May 18, 2006
SFist Watches: TV Finales Tonight

There are a lot of finales to pick from tonight, so let's just cut to the chase, shall we?
With this week, NBC is putting its entire Thursday night line-up to rest. "Hello, My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" ended last week, leaving room for two freaking hours of "Will & Grace" tonight. Starting at 8 p.m. you can catch an hour-long "retrospective," followed by the series finale at 9 p.m. We were fans of the show during its first years, but gave up on it about three seasons ago. Can't remember why, exactly, so perhaps that retrospective will remind us why we decided to stop watching. Following "Will & Grace" is the season finale of "ER," a show that we probably should have stopped watching years ago, but just can't seem to quit. (That Goran Visnjic is dreamy!) In seasons past, the ER has had shoot-outs, deadly virus scares, fires, and helicopters falling from the sky and on to peoples' heads. What could they possibly have left?
Grrrrr-oran Visnjic image from Yahoo! TV.
"CSI"'s finale is airing over on CBS at 9 p.m. No guest directing by Quentin Tarantino this year, but you can expect to see one of the team members on his or her deathbed. Also: men in corsets! Following "CSI" is the finale of "Without a Trace," with a guest appearance by Jason Priestley. And if that isn't the lamest finale stunt ever, then we don't know what is.
Sad ABC has nothing to offer but the season finale of "American Inventor," which we have heard can be quite the entertaining show. Too bad it's on Thursday nights.
Which leaves us with Fox. At 8 p.m. "That '70s Show," also known as the show responsible for bringing both Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama into our lives, will be bidding us farewell. (We haven't watched it in years. Have they moved out of the '70s yet?) At 9 p.m. is the finale of "The O.C." We still contend that the first season of "The O.C." was one of the best TV teen dramas ever. Second season? Not so much. And this season? Well, we stopped watching when cousin Oliver sister Kaitlin Cooper showed up. Rumors have been flying for weeks about one of the cast members biting the dust during this episode, and thanks to the jerks at "Access Hollywood" we already know who that will be. (We won't link to the article, lest we spoil you too.) We haven't given up completely, though, and will most likely hold a marathon viewing when the season comes to DVD.
Man, knocking all those Season Passes from our TiVos this week has been really satisfying.

