Supernatural Season 4 – as long as we have Cas…..

You know I loved this show from the get-go. 2 hot brothers traipsing around the US in a kick-ass metallicar, hunting down demons and ghosts? Seriously, what isn’t there to like?

But this season…it blew me away. I have episodes in every season which I won’t watch again, out of boredom or sheer annoyance (racist killer truck, anyone?)

And yet season 4 was phenomenal all the way through, if a little myth-arc heavy.

Of course, it would start off with a bang, sending off one of the leads to hell at the end of season 3. It was the awesomeness of the first 3 seasons which led me of course to do a Supernatural marathon in the lead-up to season 4 (an event which will never occur again, let me tell you). So there was a lot of anticipation going into the premiere…

And they delivered.

Ripping Dean out of hell, having 10 minutes of pure silence and just seeing the bewilderment on the poor boy’s face, leading up to the joyful reunions, discovering exactly what a bad, bad boy Sammy has been in the 4 months since Dean died and then learning that it was an angel (a very gorgeous angel with bedroom eyes) who pulled Dean out of hell.

And the show got better, bringing back some of our favourite dead characters for a special episode, where we also learn the myth-arc for the season: Lilith is breaking seals in order to release Lucifer.

Then Dean takes a little trip in time and meets daddy with blue eyes, and his sexy mama – and learns his mother was a hunter as well as why she died by ol’ yellow eyes -and how brilliant of them to keep stringing him through the show, even though he died 2 seasons ago? It’s amazing to see a show capable of picking up plot points and continuing to thread them through in such a way. Oh, how I love this show.

There was an homage to old-school horror films in black and white, Halloween (it took them 4 seasons to get to Halloween?), an after school special, a brilliant out-take to the theme Eye of the Tiger, a very meta episode (now with slash!), prophets, and an overdose of angels. It was a very tongue-in-cheek season, but underneath it all, there was beautiful symbolism, as we gradually learn why Dean is so tortured – he started torturing souls himself – and what this meant for the season – this act broke the very first seal to release Lucifer – and why the angels pulled him out – the first man to start it is the only man who can stop Lucifer. EEP!

Meanwhile, Sam gradually fell to the dark side, indulging deeper in demon blood, provided by New Ruby who sucked. Seriously. I was actually a fan of Ruby – she was portrayed brilliantly and you never knew whether you could trust her or not, and begrudgingly started to trust her towards the end of season 3 – but this one just sucked. I did not want to trust her because I hated her so much.

So, we came down to the wire – Sam is not only sleeping with a demon possessing a dead body (ewwww) and gaining in strength, but Dean is yet again in turmoil and carrying the entire world on his shoulders, attempting to save Sammy from his fate. (And attempting to deny his attraction to the lush angel Castiel – come on, we all saw the eyefuckage going on there!)

And then they fight and break up. Dean tends to his wounds with Bobby until the angels put him into a little green room, awaiting the apocalypse, while Sammy makes his own demon road trip to the church where Lilith awaits him.

And here, it all comes full circle. For you see, this has been Ol’ Yellow Eyes goal all along. This was his game plan. The reason he made those kids special, killed several mothers and then got them to pick one another off, was to find the strongest one of them all – the one who would be able to kill the first demon. This is the final seal, and this was Ol Yellow Eye’s game plan all along.

How freaking cool is that???????

Now, Dean discovers the angels want the apocalypse because they want to swipe the slate clean. Luckily, Catsiel breaks him out but he’s too late – Sammy kills Lilith and releases Lucifer.

And now, Ruby reveals she’s also been playing them all along and has secretly been working with both Yellow Eyes and Lilith to lure Sammy to the dark side so this very event can occur.

And then Dean kills her! And I scream ecstatically and dance singing, ding dong, the bitch is dead……

And end season, on the boys grasping each other (together again!), watching the ground break up as Lucifer makes his long-awaited comeback…and leaves wanting more.

This season was pure brilliance, and also improved in the ratings – although that may have something to do with the angels finally coming into play. For a show about the supernatural, they stuck it out with hell and demons for long enough, and I always knew they’d have to bring the other side into it. Of course, I’m not a big fan of the mythology, as I’m not actually a believer, but considering how ridiculous the show is overall, I can overlook it as fiction. After all, I think the Bible is fiction, so it’s not much of a stretch.

