TVSquad

Monday nights must be some Nirvana for In Treatment fans. Three episodes! I can only imagine if one of my favorite shows, say 30 Rock or Mad Men or Lost, were to have three brand new episodes every single week. I guess it might be a little too much for one night if the show was an hour long (even for Mad Men), but three new episodes of a half-hour show is like a perfect-sized mini-marathon every week.

Last night was the season finale(s). What did you think?

Did you know that HBO aired 27 new episodes of In Treatment last night? Well, OK, three new episodes. But still, that's rather impressive for one show on one night. Did you watch any of them? Here's an open thread to discuss the show with other readers.

When I say that the Burn Notice finale last night made quite a splash, I'm not talking about the ratings. I'm talking about the show. Creator Matt Nix, who penned the Burn Notice Season Two finale, really knows how to write a cliffhanger. Actually, it's a cliffhanger with a hook, because in some ways we actually went over the cliff with Michael Westen. More on those specifics -- and spoilers if you haven't seen the show yet -- after the jump.

I have to thank my fellow Squadder Bob Sassone for turning me on to Ken Levine's fantastic blog; not only is Levine funny when he writes about random stuff, but he gives advice about what to do and what not to do when writing a sitcom script. The man knows what he talking about; he's written for many classic sitcoms, including M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Frasier.

But it's his behind-the-scenes anecdotes that are my favorties. And this past week, he gave us some doozy, and he didn't even write them: he let his friend Peter Casey, one of the co-creators of Frasier, do a three-part series on how the show was created.

(S13E03) Okay all of you people out there who said last week's episode of ER was full of dour mopers. We have now moved past the whole Abby 'will the boy live, or will he die' storyline and have returned back to what made the show the long-standing hit it has been . . . the day-to-day workings at County General. Sure, the people have changed, but the concept stays the same.

If I wanted to get technical I would say that this episode was the official start of the 13th season because it was such a change of pace from the first two episodes. Not only did we get to see John Stamos in his first full appearance as Doctor Tony Gates, but we also got to see the new hierarchy of the emergency room, were introduced to a slew of new interns and residents, and welcomed back someone who was on the show a loooonnnggg time ago.

So, let's charge those paddles to 250 and get going with this week's review.