Supernatural - "Dog Dean Afternoon" - Review

Intro

This is probably the shortest review I've done in a long time, that might tell you something about the episode. However, what it tells you is up to your interpretation.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Supernatural, Season 9, Episode 5: "Dog Dean Afternoon." If you haven't seen this episode, do so before reading my really short review. It might be short, but it contains spoilers.

Supernatural - "Dog Dean Afternoon" - Review

Characters:

• Sam Winchester/Ezekiel - Played by Jared Padalecki. Younger Winchester with an Angel healing him from the inside.
• Dean Winchester - Played by Jensen Ackles. Older Winchester.
• Dave Stephens - Played by Brock Johnson. Colonel's owner. Deceased.
• Colonel - Voiced by Al Rodrigo. German Shepherd. Only witness to his owner's death.
• Chef Leo - Played by Steve Valentine. Villain.

Review:

Well that was certainly a comedy episode, wasn't it? I don't really have much to say about this episode. Jensen did an excellent job doing dog stuff without going over-the-top... except for the poodle bit, but let's not go there. The villain was... weird. I didn't mind the weirdness of it, really, he was just strange. The concept of eating animal parts to get their abilities was interesting. The only other show I can think of that's done something akin to this is Inuyasha. Some of the demons will eat other demons' hearts to gain their strength/powers. Which, come to think of it, really has nothing to do with this so... meh.

Yeah... I'm annoyed Ezekiel showed up again. There wasn't really much point to it and I'm tired of him showing up.

Favorite Line:

"Always knew I'd find the source of all evil inside a vegan bakery." - Dean

Housekeeping

That's probably going to be my last review for today. I have to go watch stuff now and I've got my nephew to babysit later this evening. So yeah... gonna be getting reviews up slowly but surely.

Love ya, Jessie

Supernatural - "Slumber Party" - Review

Intro

Well I was gone longer than I'd planned. *Shrug* Not much I can do about that really. I had to work on Halloween and then yesterday and also had a friend over to hang out after work. It was my birthday so I figured I'd do something more fun than sit around the house by myself/with my nephew.

I'm currently planning to crank out another three reviews today, all from this week, incidentally. However, I might not get all three due to babysitting and... ya know, stuff.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Supernatural, Season 9, Episode 4: "Slumber Party." If you haven't seen it, I recommend doing so before you read my review. There will be spoilers.

Supernatural - "Slumber Party" - Review

Characters:

• Sam Winchester/Ezekiel - Played by Jared Padalecki. Younger Winchester with an Angel healing him from the inside.
• Dean Winchester - Played by Jensen Ackles. Older Winchester.
• Charlie Bradbury - Played by Felicia Day. The first "Woman" of Letters/Hunter.
• James Haggerty - Played by Gildart Jackson. Man of Letters from the 1930s.
• Peter Jenkins - Played by Andrew Jenkins. Man of Letters from the 1930s.
• Dorothy Baum - Played by Kaniehtiio Horn. Daughter of L. Frank Baum. Hunter.
• Crowley - Played by Mark Sheppard. King of Hell.
• The Wicked Witch of the West - Played by Maya Massar. Yup, that one.

Review:

In a show peppered with extremely strange episodes, "Slumber Party" fits right in with the strangest. I've had a good half a week to attempt to wrap my head around it, but my brain insists on saying "What the hell did I just watch" over and over again. That said, I rather enjoyed this romp of an episode.

The first thing I'd like to talk about/address is the concept of Oz as a real place. This is by no means a new concept. Years ago I checked out an annotated version of The Wizard of Oz from my library. (I highly recommend reading annotated versions of things, it's quite fun.) It contained a massive section at the beginning detailing the history and legacy of the book. I don't remember actually reading the story itself, but I paid a lot of attention to the annotations and such. One of the concepts touched upon was one of inter-dimensional travel via tornadoes and whatnot, like Dorothy mentioned in the episode. I'm not sure exactly where I read up on the concept, but there's more information out there on it than you'd think. Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that I don't have a problem with the concept of Oz existing alongside the Supernatural universe. I was certainly surprised that it did, but it didn't bug me in the slightest.

I loved the concept of Dorothy as a Hunter. No one could go into Oz, do what she did, and come out on the other side a normal/stable person. She was kind of awesome, though I wish she'd stuck around longer. It would have been fun to see her interacting with the boys and the people of today.

I was extremely excited to see Charlie. What I don't understand, though, is the boys treating her like a piece of glass. Sure she's new and everything, but that's not excuse to be constantly trying to bench her. I like that she saved Dean's life, even if she did die in the process. I don't think it crossed my mind that she was actually dead or would stay dead so the fact that she died was kind of... surreal, I guess. I was not impressed that Dean then had to cover up Ezekiel's existence from everyone afterward. That secret's getting to be annoying, especially since it keeps coming up every episode.

Crowley sort of teaming up with the Wicked Witch was fun. I like that the Witch was stronger than your average baddie and that she had designs on world domination. She made an interesting one-off baddie who gave the boys an excuse to further explore their new home. Speaking of which, I loved the look at the Men of Letters bunker. It was awesome. Kind of reminds me of the underground X-Men complex. I'm not sure I buy into the whole "Same doesn't feel at home in the bunker because he's never really had a home" thing. Sure, he had a point that he's been on the road his entire life, but that seemed kind of forced to me. The bunker's gotta be at least as much home as Bobby's or the cabin was.

Anyway, I'm still reeling from this episode. I know I liked it. I appreciated the references. I enjoyed the characters. I thought the music was strangely upbeat and pulled me out of the episode a couple times. The entire thing together, though, was just weird.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Awwwww... no Cas.
• Dean broke the computer and let loose the witch goo. Good job, idiot.
• Charlie has Supernatural on her tablet, lol.
• Becky reference!
• Me thinks Dorothy has a crush on Charlie.
• Love it when Dean gets all domestic.
• Heaven is your dream life.

Favorite Lines:

"Now heel." - Charlie

"Ding dong, bitches." - Charlie

Housekeeping

Next up, an Arrow review... after a break of doing some daily stuff I didn't do this morning.

Love ya, Jessie

Supernatural - "I'm No Angel" - Review

Intro

A third review today? What madness is this? Check my "Nasty Habits" review to find out!

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Supernatural, Season 9, Episode 3, "I'm No Angel." If you haven't seen it, I recommend you watch it before reading the review. I spoil stuff.

Supernatural - "I'm No Angel" - Review

Characters:

• Sam Winchester/Ezekiel - Played by Jared Padalecki. Younger Winchester.
• Dean Winchester - Played by Jensen Ackles. Older Winchester.
• Castiel/Cas/Clarence - Played by Misha Collins. Former Angel.
• Bartholomew - Played by Adam Harrington. Angel.
• Reverand Buddy Boyle - Played by Kevin Brief.
• Maurice - Played by Artine Brown. Reaper.
• April Kelly - Played by Shannon Lucio. Reaper.

Review:

I was pleasantly surprised to get both Cas and the boys in this episode. I thought we might be getting a few more just one or the other episodes before they met up. That said, most of what I have to say about the episode is rather choppy.