I don’t know where to begin with a high point – In the Beginning was the best episode, coming very close to the best episode of the entire show (and yet it still can’t trump Devil’s Trap…I don’t think anything can!). There’s so much that went right this year – Sammy’s descent into darkness, Dean discovering what he really did, breaking out of hell…it’s hard to choose just one.

The weak pint – well besides the overbearing mythology – would have to be Dean’s mopiness. Come on, he spent the entire season crying woe is me! Where’s the tough as nails hunter we first met? Then again, where’s the brainiac normal Sam? He lost the plot too – but at least we can blame his behaviour on losing his brother!

It’s a critical point now for the show – where do they go after this? I hope it can only continue to improve, although it seems we’re moving into the final season. So I’ll be enjoying every single moment there is left and waiting impatiently for the DVD.

Gossip Girl – my guilty pleasure

i do love her. gossip girl, that is. And while I initially was drawn into this show because it was narrated by the delightful Veronica Mars, the drama, frivolity and pure guilty nastiness of the characters just kept me there.

There is always a fear with the sophomore season for any show with such a brilliant premier season. And although GG did lose the plot from time to time, overall the season held together beautifully and kept the twists coming.

Although we all fell in love with Serena and Dan to begin with, the Blair and Chuck relationship hd crept out of the woodwork throughout the first seson, very similar to Veronica and Logan from VM, the best teen show I have ever seen.

After the fallout at the end of the season, this one was all about Blair and Chuck denying how much they love each other.I will admit to squeeing with glee when Chuck finally comes forward and tells her he loves her.

Wecontinue the back-and-forth see-saw with Serena and Dan, and Rufus and Lily, throwing in Lily’s shock secret – she had Rufus’ child back in the day and put him up for adoption. Well. That could throw a spanner into the works. When they go and find the parents, they are dismayed to find their son died…only for it to be revealed to the audience the parents only said that in order to keep Lily and Rufus away from their child – which is actually an awesome little twist.

Dan had an affair with the teacher who took away Blair’s dream of Yale and while many did not like the storyline, I actually did – anything to pull Serena and Dan apart, plus with people like them, I’m surprised there weren’t more illicit trysts with teachers going on. Of course, now that both Dan and Nate have slept with odler women maybe it’s time for one of the ladies to pick up an older gentleman?

Vanessa lost her morals along the way, but has become more likeable, Nate seemed to disappear for episodes at a time, and then eye-fucked Dan with smouldering looks whenever possible. Yum. Jenny lsot the plot, gave up school, became a designer, and then went back to school, and inevitably became Queen Bee, in some weird surmountable way – and I never realised B’s little fashionistas were a year below.

Eric was sorely under-utilised – I love him. More Eric, please! Chuck’s father died, leaving him the sole heir and to be screwed over by his uncle (Who screwed his girlfriend, but now we’re just getting complicated), and Georgina came back after Serena’s deightful boyfriend screwed everyone over and they needed a way to make her ex-friend pay. Which of course didn’t work, leaving Serena in jail and an opportunity for a terrific flashback episode to Lily’s younger days, a spin-off which will now never happen as the CW prefers to throw money at crappy remakes of awesome 90’s shows.

Oh, and our gangly crew graduated.

High point? So many. But the final episode was jsut brilliant – Gossip Girl’s final gift to the graduating class is to reveal all of their secrets, as she reveals one clue – she is graduating with them. And how can we forget Chuck’s admission of love to Blair? Oh, we all squeeed at that one, didn’t we?

Low point would have to be the plodding mid point, before Chuck’s dad died and everything kind of exploded into a frenzy of drama. It got a little dull. Not to mention Nate and Blair getting back together momentarily. WTF?

This show is my guilty little pleasure. There is no way I can miss an episode of this frivolous little show with its explitative drama and naughty teens. But shh…I’ll never tell.

Gossip Girl, never leave us. And don’t reveal yourself at all – after all, we know you who you are, V.