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Fantasy TV Weekly Update – Nov. 7

Fantasy TV Weekly Update – Nov. 7

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grimmAnother week, another set of new television goodness from the non-cable networks. Seriously, after a year where there’s been very little mainstream science fiction and fantasy on television, it’s nice to see it coming back in such full force. I’m still divided on which of the new shows I most like (though I still probably lean, just a touch, toward Once Upon a Time), though, and both seem to have some potential.

Now on to the show recaps…

Grimm – “Bears Will Be Bears,” Nov. 4 – A breaking and entering goes bad, resulting in one of the intruders becoming a missing person. This bizarre case brings Nick face to face with an ancient race performing a violent rite of passage. (If you can’t guess the fairy tale being invoked from the episode title, you need to turn off your television and read a book of fairy tales. I mean now. Here’s a free one.) Meanwhile, the bludbad Eddie is enlisted to help Nick protect his aunt, but he goes beyond mere comic relief when he lets his inner wolf out on too long a leash.

The best thing about this show, in my opinion, is Eddie, and I’m glad to see that they made such good use of him so quickly out of the gate. I could care less about Nick, to be honest, but that isn’t necessarily a show killer. After all, I was a huge fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, but the main thing that made 7 years of Buffy’s angst enjoyable was the quality supporting cast: Xander, Giles, Willow, and Oz. Still, Grimm is nowhere near Whedon-esque proportions yet, so I recommend they make Nick a bit more engaging. You can watch the episode online on the official NBC show page or over at Hulu.com.

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Fantasy TV Weekly Update – Oct. 31

Fantasy TV Weekly Update – Oct. 31

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grimmNow that there’s actually more than one good fantasy show on network television, I’ve decided to step back from the detailed Supernatural post mortem (so to speak) and instead to provide a weekly update on the happenings of these fantasy television series all at once. So, here we go with the breakdown for last week’s shows:

Supernatural – “Slash Fiction” (aired: Friday, Oct. 28) – Sam and Dean are up against … Sam and Dean. The Leviathans take a different tactic in an effort to take down the boys, by shapeshifting into them and going on a killing spree (and making sure they get caught on video doing so). Meanwhile, Bobby tries to find a way to kill the Leviathan they took captive at the end of the previous episode. Turns out that decapitation and the chemical borax make for a potent combination. We also learn that when Leviathans touch the person’s body (or, apparently, hair from a shower drain) to shapeshift into their physical form, they also absorb the feelings and thoughts of the target. The two Leviathans are pretty disgusted by the dysfunction of the boys, and the faux Dean reveals to Sam that he killed Amy. The episode will soon be available for online streaming at the Supernatural website.

Grimm – “Pilot” (aired: Friday, Oct. 28) – Check out the review here, including links to places where the episodes are streamed online.

Once Upon a Time – “The Thing You Love Most” (aired: Sunday, October 30) – In my review of the pilot, I said that the show really needed to make the present-day plotline more compelling. The second episode does a much better job of balancing the fairy tale plotline and the real world one, in a way that is reminiscent of the excellent way that Lost handled their flashback structure. The flashbacks of this episode focus on what the Evil Queen had to do in order to enact the dark curse that trapped them all in this world … which included a deal with Rumpelstiltskin and a powerful sacrifice. The present day storyline begins to draw out some better characterization than in the pilot, especially among the local sheriff (not sure who he was in fairy tale world), Mr. Hopper (i.e. Jiminy Cricket), Regina (the Evil Queen), and Emma Swan herself, as Regina’s attempts to force Emma out of town begin to draw in more participants on both sides. It also becomes a lot more clear what sort of person Emma is and that she isn’t going to take attacks lying down. This episode is available for online streaming through the official website and on Hulu.

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Fairy Tale Television, Part 2: NBC’s Grimm Pilot

Fairy Tale Television, Part 2: NBC’s Grimm Pilot

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grimmAs I mentioned last week, there are two major series starting this fall that are based on fairy tales coming to our world. The second of those series is NBC’s Grimm, which comes across as an attempt to wed fairy tales to a police procedural, sort of like Supernatural merged with Criminal Minds.

The result is a particularly brutal program, leaning strongly toward the horror end of the spectrum. I’m not sure if something this dark will really make it as a success on NBC. Supernatural is a cult success, which is fine for the sort of ratings that the CW is aiming for, but NBC would consider the same ratings level a failure.

