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That’s the end. The final episode of Big Love aired on March 20, and I watched every episode. Thank you for Big Love. Thank you to creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Sheffer, thank you to HBO, thank you to the writers and cast and crew, thank you one and all.

Watching BL, I frequently gaped, laughed or sighed. More than once, I bawled heavily. There were some missteps, as with most every TV show, and there were some mistakes central to the topic at hand. One minor character who was very active in her LDS faith would have said “Oh my gosh,” there. One major character mispronounced “Melchizedek” and “temple recommend” both. And, as I said, a few times it wandered in ways had nothing to do with its unique topic and drifted into unfortunate cheesy melodrama. But not very often. More significantly, it was well-made, gripping and pretty damn good. I will miss it.

Some Mormons are opposed to Big Love, whether they’ve seen it or not. I hope there aren’t too many like this, but I know of more than one who, because they’ve been told to be offended by it, by golly they are. Perhaps they imagine every episode over there on HBO is filled with nudity, cursing and wanton mockery of things Mormons hold dear. Nope. There’s a very small amount of that spread over 53 episodes. You could cut 2 entire scenes and 2 seconds of 2 other scenes and all that would be gone, so that’s not really much to get up in arms about now, is it? If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, that’s cool, but if you’re opposed to the message of this show, it seems to me you are opposed to good drama and opposed to a strong message of family, of faith, of being different, of love. Consider the irony.

Back to the motivation to write this post — which is that I will miss it. I’m going to miss seeing things on TV you don’t see on TV all that much. Multiple wives, yes, but also sayings like, “It’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out” (Nicki was always my crazy favorite), and references to “those GD protesters.” Sigh, sigh and sigh. With big gratitude, I bid you a big, fond farewell, Big Love!

I am just now watching episode 10 of season 3 of Breaking Bad. It’s the episode about a fly. You know the one! It aired on May 23, so I’m a little behind. (I like to savor delicious things — or save delicious things for later.)

Pretty much only Mr White and Jesse have any lines. More significantly: It’s hilarious (for a while). I am laughing out loud and BB is not a Laugh Out Loud show. BB is a Freak the F Out show.

Anybody else remember and lurve this lovely episode about killing a fly? From pre-credits thingy, to whacking each with an impromptu flyswatter, this episode rawks. (Insiders, read this, too.)

From Bradley Whitford vomiting to clear a crime scene, to the poster art for the show, to Billy Squier’s “Stroke Me” introducing a sexy hot rod car, The Good Guys tickles my funny bone. Many months ago, I worked on the script for the pilot in an acting class, and I was hooked. I hope it lasts! Sometimes the good shows don’t, but The Good Guys, like Modern Family, could be a show we’ll be talking about for years to come.

It’s written by Ginsburg & McIntyre, and you can follow their shenanigans more on the Twitter.

It took about 8 minutes and 26 seconds by my clock to figure it out, but Michael Slovis, the talented director of photography for Breaking Bad, has his name spelled with an actual element this season. That’s right, at 8:26 into the new season, his name appears as MiChael Slovis. C is for carbon. Carbon is a much better element than the non-existent one he had previously. (Ch = Chemestrium?)

Also, by 8:26 I had been astounded and had shed a tear. I love this (horrible) show! Catch up! Watch! Break! Ing! Bad!

I was thrilled to see a Breaking Bad billboard the other day. I hate billboards, generally speaking, so there was that. But I love Breaking Bad!

My love of BB had actually caused me to stop watching the show. You know, keep a few episodes on the TiVo because watching them all means it’s over, and you don’t want it to end. So now, in glorious anticipation of season 3, I have plunged into the end of season 2.

Episode 11 starts with horrifying violence from a youth. Dear lord, I hope New Mexico doesn’t have such horrible murderous children. As for the rest of it, let me just say this: “Bob Odenkirk!!!!!! Anna Gunn prego singing — schwing!!!!!!”

Episode 12: Whoa. More Krysten Ritter!!!!!! and more John de Lancie!!!!!! Then there was the me watching the very end saying, “Holy sh*t.” Whoa.

Episode 13, episode the last: It starts with the B&W montage that reminds me once again of Sunset Boulevard, a montage we’ve seen a few variations of throughout the season. It is awesome. Perhaps you have to be into the show to know it’s awesome, like viewing a subtle work of art you might pass by at the museum if you didn’t see on the plaque that it’s by Famous Artist. This montage of doom segues into an opening scene of more death. It’s grisly. And it’s an awesome season finale.

