Happy 50th, Doctor Who. Here's To You

  Well, today is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. I would have planned something bigger, like a list of my favorite companions, a new top 9 episodes list, or a big squeefest over The Ninth Doctor and why he deserves more love from the mainstream and ohmygoshEcclestonpleasecomebackanepisodeIlovedNinesomuch. But no. I'll leave it short and simple.

  I only started to watch the show about two years ago, and I've only fully watched New Who, but I still love this show. There's sort of an optimism to it. That there will be somewhere there to stop the big scary things we encounter. That a strange but wonderful character will wisk you away on an adventure. Someone showing you both the beauty and the terror of the universe and running alongside you. They'll take you from the humdrum and the terrible places you don't want to be, and find you special. There's also the fantastic about it, seeing the strange new worlds and strange new monsters. Seeing the new while also encountering the old. It's fun escapism.

  The Doctor is a great character, a constant, but yet ever-changing. He has the distinct honor of being reinterpreted multiple times, all within the same story.

  People probably wonder how it turned out to last so long, and I think to anyone who watches it, it's obvious. It's a gem in the geek community, and if enough watch it, the world. What is it with the British and giving us timeless classics?

  Maybe the show will continue another 50, maybe not. But one thing's for certain: like all good things, it will live on.

  So, I think I'll leave this amazing video I found, with one of the best speeches from the show. Happy 50th, Doctor Who. We raise our sonic screwdrivers to you...

Ezekiel: Angelus Ex Machina (Or:Dear Supernatural Writers, Please Stop With Ezekiel The Angel Of Bad Writing And Ruining Everything)

*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON EIGHT FINALE AND SEASON NINE OF SUPERNATURAL*

  *sigh* I came into season 9 with such high hopes. Granted, it's only been six episodes going on seven, buuuut it's kind of a mess. Why is it all the seasons divisible by three are less than stellar? It's like the fabled Star Trek movie curse. I'll get into my problems a little more when the season's over and all's said, done, and sorted. But there's kind of a big one I have vent about...

 Ezekiel.

  Hoo boy, Ezekiel.

  Okay, so to recap, at the end of season 8, the angels are forced from heaven, Cas is brought down to human, and Sam collapses dramatically. So, in Season 9's premiere, Dean gets desperate to bring his baby bro back (despite Death himself telling him what happens every time they pull this stunt... But hey, it's Sammy, the little brother he literally gave his life for, I can understand the irrationality...), even praying to the newly fallen angels for help. One angel comes to answer the holy ad, seeming to genuinely want to help. His name's Ezekiel.

  So, Ezekiel offers a little deal: he possesses Sam as a vessel to recuperate from the fall (switching between his and Sam's consciousnesses, Sam never needing to know he's there, otherwise he'd reject him from his body and die) and he heals Sam from within. Okay, that seems alright so far. The consent's dubious (yeah, Lucifer had more consent to possess Sam... I'll let that sink in...), but it could be interesting.

  Then he became what I call "Angelus Ex Machina" (or would it be "Angelus Ex Moosina?").


  In the second episode, he takes down a group of demons with his holy power. I was okay with this, the effect was pretty cool (I dug the ratty wings) and I figured we would occasionally get angelic smiting wrath of the divine. Then came the third episode, where Cas temporarily dies and Zeke revives him. Eh... That was okay... I guess. Then comes episode four, where out of nowhere Zeke comes up for no other reason but to revive Charlie when she died. (Really? You pulled the "LOL Not Dead" thing twice in a row, writers?) Are you starting to see my issue here? Then EPISODE FIVE, ZEKE POPS OUT OF FREAKIN' NOWHERE YET AGAIN TO HEAL SAM'S NECK WOUND, NEARLY EXPOSING HIMSELF AND LEADING HIM TO HAVE TO FIX SAM UP AGAIN...

 Yeah, basically, Ezekiel has been killing all the suspense in the show. It says a lot when one of the reasons I liked the okay-but-flawed sixth episode, "Heaven Can't Wait" (besides the stuff with Crowley and the stuff with Cas) is that Ezekiel didn't come in like a wrecking ball. I mean, I can understand occasionally using him or referencing him, but this is obscene. And it cheapens death even more in this show, where the three major characters practically have two-way fast passes for the afterlife. (I'm getting tired of writers not killing off characters for real in general lately. LET'S SEE SOME BLOOD SPILT FOR REAL, MAN!)

