12 posts tagged “supernatural”

This is the night that makes the DVR groan and stocks me up with plenty of shows to watch over the weekend. Oh how I love Thursdays. With the returning shows my DVR will be set for Supernatural (favourite show on TV and it's mythology is second to none), Fringe (hopefully it will not stumble in its sophomore season) and The Mentalist (fluffy fun with the eye candy of the charming Simon Baker).  I tend to dip in and out of Bones. It never quite made it to a DVR season pass but I always tune in to the episodes with Stephen Fry guest staring. I am intrigued by FlashForward, and will give it a go. Perhaps this will be the year I start watching shows on ABC and almost ditch NBC entirely. Still loyal to Chuck but I think it might fit better on NBC's sister cable channel USA (since characters are welcome there). 

I tend to do quite a bit of navel gazing during yoga classes, and by navel gazing I mean putting my introspective head on though I do literally spend time gazing at my actual navel as well. I find yoga quite mindless, especially when you filter out the mediation and the new age rhetoric, as all you are doing is breathing and following instructions for a series of poses. I like to think I do my best thinking on the mat, and today I was mulling over why I have been feeling so out of sorts. I managed to identify key ingredients that had been missing this week - escapism and thinking.

Escapism comes in many forms.  My favs are studying ancient civilisations and watching genre tv shows based on cool futuristic stuff (hello science fiction and fantasy).  I find that both of those things lead to thinking and that in turn leads to a happy me. Does this makes me an uber nerd? Because I really hope so. Last week was primarily about the day job, and in the evening I only had time to watch the Daily Show and Colbert. As much as I love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert they are very much based in reality, and given that most of my favourite shows are on break for the summer there are slim pick-in's for programs that transport you to a galaxy far far away. 

Is it odd that a lack of Fringe, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Chuck and Doll House disrupt my reality so much? Not really when you think about the Obama-BSG article the Onion ran a few months back. Dude, I am totally on the same page as I have an entire summer to fill before school and the new tv seasons begin in earnest. What am I meant to do till then?

Next up will be my summer sci-fi survival guide.

Okay I know that not all these shows fall under sci-fi umbrella but what's a little supernatural fantasy between friends, especially whilst I am waiting on Fringe.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: 'To The Lighthouse'
When we are watching T:TSCC I can feel Alex loosing patience with the slow as molasses character and plot development. I think the last few episodes have been pretty good. Not quite up to the powerhouse of last season but pretty good all in all. They threw in a few good twists. It turns out that it is not just Connors vs. Shirley Manson from Garbage there is a third party out there that have their own terminator which was able to hack into John Henry and a try to capture Cameron. Will the season finale have us finding out that Shirley Manson is one of the good guys?

Dollhouse: Echoes
Oh it pains me so much to write that I enjoyed yet another episode. Mythology of the show is starting to be set up. The Actives were investigating a robbery of some dodgy chemical at the university that Echo attended when she Caroline. The dodgy chem has been released into the student body and causes euphoria (and differing levels of sillinesss). The actives are apparently immune. Ho ho ho that's the last words of many a character before they are proved wrong, and low and behold Topher is proved wrong. The actives just take longer to succumb to the chem and I guess this finally proves that just because you wipe an active you don't leave some residual imprints waiting to be accessed by a trippy drug.

The best bits of the episode were when the drug got out amongst Dollhouse management. The scenes between Topher and Adelle were classic, and Mr. Lawrence apologising for trying to burn Echo.  I can't believe this show is actually getting better.

Supernatural: It's a Terrible Lie
After so many stand alone episode I was really cheesed off that we were getting what looked like another frakkin' stand alone episode. Well it was and it wasn't a stand alone. Dean and Sam are reborn in some warped reality where Sam is in tech support and Dean is director of marketing or something.  They both have no idea of their true identities but once weird suicides start happening at the office building they revert to type and start investigating. This episdoe was of course a test by Castiel's line manager, Zachariah. Trying to prove to Dean that regardless of how he lives his life he will always revert to being a hunter because that is what he is.

It was great seeing Dean has a yuppie - all power cleanses, and sharp suitss. Also funny that the Winchester brother's had to watch 'Ghostfacers' as a way of boning up on how to fight.    

