Admit it. You watch the Big Game as much for the commercials as you do the game itself.
How can you not? There’s just as much hype on Super Bowl ads and commercials (over the past 15 years at least) as there is hype on the two franchises hitting the gridiron. This year’s Super Bowl XLVI had it’s serious host of quirky, inspiring and downright hilarious TV spots and we’re showcasing the best of the best (along with a few of the worst) out here.
The Top 8
#1 – M&M’S “Just My Shell”
Ms. Brown finally makes her big debut in this commercial and when onlookers think that she’s at a party naked, immaturity and hilarity ensues…
#2 – The Dog Strikes Back: 2012 Volkswagen
Commercials dealing with animals pulling off endearing stunts are almost always golden. This commercial not only tugs the heartstrings and has a serious payoff but it also gives Star Wars fanboys something to stand up and nerd it out to.
#3 — Pepsi – King’s Court
Sir Elton John and The X Factor winner, Melanie Amaro, face off in an epic, medieval music showdown. Proving once again, “Where There’s Pepsi, There’s Music.” While this spot is a sure fire way to show off the talent of the X Factor winner, the payoff comes at the end with the surprise appearance from Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav!
#4 — The Voice – Vocal Kombat
A heavenly voice starts belting out a few bars in a hotel shower prompting Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and Cee-Lo Green to tear up the hotel squaring off Kill Bill style to bag themselves the next Voice.
#5 — Toyota Camry – It’s Reinvented
Car commercials had a glorious run during this year’s Big Game and Toyota made no exception with this ingenious TV spot. Toyota reinvents more than the Camry in this extended version of the blockbuster commercial that started it all.
#6 — Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt – “The Tease”
When women play rough, it’s a sight to behold. See what happens when John Stamos comes between a woman and her Oikos.
#7 — Bud Light – “Here We Go” [Rescue Dog]
Budweiser introduces us to Weego, the charming little companion with one of the best skills a man could want in man’s best friend. Budweiser proudly brings this commercial to us with a message to support animal rescues so unfortunate pets can get a home and a second chance.
#8 — FIAT 500 Abarth – Seduction
Tapping into the two things that motivate almost any man, cars and sex, Fiat introduces the Fiat 500 Abarth with the reminder that you’ll never forget the first time you see one.
Honorable Mentions
2012 Honda CR-V Game Day Commercial – “Matthew’s Day Off” Extended Version
It’s pure nostalgia in Honda’s ad for the 2012 CR-V. To celebrate the launch of the all-new 2012 CR-V, Honda brought Ferris Bueller’s Day Off back in a big game commercial. Casting Matthew Broderick as himself, the movie star is seen skipping out on a day of acting work and living it up in his all-new CR-V. Relive movie history with Honda’s fresh twist and wonderful homage to this ’80s classic.
[Think you're a true fan of Ferris Bueller's Day Off? We hid over two dozen references to the movie throughout the commercial. Some are obvious, some are VERY subtle. See how many you can find. #dayoff]
2012 Acura NSX – “Transactions” Extended Version
Jerry Seinfeld is so excited about the new Acura NSX that he will stop at nothing to acquire the very first one. Check out the extended version of Acura’s big game commercial. See what else Jerry would do for the first new NSX at www.acura.com. The NSX is projected to debut in coming years.
The Worst Commercial of Super Bowl XLVI?
There were a few duds during the game, but a lot of people across Twitter worldwide agree that Samsung’s promo for the new Galaxy Note was both extravagant and more than a little perplexing. The lavish commercial makes fun at Apple (without actually naming names or pointing fingers) by having customers personified as bored hipsters waiting for the next update to their current phones. Once someone spots Samsung’s newest baby, a phone/tablet device using a stylus as being the next technological innovation (?), the commercial goes an entirely different direction.
The commercial itself wasn’t bad, but the promotion of a smartphone which is showcasing features that are 5 generations past pretty much cinched Samsung into the corner of worst effort. They spent $5M in advertising for a glorified PDA?
