Burning TV questions that only time can answer/things we're worried about:

1. Will they drag Pretty Little Liars on too long?
2. Will Supernatural ever be good again? Will Homeland be able to match the quality of its first season next year? 
3. Will Breaking Bad and Dexter have endings worthy of them? And can they please let Jesse Pinkman live?
4. Will George R.R. Martin's sixth book be better than four and five? Will he actually end it on the seventh? Can he finish on time to stay ahead of the show?
5. Will the next crop of new shows be better than the new shows last year, of which there was maybe one good effort?
6. Has Once Upon a Time completely lost its thunder, and will the show ever make sense? Ditto The Vampire Diaries.
7. Will the 24 reunion be good, or will it be like 24:Redemption, the awful movie?
8. Will they make more of the (still excellent) Arrested Development series or will the haters shut it down?
9. Will people inexplicably keep watching Arrow and keep it on the air?
10. Will Bunheads ever have anything resembling a plot?

ERGHHHH

New York/Puppy Catch Up Post part 1. Supernatural and Mindy

One of us went to New York City. Also, one of us got puppies. If you've never had puppies, you don't know what time-consuming maniacs they are. Trust us. They take a lot of work. But TV waits for no man (or dog), so a lot has happened on the Tube since we last talked to you guys.

Game of Thrones premiered, finally. Thank the good Lord. We love that show so much we named the puppies after a couple of incestuous Lannisters. The puppies are also male and female babies from the same litter. They are already trying to mount each other. They will be fixed ASAP. No one wants a Joffrey.

Supernatural season 8, episodes 10-19
We were shocked at how little we've mentioned Supernatural this year. We've been updating and commenting on the "Supernatural Episodes You Can Skip" post a lot, so it feels like we've been discussing it. But it deserves a post. Bravo to the new showrunner from taking it from abysmal to "just okay." That's more than we could have asked for.

Supernatural. This week and last week.

By Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada (CFC in L.A. 35) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last week, Supernatural treated us to a funny, Loony Tunes-themed episode for all of us who enjoyed Saturday morning cartoons. For the rest of us, there was Castiel trying to be a hunter alongside the brothers. Sadly, that didn't go well, dashing all of our dreams. See, we've said before that we want Sam to die and for Castiel to join Dean full time, hunting. But that might not work so well. Dean didn't seem to keen on taking Castiel's help, and Dean was rolling his eyes at Castiel way too much for our taste. We were like, "Don't ruin it, Winchesters! Just let him be weird!" They wouldn't even let Castiel ride shotgun. How are they missing that he's adorable?

The episode was original, well paced, and unpredictable. It was missing some of the dull glumness that bogs down this show's worst episodes. It was in this episode that we found out that Amelia's husband, Don, never died. We felt a little bad for Sam. We liked Amelia's father because of how perceptive he was, and we were rooting for him to start liking Sam.

This week (last night) was the midseason finale. There was sort of a cliffhanger. Sam left Amelia with her husband, because he was trying to do the right thing, but Amelia showed up at the end. We can't wait for her to find out what Sam's day job really is. We're glad Benny is the real deal and that he and his great granddaughter lived. Sam needs to just listen to Dean all the time. Dean is always right. We didn't remember Martin very well, but we are thrilled that he's dead.

Martin was so annoying it made us like Sam during this hour. Man, what a pain. We can't believe Sam sent him to keep tabs on Benny. What a dumb idea, Sam. Okay, maybe Sam still IS our least favorite character to ever be on this show, now that we think about it. Of course Sam is mad at Dean, even though Dean was 100% right about everything this entire time. We'd love Sam to run off to Mexico with Amelia and leave Dean alone, but we bet they'll make up within two episodes next year.

And so ends the first half of the season with the new showrunner. We're fans. It needed the new blood. Supernatural still isn't as good as it was in its best seasons, 2-4 (and most of 5), but it's a heck of a lot more watchable than the last two years. The "Bs" are an achievement for Supernatural these days. Too bad the LOST people can't get ahold of this show. It's nerdy enough to intrigue them, and now they can write flashbacks for it too! Although it looks like Sam and Dean's flashbacks to what they did last summer are over. Thank God, in Sam's case. Those weren't very good, and they were often poorly acted. See you in 2013, Winchesters.

Hunteri Heroici grade: B
Citizen Fang grade: B-

Modern Family makes a familiar joke, we can't look away from AHS, Arrow makes us snore. Supernatural brings back our sweet hottie, and Nashville picks up the pace

By Rubenstein  Uploaded by MyCanon (Ty Burrell) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Modern Family- Mystery Date
Phil's plot should have been gold, but we've already seen the same mix up situation on Frasier, and it was funnier on that show. The whole straight man on a date with a gay guy plotline is best left in the past. We think TV should move on from that joke. Gloria and Jay's new mural was a wonder to behold. It was so ugly! And hilarious. We enjoyed Jay and Mitchell's interactions. Alex and Claire had the least funny plot, but it had substance. Manny and Luke crashing Bar Mitzvahs could have been mined for more jokes. That felt like a wasted opportunity. Gloria and Cam probably shouldn't be paired. They are both cartoonish, and sometimes you need a straight man when you have two big, loud personalities. This episode was pleasant, but forgettable.
Episode grade: B-

Arrow- Legacy
After a good episode last week, this week's was a little boring and run-of-the-mill for this show. Oliver fought bank robbers, blah blah blah. Too bad Carter and Tommy look so much alike. We can't keep them straight. We have to say, Thea is prettier than Laurel. Tommy should give that a second thought. We don't like that Thea might be jealous of Laurel in subsequent episodes. Catty girl-fighting characters give us all a bad rep. We thought Tommy and Laurel had agreed to date. When did she go off him? We missed Laurel's cop dad.
Episode grade: C+

