News and Reviews by M R Reed

Sunday, September 7th, 2008 - West 4th Avenue, between Yew Street and Arbutus Street, next to the Soapbox race pits 9:30am to 4:00pm Sunday, September 7th, 2008 - the event is free to the public and gates open at 11:00 am with the charity race at 11:30 am and first dual-bracketed soapbox race starting at 1:00 pm.

Celebrity charity participants include, Gordon Campbell, Premier of B.C.,
and Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles of Supernatural who will put their driving skills to the test for charity. They will go head to head where the winner will receive $1,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.

Teams from coast to coast will be tuning their homemade, human-powered engines and getting ready to burn rubber down Vancouver's West 4th Avenue at Red Bull Soapbox Vancouver,a two day event the weekend of September 6th to the 7th.

Fifty teams of four will race their homemade dream machines along a 520 metre long downhill track but it's not just speed that counts! Creativity (shift imagination into sixth gear - we want to see cars that are unusual, head turning ...even slightly shocking!) and
showmanship where teams must spend one minute on the roadway strutting their stuff in a pre-race skit) For more information, including team bios, photos, video or to play the
Soapbox online game, visit the official site

It has just been announced by the Publicist for Supernatural that unfortunately due to production and travel issues, the Saturday (7/26) 5:00 p.m. autograph signing that had been scheduled for Jensen & Jared has been CANCELLED.

Please note that THIS DOES NOT IMPACT ANY OF SUNDAY’S SCHEDULED EVENTS FOR “SUPERNATURAL.” Both Jensen AND Jared will still be participating in the scheduled panel that day, and Jared Padalecki is still a part of the “Friday the 13th” panel.

The only thing on Sunday that has changed is that Jensen will now be joining the Producers’ Autograph Signing at 12:30 p.m. in the WB Booth (#4329 – Hall E). However, due to the same issues as above, Jared unfortunately will not be able to participate in any autograph signing at CC this year.

Supernatural series creator Eric Kripke has released a statement that confirms the casting of actress Genevieve Cortese (pronounced Jenna-Veev Cor-tay-zay) in the recurring guest role of "Kristy' in the upcoming fourth season of the hit Warner Bros/CW Network series that airs on the CW Network Thursday nights as 9PM EST.

In a press announcement released from his office in Los Angeles, Eric Kripke made the following statement about the casting and the character.

"Genevieve Cortese is playing a small town waitress named Kristy who gets romantically involved with Sam (Jared Padalecki) sometime after Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) death."
Read the rest of the article at
Eclipse Magazine

Publicist for the hit Warner Bros/CW Newtwork series Supernatural have just announced that Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, who star as Dean and Sam Winchester will be making a two-day appearance at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con.

"I would hate to have a bunch of unhappy fans who didn’t have any idea of the different dates for the panel & signing in advance! They’re a fantastic & loyal bunch and deserve a heads up," The publicist stated in a press release about the scheduling of the Supernatural panels and events at this year's San Diego Comic Con.

In the press release the publicist gave the following information for fans of the show who wish to attend Comic Con to support the series and the actors.

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki will be at Comic Con on Saturday July 26th at the Warner Bros booth(#4329 in the main exhibit hall) to sign autographs from 5PM to 6PM.

Then on Sunday the 27th of July they will then be attending the Supernatural Q& A panel which will run from 11:15 am -12:15 pm in Rm. 6CDEF,
To repeat the breakdown of their scheduled appearance:

Saturday, 7/26:
5:00-6:00 p.m.: Jensen Ackles & Jared Padalecki sign autographs in the Warner Bros. booth (#4329).

Sunday, 7/27:
11:15 am – 12:15 pm: Supernatural Panel featuring Jensen, Jared, EP/Creator Eric Kripke, Co-EPs Ben Edlund and Peter Johnson and Supervising Producer Sera Gamble (Rm. 6CDEF).

It will be moderated by Entertainment Weekly’s Alynda Wheat and will feature exclusive Comic-Con only footage from the 4th season premiere episode, in addition to a portion of the gag reel from the upcoming Season 3 DVD release.

12:30 – 1:15 pm: Supernatural Producers sign in the WB booth (#4329).


**FYI that Jared Padalecki will also be participating in a panel for “Friday the 13th” in Rm. 20 from 1:00-1:30 pm on Sunday July 27th.

Since the writing of my last article announcing the casting of the lovely Traci Dinwiddie as psychic Pamela Barnes in the Supernatural season 4 premiere episode Lazarus Rising, I have been informed by the wonderful PR people at Warner Bros and CW that the date for the premiere has been changed.

The Supernatural season 4 premiere episode titled Lazarus Rising will be airing on Thursday, September 18th at 9PM EST on the CW Network.