Did your favorite commercial make our cut? Post comments saying which ones you really loved and hated. See you next season!
The SOPA blackout has started today. Basically, for the duration of today, a lot of websites you frequent may greet you with messages saying how they are taking a stance against a proposed bill from Congress that will essentially halt progression of the internet and most likely put us into a technological (and informational) Dark Ages.
We at PopCultureShock oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act. In its present form, it gives control of the whole Internet to the same entertainment companies who frequently send erroneous DMCA complaints and takedown notices. The implications are unimaginable as the bill itself is dangerous and overreaching. Piracy is a problem (of course), but so is censorship — and that’s precisely what SOPA is. From where we’re looking at this current moment, there’s no safe bet that SOPA itself would have any effect on piracy. Have you paid attention to piracy? Pirates are resourceful enough to get around it. Censorship has nothing to do with that and censorship would be what we’re stuck with in the aftermath thanks to some political yahoo shooting their wad in a half-assed attempt to keep money in a few pockets.
In the last few days the SOPA bill has been weakened largely due to courageous and vocal efforts by countless voices on the Internet, but its supporters are still fighting for it and PIPA (The Senate’s version) still poses a threat to the web as we know it. The fight is far from over, and we will lose no passion or resolve until it is dead and buried. The reality is that SOPA supporters far are better funded than we are, so the onus is on us, the people, to be louder and more passionate than these clowns can ever hope to be.
As journalists, we can’t stop bringing news to you and we feel that we owe you the service of keeping on top of all things entertainment and newsworthy. The internet helps us do that so don’t let them take it away from you.
PopCultureShock will continue to keep you informed. We may be a music, movies, comics and video game blog, but we are plugged into life (and lifestyles) so political issues like these do impact our way of life.
As internet users, if you’re as concerned about this as we are, we urge you to contact Congress. If you’re outside of the US, this affects you too, as the bill is targeted in part at “foreign sites.” You can get in contact with the US State Department. For more information on how SOPA is, our friends at CNET have provided an FAQ and we urge you to give it a read and get educated on this. The Stop American Censorship website will get you started.
When your kids say, “Where were you when the government made the internet lame?” you’ll hopefully respond with unflinching certainty: “Raising hell!”
Okay, before we take this too literal, Monster Hunter 3G was not the highest selling game for the 3DS. It was the third highest seller.
In the craziest turnaround for a system that had been deemed a ‘failed launch’, the 3DS continued to dominate Media Create’s weekly sales chart since holiday. Last week Nintendo’s handheld was clocked moving 240,819 units, a 20% increase over the week prior.
Monster Hunter 3G, which was released on December 10, 2011, has officially crossed the 1 million units sold mark during that week, making it the third 3DS title to do so. To date, Monster Hunter 3G has sold a total of 1,083,853 units, trailing behind the 1,199,285 of Super Mario 3D Land and the 1,317,357 of Mario Kart 7.
Numbers of Nintendo’s latest iteration of the DS have been on a dramatic upsurge starting at last year’s holiday season when various bundles released worldwide for the 3DS including the Mario Kart and Zelda: Ocarina of Time bundles hit shelves and propelled the 3DS into a favorable position among buyers. The 3DS hadn’t started recovering from low performance numbers following the price drops and Nintendo posted a dire profit and loss report for the first half of 2011. Not making the most stellar of sales numbers since it’s launch led to some major decisions being made within the company (including Nintendo head Satoru Iwata taking a voluntary salary pay cut) and Nintendo scrambling to make the 3DS a viable entry in the market.
Following the release of Monster Hunter 3G in Japan (which also received its own 3DS bundle after launch), things really started to move for the 3DS. As a testament to how successful Capcom’s action-RPG truly is, the Monster Hunter series has always been a force to be reckoned with as 3 previous versions of the game on Sony’s PSP sold over 3.5M units combined in Japan and kept the PSP the #1 selling handheld worldwide for nearly 3 years. A fourth title in the series (Monster Hunter 4) has been announced for 3DS and looks to take the game in a new direction with new play mechanics debuting but now, in an interesting turn of events, Sony’s Vita is setting up to get it’s very own Monster Hunter title by the end of the year.
