Hellatus Long
This year’s Hellatus seems especially long. Oh, wait a minute, it is long, an additional 15 days over last year! (although to be fair, only 8 days longer than the year before) Still, spoiled I am.
This year’s Hellatus seems especially long. Oh, wait a minute, it is long, an additional 15 days over last year! (although to be fair, only 8 days longer than the year before) Still, spoiled I am.
I have to say I’m not surprised that the CW chose to start Supernatural two weeks later. Once Supernatural was re-paired with Smallville, I knew the writing was on the wall. Last year Smallville started the last week of September and since these shows were ‘together again’ I figured back in May this was where we were headed. I thought I was prepared for the extra 15 days, not so much.
This bit of drivel I’ve got coming out is simply my way of passing some of the remaining of Hellatus with my brothers and sisters at The Winchester Family Business. We’ve come a long way (and a long time this year, 17 weeks down) and with some company and positive thinking we’ll make it the rest of the way.
Most of the summer, TVwise, has been pretty okay in my book. I sorta like Burn Notice and have begun to enjoy Psych and really like White Collar (USA’s characters welcome works for me) so since late June and up until last night (September 8) I’ve had one to three shows a week to enjoy that are new and fresh. It really, really helped.
Since at the end of The Vampire Diaries first season I started watching (somewhere around episode 17 where Stefan got kidnapped and tortured—hey, I like my guys beaten up with another brother coming to the rescue…that’s why I like Supernatural so much) I had been watching. In my opinion TVD is no SPN but that’s okay. I’m happy with only one SPN in my life – can’t take the angst of two! Still, I enjoyed the reruns of TVD since they were all new to me. So this week is a mixed bag of good and bad since White Collar and Psych both ended their summer runs and tonight TVD starts its second season.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode and hope for a good second season. While Vampires has too many extraneous plots going on with characters I care little about the majority of the action revolves around Stefan and Damon and Elena/Katherine so I’m looking forward to that. The rest of the characters on the show hold little to no interest for me, especially Jeremy who I find to be whiny and the actor (the great Steve McQueen’s grandson) is no Steve McQueen, thin, transparent, weak are all adjectives I have for his acting ability. Still, the premise is of the triangle (or square?) of the brothers and Elena/Katherine so I’ll enjoy the show on Thursdays at 8 p.m.
I’m willing to give Nikita a try as well. It’s refreshing that the lead in this show isn’t some 20 year old spy trying to pretend she’s got this complex past, rather the lead looks like someone formidable and able to contend and someone who truly does have a complex past. In other words, she’s got some years on her! Not so many I can’t believe she can physically do the things she’ll do but enough that I can believe she’s got some gravitas. Don’t know if I’ll be impressed or not but there isn’t anything else on Thursdays I’m looking to watching at 9 p.m. so I’ll give it a try.
Surprise, surprise. Last night I watched Hellcats. I was certain I would have no interest in this show whatsoever but I found myself enjoying it. The plot is thin, the acting in some cases is non-existent or perhaps it’s kinder to say formulaic which is also my description of the storylines but still, the gymnastics and dance routines are tightly executed and some of the characters are intriguing.
I kinda like Marti (or however you spell her name, admittedly I’m not that into it to look up whether it’s Marti or Marty, don’t mean to offend anyone, remember I’m just rambling here anyway) She’s smart and sarcastic and yet kind enough to be concerned about someone who she mocks one minute but doesn’t truly wish to see injured and when that someone is injured she’s upset.
The big knock I have against Marti is two-fold – and neither are her fault, darn writers and darn fashion conscious Hollywood – first off, I ride a bike for exercise and yep, I’ve had two bad spills in the last five to six years. Both times I landed on my head and both times, while suffering large amounts of road rash and in one case bruising on my vertebra, I had no injuries to my head because I wear a helmet. Marti’s flowing hair and determined expressions notwithstanding, it’s dangerous to ride at night, during the day and on the streets without a helmet. Bad, Hollywood! Bad, CW. You send a bad and dangerous message.
Okay. Public Service Announcement aside, the other knock I have against Marti is that the character is so ‘been there, seen that’. So here we have an extremely beautiful girl who is brilliant, has a mother who is a drunk and scatterbrain and the daughter is disdainful and dismissive of her, so much so that she can’t even stomach having her mother around her to watch her and cheer her on. Sheesh, and I’m supposed to like this character when she is so disrespectful of her mother? I’d find her more sympathetic if she had suffered the death of her father during one of her routines and that she had adored her father and he had cheered her on in her endeavors and the thought of going on without him was too much to bear. And as for her mother, weren’t we already told her mother was devastated after the death of her dad? (not sure on that point as I only watched the episode once and wasn’t taking notes, nor did I tape it so don’t know. If anyone remembers that point, feel free to let me know.)
Anyway, I’d rather the character a bit more sympathetic rather than she’s this wonder girl who can in one day fix her scholarship troubles all the while dismissing not only cheerleaders but her very own mother (by far the greater of the two sins).
While I like that Marti and Savannah have quickly put aside their conflicts (as that gets extremely boring) I have to say I find Savannah overly sweet and frankly obnoxious. Hopefully this will develop a bit as the episodes progress and Savannah won’t just be the sweet blank-faced little cheerleaders’ cheerleader that has been presented thus far.