Supernatural- A Little Slice of Kevin
Clever title there, no? This was one of the most enjoyable episodes of this current season. We were surprised, since it was a Kevin episode. This just goes to show that Supernatural is always better when Dean and Castiel are together again. We liked the sinister heavenly office woman, Naomi,s and the possible wrenches it could throw in the brothers' paths. We've always thought that a really big Big Bad needs to come onto this show in order to top the Devil. If it's God, part of us will be thrilled and interested (the other half will still be Christian and Catholic, respectively, and will make us feel like the show is attacking a loved one). It kind of needs to be God though. Seriously, how else are you going to top the apocalypse and Satan? We love Mrs. Tran. She's one of the best female characters on this show in a long time. Kevin's a little whiner though.
Episode grade: B+

Nashville- You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave)
Thank goodness Juliette has a new love interest who is age-appropriate, sweet, and not Deacon. He's a football player, he's not great, he's a quarterback, he's a goodie two-shoes, and he doesn't drink. Basically, she's dating Tim Tebow. We doubt Tebow can sing though (in fact, one of his teammates said Tebow has a bad singing voice, haha). It's nice to see Juliette be nice, not be dealing with her Crack Mom, not be all weepy and vulnerable, not be throwing her body at older men, and not be stealing. We like what's going on with Rayna, her new album, and her new producer. The election stuff is even starting to get interesting. We so hope that Teddy loses. Scarlett finally dumped Avery. Marilyn is gross. Overall, this episode moved a lot of things forward and didn't struggle creatively as much as previous weeks.
Episode grade: B+

American Horror Story- I Am Anne Frank part 2
Leeard and Ern were discussing how much better Ryan Murphy's shows have been lately. We like this season a lot better than last year. It's scarier, more creative, more fun, more disgusting, and less predictable. We really thought that was Anne Frank last week. We're glad it's not though. "Anne" should buck up. Her husband is hot. We knew she had come across Arden in her research even before the final shot. What we didn't predict was Thredson being Bloody Face, having Wendy in a cooler, and taking Lana to his nasty underground kill room. Nasty.

We have to know what that schoolteacher did about the Shelley situation. We love Demon Eunice for dropping her off at an elementary school. We hope that's not the last we see of Shelley. Or Tio Salamanca. YES, the Nazi hunter was our favorite bell ringer from Breaking Bad. He just needs to give the Nazis one of his hateful looks, and they'll surrender. Sister Jude is back to her old ways?! Intriguing and surprising. It seems that she's more into that asylum than Catholicism. Poor Kit. And Alma's alive? Maybe that will spell a happy ending for Kit.
Episode grade: A-

Supernatural brings back DJ Quarth (ugh), Nashville keeps Scarlett annoying, AHS stays crazy, Modern Family wins, and Arrow can't manage to be believable even for a second

By Josh Hallett  Uploaded by MyCanon (Sarah Hyland) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Supernatural- Southern Comfort
We like Garth about as much as Dean does. We hate when people don't have their own identites, so they start dressing and tlaking like just one other person. At least merge a couple of people together, yeesh. We know a girl who Single White Females another girl we know like crazy. Every time Girl #1 changes her hair, Girl #2 copies it. She wants to go to the same school as Girl #1, she has the same dreams and aspirations, and she buys the same clothes and shoes. It's hilarious, but sad. Garth was already annoying, but now he's doing stuff like this. We dislike him even more than Sam. Sam deserved to get screamed at, and if he attacks Benny, we hope Benny wins and kills Sam. Sam should have died at the end of season five when he went to hell with Satan.

Dean should have then found a way to get Sam transferred to heaven, teamed up with Castiel and Bobby, and continued the show with that gang instead. Sam could have guest starred when they needed a heavenly visit or ghost or something. Because Sam IS a traitor, and he HAS done the stupidest things. We keep forgiving him, and so has Dean, but not us. His girlfriend? Not better than Dean and not worth quitting the business for. She's just a woman who knew how to play hard to get. This show has the worst female characters (except for the blonde incarnation of Ruby and the Harvelle women). We liked the case, but the people on the screen need to shape up.
Episode grade: B-

Nashville-Movie It on Over
After a great pilot, this show kept meandering, tensionless and in a rut. Scarlett's storyline still isn't going anywhere. She's fighting with her insecure, putz boyfriend over the same darn thing. She should have dumped him at the end of the episode. Everyone else eked forward a little this week though. We found out what was up with Teddy and Peggy. That'll lead to nowhere good. Our fingers are crossed for a divorce. We like Juliette and Deacon as just friends, even if they are a little co-dependent. It's weird when he has sex with her, because she's so young. We're sure their relationship will go back to a romantic one, but we're enjoying the break from the skeeviness for now. We also like seeing Deacon's demons come back a little and Rayna hanging the phone up on him for good. It's cool to see her writing songs. We're also glad the addict mom went to rehab. No good songs this week.
Episode grade: B

American Horror Story- I Am Anne Frank (part 1)
Sigh. On the one hand, the last thing poor Anne Frank's memory needed was to be associated with this show. Did it have to be Anne Frank? Couldn't it have been any other Auschwitz inmate? On the other hand, the show kind of got away with it. The way Anne lived made sense. It's remotely possible. Maybe we'll soon find out that she's just crazy. Also, we thought we could trust Ryan Murphy to remember that Anne was probably bisexual (due to a few words her father edited out of her diary before publication). We guess Murphy thought they already covered the lesbian angle with Lana, so he gave Anne a dead husband. Anne is played by Franka Potente of Run Lola Run, a good, but overrated, movie.

So, Arden is actually a scary Holocaust doctor who experimented on Jews. We love that Sister Jude believes Anne. Who else laughed at the chronic masturbating guy? Lana's diversion therapy scenes were hard for us to watch. That would be a hard experience for a straight woman, let alone a gay one. Grace's imaginary flashback was disgusting. We like that she's guilty though. Shelley is being turned into one of those monsters, we think. One of the interesting things about this episode is the commentary that "it all starts with jokes." That's kind of true. Anti-Semetic jokes were being told and written in Germany decades before the Holocaust. By the time Hitler came on the scene, the groundwork was set. Yet jokes about Jews like we see on South Park are funny and actually seem to have an opposite effect.