The concept: Nick Burckhardt is a police detective who begins to see strange visions, only to learn that it’s because he is descended from a family line of Grimms – those with the power to see supernatural creatures for what they really are. It’s his destiny to hunt down these creatures. …

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.4 “Defending Your Life”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.4 “Defending Your Life”

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This week begins with a car chasing a man through the streets of Dearborn, MI. He gets into his 10th floor apartment … only to find the car in the room waiting for him, slamming him into the wall.

Sam defends his brother, Dean, when put on trial for his life by the Egyptian god Osiris.
Sam defends his brother, Dean, when put on trial for his life.
Sam and Dean are happy to be working a more normal case. They briefly wonder if the case could be a Christine-style living car, but that doesn’t explain how it gets onto the 10th floor. The victim is a recovered alcoholic and makes monthly flower deliveries to a cemetery.

Seems the guy may have been a drunk driver who killed a girl a decade earlier. The boys dig up the girl’s body and burn the bones, which should take care of everything … but another guy goes through a similar situation, this time mauled by a dog.

Looks like there’s more going on here than just a ticked off spirit.

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.3 “Girl Next Door”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.3 “Girl Next Door”

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Bobby explained to a heavily-medicated Dean that they're trying to escape from the Leviathan-possessed hospital staff.
Bobby explained to a heavily-medicated Dean that they're trying to escape from the Leviathan-possessed hospital staff.

Supernatural’s usually a bit more episodic than it has been lately. It seems like the last dozen or so episodes, even spanning back into the final episodes of last season, have had full-blown cliffhangers instead of just the usual dangling plot threads.

In this case, the cliffhanger is Sam and Dean getting taken to a hospital that is now run by Leviathan-possessed people. Bobby shows up in an uncharacteristically-dapper suit to get a morphine-laden Dean and unconscious Sam out of the hospital. They narrowly escape in a stolen ambulance, chased by Leviathans … and then comes the title splash. It does take a bit of the bite out of the cliffhanger when you know it’s going to get un-hanged before the title splashes across the screen.

With that out of the way, we get on with the plot of the episode, which focuses on an episode from Sam’s youth and his budding romance with a young woman named Amy … a girl who shows up in the present day in the form of Firefly and Stargate: Atlantis alum Jewel Staite.

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.2 “Hello Cruel World”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.2 “Hello Cruel World”

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Dean tries to help Sam deal with his hallucinations.
Dean tries to help Sam deal with his hallucinations.

Following the season 7 premiere, Castiel is taken over by the leviathans that he sucked out of Purgatory. This episode begins with a weakened Castiel-turned-leviathan leaving Dean and Bobby with a promise to deal with them later. He heads out into a lake and dissolves into black cloud of water that erupts out flowing in all directions … right into the local water supply, which allows the leviathans to begin taking over unsuspecting residents.

The vessel of Castiel appears to have not made it through the process, leading me to believe that Misha Collins (the actor who played Castiel) is gone from the show, at least for the foreseeable future. Dean certainly laments him, as he finds his trademark trenchcoat floating in the lake.

Sam is having some problems of his own, of course, as he’s having visions of Lucifer, who’s telling him that he never actually escaped from the cage where he trapped Lucifer and Michael (back at the end of season 5). Instead, Lucifer claims to have been inspiring this delusional post-apocalyptic “escape” as a way of torturing Sam. Dean claims that Lucifer isn’t real, but then that’s also what Lucifer says about Dean, so it’s hardly a compelling argument.

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.1 “Meet the New Boss”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.1 “Meet the New Boss”

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God-Castiel faces off against Death, with Dean Winchester looking on.
God-powered Castiel faces off against Death, with Dean Winchester looking on.

The last season ended with Castiel pulling all the souls out of Purgatory. Sam tried to stab him with an angel blade, but the new souls made Castiel so powerful that it didn’t kill him. The sixth season ended with him saying to Sam, Dean, and Bobby:

… the angel blade won’t work, because I’m not an angel anymore. I’m your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord, or I shall destroy you.

Bobby – being the most common sense-having of the trio – begins this episode by bowing down before him. Dean and Sam are about to follow suit when Castiel tells them not to bother, since it means nothing if they’re doing it out of fear. He makes it clear, though, that he has no particular affection left for them anymore. He’s not going to kill them, because there’s no point to it. As long as they do not move against him, he sees no need to kill them.

