I caught up on Dirty Sexy Money and I have to admit — I’m going to miss this show. A member of the great ABC Second Season Drama Euthenasia of 2008, there are only a few more episodes left and I’m not that hopeful it will get the resolution it deserves.

I’m not about to spout off a list of superlatives for Dirty Sexy Money — I’m not going to tear out my hair like it’s a Greek tragedy — but this was a show that pulled off the primetime soap genre with style. The plot was constantly unwrapping and evolving in interesting ways, equal parts mystery and character drama. Sure, some of the antics can grow tiring (Jeremy Darling’s constant adolescent drama felt hard to sympathize with) but the writers and the ensemble keeps things moving, so if one plot doesn’t do it for you there are five others to think about.

For some reason, I find myself engaged with the characters on this show even though they are no less ridiculous than your garden variety Izzie Stevens. Perhaps, though, it’s just because the Darlings have less pretense. The show is written with a certain campy sensiblity in mind and outrageous behavior is the norm. They’re bold, un-relatable characters, whereas Grey’s Anatomy characters yearn to earn your empathy.

The most shocking development of the past few episodes was the death of Carmelita — Patrick Darling’s lover and the most visible transgender character on television (that is played by a transgender actress). While Carmelita went out in dramatic fashion, her death was disappointing because this was a character that really deserved to be fleshed out.  I could be wrong — but I don’t think we ever found out howshe and Patrick met or how their romance began.  I don’t know — for a brief shocker, it seems like a squandered opportunity.

So, we’ll see how it all ends up.  The series finale should be coming sometime soon.

PS. This is neither here nor there, but DSM has one of the best themes around — five seconds of sexy bass guitar that punctuates the opening scene of every episode.  But that’s the least of my worries.

• HBO has picked up Hung, a comedy about a hung basketball coach
• Jay MacCarroll’s documentary Eleven Minutes has picked up distribution
• MTV adds 8 new reality shows to its’ roster
• Because I love you: The worst song lyrics of 2008
• Every ad agency this year is doing Mad Men themed Christmas cards
• Fringe Christmas carol anyone?
• Oprah has signed a movie and television development deal with HBO
• BBC America has picked up the sequel to Life on Mars called Ashes to Ashes
• This day in lists: The 32 freakiest ads of 2008

Buzz reflected on the year Grey’s Anatomy went totally crazy. (BuzzSugar)This week Team GMMR shared our TV on DVD wish list. What’s TV series are on your list? Here’s to hoping Santa likes TV as much as the rest of us. (Give Me My Remote)

Every day from now until the end of the year Scooter is unveiling a new Best of 2008 list. And in spirit of the holidays, Scooter is giving away a couple of of iTunes or Amazon gift cards to mark the occasion. (Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green)

Which EW 2008 Pop Culture moment photo, recreated by the gang at How I Met Your Mother, do you love best? Vance wants you to vote on it! Vance thinks it’s a toss up between the Michael Phelps Olympics one and The Jonas Brothers one. Either way, Neil Patrick Harris is hot. (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace once again took a look into the future, offering advance reviews of Season Three of HBO’s Big Love and the Skins season finale on BBC America. (Televisionary)

Amy Poehler’s send-off on Saturday Night Live was bittersweet — Jesse was sad to see her go, but glad that she left on what could be the best episode of the season thus far! (TiFaux)

Heather and Ben warmed up for the final run of Battlestar Galactica and got quite excited about the new webisodes (TV Spy)

This week, the TV Addict poked fun at NBC’s latest attempt to cut costs. (The TV Addict)

Christmas memories from all of our would-be best friend, Tina Fey.

Get ready for the Lost circus! They’ve released a new promo for the upcoming season.

There will be more explosions, more confusion, more Jack beards and more calmly-delivered portents from Ben.

• Let’s remember the worst TV shows of 2008
• Chloris Leachmen and Jessica Alba will also be part of The Office Superbowl special
• 4 out of 5 Atlanta Housewives are actually broke
• Because I love you: NPR’s best albums of 2008
• World’s largest sculpture made of TV’s looks like a Jeff Foxworthy joke
• SciFi is working on a college edition of Ghost Hunters
• SNL’s Andy Samberg talks about his band the Lonely Island Gang
• The kids don’t watch TV anymore
• This day in lists: The top 10 episodes of 2008

I just wanted to share this clip of Bon Iver with you because it is nice — nothing more, nothing less. He kind of looks like an American Badly Drawn Boy — with the scraggly beard and knit cap — but his sound is that of a haunted folkster with a surprising tenor.