Not to sound bad about this, but it seems that Capcom can ride in to a very sugary romantic rescue with Monster Hunter at the damnedest of times but you won’t catch any of the fans out there complaining about it. It’s going to be very interesting to see whether the Vita, which is seeing the same bit of mediocre sales numbers following launch as the 3DS had, will see a dramatic turn in sales as well. If history is an indicator, I’d say ‘hell yeah!’
Columbia Pictures released a movie poster for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Spirit of Vengeance is the follow up to the street scorching 2007 film starring Nicholas Cage as stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze who sells his soul to the Devil and transforms into the Ghost Rider. Cage reprises his role as Johnny Blaze where he continues to wrestle with his role as the devils bounty hunter.
This loose sequel is being directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and is rumored to have a cameo appearance by Danny Ketch who also puts some time in as Ghost Rider. With the flaming skull back into theaters on February 17, 2012, the film also stars, Fergus Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Idris Elba and Johnny Whitworth.
LaTwan Holland was a writer for a local under ground newspaper, The Spinner Rack that covered comics, video games, anime and related movies and is currently the Producer of the DIRECT EDITION. To find out the latest that’s happening with LaTwan and the Direct Edition check them out at the DIRECT EDITION podcast, blog and you tube site.
If your a fan of Batman, or have any comic knowledge regarding the history of the Dark Knight, then you know what the introduction of Bane to the third iteration of this Christopher Nolan driven film will entail. This teaser poster only serves to fuel the flames as Tom Hardy’s Bane steps away from a broken bat, can’t you see its just dripping with hints. Even in the title you can see it The Dark Knight Rises…but in order for him to rise he must first fall. This is set to be the final installment of the Batman film franchise scheduled for theaters July 20th, 2012.
The Dark Knight Rises also stars Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Josh Pence, Daniel Sunjata, Diego Klattenhoff, Burn Gorman, Nestor Carbonell, Alon Aboutboul, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Brett Cullen, Chris Ellis and Joey King.
LaTwan Holland was a writer for a local under ground newspaper, The Spinner Rack that covered comics, video games, anime and related movies and is currently the Producer of the DIRECT EDITION. To find out the latest that’s happening with LaTwan and the Direct Edition check them out at the DIRECT EDITION podcast, blog and you tube site.
Superherohype got to premier a new teaser poster for Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man that showcases Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker perched up on a wall, casting an arachnophobia’s worst nightmare.
The tagline lets us believe this will be “The Untold Story” and we can only speculate as to what that entails, but excitement builds nonetheless.
The film is creeping out of dark corners and into theaters on July 3, 2012 and stars Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen and Sally Field.
LaTwan Holland was a writer for a local under ground newspaper, The Spinner Rack that covered comics, video games, anime and related movies and is currently the Producer of the DIRECT EDITION. To find out the latest that’s happening with LaTwan and the Direct Edition check them out at the DIRECT EDITION podcast, blog and you tube site.
Dear DC Comics, three months in and I can’t bring myself to give a damn about your new Superman comic. I just don’t.
I have my reasons.
Superman sucks.
I say this as a tried and true and unabashed Superman fan. I kid you not; my greatest moral influences, growing up have been my mother and grandmother, my faith and Superman.
Yes.
Superman.
Superman, a fictitious character who in his every action espouses the goals of truth and justice, ideals I’ve continuously strived to better understand my entire life.
Superman has been sure, steadfast and when things need saying he says things like, “Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul, I swear… until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share… I’ll never stop fighting. Ever.”*
See that? That’s a guy you want to know more about. That is something to strive for. That’s the guy whose t-shirt you want to wear. Not as some lazy-ass afterthought Halloween costume but more as a mission statement of who you want to be.
