Supernatural 9.04 Review: There's No Place Like Home

Anyone that has yet to watch last night’s episode of Supernatural, entitled ‘Slumber Party, I suggest you go do so now. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

I’m going to keep this brief because I am beyond exhausted (no really, above I first wrote hast instead of has yet, I combine words when I’m tired). This is a long week for me, so I apologize now for the brief reviews forthcoming.

Anyways, I’ve got to say I liked this episode. A nice nod to the old episodes of this series, although not quite fully there. It was nice to not have a demon or angel being the villain of the episode, something this series has grown too accustomed to depending upon. Fairytales, legends, that’s what used to make the monsters in this series so great, and it was nice to see that on tonight’s episode.

Still, I don’t know what it is, but I’m not a fan of the bunker. Maybe it’s that it makes it too easy for them to have a place where they’re safe and have all the material they need. I just think that when you’re fighting evil, it shouldn’t be that easy to research, research is supposed to be grueling work. Yes, I like that the boys kind of have a home, but it makes me feel like the world has ended, being stuck strictly in the bunker. After all, it is a bunker.

One thing I was happy to see in this episode was the reappearance of Charlie. The girl definitely needs to stop by a little more often – although not too often – she’s just geekily hilarious. Not only that, but she brings out this protective older brother side to Dean that we don’t get to see as often as we used to, and in a refreshing sort of way. So boy was I glad that Dean asked Zeke to save her over stopping the Wicked Witch. I was about to bash my TV in for killing off a character so unnecessarily (okay, no, I wouldn’t really do that, but you get my sentiment).

This week’s episode also brought the character of Dorothy to fruition. I have to save that I enjoyed her character, and would also like to see her pop up once or twice more. She’s a strong, rebellious woman type that dresses the way I expect Amelia Earhart did. She had this attitude to her that said she wouldn’t let a man tell her she couldn’t do something, and I admire the writing for giving her that.

A few other things to point in this episode were also how fascinatingly awesome Dean’s facial expressions are at times. I mean, really, the man barely has to talk; he just has to move his face around a bit. One particular moment was the face he made after Charlie said she wished hunting was more magical. The other thing to note would be how ridiculous Sam looked going from running Sam to strutting Zeke. I’d been on board the last couple episodes, everyone except the scene where he’s first possessed, but that was just plain ridiculous. Plus the terrible hair… Please Mr. Padalecki, cut your freaking hair, it’s too long.

All in all, I’ll repeat myself about how this series truly needs to end soon. Sure it has a little gem of an episode every now and again, and it has gotten better than two seasons ago, but it’s just not like it was in the old days. There’s almost too much mythology circulating, that sometimes it becomes overstuffed with information. It makes it difficult to keep track. This is why I’m happy that Buffy the Vampire Slayer knew when it was time to end, before it ran the series into the ground. I still think if the creator leaves, it’s time to end the series, but we’re already four seasons passed that, so please stop soon. I can’t watch much longer, it’s hurting my heart to watch such greatly established characters be written to burn out.

My rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“Hello, Moose.” – Crowley greets Sam.

“A top secret place I call Amazon.” – Charlie sarcastically remarks about where she’s bought the Supernatural books.

“None. Nobodies. No, uh, there are no bells.” – Sam stumbles with a response, after learning who’s published the short stories of the books.

“Damnit, I just cleaned in here.” – Dean grumbles, about how the Wicked Witch has trashed the kitchen.

“Am I a zombie now? Do I need to eat brains?” – Charlie questions Dean about her resurrection.

Okay, I’m off to sleep now, hopefully get seven and a half hours, if I’m lucky. Check back in tomorrow for reviews of Nashville, Revolution, and American Horror Story: Coven.

Bones 9.04 Review: Down the Rabbit Hole

This is your only warning. All those that have yet to watch last night’s episode of Bones, titled ‘The Sense in the Sacrifice’, then now would be a good time to do so. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

So Pelant’s dead now. Not as great an ending to his killing spree as I would’ve liked. Yes, this was a good episode compared to what this series has been putting out for the last few years, but it wasn’t a good enough ending to Pelant’s chapter. It felt like most of the tense parts were thrown in in the last third of the hour, I almost expected them to continue on into next week’s episode, but Bones rarely does two-part episodes. For someone they’d spent a good year and a half, two years hunting, he was taken down pretty easily. And by feelings.