Chuck: Chuck versus the Predator
I just love Chuck and his pals on every level. Love the super spy team who protect him. Love Ellie and Dr. Awesome. Love Chuck's Buy More family. Love that the intersect is in his head and that he flashes on stuff like a human barcode. Love super villians Fulcrum.

I use to think it weird that in December all my favorite shows would go into hibernation until the new year. In the UK Christmas is when the BBC et al come out all guns blazing to wow a nation but now I cherish the respite.  The heart grows a little fonder for some shows and forgets others.  I thought that we were on the cusp of welcoming 24 back onto our DVR but Alex just veto it (sorry Jack). Let's be honest when you peek the list below we have more than enough shows to be going on with, and 24 is no Battlestar Galactic. Five days until BSG's season 4.5 kicks off - woo hoo!

• Battlestar Galactica (1/16/09)  - Who is the fifth cyclon and what happened to Earth?
  
• Burn Notice (1/22/09) - Highly addictive, and the Miami setting eases winter blues
  
• Chuck (2/2/09) - It has more than the touch of the Walter Mittys about it and a definitely a guilty pleasure
  
• Dollhouse (2/13/09) - Josh Wheldon's new show so will give it a whirl but I get Ibsen flashbacks every time I think of the title
  
• Fringe (1/20/09) - MASSIVE DYNAMIC and the wonderfully inappropriate Walter
  
• House (1/19/09) - Duh!
  
• Lie to Me (1/21/09) - Mr. Orange reads people
  
• Life (2/4/09) - Quirky crime drama with Band of Brother's Captain Winters
  
• The Mentalist - Simon Baker reads people
  
• NCIS
  
• Psych - fake psychic reads people
  
• Supernatural (1/15/09) - Mythology, monsters and classic rock
  
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2/13/09) - The end is neigh and John might meet his dad
  
• United States of Tara (1/18/09) - quirky comedy about a suburban mum suffering from spilt personality
  

Thank the gods for staggered start times otherwise I'd never have anytime for anything else! Quite an alarming list and only time will tell which shows get left on the DVR.

By all rights this should be 'Study: The week ahead' but I don't want to bore you as I am not at the exciting bit yet. I am still at the preliminary background reading stage even though my schedule states that I should be on topic 4 'Antony and Cleopatra. I don't quite understand how I can be behind even before I have officially begun. I fear it could be one of those pesky time paradoxes like in the Terminator. Reading about Tony and Cleo should be a big carrot for me to get my arse into gear as it is the perfect excuse to re-watch Rome, and savour James Purefoy.  With regard to the small screen I am not sure what I am more excited about the VP debates (I hear Tina Fey will be subbing) or Mitch Pileggi appearing as the Winchester brother's grandfather in a flashback episode. Oh it's a toughie!

Monday

• Heroes - I'll DVR this for the weekend as it really isn't as "sticky" as the first season, and I only keep watching because I have a soft spot for Noah (aka HRG dude)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - No sophomore slump on the horizon for these terrorists, and who knew that Dean Austin Green could act?
• Life - Loved the truncated first season but will need to bank this in the DVR until Alex has caught up

• House - It's painful that Wilson has dumped House but makes for great snarky television
  
• NCIS - A classy guilty pleasure, and I totally guessed the twist with last weeks episode. But, I don't know who the spy is working for.
  
• The Mentalist - I didn't think I had capacity for yet another procedural drama but this one is worth dumping Bones for
• Fringe - I am committing to Pacey et al with a season pass this week

• Pushing Daisies - Despite one of the central characters being a zombie the show does leave you with a warm tingly feeling

• SUPERNATURAL - All shades of awesome wrapped in an Impala
  
• VP Debates  - You just don't know how this will play out. Perhaps Palin has been faking it for the last few weeks to give Biden a false sense of security...
  

• Life - Another episode for the DVR. Now are NBC trying to engage with a new fan base with two episodes this week or burn through them...
  

