News: Merging this blog into another and discontinuing

I have decided to merge this blog into my other, more general blog, Just This About That.

Obviously, although I watch television and blog about it, I don’t blog frequently enough to justify a whole blog about it. I think my television ramblings mesh nicely with my other ramblings about other stuff, and also give a more rounded picture of who I am.

I hope if you follow this blog, you will come over to Just This About That and read there. Feel free to follow. I would love that. If television discussion is your primary interest, please skip over my stuff about everything else. I will tag and categorize clearly.

Thanks to all who have viewed, commented, or followed here. See you on the other blog, I hope. I’ll be taking this one down in a week.

Happy trails!

Meta: Supernatural and character flaws through 9.09

Thanks to a couple of really good meta posts this month, I started to contemplate exactly what it is the writers are doing with the characters of my favorite show. I was one of those who defaulted to the position that maybe the writers didn’t know and love Sam and Dean the way I did, and, you know, HOW can they make them do things that are so BAD??? But some very thoughtful writers made me think about it a different way.

What We Watched Mini-update: Winter Holidays 2013 (one tiny SPOILER for Top of the Lake)

We finished season two of Game of Thrones.  Wow. It should be overwhelming. So many characters, so many settings, so many scenes. But it isn’t. I can’t even begin to go into a discussion or analysis, I’m still absorbing. And trying to figure out a way to get HBO so we can see season three.

I watched the first episode of Top of the Lake. It’s very strange, and has that quiet, foreign atmosphere and pacing that American crime drama rarely has. Elisabeth Moss is very good in the role of Robin. I read that Anna Paquin was offered the role, and I have not seen her in anything lately, but I think Moss’ quiet, pensive demeanor is perfect. In a single episode, she comes across as both strong and capable with the male detectives, compassionate with the young rape victim, and baffled and weighed down by her demanding ill mother. And Holly Hunter…WHAT??? So strange.  I will be watching the rest of this. I’m completely unspoiled, having read no reviews, so please don’t spoil me. 🙂

Justified returns with season 5 on January 7, so my son and I will be re-watching season 4 in the next few days. I watched it when it aired, but he has not seen it at all. As I recall, it was not as strong as previous seasons, but maybe my opinion will change upon re-watching.

Supernatural season 9 picks up again on January 14. I’ll be writing about Supernatural in a separate post, coming soon.

End of the year meme: 2013

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2013?

Game of Thrones (actively watching 3-4 episodes a day now – I’m mid-season 2)

House of Cards
Scandal
Torchwood (I’m on hiatus from this, but plan to go back and finish)
American Horror Story (season 1 only)
Glee

Edited to add: OMG, how could I forget Sherlock?????

Which shows did you continue watching that you had already started?

Supernatural
Justified

What shows did you sample and drop?

Homeland (I liked the first season a lot, but have not picked it back up)
Orphan Black
The Americans
The Following
Orange is the New Black (might go back and watch this later)
Once Upon a Time
Under the Dome (loved the book, didn’t like the show)
Arrow
Sleepy Hollow (I liked Arrow and SH and will probably go back and watch them later).

Which TV shows did you let go of in 2013?

The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, Glee, all talent and reality shows

Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn’t in 2013? Why?

Psych, Revolution, Nashville, Castle and also the ones on my sampled and dropped list. They were shows I thought I should like, and maybe did like, but I just couldn’t stay invested enough.

Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2014?

Being Human, Mad Men

Which TV show impressed you least in 2013?

Under the Dome (I was really looking forward to it, and was disappointed. A case of the story in my head as I read the book being and looking much better than a television show could do justice to.)

Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2014 unless things significantly improve? — AND — Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get? Why?

I already let go of Glee. It was a feel-good show, and it became too sad after the death of Cory Monteith.
I’ll never let go of Supernatural.

Which TV show did you enjoy the most in 2013?

Game of Thrones, Scandal, Justified
Supernatural is always my addiction.

I broke up with a lot of the crazy of Supernatural fandom late this year. I’m three years clean from TWoP, and I gave up a couple of other toxic sites.
I still love the show and could read books worth of meta about it.

Best books I read in 2013:

I read several I liked, but the one that stuck with me and that I recommended to the most people was John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. It’s y/a, and I shouldn’t like those anymore, but it was just really, really good.

Supernatural, episode 9.08. Not cool.

Well, that was painful.

Look, I know Supernatural is not trying to be the most self-aware, progressive show on the air. It’s about two handsome white guys heroically fighting monsters and demons and all things supernatural all over the US, roaring around in their gas-guzzling classic muscle car and listening to classic rock while swathed in denim and plaid. There are lots of guns and bullets. There is punching (sometimes of each other.) There is porn. The sex is of the casual, one-night-stand variety, usually.

The women in the show are, if not the monster, usually superficial side characters who are damsels to be saved, victims who are burned or eaten by the monster, brief motherly figures, fawning fangirls or daffy cat lady witnesses relating what they saw for comic relief.

There are occasional egregious wardrobe choices for the women, like the lovely young female hunter a couple of episodes ago in daisy dukes and a short shirt, while the men are swathed in five shirts each, plus a jacket.

But yes, I still watch. I am able to ignore most of the yucky treatment of women because the two main characters are compelling and the show is often a good creepy, gory hour of escapist television.

Supernatural: SPOILER DISCUSSION (Don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled!)

Usually I don’t read spoilers about Supernatural. But I have been seeing reactions from some of my fellow Sam fans that piqued my curiosity and broke my resolve to remain unspoiled. So I looked at a couple of reliable spoiler sources, and I have to say that I am not that upset based on what I am reading.

Supernatural 9.02: “Devil May Care”

There was a lot I liked about this episode, but overall, it left me feeling disgruntled and with a frowny face.

Supernatural 9.01: “I think I’m gonna like it here”

After eight seasons, the thing Supernatural does best is build on the consistent characterization of the two brothers. It is what keeps me watching.

Dean did a very bad thing. He allowed Sam to be possessed, actually tricked him into accepting Ezekiel, when he knew Sam would never do it if he knew the whole story. That’s bad. It’s really, really awful considering Sam’s past experience with angel possession. But is it out of character for Dean to do this? I don’t think so.

Last night: Supernatural, ep. 8.22 “Clip Show”

Not as good as the previous week’s “The Great Escapist,” but still a good episode. I love finding out more and more about the Men of Letters’ lair, with its creepy room filled with boxes and boxes of files and the hidden demon dungeon. Yikes, those guys.