I liked Cas on his own. It was amusing to see all the funky reactions he got from people. It was also really sad to see him scrounging for food, but I thought it was good he got himself a warding tattoo. I'm not sure why Ezekiel bringing him back invalidated the warding, though. That was rather odd.

I liked watching Sam and Dean do their FBI routine, as usual. It was actually kind of fun to have the Angel vessel show by a podcast. I was not expecting that twist.

Speaking of which, it was nice to get a new villain introduced. Bartholomew is definitely a chip off Naomi's block. It was slightly cool to see what happens when someone obviously can't be a vessel, even if that girl was killed in the process.

Uhm... Anyone else have a giant problem with Ezekiel this episode? First the guy wants to help and then he gets all huffy when actually called upon to help. True, Dean told him to back off, but I still thought it was weird. It was even worse at the end of the episode. I really want to know why Cas' warding was invalidated when Ezekiel brought him back. That just seems dumb to me. And also weird that Ezekiel would be in danger because of it.

I know it's become my mantra at the end of these things, but I really can't wait for the next episode.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Did not catch that Cas' "Clarence" alias was a Meg reference. I'd forgotten she called him that.
• Freelance Reapers. That's not good.
• When did Sam start reading labels?
• Didn't realize this 'til later, but this was the second appearance of Shannon Lucio in the same night. She appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. earlier that evening.

Favorite Lines:

"You lack of faith doesn't cancel what I believe. That's not how it works." - Woman in chruch

"It ain't just burritos and strippers, my friend." - Dean

Housekeeping

That's pretty much it for not. I have a couple paragraphs of my Reign review done, but, in the event that gets posted today, it won't get posted until later tonight. This week seems to be mostly reruns of stuff, so I have a bit more time to catch myself up...

Love ya, Jessie

Supernatural - "Devil May Care" - Review

Intro

The second of two reviews going out today... for now anyway. See the last Arrow review for details regarding that.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Supernatural, Season 9, Episode 2. If you have not seen the episode, I highly recommend you head over to cwtv.com and watch it before reading this review. If you haven't seen the first 8 Seasons of Supernatural, I recommend either picking up the DVDs or getting Netflix and watching those before reading this review. I will spoil things from the get-go.

Supernatural - "Devil May Care" - Review

Characters:

• Sam Winchester/Ezekiel - Played by Jared Padalecki. Younger Winchester.
• Dean Winchester - Played by Jensen Ackles. Older Winchester.
• Crowley - Played by Mark Sheppard. King of Hell. Currently being held by the Winchesters.
• Kevin Tran - Played by Osric Chau. Prophet.
• Abaddon - Played by Alaina Huffman. Knight of Hell.
• Irv Franklin - Played by Paul Rae. Hunter.
• Sgt. Miranda Bates - Played by Cameron Moore. Military Police, I'm assuming.
• Pete - Hunter.
• Tracy Bell - Played by Olivia Ryan Stern. Hunter.

Review:

I don't think I've laughed so much watching an episode of Supernatural in a very long time. I'm really, really loving the Season so far. There wasn't a single bit of the episode I disliked. However, that doesn't mean I don't have things to discuss.

I very much enjoyed the return of Crowley. Crowley is seriously one of my favorite characters, and not just because he's played brilliantly by Mark Sheppard, though that helps. I didn't really expect him to recover from his humanity spell-thing as quickly as he did, though I'm glad we didn't end up with weepy Crowley. I thought he was weirdly preoccupied by S&M things this episode, though I can sort of see why. I liked that he went and attempted to manipulate Kevin. I liked that Sam and Dean left him to stew on his own instead of attempting torture.

I liked Kevin's little arc here. Now that I actually think about it, his reaction to Crowley strongly reminds me of Wesley's reaction to Faith on Angel. It makes sense Kevin would not only be angry at Sam and Dean for keeping Crowley around and alive but also go beat the crap out of Crowley when he had the chance. Mind you, I know Kevin didn't go down there looking for Crowley, but it made sense to me he'd fall for Crowley's baiting. I also very much enjoyed the bit at the end where Dean tells Kevin he's family.

Uhm... let's move on to Abaddon. I will probably never spell her name right consistently, so just be aware of that. I like that Abaddon was brought back, though I'm not sure why it had to be the same vessel she had before. Not that I have anything against the actress, but it seemed weird that she didn't just find a new vessel. I though Abaddon was wonderfully villainous, if not a tiny bit over the top. I like that she's making use of modern technology as a lot of other demons clearly aren't. I thought the scene where she was taunting Dean was... strange. And again with the S&M this episode. I would like to know why she just up and scampered when Ezekiel showed himself. Seems a Knight of Hell is afraid of angels. Interesting, to say the least.

Having other Hunters show up was nice. I always love when we get some expanded universe. Nice to be reminded the boys aren't the only Hunters out there. I very much liked both Irv and Tracy. I was sad to see Irv go so quickly, especially after he had that clearly manipulative speech about being lonely and whatnot. It worked on me, what can I say? Tracy was a tad more interesting and I hope we get more of her. I like that she had some slight history with the boys, even if they weren't aware of it.

Lastly, we must of course address the Ezekiel secret. I'm right there with Dean on it being weird talking to someone who is and is not his brother. I was actually really surprised to see Ezekiel show his wings so soon. Didn't think we'd get that for a while yet. Good to know that he's not just gonna be forgotten in the background. I thought Jared did a really nice job portraying Ezekiel. Nice to see him getting to stretch his acting muscles a little.

Overall, I would characterize this episode as the calm before the storm. I mean, yeah, it's nice to have a light episode every once in a while. I was calling for them last Season after everything got all depressing. However, I really do think the next episode will be less funny and more down-to-business.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Dean doing mentoring stuff again is nice.
• It's kind of strange having Dean almost making me cry.

Favorite Lines:

"Things go Breaking Bad, he knows our number." - Dean

"He's the junk in my trunk." - Dean

Most of what came out of Crowley's mouth while talking to the boys... which I would write out and type but... I'm too lazy. That entire scene was gold.

Housekeeping

See the Arrow review for the Housekeeping.

Love ya, Jessie.

Supernatural - "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here" - Review

Intro

For my second post of the day I have a slightly incoherent Supernatural review. I ramble because I'm sick and there really wasn't much to analyze or discuss here. Again, any mistakes, spelling errors, or rambling should be put down to my current illness.

SPOILER WARNING

This review is for Supernatural, Season 9, episode 1: "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here." It should go without saying but if you have not seen the first 8 Seasons of Supernatural, you should either get Netflix or some DVDs and watch them and then this episode on cwtv.com. There will be spoilers in my review.

Supernatural - "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here" - Review

Characters:

• Sam Winchester - Played by Jared Padalecki. Younger Winchester.
• Dean Winchester - Played by Jensen Ackles. Older Winchester.
• Castiel "Cas" - Played by Misha Collins. Former Angel. Currently Human.
• Bobby Singer - Played by Jim Beaver. Surrogate father to Sam and Dean. Deceased.
• Ezekiel - Played by Tahmoh Penikett. Angel. Ally of Cas'. Currently possessing Sam.
• Death - Played by Julian Richings. Yup, Death.
• Hael - Played by Grace Phillips. Angel. Tried to kidnap Cas so she could take over his vessel. Deceased.