Maybe it's the tone of the joke: whether it's satire on racists, or whether it's actually racist. Whether it's told in a judgmental way, or whether it's told good-naturedly to a Jewish friend who also jokes about your heritage. Maybe it's too dangerous, and we should scrap them altogether. Especially if Anne Frank is waiting in your local bar to attack you for telling them. This episode was completely over-the-top, with every storyline being far-fetched and absolutely disgusting. But that's this show, and we guess it's time we accepted that. Were we entertained? Yes. Were we scared? Naw.
Episode grade: B

Modern Family- Arrested
Well, we have Haley back. We're glad. She's funny. It's pretty harsh for her to get expelled completely though. It as a surprise. But this was one of the funniest episodes of the season. This year is starting to prove that there are more good one-liners in this show. Cam and Mitchell were apart, so they could only fight in the first couple of minutes. Phil stepped up, and so did Haley. We even liked Gloria and Jay's storyline. It was time to bury the hatchet between Gloria and DeDe. The flashbacks weren't kind to DeDe, who has been physically transformed for the worst in just a few short years. That's age though. It will happen to all of us. Loved the Legally Blonde reference (and that movie).
Episode grade: A

Arrow-Damaged
Deathstroke (the guy who tortured Oliver on the island) looks awesome! It's hard to pull off scary and intimidating in a supervillain costume, but he did it. That was the most interesting island flashback yet. It was good to see island enemies. Okay, it was dumb for Oliver to get himself arrested just so he'll never be suspected again, because now he has his name associated with the vigilante where it really wasn't before. He should have saved that trick for when he was being suspected. When newspapers were starting to associate his re-appearance with Arrow. Also, no one questions that rich Oliver couldn't just hire someone to pose as Arrow? Because he DID, except Dig didn't get paid. Moira is upset that someone tried to kill Oliver...even though she tried to kill Oliver on the yacht. For us, Detective Lance carried the episode. He brings some emotion to things. Oliver is a little stiff. Entertaining episode though. Easy to watch.
Episode grade: B

Yesterday's, Today (Supernatural, Arrow, Nashville, American Horror Story )

By Ewen Roberts from San Diego, CA, United States [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Supernatural- Blood Brother
If we were to describe the contents of this episode to you -- Benny's backstory, Dean creatively killing vampires, flashback to Castiel, Dean ditching Sammy for the case-of-the-week, Sam finding out about Benny, Dean being an awesome friend, betrayal, and allusions to Hemingway -- you might be fooled into thinking this was a good week. Not so. Aside from the completely unoriginal episode title, this episode was extremely boring, especially in the first half. It took Benny way to long to tell Dean his story in the car. By the time they got to Benny's maker's house, the episode was more than 20 minutes in. That's right, a phone call and a drive took that long. At least the look on Sam's face right before the credits was hilarious.
Episode grade: C

Arrow- An Innocent Man
Finally, we have an episode that was as fun as the pilot. The last two episodes had us bored and worried, but this one was serviceable entertainment, mostly thanks to its surprising ending. What an idiot! He needs to change BEFORE he goes on illegal killing sprees. Duh. We like Laurel's cop dad. We're starting to root for him. The truth is, in this show, Oliver doesn't seem that necessary. We don't get the sense that the police are incompetent or corrupt, like in Gotham. They've already caught Arrow, right? They can't be that bad, and Detective Lance doesn't seem corrupt. He keeps making us with the next book of The Dresden Files was out already...

We cringe whenever this show deals with legal matters. Having Laurel be an attorney was a poor choice for a show that already walks the line between believable and ridiculous. That judge would have stayed the execution with evidence like that. We finally realized where we'd seen Oliver's sister before. She's Agnes from Gossip Girl, the model who burned Jenny's dress collection. She's so pretty. Those cheekbones. We watch her and then fondle our own cheekbones (okay, fat cheeks) in the mirror, cursing the Lord (not really, we love him). We also saw a familiar face from Doctor Who.
Episode grade: B

Nashville- We Live in Two Different Worlds
Gunnar and Scarlett's music is so impressive that Ern, the blogger who doesn't like country music, has downloaded two of their songs. Rayna and Juliette's songs suck a bag of d***s though. This week was heavy on the drama, but at least it split Rayna and Deacon up for good. Our main complaint with this show right now is that there's no tension for the viewer and little direction. Where are we going with this? What are the stakes? Peggy and Teddy are either boning or involved in bad business together. We hope it has to do with his financial troubles because an affair would be an easy out for Rayna, and the show needs to conflict. We're having trouble tolerating Scarlett's speaking voice. She just seems like such a doormat, wet-blanket, girly-girl, twit. Nut up and dump Avery. He's a douche.
Episode grade: B

American Horror Story- Nor'easter
So, that ending ruined our lives. Ern is rarely scared by entertainment and can count the times fiction scared her on Mickey Mouse's hand. However, Ern must admit that mutilation is a good way to at least disturb. That was horrifying. Still, we've been desensitized by previous mutilation on the screen (The Last King of Scotland). Poor, poor Shelly. We blame that demon in Sister Eunice. Dr. Arden is the most messed-up person in the whole joint, bar none. Talk about Madonna/Whore issues. Talk about issues with women. What we wouldn't give to have a flashback where we meet his mother. Kit, Grace, and Lana should have kept running past the nasties. Sure, there was a storm, but Briarcliff is hell. We'd take hurricane Sandy over that place.
Episode grade: A-

Late-in-the-week dramas- Grey's, Scandal, Supernatural, TVD, and Arrow. None were Halloween themed. :-(

By lukeford.net [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

Grey's Anatomy- I Saw Her Standing There
Cristina sleeping with her boss made us so sad. Even though there's been an abortion, cheating, choking, and moving far away, we hadn't really accepted that she and Owen were over. We don't like when marriages break up, even if they are fictional. (You should have seen Ern's tumblr after Amy Poehler and Will Arnett broke up.) We still think C/O will get back together after a while. Cristina sticking up for Dr. Feeny and helping him was one of the best things about this episode. We love when she shows her heart and loyalty to her friends. Age discrimination sucks. We understand that continuing education in medicine is important, but he hadn't made a mistake yet. We love them as best friends.

