Category: Season 10

Ten Reasons To Love Supernatural’s ‘About A Boy’

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WB/The CW
WB/The CW

Worrying that you’re going to be stuck in the ER and miss Supernatural is not the best way to start a Tuesday evening (okay, maybe that’s not what I was most worried about, but it was right up there in my top two). Luckily I didn’t miss it, and even more luckily, I’m home now to finally sit down and write about how much I loved it.

Reason #1: The acting. The only person better than Dylan Everett at playing Dean Winchester is Jensen Ackles. I was impressed with Dylan’s acting the first time he portrayed Dean, but that was perhaps a bit less challenging, as he was showing us Dean as a teenager. If there were some differences, that was to be expected – pretty sure I’m not exactly the same as I was as a teenager. (Unless you’re judging by my fangirl passion which is thankfully still intact). This time, Dylan had to portray adult Dean stuck in his own fourteen year old body, which means the mannerisms and facial expressions and way of speaking that we know and love in Dean Winchester should be pretty much the same. Talk about an acting challenge!

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There’s No Place Like Home – Or Supernatural!

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WB/The CW
WB/The CW

There are a few different kinds of Supernatural episodes (yes, I’ve studied this Show so long I can now identify them). There are episodes where I’m bouncing up and down throughout, or screaming NOOOOOO!!! at my television set, or using up so many tissues that the living room looks like an alien landscape. There are (a very few) episodes where I get to the end and go, meh, that was okay (and a very very few where I say nope, that didn’t happen – canon erase!)

Then there are the episodes where I’m engaged the entire time, wondering what will happen next, watching the boys and trying to figure out what’s going on in their very handsome heads – but I’m relatively quiet. Okay, maybe I grabbed the arm of my chair a few times or asked my television “What now??”, but mostly I just watched, engulfed in the experience. This episode was like that. (It helped that there was one cohesive story line instead of the jumping around that we sometimes get). I didn’t reach for the tissues until that last scene, Charlie and Dean battered and fragile, and Sam standing there like the rock I’ve always known him to be.

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Hellatus is Over! Supernatural 10.10 The Hunter Games

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Warner Bros/the CW
Warner Bros/the CW

I was already in an amped up Supernatural state thanks to the San Francisco convention last weekend, so to say I was excited about the mid season premiere was an understatement. We had a big family pizza party with lots of cousins and aunts and uncles joining us, which was awesome until about 8:49 pm, when I started to hyperventilate a little. Luckily everyone cleared out shortly thereafter, possibly because someone asked “wait, is there a new Supernatural on tonight?” and I answered much too loudly, “YES!!!”

I watched the episode with my daughter, and once again, we both enjoyed the episode despite a few minor quibbles. Yay! So here are Ten Things I Liked About Episode 10.10.

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Not Exactly Parenting 101: Supernatural’s The Things We Left Behind

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xxxx 10.09 sil

As mid season finales go, last night’s episode wouldn’t be at the top of my list, but I did enjoy it. And once again, the moon was blue, because my daughter did too. I really hope all these blue moons aren’t a portent of some terrible evil. Oh wait, that’s a good description of mid season hellatus, isn’t it?

Fandom is split on its thumbs up or thumbs down of “The Things We Left Behind”. Some fans were ecstatic to have a Cas-centric episode and others were disappointed that there weren’t enough Winchesters in the mid season finale. I was happy with much of what we got when it comes to Sam and Dean, but there probably will never be an episode where I think it’s “enough.” I have a feeling I could have Sam and Dean on my tv screen 24/7 and still be wanting more of them, so I’m really not a very reliable barometer. The first segment (pre commercial no. 1) was noticeably Winchester-light, which didn’t make me a happy fangirl. On the other hand, the few minutes we got were, in true Supernatural style, first horrifying, then heartwarming and ominous. Simultaneously.

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Loving the Ladies – Supernatural ‘Hibbing 911’

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xxxx 10.08 b

I feel like my episode reviews are getting redundant, but it’s in the best possible way. Another S10 episode that I absolutely loved! Usually when an episode is SamnDean lite I’m grumbling, but a) what we got of the brothers, I liked, and b) this episode was all about the ladies, and that was awesome! In fact, it was so awesome that my daughter and I (who watched the episode together) actually AGREED on just about everything! Is the moon blue??

I’ve loved the character of Jody Mills since her introduction, and over the course of multiple seasons and many conventions, have come to love and respect the woman who plays her so perfectly, Kim Rhodes, even more. I love Jody with Sam, and Jody with Dean, and Jody with adopted daughter Alex – but you know what? I really REALLY love Jody with Sheriff Donna. These two were meant to share screen time – thank you, Jenny Klein and Phil Sgriccia, for making that happen!

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Girls Girls Girls (and Boys Boys Boys) – Supernatural 10.07

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Ackles and Padalecki w director Bob Singer
Ackles and Padalecki w director Bob Singer

Girls Girls Girls was a surprising episode – by which I mean, it managed to surprise me! Not once but several times. Which makes me a very happy fangirl indeed. Here’s my quick thoughts before we hit the road for the holiday…

One of the most surprising things? I liked both the story lines in tonight’s episode.

