Guys, I wish I could make a montage with words for a true “end of the season” feel. I’d be shots of Robert’s glee over Castle, my constant whining about Dexter, Scott loving 24, and Dennis trying desperately to convince us all that Cougar Town was a show worth watching. It’s been glorious guys, but Remote Uncontrolled is taking a breather for the summer. We’re going to kick back, relax, and start catching up on our DVDs (or am I supposed to say BluRay now?)

Seriously, it’s been a treat to be able to go on about something I really care about, to read about what my fellow bloggers care about, and to hear y’all in the comments. We should be back in the fall with the new shows, better than ever. But don’t fret! Dennis and I will be covering True Blood in some capacity and then there’s Mad Men… So look for us later this month and come back in the fall, when we start this all over again.

Scott

24: “1:00 PM – 2:00 PM”
As Lost wrapped up yesterday and 24 comes to a close tonight, we lose the last of the big shows from the early Aughties that ushered in a golden age of TV. That greatness lives on in series like Breaking Bad, Justified and Mad Men, but those are on cable, where a couple of Emmy nominations and a 0.5 rating will keep you going strong. 24 and Lost were on broadcast networks and pulled in ten times that many viewers, attracting audiences because of, not in spite of, their freshness and innovation. Take a look at the top 25 rated shows now and see how much innovation you get. Aside from Glee, it’s all dumb sitcoms, police/doctor/lawyer procedurals and reality junk. Ending 24 has done wonders for its quality; though it’s far from its early glory days, the past few episodes have wrapped up the series by intriguingly turning Jack Bauer into the season’s big bad. Last week, in particular, offered up one of 24‘s best action sequences ever, with Jack donning a black hockey mask and shooting up an entire tunnel full of cars with the aim of harshly interrogating his archenemy Charles Logan, who is now essentially portrayed as an anthropomorphic weasel. With a 24 movie already in development, nobody’s taking him out, but we could easily see him in jail, or back on the run. In any case, the end of 24 as a series is good news for everyone, except maybe Freddie Prinze Jr.

Modern Family: “Family Portrait”
Has any show ever gone from surprise success to backlash recipient in less time than the best new comedy of the 2009-2010 season? Nine months ago, ABC’s only contribution to TV comedy was whatever they stuck in the 30 minutes following 90 minute Dancing With The Stars episodes (something with Ted Danson, something with Heather Graham, otherwise I’m drawing a blank). Now they’ve got a hilarious ratings powerhouse that’s anchoring ABC’s Wednesday as a comedy destination to rival NBC’s Thursday and CBS’s Monday. I know some have been disappointed with Modern Family since it came back in the spring following a universally-adored fall run, but there hasn’t been a bum episode in the bunch for me. I can’t imagine many complaining about this week’s season finale, which is arguably the best episode of the series so far. Phil’s guilty Kiss Cam moment, Mitchell’s John Woo-esque pigeon antics, Claire’s disastrous attempts at home repairs, all leading up to a cutesy but sweet group hug of a family photo? Perfection.

Robert

Lost: “What They Died For”, “The End”
In last week’s Getting LOST, we recap the second-to-last episode “What They Died For” where the story of our survivors gets very interesting. Jacob gives the lowdown to Jack, the Man in Black finds an ally in Ben as he tracks down Widmore, and everything’s coming together in the flash-sideways. With the series finale airing on a Sunday, expect our final installment of Lost nerd-chat on “The End” tomorrow.

Castle: “A Deadly Game”
This season’s finale left things nearly the same as last year’s finale, but with the roles reversed. Last year, Castle dug a little too deep into Beckett’s past and she demanded he stop following her around, but this season Castle, feeling the subtle rivalry with newcomer Demming, nudges Beckett gently to drop that chicken dinner, but she turns him down, only to regret her decision and see Castle break away for the summer with his ex-wife.

This series that I pegged as my favorite new show of 2009 had a decent second season that was as much fun as it was so-so. More than that, I think it’s another great instance of a show cultivating a loyal following–perhaps based on Nathan Fillion’s cult-star status–while also delivering a fairly consistent result week in and week out. If the weekly whodunit is just familiar enough to almost predict the outcome in the first half-hour, Castle balances it out with extremely agreeable chemistry between the Castle and Beckett and better integration of secondary characters. For me, it’s reliable, agreeable viewing on Monday nights, and clearly ABC’s happy with how the show’s turned out since they’ve already announced it’ll be back for a third season.

V: “Red Sky”
The various double-crosses finally reveal themselves in this first season finale and yet, it’s not quite clear to me what it all adds up to. Anna has a plan, the Fifth Column has a plan, even Chad Decker has a plan, but they’re all dependent on each other and yet all seem to be going in different directions. While the destruction of Anna’s egg-army was a major development, her sudden, highly-emotional response was both out of the ordinary and unlikely. Maybe the best thing is that ABC’s announcement of a second season could mean that everything that didn’t work about this first season will have a chance to be refined.

