The season of the ... season finale is upon us. (Season finale season? Sure, why not.) Our favorite shows from fall—or winter, depending on the episode order—are drawing to a close in a variety of explosions, revelations, breakups, and cliffhangers. Although stragglers like Game of Thrones and Orphan Black have a few more weeks to go, most shows have already taken their final exam, and the results were often a bit different than we expected going into the year. Here were the biggest surprises, from the shows we unexpectedly loved to the ones that really let us down, and the ones we tragically lost before their time.
Why It Was a Surprise: Forget critical acclaim; by the end of its debut season, the Southern Gothic mystery series True Detective was the most-watched new HBO show since Six Feet Under and a phenomenon in its own right. Thanks to its haunting cinematography, the abstruse nihilism of Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey), and the mystery of the Yellow King, True Detective inspired conspiracy theories, memes, and even turned an obscure 1895 short story collection into a bestseller. What will happen when it reboots for season two with an all-new cast? We wait with bated breath.
Breakout Character: With much respect to Woody Harrelson's Marty Hart, it's hard to top the past and future performances of McConaughey as Rust Cohle, a brilliant loner with a tendency to speak in bleak koans and a preternatural ability to see through bullshit.
Why It Was a Surprise: Perhaps the most anticipated show of the season, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was Marvel's first big foray to the small screen after six years of masterfully weaving its superhero films into a lucrative cinematic tapestry. And who better to helm the show than Joss Whedon, the writer and director of the The Avengers and creator of fan-favorite TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Unfortunately, Whedon has a habit of both hitting and missing with his shows; for every Firefly and Buffy, there's a Dollhouse and, well, an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Rather than a quirky, engaging spinoff, we got weak characters, an unfocused plot, lackluster action and generally watered-down Marvel. After a strong debut where nearly 12 million fans of The Avengers tuned in, just about everyone... turned off. Can Whedon find the magic for season two? Perhaps, but right now the show is looking a lot like a wasted opportunity the size of a Chitauri wormhole.
Disappointing Character: At the center of the show's unengaging exterior lies its unengaging center: Skye, the protagonist you don't care about. Any way we can throw her through that wormhole?
Why It Was a Surprise: Like Arrested Development before it, Community was a beloved but low-rated comedy that always seemed to be living on borrowed time. In 2012, creator and showrunner Dan Harmon got booted, resulting in a fourth season that felt more like an imitation of Community than the real thing. But rather than getting canceled, the show got Harmon back for a fifth season as funny and experimental as any before it. Although it ultimately proved to be its last, at least Community got to go out with a bang, with Harmon at the helm and a final Dungeons and Dragons episode under its belt.
Best Episode: The second episode, “Introduction to Teaching,” tracks Jeff's transition from student to teacher and introduces a film studies class designed to break Abed's brain: “Nicolas Cage, Good or Bad?” Abed's Nicolas Cage breakdown isn't just one of the funniest moments of the series, it's also the one that convinced me that Community was finally back.
Why It Was a Surprise: A nine-year series about a young man finding his future wife, HIMYM hinged on the conceit that the show was being narrated, many years in the future, to the children he has with this mysterious great love. The central question has always been, who is the mother? After countless twists, turns, fakeouts (and the insistence from the pilot on that it was not his erstwhile girlfriend Robin), the finale finally revealed the truth: it was some other lady who died, and then he ended up with Robin. Needless to say, a lot of fans felt a bit cheated by this bait and switch, which negated the central premise of the show on a technicality.
Worst Episode: The finale, natch.
Why It Was a Surprise: Who expected anything from a show called Trophy Wife? And yet this sitcom about a party girl (Malin Ackerman) who married an older man (Bradley Whitford) with two ex-wives and three kids was an unexpected charmer, one that found humor not in cat fights or manufactured conflict but rather in the all-too-relatable complications of blended families. Although canceled after one season, Trophy Wife was the rare sitcom that chose empathy and complexity over easy laughs, and ended up far funnier and more relevant for it.
Best Episode: Perhaps the best distillation of the show comes when Canadian Kate must convince an immigration agent that the chronologically mismatched couple married for love. The agent's summary after witnessing the daily chaos of their household? “This is clearly not a marriage of convenience, because nothing about it is convenient.”
Why It Was a Surprise: Last fall, Seth McFarlane followed up one of the most insulting and widely reviled Oscar hosting performances with one of the most insulting and widely reviled new shows: Dads. But before we're too hard on the Family Guy creator, it's worth remembering one thing he did very, very right this year: resurrecting the classic Carl Sagan space and science documentary Cosmos with beloved astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson as host. McFarlane, who loved the Sagan series as a child, used his leverage at Fox to help greenlight a reboot and bring the grandeur of the universe back into the living rooms of a whole new generation.
Breakout Character: Although Neil de Grasse Tyson is hardly a new name to his many online fans, Cosmos brought the astrophysicist (and Carl Sagan protege) squarely into the mainstream limelight, right where he and his science belong.
Why It Was a Surprise: TV shows with Saturday Night Live alums can be hit or miss, but Andy Samberg's new police comedy was a pleasure from the get-go, and soon developed into the best new comedy of the season. Created by Parks and Rec veterans Michael Schur and Daniel Goor, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a workplace every bit as quirky and funny as the one occupied by Leslie Knope in Pawnee, Indiana (albeit with more guns).
Breakout Character: The characters of Brooklyn Nine-Nine often spin detective tropes on their side, particularly Andre Braugher as Captain Ray Holt, a humorless “straight man” who happens to be gay. His performance as the hard-nosed foil to Samberg's constant antics—especially the episode he spent carrying two puppies around in his arms—has been one of the great delights of the show.
Why It Was a Surprise: There's a sense of disbelief that runs through nearly every episode of Hannibal, a question burning in the minds of every wide-eyed viewer: How the hell are they showing this on television? Not merely violent, Hannibal is a work of grotesquery, devoted to the repellent (yet oddly epicurean) art of its titular monster: turning the human body into meat. But as much as it fixates on the pleasures of the flesh, Hannibal is also a deeply psychological show. This season was an elaborate, even deeply romantic dance between Hannibal and Will Graham, one that waltzed in and out of madness and murder. Somber, often horrifying, and always disconcerting, the trick to Hannibal is whether or not you can see what Hannibal sees: the sick beauty of in a form of horror so refined that despite every impulse to retch and look away, you can't help looking closer and calling it art.
Best Episode: In “Shiizakana,” a recently released Will has resumed therapy with Hannibal, the man who framed him for murder, and begins a dangerous game where he pretends to give in to his primal killing urges to earn Hannibal's trust. But is he really pretending?
What surprised you, for better or worse, about the last season of TV? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