When she leaves the hospital to go back to Seattle Grace (something that MUST happen), can she take Feeny with her? Cristina's time at the Mayo Clinic has been way more entertaining and relevant than we could ever have imagined, but it needs to end eventually. After everything this show has done with penises, we didn't even blink at the nut elephantiasis. Arizona's prosthetics fitter is just the thing she needed. Tough love from someone who is not her wife or Alex is going to be good for her. We hope to see more of him. It's time for her to crawl out of that anger hole she's sitting in. Avery and April are still happening. Owen is in a dark place again. We know this because a) he moved into Derek's trailer and b) he's Owen.
Episode grade: A-

Scandal- Beltway Unbuckled
Ugh. We hated Fitz giving up on Olivia. We, like her, thought it would be a good thing. We've been rooting for him to give Mellie another chance, even though she's horrible. Now, we realized we were wrong. We chuckled when Mellie told the president that he was still having wet dreams about Olivia Pope. Yeah...we'd kick him out of bed too. The Jenny case reminded us of something we've been seeing on tumblr: lack of sympathy over a death when the girl was a slut. Fortunately, people still wanted justice, even though Jenny enjoyed sex with powerful men. Does that mean the only thing people hate more than sluts are foreigner's. Possible.

The storyline where Abby is turning on Olivia, falling in love with David, and helping him with his Beautiful Mind wall is fantastic. It could go anywhere, and it could get rid of a normally useless, judgmental character we hate (Abby). It looks like the baddies are going to be Big Oil. Snooze. How typical. We bet all these writers use oil in their daily lives. Oil companies aren't heroes or anything, but demonizing them is hypocritical. We all profit from that. Huck is five seconds from becoming a full-on Dexter Morgan. He's gonna need to give that six-month chip back. Can this end well?
Episode grade: B-

The Vampire Diaries- The Rager
We love hateful, rage-filled Elena. When she vamped out at Rebekah in the bathroom in the beginning, we were so pleased. Nina has a good monster face. It's still cute, but it gets the job done. We still think Caroline should train Elena, but Damon is the next best choice. Stefan doesn't know what he's doing. He's the worst at handling being a vampire. We'd rather be Damon than a ripper, just sayin'. Stefan can't even lighten up without risking major backsliding. So Tyler cheated on Caroline, huh? Not a surprise. Klaroline shippers, rejoice!

One of us has never liked Tyler. Never ever. Klaus is a much better option. He can take the Caroline character arc to more interesting places. We don't blame Tyler. It would be hard for a guy to pass up Phoebe Tonkin. We hated the fake out where Rebekah pulled Matt's heart out. Why would they make us watch that? Not cool, show. We love hottie Matt. The ships are everywhere this week. Matt and Elena met at their old makeout spot, there was tenderness between Caroline and Stefan, Klaus fed Elena, and Meredith has to end up with someone now that Alaric is dead, right?
Episode grade: B+

Arrow- Lone Gunmen
This show needs to do something more serialized, quick. We aren't digging the superhero revenge procedural. We keep wishing this show were about Oliver's more interesting best friend. We're glad Tommy and Laurel made it official. We meet and then say goodbye to a frenemy, Deadshot, who is also killing evil, rich people, but Oliver doesn't want help. The police bumble around again, finding and doing nothing. Some parents really don't know that kids crave discipline and structure. They may be yelling at you and whining, but deep down inside, they feel safe and loved when you enforce rules. Maybe Thea can stop being an a**hole now. We're not holding our breath. HOW DOES OLIVER SPEAK RUSSIAN?!! The best thing about this episode was Dig finding out Oliver's secret. We were mostly bored during this hour though. We only want to see island stuff if it's going to be more interesting than this week's.
Episode grade: C+

Supernatural- Bitten
The found-footage episode they've been teasing was pretty fun. We liked seeing Sam and Dean as side characters, cropping up randomly and being themselves. We loved the kids spying on the brothers and commenting ("awesome"). They thought Sam and Dean were a couple too, tee hee. This episode reminded us of the excellent, smart, and entertaining movie, Chronicle, which you must see if you haven't. The movie was better than this episode, but this was one of the more entertaining Supernatural episodes in recent memory. We're glad Sam and Dean got to show a little mercy, for once. We call shenanigans on the fact that Brian was perfectly hot and could totally have gotten laid. One of our major pet peeves with TV is that nerds and losers are usually adorable and would be cool in real life. Give us real geeks! We're still liking this season a lot more than the last one.
Episode grade: B

Supernatural, Modern Family, Arrow, and Nashville

By Gage Skidmore (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Modern Family- The Butler's Escape
Any episode with a heavy focus on Luke is usually good, but the kid seemed off his game last night. The kid's acting needs to improve. Even Lily delivered her lines more convincingly this week. Cam and Mitchell only fought a little! Jay, Gloria, and Manny's story wasn't as forgettable as usual this week. We hope Alex's meanness doesn't resurface. We like that character as she was. Hayley had a good joke. ("Where did you get that? Forever 1921?") Retro is back in, Hayley. The funniest scene was when Cameron was teaching music at the middle school. We need to see more of that. We laughed aloud when the goth girl slow clapped at the end. Those were the sole big laughs, but this episode wasn't annoying or anything.
Episode grade: B-