Review:

I was pleasantly surprised by this Season opener. It sort of seemed like we were going to get something really dour and depressing, but instead we got something more upbeat and kind of funny. I'm gonna essentially break my discussion down by storylines here, instead of trying to root out character stuff.

First up, we've got Sam's storyline. I was really amused by the inner workings of Sam's head. It made sense to me that he'd have the most realistic-looking mind I've ever seen on TV. Most "looking into the mind of characters" things end up like a pipe dream or something. I got spoiled by the CW's website that Bobby was going to be back this episode, so that didn't surprise me. It was amusing to see him and "Dean" squabbling, even in Sam's head. I didn't have a problem with Sam deciding it was his time to die, he might as well have said as much at the end of last Season. I was cool with Death showing up to escort Sam personally, though I did have a problem with Death telling Dean it was Sam's choice. What the hell happened to people who were supposed to die messing stuff up?

Dean's bit was mostly Dean being Dean. I found it very realistic that he's forget he had Crowley tied up in his trunk. I thought his open-call to whatever angels he could get was kind of dumb, mostly because he should know by now that angels largely can't be trusted. I thought Tahmoh Penikett's performance was... weird. I mean, it was weird hearing him talk like he did. I liked Ezekiel, though. And, of course, we have to have the "I'm keeping a secret from my brother" thing set up again. That's really not going to end well at all.

Finally we come to Cas. I found his part of the story to be the funniest. His confusion coupled with his usual naive bluntness was just hilarious. I did find it kind of odd when he gave Hael some pretty good advice. Good advice from Cas is really hard to actually come by nowadays. I thought the way he "defeated" Hael was clever. He definitely showed that he can survive on his own, in a manner of speaking. I didn't have a problem with him killing Hael. It made complete sense. And uh... I'm sorry to see his coat go. It shall forever be mourned... until he gets a new one somewhere.

So... yeah. Overall, this was a pretty solid Season opener. It seems like we're getting back to a place that isn't wandering aimlessly, so that's good. I'm really looking forward to what the rest of the Season brings.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Dean about made me cry when he was in the chapel.
• Cas gets to appear completely nuts to normal people all by himself. That'll be amusing.
• I liked the contorted form of Hael after she'd been thrown through the windshield. It really looked like she'd done just that.
• Jared looked like death warmed over there at the end... which I suppose is nothing new since last Season.

Housekeeping

See the end of my last post for the Housekeeping Section. I'm not typing that all out again.

Love ya, Jessie

Sleepy Hollow - "For the Triumph of Evil" - Review

Intro

I'm extremely nervous at the moment, just fyi. I've written this review ahead of time so, at this point, the only bit of possible mistakes or whatever are typos... and this review is rather long so I'm just gonna let all that lie there and start...

Spoiler Warning

If you have not seen the first three episodes of Sleepy Hollow, please leave the blog and come back after you've seen them. My reviews almost always contain spoilers.

Sleepy Hollow - "For the Triumph of Evil" - Review

Characters:

• Lieutenant Abigail "Abbie" Mills - Played by Nicole Beharie and Jahnee Wallace. The "Second Witness." Saw the Four Trees as a child with her sister.
• Ichabod Crane - Played by Tom Mison. The "First Witness." Sort of time traveled from the Revolutionary War to the present because of his magical blood connection with the Headless Horseman.
• Captain Frank Irving - Played by Orlando Jones. Sleepy Hollow's Police Captain.
• Jennifer "Jenny" Mills - Played by Lyndie Greenwood and India Scandrick. Abbie's sister. Saw the Four Trees as a child. In a mental institution.
• Detective Luke Morales - Played by Nicholas Gonzalez. Abbie's ex-boyfriend.
• Dr. Mara Vega - Played by Mary Kraft. 1st victim of Ro'kenhrontyes. Jenny's former doctor.
• Garret Gillespie - Played by Pete Burris. 2nd victim of Ro'kenhrontyes. Found Abbie and Jenny after they saw the Four Trees.
• Wiroh - Played by Alex Livinalli. Mohawk shaman and used car dealer.
• Ro'kenhrontyes - Mohawk dream demon.

Review:

I might possibly have made the mistake of reading a couple blog posts about "For the Triumph of Evil" before writing this review. Actually, I simply skimmed the second one, but in all fairness, I was trying to figure out who played Ro'kenhrontyes. The first review I read seemed to be complaining about A) the fairly easy to dispose of Ro'kenhrontyes and B) the apparent procedural nature of the show. I would like to address both these points in my review.

First, Ro'kenhrontyes. The point of Ro'kenhrontyes was to get Abbie to a place where she could admit she'd been wrong in betraying Jenny and banish the fear of what they'd experienced as children. Yeah, he was pretty easy to get rid of once she'd done that, but not all the "monsters" and "demons" can be ridiculously hard to dispose of. Sleepy Hollow is, after all, a heavily "monster of the week" type show. The purpose of the various hell denizens is not to be really hard to vanquish. Their job is to help the main characters develop along the overall narrative. Ro'kenhrontyes got Abbie to a point where she could reconcile with Jenny and was disposed of accordingly. I thought the disposal of Ro'kenhrontyes was actually pretty cool. I'd not been expecting him to turn to glass and I thought it made sense because glass is made of sand.

As for the procedural element of the show, it's a vehicle for storytelling and that's it. Also, what were you expecting when one of the main characters is a Police Officer? The complaint about this makes me angry. Sleepy Hollow could have gone one of two ways, which I will refer to as the Buffy route and the Grimm route. The Buffy route is "monster of the week" without police involvement at all, basically ever... except when they randomly show up, but that's not the point. The Grimm route is "monster of the week" with full police involvement. The main character of Grimm is, like Abbie, a police officer.

I think Sleepy Hollow is actually combining the Buffy route and the Grimm route to come up with their own thing. Abbie will provide the police presence and procedure. Ichabod will be both backup and "Watcher," as it were. Irving will funnel pertinent cases to them. And Luke... Luke will stick his nose where it shouldn't be and end up joining Abbie and Ichabod.

Okay, now that I've done that, we can get to my usual "I liked x, I didn't like y" thing.

I like Jenny so far. She'd self-aware, snarky, and suitably creeped out by the demonic stuff happening to her and around her. I thought her meeting with Ichabod was well done. I could take her seriously and chuckle at her self-aware wit at the same time. I'm looking forward to seeing what she brings to the team once she actually joins up... hopefully.

I actually liked the taunting Ro'kenhrontyes did before he properly went after Abbie. It was more or less realistically done, enough so that I was really thrown/creeped out by the eye turning to sand thing. Ick. Ro'kenhrontyes' Dream World, or whatever it was, strongly reminded me of Supernatural's Purgatory, until we got to the interiors. It was suitably dream-like and creepy at the same time. I was even happy Ro'kenhrontyes had Dr. Vega and Mr. Gillespie just hanging around in the hallway, as strange as that sounds.