Here’s him performing Skinny Love on Letterman:

In case you haven’t gotten around to watching them, there have already been three Battlestar Galactica webisodes!  And it’s all good, clean fun — in that dreary way only Battlestar can deliver.

The series starts off with Gaeta and Hoshi gaying it up with a cute little smooch and bedroomy eyes (and not to be all “oooooh, boys kissing,” but… well… oooooh, boys kissing!). I’m still trying to get a grasp of homophobia in alternate-reality Galactica-land, but there does appear to be some sort of fleet-wide don’t ask, don’t tell policy given Hoshi’s awkward encounter with Tigh. Or, perhaps, it’s just don’t ask or tell a crusty old cylon with an eyepatch.

Here’s the first of the webisodes, entitled Face of the Enemy.

Watch the other episodes after the jump.

• Price is Right: Guy makes history by correctly guessing the exact dollar amount of the Showcase Showdown
• Dexter and Californication finales draw record ratings
• Meet the new cast members of True Blood
• NY times has a first look at Damages season 2
• Watch the season premiere of the Flight of the Conchords before it airs
• Blush contestant found dead
• Canadian Idol cancelled due to the recession, Project Runway Canada is safe for now
• NY Post remembers the characters that died in primtetime
• RIP: CNN ticker kicks the bucket
• This day in lists: Top 10 TV series of 2008

Dexter capped off its third season Sunday night with a snoozer of an episode that was the culmination of an uneven season. Twas disappointing.

The season never really found its focus, floundering among multiple plotlines that never really converged in a compelling way. Last season achieved this feat in an astounding fashion — convincingly (if not realistically) allowing all of the disconnected elements of the season play off one another until they all resolved themselves in an explosive last few episodes.

No such luck this time around. There were indeed a variety of plotlines:

• In Dexter’s personal life (the “play within the play” if you will allow me to be pretentious), he was dealing with Rita’s pregnancy and his impending marriage
• There was the case of The Skinner and Deb’s romance with a key witness
• Most notably, there was Miguel Prado and his friendship with the ‘real’ serial killing Dexter

Then, there was Angel’s romance with a fellow cop, Batista’s complicated friendship with Prado and on and on. There were no shortage of plotlines, but few of them really fully developed or meant anything by the end. The biggest example of this phenomenon was the introduction of the pretty useless (if quite hot) character Quinn. He had an interrupted flitation with Deb and an investigation going after him, but all roads led to dead ends.

The season finale ended without a lot of action. In fact, practically none considering the climax of the season occured on the penultimate episode with Dexter finally taking out Miguel Prado. The Skinner met his end in a hurried fashion and most of the episode seemingly revolved around Dexter’s navelgazing self-analysis — accompanied by hallucinations of his deceased father (who, frankly, is wearing out his welcome with his constant meddling from the beyond).

None of this would be tremendously upsetting if the second season hadn’t ended so spectacularly (killing Lila in gay Paris!). Perhaps next season will further some of the abandoned plotlines from this season, particularly the vague sense of mystery surrounding Quinn.

Any other thoughts?

UPDATE: Via John’s link to E! Kristin’s interview with Clyde Phillips. He basically defends the show from people like me who wanted explosions and mayhem.

Some of the blogs were disappointed [in the finale]. Not enough blood. They didn’t want any subtlety. We stand by what we did, and we did a good job. We didn’t want the ending to be the way it’s been the first two years, where the audience was expecting that whatever the problem in Dexter’s life would be dispatched in the last episode in some wonderful, high-energy resolution. We did that in the episode before the last episode. Then we allowed the audience to think, ‘Oh my god! (A) What is going on, because this isn’t the way Dexter is going to end, and (B) What the hell are they thinking of? What are they going to come up with?’ So it was a conscious decision to kill Miguel Prado in the second-to-last episode.

I get it — that ending every season with an orgy of blood and abnormal psychology might make the show a little less deep than it is. But I still stand by the idea that the overall rising action of the season never really materialized into a great payoff.