I haven’t been a fan of jumping back and forth between the Winchesters’ story line and the angels, but this time both worked. The pacing was right and the actors all outdid themselves. Let’s start with the angel story line, which I really liked in this episode. Erica Carroll did a fabulous job portraying Hannah’s growing confusion and discomfort with her possession of Caroline. She has the ability to show a dozen subtle emotions flashing across Hannah’s face, and every one of them twists your gut. You can see her turmoil, and I felt for her. That’s unusual for me and angels who aren’t Castiel.

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Getting A Clue About Where We’re Going From Here: Supernatural ‘Ask Jeeves’

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Cap by homeofthenutty
Cap by homeofthenutty

It was inevitably going to be a challenge to follow up the 200th episode, so I’m thinking that a standalone episode that was quirky and funny wasn’t a bad idea. I thoroughly enjoyed most of Ask Jeeves, written by Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo and directed by John McCarthy, aka Johnny Mac. Here’s what I liked about it:

One of the best parts about the episode was Jay Gruska’s old style score, which was a playful accompaniment to some of the more humorous scenes and fit the “old school” vibe of the episode. I laughed out loud as Dean encountered one weapon after another from the game Clue; Ackles’ WTF expression as he picks up the third one was priceless. And the outline of the murdered guest, with the head a few feet from the body? I laughed so hard I had to put down my pie for a few minutes. Kudos, Show.

And apparently I can’t see Sam hold up a key without flashing back to my favorite scene in The French Mistake, which I cannot watch without falling over laughing.

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Now That’s How You Do a 200th Episode! Supernatural’s Fan Fiction

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Sam and Dean with... Sam and Dean
Sam and Dean with… Sam and Dean

I fell in love with Supernatural almost nine years ago, and discovered the incredible world of Supernatural fandom shortly thereafter. It was, if you’ll forgive the obviously intentional use of the word, a transformative experience. We started writing books about the Show and the fandom because we encountered so much shame surrounding what we knew was a wonderful and positive place – a place that, when discovered for the first time, felt like coming home. A place of understanding and acceptance and validation, where we could let our creativity flow unfettered, expressing what we really thought and felt. What we feared and fantasized about. Why, we wondered, was there then so much shame about being a fan – especially being a fangirl? Why was there so much wank, in the midst of so much acceptance and support?

That’s why we wrote Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls, and its academic book cousin Fandom at the Crossroads. To peel back that layer of shaming-from-the-outside as well as internalized shame coming from the inside. To tell the “real” story of being a fan – a Supernatural fan. To challenge all that shame (and the wank that happened as a result of it), we sought validation, even if we didn’t at first realize that’s what we were doing. We spoke to all kinds of fans about why they loved the Show and how they expressed their passion. Fanfiction writers and readers, fan artists, fan vidders, bloggers, enthusiastic readers and fans who just loved to watch the show. Then we spoke to the ‘other side’ – the people who made the Show we’d fallen for. Eric Kripe. Sera Gamble. Serge Ladouceur. Jensen, Jared, Misha, and every other actor willing to sit down with us and talk about how they felt about the Show and the fans and their place in this crazy wonderful little ‘family’.

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199 And Counting – Supernatural’s Paper Moon

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xxxx 10.04 integrita

As this week’s Supernatural episode ended, I found myself very emotional. Not just from the episode, though the last line hit me hard, but from the realization that I had just watched the 199th episode of the show that changed my life. In two weeks, we’ll all celebrate the amazing milestone of the 200th, hopefully with cast and crew joining in the online celebration. When we fell in love with Supernatural and decided this would be the show we’d research and write books about, we thought we’d be lucky if it stayed on the air another year. That was 2007. Here we are, with 2014 almost done, and the Little Show That Could is still going strong. Forgive me if I needed a few extra tissues.

I really enjoyed this episode. The story line played out in a linear fashion instead of jumping around, and the pace was even throughout. And oh how I loved the interaction between the brothers. I’ll wax poetic over that in a minute. Most amazing thing about this episode? My daughter and I agreed. On everything. Is the moon blue instead of paper??

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But I Want More! Supernatural 10.03 Soul Survivor

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WB/The CW
WB/The CW

There was a lot riding on episode 3 of Season 10, Soul Survivor. Jensen Ackles was directing, so everyone’s anticipation was high. On the other hand, some of the episodes by these writers are not my favorites, so I was wary. And, woman of little willpower that I am when it comes to this Show, I was once again a little bit spoiled – particularly for the scene where a tied down Dean tries every trick in the book to hurt his brother. Ouch. Maybe it was merciful that I was prepared, since it still hit me hard enough to make me nauseous hearing Dean say those hurtful things to Sam.

I’m not sure I’ve ever loved Sam more than when he refused to fall for it. When he plunged that needle into his brother and countered “This is me yanking your lame ass out of the fire,” I shivered. When he looked back over his shoulder and said, “You’re welcome,” I think I gasped. And then tweeted in capslock THAT’S RIGHT SAMMY!!!

Damn. How so hot, Mr. Padalecki?

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