The final montage was mostly good but the Sydnor as the new McNulty and Mike as the new Omar felt like putting those characters in boxes that didn't really make sense.  And the serial killer storyline/conclusion from the final season/episode was a huge fail, although the McNulty's Wake scene was great.

The big miss of the Seinfeld ending was they spent TOO much time on the secondary characters.  The four main characters were basically reduced to spectators in their own finale. 

I agree that keeping the title off Punk right now is the right move. His growing popularity is because he's rebelling against the direction of the company, and it's hard to do that when he's the WWE champion. And for up and comers like Punk, the chase for the title is more compelling than the title reign, at least…

The smarks don't hate Cena because he's a bad wrestler (he's actually pretty good). They hate him because his character is stale and lame and people are ready to see new blood at the top of the card. People are getting invested with the Punk angle in part because the WWE is finally building up a guy on Cena's level…

You could argue that Vickie has been the best heel in the company for the past couple years. She's awesome.

That wasn't a shot at HHH, that was a shot at the "smart marks" who chant "Cena sucks" during live shows and have rallied around Punk over the past two months.

Cena IS the old guard
Good article, I hope there are more wrestling recaps moving forward, at least RAW and the occasional PPV.

My theory has always been that a lot of the Season 4 criticism was from viewers who started watching seasons 1-3 on DVD and Season 4 was the first time they had to sit through the traditional way of watching a drama (waiting week to week for an episode).

Haven't watched every series, but to me, the class of this Golden Age of TV are three shows: The Sopranos, The Wire, and Arrested Development.

@Pope Corky. He never directly confronts it, but the big unspoken theme of the final season is Tony raging against his dad and all the father figures in his life after what Junior (his uncle and surrogate father) does to him.

Saki hit the nail on the head. Tony idolized his father, but Junior was the essentially the guy who raised him amidst all of Livia's chaos.

Iler wasn't a great or good actor by any means, but the writers definitely did a great job writing the character to play to his strengths.

Disagree about Tony not being able to do anything. When Furio brought up being in love with Carmela with his uncle in Italy, he was told that would essentially be suicide to try and do anything with her.

I don't think College is the best episode (I'd give it to Whitecaps), but it is the series defining episode. It's the episode you can show anyone who hasn't seen it and say "This is what the show is about".

The Wire obviously didn't plan everything out from day 1. To suggest so is actually an insult to David Simon and his team. The creation of art isn't static, it's fluid.

@Draper's suit.

The Wire didn't get as many complaints because the vast majority of its fanbase watched the show on DVD, not while it was actually airing, which is the best way to watch the show (or any serialized show). It's harder to complain about a show "doing nothing" when you can find out what happens right away.

Finnerty is also another really misunderstood storyline. Those two episodes basically mirrors the final episodes of the series.

The Tony becoming a degenerate gambler is one of the most misunderstood storylines in a show full of misunderstood storylines.

SPOILERS EVEN THOUGH THE EPISODE HAPPENED 7 YEARS AGO