You probably noticed the site looks a little different today. I just upgraded to WordPress 3.0 and upgraded my theme and decided I wanted to get away from the old snow in the background I used to have, as it was rather harsh on the eyes anyway. I haven’t decided what background to go with yet, but it made no sense to reinstall that old background.

I’m not fond of this neon orange, so don’t worry – it’s not here to stay.

I’ve been rather lax in updating the blog in the past month, as you’ve likely noticed.

The end of two of my all-time favorite shows – Lost and 24 – left me unsure about what I wanted to blog on next. June is a pretty crappy month for TV anymore and though I love Burn Notice and In Plain Sight, I just don’t have a lot to talk about. I’d gotten so used to the analysis of Lost and Battlestar and the mocking of or cheering on for 24 that I don’t really want to go back to the recap route.

Fortunately, Warehouse 13 and Eureka start up soon, and I think both will provide plenty of fodder for good TVT posts.

Erika is hiding in a corner, crying out of sheer joy that there will be more Jensen Ackles next season. Seriously, though, I didn’t think they could get another decent season out of Supernatural after the apocalypse this season, but that final scene last month convinced me otherwise.

I’m also watching some stuff via Netflix, so I might start blogging about that. And I still have Season 2 of Torchwood to plow through. But I don’t want TVT to become an archival TV blog. Or, wait – that might be kinda cool.

Anyway, as you can see, I’m trying to figure out the direction to go in. I love TV (well, certain TV shows anyhow) and I do enjoy writing about it. I appreciate all the discussions and comments and everything we’ve had here, and they will continue, I promise.

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I have no idea what other SPN fans thought, because I have been out of town and have spent the week playing catch-up. I was lucky I got to see the finale on Saturday. You know what? Kripke brought it!

A few shocking, horrible, awful deaths; some brotherly love; a hot car that saves the world; and an Angel gets his mojo back. Nice.

I was sure Samifer was a terrible idea, and I was sure the whole Sam/Lucifer talking in the mirror thing was gonna suck, but they didn’t dwell and Jared pulled off the two characters quite well. Seeing Lucifer swallow our darling Sammy up was hard to see, and I can’t believe I was rooting for a damn car to pull him out of it. A car!!

I am also a sucker for this style of storytelling, and it helped that I am a big fan of Chuck the Prophet. The one thing I do know, is that a lot of people are supposing that Chuck is GOD. I am back and forth on this, and may need to watch again to get a more solid opinion. He was wearing white… but would Kripke be that obvious? Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past him.

So, the ending. If this was the verylastSupernaturalever, I would have been satisfied. It would have sucked to think that Dean wouldn’t have his brother, but it would have made sense to me. It would have felt final and tied up and bittersweet and gratifying. But we all know there is another season to come, and Samifer standing under the street lamp, glaring at Dean and Lisa was not only clique, but kinda cheap. And let me tell you, if we have to endure another season of those stunning boys at odds, I am gonna be pissed. I watch this show for the the pretty, the gore and the brotherly love. A few episodes of Sam trying to get back to the world is fine, but not a whole season! Plus, I am not sure how much more of Dean’s suffering I can take.

And who are we gonna blame when things go awry next season? I am so used to “Damn you, Kripke!”, but will it now have to be “Damn you, Sera!”. Just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

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I am sensing a pattern here, and I just hope that it means from now on that if the third-to-last episode of the season/series bores me (I’m looking at you, Lost), then the penultimate episode will be awesome, as occurred here.

All the goodness! Castiel came back to save those beautiful Winchesters from Pestilence, even though he is less angel-y and more human-y. How awesome is Castiel? Anyhoo, Bobby actually did sell (or lend?) his soul to Crowley, sealed with an iPhone documented kiss, and for his trouble, got the use of his legs back. Which was great as he and Sammy headed to firebomb the warehouse full of the Vaccine That’s Really Croatoan, where Sammy proceeded to be a BigDamnHero saving all the non-zombied workers from the Croatoaned zombies. Meanwhile, Dean finds Death at a diner in Chicago eating yummy pie. Turns out Death is just as sick and tired of Lucifer’s antics as everyone else, so he gives Dean a few tips about the rings, and makes him promise to throw his darling bother Sammy into the void. Which turns Dean into a liar as he agrees, because we all know he would never do that. Right?

