Supernatural

[BrotherMan]

Finally got around to watching episode 200. I loved every single thing about it. It's just everything. I even really want to see the stage production. I think I even got all of the in jokes. It was a treat. I enjoy when the show gets to be all meta about itself. Even if it didn't tell us anything new or explore anything that fans haven't been digging into since the beginning. It's all the fun an episode of television should be.

[Janet]

I liked most of it but I really didn't need to hear the musical theater version of Carry On, My Wayward Son. I thought talking about it was enough, but that's just my natural aversion to watering down rock songs kicking in.

I must admit I spent a lot of time hoping Dean would get a Torch burger while he was in Flint. He would really love one. I was also bummed they went to the fake school library instead of having a fake version of my library.

[BrotherMan]

Are we frenemies now? Because I liked that version.

Though there is the argument that the only time that song should play is the season finale.

[Janet]

It was less that the song was bad and more that it seemed padding to sing it all after they had already made the joke.

[chunksmediocrites]

I'm up to S9E4 but have been going back to watch all the Felicia Day episodes with Qingdai. I realized in every Felicia Day episode they use the lines from Star Wars between Princess Leia and Han Solo:
"I love you."
"I know."
And it was pretty nice to see her character Charlie from the get-go being a person with her own agency and not a romance interest for the Winchesters (I assume it is still that way, but obviously am not caught up).
kind of loving DJ Qualls as Garth.
Also nice to see Curtis Armstrong as Metatron.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I thought the 200th was fantastic. Definitely a love letter to the fandom.

[chunksmediocrites]

Charlie Jane Anders at io9 pointed out some interesting plot depth in the recent episode "Girls, Girls, Girls". Don't read the article if you don't want spoilers!

I haven't seen it yet as I am still catching up, but (without spoiling anything), I do enjoy any discussion in Supernatural that actually talks about the whole issue around humans being used as vessels- angels or demons wearing human bodies while that human's personality/soul is now completely controlled, manipulated, or even tortured by the new tenant. Humans that may have been willing or been forced into complete servitude. Supernatural spends a lot of time killing human vessels as a matter of course- occasionally forcing out a demon, and I can't recall an angel ever jumping ship- but the whole ethical quagmire gets skirted mostly. I'm trying to find an older episode where they show the aftermath for one victim of possession but no luck so far

show spoiler

It's the one where the Winchesters torture the demonically posessed person for information and then when they destroy the demon/ exorcise it, they drop off the badly tortured human outside an ER... the plot picks up where it appears killings have started again and the human is now in assisted living after having been in a mental institution. I want to say it's Frank Whaley but Imdb says no.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Was it the one where the guy 'really missed' his demon? I remember that one.

The last minute of "Girls, Girls, Girls" - WHAT.

[Janet]

I think you are confusing two episodes. When they exorcised Meg the first time, they knew her vessel would die because of all the punishment Meg had put her through. They tried to save her but failed. The one with the serial killer who was possessed was Repo Man in season seven. I know the guy was in an asylum, but I don't remember if there was physical damage as well. You might also be thinking about Rafael's vessel who was left catatonic in season five.

I was not at all surprised by the ending of "Girls, Girls, Girls". I remembered that Crowley was Scottish and expected it from about two thirds of the way through. The team-up should be interesting.

[chunksmediocrites]

Okay, finally saw an episode with Cain- and Qingdai had to look him up to for us to realize realize he plays the by-the-book hard-ass detective in the comedy police show Psych. His voice and face were so familiar... nice to see him in a more dramatic dark role. Also enjoying Cass and his, "Thanks, PBJ!"

[Janet]

You know, having to resurrect a thread to talk about Supernatural is so perfect it's almost sickening. I have to do it, though, because I am just livid about last night's episode. It's like the writers all took stupid pills and think we did too.

show spoiler

So, this week they killed off Charlie, Felicia Day's character, for shock value or man-pain or both. She was working with Castiel but needed quiet so she took off behind his back. He called the boys and told them. Then, just as she figures things out, the bad guys find her and she calls Sam and Dean to tell them. They jump in the car and drive off to save her and arrive to late. What they don't do, even though it's FUCKING OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE THAT IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO is called Castiel back, tell him the location and let him teleport there in time to save her.

Because, when a dear friend is in immanent danger and there are two guys with a car and a super-powered angel who can teleport YOU SEND THE FUCKING ANGEL.

I am so angry I can't even stand it. I haven't decided yet whether to dump the show over it, though.



(One of my randoms was Oscar Win, which I cannot bring myself to associate with this episode.)

[BrotherMan]

Well.

show spoiler

That's just the crap cherry on what has thus far turned out to be a crap sundae of a season.