As for the hapless Alice, well she’s got all the usual nasty moves down I’d expect. Stealer of towels and robes and voter against the new possible star flyer as well as luring of mother into the snare to ruin Marti’s premier at the qualifiers…seems a bit silly to cut your nose off to spite your face, Missy. If Marti fails so goes the whole squad and you as well. I saw it coming from the moment the tryouts began but still, so old and tired.
Why am I interested in watching Hellcats next week? It’s not for the strong storylines that’s for sure. I appreciate gymnastics and strong athletic performances. I’ve got to say, for all the silliness of the premise the dance moves are well-done. I don’t know anything about choreography so I’ll just say that I enjoyed watching the routines we got. It’s evident that the main actors were chosen and have trained hard to produce good dance routines. If the show manages to keep a couple of these moments in the spotlight each week I’ll enjoy watching, if for nothing else than the athletics.
I was hopeful to see the qualifiers last night but realized that wasn’t to happen when they were walking down the hallway and I looked at the clock and saw there was only a couple minutes to go. Alas, hopefully we’ll get the routine next week. Seems only fair since it was the big buildup this week.
As for its chances? Who knows. I’m no pundit on what works and doesn’t work on TV. So far there’s little sex although lots of sexiness. It’s absurd to believe that males and females would share the same bathroom/locker room but hey, it’s the CW. At least these kids are all in college and any sex that eventually does happen (it is the CW) won’t be a celebration of statutory rape that seems to be the norm on shows such as Gossip Girl and 90210. Sure, I’m truly supposed to believe no laws were broken with 90210 and it’s now third season kicking into gear. When the show first debuted there was sex between the characters and now three years later they’re seniors…I can do the math. Another bad example from the CW and Hollywood.
So, Hellatus is long but it is coming to an end. We’ve got photos springing up all over the place from the shooting of Supernatural (thank you to all you dedicated folks who live in and around Vancouver for making these available.) We’ve got titles (or potential titles) for the first nine episodes and by the time the show begins they’ll be filming the eighth episode (or just about to).
I’m hoping for some previews soon. Last night I saw previews for everything but Life Unexpected, Smallville and Supernatural. We may not get them tonight but I’ll be watching with hope. Hey, I might even rewatch Hellcats and Nikita tomorrow night just for the chance of a Supernatural preview.
Fifteen days to go, my friends, we’re almost there.
Thanks for reading, Elle2
Season 2 of Vampire Diaries was amazing! I love all the characters and welcome how they all intertwine. There is real meat to this show. And there is a major reveal in almost every episode. Looking forward to an epic season 2!
And of course can’t wait for my Supernatural to come back too!
Sorry… ‘the premiere’ of season 2 of TVD was amazing!
I have TVD and Nikkita on series record! I can’t wait to see what Catherine is up to. More than that .. I need my Sam fix! Go Go Supernatural!
You have no idea how much I devote myself to USA during Hellatus. 😛 Their characters get me through it! White Collar, Burn Notice, this year Covert Affairs because that was actually surprisingly good, Psych (it’s hilarious and awesome if you know good eighties references…or if you’re like me and pretend to), the other one that was on on Thursday whose name I forget.
I watched Hellcats and found the characterization a little ludicrous too, but my cousin who never looks past the screen at tv enjoyed it. I’m going to keep watching it too. And, surprisingly, I loved Nikita (over the whole summer, having not watched the CW, I was calling it Nik-i-teet-a. Nikita sounds a lot better, haha). I usually hate girl power shows because there’s no sexy guys in them and I don’t like many girl characters but I appreciated Maggie Q. And the character of Nikita is really badass. If anyone else watched it, can you clear it up for me: Was that guy Daniel who died the guy at the training center? Was his name Daniel too, or was I imagining that? And then she didn’t recognize him so I was sure I was imagining. If that was revealed in the last ten minutes forgive me…I was watching it on my DVR last night and I fell asleep.
I’m going to finish Nikita and watch TVD today after I write my AP US History DBQ. : ( That class sucks beyond belief.
I wasn’t going to watch Hellcats,, but decided to give it a try. I enjoyed it. It’s kind of a one-dimensional type show, so I’m not quite sure how long I will continue watching. Marti’s bonding with her roommate so quickly kind of seemed out of place for me. One minute they were snarking/hating each other and then all of a sudden they are BFF’s spilling their angst? I don’t know, don’t completely buy it. We’ll have to see.
This Hellatus has been too long and we can’t get started with new episodes of SPN soon enough. But thank goodness for TNT and USA channels and their summer fare. And I recently discovered this show on SyFy called Haven. Very interesting show and it also deals with the supernatural and I find myself thinking often while watching that this would be a good place to bring in the Winchester Brothers to help out. I also found a show a year or so ago on CBS called Flashpoint. This is a canadian show and for a year they showed it during the regular season, but then they flipped and started showing it during the summer. This is, to my surprise, a really good show and I found myself instantly liking these characters and rooting for them. But, alas, all these shows have ended their runs and it is time for a new TV season. Yay! Sept 24 cannot get here soon enough!!!!!!!