I love how this show continues to tweak the presumptions we have about myth and religion, and much like Lost, has been toying with the idea of Good vs. Evil, and all those hues in between. I wonder if Darlton and Kripke are cursing each other for stealing each others ideas. Hee.

So, what can only be seen as the stupidest plan in the world seems to have been hatched. Sammy will let Lucifer use his vessel-ness and then, THEN! Sam will use his demony powers to make Lucifer jump back into whence he came, so the rest of the crew can seal him back in with the Horsemen rings. It seems like a really bad idea, although I certainly don’t have a better one, so I guess we’ll go with this.

I have no idea how it will all play out, but after this episode, I am very excited to find out.

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I love Mark Sheppard. He has shown up on every single one of the shows I love, starting with The X-Files way back in the way back, and including shows like 24, BSG, Dollhouse, Firefly, White Collar, Chuck, and on and on. I think the only one he has missed is Lost. I suppose the island was just to much for him, eh?

Regardless of my love for the man, and his character of Crowley here in Supernatural is fun, I found this last episode a little… unnecessary? I mean, we are going back to Sam’s college life, and flogging that dead girlfriend Jessica yet again? Really show? We get it, Sam has been in the pipeline for a while.

I am sick of the show giving us a reason to worry about Sam and Dean’s relationship. I was very happy to have those delicious boys back in each others good graces, and that look Dean gave Sam after he killed Brady (or whatever his stupid name was), made me worry for those boys all over again.

Plus, after that wondrous introduction to Pestilence the week before, we get nothing of him. A totally Matt Frewer free episode! How unfair…

So, it took a whole episode for us to get to anything worthwhile and relevant to the coming apocalypse. Crowley talks Bobby into selling his soul (Oh boy, I DO NOT want Bobby to die, Kripke!!), and that nasty Croatoan virus may be the death of us all. Two episodes to wrap up the apocalypse? We shall see how that goes (do you sense a little bitterness this week? Sorry about that).

Also, if you saw the promo for the penultimate episode, you now know that you don’t want to be walking down the street and brush up against Death. Because that would be bad.

eta: I forgot to mention that Misha Collins will be tweeting during this week’s episode of Supernatural. He will be tweeting like mad from 9-10pm EST. Thanks to Lisi for the heads up!

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I would like to admit up front that I have always felt that Supernatural is really Dean’s story. Don’t get me wrong, Sam is vital, but I feel like the whole story of the Winchester’s is all about Dean’s journey more than anything.

So this week, we had to put up with sad, vaguely annoying Dean for half of the episode, as he whined about how useless it all was, and how he was just gonna let Michael have his way with him. Quite frankly, feeling-sorry-for-himself Dean is no fun. Imagine my happiness when Castiel showed up and kicked Dean’s ass all over that dark alley!

I like the addition of making BabyWinchester Adam part of the mix. Once he was dead, it never occurred to me that he might be brought back, but that Zachariah is a wily one! I thought it was pretty clever, because Dean just can not resist the family thing, especially someone he sees as an innocent.

So, we end up in Van Nuys, of all places, in the Angel room. After Castiel once again shows us his mad Angel skillz, Dean and Sam crash in on Adam and Zach, and all kinds of gory business takes place, resulting in the spectacular ganking of Zachariah, and the mildly unexpected taking of BabyAdam by Michael (who is a big, loud Angel, it seems!).

The best part of this episode, is that Dean finally stops feeling sorry for himself, and it looks like he is ready to embrace Sam again. Hooray! Hopefully, this is gonna be a race to the finish line of this apocalypse, our brothers fighting shoulder to shoulder.

I know that Lucifer is busy being Jacob over on Lost, but I sure hope we get to see him again soon.

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As much as I love my shows, and end up obsessing over them, it does always annoy me when they shove in a minor character that we haven’t seen for years, and expect us to remember everything about them by a quick ‘previously’ snippet. You know, unless it’s someone I love, like Ash. Or The Trickster.

So anyway…

I have tried writing this post in my head a bajillion times, and I keep getting all hung up with the details. I keep trying to recap the damn thing, when all I want to do is talk about Dean. Please bear with me while I try and work through this.