SUPERNATURAL takes viewers on a terrifying journey into the world of the unexplained. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force.

Subsequently, their father John Winchester (Jeffery Dean Morgan) raised the brothers to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America ... and he taught them how to kill it. With their father gone, Sam and Dean are now facing an all-out demonic war.

As they work to stem the rising tide of demonic activity, they continue to travel the country, battling the supernatural wherever they go -- and battling their own demons that live within.

Catch the season 4 premiere of Supernatural on Thursday, September 18th at 9PM EST on the CW.

Traci Dinwiddie, a vivacious thirty-five year old brunette, has been cast in the guest starring role of ‘Pamela Barnes’ in the season four opener of the hit CW/ Warner Bros series Supernatural, which stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester: two brothers who have been raised in the ‘family business’ of saving people by driving around a black ‘67 Chevy Impala with a trunk load of weapons hunting down supernatural creatures, demons and monster.

In the episode titled Lazarus Rising which began filming on July 2nd and will air on the CW Network on September fourth, the beautiful and exotic looking Dinwiddie plays Pamela Barnes, who is described in the casting sides as being ‘kick ass hot looking in a Gina Gershon kind of way’.

Pamela also just happens to be, in the words of the Winchester brother’s good friend Bobby Singer (played by Jim Beaver), ‘the best damn psychic in the state’. Pamela has been contacted by her old friend Bobby to help he and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) track down demons and to possibly learn more about the fate of Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) who was last seen in the Supernatural season 3 finale ‘No Rest for the Wicked’ hanging by hooks pierced through his flesh after being dragged into hell by demonic hounds sent to fetch his soul in consummation of deal he had made to trade his soul for the life of his brother.

Traci Dinwiddie, who describes her own spirit as ‘fiercely creative’, brings a wealth of talent and experience with her to her guest stint on Supernatural as psychic Pamela Barnes.

Dinwiddie has made guest appearances on such noted series as 'Dawson’s Creek', 'One Tree Hill', Taken Away and 'Target Earth'. She has appeared in numerous big screen movies such as ‘Mr. Brooks’, 'The Notebook' and having lead roles in ‘End of the Spear’ and the just completed ‘Three Words and A Star’. Dinwiddie is also a very familiar voice to anyone who follows Anime, having done the American voice over work for such Anime films as 'Voogie’s Angel', 'Earthian' and has just completed work on ‘The Diamond of Jeru’.

Dinwiddie is also an accomplished stage actor as well having had the lead in such productions as ‘Always..Patsy Cline’, ‘A, My ‘Name is Alice’ and ‘Psycho Beach Party’.

Supernatural is currently in reruns of season three on the CW Network on Thursday nights at 9PM EST.

Supernatural season 4 premieres on the CW Network on Thursday September 4th at 9PM EST with the season opener, ‘Lazarus Rising’.

Yesterday, actor Don S. Davis passed away from a fatal heart attack. Davis had a history of heart problems, even having open heart surgery at one point several years ago.

A lot of us knew and loved Don S. Davis for his role as General George Hammond on the hit Scifi series, Stargate SG1. Some of us knew him from even further back to his days as Dana Elcar's stunt man on MacGyver.

Supernatural fans will know him as Trotter the shady business owner in the season 3 episode Sin City.

I knew him as the kindest man in the world to one of my dearest friends. Ruth was my Stargate Convention buddy and Don adored her. When Ruth was stricken with breast cancer, we still managed to travel to a few more SG1 cons before she got too sick to travel. She was always so self conscience about how she looked and what was happening to her body, but Don, bless his southern gentleman's heart always took extra time to make sure he told her how beautiful she looked.

His kind compliments where one of the things that kept my friend going though some of the roughest times before her body just couldn't fight back anymore.

For that I will always have a special place for this lovely and truly kind man. I will miss Don S. Davis a lot. He was one of the really special ones out there. My thoughts and prayers go out to his lovely wife, Ruby and to his family.

Read a very moving tribute to Don S. Davis here.

In a recent article on BuddyTV, titled 'Supernatural: Female Trouble' staff writer Don Williams addresses his take on why the female fans of Supernatural seemed to be opposed to love interests for the Winchester brothers Dean and Sam (played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki).

Williams concludes his feelings on the matter by saying "I think the writers should give it a shot and attempt to pair either Sam or Dean with a woman. It'd have to be done naturally of course, but I think it'd be interesting to watch the brothers deal with a new relationship."


I am a female viewer of Supernatural. I admit here and now that part of the reason I watch the show is because the brothers are very attractive..ok hot and sexy..young men.