Arrow- Honor Thy Father
First half? Snore. It was annoying when Laurel ran into Oliver's arms after they were attacked. Total damsel behavior. Please let this show NOT become a procedural where Oliver threatens a different rich guy every week and uses his stupid Arrow technology to bring the DA's office down on them. Yawn. It's so stupid that anyone would want Oliver in charge of a company, because his two sides are 1) crazy, damaged island boy and 2) drunken party animal with no honor. But yeah, give him authority! The good news is that the show is continuing to show us things that happened on the island. Eventually, we're gonna need the full story to believe it. Also, the yacht was sabotaged. Dun dun dunnnn. The show is still fun, but this episode wasn't as good as last week's. Also, we hate Oliver's little sister.
Episode grade: B

Supernatural- Heartache
It was time for a monster-of-the-week episode, because it's not like the main plot with the prophet and Crowley were as gripping as, say, the apocalypse. We haven't had a procedural week yet this season, so it was welcome. The case turned out interesting, and the interaction with the brothers was good. It was also funny that Dean bought an app. Randa was a decently cool villain and pretty in a different sort of way than we're used to seeing on TV. We like when this show brings up ancient gods. We love that Sam is the sports fan and Dean is the soapy shows fan. We got bored toward the middle of the episode (but that's usual with this show). We wouldn't mind if Sam settled down to have a normal life, occasionally guest starring, leaving Dean to team up with Castiel as a replacement. That would be a much funnier, sexier show. Start writing letters.
Episode grade: B-

Nashville- I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)
Scarlett's little Minnie Mouse voice is making us root against her a little. Is that bad? After much mooning and whining, Scarlett and Gunner are a team. It's hard to get invested in the Deacon/Rayna romance, since she's married (to a weak wet blanket, but still) and Deacon bones fetuses. Eleven years is a long time to date someone though. Maybe the show would be better if so much of the plot for the two women wasn't focused on Deacon. This episode wasn't as good as last week's. Not much happened that didn't essentially happen in the pilot. We liked seeing Rayna and Deacon jam at the Bluebird, even if she's only an okay singer and the song wasn't as good as some of the other songs on the show. It's weird to see Juliette doing her stuff and not think of Taylor Swift, even though Swift seems a lot happier than Juliette.  
Episode grade: B

Modern Family and Supernatural

By Kristin Dos Santos (originally posted to Flickr as Jared and Jensen) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Modern Family- "Schooled" and "Snipped"
Schooled was funny. It had lots of zingers, and Jay and Gloria had a good storyline for once. Gloria dropping her wrapped babydoll on the table when she was done and Jay trying to trade the black babydoll over to a black couple were golden moments. We also liked seeing Cam and Mitch unite against the lesbians, since they don't often unite in their storylines. Their plot didn't really go anywhere though. It defintely just died out somewhere near the end.

The scene where Phil accidentally grabs Haley's new roommate's butt was hilarious. Even we would be embarrassed, and we're more thick-skinned/less popularity conscious than Haley. We also laughed at Luke "literally masking his feelings." Snipped was fine, but not as funny as Schooled. The vasectomy plotline has been done to death. The Gloria and Manny stuff was boring. Claire stole the show with her impromptu haircut. The show is feeling less repetitive than last season. We approve.
Episode grades: B+ and B-

Supernatural- What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
Ugh. That episode title is a turn-off. But Linda turned out to be awesome, rather than some fresh-off-the-boat stereotype. She even knew it was best to keep Kevin with the Winchesters over angels. Cas! We got to see Cas! And his explanation for ditching Dean was fine. What's Dean's explanation for ditching him? He probably didn't do it on purpose. This is just yet another way for the show to pile tons of guilt on Dean's shoulders so that he can cry to Sam on the hood of the Impala. Hey, we're not complaining. Dean is hot when he cries.

We're not Kevin fans right now. Who would call Dean's speeches crappy?!! This episode was better than last week's. The best part was Sam using Thor's hammer. More of that, please. We didn't like that all the plans failed and the boys acted so stupid. They should be better and smarter than this. Everything went wrong. They walked into a terrible situation with no plan, they let the word of God go, they let Linda get possessed, and they didn't realize Kevin was going to ditch them. Come on!! They shouldn't be this monumentally stupid at this point in their lives. Dean's, like, 34 now, right?

We're glad the show has been doing the serialized thing so far this season. We're a little over the dull monster procedurals. The boys have met every monster by now, surely. This episode is getting a decent grade because Dean gave Castiel a hug. Awwwwwwww. It wasn't as boring as usual either. So far, season eight isn't embarrassing itself like the last two years.
Episode grade: B-

Supernatural- We Need to Talk About Kevin

By Charlotte Kinzie from kamloops / Victoria, Canada (jandj004  Uploaded by Bjs) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What happened: Dean escapes from purgatory after a year, brings a vampire named Benny back to life. In flashbacks, we find out that Benny saved Dean's life in purgatory and showed him the way out. In exchange, Dean got Benny out, since humans have a leg up in that arena. Dean finds Sam, who is living a normal life and is probably in love with a veterinarian. He didn't even look for Dean and has also been ignoring panicked calls from Prophet Kevin.

Kevin is running from Crowley after having killed two of his demons using a new Word tablet. Dean is angry. They find Kevin, and he tells the boys that he knows how to banish demons to hell forever. Crowley also catches up to them. There's a battle. Crowley kills Kevin's girlfriend, who has been possessed by a demon for months. Benny calls Dean at the end of the episode, and Dean doesn't tell Sam about it. Cas is still MIA. Dean says he just "gave up."

What we thought: Going into this episode and season, we knew it needed some help. It should have ended two years ago if all you care about is quality. But we like having the boys around, even when the show isn't great. We were glad to see that the new showrunner's last gig was Being Human on Syfy. That show does it right. Being Human takes the original show and does its own thing with it. That's what we need for Supernatural: Someone to take the old show we liked and revamp it to bring new life to it.