  Also, this is exactly the reason I think they sent Cas away or nerfed his powers all the time back when he was an angel: it's a game breaker. I know that nothing can ever be easy for Sam and Dean. It's part of the drama, seeing how the boys get out of their predicament of the week. I understand from a story perspective. Having an angel around kind of tips the scales too much, since all he has to do is smite the monster and then they can go out for beer and ice cream. In short, it'd be boring. Congratulations, You're illustrating why having Castiel around all the time wouldn't have worked from a story perspective... Now it's "how's the angel going get them out of this?" instead of "how're The Winchesters going to get themselves out of this?" If you wanted to do this, you could've just kept Cas an angel, instead of making him a human and pushing him aside, as if to say, "Hey, you're not an angel! You serve little to no purpose to us anymore!" Way to show him love...

  Third, he throws the known power levels out of whack. I seem to recall when Cas more or less "fell", he couldn't heal people. Zeke's healing people left and right, and he's supposedly "so weak". Granted, it's a different situation, but still. I'm assuming Cas and Zeke were at least at a similar level. Also, if he's able to revive the freaking dead, couldn't he just hop into Dean a while (he's the Michael Sword, he can take it), fix Sam (who's sure to have what Zeke's been doing to him still working a little bit), and go find someone more willing to host him? Is he really still "so weak"? Seemed fine to me after those two times. Unless they're gearing up to reveal he's an archangel (most are guessing Lucifer, based on his 2014 prophesy. But hey, Lucy lies. I'm hoping for Gabriel, who's rumored to return...), I'm finding my willing suspension of disbelief being tested, here.

  Basically, if any of the writers are reading this, just... do away with Ezekiel. Or at least don't pull him out for every little thing. I know Jared Padalecki (Sam/Ezekiel) is all excited about doing something new, I respect that. Just, please... You can write so much better, guys. Just look back at season 8! Or season 5! I'm hardly a professional writer, TV or otherwise, but I know good writing when I see it. And this... Isn't it... Please. I love this show. Don't ruin it with this sort of thing...

Quick What I Plan To Do...

Hey. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Sorry, it's been crazy for a while, but I have some post ideas for the future...

-I'll finish my Supernatural season reviews. (well, 3-8...)

-I also have a little piece about my problems with the character Ezekiel in Supernatural.

-A review of the podcast Welcome To Night Vale.

-And of course, my yearly Thanksgiving Thank-You Notes...

 So, yeah, that's the plan, hopefully... 

AMERICA US SHERLOCK SEASON 3 DATE CONFIRMED!

 Well, I at least have something to be happy about today, despite my displeasure with last night's Supernatural...

 THE US RELEASE DATE FOR SHERLOCK SEASON THREE IS CONFIRMED! JANUARY 14TH, 2014!

 I don't know when The UK gets it, but I know it's slightly before us (but luckily it's not obscenely early like last time. Maybe it'll be easier to avert spoilers...)

 ALL MY HAPPY GIFS, NOW!

 

...That is all...

Why I'm Less Than Pleased About The Ending Of "I'm No Angel"

  Okay, so last night I was watching Supernatural. And I got to say, the ending I found to be not okay. The rest of the episode was pretty alright (though Cas having sex with a woman he'd only barely met... twice... was a little irksome, especially given his characterization...). But the ending was just... No.

 So, I'm going to explain why I don't like this. Needless to say:

 So, at the end of the episode, the now human Castiel finally gets back with The Winchesters and goes to stay in the bunker. However, Ezekiel (an angel who's currently partially possessing Sam, loooooong story), says that, no, Dean can't keep his boyfriend friend. Because, Cas (despite him getting an anti-angel tracker tattoo) is a huge beacon to the other angels, all of whom are ticked that he helped cast them down. And they would go after Ezekiel, too, seeing as he's helping him and his friends. And then Zeke would have to leave, and Sam would die without the angel healing him from inside. So Dean is forced to throw his soul mate best friend whom he shares a profound bond with out.

No. No no no! NOOOOOO!!!

  Okay, I'm ticked with this for a number of reasons. Mainly because of this: I'm tired of the writers coming up with excuses to make Cas leave. I mean, I could understand finding reasons to keep Cas from long-term stays with the boys when he was an angel. He was kind of a game breaker as an angel. Nothing can ever be easy for the leads is one of the first rules of writing. But now he's human, he's vulnerable, he's on the same level as The Winchesters (well, technically not Sam half the time, now...) (And he's actually quite valuable, still having the knowledge of an angel 24/7.) But nope, we gotta kick him to the curb!

(Not from this episode, but...) Lookit this face. Would you kick someone out if they made that face? 

  Second, like I said, Cas is human now. He doesn't fully know how to deal with being human. This whole episode kind of proved that. The face he makes when Dean tells him to go! He's like a lost puppy out there. And, again, while he still has his Angel Blade, he's still vulnerable. EVERY FREAKING ANGEL WANTS TO TRACK HIM DOWN! Seriously, I almost think it'd be better to keep Cas at The Bunker. They have more weapons, I'm sure the boys could set up some sort of "anti-angel room" or possibly find something in The Men of Letters' archives (I'm sure they have to have at least something on angels...). Maybe they can find some more holy oil for emergencies. And the boys have Angel Blades, too. Heck, Crowley (who I remind everyone is CURRENTLY LOCKED UP IN THEIR BASEMENT!) developed an anti-angel gun from an Angel Blade last season, just get how he did that from him! Seriously, I think dumping Cas out to fend for himself is possibly a worse idea. Way to look out for your brother, Zeke! Dean Winchester you ain't...