But I am also a viewer that appreciates the whole concept of the series overall and while I am not someone who is opposed to romance or anyone finding love, I am however very interested in the logistics that would be involved in integrating something like this into a show like Supernatural which is not designed to be about romance.

A Supernatural episode is roughly 45 minutes long. The majority of that time is devoted to the A story while the remaining time is devoted to the B and C stories that are the basic building blocks for creating an episode.

Now for any standard so called 'hour long' TV series the most time, dialog and story telling is going to be done in the A story. The A story is whatever 'main event' is going on in the episode such as the demon war, hunting for the creature or whatever challenge the brothers are facing. Most of the story for the episode is centered on this A story main event. This event needs a build up, exposition and a climatic ending which generally involves both brothers.

The B story is usually devoted to the character development of Sam and Dean and may focus on one brother or both depending on what the writers are making as part of the overall myth arc which all of this secondary character development seems to be about supporting.

Now if a love story/interest is added then the writers have to decide if it's going to be a part of the A story or the B story because they can't make the episodes any longer in length than they already are.

This generally means that the writers then have to decided how much of the time usually devoted to these two critical sections - the main event story and character development for the myth arc- of the overall episode they want to cut parts out of to put development of the love interest into.

If the love interest becomes part of the A story, then depending on which brother she is involved with, the writers have to reduce the amount of screen time and dialog that the actor playing the non involved brother has and, in order to put in scenes of romantic development or scenes of issues between the brothers they have to reduce parts of the story that are normally devoted to the development of Supernatural aspects being dealt with such as the demons, the creatures or whatever threat the brothers are going after. These things would have to be less fleshed out in order to make room for another story aspect.

If they make it the B story than it pretty much has to become the whole focus of time devoted to that section and the writers would have reduce individual side stories for the brothers to incorporate this dynamic where the brothers are having issues or bondings over one of them having a relationship.

Overall we are looking at a scenario where there would be very little story room for individualized aspects for Sam or Dean or a great reduction in doing a side story that focus on them individually like we have seen done in past episodes.

Whatever remains of the time in an episode is usually devoted to the C story which is where we get background on the guest characters and other minor plot details to give the story depth. Now the writers could reduce the time used for this aspect of an episode and decrease the number of scenes used to give us some look into the guest characters and allow us to 'get acquainted with them' within the context of the situation they are involved with in the episode. Or reduce the time used to show us more about the machinations of the demon or the motivations of the creature of the week in order to give time to the 'love interest' character because the writers would need to flesh this character out and give them some scenes that give us background on a character they want us to accept but may not be directly involved with the myth arc of the ongoing overview story.

Personally as an adult female viewer, if I see one more point put forth that we women want to see the guys single because we lust after them (and that is possibly a small part of it) I might have to get out the rock salt shells and I firmly believe that many other female viewers are feeling the same way as I do about being categorized as such.

I also firmly believe that the the biggest reason why myself and other female viewers are growing a bit weary of this label being forced on us is that many of us are saavy enough to know that the writers only have roughly 45 minutes to tell a story and we want a story about the brothers and the creatures and the other things that make Supernatural so intriguing. That if we want to watch a story about romance or relationships we will go find the Lifetime channel where the stories are written specifically for this reason and watch one.

As a viewer of Supernatural for me it's very simple, it's not about my gender, its about my appreciation for the storytelling that is what Supernatural was created and designed to be about. It's about 'hunting things, saving people, the family business. It's about killing as many of those evil SOB as Sam and Dean Winchester can and them getting to raise a little hell along the way.

Ok I knew I should have proofed that article one more time. I never noticed I referred to Jensen Ackles' character in My Bloody Valentine: 3D as Tom Warden. It should be Tom Hanninger. Warden is the last name of another character in the movie.

Read more about My Bloody Valentine: 3D being filmed in the Pittsburg, PA area at the following link, but beware of major spoilers.

The 2008 Emmy Awards are fast approaching and one of the brightest talents gracing our TV screens today, actor Jensen Ackles has made the list of actors placed on the nomination ballot.

Ackles, a boyishly handsome 30 year old who hails from Richardson Texas and currently stars as Dean Winchester on the hit CW/Warner Bros series Supernatural, along with co-star Jared Padalecki who plays Sam Winchester, has placed 28th on the ballot and is in the Category of 'Outstanding Lead Actor in a Dramatic Series.'

Ackles, who began his acting career starring in the daytime Soap Opera Days of Our Lives as Eric Brady and moved on to roles in successful series such as Dawson's Creek and Smallville landed the role of Dean Winchester in Supernatural three years ago. Since then viewers have been privy to have seen this talented and versatile young actor light up the screen with his dynamic brotherly chemistry with co-star Jared Padalecki,his flair for drama and his sense of comedic timing as his character Dean Winchester has undergone some very dramatic, sometimes funny and sometimes harrowing experiences culminating with Dean being forced into keeping a deal he made to trade his soul into hell for the life of his brother Sam in the third season finale.

