Extra! Extra!

Cheers to Supernatural!

Early word is coming from The Futon Critic that  Supernatural will begin airing weekdays on TNT, starting January 4, 2010.  They’ll start from the beginning, and in addition, will air a 10 hour marathon on February 15, 2010.  There’s no official word from TNT yet, but go ahead and pencil it on your calendars just in case.  I know this is exactly how I got into Highlander: The Series; do you think it will bring more new viewers to Supernatural?  Will you be watching daily and twice on Thursdays?

Let’s Get This Party Started

Well, we’re not quite there yet, but in the early months of 2010, Supernatural will reach a milestone not every show sees—its 100th episode.  In recognition of that achievement, WinchesterBros.com has organinzed a charity fundraiser.  It’s a party, there are prizes(books, pictures, merchandise!), and all funds raised benefit A Dog’s Life Rescue, a group dedicated to helping stray animals in need in the Los Angeles area.  It’s near and dear to one Jared Padalecki, who has been known to help with rescues from time to time.  The fundraising is going on now, and will continue through the airing of the landmark episode in April, so there’s plenty of time! 

(Don’t forget there are hundreds of animal shelters across the country and across the world, so if helping animals in LA seems a million miles away, look around for your local shelter.  Adopt, donate supplies, volunteer your services at the shelter itself, or as a foster home.  It will all be appreciated.)

 Another way to celebrate:  send a congratulatory card or postcard to the cast and crew!  They’ve been collecting these and posting them in the production offices since Season Two, and love to see them come in.  Send to:

 Supernatural Cast & Crew c\o
Supernatural Films Inc.
8085 Glenwood Drive
Burnaby, B.C.
V3N 5C8
Canada

It’s an End of the World, Day of Doom type of thing

The Winchesters--poster boys for Digging In Your Heels and Telling the World to Cram It

 

So, the Apocalypse. Debate has raged around the Internet about how exactly Kripke and Co. will not only present the end of the world, but what the epic final battle that seems inevitable will mean for Dean and Sam. Will the guys stick to their guns and refuse to be vessels for Michael and Lucifer? What would happen to the world as a consequence? Will they be swayed somehow into playing into their “destiny”? Not to mention, how would it all translate into a sixth season if the show is renewed? It does make a fan ponder. Naturally, I have a few thoughts bouncing around my head. 

Note: My possibly crackpot theories are not based on any inside information. I do not know, or have ever interviewed, any of the cast, crew, creators, or any of their extended family, friends, or acquaintances. All my random musings are a result of viewing the season thus far, and hints dropped by Eric Kripke and Sera Gamble in interviews. If any of my wild hares turns out to be right, it’ll be pure spooky coincidence, and I will probably break my jaw when it hits the floor. Also, consider yourself forewarned if you’ve avoided these interviews because of possible spoilers. One or two may be referenced herein.

Supernatural: Abandon All Hope…

The "Give 'Em Hell" Crew

…Or, Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse… 

The Apocalypse roller coaster ratchets back up to speed this week, and it’s a hell of a ride. There’s hope, family, suspense, battle, bravery, love, loss, tragedy, a couple frightening truths, and one really, really big explosion. Things kick off with a crossroads deal of grand proportions, taking place beneath a giant cloverleaf intersection. A Mr. Pendleton, an aging, homophobic, desperate bank owner, is there to strike a deal that will save his failing bank, and having second thoughts when the female crossroads demon he first talked to is replaced by a smooth-talking British guy. This is Crowley, apparently the Head of the Crossroads Demon Department, and the right-hand man of Lilith that Becky mentioned last week. Witness to the reluctant kiss that seals the deal is Castiel, who’s on the phone with Dean and awkwardly attempting human slang such as “the deal is going down.” When Crowley strides away casually to vanish behind a pillar, Castiel intently follows, also vanishing in the same spot. He’s able to follow the demon home, but the house is covered in the same Enochian angel-proofing symbols Alistair used last season when he was on his reaper-hunting spree. In other words, Castiel can go no further and must wait for the Winchesters.

Supernatural: The Real Ghostbusters

Chuck, I hate to break this to you, but...you're short.

This one surprised me. A Supernatural(the book) convention on Supernatural(the TV show) sounded like a really bad idea, and a good way to either make fun of the show’s fans or completely destroy the line between the show and its fans. But, much to my relief, it was done just about right. It gave us a convention that bears little resemblance to the actual Supernatural conventions–keeping the real fans and imaginary fans separate and distinct, thus not taking me out of Kripke’s TV universe, while using the show’s fans as an inspiration for the book’s fans. To top it all off, while the fans were gently ribbed, they were portrayed respectfully and also got to be the heroes of the piece. That had to be a fine line to walk. And while my initial reaction was a rather blah one, it’s growing on me. The curse of following an episode I loved, I suppose.

