Supernatural: Sharp Teeth. Has Everything Changed?

Sharp Teeth was on the surface a filler episode.  Yeah we had Garth show up and had a twist in his story, but as much as I love Garth I don’t count him as a real main character.  He’s the comic relief of the show. Heaven knows they need some comic relief.  Just 2 seasons ago they were able to spread that around between Bobby, Garth, Cas, Meg, Crowley and Kevin.  Out of that cast they have Cas and Crowley left (sorry, Garth’s episode felt like a goodbye.  I just don’t see a werewolf staying a hunter).  That’s a big burden to put on those actors so I predict a new character to help with said comic relief.  At least I hope so.  Perhaps Cain (and Able?) will provide some dark comedy?

Now if we dig a little deeper I think there are a lot of subtle clues about some big changes going on with Dean.  Dean and Sam have both been losing their humanity bit by bit for seasons now, but Dean took another big step forward.  He is flat out lying to Sam now, not for his own good, but just because he is working alone as much as possible.  Next, did anyone else notice how Dean got it done killing wise.  Knife thrown through the heart? NBD.  Killing a bunch of other werewolves?  It’s all good.

 

Now don’t get me wrong.  Dean has always been a killing machine, but he seemed especially on point this episode.  My theory is that the Mark of Cain is helping him out.  Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but Sam’s no slouch as a hunter.  Yet in comparison to Dean Sam looked almost inexperienced.  This almost reminds me of Sam back in his demon blood days.  Cold, calculating, and a killer through and through.

 

 

Now the monster story in the background (OK maybe foreground) of this episode was interesting, but if Garth hadn’t been involved it would have been just another monster of the week story.  This episode brought the boys back together, said goodbye to Garth (once again– I’m not trying to get rid of Garth, it just seemed like a goodbye episode), and we saw Dean as a confident killer.

What was the most heartbreaking moment of the episode though?  You might think I would say Garth revealing his werewolf issue, but no.  It was this moment:

No one is over Kevin’s death.  Not Sam, or Dean, or me.  Seriously I was depressed for days and still get weepy thinking about it.

Second most feels filled moment:

Sam saying that all their issues have stemmed from them being family broke Dean’s (and my) heart.  Of course Dean had said all this to Sam in the past (not the family stuff, but that he didn’t know who Sam was and couldn’t trust him).

The boys are brothers and no matter how much they try to “just work” that’s not going to happen, but I do hope that perhaps putting all the emotions to the side for a brief moment might allow them to finally move on.  Move on from some of the baggage left over from the bad decisions they have both made over the years.  Was this a game changer episode in disguise as a routine monster of the week episode? Hey, a girl can hope.

 

 

Veronica Mars: Great Modern Film Noir

A couple weeks ago I noticed that Veronica Mars was on Amazon Prime for free and that fateful day I decided to try it out.  I’d been interested in it since I saw some blurbs about how quickly the fan base had raised money for the movie on Kickstarter and all the records they had broken doing so. Any show that can motivate people to shell out the $2 million needed to greenlight the movie in 11 hours and almost $6 million in the 30 day time period has my attention.   (You know– the whole “Money talks” thing).

Here’s the kickstarter video they posted to get donations.  It’s very much worth the 5 minute watch:

Well I fell into a haze of Veronica Mars.  I rushed through all three seasons and was definitely left wanting more (which conveniently we will soon be getting).  This post isn’t a breakdown of every little thing that happened in the series, but more of a list of why you should try this series if you missed it the first time around.  I am going to excuse myself for missing it the first time because it came out in 2004.  In 2004 I was graduating college, trying to find a job and had this whole “social life” thing going on.  All those things have settled themselves down (definitely no social life going on now).  Now a week and a half after watching that first episode I’m jonesing for some more.  Here’s why:

Veronica Mars is shot with a very film noir feel.  It’s a great change from the soap opera feel of the dramas these days, or the grittiness of cop shows and it totally fits with the premise of the show.  See Veronica’s dad is a former sheriff that had been run out of office the year previous because of an embarrassment that the public saw as his fault.  Now he’s a private investigator that has his teenage daughter help him out from time to time.  There are a few reasons I like this set up.

First off because it makes sense.  Someone who had been in law enforcement becoming a P.I. is a logical jump and a struggling single dad business owner having his daughter run errands and answer phones is legit.  Unlike so many civilian crime solving shows (ex. Murder, She Wrote) murders and crimes don’t follow Veronica and her dad around, but they get hired to solve them. (I’m not knocking Murder, She Wrote– I love Angela Lansbury, I just question that there wasn’t really just a serial killer in Cabot Cove). I like a show so much more when I’m not questioning the entire basis that it is built on.