Zoe

How I Met Your Mother: “The Wedding Bride”
If you’re going to base your episode around a movie that is allegedly 1) amazing and 2) high grossing you might want to make it…actually look or seem that way. I’m not expecting Oscar-calibre or anything, but maybe not filming it in what appears to be the backlot of a porn studio and maybe not having Chris Kattan play Ted would be good first steps.

Because the comedy potential of a rom com based on Ted’s failed wedding seems high and ends so, so poorly done. Like college sketch group bad.

But let’s not focus on the negative. Instead I want to highlight Marshall’s B-ish plot, one that I can relate to all too well. As a fellow Midwest transplant to New York City I admit that, yea, I greet and say hi to more people than the average city dweller. I think the show overdoes it with the Midwest/Minnesota Nice (ignoring the delicious part of it that is also extremely catty), but it was a nice little subplot about city living. If only it could have been 2/3s of the episode.

House: “Help Me”
If the House writers have shown anything this season, it’s that sometimes unresolved sexual tension is the best kind. A few season ago, had you told me that Cuddy and House were going to hook up or maybe hook up or maybe had already hooked up, I would have seen this as an exciting development. They had good chemistry in the early seasons, and it was fun to speculate. But then this season has made that subtext all too….text. To much irritation and boredom.

Which is a shame, because this was actually a good episode. Did it suffer from the flaws that House has always suffered from? Sure. But overall it set up a nice mini-arc, got me invested in the patient for a change, and actually showed some of that growth of House they’ve been telling us about all season.

Bones: “The Beginning in the End”
A hastily thought out theory, if you will: it’s hard to procedurals to have a good finale, even the sort of faux drama types like Bones, because they have no over-arcing plot, but are more connected than your Law and Order. I have no evidence for this one than the fact that, for the last few years, I have really, really disliked the Bones finale (maybe that theory should just be: Bones finales are bad). Because, wow, did I dislike this. The whole army thing. The Indonesia thing. The Sweets/Daisy thing. The dad/car/Hodgins thing. The…everything. This season has turned one of my favorite shows into a show that, more often than not, causes me to roll my eyes in irritation. And yet, I still watch. Maybe because I like being angry. Maybe because I hope. Maybe because the show is also just off the mark enough with good ideas. Because Bones going back to hard science is a good idea. A time jump could work out well. There’s a lot of potential. I just don’t know if my ulcers will be able to handle it. We’ll see.

30 Rock: “I Do Do” and Community: “Pascal’s Traingle Revisited”
I don’t want to be hater this week, though, not on our last date. So here are two finales I really liked. Theoretically, 30 Rock was full of the sort of plots that annoy me the most: Liz’s love life, Kenneth, etc, but it proved once again that it’s not that it has off episodes because of the ideas, but the executions. Or maybe I was just won over by the faux-angry drunk rant, the dorky dancing at the end, and the promise of no more Nancy. It all bodes well for next year, though I wish Elizabeth Smart could get more work beyond “the girl the main guy knocks up at the end of the season”.

And Community has been my true love all year and, while not knocking out of the park (my heart belongs to the paintball episode)–heck, while actively making me cringe–the finale delivered the sort of solid, quirky, not totally full of itself good times I have come to rely on. And, sure, love triangles are something I’m wary of, and I really, really could have done with out the trans jokes (which not only offend me, but seem below this show. You’re not Family Guy!), but overall it was fun. It had a giant cookie. And dang it, Jeff and Annie got to kiss. This is one show I am really glad I didn’t wait for the DVD for and I’m really excited to have back next year (don’t destroy it, BBT!)

Dennis

Party Down
Much like I did with the better part of season one of this show (thank you, Netflix streaming), I’m all caught up on the first 5 episodes of season two of Party Down (including “Steve Guttenberg’s Birthday”), and oh how happy I am about that. I never understand why this show isn’t a bigger hit than it is. I  mean, I know Starz isn’t quite the scripted programming destination that say, HBO and Showtime are yet, but dammit if this show isn’t easy to find (have I mentioned Netflix streaming?). I hope Emmy voters take notice of Party this year, and maybe sub it in the inside jokey spot for Best Comedy that the tired ass Entourage currently holds a death grip on. I also hope this show gets a third season, even if many of its stars keep jumping ship (Jane Lynch to Glee, Adam Scott to Parks and Recreation, and Ryan Hansen to NBC’s upcoming Friends with Benefits). Party on, friends.

