Justice League

The network moguls are all in New York this week as pilot season culminates in the announcements of the fall TV schedules for exhibition to potential advertisers. These ad execs are the same geniuses who last spring snickered at "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" but threw wads of cash at "Joey." Well, as William Goldman famously said about the business, "Nobody knows anything about anything," or words to that effect. Meanwhile for us viewers the May sweeps period is now climaxing with season and series-ending episodes worthy at least of TIVOing. Tonight marks the end of "Raymond," pretty much a non-event for me. If I want I can watch the entire nine seasons in endless syndication cycles.

Two of the four major reality series have ended, with results far more satisfying than I would have expected. Last week's "Amazing Race," whose two-hour finale I refused to endure because of the fear that RobandAmber would steal another million, concluded with a surprising twist when the kindly Uchenne and Joyce sprinted past them in the last lap in Miami. My pleasure was shared by most viewers, I expect, as well as the other participants, who were heard muttering "please, Uchenne and Joyce," when they stood at the finish line awaiting the arrival of the winners. And "Survivor" also produced a just conclusion, for a change, when the person who likely would have been a survivor in reality also took the prize. NYC fireman Tom Westman, performing as heroically as we would expect from a 9/11-type veteran, managed to evade the eliminations that usually wipe out the strongest candidates. This group of contestants was the most genial and least maliciously back-stabbing of all the "Survivor" casts. I'm glad that neither show left a bad taste in my mouth. Both will return in September, but there will be variations on the themes in summer reality-elimination clones, if baseball becomes too depressing for me.

Two more reality shows are down to the finals, and also are promising acceptable conclusions. On "The Apprentice," the two women vying for the dubious honor of working for Donald Trump, Kendra and Tana, seem to have been the most deserving candidates, though neither is as persuasive as the previous two male winners. Tana is poised and articulate, but perhaps too candid for her own good. Kendra is extremely smart but rather young, and uncharismatic. Previews edited by Mark Burnett suggest Trump will be leaning to Kendra, which makes Tana the slight favorite. As for the winner of "American Idol"-- also a relative title because all the finalists will be getting lucrative contracts--I predict the contestant with the longest hair will win. That means rocker Bo Bice will edge out C&W Carrie Underwood and R&B Vonzell Solomon. He's the one with the most polish.

A last word about another last show, the finale of "Star Trek: Enterprise." The concluding three episodes presented an acceptable but unstirring narrative describing the founding of the alliance that would transmute into the Federation, creating the final bridge between this generation and that of Captain Kirk. A few gimmicks were interesting, including using a "Next Generation" holodeck frame device to look nostalgically back at the final episode of "Enterprise," which included the sacrificial death of one of the major characters. There was nothing exceptionally creative about these elements, and I was not left starved wanting more. It was also not so good to see how paunchy Jonathan Frakes's Riker had become, although the episode purportedly took place midway during the time line of "Next Generation."

However, the two-parter that preceded the final three was one of the cleverest episodes the franchise has produced since the good old days of "Deep Space Nine." This story involved one of the more intriguing gimmick worlds of the ST mythology, the savage alternate universe that is populated by the same characters, only nastier than anyone ever has been on "Survivor." (Recent "string theory" of the universe, which purports that there are eleven dimensions, gives some added "plausibility" to alternate-reality scenarios). The plot of this episode, involving some literal backstabbing and Machiavellian twists, was somewhat predictable, but the presentation was audacious. Somewhere in the writer's room, while concocting the story line, one of the producers got one of the great light-bulb ideas in his head, which was to redesign the episode as though it were actually being produced in the alternate universe. So the opening scene, using the "First Contact" finale of the Vulcan-human meeting as a launchpad, did a demonic twist on the benevolence of that moment, then segued to a new titles sequence, with flim clips glorifying the violence of the Earth Empire forces, set to a new score that darkly suggested John Williams' "Empire Strikes Back" theme. The plot then proceeded as though the audience--us--was as twisted as the characters, leading to totally different sympathies and an ending that was satisfactory only in that dark dimension.

I was reminded of a line spoken by a characters in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," which was, "If Hitler had won, the history of World War II would be told very differently." Well duh, sure, but this "Star Trek" episode did a fine job illustrating just that point. (I presume that in the alternate universe, Captain Kirk did manage to save Joan Collins' Edith Keeler from that rambling truck, helping the Nazis win.) I thought it was a brilliant concept, reshaping the subjective sympathies of the audience, and was left only with regret that this kind of inclusive creativity was sorely lacking through most of this show's run. Perhaps the franchise could have lived another season. Sigh. Well, even the Yankees still show up at the plate now and then.