The other day, I’d realized I didn’t know what the hell Superman was saying in a Superman comic anymore because I hadn’t read one in, I guess, two years and this just makes me sad. I want to read a proper Superman comic but what we’ve gotten has been severely lacking in what interests me as a Superman fan and more importantly, as a comics reader.
Last I checked, Superman was coming back from exiling himself in space and came back to Earth and decided to throw himself a pity parade after someone said they didn’t like him.
(pause)
That guy sucks. F*** him. I don’t want to read about that guy in a Superman comic. If I want to know about how bad some guy’s feelings are, I’ll go read a Peter Parker comic.
No offense to you, DC but the handling of your Superman comic just seems like a horrible afterthought. Over the past two years, all you’ve given us is “bold new directions” that have done nothing but showcase just how precious you’ve become with a character that most likely has been and could’ve been everyone’s gateway into comics.
Superman has become boring.
Superman has and almost always should be about escapism. Superman, from the outset has been about asking the reader to detach and watch this character do things no man should be able to do. Superman should be about “the impossible” and how to tear it down.
The one thing Superman should not do is massive amounts of introspection. Again, see my above Peter Parker comment. Superman should be all about what is great and good about your comics, DC.
What should be happening is every month we should be getting not an icon but a character who rocks our world with a smile on his face every single time. DC, you should make it your mandate to new writers to be extraordinary in their handling of all things Superman. Ask everyone involved to surprise themselves. Ask them to find what is grand about comics and bring it to comics’ oldest and greatest of characters. Ask everyone to stretch their imaginations and tap into the fantastic. Ask this of the reader, as well.
Give the reader the opportunity to explore new worlds and situations that require only a Superman.
Give the reader the wonder of looking up in the sky and not seeing a bird or a plane but a white dog in a little red cape soaring above the skyscrapers of Metropolis.
Dear DC Comics…
Make Superman a book everyone would want to read again.
*Taken from Joe Kelly’s excellent Action Comics #775.
In tonight’s episode written by Robbie Thompson and directed by John Showalter things are very peculiar for the Winchesters…
Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are once again on the FBI’s Most Wanted list when two leviathans clone the brothers and go on a killing spree. The subject of a nationwide manhunt, Sam and Dean need to drop off the grid so Bobby (Jim Beaver) sends them to Frank Deveraux (guest star Kevin R. McNally), a quirky surveillance expert, for help. Meanwhile, Bobby continues to search for a way to kill the leviathans, or at least slow them down, so the real Winchesters can stop their evil doppelgangers.
Okay, first things first. The title Slash Fiction is definitely a play on words with the pop culture phenomenon that is Supernatural. Hearkening back to more than a few episode references, when I actually saw the title of the episode, I literally did a double take. If you have no idea what slash fiction is, just head to urban dictionary real fast — this episode breakdown will still be here when you get back…
Getting started, Slash Fiction shows the brothers walking into a bank and after Dean puts on the charm to with the teller, automatic rifles are brandished and the Winchesters commence to robbing the place. After rounding up all the bank patrons and personnel into the safe deposit room the brothers massacre everyone there while making sure their own faces are seen on security cams. Welcome to bizarro-world as Slash Fiction gets under way…
At Rufus’ safe house, Bobby is busy working on Chet the leviathan (Sean Owen Roberts) who Sam and Dean captured with the help of Donald Stark (last week’s Shut Up, Dr. Phil) trying to figure out what ultimately makes them stop ticking. Chet remains calm knowing that nothing can harm him and lets them know that Edgar (Benito Martinez), whom they thought dead after dropping a car on him in the episode Hello, Cruel World is still alive and pissed off. After explaining how the leviathans were able to track them down, Chet tells them that the leviathans can’t be killed by anything humans have. Cluing them in to how boned they really are, Chet tells them to tune in to the news and see what’s going on in the world around them.