It's only been one week, and there was a lot of set-up with Benny and Kevin, but we didn't see much revamping. Yeah, the episode wasn't as woefully boring as some episodes in the last two seasons, but it didn't knock our socks off either. It was only a little boring. Still, there is time for the season to go somewhere interesting, and we were mostly entertained. The title card is better than last season's. In the past, Sam had a demon friend. Now it's time for Dead to have a baddie for a buddy and lie about it? Meh, Sam deserves it.

Sam didn't look for Dean? Ugh, this confirms that he is the worst. How could he not even look for his brother? How could he not even try or question it or call up a demon or SOMETHING? His excuses are a) they always promised not to look for each other and b) things were different this time, because he was truly alone with no Bobby, Ruby, grandpa, or Dean. What, like the past eight years or so haven't trained Sam to hunt alone if he wanted to? The real reason is the vet. It's just not brotherly. Also, Dean is still much hotter than Sam, and we feel like that's never going to change.

We liked the line, "Nothing says the family business like the whole family being dead." The first 20 minutes had a lot of the boys bickering. It was like a soap opera. Snooze. The episode gave us the overall story arc: the boys want to banish demons forever. This could be good, or it could be familiar. Like we said before, it's hard to top Satan unless you bring out God. Or Satan again. We're anxious to see more flashbacks that will tell us how Dean and Benny got so tight and why they seem to actually miss purgatory a little. We also want to know what happened to Cas and when his tasty self will be back. We liked the use of color in Sam and Dean's flashbacks. Sam's looked warm and dreamy; Dean's are cold and colorless. 

Episode grade: C+

Supernatural - What we thought and how to fix what's wrong

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We are caught up on Supernatural. We updated the episodes you can skip post too, in order to include season seven’s time wasters. So…what did we think? Overall, we really liked it and will definitely watch season eight this fall. But we are also angry. This show has a ton of potential that it only occasionally realizes. When the show is good, it stays with you for days. We have no idea what the show was doing in seasons six and seven. We understand season one being cheesy and bad because they were still figuring out what the show was. By season six, the show knew what worked and what made its best seasons good. And then it went and did the opposite of that.

The good news is one of the brothers is always awesome, no matter how bad the show is. We’re obviously talking about Dean. We don’t hate Sam. He is in no way annoying or unlikeable. He just doesn’t have as much personality. And Dean is infinitely cuter. We also like, Castiel, obviously. We like all the salt they use too. If you know why, you’re awesome. One of our complaints about the show is that sometimes it’s too depressing, especially in season three when hell was hanging over Dean’s head for a year. The boys have few allies, and the ones they do have tend not to last long.

There’s a lot of dark forces and not a lot of light powers to counter it. Even the angels on this show are dicks. God exists, but he is absent, only taking an interest a couple of times. We have never met him on the show. The show’s version of God seems like a faraway jerk who won’t even let his angels see him. (On that note, the theology/spiritual theories often change based on what the writers want to do with the show, so it all comes out murky and inconsistent. Much like real theology, haha. It’s funny what this show thinks purgatory is.) So when Castiel came onto the scene, he provided much-needed comic relief. Without him, the events can be dreary and wear on a marathoner of the show.

We love when the show has a sense of humor about itself, like in "The Monster at the End of This Book" in season four and when the brothers were transported to the real world. It’s a humble show that pokes fun at its stumbles/worst episodes, long running time, actors, and staff. The show is better when it’s a serial and not a monster-of-the-week show, but it inability to decide what it is hurts it. The show’s best seasons (three through five) had strong overarching plotlines and lots of continuity, turning it into more of a serial. That’s what this show is good at. It builds tension, it develops the characters, and it makes us feel like we are heading somewhere.

We have nothing against procedurals when they are good. That means the cases each week and the temporary characters in them have to be interesting. That’s almost never the case with Supernatural standalone episodes. It just turns into a ghost or slasher story that’s usually fun, but mostly unoriginal and dragged out. It’s like those episodes don’t have enough plot to sustain a 42-minute running time, so the episodes drag. When the show good, it’s really good, and when it’s bad, it makes us hate it. We never really want to stop watching it though. Even after the last two sucky seasons, we still want to watch more.

We think one of the things that makes Supernatural so addictive is that it plays like fan fiction. It gives the viewers what they want. Sure, there has been no Wincest and Dean/Castiel are gay together, but other than that? Yeah, it’s like fan fiction. There are fun weddings, people randomly come back from the dead just because viewers miss them (and if they can’t come back, the boys will time travel to see them), the show acknowledges the fandom, and we get a ton of back story and time travel, even when we don’t need it.

Season breakdown: Season one is sooooo cheesy and slow. Season two strikes a perfect balance between procedural and serial, but it was pretty average. We missed John Winchester after season one, but you have to admit, that dude was kind of a dick. Season three was really good, and we liked the blonde incarnation of Ruby. The new one was prettier, but Katie Cassidy had more snark and charisma. Seasons four and five were the best. Season six dropped back to season two quality. Season seven was a complete mess in almost every way due to lack of continuity. But hey, it’s tough to top the apocalypse when you had it in the middle of the show.

