A few months ago, I wrote an editorial post that listed several reasons that Supernatural is a terrible TV show. While my assessments of the faults of the show were correct, they were not complete. Since that post still seems to get viewed daily (which we mentioned in Episode 5 of Random Thought Generator), I am updating my list. So here is the new and improved set of reasons that Supernatural is a terrible TV show (and why I will continue to watch it).
Le Geeky Soap Opera
1.) Every adversary that Sam and Dean Winchester face is supposedly bigger and badder than the last adversary, but actually seems easier to kill. This whole show started with John Winchester’s lifelong search for Azriel, the yellow-eyed demon who killed his wife. John has been praised over and over (even posthumously) as being one of the best hunters who ever lived, and yet it took him a lifetime to find this demon and kill it. These days, his sons discover big baddies and polish them off in the course of twenty episodes or so with relatively little effort. Continue reading →
This review will be discussing plot points which may be considered spoilers. Consider yourselves warned.
So that was… quiet. The Game of Thrones season premiere was not at all what I was expecting, but it gently immersed us fans back into the world of Westeros and the Free Lands.
In case you had forgotten how much you hated Tywin Lannister, I would like to have a moment of silence for Ice, the great sword wielded by Starks time immemorial, that was taken from and used to behead Lord Eddard Stark and has now been melted down into two Valyrian steel swords. I know that Jaime has not yet become a truly good man, but there is a little part of me that is still bitter over Ned’s death, and that part is angry. There is only one place that Tywin Lannister could have gotten enough Valyrian steel for two swords. Jaime would have known that. But at the same time I understand that there was no way for what Tywin had done to be undone.
Not my usual, but nice.
Oberyn Martell… looks nothing like I pictured, but he plays his role so well that I can already feel my imagined Oberyn turning into the TV show Oberyn. He’s very suave. Also, the Dornish love wine and sex. Seriously. Tyrion should really consider moving to Dorne. Continue reading →
This review will be discussing plot points which may be considered spoilers. Consider yourselves warned.
This is not a review of the first episode of Sherlock season three, “The Empty Hearse.” No, the season premier has left me with the warm glow of satisfaction that usually accompanies post-coital cuddling. I’m reduced to a mere reaction, rather than review.
So… Sherlock Holmes isn’t dead. We already knew that, since British television apparently has not fallen into the silly trap of creating a season’s end cliffhanger for no reason other than to frustrate fans. It was still better to have the mini webisode that appeared several weeks ago, “Many Happy Returns,” which showed us Anderson—now fired as coroner and obsessed with clues of Sherlock’s whereabouts—Lestrade, and Watson all receiving premonitions and oracles that seemed to tell them that Sherlock was indeed alive.
It is well known among my friends that I dislike most female characters. I usually find them weak, catty, and foolish. As a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I knew that Watson would eventually find his future wife and I fully expected to hate her. Instead, Sherlock’s creators have given us Mary, played by Amanda Abbington (Martin Freeman’s wife IRL). I enjoyed her performance and I already adore her depiction of Watson’s significant other.
As for Sherlock… I cried when he met Watson. I cried when he met Lestrade. I laughed when he met Mrs. Hudson. I can be incredibly critical of television shows that have poorly developed characters and inconsistent plotlines, but these characters get to me in a way that I have rarely felt. I could feel the pain that both Watson and Mrs. Hudson went through, and I could feel how it simultaneously pulled them together and pushed them apart.
Molly is now engaged to someone who looks just like Sherlock. I don’t want to like her character or be sympathetic to her plight, but I cannot help but feel sorry for her. The look on her face when she tells Lestrade that she has moved on from Sherlock pleads for someone to believe her words so that she can believe them herself.
I appreciate the use of romantic tropes as metaphors for the relationship between Sherlock and John. Again I am surprised at how much this amuses me, since I would normally find this humor pedantic and trite.
I loved the pat exchange between Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes regarding the Icelandic hat and the profile of its owner. It really highlighted for the first time in this show how much alike they are in thought process and intellect. They are very much brothers. At the same time, their parents… what to say about their parents? I honestly did not think we would ever see the elder Mr. and Mrs. Holmes. To have them appear and seem so normal was rather disconcerting.
I must say that the situation in which John Watson is thrown into on Guy Fawkes day was confusing. The motorcycle sequence as Sherlock and Mary rush to his rescue was wildly unbelievable and that entire section of plot left me confused. However, I am learning to have faith in the show’s creators that all of this will make sense in time. Instead of a pathetic device to move the plot forward, it will most likely turn out to be incredibly important to the rest of the season’s storyline.
Finally, the beautiful and convincing act that Sherlock uses to finally get John to admit to missing him and forgiving him was disturbingly realistic. I honestly did believe Sherlock (foolish I know) when he said that he had no idea how to disarm the bomb. My feeble brain thought that John would come up with a way to save Parliament in a shocking plot twist. Apparently John Watson and I are equally gullible.
This has been a recounting of my reactions to the fantastic first episode of Sherlock just as I felt them. Post your own reactions in the comments! (Please avoid spoiling episodes two and three if you’ve already seen them.) Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rewatch it and make sure there isn’t anything I missed!
Last night’s premier of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was pretty much exactly both what I expected and hoped. All in all it was not mind-blowing, but it was solid. I’m hoping that this means the series will be able to sustain this level of writing, acting, etc.
SPOILER ALERT: A brief recap of last night’s episode follows.
First, in the world’s worst kept secret, Agent Coulson, who was killed right before the Avenger’s final battle scene, is apparently alive. I say apparently, because there is clearly something that the viewers have not been told yet. We know that there is something that the viewers have not yet been told, because Agent Hill (How I Met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders, reprising her role from the Avengers movie) comments to Agent Ward that there is something Coulson doesn’t know about himself. My theory? Agent Coulson is actually a life model decoy–a pretty standard ploy by Nick Fury.
Clearly, viewers would have been too dull to notice the way Coulson repeated the exact same description of his recuperation vacation to Tahiti several times during the episode—always a sure sign that a character has been brainwashed. “It was magical.”
It was fantastic, as a Joss Whedon fan, to see J. August Richards again. Charles Gunn was one of my very favorite characters from Angel. An appearance by Ron Glass (Shepherd Book, from Firefly and Serenity) was also a pleasure.
The storyline itself felt very much like a “Joss production.” S.H.I.E.L.D. is assembling a team of crack experts to find out what is going on with a rebellious hacker-type group calling itself Rising Tide. As near as I could tell, this seems to be mostly consisting of one single girl named Skye. She has located a thirty-something male who is showing superhuman abilities, but without any official superhero moniker—which is clearly against regulations.
After she is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and exchanges some witty banter with the interrogating agents, she realizes they are all on the same side and they work together to save the poor, lost superhero—who isn’t so super after all.
The show wraps up its plot nicely (Thank you, Joss, for making a more episodic series than a serial!) with a ride to the airport in Coulson’s flying car.
Good to see old friends again!
Although some are criticizing the pilot as a good episode, not a great one, I think that I would rather have good writing throughout the season, rather than a shock-and-awe pilot, with mediocre filling for the next few weeks.
This is not a review of the first episode of Sherlock season three, “The Empty Hearse.” No, the season premier has left me with the warm glow of satisfaction that usually accompanies post-coital cuddling. I’m reduced to a mere reaction, rather than review.
Therefore I Geek 