love to see her and Ted end up together. I know, I know she’s not the mother, because she’s referred to as ‘Aunt Robin’ by Ted. However, she doesn’t have to be their mother to be with Ted, right?
Whatever it is, since this is the beginning of the end, I think that they might just reveal ‘the mother’ soon. Not that I’m holding my breath or anything! I just hope they do it well. Because the entire show can fall flat if the meeting-the-mother storyline is not done nicely, because for many, that’s the entire premise of the show, when it’s actually just a disguise!
Gossip Girl
The Gossip Girl S3 finale cemented the show’s position as one of my top five current favourites. It was the best finale on the show yet. I was pleasantly surprised by the way the writers pulled up their socks and came around to end perfectly what began as a very unsettled, disjointed season beginning. S3 brought with it a whole new backdrop of college for the Upper Eastsiders, which didn’t really go down that well with me, but then when was Gossip Girl ever actually about school or college! Once the fresh high-school graduates settled into their university campuses and dorms, it was business as usual for the Upper Eastside.
Okay, so all those getting tired of Serena Van Der Woodsen being reckless and annoyingly gullible please raise your hands! I certainly am. I think as a person, I like Serena, but her actions and choices are really annoying me now. I think there’s been enough of her being her own person and going off to do her own thing just to find herself or prove a point to someone! She decided not to go to college, she went off with Carter Baison, she hooked up with Nate’s married politician cousin, she was fooled by her dad, she detached herself from everyone till her father showed his true colours, and then she breaks up with Nate to find herself! I say enough! I understand that the break-up with Nate is the writers’ way of prolonging their future, so I’ll just wait and watch what happens there.
Of course Dan was a factor in their break-up and to be totally honest, I was yawning with almost every Dan storyline in S3. The Olivia relationship, the threesome he has with her and Vanessa and the entire relationship-adjustment he goes through with Vanessa later—was all such a bore. Even towards the end, when he goes with Serena when she’s seeing off her dad, and there’s some chemistry between them, I was saying to myself, ‘Are they seriously going to revisit that?’ However, that also gave me a glimpse of the Dan we once liked. Although, I don’t know if I want to see him with Serena again, and it doesn’t seem like we will, since Georgina Sparks is having his baby!
Not that I was shocked when Chuck and Jenny slept together. It seemed like a natural progression, given the way she was going, but the drama that that brought about was some of the most entertaining material on the show yet. The way that shatters Blair and drives Jenny to leave New York was priceless. And then we saw a devastated and drunk Chuck being stabbed in a dark alley of Prague! We obviously know he survives, but watching the last few frames of the finale had my eyes wide open and my mind rushing with everything I had just seen!
Coming Soon: Dexter, Private Practice, Glee, Castle, White Collar and 90210