I share the intensity of your hate for the angels 'n' angst, but I could never not watch Jensen Ackles. Nobody can polish a turd like he does. But I, too, am sick to death of the big angel factions coming and going before any of their goals are even shown, the Crowley-as-junkie theme is utterly pointless, and the big…

Am I the only one who found the angel interrogation far-fetched and insufferable? The angel was a moron, too easily captured, and too quick to talk. The supposedly witty banter sounded like a mediocre writer aping an especially tired bit of Whedonesque irony. Padalecki and Ackles deserve some credit for dutifully…

I think that's probably where it's headed. Cain, Abel, fratricide, and all that. Or since SPN put a twist on the Cain & Abel lore, Sam will end up being the "Cain" who kills his brother to save him from himself.

To say nothing of the fact that cute kids don't always stay cute, and the fatties & ugly ducklings can grow up into something else entirely.

PJ Harvey is an artist I wouldn't expect to like based on my overall tastes, but I'm hard pressed to name anything of hers I don't like.

There's still a chance Coldhands might show up and guide Bran & company. There's not a great deal of filmable action or dialogue set up around him, and he could easily be presented in a few brief scenes. On the other hand, I'm not sure how necessary he is, since the show doesn't make a big deal out of Benjen Stark's…

Great timing. My replacement Kindle is arriving today in the mail.

You're right. The first season wasn't amazing, just by-the-numbers horror & paranormal stories kept afloat by good actor chemistry and a story arc that didn't dawdle. Bloodlines looks by-the-numbers in a bad way: vapidly pretty people embroiled in "intrigue" that only looks complex to a 12 year-old. That's 90% of the…

SPN's pilot was solid, as I recall. Nothing fancy or shockingly original, but competently executed — and Ackles was a standout performer from day one. It didn't take more than a couple of episodes to see that he was doing all the heavy lifting.

What puzzles me most about the spinoff is that I like Andrew Dabb's writing on Supernatural, but Bloodlines completely failed to hold my interest or make me laugh, unlike a Dabb & Loflin episode of SPN. I wonder how much of the pilot's content was dictated by the CW suits calling for more abs, tooth whitener, and hair…

The fact that I could still follow the plot even when I took a phone call in the middle of it was not a good sign. The fact that I picked up the phone at all during SPN was an even worse sign. Sure, pilots usually are formulaic and heavy on exposition, but this one had nothing to distinguish it from all the other CW…

Funny you should mention that. I was just going to say the spinoff had the feel of a White Wolf campaign. It sure as hell wasn't a Supernatural episode.

I'd love to try the chicken at that little inn just off the Kingsroad in A Game of Thrones. I hear it's to die for.

But S9 is just as big a mess as S6 arc-wise, minus the memorable stand-alone episodes. I don't know if it speaks to a weakness in Carver as a showrunner (Being Human US was so-so if that's any indication) or if Ben Edlund's absence makes that much of a difference.

The only way I can explain away the 180 is that he took to heart Dean's excuse for the Mark of Cain: a means to an end.

As much as I like Gabriel, I want him to stay dead. Bringing him back would just cheapen his death, and it would require too much handwaving to be enjoyable. I wouldn't mind seeing him in a dream sequence or a flashback, though.

Overly self-aware meta-babble is usually a sign of a writer who doesn't buy his own story and thinks that a preemptive joke will keep the audience from scrutinizing it. I can't figure out if this episode was unintentionally bad writing on Robbie Thompson's part or if Metatron was intentionally presented as a crappy…

I was under the impression that he's basically God now, but a god who's disappeared up his own ass.

Or maybe the "complainers" truly love the show, judge it by its own high standards set in S4-5, and want to know where exactly things went wrong.

This was middling-B material in my book, for the same reason that I haven't particularly liked this season as a whole: it feels like a retread of earlier seasons. Cas broods over his past mistakes, Sam and Dean are at odds, one of the brothers is keeping secrets and going off the rails, Dean contemplates enhanced…