I get it, Dean has put everything into his family. He feels like Sam has betrayed him, that Bobby can’t help the same way he used to be able to for physical and emotional reasons. Let’s not even get into Daddy Winchester. Even Dean’s latest man crush, Castiel, probably didn’t do Dean any favors by showing up LOADED. BTW, LoadedCastiel was awesome. Misha Collins has done such a great job with that character. So everyone is gone, Dean finds out that he has the Hand of God – or whatever – after killing the Lying Liar Who Lies (and I think I was just as surprized as Dean was, actually), and he runs off to give himself up to Michael? I mean, that’s where we’re going with this, right?

Sam made a comment like “Wow, so that’s what it’s like to have back up.” after their fight at the farmhouse with the townspeople. To me this was a very telling moment between those pretty Winchester boys. For all of Dean’s bellowing about how they had to fight Lucifer, no matter what, Sam seems to be the one who is willing to change their M.O. While Sam was marveling at the thought of having an actual army to fight the demons, Dean was shutting down in his misery and alone-ness and self pity. Just when Sam seems to really be getting the idea to truly be on board for the fight, Dean is at his end. Why can’t these two ever be on the same page at the same time? It’s all so sad, my friends.

So Dean takes off, in some kind of last ditch craziness, and shows up at the door of the woman who gave birth to the NotDean kiddo we met a few seasons ago (or was it last season? I can’t remember, show!). Apparently setting himself up a potential happy and normal life if he lives through housing Michael and dealing with, no doubt, the shenanigans of Zachariah. Not to mention Lucifer. OMG, we are headed right for it people! Sam v. Dean in the showdown of the ages.

Awful if you love these beauteous boys named Winchester, but compelling. I just hope Kripke can pull it off.

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I dare any Supernatural fan to have walked away from this week’s episode without their heart torn out of their chest. “Oh”, Kripke said, “you’d like to see Heaven would you? Well, let’s have a stroll then, shall we?”

After last week’s zombie fest – a perfectly gory and horrifying, if apocalypse light episode – I was ready for some movement on the continuing story of the Winchesters v. Lucifer. But after ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is it actually Winchesters v. God? Will it ultimately be Dean/Michael v. Sam/Lucifer? Or are we still just plain old Good v. Evil? Like my other deep thinkin’ show, Lost, this one has blurred the lines of good and evil, sometimes to a frustrating end. If you grew up being taught that you were either a good person or a bad one, it is quite disconcerting when you find out that the world is actually a big vat of grey. Each step we take with the Winchesters their world grows more grey and bleak.

Not to mention that Kripke loves to torture us, right along with our Beautiful Brothers Winchester. Even when they were slogging through, fighting their familial demons along with the demon-y demons, we were given Castiel to help sheppard them, and to give us, the viewers, some semblance of hope. But now, even Castiel’s unyielding faith is being slowly pounded out of him. Our boys step daddy, Bobby, has been knee-capped and taken out of the fight, and his heart broken yet again. Honestly, how much more can we take? Watching Dean get his heart broken again and again, while in Heaven of all places, was rough. It in turn became almost unbearable when he tossed the amulet necklace that was arguably the one last connection he had that proved the love he so desperately wanted from his brother. How sad is it that while Dean has spent his life protecting, nurturing and raising Sam, only to find out that Sam’s happiest memories involved anything but his own family. At least Dean had Metallicar up there with him, because he certainly didn’t get any relief or joy.

I gotta say, I am enjoying the hell outta these episodes. Nothing like angsty existential drama with a dash of absurdism to keep me entertained. Egotistical Angels and gleeful Demons? I am in. Happy to see Ash and Pam again, and the whole concept of Kripke’s Heaven, everyone’s own little cell of heaven, but connected to each  other, spanning out from The Garden. The idea that even in your own heaven, an Angel can come and ruin your day appeals to me, especially if the Angel is as deliciously horrible as Zachariah. Speaking of Zach, how many of you out there think this version of Heaven may just be another trick? He obviously manipulated the scene where he was hitting on Mary, so who’s to say that the whole thing wasn’t a fevered version of the ‘real’ thing. In the end, though, that doesn’t really matter. Dean is heart broken, Sam is guilty, Castiel is dejected, Bobby is helpless, God is missing and I just want my boys to be happy again.