Ackles is currently in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area filming the horror flick , My Bloody Valentine: 3Din which Ackles plays Tom Warden, a mentally unstable young man who has returned to his home town ten years after a series of 22 brutal murders were committed and finds himself as the lead suspect in those killings. My Bloody Valentine: 3D is set for a January 23, 2009 release with the movie's red carpet premiere tentatively scheduled to be held in the Pittsburgh area.

Some thoughts before the finale airs tonight (Spoilers contained within)

So here we are all waiting in high anticipation (well at least I know I am) for tonight’s 3rd season finale of the hit CW/Warner Bros series Supernatural which airs on the CW Network at 9PM EST and stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester: a hot ‘dynamic duo’ consisting of two highly intelligent, extremely resourceful brothers cruising around in a ’67 Chevy Impala loaded with weapons to hunt down all manner of supernatural creatures and entities.

While I’ve been waiting on the 3rd season finale, like so many other viewers are as well, I have also being doing a lot of thinking about Dean Winchester’s (portrayed with consistent excellence by the talented and versatile Jensen Ackles) impending deal with the demon coming due and all of his and Sam Winchester’s (solidly portrayed by the very gifted Jared Padalecki) efforts to try and save him from it. I’ve also been doing some research (for reason I’d rather not specify right now) into the many concepts and meanings behind the entity known as ‘The Trickster’.

So far we have seen the Winchester brothers confronting a version of ‘The Trickster’(portrayed by Richard Speight, Jr.) in season 2 in the episode ‘Tall Tales’ and in the season 3 episode ‘Mystery Spot’. The writers of Supernatural have presented the one that the Winchesters have been dealing with as a sort of low level pagan god, much like he is seen in many mythologies of the Norsemen, and various indigenous tribes of both North and South America. The fact is all cultures, as Sam Winchester pointed out in Tall Tales, have some reference to an entity like ‘The Trickster’. I think they have deliberately left it ambiguous as to whether or not this Trickster; is a ‘sacred messenger’ and seems to be giving us a more ‘humanist’ approach to ‘The Tricksters’ presence in the world.

When we last saw ‘The Trickster’ in Mystery Spot, he was, in his own twisted and definitely not very compassionate way, trying to get a message across to Sam Winchester that his and Dean’s (and John Winchester’s portrayed by the awesome Jeffry Dean Morgan) habit of constantly sacrificing themselves for each was leading to nothing but more trouble: trouble not just for the Winchesters, but it would seem for the rest of the world as well. His message to Sam Winchester regarding his attempts to save Dean from the deal with the demon was ‘just let it go’ because letting Dean die and fulfill his part of the deal would break the circuit.

As a long time Stargate: SG1 viewer, I was immediately reminded of Daniel Jackson’s(portrayed by the very talented Michael Shanks) path to enlightenment where he was shown that absolute power really does corrupt absolutely. That the only way to ultimately preserve his own humanity was to ‘deny the battle’ and to not use whatever power or knowledge that was inside of him to try and save his loved ones or his world. That path would turn him into the thing he loathed most and had already lost so much he cared for to its destructiveness.

I think this was the very same lesson ‘The Trickster’ was trying to teach Sam Winchester before it was too late. I think tonight we are going to find a Sam Winchester who is being faced with that very decision. In the teaser clips it appears that Ruby (portrayed by Katie Cassidy) is attempting to be very instrumental in trying to influence Sam into ‘flipping the switches’ in his head that will open up a connection to his demonic enhanced powers. It seems as if she will be using the lure of it being possible to use that power within to save that which Sam loves most; his brother Dean. Ruby I think has an agenda that she feels taking the risk of Sam being overcome by and turned ‘darkside’ by his demonic driven abilities is one worth taking to fight Lilith and keep her from taking control not only of all the demons but very possibly the whole of humanity as well. But are Ruby’s motives that pure, and does Ruby really think she can control Sam once he gives over to the power inside of him.

The better question is does Sam think he can control it? From what we have seen of ‘The Tricksters’ actions and machinations in Mystery Spot, he has very little confidence in Sam Winchester’s ability to control the power and still hold onto his humanity. To me it seemed as if ‘The Trickster’ was trying to tell Sam that while he might save Dean from eventually becoming a demon and turning into the very thing they both have a deep hatred for, Sam, by using his powers to save Dean, could open himself to becoming a monster instead. Makes me wonder why the writers didn’t have it so that ‘The Trickster’ had shown Sam what he would be like if he lost control of that power. Dean would be alive and out of his deal, yes, but would he or Dean want or be able to handle the consequences of that?

