SPOILER, LENGTH, LANGUAGE WARNING
If you have not seen this week's episodes of Grimm, Arrow, Supernatural, or The Vampire Diaries, please lave the blog and come back later. My reviews are always peppered with spoilers. Also, there are Buffy references in The Vampire Diaries review so... if you haven't seen the end of season three of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you've been warned.
This is gonna be a long one, folks. If you're uninterested in certain reviews, there's a "Page Down" or "Pg Dn" button on your keyboard and a scroll button on your mouse... assuming you have these things, of course. Reviews will be in the order they aired.
Also, I curse a bit in some of the reviews. I don't really believe in censoring that part of myself while writing so... yeah. It's there. Be aware of it. Or not. Your choice.
Grimm - "The Waking Dead" - Review
As a zombie episode, this one fared a lot better than zombie episodes done by other shows. *cough* Once Upon a Time *cough* It was also a fairly original way to do zombies, in the whole scheme of ways to do zombies. The thing with the puffer-fish Wesen is based off actual voodoo rituals involving making "zombies," if what I learned a long time ago watching Taboo is correct anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to see it used here.
I also thought this episode was surprisingly funny. I somehow didn't expect the Wesen reveal to be amusing at all. Bud's freaking out over showing Juliette made me think he was going to vogue at any moment pretty much from the moment Monroe mentioned it. I liked that Rosalee was both apprehensive and really calm about vogueing for Juliette. I enjoyed all the "No, you'd better go first" stuff regarding Monroe. I agree he's not the best Wesen to see first. I'd somehow forgotten just how freaky Blutbaden are compared to the other Wesen. I also really liked Juliette's reaction to her first vogue. I thought the reaction was completely normal and I didn't think for a second that she wouldn't come back to see more than Rosalee vogue.
Lastly, we've got the Adalind and Eric stuff. Adalind is in way over her head with Stefania. Stefania, by the way, is played by Shohreh Aghdashloa. Ms. Aghdashloa played Dr. Kavita Rao in X-Men: The Last Stand, just like I thought. But anyway... I think the weird interplay between Stefania and Frau Pech is interesting and creepy. As for Eric... I think he's got his shriveled heart set on taking over Portland via zombie apocalypse. Without the apocalypse part, of course. And what was up with his hair in this episode? It was all over the place....
Overall, awesome penultimate episode. I can't wait to see how things go down in the finale next week.
Arrow - "Sacrifice" - Review
Okay so... imagine my surprise when I opened up the Arrow and Supernatural Wiki pages to check the episode titles and found them both the same. Kind of a weird thing to have happen, especially with shows airing the same night.
But anyway, the episode.
We got to see Olly's first kill with the bow. we got to see Olly manage to not blow up a plane just in the nick of time. We got to see Fyers die. All of these things I personally could have done without in this already packed episode. But the Arrow writers have a thing with showing us Olly's backstory straight off and where it doesn't mesh with the rest of the episode so... bleh. I wasn't happy with that.
I thought it was interesting that Malcolm did not tell Moira about Olly's "hobby." Might have been the only good thing he did this episode. I had fun watching John Barrowman yell angrily at people. He really does have the best angry faces. I'm kind of sad to see his character killed off, though I completely understand why. I was actually more surprised by Tommy's death than Malcolm's. I know Tommy's been a royal douche to Olly lately, but I don't think he deserved to die. His sacrifice for Laurel was awesome and heartbreaking. I'm really sad to see him go.
Dry up the tears and move on to Felicity and Detective Lance. Despite their never having met before this episode, I thought they had really good chemistry. I was a lot of fun watching Felicity be not-so-smooth in the interrogation room. Kind of weird after last week's not-a-heist, but I liked it anyway. Her little speech about Olly to Detective Lance had my eyes welling up with tears of "Felicity is awesome." Beyond that, though, both Paul Blackthorne and Emily Rickards had some great scared/panicked faces while they were disarming the device and during the aftermath.
Speaking of which, I was not at all expecting there to be a second device. Good villains have back-up plans. And apparently, decide to come out as villains to their children before they both die. I was really shocked by that.
It's going to be interesting next season to see all the characters dealing with the various backlashes from the Undertaking. Moira's going to be in jail or out on bond. Roy's most likely going to come out of this alive, despite stopping to help the dude stuck between the car and the bus. Olly and Laurel are going to be dealing with Tommy's death. And Thea... is going to be... I don't know, it's going to be interesting.
