Making the world a better place, one show at a time.

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I guess you would like to know a little bit about the person making all these proclamations upon good taste and horrid characters. I'm Andrea and when I was 15 I fell in love. An hour after meeting "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" I was forever altered in the way only love can, and I never questioned for one minute afterwards that television offered me an amazing chance to experience lives and moments that I could never imagine. So now, when I'm not getting distracted by my real life, I write about TV. I also read, am finishing a Master's degree in English Literature, travel, am attempting to learn vegan cooking, am the 5th of 6 children, and drive my roommate nuts by constantly cleaning our already clean apartment. Now that we're old friends, time for you to take my opinions as the be all and end all.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Supernatural: (Since I Have Only Said One Thing About) The Road So Far…

It is a perplexing situation to be in when you do not understand the thing you love. And I have been in that situation for months. I haven’t missed an episode of this season, but I have just been so confused that I haven’t known what to say. But since I moved away from the lovely viewing party that I partook of every week (it will never be the same without you Jennie and Emily), I guess I am on my own again to figure it out week to week.

So, the big problem everyone seems to be having this season is: angels. Okay, even if it does happen to be a logical progression, the addition of Castiel and Co. has thrown a wrench into things for loyal viewers. Since we all approach things from more or less our own perspective, I will say upfront that I am Catholic, and believe in the existence of angels, and I have some problems with the way the show is addressing them, but not as many as other people. This whole idea that they’re “dicks” is what the show is going for, but it is hard for me to see it that way. Since angels are higher beings, which are neither bodied nor gendered, who have experience of Heaven, obviously their priorities would be a little bit bigger than mortal conception, and their interpersonal communication skills would be lacking. I have always found the whole cubby-babies-on-white-clouds thing a crock, and if you watch “Houses of the Holy” the show describes angels in a very biblically accurate way, so really I am not bothered by portraying the angels as remote, mysterious, and with serious superiority complexes. (I would appreciate if they would invest in some chap stick, but of course that is part of what is going on.)

I do have a serious problem with this whole Anna thing. And not just because Dean did her in the car that should never have been soiled in such a way, and that still makes me angry on behalf of the Impala. Her whole storyline is ludicrous. Beyond the fact that I have no desire to watch Nicholas Cage movies in the first place, I have absolutely no desire to see knock-off plots on a show that is so much better than that. Furthermore, it indicates that while the writers were willing to do a bit of research into angels, they are unwilling to pick a tradition and stick with it. Consistency is key, and when you are just picking and choosing bits and pieces from the Cliff Notes version of tradition and theory without any perceivable rhyme or reason the viewer ends up frustrated and confused.

Oh, and why on earth does everyone keep Castiel “Caz?” It sucks.

Despite these disagreements on my part, I feel better and better about this season. Yes, Dean is lost and uncommitted, too mess up with personal guilt and existential confusion to be the funny little badass that he is deep in his heart, but I love watching characters grow and develop, and it would be utterly ridiculous if Dean came back from hell the same person as when he died. While I keep yelling at the TV for Dean to make a wisecrack and then kill the shite out of everything, I am intrigued to watch someone so resistant to believing in good being faced with evidence of their place in a larger cosmos.

The bigger problem is Sam and his little demon blood addiction. I haven’t been able to see him without yelling at him for being all in cahoots with Ruby and acting like he is so much better than his brother. It took me until about today to figure out why Sam is being such an ass-hat this season. Of course, it is simple in the end. If you lost someone you loved more than anyone else, but then you got to have him or her back, what wouldn’t you do to keep them? Would you bother to worry about the bounds of nature or morality if it meant that you could protect them (and yourself) from having to be taken again, and as a bonus got to punish the thing that took them in the first place? While it breaks my heart to see Sam turning into John, focused so much on what he perceives as his mission that all the compassion inside of him dies, I don’t know that I can really blame him, considering that he was never taught any other outlet for grief. Dean is alive, but Sam is still grieving his death. And that would leave anyone a little, shall we say, confused about proper behavior.

It has been hard for me to remember when all turned around that this is one of the best put-together shows on the air. The stark lighting, the bleached, dry color palate, and the noticeable lack of music (which I dearly miss) all work to compliment the bleak and scoured lives Sam and Dean are living right now.

I guess bleak really is the word for this season so far, and I don’t hold out much hope that it is going to get any less so as we come to the season finale.

The TV Girl

My Weekend Fling: Hex, Season 1 (2)

In the perfect storm of my life falling apart and my sucker-hood for the fantasy/sci-fi genera, I watched THE WORST SHOW EVER! No joke, terrible.

Hex is supposedly about Cassie, a student at a private boarding school, who is a descendent of a woman who through voodoo gave bodily form to the fallen angel Azezeal. Apparently, his body is wearing out (or something) so he needs to sacrifice Cassie’s best friend Thelma, because her love for Cassie will make the sacrifice pure. Thelma returns as a ghost who can touch everything but people, and is visible to Cassie and the demons. Okay, then Cassie becomes possessed by having sex with the guy she is into (who Azezeal has possessed in a very Wrath of Kahn way) and then she does it with his demon-ness, but then she claims that she is actually in love with Azezeal. Oh yeah, and then she gets pregnant, which she tries to abort, but the doctor is convinced by the baby-daddy to save the magically super-growing baby (hi 4th book of Twilight, how ya doing?). Ella, an immortal witch/demon hunter, shows up to kill the baby, but accidentally kills Cassie. Thelma sticks around to help Ella find the baby, but Azezeal and his demon buddy drive Ella crazy with memories of her torture and trial for witchcraft hundreds of years before.

I am not making this up. I am sad for the person who did.

First of all, those who are inclined to say that British TV is always superior to American are forever proven wrong by the existence of this show. There are many many British shows that are fantastic, but this isn’t one of them.

Second of all, is Azezeal the only name aside from Lucifer that anyone knows for one of the fallen angels? This dude is freaking everywhere; in a comic my friend Emily told me about, in Supernatural (we found out in S3 that that is the name of the “Yellow Eyed Demon” who made Sam all bad-blooded), and now he is here. He is one tramp-tastic demon. At least on SPN his main goal wasn’t to get laid.

Thirdly, and less nit-picky ranting, these were some of the most wooden and unrealistic characters I have ever seen. At no point when all of these creepy and ridiculous things are happening does anyone say anything remotely natural in reaction. No tears, no concern, no even “this is kind of strange.” Everyone just kind of goes along, talking to ghosts, doing demons, having nightmares. Plus, these characters were not just fake and slim they were boring. There was nothing interesting about them. I think the show creators where trying to go for a moody/brooding vibe, but they failed. I can accept preposterous storylines, even enjoy them very much, as long the characters are layered and organic. Again, massive fail.

Fourth, the pacing and tone were all over the map. In each episode huge “mysteries” were revealed, but nothing ever seemed to happen. So much time was wasted on mist filled shots of the school and the grounds, but there seemed to be no time to actually explain what was happening. Teen dating angst were somehow equivalent to world-ending offspring. You had no idea what you were going to get one scene to another.

Just terrible. Not the campy kind of fun terrible, just the time wasting kind.

I will say one good thing for this show. The theme/opening credit song was “#1 Crush” by Garbage, which I adore. It was such a moment of hope when the first episode started, but it turned out to be the only redeeming moment of each episode.

AVOID THIS SHOW AT ALL COSTS.

The TV Girl