Be Prepared–A Heads Up From Misha

For those attending the Salute to Supernatural in Chicago next weekend, please be advised that Misha Collins has just posted on Twitter the following requirements for attending his panel:

•   I’m going to a conference in Chicago on how to build sustainable crime syndicates. My lecture “Extorting in the Dot-com Era” is on Saturday.
•   If u plan 2 attend-please know: I have compromising photos of u-which I’ll post online unless u bring a family heirloom wrapped in newsprint
•  Yes, 4 those of u who are wondering, cats & children do count as family heirlooms-hair clippings in ziplock bags, on the other hand, do not.

It seems his demands are escalating; those attending conventions in LA, Rome, and Vancouver next year might want to track down property deeds, promissory notes, and calculate estimates for your next fifteen years’ harvests.

Seriously, read it yourself.

Supernatural: Changing Channels

We'll do it our way, yes our way, make all our dreams come true....

I’m going to go ahead and apologize in advance for a few things about this recap. 1: The length. I knew the minute this episode was over that I would be writing a horrendously long piece about it. 2: Possible overuse of the word “awesome.” I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, and use my thesaurus. Also, if you didn’t like this episode for whatever reason, I’m probably going to annoy you with my unadulterated glee, because I enjoyed the hell out of it. On with the show.

Or, on with the shows, actually, as this week’s fare finds Sam and Dean jumping from TV show to TV show, courtesy of my personal favorite Winchester adversary, the Trickster.

Supernatural: The Curious Case of Dean Winchester

Preternaturally aged, venereally distressed, and differently abled. Hey, nobody's perfect.

Episode Seven of Season Five brings us a few new and/or rare things. Dean at age fifty-five. Sam smiling. Bobby angst. And more codgerliness than you can shake a stick at, you young whippersnappers. Yes, codgerliness is a word. Because I say so. I don’t care what that high-falutin’ spell check tries to point out with its squiggly red lines. Damn spell check can just get the hell off my lawn! I’ve got things to do, you know, can’t spend all my time educating computer programs that don’t have a lick of common sense. Now, where was I? Oh yes, this week’s person in peril whipping right through his perilous situation in no time at all. He’s a twenty-five year old suit who dashes into his house one evening, straight past his oblivious wife, to run upstairs and close himself in the bathroom. Through a nifty bit of morphing technology, we watch as he rapidly ages—his hair thins, his skin wrinkles and sags, his eyes cloud over with cataracts. Suddenly, he looks about eighty. Frightened out of his wits, and apparently in the midst of a massive heart attack, he clutches at his left side as he falls against a cabinet and drops to the tile dead. Needless to say, when his wife comes up to investigate the noise, she reacts in dramatic fashion.

V–They’re Baaaaack

I have to admit, I never watched the original series back in the eighties.  But I was aware of it; could hardly help it.  In the days before a gazillion cable channels, it got a lot of attention.  But my basic impression then was that the aliens all dressed like they were here to audition for the “Thriller” video.  I’m happy to say that this time around, the Visitors have a much better sense of style. 

Despite the fact there’s a rather large cast, it’s a good one, filled with familiar genre veterans I’m all too happy to see on my screen again.  If you’ve ever watched Lost, Firefly, Smallville, The 4400, and probably some others, you’ll recognize at least one of the cast.  Personally, I’m thrilled to see Elizabeth Mitchell, Morena Baccarin, and Alan Tudyk on my screen.  Morris Chestnut and Joel Gretsch I’d never seen before, but already I’m fascinated by the mysterious freedom fighter and the doubting priest.(Bonus Hey-It’s-That-Guy spotting:  the guy who played the spider-loving kid in Supernatural’s Season One episode “Bugs” had a line in a newscam shot.)   

I wasn’t immediately sucked in, but I think it’ll grow on me.  Of course, the real action barely had a chance to get started.  It was just getting good during the resistance meeting, in the last quarter of the episode.  Good characters will draw me in every time, though, and there are several here I’m interested in following.  What was your reaction?  Love it?  Hate it?  Wait and see?

TV Teasing

Social networking  is proving to be a great tool for promoting shows, as we’re all well aware.  We wouldn’t be here blogging at each other if it weren’t.  But it turns out those involved with our favorite shows like to blog, too, giving us some tantalizing insights, clues, and/or red herrings that absolutely ensure we’ll be tuning in.  Take Supernatural, for instance.  The following quotes will be behind a cut, to protect the spoiler-sensitive.