Supernatural (8.5): I'm Quite Satisfied, Want All the Details?

I’ll stop, I’ll stop, I promise. I don’t think I can maintain my tongue-in cheek sexual innuendo/double-entendre/whatever when I spent an hour laughing hysterically and then sobbing uncontrollably. My reaction might have been extreme; I spent nine hours at work and then five hours with a toddler. That could not have been the best frame of mind to watch Dean die over, and over, and over, and over again.

Before I get down into the nitty-gritty of last night’s episode, I want to say something about a conversation I had last week with my friend Jennie. The best way I can describe my relationship with Jennie is that when it comes to TV we are kind of like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (or maybe Butch Cassidy and Mozart): we travel the TV-land together out for all we can get and jumping off cliffs. Since we live in separate states now, we have to discuss shows over the phone after we have viewed them in our respective time zones. Discussing last week’s episode she passed on a phrase to me that she received from her friend Emily: “anvilicious” which functions roughly as an antonym to “subtle.” I grant that Dean’s confrontation with himself wasn’t subtle, but subtle wasn’t working. Hell, direct wasn’t working. The kid needed to be hit by an anvil. I understand Jennie’s point, even if I disagree. Similarly, last night’s episode struck me as slightly un-even. I can’t quite put my finger on it, other than the fact that the second half of the episode needed more time, but it wouldn’t have work to make it two separate but continuous episodes, because the first half would have become frustrating if drawn out too long. I think this episode was wonderful, but there has been something just vaguely off about the last couple episodes. I read an interview with the show’s creator on "Watch With Kristin" in which he said that the final four episodes (of which last night’s was the third) that they completed before the (now resolved) Writer’s Strike had to be adjusted from his original plan for the season so it could have some sort of resolution. The preview for this resolution of sorts (because I’m fairly sure there will be more new episodes in April) almost made me wet my pants.

All of this feels like snobbery in light of just how fantastic this show is, and the huge question we all need to ask ourselves after last night’s episode: who really is the more fraked-up brother; Sam or Dean? They both qualify for a whole new sliding scale of damaged, but it’s kind of hilarious that all of the demons, evil gods, creatures, and so on have an opinion on this issue. Dean sold his soul to bring Sam back to life, which is not the most mentally balanced thing to do. On the other hand, we now know what Sam is without Dean, a glimpse of the life he will lead after his brother’s death. Post-Dean Sam makes their father look like a slack-jawed yokel. Apparently, Ruby has nothing to worry about when it comes to “preparing” Sam for his solo-fight. Speaking of Ruby, I am asking as politely as I can; will all the evil things please stop trying to teach Sam lessons? While overall I love the way that Sam and Dean learn from their interactions with that which they hunt, and the show is spot on that the way evil works is by bending and truncating the truth, but little Sam is getting hammered. Now, the Trickster (and I am so happy they brought this character back, one because he’s awesome, and two because my friend Calah and I were talking about that episode from Season Two just the other day) is not wrong that Sam and Dean have a mutually unhealthy pattern of sacrificing for each other, but when he told Sam that no good comes from any of it, he lied. The good is just for neither of them; the good is for those they save. The ancient Greek culture understood that he who protects the city cannot be an integrated part of it until he lays down his arms, and the same is true for Sam and Dean. Luckily, they never listen to the evil; Sam asks for Dean back knowing he will loose him again and knowing what is future will be like. Time and again this show reiterates that love is a vulnerability, but never a weakness.

As serious as all these concerns are, I have not laughed so hard in a while as I did for the first thirty minutes. Is there a more hysterical torture than to wake up to Asia’s “Heat of the Moment” over a hundred times? I would have just killed myself. Sam displacing all his anger onto the bottle of hot sauce he had to keep catching could not have been more priceless. Bugs Bunny would be so proud that Dean was crushed by a falling piano. Dean attempting to calm down the bound and gagged mystery-spot owner while Sam tore apart his place of business with an ax is something we have never seen before and will most likely never see again on Supernatural. The random, but carefully calculated, hilarity reached almost to Arrested Development level. I would give anything to see the outtakes from filming this episode.