Would Dean be able to make the hard decisions about the possibility of Sam becoming the kind of monster that Dean has only two choices in dealing with: Surrender to it and help Sam to conquer and/or destroy humanity or have the strength to turn against Sam and try to stop him? At what point would Dean simply stop loving the thing that used to be his baby brother and work towards its destruction or would he try to make another deal to save Sam and keep the cycle going?

I am very fascinated by the idea of Sam possibly thinking he can control the power and use it to his advantage. I am also fascinated by how this concept ties into another take on the mythology of ‘The Trickster’. It’s the mythology found in the culture of African Americans who found themselves bound into slavery during the early years of their presence in America. While I am certainly not doing the whole aspect true justice in this presentation of my own take on what I read, the gist of the mythology, as I see it, is based in the concept of these human beings who were enslaved and needed to find a way to have their voices heard and to change the system to create the road to freedom for themselves.

The consensus made by scholars when the idea of these enslaved people seeking a way to use words to express their feelings and desires was that ‘you can’t bring down the master’s house by using the master’s tools’. Meaning that the words of freedom used by ‘the masters’ would not be one that would be heard the same way if used by the slaves. Those enslaved wouldn’t give into this and so they reached back into the history of their own African heritage and their cultural mythology of ‘The Trickster’ and decided they could use the master’s tools to bring down his house if they used them in a different way. They could use a unique brand of storytelling to make the changes and make their voices heard.

How does this concept apply to Supernatural and Sam Winchester? I’m wondering is it possible that the writers will take Sam in a direction where he will become this version of ‘The Trickster’ being able to bring down the demon’s plans by using their own ‘tools’, i.e. his own demonic driven powers, against them in a different and unique way. That Sam, with Ruby and Dean can work from within the structure and hierarchy of the demons to punch down the bearing walls and undermine the foundation enough to crumble ‘the master’s house’ around him/her.

Seeing Sam Winchester taken into that direction would, I think, certainly be challenging and interesting and Jared Padalecki certainly has the level of talent to bring power and punch to it. Watching the stresses and strains it might put on the brothers, and with Jensen Ackles being such a master at bringing this level of angst for his character to life, would make for some very visceral story telling no doubt.

So I guess we go on with tonight’s Supernatural Season 3 finale and then wait impatiently for the start of season 4 to see where it all leads our intrepid Winchester brothers to next.

For me, as long as Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are still there giving us what I consider to be some of the finest acting in any production big or small screen, and that Eric Kripke and company of writers are still dedicated to an outstanding level of writing and story telling, then this viewer will be right there along for the ride (I call dibs on the window seat behind Dean in the backseat of the Impala….cause I know shotgun goes to Sam).

Supernatural airs tonight 5-15-08 on the CW Network at 9PM EST. Check your local listing for the station in your area.

And some thoughts on Dean and a thank you to Lauren Cohan.

Well we are coming down to the wire for the 3rd season finale of Supernatural which airs this Thursday at 9PM EST on the CW network.

We are also down to the wire on Dean Winchester's (Jensen Ackles) deal with the demon coming due. It's been looking pretty grim for Dean all of the 3rd season for as one scheme and hoped for miracle after another has fallen through for him. It seems like there is no possible way out of this deal and Dean is going to have to do his time in hell.

The 3rd season of Supernatural, like every other television series this year, was greatly shortened and affected by the lengthly writer's strike and that forced the writers to speed up the process of dealing with Dean's very urgent storyline. In many ways and in lesser hands than the writers of Supernatural this could have really taken the heart out of the suspense of this story. However, episodes like Long Distance Caller and this past week's Time is On My Side have proven how dedicated the writers of this excellent series are to giving this storyline the power and punch it needs to be done right.

I have to be honest and admit, I didn't care much the majority of Time is on My Side and mainly because it came across as two story lines that rightly deserved whole episodes of their own but were instead out of necessity hastily stitched together to form one episode. But within these two randomly thrown together storylines was some amazing storytelling about the brothers and the the incredible pressure they both are feeling as the hell-hounds are literally breathing down Dean's neck.

Both Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles gave heartfelt and profound performances. I know that Eric Kripke was only joking in a recent interview about Jensen Ackles not coming back, but I just simply couldn't imagine this series without his incredible talent, his ability to give any range of emotional meaning to a scene with just a look, a turn of body language or a tone of voice. He is an amazing actor and his work as Dean Winchester in this series has been some of the most outstanding acting you could see anywhere..big screen or small. And Jared Padalecki is no slouch either let me tell you. His Sam Winchester is just an amazing piece of artwork as well.

