Supernatural Season 8 Play-by-Play and Review

Supernatural was a big part of my life for a very long time and made me a lot of friends. There was something wonderful about mixing the stories of urban legend and terror that I loved as a child with the quest for identity and the complicated nature of family relationships. Sam and Dean Winchester, raised as warriors after their mother was murdered when they were young and their father descended into a quest for revenge, are at times heroic and inspiring and at other broken and vulnerable. Following their journey has for the most part been fantastic. The show was supposed to be 5 seasons long, and to be honest, after that first 5 seasons the tone completely changed. Sam and Dean weren't themselves anymore, they weren't people I loved and identified with. After watching season 6 and 7 through gritted teeth I concluded that I couldn't go on and left it alone.

I still firmly believe that the show I loved ended at the end of season 5 and ended satisfyingly. Having distanced myself from those characters and that story, I recently delved back into season 8 (season 9 is currently screening in the United States so it's been a while) to see whether I could enjoy the show again and to give you fine folks a review.

Follow me under the jump for a play-by-play synopsis and review of season 8 of Supernatural.

WARNING: There are spoilers under the cut that progress in chronological order with the season.

Thursday Threesome - DC Villain Action Figures!

Hey Folks!

No...I'm not dead.  I've just been on hiatus so to speak...but I'm back today to bring you an All-New Thursday Threesome!  Today's topic?

Action Figures I meant to review but never got around to...the DC VILLAINS Edition!

Well...I'm just barely going to review them...mostly I plan simply to show them off! 

Join me after the JUMP for pretty pics and gushing!

The Book Was Better Podcast Episode 74: Flash Gordon! (with guest host Jacinta!)

FLASH! AH-AHH! This week we rocket to the gaudy 1980 to read the novelization of meathead-with-his-own-name-on-his-T-shirt science fiction epic Flash Gordon! Joining me this week is fellow space traveller Jacinta, as we delve into this absolutely crazy deviation from the film, filled with crazy sexual deviation! Wait... How did this PG film become so unabashedly twisted and sexy? Listen and find out!

Download it right now from the official site!

And for the love of Vultan, subscribe to us on iTunes and join the discussion in our friendly Facebook group!

FPcast! The Fruitless Pursuits Podcast for February 10th 2014! Fictional Crushes!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Jacinta and Luke discuss their (often embarrassing) fictional crushes! Which imaginary characters made our blossoming hormones inexplicably shudder? Plus we catch up on the pop culture news AND end with a spoiler-filled review of the Robocop reboot! (Spoiler: We hate it!). This episode is unmissable!

Download here! (Click to stream or right-click to save)

And be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes!

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

When I read science fiction that isn't an epic space opera-type opus, I tend to enjoy the books that stay true to the roots of the genre - exploration, the vastness of space, first contact, and so on. The Martian was something that caught my eye because it was such a simple concept - an astronaut abandoned on Mars. What I didn't expect was for it to be one of my favorite recent science fiction reads.

Thursday Threesome: Three Childhood Toys That Made Me Who I Am Today

After a friend posted about some old toys on Twitter, I confessed my big three toys. These aren't the toys that I had the most of, or even the toys that I loved the most. These are the toys that had the biggest creative impact on my life. For every silly character or weird idea that I come up with, you could probably trace it back to one, or all, of these.

Madballs
There's something that I really enjoy about mashing two things together. Madballs were baseball and football sized balls with awesome, sculpted, gross-out style creature faces. The character and detail in these lured me in from the start.

My favorite was always the eyeball, and my holy grail toy was the action figure version with a body made up of blood vessels. I've tried to make characters that are just eyeballs ever since, but nothing as cool as Oculus Orbus. 

The Dresden Readthrough: Blood Rites

We continue our readthrough of Jim Butcher's uber-popular urban fantasy series The Dresden Files today with book six, Blood Rites. The continuing plan is to do a book a month on the first Tuesday of each month, and with 15 books on the publication schedule between now and when our readthrough is over, and perhaps our timing being good enough for the 16th, our reading list should be pretty full for the foreseeable future.

Of the six books I've read so far in this series, Blood Rites was probably the first step backward for me in terms of quality and enjoyment since I've started.

The Book Was Better Podcast Episode 73 - Man of Steel! (with guest host Courtney Coulson!)

 The Book Was Better podcast makes it's triumphant return for 2014 as we read and discuss the slapped together novelization of Zack Snyder's pumped up, city-destroying, screamfest, Man of Steel! And by my side this week is plucky boy (but actually a girl) reporter, Courtney Coulson, as we try desperately to make sense of a movie that we loved being adapted into a book we didn't like. We're back! And we are metaphorically firing lasers out of our eyes! LET'S DO THIS!

You can download it right now from the official site!

Or why not subscribe to us on iTunes and join the discussion in our friendly Facebook group!

FPcast! The Fruitless Pursuits Podcast for February 3rd 2014! Our Video Game Histories!

This week we delve into our sordid pre-2000 video game past! How did we first get into gaming? What did we play? Did the Intellivision really have faux wood panelling? Plus we talk about why you're wrong about the Lex Luthor casting, Bay Turtles, X-Men, and Scarlett Johansson vs. Sodastream! Listen to this crap!

Download here! (Click to stream, right-click to save)

And be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes!

Thursday Threesome: Three Black Widow Collectibles I Am Most Looking Forward To!

After a long hiatus it is once again my turn to nominate three random things on a Thursday, and seeing as how we’re talking about threesomes, I may as well aim high and focus on Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow! The Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier hype train is tooting its horn and waggling its caboose and we’re beginning to see a lot more Black Widow merchandise that is coming down the pipeline.

Which three items am I most looking forward to adding to my creepy shrine? Find out... after the jump!