The big bad showdown is in store for us next week. Not since Buffy fought the Mayor have I been so excited about confronting evil.

Final Thought: Does it make me a sick person that I think the trunk of their car is really sexy? I am not in any way shape or form some kind of gun aficionado and I have trouble with my own kitchen knives, but I can’t help myself, I start to drool every time they open the back of that car. Maybe this is something I should talk about with a therapist.

The TV Girl

Random Thought: Valentine's Day

Toady is one of those days. Even if you don't want to talk about it, you end up talking about it: expressing your joy that your in a mutually affectionate relationship, wailing your angst that your heartbroken and alone, venting your annoyance that as a single person you are required to feel lonely or anti-lonely, or just writing down that you would rather not talk about it at all.

I am unattached romantically to another human being. That doesn't mean that I do not celebrate Valentine's Day. I am doing the most loving thing I can think of: babysitting my friends' two-year old so that they can go on a lovely romantic date. But after my heroically selfless act of giving to others, I am going to do something loving for myself. I'm going home to curl up in bed with two of my favorite men: Jensen and Jared. The gift of love the universe gives me is a new episode of Supernatural. Check in tomorrow; I'll tell you how my threesome goes.

Happy Valentine's Day

The TV Girl

Pushing Daisies: KP Converted Me.

I trust my friends a great deal. I am willing to take advice. These two statements may be shocking to those of you who know my in person. To those who do not, you now have more information than you did three sentences ago. KP's review properly oriented me to give Pushing Daisies another try, and I can not thank her more. I devoured the episodes on ABC.com that are available. I smiled the whole day. I am inspired by the wardrobe to wear more dresses, but ones that provide more appropriate coverage.

There is one element of the show that I find irritating. All of the characters, but Chuck more than anyone, interrupt each others' sentences and conversations. I did a little fist-pump-in-the-air when Emerson would call Chuck out on her very, very rude habit. I understand that it is part of a metaphor: love is an interruption to our lives. While I can appreciate the purpose, I cannot excuse Ned for looking on so lovingly while she continuously displays such bratty behavior. Loving someone does not mean you allow them to be disrespectful and indifferent of the human beings in proximity. I find Chuck's interrupting even more irksome since she is portrayed as a loving person who reaches out to others.

Other than this very minor quibble, which now that I have written down I will get over, I am utterly enamored.

The TV Girl

One Tree Hill (4.5): Zac Efron Bangs, Attack!

Oh. My. Side-Swept. Goodness. When the featured band, which after the hideously placed “this is who we are in a symbiotic endorsement relationship with this week” (hence the drop on my rating scale) I will not name, took the stage on One Tree Hill last night I was transfixed. Not by their amazing emotive skills. By their hair. Only unattended babies necks’ should lob around that much. When you cannot see the strings of the guitar you are un-impressing your audience with, get a hair cut or buy a head-band.

I’m better now.

Little Brooke Davis, you are the cutest thing. The acting on this show is, shall we say, limited, but Sophia Bush gets major kudos for staying on her appointed message of "overly-confident-girl." Her take-no-prisoners pursuit of Owen the Bartender should have been cloying, but she was so committed to it that it was adorable. His respectful rejection of her was nice; he reassured her she won’t turn into her mother, the evil cougar, but he notified her of the age inappropriateness of their coupling. The world is always better when good bartenders are around.

Evil Nannies, on the other hand, only destroy. Haley, wake up and smell the skank. Foiling K-Fed’s plot for world domination through uninspired music is a noble cause, but there is an alcoholic home-wrecker taking care of your son. No more ironic one-liners; take control of your house.

