Supernatural [Warning: Chock Full o'Spoilers!1]
(For the record, i'd like to keep this spoiler-free for Bryn and Siobhan, who haven't seen Tall Tales, Roadkill or Heart yet. There's nothing major as far as the metaplot goes, so if y'all don't mind - or would at least put big spoiler notices about those three episodes - that would be cool, coz i think they have lots to add to the debate otherwise.)
ZOMG!1
I'm not even sure how to start this. Season 2 was like woah. The writers did a good job, as Bryn put it, of betting well with their plot chips to get a good return on their investment, rather than hoarding a slowly disappearing pile. (I think i like the poker chip analysis better than the dead cow one - sorry, Bryn). The first part of the season, they spent a good amount of time dealing with John's death without it being too overbearing or bogging down the plot.
I also like the fact that Dean finally starts to come unravelled right around the weird Croatoa disease episode. He holds it together for quite a long time, but then the burden of a)not having his dad to live up to/fall back on, b)holding back the news about how he might have to kill Sam, and c)being broke-down by the demands of the job.
Sam gets even more broody and complex, but in a good way - it's fun to watch him wait to lose it. I also thought the episode where he gets possessed (Born Under a Bad Sign) was a lot of fun, both from a plot standpoint (Holy shit, Sam flipped out!1) and from watching Jared Padalecki get to be evil and creepy and weird for a while.
I think What Is and What Should Never Be was well-placed. If it'd come halfway through the season, it would have been the It's A Wonderful Life episode. As it was, however, it came the episode before they killed Sam (zomg!1) and really hit home all the things Dean has given up (and will continue to) over the years.
And the finale...ouch. In a great way, but...ouch. So wonderfully brutal - Andy dying (*ASL sad*), Eva being the bad guy (woohoo!1), Sam getting knifed in the back by someone who really wasn't that bad of a guy...right in front of Dean. And that was part one.
Alright. I've babbled quite a lot. Thoughts? Favorite moments? Weak spots? Predictions for the future?
Ooh, predictions for the future. Last season, i said Season 2 needed more girls, and we got Jo and Ellen (hooray!1). My prediction is that Season 3 has some manner of demon ally, possibly a half-demon of some sort (because they made mention of "full blooded demons," it stands to reason that there should be half-demons out there).
Okay. I'm done now. SRSLY.