Blue Castle

Thanks! And I forgot about Eleanor Visyak--yeah, she was great. It made me sad at the end of the season when she became "Yet Another Recurring Female Character Who's Killed Way Too Early."

(I hope it's okay to just jump in and play, and I hope I'm playing properly. I only watched season 6 for the first time about 2 weeks ago!) This was a weird season. It had a lot of good ideas but almost none of them were fully executed (the Campbells!). I disliked the first half of season 6, but I liked a lot of the "Castiel goes dark with the best of intentions" stuff and the "Sam dealing with his literal tortured soul" stuff in the second half. I also really liked "Like a Virgin"--I'm bummed it's been voted out already because I think I was almost as happy as Dean was to finally have Sammy back (and I always enjoy happyDean as well as sillyDean, so I also loved the slapstick with sword in the stone). Also, the Winchester hug in "Like a Virgin" made up for the crappy reunion we got in "Exile on Main Street." ++Weekend at Bobby's ++The Man Who Knew Too Much --Exile on Main Street 39 - Frontierland 33 - Appointment in Samarra 33 - Weekend at Bobby's 29 - The French Mistake 23- The Man Who Would Be King 23 - Mommy Dearest 21 - The Man Who Knew Too Much 19 - Live Free or Twihard 13 - The Third Man 13 - My Heart Will Go On 11 - You Can't Handle the Truth 11 - Clap Your Hands If You Believe 07 - Two and a Half Men 05 - Exile on Main St. 05 - Caged Heat In flagrante with the King of Hell All Dogs Go to Heaven Unforgiven Mannequin 3: The Reckoning Like a Virgin Family Matters And Then There Were None Let it Bleed

I've only started watching Supernatural recently on netflix, but it's really nice to see that almost every episode has some discussion here! I agree that this is the best of season 5 (and that was a great season) and in fact, this may be my favorite episode of the entire series (that I've seen so far). Mainly because the future seems really, believably grim (the hoarding toliet paper line is hilarious but also lends some good realism to the situation) but also because I think this episode nicely explores the importance of both the Dean and Sam sibling bond and the Dean and Cas friendship. The Dean and Sam thing is spelled out explicitly (and I also like how Dean's choice in this episode to take Sam back really does save them both throughout the season) but Cas' importance to Dean is simply shown without being heavily emphasized. One of my favorite things is how Future Cas is this goofy love guru without any special angel powers, but he's still always willing to die for Dean (even crazy future Dean). I know there's this whole Destiel thing (and I can see it) but for me Cas is important to Dean because he's the person Dean always deserved but never got until he went to hell. He's like a brother that Dean doesn't have to constantly worry about (and that's not Sam's fault, it's their childhoods' fault, but still). So I love how he saves Dean from Zach and just says, "We had an appointment." Good old Cas. But everything in this episode is good. I was impressed with Jared Padalecki's take on Lucifer and I also felt for him at the end when he's so grateful that Dean is taking him back. I even like how the woman in Future Dean's crew is written and I wish maybe she'd turn up later in the main timeline.

I have a feeling it's worded to make us think prostitution, but it'll probably be something like nude modeling/nude photos. There was already that one episode when Mickey and Ian were at that guy's loft party and he took artistic nude shots of hot guys. I really hope Ian doesn't become a prostitute because that would just be way too depressing. It already makes me really sad that he went from dreaming of West Point to dropping out of school and stripping.

Oh, man, I could talk about the Shameless timeline ALL DAY (for some reason I get really obsessed wtih show's timelines). Like CarolMK said, I think on the show the total amount of time passed is about 2 years (to get really technical about it, I think it's been 2 years and 2 or 3 months). Of course some of the characters have magically aged three years, though. At least most of the time the amount of time passing between seasons made sense--until you get to the break between season three and four. They end season three in December and they start season four in October/November (Fiona going to the Bears' game) but Svetlana and Carol are still pregnant and I think it's only supposed to be a few months after Ian left for the military? I think the writer's often revise the timeline later as they revise what they want to do/what season they want to be in and then the audience just has to go with it.

Another dream Emmy ballot thing-y with the usual suspects. Alan Sepinwall also placed Shameless on his list of best "comedies" and Noel Fisher on his list of best supporting comedy actors. It's nice to see Noel Fisher getting so much critical recognition for this past season. Sepinwall hasn't posted Best Actress in a Comedy yet, but I hope Emmy Rossum will be on his list.

That is one of my favorite episodes. A murder mystery with a huge wasp as the culprit! I absolutely adore Gareth Robert' episodes because of how funny, crazy, and touching they are. I know he's a long shot, but I'm hoping for him to take over as show-runner when Moffat finally leaves. As much as I like "Rose" I would actually start with "Father's Day" or the "Empty Child" two-parter. I think the first season of new Who is very uneven and when I watched it, it wasn't until the last half of that season that I sort of "got" the show and understood what it was about.

Oh, I just saw this even though you wrote it two months ago! I agree. I really want to see Monica again and they've now got a really good reason to bring her back.

TV Line put Shameless on its dream Emmy ballot for best "comedy." They also put Noel Fisher in their dream list of best supporting comedy actors, and Emmy Rossum in their list of best leading actress in a comedy

I think that the amount of bullshit transgender people must have to wade through on a near daily basis is probably SO high that if there's a weekly line on Drag Race that takes away their enjoyment of the show or makes them feel not included (when the show wants to be all about inclusion and fun)--why not take it out? I don't think it's about being overly sensitive so much as it's about good manners. The whole point of good manners is that everyone feels welcome.

