Season Finale Season

Okay, those of you who know me know I can be a TV Junkie from time to time. I will admit I like to lose myself in a few TV shows now and again. I'm hooked on "Heroes" and "Lost", and my DVR is set to record most of the CBS dramas so I can watch when I have an hour to kill. So over the last week, I've watched all three "CSI" finales, the "NCIS" finale, and the "Criminal Minds" finale - the last two while doing laundry this evening (lest you think I completely waste two hours in the evening).

So, with those CBS finales having been perused, I have 2 lingering questions.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the finales of these shows, stop reading now.

So my first question is this; What is going on a CBS that they seem to be having problems keeping their actors under contract? Every show featured the death, or assumed death, of a primary character. Now, I know they're cliff-hangers for a reason, but seriously, this was a bit much.

- Warrick Brown is murdered in the last scene of "CSI."
- Horatio Caine is shot, possibly fatally, in the final scene of "CSI Miami."
- Director Jenny Shephard is gunned down half-way through the "NCIS" finale (and the team is split up to boot).
- One of the members of the BAU is presumably blown to bits in a car bomb in the final scene of "Criminal Minds."
- And Det. Mac Taylor is driven out of NYC with a gun to his head at the end of "CSI New York."

Again, I get the whole cliff-hanger approach, but, seriously, how many primary characters can a network kill off in a single season? It's a bit much, if you ask me. Which leads me to my next question...

Are the writers resting on their laurels of having won their strike that they are phoning in their scripts? Seriously, half-way through each of these shows, I had guessed what was going to happen at the end. Now, I will admit that seeing some previews helped that along, but anyone with any cognitive functionality could see that the afore-mentioned characters were doomed in some capacity. Although, I will admit that I was impressed with the fact that NCIS continued the storyline after "the death of a major character" only to pull the separating team twist at the end. That one kept me guessing a little longer than the others.

I like suspense, and I will probably tune in in the fall to see what happens next. And for the record, I do not believe Horatio Caine will die, nor do I believe that the car bomb actually offed any of the BAU team. And of course Mac Taylor will live to see another day in the Big Apple. But, seriously, every show pretty much ended the same way. And it's all been done before ("Who Shot J.R." - Anyone? Anyone?).

Have I mentioned how much I've been hating the rain lately?