SUPERNATURAL gets sixth season, TORCHWOOD moving to US

Big news in geek TV!

First, Supernatural is returning for another season. Eric Kripke, the show's creator, had previously made it quite clear he'd always planned for the current season to be the show's last, but now he's apparently changed his mind.

I must admit that this season has been a bit hit-and-miss for me. After setting up this big apocalyptic plot, they haven't done as much with it as I would've liked. There have been a lot of monster-of-the-week episodes, and the show's tone has gotten a little wobbly. I've enjoyed their more comedic episodes in the past, but this season they've come perilously close to X-Files camp. (Remember those seasons where The X-Files hit us with one totally goofy episode after another, when you wished they'd just stop parodying themselves already and get back to the damn scary stuff? A few Supernatural episodes this season have given me bad Clyde Bruckman flashbacks.) But Supernatural hasn't felt like it was winding down. The show clearly has a lot of life left in it, and I'll be glad to see the Winchesters come back next season.

Second, Russell T. Davies is working on an American version of Torchwood for Fox, and there's talk that John Barrowman will be along for the ride. Davies is determined to make a dent in American TV, but I don't have high hopes for his chances with Fox. Fox likes to talk itself up as being edgy, but I can't imagine them giving Davies the kind of free reign he's enjoyed at the BBC. It seems almost inevitable that Davies is going to struggle with Fox endlessly as he tries to bring Captain Jack's sci-fi bi guy adventures to American prime time, and then the network will order reshoots and broadcast episode six as the pilot and cancel the show two months later with five episodes unaired. If Joss Whedon has an hour to spare, he should take Davies out to lunch and tell him a few Fox horror stories.

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