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March 26, 2007 | What's the best way to end a season? By tantalizing viewers with a cliffhanger, or by tying up loose ends? Should story lines be resolved, or should more questions be piled on top of existing questions, to keep viewers coming back for more and to pump up the suspense for next season?

Or should the whole gang stand in a semicircle and reflect on the fact that everything turned out just fine, thanks to those meddling kids? Should the denouement include a tag line, where the monkey Gleek upends a trash can, causing everyone to laugh uproariously right before the credits roll?

When you think of some of the better finales in recent history -- the last episode of "Six Feet Under," last year's "Lost" finale, the fourth season finale of "The Sopranos" when Carmela and Tony were about to get divorced, last year's "Battlestar Galactica" finale, when the Cylons invaded New Caprica -- the main requirement for a satisfying finale seems to be that, more than anything else, it feels momentous. Whether questions remain unanswered or not, at the very least, it should feel like the tide is turning.

(SPOILER ALERT: Details of Sunday night's finales of "Rome," "Battlestar Galactica" and "The L Word" included in this column.)

Roman bloodbath
Of course, it would be pretty difficult for Sunday night's "Rome" finale to avoid feeling momentous, since it marked the end of the season and the end of the series. Still, who knew that Mark Antony and Cleopatra would meet such a gruesome end? Who knew that Octavian would turn into such a major-league asshole?

Well, OK, anyone familiar with the basics of world history knew that. But luckily, the two of you didn't spoil it for the rest of us!

Yes, yes. Of course, I'm joking, princess. We all knew that Augustus Caesar aka Octavian murdered members of the Senate and took their riches, so we could reasonably conclude that he might be something of a jerk to his mom and sister. But who knew Atia (Polly Walker) would become a shadow of her former self? Does this mean that nasty Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) had the last laugh because, as predicted, Atia was depressed and bitter after Mark Antony (James Purefoy) hightailed it to Egypt and refused to acknowledge her when she visited? Atia's last little barb for Octavian's wife was satisfying, but the big picture was bleak indeed.

And yes, of course we knew that Mark Antony and Cleopatra (Lyndsey Marshal) were going down in flames, but who knew it would include heavy drugs, deceit, a knife to the heart and a snake to the boob? And why did Caesarion (Max Baldry) escape, when the history books tell us he was murdered by that sweet boy Octavian?

The second (and last) very expensive season of "Rome" was fairly smart and enjoyable and not an epic disappointment, at least. But didn't it feel like someone on the set got a note from HBO and the BBC, saying that the show had been canceled, and they had to wrap up the whole story in the next three episodes? We raced through so many big events at the end there -- Mark Antony married Octavia (Kerry Condon), left Rome, reconnected with Cleopatra, challenged Octavian (Simon Woods) -- it all felt a little bit haphazard and rushed. Two of Titus Pullo's (Ray Stevenson) wives died in rapid succession, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) discovered his daughter's deceit, then skipped town, Atia slowly wasted away, Octavius lost another True Love, thanks to her crappy family... And even though I loved the scenes with Cleopatra and Mark Antony, I never felt like I knew all that much about Mark Antony as a character -- or Octavian or Sevilia or even Brutus, for that matter.

Even so, as finales go, Sunday night's final episode of "Rome" was reasonably gripping. Or it was, until they threw in that appalling tag line! Titus Pullo and Caesarion are walking through a crowded street, and Caesarion, who thinks he's the son of Julius Caesar when in fact he's Pullo's son, says he intends to redeem his father's name, to which Pullo answers, "Listen, about your father..." Da dum dum, ch!

Can you believe they'd end a historical epic with a joke? Why not throw in a monkey and an overturned trash can while you're at it? Quite the fitting end for a series that never came close to realizing its full potential.

Next page: The C word on "The L Word"