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Or something like that.

Yes, Supernatural has been picked up for a Season 6.

It’s going to be hard to improve on this season (though I admit, I’m a couple episodes behind). It’s no secret that I wouldn’t have been disappointed if this were the last season, purely for story purposes.

So long as the entire team is behind another season, it should be good.

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The first episode back after the winter break gave us a very different view of the brothers than we’re used to. Each had to come to grips with the demons (pardon the pun) they face, in his own way.

I think what I liked best about this episode was that just when we thought we knew what it was about, we were wrong. More than once.

Sure, in the end, the identity of the wraith was obvious, but what’s that they say about hindsight being 20/20? I’m consistently impressed by how original the show manages to be.

First, I want to say this about the episode’s final scene: I loved how it made Dean FINALLY forgive Sam, even though that’s not what it was about on the surface. Dean’s entreaty to Sam, “Are you WITH me?” wasn’t simply a question. It was a question, an invitation, a plea.

Those four words were Dean’s way of saying, “You’re my brother. What’s past is past. We have a world to save and the only way we can do it is together. I love you.” Well, that’s what it meant to me, anyway.

The show has spent so much time with Dean making cracks about Sam sucking down demon blood and trusting Ruby more than him, Dean took a real step here. And maybe part of it was that he gave himself a little therapy in the form of his imaginary (hot) doctor. Have to admit, we should have realized the second his doctor introduced herself that she was a figment of his insanity – she was way too attractive to have been the doctor. Not that psychiatrists can’t be attractive, but I even thought to myself, “Figures Dean would get a hottie for a doctor.”

In the end, though, the wraith was right: She ramps up the crazy in her victims, but the special brand of crazy that exhibits itself is all theirs. Dean is frakkin’ ANGRY. And I don’t think it’s because of what he’s done or that Lucifer is waiting to use him as his vessel.

He was born to be Lucifer’s vessel. Or, at least, after the demon blood was dripped onto him. Just like Dean is the vessel for the archangel Michael, and so no matter what he thinks he wants to do, he does the Right Thing, so Sam is the vessel for Lucifer and he bears this extreme rage inside him – the rage that Lucifer has felt against God since his fall.

Wow. Just got really philosophical there for a moment.

Think about it, though. Dean pretty much always tries to be bad, but he just always does the right thing and has dedicated his life to hunting demons and protecting people. Sam is always mad and when he didn’t have his brother around to watch over him, he crossed a line and drank demon blood.

Sure, in a way you can’t really blame Sam. He believed Ruby and thought he was doing the right thing. And I don’t mean it as a slam against Sam. But he was the reluctant hunter. I can’t help but think that the part of him that is Lucifer’s vessel made it so that he would be the one to spring Lucifer from hell, that didn’t really want to go around killing demons. It wasn’t really that he wanted to be “normal,” it was that he was the vessel for the greatest Demon of all.

I’d love to hear what others think. I basically came up with everything I wrote here as I was writing it and haven’t thought this through AT ALL. So please feel free to dispute what I’ve said.

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As the episode opened, I once again felt as if I’d walked into a plot tangent, a throwback to the first season when we had the demon/supernatural creature of the week.

And even though it fabulously turned out to be soooooo much more than that while at the same time being exactly that.

By the “soooooo much more,” I mean we very much got a look at what the end game may be. This little boy, the Anti Christ — half human, half demon — don’t tell me he’s not going to come into play in, at the very least, the final episode, when it all comes down to God v Lucifer, Jesse is going to swoop in and be the decisive decider.

And this, being Supernatural, does not necessarily mean that the side of Good will win. If the side of Good is even truly good.

Wouldn’t it be a kick in the pants if it turned out that all this time, Sam & Dean had been fighting demons and the demons really weren’t the Bad guys?

I mean, I can’t imagine how that would be so, but this show rarely takes the easy way out, and that would certainly make things interesting.

The thing that did still confuse me about this episode was WHY Sam & Dean actually went to this godforsaken place for these stupid deaths.

ISN’T THERE A WAR FOR LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING GOING ON NOW?

I mean, no one realized the Anti Christ was there because they couldn’t. (I’ll take one of those Castiel dolls, by the way…) So … wtf?

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