How they ended their seasons

Well, I still haven't gotten to "Grey's" (please continue to maintain the Cone of Silence until instructed otherwise), but a middle of the night bout of insomnia gave me the chance to watch the Fox dramas, and I had already seen "HIMYM," so I'll hit those shows, then comment on the ABC schedule when I have a chance in a little while. More after the jump.

Now how's that for a role reversal from "How I Met Your Mother"? Ted and Robin are together, even though we know they're destined to split up, while Marshall and Lily are on the outs, even though it's been implied that they're a couple in the future.

And you know what? I'm cool with it. The creators have already said the focus next year won't be so much on Ted 'n Robin, and I think the two are interesting enough as a couple that the show can probably go a season or more with them together but without their relationship taking over everything ala Ross 'n Rachel. And while the Lily/Marshall break-up was sad, I'm in favor anything that gives Alyson and Jason more to do. Plus, Craig and Carter showed that they could work laughs into the heavier stuff with that brilliant "On Pause" idea -- something Marian and I are planning to steal in the unlikely event that we ever argue about anything.

I don't think this was nearly in the class of "The Office" finale, but on its own goofier, more sitcommy terms, Ted's summoning of the rain storm was a really nice moment, and I loved the music throughout. And I greatly prefer Amy Acker when she's snogging Barney than when she's pretending to be an ass-kicker on "Alias."

On to Fox, it's been nice knowing you, "Prison Break." I'd been saying throughout the year that I doubted I'd care enough to stick around once the guys got out of jail, and the finale put me firmly in the Life's Too Short column. It's not a bad show, just uninspired, and shock moments like Abruzzi chopping off T-Bag's hand aren't frequent or exciting enough to make me suffer through the rest. As the man with the plan, Michael was a cool character, but I haven't really liked him since the show came back from hiatus. And even if the "24" season ends with Logan dead or in jail, does Fox really need two evil presidents in one season? Really? Unless the show is in a timeslot with absolutely no conflicts for me next year, I'm done, and I think I'm okay with that.

And speaking of "24," last night made me wish they hadn't kept Peter Weller on the sidelines for so much of this season. Having Jack go up against his opposite number, someone every bit the bad-ass as him, only smarter and subtler (I honestly couldn't tell which side he was lying to in the hacker sting operation), is about the only new idea the show has had this year. I'm hoping he survives and is a key player next year. Pretty decent episode overall, with Bierko randomly stealing a submarine (why not?) and Aaron returning to once again establish himself as the series' third most essential character (after Jack and Chloe). Will no one in Hollywood listen to my pleas for an Aaron/Ron Butterfield buddy show?

As I said above, I'll get to the ABC schedule in a little while (the big news: "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursdays at 9), but in the meantime, here's my column from today about the NBC schedule, mostly making fun of having the "SNL" clones on back to back nights (because, as Fienberg pointed out to me, it worked so well last year with "Apprentice"s on the same back-to-back nights last fall).