I could not and do not want to imagine Supernatural without either Sam or Dean Winchester. But at the same time I don't want a 'quick fix' for Dean and his deal. I want a very meaty storyline for this deal. I want to see Supernatural fully utilize the awesome range of talent that Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki have as actors. I want to see Sam and Dean have an epic struggle and a hard won resolution.

On another note, I want to send out Kudos and thanks to Lauren Cohan for her work on Supernatural season 3. No matter how it turned out the lady gave it her best shot and I firmly believe that she did a very credible job in her work as Bela. To me it always appeared as if the writers were struggling to 'find Bela's voice' and to figure out what they really wanted to do with her and for that the character suffered and not because of the work that Lauren Cohan did. She took what was there and she made something of it, enough to show us something of Bela worth watching.

So thank you Lauren Cohan for the work you did, for being a part of the world of Supernatural and for taking it all in grace and style.

So now we are off to the 3rd season finale and to whet the appetite for it, here are two teaser clips courtesy of Warner Brothers Television:

“No Rest For The Wicked” (HDTV) :
DEAN’S TIME IS UP — It’s 30 hours before Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) deal with the crossroads demon is up and Dean, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Bobby (Jim Beaver) are searching for Lilith, who holds the contract. They discover her location and Sam summons Ruby (Katie Cassidy) for help despite Dean’s protests. Ruby warns them they aren’t ready to fight Lilith yet but they steal her knife and depart for New Harmony, Indiana. In a battle to the death, Sam, Dean and Bobby take on Lilith and all her demons in a last ditch effort to save Dean’s life. Kim Manners directed the episode written by Eric Kripke (#316).

Courtesy of and Copyright2008 to Warner Brothers Television and used with Permission.


Teaser Clip One

Teaser Clip two

And my thoughts on Bela's departure.

Time is on My Side is the next new Supernatural episode up to the plate, airing on the CW Network on May 8th at 9PM EST.

This episode guest stars one of my favorite actor, Billy Drago (he did a movie with Chuck Norris).

You know Sam and Dean were just in Milan, Ohio and now they are going to be in Erie, PA, so you think how hard can it possibly be for the two of them to stop by my place in Cleveland, Ohio and say hey. I mean I watch them every week and I love their adventures.

Guess they are just too busy hunting things, saving people, trying to avoid going to hell and/or becoming the leader of demons to take a moment to drop by!

I think this episode is going to be the last we see of Bela (Lauren Cohan), which is kind of sad in a way.

You see I really liked Bela when she was first introduced to us in Bad Day at Black Rock. I saw her full potential as an adversary to the boys, especially Dean. I liked the way she was something totally different for him to have to deal with- a woman who wasn’t a love interest, a conquest and not quite a clear cut threat.

Just my speculation, by I think Bela became the victim of budget issues as her appearances went on in season 3. To me it seemed like she was being used as a cost saving device when it would have been too expensive to show Gordon doing extensive research looking for Sam and Dean and when it would have been entirely too expensive to hire lots of extra actors and stage elaborate chase scenes in Jus in Bello for the FBI to catch Sam and Dean.

Rather they used ‘bottle’ type scenes of Bela on the phone or Bela near and/or in her car which I think were designed to keep the character in play and to be able to use minimal sets and limited use of extras. I just get the feeling that the writers thought this could be done, that they could use these types of scenes for Bela to keep the character in play, make them as advancements of her storyline with the boys and be able to keep under budget and still convey what they needed to about the episodes.

And for the record, I like Red Sky at Morning for the most part. Like most fans I don’t like the ‘making Dean look like he’s a moron’ by being able to steal the mummified hand out of his pocket without him noticing (and I guess since she didn’t try to steal it, this means that Dean’s necklace is not some mystical talisman that could work real magic for him). Could have done without the ‘angry sex’ comment, but I liked Bela in the episode overall.

Also for the record I loved her ‘dream sequence' scene with Sam in Dream a Little Dream of Me. I thought it was hilarious and well done (but then I am one who has never been opposed to Sam and Bela hooking up).

Look for my review of Long Distance Caller and tune into Supernatural next Thursday, May 8th at 9PM EST for Time is on My Side.


SAM AND DEAN MEET DOC BENTON; BELA’S FATE IS REVEALED — As time runs out for Dean (Jensen Ackles), Sam (Jared Padalecki) convinces him to head to Erie, Pennsylvania to investigate a possible zombie case.

