This week on TV…
On the season finale of GREY’S ANATOMY, one of the regualar doctors is shot. On the season finale of ER, one of the regular doctors is shot. (I’ve lost track of
all the doctors and nurses who have become patients in their own
hospital over the years on ER, but on GREY’S ANATOMY, I believe there
are now only three doctors who haven’t become patients…and they are
only in their second season)
On LAW AND ORDER, a cop wakes up and discovers a dead body in his apartment…and has no memory of what happened. On CROSSING JORDAN, a coroner wakes up and discovers a dead body in her home…and has no memory of what happened.
It’s bad enough that every show on TV these days seems to be called LAW AND ORDER or CSI…but now they all seem to be doing the same stories. It hasn’t been this bad since the season when every show had to do their take on Chandra Levy…
One of the regular characters was shot on the last episode of CSI (Vegas); last week’s preview on CSI: Miami showed that one of the regular characters will be shot on the next episode; and over on Law & Order this week, ADA Borgia will be kidnapped and … well, Annie Parisse IS leaving the show, right?
It’s season finale-itis…the persistent notion that viewers will come back in the fall to a series they watch only if there’s a ‘life-changing event’ and a ‘cliffhanger ending’..it gives network something to hype and promote now, and something to hype and promote again in the fall – which is all fair game, except that so often it feels orchestrated and manipulative – the events don’t really become life changing because once it occurs and the cliffhanger is resolved, the series usually go back to business as usual…and as evidenced in post and above, there only seems to be a handful of life-changing events and cliffhangers to go around…ahhh, television…gotta love it…
BONES has an episode also were the main charcter wakes up with lost memory, covered in blood.