Emmy-nominated comedy series ‘Parks and Recreation’ ended its fourth season on Thursday May 10, with an episode which revealed the long-awaited result in main character Leslie Knope’s election bid for city council.

The episode, titled “Win, Lose, or Draw”, was written and directed by series co-creator Michael Schur. The episode featured Leslie, played by Amy Poehler, waiting to hear if she had beat rival Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd, in an election storyline which had been running all season. The initial result showed that Bobby had won by a margin of 21 votes, however, after Leslie’s campaign manager – and love interest – Ben Wyatt, played by Adam Scott, demanded a recount, it was revealed that it was in fact Leslie who had won by 21 votes.

The result of the election had been top-secret since production wrapped on ‘Parks & Recreation’ several months ago. At a Paley Center event in March, Schur revealed that multiple endings had been filmed for the episode so that he could wait until the last moment to decide which ending to air. Poehler admitted to being a fan of both endings, telling the audience:

“It was really touching and moving to do both the acceptance and the concession speeches. Concession and acceptance speeches are about the same until the end. They thank everybody and talk a lot and say congratulations to the other guy … Having to talk to the cast, which were all my friends, and say thank you for this election year. I couldn’t do it without you, cue the waterworks factory.”

Leslie’s win in the season finale means several changes for the series in its fifth season. Until this season, the series had revolved primarily around Leslie’s duties as the Deputy Director of the Pawnee City Department of Parks and Recreation, whereas now the series is expected to feature more storylines involving Leslie’s burgeoning political career.

Also undergoing some changes is Ben Wyatt, who accepted a job offer in the finale to run a congressional campaign in Washington for six months, effectively forcing Leslie and himself to attempt a long-distance relationship for at least some of next season, assuming that it does not skip entirely over those six months.

For the season, ‘Parks & Recreation’ averaged between 3-4 million viewers per week, but strong critical acclaim and consistent Emmy nominations have ensured its survival on the struggling NBC network. Earlier this month, both the series and Poehler won at The Comedy Awards for Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Actress in TV, respectively, while the series was recently named as the recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award.

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In its final outing, ‘Desperate Housewives’ will wrap up the stories of Susan Delfino (Teri Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross), and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) in a special two-part series finale, titled “Give Me the Blame”/”Finishing the Hat”. The finale will revolve around the ongoing murder trial which sees Bree charged with the death of Gabrielle’s step-father, that actually occurred at the hands of Gabrielle’s husband Carlos (Ricardo Chavira) in an act of self-defense.

Other storylines expected to be resolved in the finale include the long-awaited reunion between Lynette and her husband Tom (Doug Savant), and a follow-up to Susan’s decision in last week’s episode to sell her home on Wisteria Lane, following the death of her husband Mike (James Denton) earlier this season. The official episode description for “Give Me the Blame” reads:

“Susan plans on selling her home; Trip begs for Bree to come clean to him about the night Alejandro was killed; Gabrielle tries to come up with a way to stop Bree from being convicted.”

Then, the official episode description for “Finishing the Hat” reads:

“Katherine returns to Wisteria Lane and offers Lynette a job, that could end her chances of reconciling with Tom; the ladies agree to take care of Mrs. McCluskey when they discover she wants to die with dignity; Julie goes into labor on the way to Ben and Renee’s wedding; Renee is furious to find out that Ben has been arrested and thrown in jail.”

The return of Katherine in the series finale marks the first appearance by former star Dana Delany since her departure from ‘Desperate Housewives’ two years ago, when her character departed on an extended trip to Europe with girlfriend Robyn (Julie Benz). In real life, Delany took a starring role on her own ABC series ‘Body of Proof’.

Other former stars are expected to return for the final episode, which comes after several years of declining ratings for the once top-rated series. Premiering in the fall of 2004, ‘Desperate Housewives’ was one of two shows (the other being ‘Lost’) credited with revitalizing the struggling ABC network.

In its first two seasons, the series averaged more than 20 million viewers per week, however, that figure has been in a steady decline ever since, with the current season averaging 8-9 million viewers per week. Still, the series has remained one of ABC’s strongest-performing shows and one of its most popular series internationally. For the majority of its run, ‘Desperate Housewives’ was the most-watched comedy series worldwide, reaching 51.6 million viewers in 2009.

‘Desperate Housewives’ has won seven Emmy awards during its run, including one for Outstanding Actress for Felicity Huffman and two for Outstanding Guest Actress for Kathryn Joosten. In 2004 and 2005, it won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, while Teri Hatcher won Best Actress in 2004. Hatcher and Huffman also won Screen Actors Guild awards for their performances (in 2004 and 2005, respectively), while the entire cast won for Outstanding Cast in 2004 and 2005.

The two-part series finale of ‘Desperate Housewives’ will air on Sunday, May 13 from 9:00-11:00pm.

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On Tuesday April 17, the first season finale of The CW’s ‘Ringer’ aired, and many have doubted if the series will live to see a season two. Despite premiering to a strong figure of 2.8 million viewers in September, the ratings have been in a steady and ultimately precipitous decline to the point where just 1.16 million viewers watched Tuesday’s finale. The fate of the series is now in serious question.

This all marks quite a contrast from this time one year ago when ‘Ringer’ was one of the most buzzed-about and eagerly-awaited new pilots. It marked star Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to series television after an eight-year break following a seven-year run on the critically-beloved ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, and brought together an eclectic supporting cast including Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd and ‘Lost’ star Nestor Carbonell.

Originally developed for CBS by ‘Supernatural’ writers Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder, the series features Gellar in a dual role as twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan. In the pilot, Bridget, a recovering drug addict and former prostitute, was set to testify against a murderer when fear for her own life prompted her to contact her estranged, not to mention extremely affluent, sister Siobhan for protection.