The boys learn that they are officially part of a nationwide manhunt led by the FBI after seeing footage of the doppelgangers at the bank robbery. Chet lets them know that the leviathans can clone themselves just by sampling DNA which, for Sam and Dean, they used hair from a motel shower drain. Taking it very personal, Sam and Dean decide they have to go after the leviathans and stop them. Bobby gives them the location of someone that can help them out with laying low while they’re on the job and the boys take off. The FBI tasks Agents Morris and Valente onto the Winchester case and they begin working on the two robbery/homicide incidents while trying to figure out both the motive and the next move for the duo and a race starts off between the Winchesters, the leviathans and the law.
After being made at a gas station following another robbery, Sam and Dean make it to Frank Devereaux’s house and get ambushed by Frank (who is an apparent conspiracy theorist nutcase). The alum from Pirates of the Caribbean fits right in with the many guest stars that have seen tenure on Supernatural and it’s great to see him as something other than Jack Sparrow’s first mate Mr. Gibbs. After a small round of questioning which almost results in Frank plugging the brothers with an assault rifle, Frank agrees to help the brothers out as a favor to Bobby. Arming the brothers with new fake identities, instructions to use cash from now on and humorously replacing Sam’s laptop, Frank sends them on their way with a map indicating the areas evil Sam and Dean have hit and the advice that’s there’s nothing random about what the clones are doing. And he makes them ditch the Impala…
Bobby still hasn’t gotten any closer to figuring out how to stop the leviathans, but after some taunting from Chet, he does discover that they shut up after taking a machete to the leviathan’s neck. Bobby gets an unexpected visit from Sheriff Mills (Kim Rhodes) who wanted to personally thank him for rescuing her from her liver eating surgeon. Bringing the peace offering of beer, the Sheriff offers to keep Bobby some company while he deals with the leviathan in the basement while insisting he calls her Jody.
It’s always a pleasure whenever we get to see Bobby outside of his element (and women always seem to do that) because it immediately makes the episode that much more hilarious. The moment is short-lived once Bobby returns to the basement and discovers Chet’s head has reattached itself to its body. So, in typical Bobby fashion, he lops Chet’s head off again.
Heading down the road in the loaner vehicle Frank gave them, Dean is stewing in his own frustration’s and our quote of the episode comes from Dirty Dancing. The highlight of the night is not Dean’s use of the Patrick Swayze line but rather the moment when Sam decides to calm Dean down with the radio but the only thing playing All Out of Love by Air Supply and actually catching Dean earnestly singing along to it. Trying to get the disturbing vision of Dean being a bitch out of his head, Sam studies Frank’s map and sees the pattern of the leviathans path of terror. The leviathans are hitting every area the brothers hunted in the exact same order from the moment Dean pulled Sam out of college. Next stop, St. Louis and Dean’s favorite diner.
In St. Louis, the leviathans are already at Dean’s favorite diner having a quick bite to eat. After talking about their disgust of humans and the many flaws of both of the Winchester siblings, the clones whack off the diner. Bobby gives the boys the scoop that they should keep moving and th next stop Ankeny, Iowa (Hook Man episode). Meanwhile, Agents Morris and Valente watch the footage of the diner crime captured on a cellphone camera and learn where they’re heading next. Making it to Ankeny just in time to get spot their evil twins in the Impala replica, Sam and Dean can’t make their move before getting collared by local authorites.
Still unable to figure out what to do with Chet, Bobby mistakenly touches him and meets up with his own doppelganger afterwards. Chet (or should I say, Bobby) starts to play more head games with Bobby and we learn more Bobby history. Pissed off even more, Bobby is ready to decapitate Chet once more but something starts dripping from the ceiling and literally eating right through the leviathans flesh. Running back upstairs, Bobby ceremoniously asks Jody what she was using to clean with because they now have a way to slow the leviathans down!
After he manages to get the Sheriff (Battlestar Galactica‘s Michael Hogan) to give him his phone call, Dean learns from Bobby that borax (found in household cleaners) will stop the leviathans in their tracks and keep them stunned long enough for the next part — take off their heads. Sheriff Osborne isn’t entertaining any more sick talk from Dean and his friends and hangs up on Bobby. Stumbling upon one of his own deputies eating another and then witnessing him and another officer turn into the two people he just put into custody, the Sheriff realizes what he’s gotten himself into and scrambles back to Dean where they agree to work together to save their lives.