Secondly these characters are real people.  See above GIF.  Keith Mars is goofy and lovable, but is tough when he needs to be.  He’s not some male model that is going around broodily solving cases.  He’s real.  Her best friend Wallace, although very cute, is not oozing perfection, her boyfriends are cute, but not walking around shirtless every five minutes.  Now there are insanely rich people in the area which is unrealistic to me, but I’m going to chalk that up to it being based in California.  People are probably way richer in California than in Tennessee.  Well, at least my area of Tennessee.

Back to the real people thing though there aren’t any characters that are 100% good or 100% bad.  All characters have a large mix of good and bad and I have said before how those kind of characters are my favorite.  I empathized with many of the killers right along with the main characters.  Which those main characters weren’t very squeaky clean either.  Veronica and entourage don’t exactly make the best moral choices every time and they don’t usually get away with it either.

Thirdly (I guess) Veronica’s love interests are interesting.  She’s not some mooney eyed girl out to try to find her “soul mate”.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s a teenage girl so she does get a little lovesick every now and then, but she’s more of a fighter than a lover. My only questions about her love story is that there is  never any tension between her and Wallace.  None of her boyfriends question the inordinate amount of time she spends with him.  He’s a guy, she’s a girl.  Even if she’s not interested at all surely someone questioned this relationship even in passing.  The only other love story I wish they had touched on was the relationship between the leader of the local biker gang and Veronica.

The leader, “Weevil”, is always there to help Veronica out and she always has his back too.  I just wish that they had touched on that a little more. Of course I’m sure they meant to go on longer than 3 seasons so maybe that would have been touched on later.

Lastly (since I’m sticking to the “ly” thing) I wish that I had caught this series when it aired.  I’m not saying that me watching would have kept it from being canceled, but I would have felt like I did my part.  This series was well written, with witty dialog, convincing story lines and the actors do a great job.  I’m very excited that the movie is getting made and the trailer looks like it’s going to be not only a good companion to the series, but a great stand alone movie.  So go out, watch the series, and then go see the movie in March (although it’s mostly only being played in AMC theaters aka no theater near me so I may break my rule of watching illegally— if it was anywhere withing 3 hours away I would drive and pay a crazy sum of money to see in in theaters).   Enjoy.  You’ll thank me later.

Supernatural: First Born aka That time when Dean agreed to [SPOILER]

 

 

Ok I’m going to let you look at this photo of Lassie (aka Cain to all of you non Psych watching people— which is a whole ‘nother issue) to give all those people who don’t want to read spoilers to leave.  So enjoy some Carlton and then move along.

 

Gone?

All right let me get down to business.  Did Dean just agree to kill Sam? Cause I’m pretty sure he did.  So you have to have the Mark of Cain to use the blade? OK.  Cain got the Mark by agreeing to kill Able?  OK.  Dean just had the Mark transferred to him? Wait, WHAT?

Yeah I’m pretty sure the skipping over the fine print is going to come back to bite him.  Probably sooner rather than later.

So now that we’ve established that Dean is an idiot let’s move on. (Disclaimer: I love Dean. I just think Dean should think through things a little more).

Dean and Crowley got to team up again which, like I have said before , is when I really love Crowley.  Yes, he manipulates the boys into doing what he wants and he’s never really a good guy, but that doesn’t stop him from being an awesome guy.  Cause he is.  Of course Mark Sheppard rocks at most everything.  I enjoyed this teaming up a lot.  Dean was angry, Crowley was snarky, but the whole dynamic was overshadowed to me by the Mark of Cain story line.

Speaking of Cain, Timothy Omundson brought it.  I love him on Psych and was super excited to see him on the previews last week.  If you don’t watch Psych you should. Now.  It’s hilarious, fun, and yet still heartfelt.  I don’t think this is at all the last we will see of Cain and am curious if we will see Able at any point.  This is a character that I’m excited to see more of.  He’s not good and not bad, but has done both very good and very bad things.  Aka my favorite kind of character.

 

Sam and Castiel’s staycation was surprisingly great.  I love Sam and I love Castiel, but I can’t say that there are many scenes that just have the both of them that have stuck out. Of course Cas hasn’t had a human experience before this.  Speaking of human experiences the PB&J conversation was so perfect.  He misses being human for reasons that I don’t know that I would have predicted.  Also it’s great to see he still takes so many things literally.

