Hellatus Check – The Twelve Week Mark
(Note From Alice – My apologies for not posting this yesterday when the 12 week mark happened, but our IP took the site down for server maintenance last night. Better late than never!).
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Hellatus Check; the twelve-week mark:
Perhaps I should call it Hellatus Check, only five weeks left – yeah, that sounds and reads so much better. Can you believe it, only five weeks left to Season 5 of Supernatural? Eric Kripke recently stated he had no belief that the show would ever go five seasons, we’re in good company when we pause in amazement and disbelief that it is almost here, Season 5.
How has everyone been doing? From frequent checks of the site people have been doing quite well. The fandom has been keeping pretty busy as well. The usual things are happening, fanfiction is being written – I’m reading gaelicspirit’s latest, she puts out wonderfully long, detailed and engaging segments every two weeks, I’m nervously beginning to check as Friday August 7th heralds the date of the expected next installment – another group is doing a caption challenge, that’s been fun to check out and vote on. Used to do that on another forum I was involved with during special celebrations, very creative and funny, I miss that group. *Sigh*
There continue to be people that are just now tuning in to the show and thus they are watching marathon sessions and then writing detailed reports of what they saw, liked, didn’t like, et cetera – hmm, that sounds familiar. *grin*
Spoilers are starting to leak, drip, trickle and sometimes even flood. I’ll take a moment to update all of you on my will power in regards to spoilers…um, I have none. Well, that’s not completely true; I have avoided all sides this time around. Sure, sure, I know there are you purists out there who are clucking and chuckling and nodding knowingly saying that there haven’t been any sides to avoid. Hey, not my fault that my effort at remaining sides free this time was helped along by the complete and total absence of any such spoilery sides. I’ll take whatever assistance I can get as recovery is a process and most successful when there are people around to support said process. Thankfully the casting department of Supernatural heard of my plight and rushed their assistance. Thank you.
I picked up the latest issue of the Supernatural magazine. After May’s debacle I didn’t wait too long this time, five days after it hit the stands, I picked it up — bought it and everything too, no time honored read and browse at newsstand for me, no way, I’m hardcore, I plunked down cash. Had to be done. I’m slowly working my way through it, savoring it.
The interview with Jared and Jensen is fantastic. For all the folks out there who can’t get off the ‘Sam is dissed, Sam is thought of as nothing but prideful and arrogant or easily manipulated and thus not Kripke’s favorite’ bandwagon, you really need to read Jared’s take on the whole thing. Sure, I know he ‘could’ be lying and putting up a really brave front, however, I get the feeling that he truly means what he’s saying; he likes what happened to Sam in season 4 and he’s thrilled that season 5 is going in the direction it’s going. That’s all I’ll say there ‘cause I promised to not spoil things…if you want to know more, pick up a copy. If you’re really hard hit and can’t afford it, there really isn’t anything wrong with standing at the newsstand and browsing. If nothing else, read the Jared and Jensen article, it’s refreshing to hear from ‘the boys’ and to know that despite the sharpening of the supposed fans’ claws that have been sharpening for a while now, the actors who have to say the lines and develop the emotions to present the performance are thrilled with what they are doing. Whee!
Good news on the Season 4 DVD front, Elle let it be known several weeks ago that she was finally able to pre-order her copies. Needless to say, once I knew my SPN-sis was in the clear, I went online and put in my pre-order. Now I have to follow up on it as my credit card has suddenly been changed. Appears someone’s database was hacked and my credit card was among those compromised. Fortunately no one got my credit or my ID – whew, they’d have thrown that back quick! – but my credit card company decided to go the safe route and thus closed down my account and issued me a new card. Now I got to make sure there’s no disruption in my Season 4 DVD arrival – the things I must do *dramatically wipes brow*
CW finally figured out which episode they are going to drop from the repeats in order to run up to the premiere on September 10th…Sex and Violence, you do not get a third viewing this time around. We’ll save you for the DVDs.
Speaking of DVDs, I have to do some research and quick. Last season I had trouble, lots of trouble, with my weekly recording of Supernatural. For some reason the DVDs would stop recording, just stop. Then I’d get a message on the screen telling me the DVD wasn’t properly formatted for recording. Huh? (especially after said DVD had recorded several episodes prior w/o trouble) I had specifically encountered this problem the year before last and asked the guys at a major box store retailer (I won’t do any product/retailer placement here) and I was assured that the DVDs they directed me to would not do this. Wrong. Sometimes it happened during advertisements and I could quickly regroup, I usually pause during advertisements. Then I got nervous so I stopped pausing and simply recorded the whole hour, annoying advertisements and all – I know they pay the bills for the network, I just don’t have to like them.
Finally, the worst offense happened during Lucifer Rising…first it cut out during the advertisements, and I wasn’t paused at all, then when I found another DVD and put it in it cut out during a scene (thankfully Alice posted the scene on her site for me so I could view it multiple times to my little Supernaturally obsessed heart’s content). Now, with only five weeks left before Season 5 I have to get busy and solve my horrible dilemma. Better put that to the top of the to do list, laundry, groceries, oil change, pay quarterly taxes, all that stuff can slip down a bit, not big priorities.