I thought the chemistry between Abbie and Ichabod was a lot stronger this episode. It's clear Ichabod is beginning to view Abbie as a little sister. I sincerely hope they don't go the route of love interest between them for lots of reasons. I noticed Abbie trusted Ichabod a lot more as she got used to having him around. She didn't even blink when he messed up the evidence tape. It rather reminded me of when we have to take things from my nephew. Just "Oh, no. Done with that now. Moving on." Speaking of which, I like that Irving's going to let them have the Records Room. It kind of reminds me of the library during the first three Seasons of Buffy.

So... this review ended up being really long... I'm gonna go ahead and just end it here by saying: I liked "the Triumph of Evil" and I can't wait for more Sleepy Hollow!

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Tom Mison should do audio books. I could happily listen to him all day.
• Ichabod accidentally fast-fowarding or rewinding the evidence tape and then covering horribly was hilarious.
• Someone needs to take Ichabod shopping.
• The upside-down shot struck again! UGH! Do Not Want!
• I'm less certain Irving is evil now.

Theories:

Luke is going to join the "Scooby Gang" at some point and be immensely annoying meantime.

Favorite Lines:

• "You're a living being walking in the Valley of Death." - Wiroh
• "I broke a wall." - Ichabod

Housekeeping

Okay so... the nervousness is being caused by a job interview I've scheduled for tomorrow. It's my first one ever that's actually interview-y... my last one was just the phone interview. So yeah... this typing really helps with the shaking.

Tomorrow, I will hopefully have up my Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review, no promises. If it's not up tomorrow, I'll have it up Thursday... and so on and so forth...

Last little thing, there will most likely be a Nuzlocke Challenge update here this evening, so look for that if you're interested. I'm going to go fix the Home page now.

Love ya, Jessie

The Penultimate and the Season Finales

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.

Sacrifice - Initial Reactions

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Arrow or Supernatural, please leave the blog and come back later. The following initial reactions, like live Tweets, will most likely contain spoilers.

Arrow - "Sacrifice" -Initial Reactions

• Flashback to the raft?
• So Merlyn's decided to torture Olly?
• I'm sure there are fangirls going crazy cuz Olly's shirt's off... again.
• Yeah, the two times you guys fought.
• Oh joy, island flashbacks.
• This is why you don't make noise when you're killing people.
• Bye bye plane.
• I would not survive that, I don't think. That looked like it hurt a lot.
• Hey, Diggle.
• This would be when Felicity gets picked up by Detective Lance.
• Suddenly, daylight.
• Well this all kind of sucks for Felicity.
• Go Felicity! You're totally gonna make me cry.
• Well hello, Tommy.
• Well duh.
• Yeah, that was a good plan, Tommy.
• And that's what breaks Tommy completely from Olly.
• Good thing you're there than.
• Why had no one come up behind Slade?
• Yay, they saved the plane. And blew up the camp. Nice.
• Okay, not so much hating on Detective Lance anymore.
• Got to love it when the superiors don't listen to you.
• Poor Moira... having to hear that all of a sudden.
• Of course he did. The bad guys always get impatient at the last minute.
• Well hello, Laurel.
• No, no he won't.
• Well that's a nice way to put it. This music is not necessary.
• Got to love those CW dramatic kisses with the sunlight blurring out the shot.
• Go crying back to Daddy, Tommy.
• Yeah, Tommy, your father's a gigantic jerk.
• Why is that in a weird bowl?
• Uhmmm... there's no evidence people were walking by.
• Gotta love John Barrowman acting angry.
• Well DUH. Of course it's gonna be underground.
• Go Moira!
• Well that was a lovely reaction to her outing you.
• There you go, annoying Lieutenant.
• Go Thea.
• Time for Tommy to see the Black Archer outfit.
• Ouch.
• He broke a bow.
• Dude, who else is gonna take on Merlyn?
• So who's gonna track down the device?
• Tear-jerking moment, there.
• Not who I thought Olly was gonna call in, but it makes more sense than who I thought.
• All the feels!
• There's Roy.
• Mass panic is extremely scary.
• Diggle needs his own costume.
• Yup, let's break up the crazy with some superfluous flashback.
• Well, there's Slade, being a jerk as usual.
• Except no one really wants to listen to you, Fyers.
• Good boy, Olly.
• Hello weapons cache and Merlyn.
• Those boys really needed to work on their team fighting skills.
• It  looks kind of like the central column of the TARDIS console.
• Looting is in full swing.
• Go Roy.
• Hi, Thea.
• Cute.
• Ouch. Gotta love those trick arrows.
• That's really very not good.
• T_T
• The only thing I hate about season finales are the tears.
• Also, gotta love the no-texting-and-driving-thing.
• This is why Roy's gonna be a hero someday.
• Good going, Diggle.
• Owwwwww...
• Shut down!
• That seriously sucks and was really unexpected.
• And of course Laurel would get trapped and be covered in debris.
• Tommy to the rescue!
• Okay, so now Tommy's dead. Lovely.
• Rebar through the chest, never a good thing.
• T_T
• All my feels, damnit!

Supernatural - "Sacrifice" - Initial Reactions

•  I quite honestly hate this song.
• Season long recaps are kind of boring for those of us who've watched all season.
• Okay... this is just kinda really weird.
• Because he's the King of Hell with a bunch of books!
• He's gonna kill you now like.
• Why is that their ringtone?
• Ah, Dean. Ever the diplomatic one.
• Of course, Supernatural finales make me giggle...
• That was an interesting place to hide it...
• Get real, Kevin's never going back to that.
• A bit of a sexist? A bit?
• Of course the contract is ridiculously long.
• Where have you been, Crowley? There's always trouble in "paradise."
• That's fun. I like it.
• That reveal probably would have been more fun if it wasn't in all the previews.
• So checking the personals was a good plan?
• He never has been.
• Ouch.
• Well that's a nice place for some torture.
• How many times have you said that, Sam? Or Dean for that matter?
• Okay, that's why you don't ever ask Dean for advice.
• Oh, I do love that turn around-ness.
• Nothin' like a creepifying confessional.
• Do not surprise people who are fixin' to load guns.
• Of course he'd show up just then.
• Forgot the incantation there, Sammy.
• No one's ever out, Kev.
• Geez, Cas.
• That worked?
• Cas, you are hilariously inept sometimes. It's hilarious.
• Dude, Dean's always been drinking on the job.
• And of course Cas doesn't get that reference.
• Lol, of course he'd be gay and Cupid would be a girl.
• Well that traps been sprung.
• Hello Abbadon.
• Ow. Poor Sam.
• Bye bye Abbadon. Or not. Of course not.
• Poor Metatron.
• That was totally not what happened, Crowley.
• That's Crowley's humanity showing.
• I seriously love Mark Shepherd.
• Of course it is.
• Well duh. Of course he was gonna die doing that.
• Seriously?
• Well then, I take back what I said about "Poor Metatron."
• Dude, knock it off. Well OBVIOSULY.
• I agree with Sam. It's fracking worth it.
• Well that seriously sucks for Cas.
• Metatron is batshit crazy.
• Never thought Dean would move me to tears.
• It's really not good when all the electronics go off at once.
• So pretty but so very, very bad.