The status is definitely not quo this season.

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Supernatural Spotlight – Season 6 Finale!

Supernatural Spotlight – Season 6 Finale!

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SUPERNATURALIn this double episode finale, we get to the end of one of the best seasons. It started out a little rocky, but had some of the series’ best episodes, I think. The finale happened while I was a on a plane to Arizona for vacation, so I wasn’t able to review it until I got back this week. (Gotta love DVR!)

Things start out at a rapid clip, with a man at a typewriter in 1937. Shortly after finishing a manuscript, he is murdered. His blood splattered across the manuscript, revealing the man’s name: H.P. Lovecraft.

In the present, Bobby discovers that Castiel has stolen one of the Campbell family journals, by Moisha Campbell (of the New York Campbells). Fortunately, the paranoid Bobby had already made copies, so they’re able to figure out that Moisha Campbell had interviewed Lovecraft, who (as they explain to Dean) had a tendency to write stories about portals opening up and nasty stuff coming out.

Things change tack as demons break into Lisa and Ben’s house, killing Lisa’s boyfriend and capturing her. Ben is hiding in his room and calls Dean, but is caught. Crowley picks up the phone and demands a meeting with Dean. Dean goes to the meeting with Sam, but tells Bobby to keep looking into the Lovecraft connection.

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 6.20 “The Man Who Would Be King”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 6.20 “The Man Who Would Be King”

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The Archangel Castiel is confronted about his recent actions.
The Archangel Castiel is confronted about his recent actions.

This week begins with the Archangel Castiel praying in a cemetery, recounting to God some of the wonders he’s encountered over the ages: a fish crawling from the water, the Tower of Babel (there’s only so high you can pile dung), Cain/Abel, David/Goliath, Sodom/Gomorrha, and so on … up until the Apocalypse, which “was averted by two boys, an old drunk, and a fallen angel. The grand story and we ripped up the ending and the rules and destiny, leaving nothing but freedom and choice.” (A lot of good dialogue in this one, so it’ll be a quote-heavy review.)

Except now Castiel has doubts, that maybe he’s made the wrong choice, and he’s seeking guidance from God, so he begins to tell his story.

With the Winchesters, Castiel is still pretending that he doesn’t know whether or not the demon Crowley is alive. In reality, not only is Crowley alive, but he’s currently dissecting Eve’s corpse. “Eve’s brain, dead as a tin kipper, and yet, for some reason, she keeps laying eggs.” Creepy, fish-like eggs, which he pulls out of her guts. And when he electrocutes her brain, it causes seizures in a vampire they have tied up (just for these sorts of experiments, apparently).

Crowley’s concerned that Castiel is distracted, that his affection for the Winchesters is putting their plans to open Purgatory in danger. They’re bickering like an old married couple. “The stench of that Impala is all over your overcoat. I thought we’d agreed, no more nights out with the boys.”

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Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 6.19 “Mommy Dearest”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 6.19 “Mommy Dearest”

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Sam and Dean have a chat with Eve, who decides to take the form of their dead mother.
Sam and Dean have a chat with Eve, who decides to take the form of their dead mother.

Eve’s up to no good in the town of Grant’s Pass, Oregon, by being unusually charming to a college student (named, as we shortly learn, Edward Bright). She runs her hand across his cheek, which cannot be a good thing. He wonders away from the bar she enters. Eve kisses another boy, then walks through and begins touching people. The whole place goes insane with a monstrous, vampiric feeding frenzy, as she sits and calmly watches.

Dean is making bullets filled with Phoenix ashes, but isn’t sure it’s going to work. The ashes certainly aren’t burning him. In fact, it’s all a bit of an exercise in futility without a location, so they summon Cas to try to get a bead on Eve. He has no information, but Sam has the idea of trying to track down an empathic monster to see if they can get Eve’s location from one of them.

Castiel is able to track down a cult favorite: Amber Benson, from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer fame. (For those who weren’t avid Buffy fans, Benson played Tara, the lesbian love interest of Willow. Her season 6 death at the hands of a misogynistic nerd nearly triggered the destruction of the world at Willow’s hands. Tara also had the best song in the classic “Once More, With Feeling” musical episode of Buffy, also from Season 6. If you have not seen it, Season 6 of Buffy is some of the best television ever made.)

Fortunately for fanboys like me, Benson also played the non-killing vampire Lenore, who was introduced briefly in Season 2 of Supernatural.

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