It looks like another couple is making their way towards martial dis-function. I knew that the show muckity-mucks had plans for a wedding in the season finale, and considering where the show is at, Lucas and Lindsay was the only logical possibility, but this is OTH; when did logic enter in? I am going to ask a question I have asked myself about my wonderful Battlestar Galactica: what kind of woman marries a man she knows is in love with another woman? Life and love aren’t complicated and difficult enough you have to set yourself up for failure consciously? (In BSG-land, I am talking about Dualla, whom I hate so, so, so much I have no pity for her pain. Go Lee and Kara!) I cannot imagine having so little self-worth as to accept such a proposal, but that is just me. On TV women do it all the time. The matching leaden-eyed delivery of their news to Peyton does not indicate future bliss.

And finally, just as a female, I hope precious Millie gets her revenge on Mouth.

The Strike is officially over. I bring this up, not only because it is good information to have, but also a few days ago KP commented that she could not wait for the end of WS 2007/8 so that she could stop watching One Tree Hill. I kind of chuckled to myself. There will not be new episodes of any returning favorites until at least April, some will not be back until Fall 2008 (for an updated schedule: Watch With Kristin, E!Online). What we have is what we get: the last eps of a few good shows, OTH, and “reality” in all its fake glory. Lent is over but it is going to be a long Good Friday.

The TV Girl

Prison Break (7): Who Falls For the Sprained Ankle Trick?

Sara is dead. Not just dead, Gwyneth Paltrow at the end of Se7en dead (which makes her another inappropriate use of Gwyn’s decapitation in Fall 2007, the other was a reference by Dean in the season premiere of Supernatural). I simply do not have the time to do all that I want to do, and so I had to cheat on this one: I read the (immensely detailed) plot summaries on Fox.com. (Prison Break is a very complicated show, so I had some difficulty following even the plot summary without being able to put a face with a name.) Sara’s head was severed from her body and mailed to Linc. I know that I am repeating myself, but I think I am in shock. I cannot believe this has happened. I do not know that I will be able to watch this event when Season Three comes out on DVD. Sara. I don’t know if I can watch Michael live without Sara. I could tell in the episodes that I saw without (confirmation of) this information that Michael was different, but I kind of thought “Panamanian prison, complete psychopaths, family and beloved in danger, I would be different too.” But Sara is dead, so Michael is more than different. I will try to make an analogy to explain the extent of devastation I am talking about. On The Office, in the Season Two finale, when Jim and Pam have their first official kiss, it is a moment when you clasp your hands to your mouth as a huge smile breaks across your face; you have just witnessed a fairy-tale moment in a paper supply office. In Season One, when Michael kisses Sara for the first time you almost pass out because you stop breathing; it is one of the most tragic and beautiful moments. Besides the fact that few of us are (or will be) doctors in prison hospitals and the government is not orchestrating plots to frame slightly disreputable and ruggedly handsome men for crimes that may or may not have happened, that kiss is the kind of kiss any woman would be happy to have and will most likely never get. Now, a little more than a season later, (which translates to about 6 months on the show) Sara is dead, and with her Michael’s hope.

Monday night’s episode was actually very good. I gave a shout of triumphant justice when Michael left T-Bag and Bellick out in the lights to take the fall. Couldn’t have happened to nicer guys. Theses kinds of double-crosses and unexpected turns are what this show excels at. Michael knows both men well enough to know that their serpentine natures will make them want to go first, so he works it into his plan and lets them think they have convinced him to do something that was not in his plan. But now T-Bag has identified Sucre as an accomplice, and a week ago I would have pacified myself by saying that there is no way Sucre would be killed off, but I have no such assurances anymore. I have a feeling that getting Sucre out of Sona is the set-up of Season Four. No matter the outcome, I know that once he finds out Sucre is in danger Michael will do whatever he can to save him.

The season finale is next Monday. Are we going to find out who Whistler really is, and who is really working for whom? He did get away after all, by faking an ankle sprain.

The TV Girl