Even if Charlie was handed the idiot ball of "needing to run off and work in solitude," she's supposed to be smart enough to cover her tracks or whatever. And I have to wonder just how the heck the Steins found her with such alacrity. I mean, really, right? If they were that close already they could have easily found her (and the rest of them) hiding out in that dumb basement or whatever, let alone the Cave Mansion of Letters. Yeah, yeah, sigils and what-not of protection. Still bullshit that they were even in the same dumb city.

That whole set of bullshit aside, all of this lays squarely on Sam's stupid fabulously coiffed head. I get why he saved the book. What baffles me is that after "10 years" of back and forth between him and Dean they are still fighting the exact same stupid battle of "I love you therefore I have to keep this dumb ass secret from you."

The only thing that made any damn sense in this episode is Castiel. I thought that despite getting his grace back he was still massively depowered. That's why he's been driving the Lincoln. I haven't seen him do anything angelic in a long time.

So, of course Charlie is dead. She's a woman and she's emotionally close to the Winchesters. I'm not quitting, not yet. But as of now the show is on the bubble.

Janet, of course, is very smart and I agree with everything she says.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

In full agreement with your last two sentences, Bort. I got spoiled on tumblr and haven't watched this week's, but I am SO MAD.

[Ari]

Wow this show is still around?
I stopped watching around season 6, not because it got bad but because I'm jaded from the Simpson's which taught me to quit before the writers run out of ideas.

[BrotherMan]

Even though I "enjoyed" most of the show the last few seasons, an honest fan would say that season 5 was the best place to end it - before the finale stinger/cliff hanger.

[Janet]

Sam's stupid fabulously coiffed head.

Don't you mean Sam's stupid and stupidly coiffed head?

True story, I introduced my best friend and her daughter to Supernatural when they were visiting me. We started at the beginning and Annie, the daughter, said Sam had bad hair. I replied, "It gets worse." The next day the TNT reruns were showing the Supernatural Convention episode. I decided they could watch it because it's a stand-alone and not too spoilery. After about two minutes, Annie said, "You're right. Sam's hair is worse."

[BrotherMan]

There's stuff around the internet about Sam's actually fabulous hair. I especially love the diagrams that tell you what season it is by looking at Sam's hair. I'm honestly surprised a demon or whatever hasn't tried to pull it all out just because it can.

[Janet]

I must be the rare dissenter then, because I saw his hair at the beginning of season nine and though, "Oh, he's just taking the piss now!" I think this season is actually a little dialed back from that.

AND, looks like I can't quit Supernatural yet. There's a con going on right now that someone I follow is retweeting and this just happened. Jeffrey Dean Morgan announces John Winchester is returning.

Shouty Al says it best.

[BrotherMan]

I missed last week because my DVR for some reason didn't record the episode. I had to wait for it to rerun this week and then immediately watch the finale. The last two episodes is what should have been happening all season. Or at least really ratcheting up to. But it didn't. Half of the tension of having the Mark was erased early in the season. And then there was a lot of telling us how terrible it is or how hard they're trying to get rid of it. Then there's this what should be a fantastic recurring antagonist family that's introduced and erased in a couple of episodes. Now because the brothers are running around doing their own damn thing, Charlie is dead for no good reason.

And that's not even talking about the Thing that happened that changes everything. Again. Maybe.

[Janet]

Well, I pretty much hated the last episode. Starting from the musical theater version of Carry On My Wayward Son, which made me scream, "Fuck you show! Fuck you right in the ass!" in my living room, down to the almost exact repeat of the end of Season 8. One of the boys talks the other out of ending things, they go outside and all hell is breaking loose, end scene.

Damn, I'm sick of this show.

[BrotherMan]

Feelings about the season and what-all aside, I can't help but enjoy this

CAUTION SUPER CATCHY POP MUSIC EAR WORM

Supernatural Parody by The Hillywood Show® -...

[Janet]

Timothy Omundson in a purple suit. The Trans in pink!

[BrotherMan]

Supernatural is in its 11th season. It's been limping along for a while now and I've been watching just by inertia alone. It's not off The List™ just yet but it's in the endangered category depending on how this season works out. So far, 11th is a little better than 10th but 10 was such a stinker that bar isn't very high. That said, this week's episode (S11E04) "Baby" was one of the best episodes in a very long time.

No spoilers but given the name and start of the episode I was actually worried the writers were going to do something they couldn't come back from. Namely, destroying the 1967 black Impala, you know, the real star of the show. They didn't. The episode is played from the point of view of the car, though. And it gives the audience a treat in seeing something of a flashback. There's a monster of the week. The Winchesters doing the family business and being brothers again.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I had the exact same reaction. That episode was such a breath of fresh air. No bickering between the two of them (STAHHHHHP) was a highlight.

[Janet]

I really enjoyed this episode, too. I was impressed by the direction. Some of the in-car shots were really nice and nothing we'd seen before. My only disappointment was no Jeffrey Dean Morgan, although there were a few bits where I could almost swear it was his voice.