We don’t think the show should be cancelled. There’s a new showrunner taking over for season eight. Thank God because whoever ran season seven (we know it was Sera Gamble) did a real hack job. It still has life in it and it can still do what it does best (and maybe do it even better), but only if they add some new blood and do the following:

• Look at what the good seasons did. Do that.
• Have more continuity and fewer cases of the week, as per the strongest seasons. Stop with the standalones. Standalones aren’t for longtime fans. Those are for catching viewers. All they have are caught now. Maybe the show can win back older viewers who dropped out in the last two years.
• Make Dean suffer, not Sam. For some reason, when it’s Dean’s soul, life, or sanity on the line, it makes for a better season. When Dean is in pain, the audience wants it fixed NOW. Again, the best seasons had Dean on the ropes, not his brother.
• Get a better, scarier Big Bad. You have to top the apocalypse, Eve, leviathans, demons, archangels (which were awesome), and the devil. So you’re really left with three options. If it’s not going to be the last season, have a really powerful actor. Maybe a wizard that has tapped into another dimension and can bring some scary crap here, but make him a charismatic, complicated, Hannibal Lecter-type presence. But end with either God or the devil as the antagonist. Wow, did religious people just write that? Yeah, we did. But it would fit the rest of the show to have Sam and Dean disagree with God about something. It would have to be written and ended very carefully though. Let’s face it, they’d probably fudge it. They’d need to get Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Rob Bell to meet and write it if they wanted God as a Big Bad to pan out in a good, intense, intelligent, and deep way. The actor they have for the devil is good and enjoyable in that role, but he’s more amusing than scary. God would be better. If that's too controversial or risky, make the devil scarier and bring him back. 
• Please don’t make the Big Bad Crowley or the vampire king. The latter was hinted at as a future big enemy in season seven, but let’s all admit that the vampire alpha turns every episode he’s in into a nasty bore fest.
• Stop killing people then bringing them back. It kills the intensity if everyone comes back. How many times has Dean Winchester died? It was only necessary in the Groundhog Day episode and the time he went to hell. It seems like everyone on this show has been dead and come back in some form.
• If you are going to bring people back, we want to see either John Winchester or Pamela the psychic. We’d rather them not bring anyone back though.
• We need another good side character, particularly a new good female character. Thank God wet blanket Lisa is gone. Ben was a cool kid though.
• Bring on the manhunts! Prison is an actual threat to these guys. Have them arrested and let one of them stay in prison for a while so that it’s an actual consequence.
• Have shorter scenes
• Don’t drag things out. We need a Vampire Diaries writer on this, pronto.

Season One: C

Season Two: B-

Season Three: B+

Season Four: A

Season Five: B+

Season Six: C+

Season Seven: C-

Show Grade, So Far: B-

Supernatural episodes you can skip

So you want to catch up on Supernatural, but there are over 100 episodes and AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT. Well, since we’ve been catching up and have only one season left to go, we’re going to list the episodes you really don’t have to watch. We’ll review the show in its entirely when we finish season seven, but just about everyone who has watched a few episodes knows that it’s a very inconsistent show. Episodes can be great one week and terrible the next. We totally see why its fanbase is so passionate though. Here are some of the pointless suckers, in our opinions. Defend them in the comments if you disagree. We think you'll end up liking the show more if you don't have to watch these time wasters. 

Season one - You could actually skip most of it. Season one is very procedural, cheesy, and “monster of the week.” Not as much from this season crops up later. It’s good to watch a few and get a sense of the first season and cases the boys take on. Here are the worst offenders:

• "Wendigo" - Skip it because it’s just like any monster in the woods movie you’ve ever seen. There’s nothing original. Just know that a Wendigo is “a malevolent cannibalistic spirit that could possess humans or a monster that humans could physically transform into.” They are mentioned later in the show.
• "Bloody Mary" - Snore
• "Hook Man" - Not good, but kind of fun. Watch it if you want to or have time, but you are okay skipping it.
• "Bugs" - This is the episode that nearly broke our will to finish this season. The boys don’t do ANYTHING to help the supernatural situation, it’s not nearly as gross or scary as it should have been, and it’s kind of boring too. You leave the episode thinking, “What was the point of that then? Why did Dean and Sam even go there?”
• "Route 666" - This episode features a racist truck that kills. A truck. A racist truck. Please tell us we’ve convinced you not to watch it.
• "Hell House" - Meh. Skippable.

Season two -

• "Everybody Loves a Clown" - The only important thing here is that Dean has angst and beats up the car with a tire iron. This is only important because they show it a lot in the recaps. You’ll want to know when it was.
• "No Exit" - We hesitated to put this on the list because it features Jo running off to be a hunter, against her mother’s wishes. It’s kind of important to that character, even though we don’t see her a whole lot in the series, however it’s a tad dull. Jo works a case with Sam and Dean and nearly gets killed. We also find out that John Winchester got her father killed by screwing up on a hunt. Jo isn’t so into Sam and Dean after that, but she still wants to be a hunter.
• "Croatoan" - The boys visit a town with a Croatoan virus that makes everyone evil/violent. It’s not as exciting as it sounds. Almost no one in the town lives. The virus is referenced later though.
• "Playthings" - This one isn’t bad, but if you are crunched for time, skip it. Otherwise, go ahead.
• "Houses of the Holy" - The only thing you need to know about this is that Dean doesn’t believe in angels or God, but Sam does.
• "Roadkill" - This is an unoriginal ghost story and a yawner.
• "Hollywood Babylon" - This episode has a great reference for Gilmore Girls fans, but it’s otherwise a cheesy reminder of season one.

Season three -

• "Sin City" - A boring episode confirms that the Ceiling Demon was named Azazel. Dean bonds a little bit with a female demon and Sam kills her. Ruby helps Bobby repair the Colt.
• "Red Sky at Morning" - The boys work with that female thief with the horrible British accent, Bella, and she still isn’t trustworthy. The baddie of the week is a ghost pirate ship. It’s awful.
• "Ghostfacers" - The only good thing about this turd is that Dean gets the nickname “Chisel Chest.” We don't know why he didn't get it before; dude is ripped.
• "Long Distance Call" - The last scene in the hotel room between the brothers might be worth your time, but the rest of the episode isn’t. Dean admits he’s scared and Sam promises to help get him out of his mess. It’s sweet. We love when they talk about their feelings at the end of episodes.