However, once reunited, Siobhan faked her own death for unknown reasons and Bridget in turn assumed her sister’s identity in an effort to escape from her predicament, but consequently placed herself in even more danger due to her sister’s own problems.

The plot itself is perhaps indicative of why ‘Ringer’ failed to connect with a mass audience. From the first episode alone, ‘Ringer’ featured a convoluted story and a multitude of storylines. As the season progressed, further twists were introduced including, but not limited to: affairs, kidnappings, murders, corporate blackmail, faked assaults, and a paternity mystery which was not resolved until Tuesday’s finale.

With every twist, ‘Ringer’ became more and more of a plot-driven series which relied on sensationalism and shock-value as a means of compensating for its under-developed characters and rushed narrative developments.

Add this to the fact that ‘Ringer’ was paired on The CW’s schedule with the younger-skewing ’90210′, and that it aired opposite heavyweights ‘The Voice’, ‘Dancing With the Stars’, and ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ which cumulatively attract upwards of 35 million viewers, and it becomes clear that ‘Ringer’ was not in the position to come out of the gate with an intricate premise which depended upon undivided attention from its audience from the get-go.

To make things even more challenging for the creative team behind the series, The CW placed ‘Ringer’ on a nine-week hiatus in the middle of its season, meaning that production on much of the second half of the season went on without any audience feedback.

Once ‘Ringer’ returned to the schedule at the end of January, it was too late to make any changes, and all The CW has been able to do is to sit back and watch the ratings drop in a year where almost all of its other series have been in significant ratings decline.

‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Nikita’, ’90210′ and newcomer ‘Hart of Dixie’ are all hovering around similarly low levels, but none had the expectations of success that ‘Ringer’ had, nor did they have the spectre of Gellar’s cult-classic ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ looming over their heads.

Now with its season wrapped well before May sweeps, a renewal for ‘Ringer’ is looking less and less likely. Even if The CW did consider giving it a last-minute pick-up, the new season would not premiere until September, meaning that the series would be off the air for at least five months, a break twice as long as the one ‘Ringer’ already went through this season and which already proved detrimental to any ratings momentum ‘Ringer’ may have had in its early weeks.

It would take a giant leap of faith on the network’s part, and an even larger creative restructuring behind-the-scenes for ‘Ringer’ to live to see another season.

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The hotly-anticipated miniseries from the mind of Julian Fellowes (‘Downton Abbey’) was expected to be one of the highlights of the centennial anniversary of the RMS Titanic’s sinking, however, a bloated cast, flawed set-up and overload of social commentary amounted to one massive disappointment.

‘Titanic’ is a 4-part miniseries which will document the experiences of various passengers aboard the infamous ship which sank on its maiden voyage on April 12 1912. The ship’s sinking has been depicted onscreen many times before, most successfully with the eponymous 1997 theatrical release grossing almost $2 billion, and soon to be re-released into cinemas in 3D. But this miniseries, penned by the same man who turned ‘Downton Abbey’ into a worldwide hit, does not seem likely to follow in the footsteps of Fellowes’ award-winning series.

For starters, there are too many characters. Plain and simple. Featuring 89 main characters in total, each episode will focus on a select group before ending with their efforts to escape from the sinking ship. Episode 4 will presumably tie all of the storylines together and then show which of the characters managed to survive.

Unfortunately, Fellowes has tried to do too much with too many characters, barely giving the audience a chance to learn their names or backstories before one is suddenly thrust onto the deck where hundreds of inter-changeable characters are running around, spewing out stock dialogue of  a dozen other disaster dramas.

Clearly trying to emulate the appeal of ‘Downton Abbey’, Fellowes depicts the servants and the first-class passengers, and every other group in between. However, unlike ‘Downton Abbey’, Fellowes does not have 7 episodes to tease out the nuances of their relationships, nor is there the opportunity to create compelling or surprising encounters between characters of different social status. Certainly, a variety of characters do interact in this first episode, but it is to no dramatic pay-off.

The most glaring and irritating aspect of the first episode is undoubtedly the inclusion of a social issue in every other line of dialogue. The very first scene, which lasted no more than 60 seconds, referenced: the judicial system, political protests, women’s right to vote, class bias, and even an allusion to homosexuality.

Moving beyond that, not an act break could go by without one nationality criticising another, with one American character awkwardly commenting, “I can’t see the English wanting to drop the class system anytime soon. It’s woven into their heritage.” Excuse me, but what was this character’s name? Who was he addressing?

Why should the audience care? The most laughable, and again awkward, piece of dialogue had to be when an upper-class American character told a man from an opposing political party that he could sit next to him – all while outside on the deck hundreds of passengers were clamouring onto lifeboats. It was ridiculous, and simply ineffective on any thematic level.

All in all, Fellowes is clearly eager to explore class, sex, politics, nationality, and countless other hot-topic issues. And who could blame him? The RMS Titanic was a melting pot of different cultures and classes, with the accounts of survivors offering up various threads for a story-teller to pursue in this type of series.

It must have been incredibly tempting to produce a big-budget series, guaranteed to be given a massive promotional push, scheduled in the exact same time-slot as ‘Downton Abbey’, and sure to attract interest from the U.S. and beyond. But all those lavish production values amount to nothing when you have bland characters, forced dialogue, predictable interactions, and an badly-executed premise made all the more frustrating by the possibilities for provocative storylines which it had to offer in the first place.

With three episodes still to go, one can only hope that things improve. If not, Fellowes won’t be worried. After all, ‘Downton Abbey’ isn’t going anywhere.

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