Instead, they discover Doc Benton (guest star Billy Drago), a real-life doctor who, in 1816, abandoned his medical practice to follow his obsession with finding the key to eternal life by drugging people and stealing their vital organs. Meanwhile, Bobby (Jim Beaver) finds out where Bela (Lauren Cohan) is hiding, and Dean heads out to confront her, leaving Sam behind to deal with the good doctor. Dean and Bela battle it out for the last time, and Dean leaves Bela in a desperate, and possibly fatal, position. Charles Beeson directed the episode written by Sera Gamble.

Teaser Clip One

Teaser Clip Two

Let me start this out by stating very clearly that this is an opinion and point of view about how Sam and Dean Winchester were presented in the Supernatural episode, Ghostfacers.

Believe it not but there are those of us in the world to whom swearing (even the mildest of words) is not a way of life or a choice of verbal reaction to any kind of situation.

Given that I am one of these people, I always found it refreshing that Sam and Dean Winchester didn't have to be shown to be resorting to really base 'language' to come across as tough, competent 'grown men' who had been raised up 'on the rough side' of life.

Now I understand that logically Sam and Dean have always been written under the constraints of network censors and what level of stronger language can and can't be used on network primetime television and that the writers had to creatively work within that constraint to create believable male characters who live the kind of life Sam and Dean do. I know that without those constraints, that Sam and Dean might have been given what could be described as a more realistic vocabulary that would be considered more typical of how they should be.

As a viewer of Supernatual I have been, up until Ghostfacers, very pleased with how the writers have found a way to creatively create two young, streetwise young men that could
express themselves in a manner that gave them unique and destinctive character and that made them stand apart from the language use sterotype they could have easily fallen into if they had not had to deal with the censor constraints. That they created two interesting male characters for their show that are anything but 'typical'.

I think that is the part of Ghostfacers that makes this episode such a disappointment to me. That, for the sake of a laugh or the chance to use some silly sight gag, Sam and Dean were turned into the very sterotype they had so magnificently risen above and to me it lessened their characters not made them funny or more interesting or more 'realistic' because for three seasons that level of colorful language has not been the 'realistic norm' for Sam and Dean.

Ok yes, I'll be the first to admit I love when Dean exclaims 'son of a B***h and a few other choice words, but these have been a part of who he is from the begining and he can use them in such a way to convey a world of
different feelings and emotions and he doesn't need to resort to anything else to make his point or to make him come across as 'a grown man'.

Instead of just spewing forth a stream of foul language to convey his temper or his fear, we got to see facial expression and body language and hear tone of voice, all the tools of the trade that an actor can use to bring their character to life.

Because of the censor constraints we as viewers have always gotten to see two fine young actors show us the talent they have for bringing a character to life, for being able to convey the grittiness, the darkness and the depth of what they are going through and we have had the joy of watching writers use their creative talents to write what they needed to convey.

We didn't need for 'cussing' to be written for the character. All we needed was for them to know how to use their talents and skill at their craft to make us 'hear' and feel the emotions.

We already know that Dean cusses up a storm in his head, we know from his run in with Missouri that these kinds of words cross his mind, but the real beauty and strength, the true uniqueness of the character was knowing when it came time for him to express himself, Dean did it with a destinctive flair of character and style all his own. An exclamation of "Son of a B***h" with just the right emphasis for the situation just said it all so eloquently.

For me that's what makes Dean Winchester (and Sam too) rise above the rest of the characters in his genre. He's got class and style all his own. All Ghostfacers did was try to make him a run of the mill 'bad boy' by substituting the spewing forth of F*word in place of his normal way of character reaction and Dean Winchester just deserves better than that.

On a totally different note, Ghostfacers has left me with an intriguing and unexplained mystery surrounding Dean Winchester that I would love to solve.

I really want to know who cut and restyled Dean's hair during the few moments it took he and Sam to be saying good bye to the Ghostfacers crew inside the Morton house to when they got outside to the Impala.

Don't believe me? Go back and rewatch the very end. Note that Dean's hair is set in a somewhat longish brush cut that is sort of puffed up in the front and has a slight part on the side, then when he gets outside, his hair is now sporting a way shorter brush cut on top and no part on the side!

I believe that the ghost of a hairstylist still haunts the Morton House and they couldn't resist playing with Dean's hair! Ghostfacers should go back and investigate this, I tell ya!

After having such a dry spell of no new episodes of Supernatural season 3 and after having had the pleasure of interviewing A. J. Buckley who plays Ed Zeddmore and Brittany Ishibashi who plays Ed’s adopted sister Maggie Zeddmore and finding out what a blast they had filming this episode, I was more than ready to sit back and enjoy Ghostfacers!

