NOTE: Fans of "Chuck" and "Heroes" will find some minor season finale plot spoilers herein.

According to the news, we're all going to die of swine flu any day now, so staying inside with the shades pulled down watching television sounds like a good plan. How fortunate that the real-world version of Stephen King's "Captain Trips" is unleashing its one-quarter of the apocalyptic horsepower at this time of year, when most TV shows are kicking in the afterburners and trying madly to draw viewers and make a solid case for renewal next season. After a clip show last week, this week's 100th episode of "Lost" looks to be a barn burner, and Fox's worthy inheritor to "The X-Files," "Fringe," is bringing the creepy by the truckload.

And let's not forget "Dollhouse," Joss Whedon's latest effort for Fox, the network that rudely terminated "Firefly" after a handful of episodes. Working on a premise that had even me, a hardcore Whedonite, scratching my head before the season began, "Dollhouse" has become one of my most-anticipated hours of viewing weekly. It's almost as if Whedon intentionally floated a premise that looked like it couldn't last a full season just so he could prove to us yet again that he's got one of the best minds in television or movies right now. I'll be watching the rest of this season, and surely hope to see Eliza Dushku and her supporting cast of Whedon archetypes along for another ride next year.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of things Whedon, allow me to throw an early plug for Can't Stop The Serenity, the annual screening of "Serenity" benefiting local charities and Equality Now, fighting to end violence and discrimination against women and girls worldwide. For a list of events or to plan one in your area, click on the CSTS link above. I'll be attending the Charlotte, N.C., screening again, and emceeing the costume contest.

And now, to three series whose seasons have already ended ...

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" looked so tremendously promising at first. It dealt with a pre-Judgment Day Sarah Connor, played by Lena Headey ("300"), protecting son John with the assistance of a Terminator played by Summer Glau, last prominently seen as the headcase/killing machine River on "Firefly" and in "Serenity." (Yes, Joss Whedon does rule the world.) The shows were tight, fast and action-packed and the sense of peril for the characters built episode to episode. Then we got to the fifth or sixth episode and it all fell apart. The show limped into this season, made a few stabs at coming back to life and now word is that it's in limbo at best, likely to be canceled in spite of "Terminator: Salvation" looming over the nation's theaters.

I wanted very badly to like the show. I love the Terminator concept and the variations on the theme that the three movies have wrought. But this show was a mess. One episode would be full of the kind of action and suspense that made the movies monster hits, then the next three would be like someone had dumped a vat of teen angst over the whole thing. I guess the addition of "90210" vet Brian Austin Green made that sort of thing inevitable.

Now that we've gotten that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, let's talk about two of the best shows on TV, both of which had their season finales on Monday, April 27.

"Heroes" is the show that won't die. After a first season that turned the world on its ear, the second season turned into a rat's nest of vague plotlines, none of which seemed to be particularly invigorating and most of which truly annoyed the true fans.

Then, this season began with the volume "Villains," which had more time travel than a season of "Quantum Leap," more flashbacks than a season of "Highlander" and more dead ends than the maze Jack Nicholson prowled in "The Shining."

Redemption came with the second half of the season, the volume titled "Fugitives," which put Nathan Petrelli and a crack government team, soon joined by Claire's other dad, HRG, to work rounding up everyone with abilities to lock them away in drug-induced comas. What followed was 13 episodes that were the best of the series, with plots and counterplots, victories and losses and the ascendancy of Zachary Quinto's Sylar, the most blood-curdling villain on TV today.

I do have to dock the writers a few points for the season finale, though. A very contrived plot twist involving Sylar and Nathan Petrelli played more like "General Hospital" in the sci-fi-tinged '80s than "Heroes."

No such down notes for what is hands-down the best show on TV, "Chuck." Zachary Levi, as the titular character, with a supporting cast that includes Adam Baldwin (another Whedon vet, this time from "Firefly/Serenity") and a host of others you'll vaguely recognize from various roles, puts on a show every week that is as good or better than anything else out there. With a mix of James Bond, "Clerks" and "Revenge of the Nerds," it would be very easy to end up with a show that became self-parody after three episodes. Instead, "Chuck" is peopled with sympathetic and engaging characters, people you either truly loathe or really like, in situations that almost always have the ring of truth to them.

The main caveat of the show, that Levi's Chuck has had a store of ultra-secret government information beamed into his brain that now allows him to identify terrorists, enemy agents and other evildoers on sight, is easy to digest. Levi plays Chuck as a genius slacker who could probably fit right in at Apple or Microsoft but who instead works for the Nerd Herd, fixing computers and other wonky gadgets for Buy More, an electronics retailer that will be familiar to anyone who's set foot inside Best Buy.

Then there's a fast-food joint with a secret government base in the basement; an enemy organization called Fulcrum that either wants to recruit Chuck, reprogram him or kill him; and various family and friend-based crises that give Chuck a much-needed anchor in real life.

And it all works. All of it. You root for the Buy More employees to frustrate the store manager's plans every bit as hard as you pull for Chuck to escape whatever world-threatening scenario he faces. It's belly-laugh funny. It's edge-of-the-seat thrilling. It's something unlike anything you've ever seen.

The season finale, which guest-starred no less than Morgan Fairchild, Chevy Chase, Bruce Boxleitner and Scott Bakula as Chuck's long-missing father, was one of the most rewarding and entertaining hours of television I've ever seen. With that many guest stars, it would have been easy for it to turn ugly quickly, but the writers plugged their guest stars into actual roles, with Chase as the lead bad guy doing a truly chilling job and Bakula, as the inventor of the technology that put the database in Chuck's brain, making us root for him every bit as hard as we ever pulled for his "Quantum Leap" characters.

And the whole shebang ends with a tip of the hat to "The Matrix." Can't beat it.

If by some bizarre trick of the universe "Chuck" does not make NBC's fall schedule, I will personally conduct a sit-in at the NBC studios. I'm a really big guy, NBC, and you don't want me sitting in front of your door. If I decide to go the passive resistance route, you'll need a chain hoist to clear the doorway.

If you missed "Chuck," you can watch full episodes online for free on NBC.com. Thank me later.

Got a question? Comment? Anything weird going on in your world? Drop me a line, anytime!