I was really concerned with Sam was calling the shots this go around.  Cas usually goes along with what the boys say and logically it does make sense to extract the Grace no matter what they cost, but I wanted to kiss Cas when he called bs on Sam’s logic.  Shortcuts aren’t always the best way.  Cas might not have seen that before or at least I don’t think he would have realized why he had reservations about Sam’s plan.

I also feel that Sam needed to hear this from someone other than Dean.  He’s so used to hearing Dean manipulate him in an effort to protect that I don’t think that Sam can believe that any plan that is safe is the right way to go.  Sam needs a reason to go on again and I still don’t think he has one.

Well for that matter without Sam Dean doesn’t really have a reason to go on either and right now he thinks he’s lost Sam and Cas.

This season has been pretty amazing and now that I’ve typed all of this I realize that it really hasn’t hit me how bad off the boys are right now.  Sam has gotten rid of the parasite Angel, but is all alone with no will to live, Dean has a healthy brother now, but his brother is (rightfully) crazy pissed off at him, and Cas has a Grace again, but a Grace that seems to have altered him as well as a longing for some of those human experiences that he got used to.  I am loving this season, but I really want them to have some happiness head their way soon.

Supernatural “Road Trip” Is it all Dean’s fault?

These boys don’t know how to let go do they?  OK let me rephrase:  Dean doesn’t know how to let go of Sam.  Season 1 their dad sells his soul to save Dean and leaves Dean wracked with guilt. Then in season 2 Dean sells his soul to bring Sam back from the dead and then they spend a bunch of time trying to fix that.  Oh wait, then his whole “getting dragged to hell” thing caused even more issues.  Yet, while Dean was in Hell and during “Mystery Spot” were the only times that Sam really worked to get Dean back.  My theory? It hurts too much.  Or perhaps Sam has decided it hurts others too much.

As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Dean’s visit to hell caused the Apocalypse and Sam’s visit to Hell caused him to be a soulless jerk for over a year.  Now his Gadreel possession has cost Kevin Tran his life.  (From the view of the writers though, Kevin had to die in order to get Crowley back out there.  There is no way that Kevin would have agreed to letting Crowley go).  I will say that the desire to stay alive has cost the world and both the boys so much and if I was Sam I’d be questioning this as well. (Now don’t get me wrong– I love this show and don’t want the boys to die, but I can see why they would want to die).

OK getting back to this episode though Kevin is dead, Dean is left to deal with the guilt and clean up the mess.  Then of course make some more mess with a very manly display of anger.  The interactions between Dean and Cas this episode are pretty great though.  It’s nice to see them back together not (really) keeping secrets from each other and working towards a goal.

Cas supports Dean even though really Dean did screw a bunch of crap up. Usually we see Dean in this position.  After all Cas tried to become God and then screwed up even worse by trying to make amends for all the wrong he did.  Which made his comments to Dean mean that much more meaningful.

Dean didn’t really buy it, but it was at least enough to get him working towards a goal again. Which brings us back to Gadreel.

Part of me feels sorry for Gadreel.  He is getting played hardcore by Metatron. I can’t help but think that if Metatron hadn’t come along and fed him a bunch of crap that Gadreel really would have healed Sam and then moved along.  My hope?  That Gadreel will realize how full of it Metatron is and will take him out.  That would slightly make up for what he has done to Dean, Sam and Kevin.  Slightly. Just a tiny bit.

Surely he has to be second guessing his choices.  I predict that killing his friend will eat away at him and this will start him on the road to take down Metatron. After all who can forget this face?

Moving on.  I loooooove, love, love Crowley as the good bad guy and it looks like we are going to see even more of this.  On a side note I think this show does an amazing job with the image of the demon and angel possessions.  This moment was pretty cool to watch:

and also this line:

Look at Dean, trying so hard to make it right, yet still get his way.  I never had a doubt that as soon as Sam realized what was going on that he would be able to kick Gadreel out.  I wonder if now that he’s not possessed if he will be able to shed light on Gadreel’s real personality and if he will remember what Metatron did  and said to control him.  The boys break ups never lasts too long so I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

I will also be judging how Sam handles what Dean did and what Dean said when he left him.  Dean would have gotten angry, stormed off, and then gone and found Sam again and done whatever it took to make sure that he was OK.  Will Sam walk away and leave Dean to his depression?  They are obviously back together by the next episode, but I wonder who initiated that contact.

