The Most Awesome Thing I Saw Last Week: Season Finales

24 – After a lackluster sixth season and a two-year break, 24 made a great comeback this season.  Granted, there were some rough moments and some suspension of disbelief, but we’ve learned to expect that.  What really made the finale special was the last few scenes.  See, Jack Bauer was exposed to a deadly nerve agent that left him with hours to live.  It was interesting to see the normally invincible Jack reduced to a shadow of his former self, but more astounding was the end of the episode, where Jack asks a Muslim cleric for absolution.  The scene was well played and amazingly effective.  For a show that’s often (unfairly) characterized as race-baiting propaganda, this was a moment of simple beauty.  (ej)

30 Rock – If somebody were to ask me how 30 Rock could be even better, my only suggestion would be to add some Elvis Costello.  Miraculously, that’s what happened in the finale.  Music luminaries from Costello to Steve Earle, from the Beastie Boys to Cyndi Lauper and Clay Aiken, all came together to perform “Kidney Now”.  That’s right, a charity project to find a kidney for Jack’s newly-discovered birth father.  Plus, we got another Chris Parnell as the incompetent Dr. Spaceman, and Alan Alda making a screamingly funny MASH reference (“A grown man crying about a baby and a chicken?  I thought this was supposed to be a comedy show!”).  It’s like Liz Lemon said, we had a pretty great year.