Kiss of the Clip Show on the Edge of Town

Preamble-y-Stuff

I have not been feeling well the last couple of days. My head's just not where it usually is or would like it to be. That's why there wasn't a review of Tuesday's Grimm or Initial Reactions for last night's Arrow put up yesterday. By the time it was time to do these things, my head was off in la-la-land. Or actually, it was closer to being in what I recognize as my "writer's funk." But did I do much writing then? No, I didn't. I did, however watch Arrow and Supernatural so there's that, at least. Without further ado, I give you:

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Tuesday's episode of Grimm or last night's episodes of Arrow and/or Supernatural, please leave the blog and return later. I'm horrible at giving non-spoiler-y reviews of individual episodes.

Grimm - "Kiss of the Muse" - Review

"Kiss of the Muse" was interesting, to say the least. It was mostly about getting Juliette and Nick back together, mostly by having Nick act like a hormonal teenager because of interactions with a particular Wesen. No one else really had much to do besides act like they were playing a game of Telephone, passing messages back and forth and freaking out.

I quite liked both the new Wesen introduced in this episode. The Luisant-Pêcheur was kind of cute in his, and I'm not even sure how to spell this, volged form. The otter face was just so cute. The character, however, could have been a younger, Muggle, rocked-out version of Severus Snape for all that's worth. I thought the Musai was beautiful in the volged form. The way her powers worked was interesting, though I'm really coming up confused on her characterization. She seemed really into using her powers at some points but freaked out when she realized Nick was a Grimm and she'd used it on him. Maybe it was just the Grimm thing, though... I don't know, she was pretty.

I'm glad Juliette and Nick are apparently back together now. Having them apart saddened me since they're both so right for each other. I really enjoyed the parts where Juliette was talking to Monroe and Rosalee in the shop. The looks exchanged between the couple during the conversations made me laugh. I also liked that Juliette has now pretty much accepted what Nick had been trying to tell her at the end of last season. It makes me so happy! Looks like next week she's going to be seeing the Wesen she knows in the volged forms so that should be even more interesting.

The very end of the episode had me grinning. Captain Renard pulling out the "Hexenbastard" as a threat was just awesome. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but it's handy.

Arrow - "Darkness on the Edge of Town" - Review

Let me just say how much I loved this episode. It was fun without being overcrowded, which I liked. It was great getting to see everyone interact as they individually investigate The Undertaking. And by "individually" I mean the individual groups, not individual people. Although watching them all individually was fun, too.

The not-a-heist at Merlyn Global was amazing to watch. I really felt for Felicity when she was climbing through the walls/elevator shafts with Olly. I'd be freaked out, too. Though I did think it was weird that she didn't have a backpack of something for her tablet. Carrying it while climbing around inside a building didn't really seem like a good idea to me. Also, she seemed strangely comfortable playing her role through that whole sequence. Made a big change from her gambling thing last week. I thought Diggle was amusing in his security role. Any time he gets to kind of let loose is great.

And speaking of Diggle letting loose, I'm sure it felt good to punch Olly in the face a few times, even if he was pulling his punches. I was completely taken in by the ruse of Olly and Moira getting kidnapped, too. Like, I didn't realize it was Diggle under the hood until he asked about The Undertaking and they showed him about to hit Olly. For some reason I thought it was Malcolm under there... which would have been weird, but that's where my brain was at.

I thought Roy and Thea's bit was both cute and heartbreaking. Thea's quite the con artist with the police... though that bit might have been last week. My head's a little weird so it's hard to remember. That the storyline is blurring together from episode to episode that much is a good thing, I think. Olly threatening Roy had me grinning. Roy breaking up with Thea made me want to slap him, especially seeing the look on her face when he said what he did.

Which then brings me to the relationship things going on. I completely understand how angry I perceived Tommy to be at the end of the episode. Olly just got done telling him he was free to get back together with Laurel and then goes and sleeps with her. Tommy has every right to be angry about that. Moira and Walter's impending divorce took me by surprise, actually. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it makes sense why Walter's delivered the divorce papers.

Lastly, I'm wondering what's going to happen as Detective Lance starts to investigate Felicity. I'm assuming he will, seeing as she seems to be his only lead on the Merlyn Global thing at the moment. I do kind of wonder how his computer guy got Felicity's name off of that hacking stuff. Knowing nothing about hacking myself and having a few assumptions about it makes me wonder how her name would be attached to it at all.

Supernatural - "Clip Show" - Review

I have to say, there's a reason in-universe fiction about the main players in the universe is never a good thing. I do kind of wonder why the Supernatural books haven't been picked up by Crowley or someone like him before now. As it is, I'm glad they're being used for something other than hilarity, even if that does mean characters we met way back when are getting killed off. That said, there's also a reason Crowley is my favorite villain on TV right now. He's no-compromising about actually being a bad guy. There's no "redeeming qualities" about him at all. I really, really like that in a villain and especially on Crowley.

On to... Cas. Cas is back! Yay! He's always good for a bit of random comedy, which this show needs a lot of. My favorite part from "Clip Show" was Cas freaking out the cashier guy over the pie. It was clear he's trying to get back in Dean's good graces. The way he's going about it amused me to no end. That said... I'm not so sure about Cas teaming up with Metatron and closing Heaven. There are several reasons for why I have a problem with this. First, locking the angels up together to have them argue things out is clearly not going to end well. That sort of problem solving rarely gets anything done, even when we're not talking about angels. Secondly, Cas completing the "First Task" seemed to me more out of interest of saving Metatron's life than Cas actually doing it to do it... if that makes any sense. I don't think Cas would have killed the Nephilim if she hadn't been trying to kill Metatron. Also, what the hell Metatron? You come out of hiding and your first thought is to lock all the angels in Heaven?

On a side note: the Nephilim gave me Charmed flashbacks. Whitelighters are essentially angels so... Chris and Wyatt was Nephilim. I don't know why, but it made me laugh a little.

Lastly, Abbadon being free and not immediately going to kill Sam and Dean was a little suspect to me. She could totally have sneaked up on them. If I'm guessing correctly, though, she's going after Crowley now... or something. She was really surprised when she found out he was the King of Hell now so I just figure that's what she's going to be doing.

Housekeeping

I am planning on watching The Vampire Diaries tonight. Not sure if I'm gonna be doing Initial Reactions for it as of right now so... if I do them, they'll be up. If I don't, I'll just review the episode tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Great Escapist - Review

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen this week's episode of Supernatural, please leave the blog and return later. The following review will contain spoilers. I'm also going to be discussing a little bit about The Originals and then will be my usual "Housekeeping" section.

Supernatural - "The Great Escapist" - Review

I admit it, I was wrong. Kevin did not go crazy and just up and leave his boat. Crowley somehow managed to break the windows, steal Kevin, and fix everything before Sam and Dean got there.

This week, we had a lot of Crowley "directing" a pair of demons to play Sam and Dean in order to fool Kevin into giving up the location of the second half of the demon tablet. I will admit, I found it amusing when the demons were attempting to play Sam and Dean. They weren't horrible, but, as Crowley put it, they were too polite. Also, Sam and Dean haven't hung out at the boat hardly at all. Why they'd just decide to camp out there would have been beyond me, if I were Kevin. I did think it was quite clever the way Kevin tricked the "Sam" and "Dean" demons into a trap. I think it might have been interesting if, in fact, that's where he hid his half of the tablet. But since that half is pretty superfluous as of right now, we probably won't find out.

