A Multiverse of Possibilities: 52, Office, Gilmore, MORE

Just a random list of thoughts:

- Spiderman 3 tonight! Look, I've heard mixed reviews and a lot of people analyze these movies to death. AS long as Sam Raimi captures the same authentic spirit he did in the first two, I'm not going to nitpick too much. To me these movies are big, fun, for the most part light-hearted. I save my microanalyzing for Batman and Superman.

- As many have so affectionately reminded me, Gilmore Girls is now officially ending its run in a few short weeks. Really, I don't mind this at all. With Rory set to graduate from Yale, the show is at a pretty logical endpoint. My one concern is that the show knew early enough in the creative process that the end was coming. I want a GREAT finale that wraps things up and doesn't feel forced. Of course, it's a testament to this show's huge cast of great supporting characters that you can't help but imagine what potential exists for spinoffs. Lane and Zach have almost been part of their own show-within-a-show these last few seasons. A Hep Alien spinoff? Hmmm. As long as Rory dumps Logan in time for the season finale, I'm good.

- Hmmm ... does GG's exit mean a longer shelf-life for pereptually on-the-bubble Veronica Mars?

- This week, after fifty-two weeks of serialized storytelling, DC Comics' acclaimed 52 finally reached its epic conclusion. Overall, I really enjoyed the extra-sized finale, and it had that real big event feel to it. The all-star team of Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, and Keith Giffen should be proud for delivering such a consistently entertaining series and doing so on a regular weekly schedule. While some of the storylines could lag at times, there were a lot of great moments too. Some of my favorites -- Clark Kent jumping out of a window only to be saved by Supernova, Ralph Dibney confronting the Spectre, Steel vs. Luthor, Sobek taking a bite out of Osiris in a stunningly gruesome cliffhanger, Black Adam vs. the mad scientists of Oolong Island, the World War III issue, and the world-jumping finale that saw Booster Gold and Rip Hunter go on an epic journey through the newly-reborn multiverse. Sure, on the other hand, some storylines kind of bombed. The marooned-in-space storyline was kind of disappointing, and Lady Styxx was never really built up well. Lobo's involvement was pretty lame, as his sudden vow of nonviolence never made much sense. The Montoya / Vic Sage plotline had some good moments, though the introduction of a new Batwoman never really worked, and the character is one of the weakest to get the spotlight in 52. Luthor's Everyman project also had some good moments, particularly the "Rain of the Supermen" ish, but few of the characters were really standouts, other than Steel. What worked best was the Black Adam stuff, the mystery of Supernova, Booster Gold vs. rogue Skeets, the latter part of Ralph Dibney's journey, and the oddball goings-on of Will Magnus and his cohorts. Still, every week, this was the first thing I read - it maintained that must-read feel through the good and the bad and was always interesting, surprising, and a lot of fun. And every week without feel featured an amazing cover from artist JG Jones to boot. With the next year-long, weekly series starting up next week (Countdown, from former Lost writer Paul Dini), there's not much breathing room to take it all in, but 52 deserves a lot of credit for what it manged to accomplish and the story it managed to tell.

- THE OFFICE last night was to me a good argument why the show should NOT transition to 60 minutes come next fall, as has been speculated. The episode started off strong, and I was dying at the opening where Dwight gives Jim a demerit. But after a while, it lost steam and dwelled a lot on the odd Michael-Jan relationship, which to me is one of the weakest aspects of the show this season. I think having Michael be both an insensitive, chauvanistic jerk and at the same time, having this weird relationship with Jan where he's getting pushed around, is a little too much, and it hurts his character. Still, there were plenty of funny moments, though they were tempered by some flat scenes that didn't really work for me, like Michael offering to buy all of his female employees something from Victoria's Secret. Umm ... what? But ... Dwight, Jim, Andy, and Creed kept me cracking up, so it's all good, kinda.

My Grade: B

- Also, I really liked MY NAME IS EARL last night. It was so goofily sentimental that to me it really worked. This ep was, which saw Earl get a job as a wharehouse worker at an appliance store, and then try to transition to salesman, was a lot of fun, one of my favorites to date.

My Grade: A -

- Alright, True Believers, I'm out -- my keyboard here is starting to squeak, which means it's time to stop typing.