Unfortunately for this viewer, the fun and comedic aspects described to me in great detail by the very talented actors I had the opportunity to interview did not translate all that well to screen for me and I found Ghostfacers to be, for the most part, a very tedious episode that spent way too much time dwelling on setting up the ‘other characters’ and not nearly enough time on the actual story of the haunting of the Morton House and the interaction between the Winchester Brothers and the guest characters.

To be fair, I think for me this episode suffered from my perception of it just not being strong enough story wise to carry the weight of being the first one up to the plate after the long break created by the Writer’s strike. I am thinking that perhaps under normal circumstances having such a more or less comedic episode that was light on the use of the main characters of Sam and Dean, I could have had more of an appreciation for it. As it stands, I was ready for new action that heavily involved the Winchesters, not something that made them coming across as more or less being relegated to the status of being ‘the guest stars’ in their own show.

I understand that this was suppose to be one part a send up of and one part homage to the genre of ‘ghost hunter/paranormal type reality shows’. I get that the idea behind Ghostfacers was to intersperse the ‘reality’ of a team of ghost hunters into the very real world of Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) and see how different those two ‘realities’ really are. I also understand that reality shows like the one that Ghostfacers was suppose to be are filmed in a very choppy, poorly lit manner and sometimes things go by so quickly that you don’t really have a chance to catch all of it. That’s all well and good for ‘reality show’ but to have almost a whole episode of Supernatural filmed in this manner was distracting and frankly didn’t hold my attention.

Quite honestly one of the best parts for me of being a viewer of Supernatural is to see the actor’s faces and to be able to watch the nuances they bring to the characters with the use of body language and facial expression. So much of that was lost in this episode. We really didn’t get a chance to really see their reactions, their emotions: both dramatic and comedic. Many times I was left wondering what was suppose to be the funny sight gag because frankly I just literally couldn’t see it happening which was frustrating.

Not that Ghostfacers didn’t have it’s good moments and I’m sure I will watch it again just for some of the very well written dialog and the very well crafted guest characters that made up the Ghostfacers team and of course for some very nice moments of Sam and Dean having to deal with ‘the competition’. Dean especially was a lot of fun to watch as his frustration with the stubborn insistence of Ed Zeddmore and the sort of cheesy aspect of the whole thing began building as the tension and real crisis of the situation grew more apparent.

I do have to extend a great bit of kudos to the all the actors who manned the cameras in this episode and had to take on the task of not only keeping their characters in play, remember dialog, but also have the task of getting the footage needed to create the episode. They did a really great job of bringing across the feel and look of a ‘reality show’ and they deserve high praise for that!

In conclusion I do have to say that one thing about Sam and Dean in Ghostfacers that I found to be so jarring as to actually have it throw me completely out of the story was the sudden aspect of both of the Winchester brothers using the kind of rough language that they have never used before in all of the past seasons that we have gotten to know them. I mean not even in the most dire, frustrating or truly infuriating situations that we have seen them in have we ever heard them use the kind of language they did in this episode.

Not that I am a prude or that I don’t realize that it is probably more realistic that young men like Sam and Dean raised in the rough world that they ‘work’ in would use stronger language to express themselves, especially Dean who we know has this kind of ‘tough guy’ persona he hides a lot of his insecurities and low self worth behind. Yet , to me it seemed to make a strange sort of sense that Sam and Dean didn’t have that kind of baser words in their vocabulary. That it somehow fit the masks they have to wear when trying to get sometimes very frightened and confused people to trust them that they didn’t resort to stronger swearing or cussing than they did in this episode. That in teaching them that good hunters know the value of the use of camouflage that their father had kept them from getting in the habit of putting these words into their everyday verbal expressions because law enforcement officers questioning victims and witnesses were better received if they didn’t use ‘street talk’ type coarse language.

I know that it was done as a way to be able to add in some cute and comedic ‘bleep’ noise and use the Ghostfacer emblem just like real ‘ghost hunter type ‘reality shows’ do, but for this viewer all it did was make me lose sight of the characters of Sam and Dean Winchester and see the guys on screen as the actors who play them: actors who are a couple of basically nice young men who are prone to letting loose with some really strong cussing when they are frustrated or upset. That is all perfectly well and ok for them, but it for me it just made Sam and Dean disappear and it made me miss them. I go to conventions to see Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles—I watch Supernatural to see Sam and Dean Winchester as I have come to know them over the last three years.

So I guess I have to conclude that for me this ended up being a so-so episode with some really good moments that are worth watching again, but honestly, the part I found to be the absolute best of it was getting to see the teaser for next week’s episode, Long Distance Caller. It looks totally, freaking awesome!

Check out the extended teaser clips for this episode in my Video Blog here at TVGuide.com