 Plus, Zeke showed in this episode that he's at least powerful enough to revive the dead, as seen with Cas shortly before. If he did have to leave because of Cas, couldn't he just say, hop into Dean a little bit (he was Michael's intended vessel, he can probably take it, and it's Sammy, he'd be willing to do it to help save his baby bro), heal Sam, and go find someone else to hold him while he recharges? Okay, that last one might be nitpicky, but still...

 I also take issue with this, because I feel the reason's... flimsier than his previous reasons. Here have been some of his reasons to leave before that:

• "I'm trying to find God..."
• "I'm fighting a civil war against Raphael in Heaven..."
• "I'm a bit insane at the moment..."
• "I need to serve penance for my actions..."
• "I need to protect The Angel Tablet from Crowley and Naomi and I don't want you guys caught in the middle..."

  I think those were better reasons. This... isn't, for the reasons I've said earlier. I know Dean would do anything for Sam, budding roman- BROMANCE! I meant bromance! - with Cas or not. But I feel like this is just wrong to do. And it's not of Cas's own will! It's just drama for the sake of drama.

 I'm hoping they at least don't drag this out needlessly long. That's one thing I can give Elementary credit for: not dragging out "Joan's secretly not his sober companion anymore" thing. And I'm pleased Agents of SHIELD didn't drag the "Skye's a mole" thing out too long either, and handled it pretty well last night. And I hope that Dean at least explains the situation to Cas, and leaves him somewhere safe, like with Garth. Heck, he can leave him with Charlie! Them interacting I'd love to see. If he just leaves him to fend for himself, I'll just... GRAHAHWJRGTAENGLJBAGFFF!!!!

Supernatural Season 2 Recap- The D-Men

 Okay, time to recap season 2! (I know this is late, season nine has already started (and is pretty good, so far.) But I want to finish these. So...

 

(Again, this is from memory like last time. If I get something wrong/forget stuff, forgive me...)

THE OVERALL STORY:

 So, when we last left The Winchester Clan, they all got hit by a truck... We pick up in the hospital. Sam is fine, and John is fine. Dean, however, is in a coma. Dean tries to stay in the realm of the living, despite a Reaper, Tessa, trying to convince him that death is fine. However, Papa Winchester has other plans. He summons Yellow Eyes, and trades both The Colt and his soul for Dean's life. He dies while Sam gets coffee, resulting in the most perfect cup drop ever. (it never tipped over!) So the boys are on their own again.

  Soon, the boys find The Roadhouse, a bar for Hunters. It's run by Ellen Harville and her daughter, Jo.  Jo wants to be a hunter like her father, and eventually takes off. They also meet Ash, a crazy awesome hunter/hacker. The boys continue hunting Yellow Eyes, facing whatever comes their way and dealing with their dad being gone. Along the way, they get in a lot more trouble with the law (leading to them getting their own sort of Javert to their Valjean, Agent Henricksen.) and face off with another, more psychotic hunter named Gordon. Sam has a brief romance with a girl named Madison, but ends in tradegy since she is a werewolf. Long story short, it ends a paranormal romance version of Old Yeller. I repeat: Every woman Sam loves dies. 

 Also, in one episode, we meet a Trickster in what is one of the funniest episodes. Sure, it's in what's essentially a breather episode for the audience, but he does prove to have more purpose as the show progresses...

  Eventually, the boys do look into and meet some more "Special Children". First there's Andy, who can make people do whatever he wants (and had a twin named Ansem, who was evil (though any Kingdom Hearts fans in my audience are not surprised)). There's also another clairvoyant named Ava, who mysteriously dissapears. At the end of the season, Sam is taken, along with the other Special Children, to a mysterious place. They're basically tossed into a Hunger Games/Battle Royale-type situation: kill each other to survive. Ava, it turns out, had been part of multiple rounds, and kills Andy. (which was a shame, seeing as I liked Ava up until then and Andy was my favorite non-Sam Special Child.) Then she's killed by Jake, a super-strong Special Child.