And now … I await season 3. Bring it! (And please use actual element symbols for every credited named. Michael Slovis deserves as much.) Season 3 happens on Sunday the 21st!

“Hold tight” for a few quick, random, unrelated comments on current television programming. I don’t care for Big Love’s new opening credits, but I’m loving that the show keeps being what it is, and am 100% into this new season.

Caprica, I can’t get into it. Despite my deep deep love for BSG. I have to say the strongest SyFy show now is SG-U.

Archer is a well-done cartoon on FX. People aren’t talking about it in my world, but they should. TV-MA ratings and cartoons can be a strange combo for viewers that aren’t immature men like myself, but check it out.

Modern Family is strong, strong, strong.

The Super Bowl was awesome.

And the two shows I never, ever miss continue to be The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, because they make me a better person.

What shows do you never miss?

Glee has many great things about it — and you can read about those all over the internets, so let me offer a couple of minor complaints. The show could be so much better.

1. Any scene with cheerleaders wearing cheerleader outfits in it pretty much sucks. Painfully clichéd, caricatured and shallow, especially when there’s more than one girl wearing her cheerleader outfit around school.

2. The musical numbers don’t sound like what they look like. Big problem. Huge problem! Come on — give us cred. We are smart viewers, we can handle it. Many (most?) of the actors on this show can really sing quite well, so let us see what it would sound like if we were present in the scene as we see it. Instead, we see obvious lip synching, and we hear instruments that make no sense. Not right! (Please note: I am not talking about fun, surreal moments like when the football team dances to “If you liked it then you should’ve put a ring on it.” Nope. That’s great. It was staged and we bought it. But almost all other numbers where you hear and see something that doesn’t add up: these make the show less than it could be. If you show four vocalists, let us hear four vocalists in the moment. Etc.)

So much good. So much potential, also, to be that much better.

I’m back into Breaking Bad. I’ve let a few episodes accumulate in the ol’ TiVo and gather some serious dust, but am now determined to finish Season Two. It’s awesome, so the determination level required is low.

New to the series in this episode, Bob Odenkirk plays Saul Goodman, a sleazy lawyer introduced via low-budget local commercials that play while two other characters get it on. Bob Odenkirk does excellent guest-star work in this episode, and his character could easily be with us for several episodes more. I kind of recognize Bob, but looking at his IMDb page, I realize that it’s more accurate to say that although he’s worked a ton, I have no idea who he is. That’s the kind of actorly success I aspire to! (For non-actors, that may sound ironic. It’s not.)

Also, I’m liking Todd VanDerWerff’s write-up on this episode.

Breaking Bad is a well-made show! Will it win the Primetime Emmy on September 20th? I’m rooting for it, along with Big Love and Dexter.

Last week, the following shows were nominated for the major award Outstanding Drama Series: Big Love, Breaking Bad, Damages, Dexter, House, Lost, Mad Men. These are all good shows, but nobody is pointing out that there were no nominations in the second half of the alphabet. Conspiracy! Zedists!

Okay, seriously. Damages, House and Mad Men shouldn’t win because of the simple fact that for all of them, the previous season was better. Dropping a notch rules you out in my book, even if still very good. Lost? Please.

That leaves Big Love, Breaking Bad and Dexter. All so good! I can’t choose! Better go do some more “research.” Where’s the remote?

Pushing Daises is done. The final episode has aired now in the UK, even if it hasn’t aired here in the States yet. Do you miss it? In a word, I don’t.

On the good side, it was different. A lot of the top shows are so similar, and this show was different. I grant that that might be good in and of itself.

But the apparent sense of insight from listing amounts of time in accuracy up to the second; the repeated use of “The facts were these” as our narrator’s segue; and the very fact that the narrator has a British accent: all these actually give a false sense of insight. All these turn off the thoughtful viewer. And so many scenes are painfully created in a way that is very far from reality. A strange and unholy blend of attempts to be very real and yet very false in the above, in casting, in art design and color, in dialog, etc. This is why it never really worked for me. Also, it’s a little too copycat if you’ve seen a certain extremely famous French movie. Also, the cartoon voice of Ms. Chenoweth (and some guest actors) is a little too, well, cartoony. Also, the new veneers and reworked bangs that Anna Friel has started wearing strike me as contrived. Also, the preposterous setup of lovers that can never touch — that’s going nowhere unless they jump the shark.

Okay, enough. Did you love it? Tell me why. I’m listening.