Supernatural Season Three: Highway To Hell

Season two ended on an incredibly ominous note and a fantastic setup for season three. Just so we're up to speed, here is a quick recap for season two's finale: Yellow Eyes wanted to use psychics like Sam to open the gates of Hell. Sam was killed by another candidate so Dean sold his soul to bring him back. The brothers put a bullet in Yellow Eyes and got their revenge. However, all Hell has broken loose and I mean that literally. Now that we're caught up, lets get into season three.

First up on the hunting docket this season: The fckin' Seven Deadly Sins! Thats right, those things. Some of the most powerful evils in certain mythologies and they're a one and done motw. They make an amazing introduction to just what the demons that were trapped behind the gates can do and they throw the brothers a few curve balls. The entire episode is them sieging the house the brothers and Bobby are holed up in. They're saved by some quick thinking, some well placed traps, and a strange woman with a knife that can kill demons.

There are quite a few episodes this seasons that come close to season one's episodes so I'm not really able to pick my absolute favorite this time so I'll just go over a handful. "Sin City" is a pretty good episode. The brothers roll into town tracking down rumors of people suddenly changing so they think demons are in town and...they're not wrong. There are demons operating in the town but they're not doing the things you'd expect. All the demons really did was have a conversation with a local rich dude about all the money he could make if he sets up certain businesses in town. Its people's own vices getting the better of them thats the problem.

"Mystery Spot" is fantastic. Essentially the brothers show up in town to investigate a disappearance tied to some crummy tourist trap. Dean dies in the process and Sam essentially gets caught in a timeloop living the same day over and over. Sam racks his brain trying to figure out whats causing it and the twist is...well...its not the tourist trap. Remember how I said that season two wasn't the only time the Trickster showed up? Yep, its the Trickster. And the Trickster's reason for doing this? Well, its hard to tell if he is just bullshitting or not because well...its the Trickster but he says it was to teach Sam that Dean can't be saved. Its a stellar episode and some of Dean's deaths are pretty damn funny.

"Ghostfacers" features a ghost-hunting reality show team stumbling onto a case the Winchestors are working. This also isn't the only time they've have met these two chuckleheads. They met them back in season one in the episode "Hell House". The episode itself is honestly the scariest episode out of the 6 or 7 seasons I saw back in the day. It gave me nightmares the night I saw it and it still made me scream during the rewatch. Its a pretty simple plot, basically the Winchestors are raiding a haunted house that only lights up for one night every four years. They came looking for one ghost but find a lot more ghosts reliving how they died there and then shit gets terrifying. The episode flips between the standard tv-show style footage and the ghost hunting footage. It is pretty unsettling at points when the switch occurs so it works really damn well.

The drama portion of this season revolves around Dean's deal to bring Sam back. The rub is that he only gets a single year, not the usual ten. Dean isn't too eager to try and get out of the deal at first because the second term is that Sam drops dead on the spot if he does. A scene in the episode "Dream A Little Dream of Me" gives a pretty damn sobering look at just how much the hunting life has drained Dean. He beats a dream version himself to death just venting and letting out all the pent up frustration from everything his dad burdened him with.

What makes the drama this season work so well is that the hunting life isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. Its not a question of if you'll die, its merely a question of when. If that werewolf you're tracking doesn't maul you, whatever else you hunt might end you. On top of that, once you're in, you're probably not getting out even if you survive. Hunters know too much of whats out there and the ones who've been doing this a long time have tangle with pretty much every conceivable thing that goes bump in the night. Some hunters can probably take solace in the fact that they'll never know when their number is up. Thanks to the deal, not only does Dean know when the bus is gonna pull up, he knows exactly which stop he is getting off at. Overall, season 3 is fantastic and builds on all the good points of season two and avoids most of its pitfalls.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Once And Always

If you know me, you know I've fallen out of love with the franchise over the last few years. My interest just dried up due to how much I've really disagreed with the direction the franchise has been heading. Due to that I was just going to wait and watch this whenever I felt like it, then a friend of mine who isn't big on Power Rangers said he enjoyed it and that I'd probably get a kick out of it. He was right.

I could go over how much this feels like Power Rangers, all the small easter eggs and callbacks, the rebuilt sets, the sheer level of threat Robo Rita poses, etc but first I'm gonna talk about one simple thing that I really held my interest about this special: It is exactly what I wanted from a more adult Power Rangers story. Its just a story about friends mourning their comrade and trying to do their best to take care of her family. Its about a daughter who lost her mother wanting revenge, having to be stopped before she actually gets herself hurt, and learning what it actually means to be a ranger. Its the characters going through all of that while trying to kick the villains in the teeth. Best of all, it manages to keep to the spirit of Power Rangers while doing that. Sure, the franchise has done this already once or twice to a degree but it imo its never really tackled it in the way this special does.

Ok, now for all that other stuff. First, even though I saw the juice bar in the trailer, I was still somehow surprised they recreated it as a set. Its admittedly smaller than I expected but I'm still impressed they went that far for it. The jokes and quips felt very much like something the 90s era of PR would've done so kudos for that. Robo Rita feels like a damn good threat. I knew they'd be hyping her up because she is the villain for the special but it still surprised me. Hell, her obliterating Trini was in the friggin' trailer and that still hit like a truck. I kind of expected Minh to annoy me but she was fine. Her lashing out at Billy hurt to see and it was really unfair to a degree but I totally get where her head was at. She missed her mom and really wanted to stop RoboRita as a way to avenge her. She took her anger too far and pretty much admitted how cruel she was. Thats a pretty adult way for a teenager to look at a situation.

Overall, this was pretty solid special. Did it rekindle my interest in PR? Not really. Did I enjoy it? Yes, very much so. There are some minor things that feel like they should create continuity issues but they really don't impact the special at all so I won't bother mentioning them. It feels a little off and like an unintended insult to say that MMPR has grown up but thats its exactly what this special feels like. Normally I'd end a post like this by saying whether or not I recommend this to people but this time, I'm not going to bother doing that. Why? Well...because its Power Rangers, its lasted 30 years so the audience is there no matter what I have to say about it. People already know if they want to see this or not. So uhhh...yeah, thats a weird point to end this on but here you go. I don't think that my word matters much given my current relationship with the franchise but I enjoyed it and thats pretty much all I can ask for these days.