Death (and Leaving) is the Thing

NOTE: Spoilers for season finales involved.

So, I'm watching the series finales of many of my favorite shows. And I start seeing the same themes repeated:

1. CSI - Warwick is shot in the head at the end of the show.
2. CSI: Miami - New medical examiner gets all of three lines and then is shot in the head. The episode ends with Horatio Caine being shot and possibly killed. And Ryan seems to be involved (or maybe even the shooter). Just a few episodes earlier the original medical examiner leaves.
   
3. NCIS - Jenny Shepard is killed in a fire fight in a diner and Gibbs' team is separate and sent all throughout the military and he is handed three new files for his new team.
4. Bones - The big mystery of who Gormagon is is totally wasted on a horribly written episode that sees Zack turn out to be the Apprentice and some no-name guy who is easily taken out being the Master. Zack is sent to a mental hospital.
5. House - Amber is killed and House and Wilson's friendship may be over in another horribly written show (well, the first half was awful and the second half was better -- and what happened to the strong characterization? Everyone, but especially 13, seemed to be acting totally out of the character set in previous episodes).
6. Numb3rs - Megan leaves and Charlie loses his clearance and the ability to work on most FBI projects.
7. Criminal Minds - Each member of the current team gets into an identical SUV and then we cut to an SUV blowing up. The cliffhanger is that we don't know which team member(s) was killed.
8. Smallville - This soap opera has the apparent death or dismissal of most of its main characters (Kara is in phantom zone, Brainiac was apparently killed, Lana "went away" (yay, finally), Chloe is arrested as a terrorist, and Lex and Clark have the entire fortress of solitude fall on their heads). I guess they will change the name to "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen"?

Out of the majority of shows I watch, nearly all of them ended with mysterious deaths and/or dismissals of people. Come on, TV executives and writers, be more creative! One of the things I like the most about the new shows Life and Burn Notice is that both had opportunities to take the safe route and both avoided that each time. I just hope the writing is as good when they return. But most shows seem to always take the safe, easy route.

The most disappointing was Bones. This show is primarily about the characters, how they interact, and their chemistry. This season finale blew all that out of the water by having nearly every character except Booth acting in strange ways that were atypical for the character's development over the last three seasons. And to wrap up the entire Gormagon storyline in about 15 minutes at the end of one show and have it be Zack and some unknown guy? Dumb. Hopefully they were just either a) clearing the ongoing storyline so they could move on to better things or b) this entire thing is a red-herring and the very good writers will explain this totally stupid episode in a way that makes sense and will explain this aberrant episode away.

The best of these shows was the two-hour NCIS finale. This one involved all of the characters staying within character, had emotional depth, and made sense with the ongoing issues presented throughout the season. I fully expect the fact that the three main supporting characters were re-assigned and Gibbs has new "probies" to work with will be ameliorated next season.