Speaking of Thea, I must now rant about shoe-horned-in PSAs. I understand that texting and driving is a problem and will get you dead. However, the two seconds spent on the subject in this episode were ridiculous. Roy was
not texting. He was looking at a map. Drivers have been looking at maps for longer than cell phones have been around. Yes, it's dangerous. You know what else is dangerous? Distracting the driver by stealing their phone and squabbling about it and coming out with a really stupid, out of character line about how "It's not worth it." Come on, really?
Okay, rant over. It's safe to come out.
I think I've prattled on about
Arrow long enough for now. My closing remark: The fight scenes were awesome, as usual.
Supernatural - "Sacrifice" - Review
Most extremely obvious end to a story arc EVER. Supernatural was picked up for a 9th season so there was no way in Hell that the Gates to Hell were going to be slammed shut. The demons, Crowley especially, are just too damn interesting to get rid of. Also, of course Sam was going to die in order to slam the Gates. Had has stuff physically wrong with him that Cas couldn't fix. How was that not a giant red flag to Dean that Sam was going to die finishing the trials? Really Dean? How fricking stupid are you? Also, now that Sam's stopped the trials and Cas doesn't have his powers, how is Sam going to continue living with all the shit that's wrong with him?
All that said, the whole fallen angels thing was a surprise. It's actually pretty clear in my
Initial Reactions that I actually felt sorry for Metatron until I realized he'd used Cas. The effect of the angels falling was pretty cool. Sucks for them, but it looked cool. I'm now wondering how the Winchesters and Cas are going to find each other now that Cas' angel-juice is gone.
Abbadon was fairly disappointing. I sincerely thought she'd have a bigger role here. Like, actually stop Sam from being able to finish the trials instead of Dean. Apparently, Abbadon got broken out of her boxes to end up dying pretty spectacularly as a tied-up loose end the next episode. I'm extremely disappointed because I thought she was fun to have around.
I thought the extremely convenient way in which the Winchesters caught Crowley was fun. I stress the extremely convenient part because it was just that. I'm also wondering what will happen to Crowley now he's a) stuck in a devil's trap and b) mostly cured. I don't want him to go away or stop being evil because Mark Shepherd is awesome and Crowley's one villain that actually makes good on his threats.
Overall, this season finale was a fun ride. Not particularly full of substance 'till that last bit, but fun nonetheless.
The Vampire Diaries - "Graduation" - Review
Buffy did it better. That is to say, "Graduation Day Part One" and "Graduation Day Part Two" were much more exciting and fun and filled with less cameos that "Graduation" was. Most of "Graduation" was epic, poignant speeches that mostly failed to jerk a tear from my eyes. I much preferred the giant demon snake to cameo-palooza.
Okay so... the only parts of the episode that made me cry even a little were the Rebekah/Matt parts. I loved that Rebekah basically wants to do with Matt what Klaus wants to do with Caroline, except she doesn't have any ulterior motives. I loved that she essentially sacrificed herself for Matt, even if she didn't die permanently. I'm also really glad they're going to go on a road trip together. Good for them.
I enjoyed Alaric getting to be a "bad ass vampire," though I again forgot that he'd been turned into a vampire during his last episodes. when he showed up at the Grill to whisk Connor away, I was like "What? What? How? Ooooohhhhhhh. Duh." I'm really gonna miss Alaric now.
I'm not sure how I feel about Jeremy being alive again. On the one hand, I'm really happy because I like Jeremy. On the other hand, if he'd have stayed dead, it would have made his death in the first place more poignant. So there's that.
I was really surprised to see Klaus back. I was also really surprised that he's allowing Tyler to return to Mystic Falls. He was certainly less of a brat this episode, though there was less of him as well.
The fight between Elena and Katherine was awesome. I'm sure Nina Dobrev had a wonderful time filming that. That fight's been a long time coming and I'm glad they were both mostly able to hold their own. It's going to be interesting seeing Katherine be human again. I wonder if she'll end up in New Orleans with Elijah while Klaus uses her blood to make more hybrids... nah, she wouldn't stand for that.
The rest of the episode, as I said, was just kind of... meh. Elena loves Damon. Obvious declarations from both of them were obvious. Bonnie's dead. Hooray for that. She annoyed me to no end. The rest of the supernatural "living dead" weren't much of a threat at all. All attempts to create a threat with them fell flat. The only weird/interesting thing was at the very end with Stefan and Silas. But, since I have no fucking idea what any of that actually means nor do I think you can kill a vampire by drowning... I'm not touching it. Gonna just let that sit and fester 'til next season.
Housekeeping
Not really much to say here... over the summer I'm hoping to catch up on some shows, keep watching others, and do some actual reading. Stay tuned to find out what's next... well... Saturday should see Doctor Who season finale Initial Reactions so... there's that.
Love ya, Jessie.