While the Sheriff is going for borax, Dean finds a gun in just enough time to get jumped by evil Sam. Evil Dean finds the real Sam in the interrogation room and has a quick talk to him about what the problem is the Winchesters have with each other and even reveals Dean’s secret about Amy. Sheriff Osborne delivers a borax bath to the leviathan giving Dean the chance to chop off his head and then they rescue Sam before he becomes dinner. Agreeing to help the real Winchesters disappear, Osborne files a report to the FBI agents and even has a coroner’s report (thanks to his own daughter) ready in time to convince the Bureau that two thought-dead fugitives are officially dead.
Back at the cabin, Bobby has another awkward moment with Jody that ends with a kiss and the request for her to take a box (with Chet’s/Bobby’s severed head) and throw it into the river before heading back to South Dakota. Agent Valente heads back to the coroner’s office where we learn that leviathans also have an inside man in the Bureau (by killing Osborne and his daughter). Valente reports back to his boss who is revealed to be businessman Richard Roman (James Patrick Stuart) who decides that something else has to be done about the Winchesters. Inside his limo, Roman gets a visit from Crowley (Mark Sheppard) who tries to make a deal the leviathan leader. Roman quickly lets Crowley know that the leviathans have a lower regard for demons than humans and that there will be no deals between the two.
Hitting the road, Sam and Dean have a talk about everything that happens and Sam confronts Dean about the Amy situation. Unable to deal with the fact that Dean has lied to him again and again about it, Sam walks away, telling Dean to go the opposite direction.
We knew that sooner or later, Sam was going to learn the truth about what Dean did to Amy because the current trend of the past seasons have always been that the brothers have a divider between them in the first episodes of every new season. Now that the other shoe has fallen, we can see where the next story arc will take us and see the next phase in the war with the leviathans.
Make no bones about it, this week’s episode Shut Up, Dr. Phil is seriously going to give you your dose of gross out and it all begins with the random death of a real estate broker, Wendy, in a hair salon who gets hers brains fried in a salon hair dryer. Maybe it could have been written off as a malfunction if it wasn’t for the fact that when she tries to get out the seat, some unseen force anchors her to the chair. When her hairdresser discovers that something is wrong. the sight is not particularly for the squeamish. Thus starts the next adventure for the brothers Winchester.
Still wracked with guilt and seriously rocked by Castiel’s death, Dean is on the path to becoming a full blown alcoholic. Sam knows something is up and tries to get Dean to let it all out, but Dean deflects it all back to Sam’s current mental state (which is actually very clear for this episode). Dean starts to piece together a connection to two freakish deaths in the town of Prosperity, Indiana (the first being a man boiled alive in a hot tub) within a two week span and the boys take off on the case.
The episode gives TV watchers a small Buffy The Vampire Slayer reunion with guest stars Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) and James Marsters (Spike). co-written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming and directed by Philip Sgriccia, has a few twists and surprises and also brings back the main baddies for this season, the leviathans. Chet the leviathan (the guy who used to monitor credit card transactions) is seen talking to one of his masters while making a quit pit stop at a supermarket. He’s already gotten an idea where the brothers are and assures his boss that he’ll be caught up to them within 2 days.
I’m glad to see that the break with the leviathan storyline is over and is at least getting more play than last season’s lackluster ‘Eve, mother of all creation‘ story arc. While it made the season a little more interesting (wasn’t the angelic civil war enough?) that may have been a missed opportunity with how rushed it turned out.
Once they get to Prosperity, Sam and Dean split up to start tying things together. Sam is unable to determine any connection between Wendy and the man from the hot tub but Dean discovers a rare and unknown coin nearby the salon hair dryer. With the leads being so far-fetched, the brothers immediately start suspecting hexes and witchcraft. Given how much we know about Dean’s hatred for witches, you already have good idea what’s in store for the episode. As they piece together the clues they have, another freakish death happens to a man using a porta-potty (you have to watch the episode for this one because it is grisly).