Not much to report here in this the third Hellatus check, more rambling than anything, how can I possibly compete with all the awesome goodies coming from July’s Comic Con, I can’t and I won’t even try. I’ve got a few articles left in the hopper to finish and send off and another one or two might pop into my brain for typing and sending. We’re winding down though and my list of ideas is dwindling down a bit as well, all the better.
I’m so thankful for everyone’s participation in this hellatus support group that has taken us 12 weeks already gone, we’re so close gang, keep it up. I’m thrilled there have been some that have offered their ideas and creative writing and logo making talents to ease this long wait, we’re not out of the woods yet but at least the wait is much more manageable.
Hang in there, as of August 6th, 2009, at 9:00 EST, only five weeks, can you believe it? Five weeks and we’ll have the beginning of Season 5…whoo hoo!
Thanks for reading.
Elle2
Alice in Quick Update you said ‘More meta episodes are coming after Kripke had his fun with the online fan base. There’s a great story behind the creating on “Monster At The End of This Book” that I’ll share.’ Did I miss the story? I’m dying to hear it. I think I’ve read all of the articles and don’t remember any reference to that. BTW, I really enjoy your site – fabulous stuff! (MAD are my initials)
I had the same problem DVRing some episodes – I got a message “Record blocking signal detected” – I think it’s coming from the network.
You know Elle2, sometimes old tech is the right tech. I record all the episodes on my VCR. You know, just in case something happens and I miss the show. 😮 shocking, I know.
Then I find it online later and download it commercial free for repeated viewings until the season dvd’s get released. If I had a TIVO I certainly wouldn’t worry about all this effort but until that time comes…..
Good luck with your DVR!
I go the download route with Tigershare. But does anyone know where I can do that legally? I get it off a fan site, so I’m not encouraging commercial pirates, but I’m still pretty uneasy – I love the show and wouldn’t mind paying a reasonable sum. Directions to a conscience-salving legal pay site would be very useful.
I free download the new episodes off the torrents a couple of days after they air in the US, if you wait a day or so the dodgy ones are usually flagged by other users … I know this is illegal but no one’s actually losing by it as I watch the eps as soon as they come on real telly in England and then I buy the box set so the creators aren’t losing any money … I just get my fix a bit earlier than I would otherwise!
I’m like Elle2 spoilerwise … I’m pathetic. I can resist everything except temptation, so if I waited until ITV2 pulled their finger out and showed the shows I’d have spoiled the whole season before I saw anything … 😆
Hi, all…MyMADWorld, Sing4, Tigershire, Faellie, Suze,
Thanks for all the great suggestions…I’m gonna do something that goes soooo against my grain — I’m gonna see what the manufacturer suggests for products to use with it. If that doesn’t work, well the DVR has a VCR with it as well so I’ll go both routes. Like most of you I’m not sure which sites are dodgy and which ones aren’t so I like to steer clear of those, plus I prefer to watch them on my tv not my computer.
Better get cracking with figuring this out, not too much time left! Whee!
For those wondering about the legality of downloading the episodes. My understanding, for here in Canada anyway, it that once the show has aired it’s legal to download it for your own consumption. The idea being that it would be similar to you recording it on your own as it aired.
And Elle2, I prefer to watch them on my TV too so I burn them to a rewriteable DVD off my computer and just keep adding the shows as they come up. 🙂
For the record, this site played a major role in helping me survive the last 12 weeks, so thanks guys. I can’t believe we’re up to 5 seasons either. It seems like only last week season 1 was slowly wrapping me around it’s little finger
And omg we only have five weeks left!! Yaaayy!!
As for the downloading, SN doesn’t even air in my country anymore, so for me it’s download or die 😐 Except, my laptop always seems to have some problem or another, so even downloading becomes difficult. Most of the time now I only get to watch it online, without downloading it. And I have to catch the episodes the day after they air in the US, just after people start to upload the episode, but before the sites delete them. By the third or fourth day after an episode airs, it already becomes difficult to find working links. So, the DVDs are a really valuable treat for me.
Hi, Tigershire and Narcissus.
First off, I actually did it, that’s right, I read the instructions for my DVD (GASP!) There was a lot of gobbldygook that if I read it three more times, it will make sense. Already there is a flicker of a lightbulb going off in my head letting me know where the issue was. So, I’ll hopefully (hope, hope, hope) be all set for S5. Thank you all for your encouraging suggestions.
Narcissus, I’m so glad you’ve found assitance with our hellatus support group, for me it’s been (and is still) so helpful to be writing and reading and preparing and enjoying this site and I totally agree, Alice’s plan to help this hellatus go by faster has succeeded as far as I can tell (I still have hair left that’s not shredded or gray, major victory)
So, watch that countdown clock continue to countdown…and keep in my, our very own Tigershire is headed to the Vancouver Con the end of this month and she promises to unmush her brain enough to at least gush something for us. I’m looking forward to it!
🙂
We have advanced techncial ways to take the recordings from the TiVo via our home network and then put them on DVD. I also copy them to my computer. We’re primo geeks in this household!