TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 01/11/12

The U.S. remake of Being Human returns with a second season on January 16 (next Monday). SyFy has been putting out previews of it for about a month now. We will start reviewing it again when it comes back off its interseason hiatus. Also, Grimm returns on January 13 (For some reason, NBC aired a repeat on the 6th, instead).

This week, we have spoilers for Once Upon a Time and Supernatural:

Once Upon a Time (Sunday nights, 8pm, ABC)
By Heather S. Vina

ABC has put out the press release for “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree”, the episode to air on January 29:

“SIDNEY ASKS EMMA TO HELP HIM EXPOSE THE CORRUPTION THAT MAYOR REGINA HAS UNLEASHED ON STORYBROOKE, AND KING LEOPOLD MUST BE CAREFUL WHAT HE WISHES FOR WHEN HE IS GRANTED THREE WISHES BY A GENIE, ON ABC’S ONCE UPON A TIME

“Richard Schiff (The West Wing) Guest Stars as King Leopold. ‘Fruit of the Poisonous Tree’ – A dejected Sidney enlists the aid of Emma to help uncover evidence that could expose Mayor Regina as the corrupt person she really is to the townspeople of Storybrooke; and Mary Margaret and David continue their secret rendezvous while trying to figure out a way to unleash their unrequited love. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land that was, King Leopold (Richard Schiff), who is the father of Snow White and married to the Evil Queen, stumbles upon a magic lamp and is granted three wishes by a Genie – who warns the king to be careful what he wishes for – on Once Upon a Time, SUNDAY, JANUARY 29 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“Once Upon a Time stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold, Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina, Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David and Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper.

“Guest starring are Tony Perez as Valet, Giancarlo Esposito as Sidney/Magic Mirror, Eion Bailey as Stranger, Richard Schiff as King Leopold and David Bloom as Mr. K.

“‘Fruit of the Poisonous Tree’ was written by Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss, and directed by Bryan Spicer.”

I’m sorry, but this line – “Mary Margaret and David continue their secret rendezvous while trying to figure out a way to unleash their unrequited love” – makes zero sense. “Unleash their unrequited love?” Really?

And hmmm, Sidney is turning against Regina, hmmm? I hope it’s for real and he ends up on Emma’s side.

TVGuide has up an interview with Tim Horowitz and Adam Kitsis, promoting people watching the show.

SpoilerTV already has the sneak peeks up for this week’s episode, “True North”. And here’s the promo for it up on YouTube.

SpoilerTV also has some new promotional shots of the cast.

EW has an interview up with Lana Parrilla (Regina/Evil Queen), where she attempts to defend her character’s actions, feelings and relationships. Frankly, I found the interview a little disturbing.

Now, I know that actors need to find things about the character that they play that are sympathetic, things that they can try and empathise with, but I find it deeply disturbing that Ms. Parilla is seriously trying to present it as if Regina cared for Graham, even as she was raping him and then murdering him. I mean, really? I find it even more disturbing that this is coming from a woman, considering the history of men beating, raping, and murdering their wives and girlfriends, and claiming that it was out of “love”, or that they really loved the person that they just destroyed. That’s not love; that’s possession and obsession. For someone to seriously say that someone “loves” someone that they have been raping – mentally, emotionally, and physically – is pretty…well, twisted to me. I know female-on-male rape is still considered impossible to some people (Just read a few of the comments to the interview), but it does exist and it happened on this show. To try to whitewash it is irresponsible and disappointing.

Ratings are in for Sunday’s episode and they’ve gone up a nice amount. The show got a 3.7/8 in the all-important demos, and 10.35 million viewers. The last new episode was on December 11, and it received a 2.9/7 in the demos and 8.92 million viewers. Not a bad increase, at all! Unfortunately, next week, they are up against the Golden Globes, so fingers crossed that doesn’t dent their ratings too badly!

Supernatural (Friday nights, 9pm, CW)
By Paula R. Stiles

After a slow start for the year, last week, this week bulled out of the gate with interviews and clips and official photos, even. Golly. An embarrassment of riches that was both rich and…sometimes…embarrassing.

First, let’s wrap up the previews and interviews for last week’s “Adventures in Babysitting”. There was an audio interview with writer Adam Glass (who said Lee and Krissy would likely be back. Ya don’t say), another clip (This time of Sam and Dean arguing over whether to put out the word that Bobby’s dead), and a preview (put out belatedly) with commentary by producer Robert Singer.

Sera Gamble gave two interviews this week. They revealed some stuff that was, frankly, boring and teased other stuff without actually promising it. First of all, she confirmed sightings from last week that Mark Pellegrino is on set, reprising his role of Fauxifer for 7.15. It appears that Sam will also be hallucinating clowns, because the writers continue not to do enough research on PTSD to understand that it’s not like taking acid while watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I guess they have to bring back the hellpain, seeing as how they insisted early in the season that it was permanent. But I sure hope they won’t be devoting massive chunks of episodes to said hellpain, the way they did with the first two episodes of this season, because, dear Lord, that was dull.

The other thing she said, which people completely misinterpreted, was that Bobby would be back. Actually, she never said that. What both she and Robert Singer confirmed was that Bobby was, indeed, dead as a doornail and that they hoped to get him back for flashbacks and, like, other stuff. Vague other stuff. In the indefinite future. Remember when we were going to see Kali and the Alpha Vampire again, real soon? And we didn’t? Like that.