In the good old days Thursday was the jewel in NBC's crown.  But, then Monica and Chandler moved to the 'burbs. Rachel inexplicably threw over Paris for Ross, and they started to lose the plot at County General. CBS moved in with Survivor - CSI  double bill and began to rue the night.  These days anything goes, but it is Supernatural that I eagerly anticipate. It is so fraking good, and this season looks like it will be a doozy.  Two new shows that I am willing to dip my toe in are Life on Mars and Eleventh Hour. My interest in the US version of Life on Mars is purely from a car crash TV point of view.  I still haven't seen a promo, and on its site they just have a video from the props department.  I fear that Fringe might have "stolen" Eleventh Hour's audience since they are both about spooky things wrapped in the veil of a federal investigation.  I am a fan of Rufus Sewell so will give it a go.

Once again, Alex and I have started to try and work our way through Star Trek: The Next Generation because someone says that we can't re-watch Deep Space Nine until we have finished TNG. It's a bit like having to eat your greens before tackling some really tasty deep fried chicken. The last time we tackled this project we managed to get through the first two seasons, and I want to know at exactly what point did TNG get good? Was the tipping point Picard going Borg? The gem from the last few episodes we've watched is Whoopi Goldberg. It was genius to cast her as Guinan and I started to get excited about seeing her. So that got me thinking about which guest stars really bring it. The ones who shake things up, are a nod to the genre or just are just plain annoying (in a good way). In no particular order here are my favourites (and I think they really show my age):

1. Whoopi Goldberg - Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Goldberg appeared in 28 episodes of TNG, she is  the landlord of the Enterprise's bar '10 Forward' whose planet had been devastated by the Borg. Not only is Goldberg an outstanding actress, her characters back story was a great segue into Star Trek's newest villains - the Borg. 
2. Marlee Matlin - Joey Lucas in The West Wing. IMDB is trying to tell me that Matlin appeared in 17 episodes - was it really that many? Over the years that The West Wing has sustained us through the Bush administration there were many great guest stars - Mary-Lousie Parker, Janeane Garofalo, Oliver Platt, Steven Culp, Jorja Fox, Adam Arkin, etc - but if I had to pick just one it would be Matlin's turn as political pollster Joey Lucas.  Her character is bright, and ballsy. She butts heads with Josh, and the pair tip toe around their mutual attraction. I can forgive Matlin for putting on her tap shoes to appear in Dancing With The Stars because I can always dust off my West Wing box sets.
   
3. Maggie Wheeler - Janice in Friends.  The character of Janice was a tour de force. The "real" New Yorker that rubbed the bridge and tunnel crowd the wrong way.  Her laugh shattered glass, she took being annoying to a whole new level and she is the Achilles heel to our Friends. There is no escaping her, and that's what we loved about her most. She was brash, and she irked the hell out the smug set. 
4. Bebe Neuwirth - Lilith in Fraser.  Lilith is like an iceberg. Icy cool, and the most dangerous part of her is hidden beneath the surface.  Her power was in how everyone reacted to her. She doesn't need to lift a finger to keep those Crane boys in check.
   
5. Richard Hatch - Tom Zarek in Battlestar Galactica. Okay, this guest star role isn't perfect but it is pretty fraking cool to have the original Apollo cast as a terrorist. A nod to the BSG's heritage that shakes things up, just like Starbuck being a girl.   
   
6. Stephen Fry - Dr. Gordon Wyatt on Bones. I am still holding out hope that Fry will guest star on House but his three episode on Fox network's sister show tided me over for a bit (and sustained my interest in this procedural drama). Fry was, as ever, a joy to behold as the psychiatrist assigned to help Booth open up after an incident, and truthfully I'd pay to watch Fry pottering about in any TV show bar the truly dreadful Kingdom.
7. Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood & Dean Haglun - The Lone Gunmen in The X-Files.  These guys are the epitome of conspiracy theorists, and brought some colour to Scully & Mulders FBI grey.
   
8. John Barrowman - Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who.  Before Captain Jack took over Cardiff he appeared as the bi-sexual alien with a predilection for vintage clothing and flirted shamelessly with the Doctor. 
9. Supernatural. Okay, this is a total cop out but one of the things that I *love* about this show (other than Jensen Ackles) is that they embraced the genre and incorporate lots of "genre specific" guest stars. Callum Keith Rennie, Amy Acker, and Linda Blair to name a few.
   
