By John Keegan

Satisfying series finales can be a difficult feat to achieve. Just ask the showrunners for Lost or Battlestar Galactica. For every Babylon 5 that sticks the unbelievable landing, there’s a dozen Enterprisedebacles. Even when history dictates how a story will end, there’s plenty of ways that the storytelling can be derailed. And so, even with two solid episodes worth of prelude in “Separate Paths” and “The Dead and the Dying”, I was a little worried about how Spartacus: War of the Damned would close out the saga.

By John Keegan and Paul Pearson

After a run of episodes with lacklustre storylines saved by decent to solid character beats, Lost Girl is striking back with the first part of its big third season finale. “Hail, Hale” follows the pattern of finales past, using a run of episodes to build up both the threat and whatever means Team Bo will use to finally defeat it, but in this season, it’s hard to imagine things being grimmer or the characters being more downtrodden in the face of a major threat.

By John Keegan and J. M. Graham

Watching the episode, something kept bothering me, some kind of subtle change that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. After about an hour after finishing I realized what it was: Revolution has grown up. There are still some problems, especially lingering from the elements of the first arc that remain, but this episode represented a marked improvement and the beginning of what looks to be a much needed massive expansion of the scope of the story.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

In the first season of Game of Thrones, magic was largely a background element; not especially integral to the plot and largely unseen by most characters. Then there was the somewhat game-changing season finale, wherein Dany’s dragons were born. From that point, the second season made it more of a prominent element, and incorporated it much more heavily into the plot. The third season looks to be taking that trend even further, while presumably not sacrificing the more grounded, human elements that really make the show what it is.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

The specter of death hangs all over this episode. Unlike last season, where the winds of change were a clear threat, death has been present at least since Lane Pryce hanged himself in the offices of SCDP. That happened almost a year ago by the show’s chronology, yet there are many overt signs present now in the premiere. It’s also interesting to me that the episode takes place at the beginning of 1968, with several characters (and even a newspaper headline) noting that the country had just gotten through a violent summer to start anew in another year. They have no idea what is in store for them. It’s going to be tumultuous, though the premiere doesn’t offer any hints of that. It will unfold as the season goes along. We’ll just be content to go along with all of the main characters on their journey through their lives and jobs. For all the talk about how the wave of change is coming, the premiere makes it feel like many of these people are at a standstill, though. That has to be a major concern going forward.

By John Keegan

Having Rosalee back in the swing of things is a joy to behold, as Bree Turner is just plain gorgeous, and the chemistry between Rosalee and Monroe is one of the best things about Grimm. Sadly, this episode doesn’t quite pull out all the stops, as it continues the recent tendency to deliver a tired trope as a “A” plot, so the ongoing subplots have a little more time to advance.