There were some interesting components to the episode. Them finding out the body they’d excellently staged was not in fact the body they themselves had staged, but Flynn the way Pelant had staged him. The very beginning when they’re rolling in the body that had been donated to the Jeffersonian, and then they go about creating a murdered body, almost like we were seeing what the effects people do for the series. I also liked the whole confusion with the toy bomb, and Pelant toying with Brennan.

I’m still really disappointed with the way they went with Flynn. The first time he comes in and Pelant is captured but manages to create a new identity to get out of prison, implied Flynn would have something to do with Pelant. But then he goes and saves Booth’s life, and gets killed by Pelant, and so grieved by the Jeffersonian team. I wasn’t so unhappy about their grief part, but justifying the implication he’s involved in the murders by saying Pelant was using him without his knowledge was disrespectful to the audience. It’s quite disappointing the writers thought they could do that to us.

Both Booth and Brennan did well enough in this episode, and everyone was good at the part where they learn Flynn is the victim on the table. But I didn’t really feel the great acting for Sweets this week, like I did last week. It was all more or less the same as every episode before.

The writing for this episode felt rushed. They bring Sweets back in when he really wasn’t given any time off from viewers’ eyes, and kind of rush this idea he came up with to try and lure Pelant out. It felt very quickly put together, and not at all explained well enough for the audience. For the first five minutes of the episode I was extremely confused by what the hell was actually going on. It almost felt to me like the showrunners were trying to rush getting Brennan and Booth down the altar, and so skimmed through this Pelant story’s ending. But then again, this series has never been great about resolving prolonged storylines with complex but appropriate conclusions. The conclusions for stories like Pelant, and the Gravedigger have always been rushed. Though that could also be because they throw conclusions randomly into seasons, and not at the end of a season like I prefer.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“We can have sex.” – Brennan suggests to Booth, in her logic voice.

“What? I don’t- That’s not a thing.” – Sweets flabbergasted by Booth’s rendition of what he came in to define Pelant’s condition as.

Okay, I’m off to go watch The Blacklist now, and hopefully review that next. But it’s looking like I’m going to be too exhausted to get to Sleepy Hollow tonight, so expect that tomorrow evening.

How I Met Your Mother 9.04 Review: Friendship is Important

This will serve as my only warning. If you haven’t watched last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, entitled ‘The Broken Code’, then now would be the time to do so. This is not a spoiler free blog. I repeat, THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

So we go into this week’s episode with fifty-one hours to the wedding. Ted and Barney are dealing with the fact that Ted still has feelings for Robin, but won’t jeopardize his friendship with Barney over it. Marshall is still on the road, but funnily enough comes to us via an Ipad – or something along those lines – and the newly improved Marsh-pillow. And Lily and Robin are trying to work on the fact that Lily is Robin’s only female friend.

This whole season revolving around the wedding weekend is still tedious, but there have been a lot of things our characters have gone through. My one problem with it is that it seems like too much to have gone through in just a few short hours. I know the hours surrounding a wedding can be hectic, and filled with a lot of little fiascos, but they’re simply not filled with this many fiascos.

I did find this week’s episode pleasantly comical. It’s no award-winning episode, and I wasn’t busting with laughs, but it did have its fair share of moments. One such moment is at the very beginning of the episode, where Barney and Ted both cry over the broken bottle of $600 scotch. So over-the-top, but in a good, grounded kind of way, a way this series easily writes in. The other moment was the whole handholding situation. Before Ted and Barney really worked things out, and it started raining, the first shot of them holding hands on the beach was hilarious.

Again, this season doesn’t quite feel like the How I Met Your Mother I’ve grown to love, but it isn’t all bad. This season is shaping up to feel like an encore season, where the writers don’t really have much to say, so they’re working out the few things that need to be done before this show ends slowly. It does feel like this could’ve been a shortened season, but I’m still sure I’ll be sad to see this series go when its finale airs.

One question before I sign off. Where’s the Mother? She’s a series regular, but we haven’t seen her the last two episodes at all. Why not just make her a recurring character for that?

My rating: 7 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“Please don’t launch into a fake history lesson.” – Ted mutters referring to Barney, in a way that makes me nostalgic for the way these people fit into each other’s lives.

“E-lawyered.” – Marshall says to Barney, in reference to Weekend at Bernie’s.

“I’m coming for you, Mosby.” – Zabka threatens Ted, after Barney takes the Best Man visor off Zabka’s head and puts it back on Ted’s.

Stay tuned for my review of Bones, up next. Then it’s Sleepy Hollow and The Blacklist.