If there are two things I think this season has really suffered from, they would be pacing and annoying characterisation (Yes, I am thinking of the character assassination they did on
Becky, and the not-so-hot writing for Garth and Krissy, as well as the two witches), as well as some really unambitious MOTWs (Osiris and those Vetalas were lame). Both the Amy and Bobby death plots were draaaaaaagged out for-freakin’-ever and for maximum, totally unearned angst. I cared about Bobby’s fate at the end of “How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters”. I no longer care if he comes back and, in fact, would be pretty annoyed if he did, after this huge, Las Vegas floorshow they made of it. You can only yank my chain so many times, show. Here’s my birthday wish – knock it off.

Late edit: Now, Robert Singer is insisting that Bobby will be back. In an interview from the PCA Awards, he says Bobby will be back in some form or another (well…he actually said Jim Beaver would, not necessarily Bobby). That’s it. I’m done caring about this character in any way, shape, or form. That was just one chain-yank too far, show. Good job ruining yet another character for me.

Though if he came back as a Big Bad Leviathan, that might at least be interesting.

The horrific rumour about unicorns being in 7.15, as well (Betcha they’re a Dean nightmare) from last week was also confirmed. Curiously, she contradicted Adam Glass, who claimed that the coda in “Adventures in Babysitting” was intended to show Dean as hopeful, which startled a great many fans who were pretty sure it was a clear sign that Dean was really cracking up. Gamble seemed to agree with the fan interpretation, but I have to wonder why these folks don’t compare notes and synchronise their stories, right before doing a flurry of interviews. Gamble even contradicted herself a bit over Bobby’s fate. In one interview, he was a doornail; in another, he was definitely, maybe, probably coming back at some point. Honest.

Also, the ongoing rational for killing off these old-and-established characters is pretty lame, especially when new ones immediately replace them in exactly the same roles and the basic framework of the brothers calling up some Exposition Fairy, instead of doing research, remains intact. This suspicious old ghost continues to wonder if it’s a way for the new showrunner to “replace” her predecessor’s recurring cast and put her own stamp on things, but it also needlessly alienates fans. And the way it’s been pursued has been clumsy and off-putting.

In other news, Gamble continues to hedge about when Misha Collins is returning, even though it was confirmed weeks ago that he’s supposed to come back in 7.17. Cassie from “Route 666″ is not, no matter what some obsessed IMDB fan put up on the cast list.

Two new characters are being cast. We’ve got Nora Havelock, who sounds like a Missouri/Pamela clone (Why didn’t we just keep them, again?), and George, a guy who’s an assistant to Joyce. Is this the guy who is more than he seems from a few weeks back? Who knows, at this point? Both Frank and Garth will be back, too. For our sins.

Now to the fun stuff (I say that without an ounce of sarcasm): the promotional material for this week’s “Time After Time After Time”. We’ve got three promos (yes, three, one of them Canadian), as well as a general promo for the first half of the season from Space, and a set of official photos. The 30-second one is really quite cool in a 40s style (and gives away some of the MOTW’s modus operandi, though there could be more than one MOTW). The photos came out piecemeal, but I’m pretty sure this is all of them here, with some HQ versions here. Now, I generally try to keep the fangirly stuff to a minimum, but, sweet Lord, Jensen Ackles, you need to do some retro-neo-noir. Please. If only for the wardrobe. I didn’t think it was possible, but I think that man might actually look even hotter in a trenchcoat than in a western duster.

[crawls out of the gutter and dusts self off] Ahem.

So, the gist is that Dean is stuck back in 1944 by Chronos, the God of Time (whom Sam must apparently deal with in the present day). There, he’s arrested by, and then teams up with, Eliot Ness to fight the same MOTW (probably Chronos). Which involves his changing into detective gear. And handling a tommygun. Kewl. Apparently, he and Sam are running around Chicago in different time periods, but hunting the same MOTW.

Late edit: Two new clips are also now out for 7.12, as well as a very extended version of the clock promo. Not to jinx anything, but this episode looks pretty awesome and the colour noir ambiance is fabulous.

Another late edit: The press release is up for 7.13:

“DEAN’S ONE NIGHT STAND HAS SERIOUS COMPLICATIONS; THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SARA CANNING GUEST STARS – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate a case where the victims’ hands and feet have been severed and each have been branded with a strange symbol. While Sam does some research at a local university, Dean heads to one of his favorite places to investigate – the town bar. Dean strikes up a conversation with a local named Lydia (guest star Sara Canning, The Vampire Diaries), and the two go back to her place. Sam discovers the symbol on the bodies is a sign of Amazon warriors. Jerry Wanek directed the episode written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner (#713).”

Ausiello non-spoilered that the Impala will be back this season and Chuck won’t. Shocking.

There’s a small, behind-the-scenes photo (I guess it’s for 7.15) of a library.

7.16′s title has been changed from “Another Man’s Treasure” to “Out with the Old”. It’s written by Robert Singer and Jenny Klein, and directed by John Showalter. George will be in this episode and it seems Joyce won’t be recurring. Just call her “Doomed Episode Girl”.

This week (Friday the 13th) will be the last new episode until February 3rd, when we will see 7.13, the one where the brothers encounter Amazons and Dean gets laid. We’ll have repeats for those two weeks, starting with “The Girl Next Door”.

The People’s Choice Awards are tonight. We’ll find out then if the show won anything.

Late edit: Congratulations to the show! Supernatural won both the Favorite Drama and Favorite Sci-Fi Show Awards, the two it was nominated for. Love the goofy, “I can’t believe this is happening” look on Jensen Ackles’ face.

Finally, ratings for the show were up and healthy, with a 0.8/2 and 1.82 million. This was in comparison to Nikita‘s 0.6/2 and The Secret Circle‘s 0.8/2 on a better night in Supernatural‘s old time slot.

We’ll be back next week with more spoilers. Stay tuned and check out our reviews of Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Event, Once Upon a Time, and Supernatural.