Dean finds another coin at the porta-potty site and Sam is finally able to find a tie-in to the three deaths — businessman Donald Stark (James Marsters). All 3 victims were part of a real estate project with Don that recently fell through so the next logical step is to talk to Don himself and see what’s going on. While talking to Stark, Sam and Dean quickly learn that the man is a womanizer and that’s he’s separated from his wife. Sam scopes out the home and discovers that Stark’s wife, Maggie (Charisma Carpenter) is a practicing witch. A witch who just happened to have caught her husband having an affair with Wendy. The boys give Don the advice to make up with his wife quickly and take off to try and find a way to vanquish Maggie.
Sam and Dean scope out Maggie’s home. Dean does the break-in and learns that Maggie has a real hit list of people throughout town that she’s going after with Don’s secretary, Jenny, next on the list. Maggie shows up and Sam has to improvise to keep her out the house long enough for Dean to escape. The brothers make it over to Jenny’s, just in time as Maggie’s next spell starts to work and manage to save Jenny’s life. Once the shock of her near death wears off, Sam and Dean explain to Jenny that she was hexed by a witch and she needs to run away — and cut things off with Don. Jenny quickly assures them that there’s nothing going on with Don, her reaction is really simple, “Ew!”
When Don tries to talk to Maggie about the deaths (obviously knowing that she practices witch craft) an argument breaks out between Don, Maggie and Maggie’s friend Sue (who apparently has the hots for Maggie). The couple start really lashing out at each other and Maggie also alerts Don to the fact that Sam and Dean (the FBI agents) are actually hunters.
After Maggie destroys Don’s statue, the sparks really fly and the town is caught in the crossfire. Don has a couple of tricks up his sleeve as well and redoes Maggie’s paintings (and Sue’s head), ruining her charity auction. When Sam and Dean check out the art auction scene, they realize that Don is also a witch and they hasten to catch both witches together in the same place.
Things are really heating up between Maggie and Don as the two of them face off with each other, but it’s a little short-lived as Sam and Dean barge in and attempt to invoke a spell against them. The vanquishing spell goes awry (of course), Don and Maggie start to work out their frustrations on Sam and Dean. With the witches beating them up one side of the house and down the other and being completely out of options, the Winchesters decide to try and counsel the couple while trying to save their own asses. Realizing that the couple are over 800 years old, there’s big history between the two which all leads back to jealousy and a failure to communicate — as well as Don’s affair. Sam and Dean put down the War of The Roses and manage to escape another incident in one piece while managing to get the Starks to realize that they are still in love with each other .
Back at their motel room, Chet makes his move, ambushing the Winchesters. At the last second, an outside force intervenes and Don saves their lives by immobilizing the leviathan with a spell. And then saves their lives again by removing the coin Maggie left behind to hex them. With the spell Don put on the leviathan, this revelation gives them a big opportunity — they can finally learn what makes leviathans tick with Chet being in suspended animation.
Throwing Chet in the back of the Impala, Sam takes a moment to try and get Dean to unload his demons, but Dean isn’t having any of it and once again, nothing gets resolved.
Overall, Shut Up, Dr. Phil turns out to be a decently paced story and returns the Winchesters to the situation of dealing with the leviathan menace. A pretty strong story, more opportunities for comedy (though it’s not on the same lines as last season’s Weekend At Bobby’s), some unanticipated gore and a bit of star power with Marsters and Carpenter adds another episode to talk about in the Supernatural arsenal.
Don’t ask me why, but it’s always surprising to meet someone who’s never been to New York before. It just seems like one of those place everyone should have already visited at least once in their lifetime. But as it happens, Image writer Kurtis Wiebe found himself in NYC for the first time this past weekend, and we took a few minutes to talk about his book, Green Wake, and some other projects he’s got going on in the coming months.