Season four - 

• "Criss Angel is a Douchebag" - This one is watchable and has good moments, but Dean and Sam don’t really do anything, and it stalls the show’s best season. All you need to know from this is that Sam is hiding something from Dean/he’s up to something bad with Ruby, but we don’t get to know what it is yet.
• "It’s a Terrible Life" - This is a good episode that we think is largely a waste of time, even though it’s kind of fun. Watch it if you can, don’t sweat it if you can’t. The important thing to know is that Dean meets Zechariah, one of Castiel’s superiors. Zechariah shows up to encourage Dean that he is on the right path and the brothers would have chosen hunting evil even if they had not been raised by their crazy dad.

Note: "The Monster at the End of This Book" is possibly the best episode of the series.

Season five -

• "Fallen Idols" - Monster-of-the-week again. At this point, a procedural episode is unwelcome. We are trying to stop the apocalypse here! Paris Hilton just seems like a sideshow at this point. However, in season one, this would have been gold.
• "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" - Man witch stupidity abounds.
• "Swap Meat" - A man witch trades bodies with Sam. The man witch episodes aren’t good.
• "99 Problems" - In which we meet The Whore of Babylon and Dean kills her. Then Dean goes back to Lisa, showing he still has feelings for her.
• "The Devil You Know" - The important thing is that Crowley offers Bobby a shot at Death in exchange for his soul. A lot happens in this episode, but nothing important/permanent. The boys get nothing done, so the hour is wasted.

Season six - The quality goes downhill to season one/two quality in this season.

• "Family Matters" - This is THE most boring episode of Supernatural, bar none. But watch the very end/fast-forward to the part where Crowley shows up and talks to the group. It’s either the last scene or almost the last scene. There’s mildly important plot info in that scene.
• "All Dogs Go to Heaven" - This episode is dumb.
• "Clap Your Hands If You Believe" - So is this one.
• "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning" - You should know not to watch this just from the name.
• "Frontierland" - If you’ve seen Back to the Future Part III, there is no reason to watch this. Just know that the boys get a hold of Phoenix ash.

Season seven - Okay. A lot. 

• "Defending Your Life"- Longtime fans might like this one because Jo returns as a ghost. But we feel like the real Jo wouldn't be like that. She would get it and move on. She was a sweet, smart girl who chose to go out like a hero, not a grudge-holder. This episode is just bad. 
• "Shut Up, Doctor Phil:- Not good and also not necessary to watch in order to get the rest of the season. 
• "Season 7, Time for a Wedding"- Again, longtime fans might like this, especially as it features the return of Becky the fangirl. The rest of us just know this episode was stupid. 
• "Time After Time"- Only watch this one if you've also seen The Untouchables. If you have, you'll enjoy it. Sidenote: We really hope you've seen that movie. It's fantastic.
• "The Slice Girls"- We hesitate to put this one because it features Aunt Jenna and perfect casting of her and Dean's daughter. Also, it's almost too weird. X-Files weird. It's like Supernatural meets Jerry Springer. You might not want to miss that. It is bad though.
• "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie"- This was a decent idea with a boring execution. Sam and the clown stuff was funny though.
• "Repo Man"- This episode is so similar to most other Supernatural episodes. There is just no reason to watch it. Supernatural is better when it's not a procedural and when there is more continuity because its procedural episodes just aren't that interesting. The characters they come across are usually bland, and we get boring results like these. 
• "Party On, Garth"- An F if there ever was one. All you need to know is that Bobby is back as a ghost and the boys don't yet know it.
• "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo"- Possibly the worst episode of the series. The boys DO swipe something the Leviathans dug up in their archaeology project. You'll see it in the following episode. 

Season eight- A great improvement over the last two seasons.

• "Heartache"- Not terrible, but also not great or important.
• "Bitten"- We liked this episode a lot, but the Winchester brothers are hardly in it. Watch it if you have time, but don't fret if you don't. But if you have the time, do watch it.
• "Man's Best Friend with Benefits"- Ugh, no. No no no. The worst episode of the season so far. 

Do you have any to add?

Cougar Town saved! (and other news about other shows/our reactions)

If you haven't heard already, today TBS saved Cougar Town from cancellation and has bought all the rights to it. There will be another season of the show. We love when this happens, and we can think of no more deserving show. Thank you, TBS!

Lots of other shows have been renewed and cancelled, but we haven't gotten around to talking about it yet. Stupid exams! Alcatraz has been cancelled, and you know what? We don't care. Yeah, we watched and covered it a lot, but it was more due to the possibility that it could get good. It wasn't actually good yet. The pilot and one other episode were good, but mostly it deserves scorn. The Finder was also cancelled, to the joy of Ern and the mild disappointment of Leeard.

30 Rock was renewed for one more season. This is good. The show needs to start coming in for a landing, but it shouldn't end this year. Parenthood was renewed! Amazing, amazing, amazing. Love that show. Touch was renewed as well. When it came out of the gate, we really liked it, but we aren't sure the sweet concept is working out well, long-term. We hope this show does its homework and fixes its problems for the second season.

The Vampire Diaries unsurprisingly got another season, and can we say "rejoice?" Rejoice. Supernatural has also been renewed, and we have finally started watching it. We are done with season one. Ern thinks it's cheesy as heck but is willing to keep watching it. We also need to catch up on Person of Interest. We got behind, but it's been renewed, so we need to give it attention.

Grey's Anatomy is near deals with a few main characters who were at risk of leaving. We will put their names in the comments so that you aren't spoiled as to who might be staying for the next two years. Shonda confirmed a while ago that a character will be dying horribly in this year's finale. We will put our guess for that death in the comments as well.

Finally, a commenter has just informed us that Community was renewed today. This is not surprising, but we are concerned that there will only be 13 episodes. How can we survive with only 13 episodes?

P.S. We are seeing The Avengers tomorrow. Wooo hooo.

---Update---
ABC Renewed: Grey's, Revenge, Castle, Once Upon a Time, The Middle, Suburgatory, and Modern Family. No surprises there.