I thought Jared did a wonderful job acting sick and delirious. Sam was pretty hilarious in his weakened state. I'm not sure why exactly he'd "resonate" with "The Word" or whatever, but that was interesting, too. The resonating needed to be better explained. That said, I also really loved Metatron. I think it's weird that his name sounds like a Transformer, but he amused me. Yeah, Dean had some good points when he was yelling at Metatron about the hiding thing, but the way Metatron described storytelling was right up there with how I tend to think about it.

Naomi is making me hate her more and more. I would like to better understand her motivations, though. In my mind, there has to be something more to her wanting the tablet than just "Daddy Issues." That said, I thought it was horrifying, but clever, how she got Cas to stop hopping restaurants. It was nice having him back, too. I also thought where he hid the tablet was a) gross, b) clever, and c) uncomfortable.

I'm glad we're jumping back into plot-mode now. I can't wait to see how this "cure a demon" thing works out. It promises to be interesting.

The Vampire Diaries - The Originals Spinoff

Yes, I know, you probably already knew about this. I had no clue "The Originals" was a back-door pilot for The Originals, a Vampire Diaries spin-off. Frankly... I'm not interested.

The Originals is set to feature Klaus as the main character rather than a side character. I hate Klaus. I think I've made this hate pretty darn obvious. I also believe I made my hate for "The Originals" pretty darn obvious.

That said, I'll still probably tune in to watch a few episodes of The Originals before giving it the boot from my watch-list. Ya never know, I might end up liking it. After all, I did enjoy seeing Klaus put in his place by the witches last week. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes, through reviews or comments or something.

Housekeeping

I might or might not get last night's episode of The Vampire Diaries watched and review tonight. My possible babysitting thing might get in the way or I might just decide it can wait till tomorrow. If I do get it done tonight, it'll show up in it's own post.

Also, I made an update to the "Welcome/Mission Statement" post. If you'd like to read it, click "Read First" over in the sidebar.

Love ya, Jessie.

Pac-Man Home Invasion Fever

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last night's episodes of Arrow or Supernatural, please leave the blog and return after you've watched them. I'm terrible at reviewing things without spoiling them.

Arrow - "Home Invasion" - Review

This episode had a lot of interesting elements to it. They meshed very well and were pulled off quite nicely without making the episode seem cluttered. If only The Vampire Diaries could pull this off more often.

In the beginning of the episode, I thought Tommy came off as a jerk. Olly has every right to randomly show up at Laurel's place of work; they are still friends, after all. However, my feelings about Tommy were completely reversed at the end of the episode. His self-sacrifice in giving up Laurel was heart-wrenching, especially being an audience member. We know how much he cares for Laurel and seeing him breaking both their hearts was just... I cried. No joke. That said, I'm glad the writers decided not to drag that out forever.

I thought the little bits of the backstory were slightly fun. The Olly and Shado kissing bit was so telegraphed it hurt. I have no problem with them having a bit of a fling, but Slade's right in reminding them how much time they don't have. The end of the flashbacks this episode was seriously lacking tension. We know Olly doesn't get off the island for a long time so him getting captured and Yao-Fei telling him that his time on the island was short lacked punch. I find myself wishing they either did specific flashback episodes or an entire season just for telling the flashback story.

Those of you who actually read my Initial Reactions might have noticed I mentioned J. August Richards a couple of times. He played the assassin throughout the episode. I know him primarily from Angel, where he played Charles Gunn. I thought Richards was wonderfully creepy. The perfect amount of politeness, crazy, and menacing all rolled into one package. I'm kind of sad his character's been killed off, actually. I would have liked to see that crazy developed a bit more.

I think Roy and Thea looking for "The Hood" is gonna be interesting. It'll be even more interesting if Roy finds out and Thea doesn't, which I think is the most probable outcome. Though it would be nice if Thea were brought into the loop... a bit. I think she's more fun as a side-character than a main one.

That's what I thought of "Home Invasion." Let me know what you think in the comments.

Supernatural - "Pac-Man Fever" - Review

I will be the first to say that I wasn't expecting Charlie back. It was a pleasant surprise and I'm glad she's sort of becoming part of "the gang" as it were. I also thought getting more on her backstory was interesting. I liked that the writers were able to parallel Charlie's mom and Sam. I also thought it was fun just having Charlie around. She makes everything seem less dire than the boys usually make it seem.

I thought the sub-species of Djinn were somewhat interesting, though the concept of a sub-species at all caught my attention much more. I adore the mythology of Supernatural so much and this was just icing on the mythologic cake.

My favorite part of the episode was when Sam, Dean, and Charlie were sitting around the table researching the Djinn. Sam and Charlie wanting each other's "tech" (for lack of better terms) was amusing. "I hate that thing. I want it." I think Charlie would make an awesome "Woman of Letters" *cough* Watcher *cough.*

Uhmm... not much else to say about this episode... except that Sam looked really sick throughout the entire thing, which was awesome from a production standpoint. Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments.

Housekeeping

You might have noticed a lack of Initial Reactions for tonight's The Vampire Diaries episode. That will be happening and it will be getting it's own post. I thought putting these reviews in their own separate post would be best considering my splitting headache at the moment.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Rings of the Cold War Taxi Driver of Akhaten

It's another mixed up title made out of other titles. That must mean there are reviews ahead. That must also mean that there's a spoiler warning a comin' too...

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the most recent episodes of Supernatural and Doctor Who, please leave the blog and come back later. The following reviews contain spoilers for "The Rings of Akhaten," "Cold War," and "Taxi Driver."

Doctor Who - "The Rings of Akhaten" - Review

While I was watching the episode, I liked it. I was rather shocked by the planet becoming the Great Pumpkin's evil twin, but I liked the rest. I thought it was a nice change to have just a small portion of the universe in trouble instead of the entire universe. I thought the main thrust of the story, Merry Gejelh (that is some funky spelling there), was cute and another nice change from adults running around with their hands in the air. The story was not as dark as some of the previous ones, which also made a nice change.

I also quite liked the backstory we got on Clara's parents. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Also painted a picture of The Doctor as a stalker, but there you go.

I would say more, but I don't really want to pick apart this episode. I liked it. I probably won't be watching it again soon, though. It was nice, simple, romp.

Doctor Who - "Cold War" - Review

I loved this episode. Loved it, loved it, loved it. The story was well put-together, the scares were fun, and the character development was wonderful. I thought Clara's reactions to things were very realistic, even if she was a tad over-eager in parts. My favorite bit was when she discovered the TARDIS Translation Matrix... which they actually called the correct thing this time. I'm pretty sure it was called a Translation Circuit last time... or else I'm getting it mixed up with the Chameleon Circuit...

Anyway... I really enjoyed getting to properly see an Ice Warrior for the first time. I'd seen bits of some of the Classic Who episodes they appeared in, but I'm not sure I fully appreciated them then. I thought Skaldak was pretty brilliant. I thought it was clever how he used his armor as a misdirection, though I'm unsure why it opened when Clara touched it... also, Skaldak was kind of impatient when he sent out his distress beacon. I know there wouldn't have been much of a story if he hadn't been impatient, but still.