I started watching about midway through season 1 when it was first airing. I stayed initially for Fiona--I really enjoyed Emmy Rossum's acting and I always like shows that have strong female lead characters. Parts of the show put me off (there's this element of Shameless when Frank does something HORRIBLE and it's kind of treated as funny that bothers me) but all the stuff at the end of season 1 with Monica I thought was brilliant so I kept with it. (I've also loved Chloe Webb ever since China Beach, another show that John Wells wrote for). One of my favorite moments is when Fiona is arguing with Monica about taking Liam and Fiona says "You were my mother!" In second season I really enjoyed the entire 'Lip leaves home' storyline when he's desperate to both avoid being successful and also to avoid becoming his father. One of Shameless' most touching moments for me is when Lip finally returns home in the finale and they all run to hug him. And, again, I loved the Monica story that year. That scene when Fiona comes home to find that her parents took the family's savings and now Monica is too depressed to even leave her bed--man, that's a good scene. Also, all the stuff with Monica's suicide attempt. One of the few times I really liked Jimmy Steve was when he and Fiona clean up Monica's blood together. For me, it was only this year that I started rooting for Ian and Mickey. While I felt incredibly bad for Mickey in season 3, I didn't think he'd ever be able to accept himself enough to have a healthy relationship with Ian. I love what the writers did with Mickey in season 4--it was an actual positively happy story (and god knows the show needed it to balance out against the Fiona stuff) to watch Mickey start to accept himself and then realize that maybe he could do and say the things he always wanted to. Beginning the season with Mickey only having a crumpled up photo of Ian hidden in his bathroom, to ending it with Ian in his bed and the whole world knowing that they're a couple--that was really exciting to watch. And I believed the whole thing because it was so well written and Noel Fisher was absolutely amazing. Even with the prospect of Ian's manic depression--I feel like those two will eventually be okay because they've come through so much together.

I haven't seen that much 20th Century Who, but Tegan is definitely my favorite classic companion (well, maybe she ties with Romana). Is she really not that popular? For new Who, Martha, Donna, and Amy are my favorite companions (in that order) and 10 and 11 basically tie for my favorite doctor. I think 9 would be right up there (he has some amazing moments) but I feel like one season wasn't enough to get to know him. I also love Paul McGann and Peter Davison. I've watched a fair amount of Tom Baker episodes but I don't really get why he was SO popular. He was fun, but I didn't really connect with him.

That's a good one. I love how Martha forces the Doctor to talk to her (really talk in a proper conversation) at the end. I don't think any other companion has ever done that. My favorite episode of hers is The Sound of Drums. That moment at the end when the whole world is being destroyed and she has to leave her family at the mercy of the Master in order to save humanity.

When Coach takes Smash to the A&M try out and tells him how much he believes in him and to "go all the way." Man, that moment gets to me! Tami telling Eric she's pregnant the night before the State Championship game. Vince coming over to the Taylor's house to tell Coach not to leave, even though they've been on the outs and Vince has been benched. The Lions beating the Panthers in 4th season. Coach's entire rant about who deserves a smoothie.

She is my favorite companion--both for who she is and for what her story arc was. I'm always amazed at the amount of crap she gets in some corners of the fandom (not here or on TWoP, though) because I just thought she was so awesome. I've written a lot at TWoP about why I loved her and her story, so I won't get into that here. But I will say that it was always believable to me that she fell in love with the Doctor because...he's the frickin' Doctor. And at that point he looked like David Tennant. I'd have fallen for him like a shot, too.

This is an article in Vanity Fair from March 31 talking about how great Mickey and Ian have been this season. ETA: And here's an article about the 4th season in Flavorwire that talks about all the things the show did right this year.

I liked that a lot, too, because you could tell when he was asking for them and then seeing that none of his true family were there, that he realized just how much he's destroyed his relationship with them. And then he was so happy to see Carl when Carl finally appeared. Maybe he'll try to mend a few fences with his kids next year? I never know with Frank--as much as he can occasionally have amazing episodes (when his mom died, last year's finale, the one with Sammi's re-created Alibi, this year's finale) he is usually responsible for many fast-forwarded scenes in my house. Him and Jimmy. And speaking of Jimmy, I loved this season so much except for the last 30 seconds. I'm really not looking forward to "Jack" and whatever crime fiasco bullshit subplots he's going to bring to the show. I never minded the character himself--and he was okay when he was just with Fiona and the Gallaghers or his 80s TV parents (I seriously loved that Julia Duffy and Harry Hamlin were his folks)--but we had TWO seasons of Estefania crap/drug cartel crap and it never worked. And seeing him be all "mysterious" and cool in the back of a car with some other random beautiful woman basically confirmed my worst fears.

Yeah, the whole depressing debacle of Mickey and Svetlana's marriage--combined with Terry's sick crap--makes me think that it would be very easy for Mandy to say "fuck that" and not attend the christening. And god only knows what's happening with her and Kenyatta. I sort of have a feeling that she might kill him or do something drastic a la Janice Soprano.

Hi, I was an interrmitent poster at TWoP for many years and lately I've really been enjoying the discussion of Shameless there. I also hope that people come over here and keep the conversation going. I think this season is maybe the best so far--even though it's a bit hard to watch (or always hard to watch).

Yeah, in the first three seasons Sheila was maybe my favorite character after Lip and Fiona. This season her character seemed superfluous and was all kooky all the time. If she became more integral to the Gallaghers (especially maybe with Fiona in jail for a while) I think that would be a really good thing. I love Joan Cusack but they need to give her something real to do.