Now to address the Crowley/Abaddon dynamic. All I will say is Crowley will crush her and I will enjoy watching every second.  Anyone that says otherwise is selling something.

I also enjoyed this graphic:

This season is such a huge improvement over season 8 that it makes me super excited to see what is coming next and I can’t even express how excited I am to see that Tahmoh Penikett looks like he is going to be back for a while.  I loved him on Dollhouse (and Smallville) and am excited to see what he brings to Gadreel.  I know we are going to be introduced to Cain (as in Cain and Able) this season AND they are planning a spin off around episode 20 (which makes me half excited and half apprehensive).  I think we are going to keep seeing this season get better and things are always better when Crowley is helping them out.

Is it Tuesday yet?

So, Huffington Post, You’ve Decided to Turn on Jennifer Lawrence too

I’ve seen the Huffington Post article that’s been circulating condemning Jennifer Lawrence’s statements about her body. I’ve had friends post it and understand (kinda) where they are coming from.  Yes Jennifer Lawrence is thin.  She’s in good shape and I would looooove to have her body.  Here’s the thing though: She is having to justify her body just like Melissa McCarthy does.  (I also wonder how Melissa McCarthy feels about being dragged into this)  Do I think that Jennifer Lawrence should ever have to address her weight?

Look at this.  No she shouldn’t.  But seriously how many different ways can you answer the, “Does it bother you that you are fatter than everyone else” question?  First off, I understand how she could get snippy after being asked this for the 100th time.  Secondly, I feel like I understand where she’s coming from.  She’s young and most young people have fragile body images no matter how tough they appear.  Also when I was her age I had a similar body type and had crazy doubts about my self image.  I thought I could stand to lose a few pounds and know that I inadvertently said hurtful things to others.  Not because I thought they were fat, but because I thought I was the same shape that they were so when they said they were trying to lose weight I said things like, “yeah I would like to, too.”

Two kids and 30 pounds later I understand that 117 pounds was NOT fat.  But here’s the other thing: If I had been interviewed as much as Jennifer Lawrence is and was continually compared to girls like this:

I probably would have said much worse things than tell the interviewer that I wanted some french fries and that I didn’t want to go hungry to make them happy.  I’m impressed that she can keep her cool at all, much less her sanity.

Here’s the most important thing: fat and skinny are all relative.  At 117 pounds I wanted to lose weight.  I wore a *gasp* size 6 and in comparison to other girls fitting into size 0 pants I felt obese.  Now after giving birth twice (those good birthin’ hips finally came in handy) I know I will never see below 130 again and will have to starve myself to get to 140, but say I’d been 200 pounds and had lost 50. Everyone would tell me how fantastic I look.  So why don’t I just accept I’m fantastic as I am now.  I say this to the person that is 200 pounds or 300 pounds.  Love yourself and accept your body.

Do I still plan on going to the gym tomorrow?  Yes.  But that is for me. Not for the other mom’s that will be there while their kids are at school or for the other women that I’ll see through work, but to help me feel healthy.  So how about we back off Jennifer Lawrence and Melissa McCarthy and let them be the people they want to be.

I have to respect someone who stands up to the people giving her the role of a lifetime by saying this:

Harry Potter Baby Shower

What other kind of baby shower would you have?? (OK maybe I’d have taken a Narnia, Supernatural, or any of my other obsessions, but Harry Potter is very high on my list).  A group of us get together every few months and play Harry Potter Scene it, eat Harry Potter food and generally nerd out.  So now that one of us was pregnant it’s natural that we should have a Harry Potter baby shower.  Right?  To be fair, this lovely lady’s Mother in Law organized everything.  So I can’t take credit for anything, but I’m going to share the awesomeness in this post.

She got a ton of Harry Potter baby gifts, we had Harry Potter BINGO, and Butterbeer milkshakes.  Yeah it was pretty awesome all around.  Flip through the slideshow to see all the cool stuff.  And please– if you know a pregnant Harry Potter fan– do this.  My baby showers were very bland in comparison.

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One last thing to leave you with– Holly’s MiL called in the cake order and the person at Food City definitely wasn’t a Harry Potter fan– or someone who knows how to spell the name Russell, because here’s what they made her first:

Needless to say they called for a replacement and got one that actually said Muggle and Russell.

Wade’s cake

Much better.