I was fairly sure some of the older Whovians were going to get upset about a) Skaldak coming out of his armor and b) seeing an Ice Warrior without the armor. I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to my podcasts and found they were actually quite positive about it. I'm very happy about that.

I've already see "Cold War" twice and I might revisit it again in the near future. Meantime, I can't wait for this weekend and the next episode.

Supernatrual - "Taxi Driver" - Review

Funny story, when Dean said he buried Benny, I heard "married." Man, that was a weird couple of seconds while I was reeling in shock. Luckily, the next thing out of Dean's mouth was "but I didn't burn his bones." Gah! My brain is weird.

Anyway, nothing new was really set up or revealed here. We got some more of Kevin freaking out. He's now apparently cracked, as evidenced by the lack of glass on the floor. We got to see Benny again and witness his parting... twice. We got Bobby back for a bit, which was sort of fun. I enjoyed that he clocked Sam first thing, even if he did think Sam was a demon.

Of course last on my list is talking about Crowley and Naomi. Crowley's his usual awesomely evil self. His motives are at least crystal clear. Naomi, on the other hand, is a bureaucrat who doesn't like to be called a bureaucrat. I still don't like her at all. I'm glad Dean didn't fall for her BS and he doesn't even know about her "Danger Room" of Dean corpses. Also, doing one good thing for someone doesn't automatically mean you can be trusted. If anything, it means you can't, especially if you've been shifty for all the time they've known you.

I especially enjoyed the scene with Crowley and Naomi together. There's gotta be some interesting history there. Mark Shepard and Amanda Tapping have such great chemistry on screen, it makes me want to ship Crowley and Naomi... ya know, if I were to ship anyone.

Overall, I liked the episode. It's nice to have actual plot rather than filler for once.

Housekeeping

Apparently, Neopets previewed something from the Obelisk opening that said "SOON" on it. Not sure what's going on there, but I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow... I don't know. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Love ya, Jessie.

Quick Supernatural Review

I had a rough night last night. Was up until 3AM -- not because I wanted to be -- and then woke up at 9AM and actually got my butt out of bed. So, it's now 9PM. I just got back from grocery shopping. I'm tired. Oh, and my dog puked. lovely.

To sum up: no April Fools shenanigans from me.

However, I did manage to watch last week's Supernatural. Here's the

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the Supernatural episode titled "Freaks and Geeks," please leave the blog now and come back later. I feel silly sticking a spoiler warning on an episode that was aired last week, but here you go.

Supernatural - "Freaks and Geeks" - Review

Cute episode. I liked Crissy last time she showed up and I liked her this time, too. She's spunky and gives Dean someone other than Sam to worry about in a brotherly fashion. Crissy, Aiden, and Josephine worked very well together as a hunting team. They reminded me very much of Buffy, Xander, and Willow during the first season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It's a good dynamic and I'm kind of hoping we see them again at some point.

I thought it was really obvious Victor was the bad guy here. He gave me that vibe before we even saw him on screen. I was practically screaming at Sam not to go anywhere with him.

Other than that, this episode was very much filler. I kind of like the filler, but at this point, I want Sam and Dean to get back to the main storyline. I feel like this season would have been better if it was shorter and not the usual 20-something.

Love ya, Jessie.

PS: I might have lied a little.

The Stranger Returns

Oh, it's another crappy title mix up. That must mean there are some reviews to be had. Just reviews tonight, I'm afraid. I missed The Vampire Diaries due to a birthday dinner for the eldest of my little sisters.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen yesterday's episodes of Arrow or Supernatural, please leave the blog now and return later. The following reviews contain spoilers.

Arrow - "The Huntress Returns" - Review

I was a really big fan of Huntress last time she showed up. I was really excited she was coming back and wasn't just a one-off thing. That said, I'm somewhat disappointed in Ms. Bertinelli this time around. She came across as much more of a villain this time. Yes, I know Huntress has never really been completely White Hat, but I didn't think she'd go for using people as leverage. In my opinion, that was going too far. I know she wants her father dead and all, but to drag Olly into it like that? Nuh uh. Do not like.

I did, however, like Huntress' outfits. The "stripper" outfit felt very comic-book-y to me, toned down though it was. I liked her little mask, though when she went from full-on Huntress to just a touch of goth-y eye shadow in the interrogation room... that was a bit odd. Apparently in Starling City they allow prisoners to pretty-up before being interrogated. I liked that she gave up Olly without giving up Olly. That was clever and amusing to watch.

Now on to Tommy and Laurel. I thought Tommy's reaction to processing Olly being "The Hood" was very realistic. I like that he came around after Helena used him against Olly. I'm sort of annoyed at Laurel for expecting Tommy to be her rock after he'd clearly hurt himself. Big arm braces usually mean "give me slack," but apparently not to Laurel. At the same time, she didn't know exactly what happened to him so... that's why I'm only sort of annoyed. I thought Laurel was wonderfully sneaky about getting her dad to see her mom. That made me smile. I also thought Detective Lance's reaction to the stuff about Sarah was spot-on.

Finally, Roy and Thea got some air-time together. Roy got to be both a jerk and a hero, which was nice. Not sure exactly why he told Thea to go ahead and get him the job and then tell her off for doing it... well, not tell her off exactly, but, ya know, he wasn't happy about it. I think their chemistry is really nice. The distracting kiss was cute.

So, that's what I thought of the episode... oh, wait... there was some flashback story stuff? It was essentially really boring? Oh, okay. Olly did something somewhat clever and Slade was happy about it and now they're blackmailing Fyers... joy. Could probably have done without that this episode, but whatever.

Let me know what you thought down in the comments, that'd be great.

Supernatural - "Goodbye Stranger" - Review

This episode was really interesting. There were lots of interesting plot developments not involving Sam and Dean. I really had fun watching this episode. Wonder what that says about me as a Supernatural fan?

Okay, so... Meg and Castiel... Megstiel, since Dean, or was that Sam?, so wonderfully put it. That... came out of nowhere for me. Yes, Castiel kissed her in a previous episode and now Meg wants to jump his bones. I get it, but... now apparently he's her "unicorn," as she puts it? Yeah... not sure I'm buying that exactly. It doesn't help that she's dead and so not coming back to develop that further.

Naomi. I'm really enjoying hating her. Amanda Tapping has just hit the bureaucratic, brainwashing angel bit out of the park. I'm wondering what exactly she's up to.

Crowley was back! I love Crowley. He's pretty darn awesome for an evil S.O.B. I thought he had some really funny lines and was properly menacing... at least at Meg. Other than that, I was just enjoying him being in the episode at all.

Castiel this episode was, well, Cas. I thought it was interesting that he'd apparently been brainwash-training to kill Dean and then couldn't. By the way, that image of all the dead Deans in the Angel Danger Room was disturbing. I also thought he argued really well with Naomi against killing Dean and bringing the Winchesters in on what he was searching for. The effect when he grabbed the Angel Tablet reminded me very much of Twilight Sparkle when she's channeling the Elements of Harmony. Yup, pony reference in a Supernatural review. Deal with it.

