What I’m Watching: Samantha Who (Series Finale)

Samantha Who: Season 2, Episodes 19 & 20 “The Other Woman” & “With this Ring”

These final two episodes couple together very well as a final ode to the show’s beloved characters – with one glaring exception. First, the good. All three of the show’s leading ladies are faced with a romantic dilemma, whether it’s the guy or the lifestyle. Andrea’s sham marriage to Tony Dane becomes an even clearer charade as her parents are replaced by stunt parents and Todd’s original loser friend returns to declare his affection for her. A secret relationship with an unattractive guy who actually likes her is about as much as the shallow Andrea deserves. Dena, on the other hand, has the behind-the-curve Chase bending over backwards trying to find a substantially romantic unromantic way of proposing to her, although she realizes and admits that it’s not the life she’d like, but she does want to live with him and with her animals. She’s always been a bit of a peculiar character, but Melissa McCarthy did a great job with the role and sending her off this way is entirely fitting. Sam, on the other hand, develops an attraction to Winston as she sees all the romantic stuff he did for her, but then ultimately comes upon that incriminating video where he schemes to send Todd away with a job offer he can’t refuse. Angie Harmon guest-starring as Winston’s ex-wife was a spectacular choice, and having Sam’s hit-and-run driver revealed was a wise move as well, since it’s obvious that she alienated so many people and it’s only fair to assume one of them would have been angry enough to hit her with a car. Sam’s ultimate manipulation of Winston and choice of Todd was fun, and I especially loved the lines, “I remembered that you sucked” and “I am not your puppet in your little puppet theatre show,” a nice finale for the character of Samantha Newly. The final both-held-as-terrorist-suspects airport scene with the spontaneous marriage proposal was cute, and while it felt a bit too “extra special series finale,” it actually worked, and if any two television characters are going to end up unwittingly held at an airport as potential threats, I think Sam and Todd are the ones.

Now the one problem – the show’s about to end, Sam and Todd are walking into their apartment as a newly engaged couple, and Regina’s sitting on the couch, announcing her separation from Howard and plan to move in with them. Regina and Howard’s storyline really started to derail here, and I think it’s the popular need for shows to keep the parental generation involved way past their expiration date. Teen series like “The O.C.” and “One Tree Hill” do this to a fault, keeping the adults just as front-and-center as the teenage drama, but in this case, it probably didn’t seem like as big of a deal. Kevin Dunn was always great comic relief as the sarcastic but loving Howard, and Jean Smart was over-the-top and funny as the persistent and determined Regina. The recent turn of events for them wasn’t great, and having them separate seems entirely out of character. Throughout the first season, Howard always did whatever was best for Regina, even if he didn’t do it right away. Seeing him take a different route this season as he explored his past and his future options wasn’t really in the style of his character, and it was too bad, since they always seemed like a fun couple. I imagine this point is where the season was supposed to end and go into season three, where Sam’s amnesia is the least of her problems, she’s engaged to Todd, and she’s dealing with having her mother around. I’m not sure that’s a wise place to go, and therefore perhaps it’s fate that this show got canceled and still got a chance to finish out its storylines. Sam couldn’t be an amnesiac forever, and while season two was nothing great, at least the show ended (pretty) well. The way to look at it, in my mind, is that nothing was ever going to be perfectly right for Sam, because, well, that would have been boring. Sam’s new obstacle would have been her mom, and I suppose that’s a decent route to have gone. I’ll just pretend the show ended thirty second earlier.

Series finale: B
Season grade: B-
Season MVP: Christina Applegate
Series grade: B
Series MVP: Jennifer Esposito/Melissa McCarthy