What Makes a Good Season Finale

As I'm sure a lot of you are, I have been sucked into the season finale rush of the past couple of weeks. Some have had great endings, some have had boring endings and some have had tragic endings. But what makes a good finale?

I have forced myself to stay away from twitter during certain episodes, because I'm usually about 20 minutes behind on any given show and I do not want the show to be spoiled! But after the show is over the first thing I do is usually  jump online and check out what everyone is saying. For example, last nights Grey's Anatomy had everyone disliking Shonda Grimes for a bit. Poor girl. 

But have you ever thought, what do we know? She has several super successful TV series, so maybe this one death is exactly what everyone needed to keep watching? Or was it the last straw that will make a few faithful watchers quit? I can't decide. I'm seriously on the fence. My husband and I have always related to the Meredith/Derek relationship, so since those two are okay (again) will I stay hooked? If I related more to Lexi, would I be swearing off Grey's for life? Again, I do not know. 

It all goes back to what makes a good finale? It probably depends on personal opinion. The hopeless romantic in me wants everyone to find love and live happily ever after, but is that a good story line? Will that keep the masses watching? Do we all need the suspense factor? I hate the torture of waiting for months to find out what the heck is going to happen. And do you know what is worse than torturing me with a suspenseful finale? Opening up with a very lame season premiere after I've waited 3 months. 

There is a lot of questions in this post, but you can see I haven't quite made up my mind what I want in a TV show. Did I love Grey's last night or did I hate it? I do not know. And if everyone is leaving Seattle Grace, how is the TV show going to go on? If Derek has a bad hand, how is he going to do surgery? I don't want new people people! So I guess I'm still hooked....