That reminds me, references! There were a few funny ones. The big one that stood out to me was the "Shut up, Meg" thing. It made me laugh when I realized the boys had said it a few times. For those who don't know, that's a Family Guy reference. Everyone always tells Meg to shut up. I also liked the Lord of the Rings reference at the end, though I didn't realize what that was until Sam said something. Not a giant fan of LOTR so that's probably why.

Anyway... that's what I thought of the episode. Let me know what you thought in the comments, please.

Housekeeping

Yes, I missed The Vampire Diaries tonight. I should be able to watch it tomorrow and put up a review with my Grimm initial reactions. Hopefully. No promises.

You might have noticed I changed my site-theme back to it's blue self. Yeah, since the Neopets event is essentially over, I figured it'd be nice to go back. I did find a nice starry background to go the the Pleiades theme instead of an abstract blue thing.

Also, comment, please. I'd really like to know that I'm not shouting into the void... ya know, like I don't check my site stats... but really, comments would be nice.

Love ya, Jessie.

Supernatural - Remember the Titans

This is your SPOILER WARNING. If you have not seen this week's episode of Supernatural, please leave the blog and come back later to avoid the SPOILERS in this review.

Supernatural - "Remember the Titans" - Review

I spent a good chunk of this episode trying to remember what significance the eagle eating Prometheus' intestines or whatever had. I remembered that detail from somewhere but I couldn't remember where until Sam revealed that "Shane" was Prometheus. I thought that was a fun little mystery.

I thought the entire "pre-credits" sequence was ridiculous. Prometheus being run over wasn't done very well. The eagle eating bits of his stomach was just some unconvincing and obvious CG. Also, I didn't like the sheriff. First he checks and obviously dead and frozen guy for a pulse after seeing an eagle eating from the guy's stomach. And then he jumps immediately and whole-heartedly into zombies. What? How did this guy get to be sheriff? Gah!

As usual for me, I saw parallels between this and Doctor Who. Prometheus' returning from the dead over and over reminded me very much of Captain Jack Harkness. I'm incredibly satisfied with Prometheus being the explanation there.

I'd forgotten the Greek/Other gods existed in the Supernatural universe so seeing them was pretty awesome. That meeting between the gods was such a long time ago. I really liked seeing them represented again and their interactions with each other. Artemis was rather wooden, but it sort of made sense with her having to hide her love of Prometheus from Zeus. I really liked Zeus, too. He was properly pissed off, self-involved, and vengeful.

I thought this was another nice filler episode. I like it when there are call backs to earlier episodes and mostly forgotten mythology.

Love ya, Jessie.

Dodger's Best Friend With Benefits

I've pretty much been floored for most of the day by the most insane and annoying headache. Not sure what caused it, but it hurts like no one's business. Gah!

You also might have noticed that this post is devoid of TVD initial reactions. That's because I have a little time to kill earlier in the day before TVD airs. I should have initial reactions on that for you later.

Right now, I have a giant SPOILER WARNING for you. If you have not seen this week's episodes of Arrow or Supernatural, I must kindly ask you to either skip down to the Gaiaonline section or just leave and come back later. Yes, I said Gaiaonline section. There's stuff.

Arrow - "Dodger" - Review

This episode was a lot of laughs, at least from the perspective of how much I like seeing Olly and Diggle be awkward. Them on their dates was just amazingly funny. And for once, Olly didn't have to cut his date short. McKenna did that for him. How nice of her.

I really enjoyed Felicity as part of the "Green Arrow" team. Yes, I'm giving them a name. They need one for the sake of simplicity. Anyway... Felicity was just awesome. She's the tech-girl, she's acting a bit as Olly's conscience, she's being bait, she's getting bombs attached to her neck... okay, that part had me rolling my eyes. While it was quite awesome that Olly was able to take down the Dodger, I thought Felicity going after him herself in that moment was a bit... weird. Don't get me wrong, I like that the girl can take initiative, but it made her virtually useless when she shouldn't have been. And then she soldiered through it, which was good. Oh, and another thing, why did Felicity have to ditch the glasses and the geek-chic for totally Barbie-Girl-Glam? She could have at least kept the glasses. Just sayin'.

A bit more of Olly's backstory was revealed here, too. We got that guy who I totally wasn't buying essentially being left to die by Olly. I think it was a good choice on his part, but I was taken out of those moments by the beat-up-guy himself. Don't know what it was about him, but he just wasn't right. Good on Olly for leaving him behind. That might come back to bite him in the butt, but... I don't think so.

Last on my list of things to talk about: Roy Harper. I like him. I really, really do. True, I had a little brain-fart during the episode on who he was, but now that I know for sure, I'm happy. For those who don't know (or didn't read my initial reactions), Roy Harper is Green Arrow's sidekick and hero in his own right in the DC comics. He went by Speedy while being Green Arrow's sidekick, then switched to Arsenal, then apparently Red Arrow. Yeah... I don't know much more than that. Go read the Wiki. Anyway, I like that Roy's connected to Olly through Thea. I smell a romance between the pair blossoming at some point.

Let me know what you thought about this episode in the comments, pretty please. I feel all cut-off and stuff.

Supernatural - "Man's Best Friend With Benefits" - Review

Familiars in the Supernatural universe remind me a lot of Digimon. Ya know, without the digital-ness and evolution involved. I quite like how they're explained, though my question based solely on this episode is: why haven't we seen them before? None of the witches we've seen before had familiars, including the really old feuding couple. I think that's a little hinky, but meh.

My hopes for the boys not talking about who's doing the tasks were dashed against some very sharp rocks this episode. I get that Dean's worried about Sam. I get that Dean would rather being doing the tasks. I get that Sam has issues with Dean not being okay with the situation. I get it. It doesn't need to be hammered into my head over two episodes. And yes, I know, both Sam and Dean have a track record for hashing and rehashing and rehashing stuff to death. I know. It's annoying.

This episode was some nice solid filler. I liked it. I laughed. I was not emotionally invested in any of the goings on. Let me know what you thought in the comments. And yes, I'm begging for comments. Just comment already.

Gaiaonline - 221 B Mini-Event

It's 2-21-13. Kind of looks like 221B if you squint. Gaia is full of nerds. Some of those nerds like Sherlock Holmes. So we get a puzzle to solve for... something.

Personally, I'm not into puzzles. However, this one is throwing everyone for a loop. It's been up since this morning and no one has solved it yet. It's so frustrating, people are going off on ridiculous tangents based on tenuous links. This annoys me. Be that as it may, I highly encourage you to go check it out and join in the fun.

Thanks devs, you suck.

Neopets - Tyrannian Plot

The time has come to choose your side! You have a week to decide which of the six factions you'll be joining. As a member of the Order of the Red Erisim, I must encourage you to join us. Magic should control magic. We know what we're doing.

Housekeeping

Initial Reactions for TVD coming tonight, hopefully.

Some of the section headers contain links.

I'd really love to interact with you guys, so leave me comments. We can argue about stuff, or agree about stuff, or just gush about nerdy goodness.

Love ya, Jessie.