  Bobby and Dean track Sam down (and learn that The Roadhouse was burned down, killing numerous hunters. Especially Ash. *sniff*). But he gets killed by Jake, and ends up dying in Dean's arms.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 Dean, being co-dependent and putting his brother first, decides to defy the laws of mortality. He summons a Crossroad Demon and begs her to bring Sam back in exchange for his soul. She accepts, but instead of the standard "10 years until we sic the hellhounds on you", she only gives Dean a year. With Sammy alive again and Ellen turning out to be alive, The Winchesters and Co. discover that Yellow Eyes needed a Special Child to get into a Devil's Trap made of railroads, and use The Colt to unlock a gate to Hell and release more demons. They get there, but are too late to stop the Gate from opening.

  Sam kills Jake rather cold-bloodedly, and Dean gets The Colt to kill Yellow Eyes. Their dad even comes out of Hell to hold him still for Dean to shoot him. Yellow Eyes dies, the boys get a quiet moment with their dad, and their dad ascends to Heaven. Aww...

  But there ain't no rest for The Winchesters. There's still the matter of a hundred new demons flooding America, and Dean only having a year to live. So they head for their next adventure. The show almost could've stopped there (they thought it almost would), but luckily the show kept going. Unluckily, the third season wasn't quite so good. It had a big problem.

  I really liked this season. It did quite a bit of world-building, which I like. The world of the show just fascinates me. And the story was rather good. The show really improved from season one.

  Next time, I'll recap season 3. And Bela. Eeugh...
 

Editorial: Why I Don't Think Meg Not Being Used For The Third Trial Was A Waste Of Story

GAH! Long time, no type! Okay, so I finished the eighth season of Supernatural (oh, Chuck, the feels!) And I was reading TV Tropes's YMMV page. Someone brought up something interesting, but I had an argument against it...

*WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 8 (ESPECIALLY THE LAST 7 EPISODES)*

  So in season 8, Meg returns and  is killed by Crowley, adding to the laundry list of despicable things he did that season. (*sigh* And yet I love the character. Stupid awesome Mark Sheppard character with his charming personality and voice I've recently realized is ridiculously attractive... >_<) As part of the boys' trials to close off Hell (long story), they need to "cure a demon". They ultimately go with Crowley. (Oh ho, karma, thou art a wonderful thing.) They mostly succeed, but fail to complete the trial because Dean stops it so Sam won't die. Plus there's the whole: "Angels are falling from Heaven" situation...

 Anyway, the Troper said they felt Meg was wasted in the end, and could have been used for the trial/redemption instead of Crowley. But I disagree. I think it was for the better the writers did what they did. For one reason:

  Meg was kinda already redeemed by that point.

  You see, over the last three seasons, she had expressed romantic interest in Castiel, and was working more with The Winchesters. She had kind of already swapped sides by her own vocation.Yeah, she never really expressed remorse for her more questionable actions earlier in the series, but she had gone good for the most part. Rather than being forced to do it by purified Sammy blood injections. If she had stayed alive and they used her, it would kinda have been pointless. Easier, but pointless. And if there's one thing I've learned from this show (heck, from fiction), is that writers can never have things be easy for their characters; there always has to be a struggle.

  Secondly, and this is something a friend of mine brought up (regarding the revolving door Supernatural's afterlife), is that Meg's story was kinda done by "Goodbye, Stranger". She'd had her redemption arc of sorts, and I don't think there was/is much to do with her now. She's served her purpose. Yeah, I liked her interactions/chemistry/relationship with Castiel, especially in the last episode she was in (the scene where he patches her up is so sweet). But I liked The Winchesters' relationship with Bobby, and he had to die. (And I'm kinda alright with it.) I don't think that there would have been many story options with cured!Meg that couldn't conceivably been done with her character as it already was, or do much character development she hadn't already had. (Except maybe a "yeah, sorry about the whole: "trying to kill you multiple times, helping my father, kidnapping your dad, possessing Sam, helping Lucifer, etc. My bad, guys. I was TOTALLY in the wrong on that one...")

 Now, Crowley, on the other hand, I think has more story options with a possible redemption arc. Like I said, he did a lot of despicable things, especially in Season Gr8. Seeing him dealing with guilt from that and seeking forgiveness from the boys could be interesting. Plus, since the ritual wasn't completed, will Crowley regress from "I deserve to be loved!" back to opposing our heroes? (I don't think that would've been an option with Meg.) Will he become a perment ally to the boys rather than one of convienence (especially with Abaddon running around)? And if he'd still maintain the personality the fans liked about him in the first place? If handled correctly, (and without too much "Draco In Leather Pants"-ing) I see a lot more ways a Cured!Crowley arc can go than a Cured!Meg one.

 So anyway, those are my two bits. Yeah, it stinks Meg died, killing a link to the beginning and yet another female character. But I don't think it was entirely a waste. She was a good character by the end, but it was her time to go. She'd had her arc, her redemption, already. Now, it's Crowley's turn to have an arc.

(Besides, the stuff where Crowley finds his humanity is entertaining as heck. And Mark Sheppard freaking SANG! Missing that would've been a waste... ;P)