Breaking Bad
Party Down isn’t the only show I’ve caught up on recently. I also finished marathoning all two and a half seasons (can you tell I’ve had a lot of free time?) of Breaking Bad and I’m sure happy I have. Between this and Mad Men, AMC has certainly made itself a destination for quality cable original programming pretty quickly. While Bryan Cranston carries a sizable amount of weight on his anti-heroic shoulders, I’m really pleased with how layered Jesse, Skyler, and Hank have all become over the course of the series. Walt (feeling guilty over Jane’s death last season) and an oft-hunted and haunted Hank both seem perilously close to insanity. Meanwhile, Skyler continues to learn to adjust to the weird world her (soon-to-be-ex?) husband has pulled her into. Oh and Walt’s chicken-selling, meth-distributor Gus is the pinnacle of ceepy-cool. I’m terrified and excited to see how the rest of this season will pan out.

Gossip Girl: “Last Tango, Then Paris” and 90210: “Confessions”
It was recently announced that these two shows will be back-to-back on The CW’s Monday night come fall, and dammit if that won’t be a two hour block of teenage depressing. I decided to check in with both shows (I gave up on watching either regularly awhile back) for their finales and it was just a sob a minute. Gossip decided to do that thing I hate where a show realizes it’s doing a season finale and throws in all sorts of cliffhanging contrivances: Dan loves his ex–turned-stepsister Serena after all! Georgina’s pregnant! Chuck slept with Jenny! Jenny left town! Chuck got shot! Yeah, I’m sure he’ll die. Or for that matter, that any of these twists will take for any real length of time. Still, I kind of hope Michelle Trachtenberg (whose bitchy character grew on me) comes back as a regular now that Mercy‘s axed.

Meanwhile, on 90210, Annie finally confessed to Liam (and look poised to tell her parents) about mowing someone down with her car (which was last season’s cliffhanger contrivance)! Noami looked like she was going to be sexually assaulted by the teacher that she already (wrongly) accused of sexually harassing her! Some nefarious guy whose name I still haven’t bothered to remember blew up Liam’s boat! Jeez, between these two shows and Grey’s Anatomy‘s two hour grizzly hospital shooter episode, it’s enough to make the happiest of TV viewer wanna jump.

Community: “Pascal’s Traingle Revisited”, 30 Rock: “I Do Do”, and Parks and Recreation: “Freddy Spaghetti”
In happier TV moments, at least there were solid season finales to all of my beloved NBC Thursday staples (The Office doesn’t rank).

Oddly, I saw it coming, but still was interesting to see Community‘s Jeff choose Annie over Britta or his professor/ex-girlfriend. We’ll see what happens with this twist. Either way, it was good to see most of the show’s recurrings (including John Oliver! Yay!) back.

The finale of 30 Rock meanwhile was one of the better episodes of its most creatively erratic season to date. Liz finally found romance with Matt Damon (considering dude’s busy, that probably won’t last), and Jack chose a pregnant Avery (wasn’t she Zach Braff’s baby mama on Scrubs too?) over hardly beloved Nancy (who did have a few good lines in this episode, including “I can’t share you with another woman like you’re that Mormon guy on HBO who was in that tornado movie. the one with that girl with the forehead who was married to that Jewish guy”). And, then Kenneth went on the most kind-spirited drunk wedding diatribe ever! Laughter all around!

I still think though that 30 Rock or The Office could’ve used a break instead of Parks and Recreation (though from a ratings standpoint, NBC would’ve never let that happen), which seamlessly wrote off Paul Schneider while still introducing Rob Lowe and Adam Scott). I guess the Parks and Rec government really will be shut down indefinitely now.<

Modern Family: “Family Portrait”, The Middle: “Average Rules”, and Cougar Town: “Finding Out”
There have been some really underwhelming episodes of Modern Family these last few weeks, including this week’s season finale. Did anyone really think the whole family wearing white for a family photo wouldn’t end with them covered in mud? And Mitchell running from a pigeon for most of the episode? Meh. Sofia Vergara still gets a pass though. Even in the middling last few episodes I still laugh at almost everything she does or says. Give this woman an Emmy nomination, please.

Less, um, middling than Modern Family this week were the finales of The Middle (guest starring Betty White!) and Cougar Town, both of which I found to be really amusing. Just when I thought I’d seen as many as Chariots of Fire parodies as I needed, I dug Sue’s hobbling on crutches to the finish line on Middle. And meanwhile on Cougar Town, I most enjoy the frenemy-fighting between Laurie and and Ellie, and I also really hope the show finds a way to make Carolyn Hennesy’s Barb in every episode next season. All three of ABC’s Wednesday shows have heart, but I’m curious to see of which ones I tune back into in the fall. Know what would help? If ABC did the right damn thing and added the recently canceled The New Adventures of Old Christine to the pot. That would make my Wednesday nights even sweeter. Are you listening ABC?

…Now, since is the last Roundtable of the season, I bid you all a rockin summer. I’m sure I’ll find ways to talk about TV this summer since there’s still a crapload of decidedly uncrappy television coming to us: The remainder of the respective Friday Night Lights, Glee, Breaking Bad, and Party Down seasons! The return of True Blood! And glory be, the return of Mad Men! Screw vitamin D, give me more TV! Wow, I rhymed. It’s time to go.