10. Dean Stockwell - Brother Cavil in Battlestar Galactica. It's Dean Stockwell as a Cylon. It doesn't get any better than that.
    

The truncated season affected many TV shows. The Unit got stuck on hiatus and wont be back till the fall (counting my blessings that it is coming back at all), Journeyman shut up shop and the rest of my fav shows returned with 3 or 4 episodes to square things away for the summer. 

Supernatural had dug itself a large hole in its third season, the Winchester brothers were fighting wars on two fronts. Firstly, there were all those demons that escaped at the end of season two and secondly there was the whole issue of Dean selling his soul to bring Sam back.  With a shorter season we didn't have the chance to explore some of the things that had been hinted at (there are some serious questions surrounding Ma Winchester) and the focused shifted to how Dean was going to beat it his deal with the demon.  At the start of the season Dean was bent on hedonism and seeing out his final year on a bender of booze, birds and cheeseburgers but as his due date approached and he spent time with Ruby finding out what it would truly mean to descend to hell he became less inclined to go quietly into the night.

Despite the best efforts of Sam and Bobby things did not look good for Dean, especially with their new uber foe Lilith on the scene, and it didn't help matters when Bella pinched the colt (I liked how they tied up the Bella story line in a manner that didn't seem forced or trite).  In the final scene it was standoff between Lilith (inhabiting Ruby's skin suit), Sam and Dean. The great twists were that Sam appeared to be immune to Lilith's powers (has he been dabbling on the side?) and Dean went to hell. I love the implication that Dean might be brought back as a demon (or at least have a little demon on the side) as the character of Ruby has shown that not all demons are bad. And WTF is up with Sam?

Between cable On-Demand and the internet I've seen a few of the pilots for the coming season, and I am really excited about how my 2007/8 TV schedule is shaping up. Let's be honest I really don't have all that much going on. My down time will basically be made up of studying, yoga and TV (with the occasional trip to the flicks) until the Boy Wonder returns at the end of the year.

After a dismal few years, I am actually planning on watching a few shows on NBC - shock horror! Though they appear to have been taken over by Brits as Kevin McKid (Journeyman), Damian Lewis (Life) and Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman) are all heading up new shows and fingers crossed none of them get canned as they all look quite good.

Below is what I'll be DVRing and praise the gods that we have the ability to records two channels simultaneously otherwise I'd be screwed! Though it doesn't help my jam packed Tuesday 9pm slot - I will have to start utilizing the TiVo box in the office for the Reaper overspill. I should point out that I wont necessarily be watching these on the official nights as I am going to be strict with my study schedule (at least two hours per night)  and bless the DVR for not dictating when I have to watch my shows. And of course this is just my network shows doesn't include any gems from BBC America or Showtime (Dexter and Brotherhood start soon).

Monday
8pm Chuck (NBC) / 8:30pm Aliens in America (CW)
9pm Heroes (NBC)
10pm Journeyman (NBC)

Tuesday
8pm NCIS (CBS)
9pm The Unit (CBS) / House (Fox) /  Reaper (CW)

Wednesday
8pm  Pushing Daises (ABC) /  America's  Next Top Model (CW)
9pm Bionic Woman (NBC) / Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)
10pm Life (NBC)

Thursday
9pm Supernatural (CW) / CSI (CBS)

I discovered that I have been procrastinating over the wrong essay; Roman history when it should have been Greek Archaeology - oops. This is actually a blessing in disguise as my head is way more into ruins at the moment and I can now spend the long weekend working on a topic that doesn't give me palpitations.

We had a REALLY pushy broker come give our current apartment the once over. The verdict was that we have too  much clutter and boxes (dude we're like in the process of moving out), and he had the audacity to tell me that if took a picture of apartment with all our stuff in it he would be unable to rent it! Apparently New Yorkers have limited imaginations and are unable to switch out our clutter with theirs. The broker basically wanted to live in a William Gibsonesque reality where all traces of our existence could be erased at the flick of a switch.

I took Wednesday off work because we had tickets for a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was totally worth a day off and flirting with frost bite.

And finally, not wanting to be out done by Alex I am currently writing about television over here. I highly encourage everyone to start watching Supernatural.