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brightly_litActually, I loved it. (I think only one other person on my f-list did.) Sure, there were a couple of cringey moments--I was taken back to '70s shows like the Bionic Man with the cheesy "possessed" voices ... although I was pleasantly taken back to the '70s with Charlie coming back to life saying, "Merry Christmas"--just like Frosty the Snowman! And the wicked witch went a little over the top once or twice ("top"? what's this "top" of which you speak?), but hey, we needed a good evil witch cackle in there, I figure.
The part that got on my nerves the most was actually the whole "it's not sexist!!" speech--'cos if male writers put these words in the mouths of female actors, it MUST be true, right?? ("Well, of course it's sexy. What's the matter with being sexy?") Also, sadly, I have to agree with all the people saying Jarpad and Jackles were really phoning it in here--worse than I've ever seen them do before ... but I thought the direction was spectacular (I adore Singer's direction, in this case especially the shout-outs to old movies about intrigue, like the Men of Letters and their ritual at the beginning to turn on the bunker, the old lightbulbs and everything), some of the effects were cool, and the script had a beautiful symmetry. And, above all, props to Props!!
Recently I realized that one of the reasons I was so dissatisfied with S8 was because they seemed to completely throw the basic premise of SPN from ~1.05 through S7 out the window, which is, using the monster of the week as a metaphor for what's going on in the relationship between the brothers. When they started using it as a metaphor is when the show really impressed me and drew me in, and now that they barely do that anymore, it takes a really great story to make me feel fulfilled by an episode. This ep was the first time in a long time where you could say the MoW story was even in any way related to the issues between the brothers, so that pleased me.
Loved Dorothy, loved all we learned about the bunker and MoL history, enjoyed Charlie (even though I'm not the biggest Charlie fan), Sheppard was as awesome as ever, loved the clarity and precision in the way it was shot, love that Sam is getting suspicious ... I just loved it!
And next episode looks UTTERLY ridiculous ... but potentially awesome.
The part that got on my nerves the most was actually the whole "it's not sexist!!" speech--'cos if male writers put these words in the mouths of female actors, it MUST be true, right?? ("Well, of course it's sexy. What's the matter with being sexy?") Also, sadly, I have to agree with all the people saying Jarpad and Jackles were really phoning it in here--worse than I've ever seen them do before ... but I thought the direction was spectacular (I adore Singer's direction, in this case especially the shout-outs to old movies about intrigue, like the Men of Letters and their ritual at the beginning to turn on the bunker, the old lightbulbs and everything), some of the effects were cool, and the script had a beautiful symmetry. And, above all, props to Props!!
Recently I realized that one of the reasons I was so dissatisfied with S8 was because they seemed to completely throw the basic premise of SPN from ~1.05 through S7 out the window, which is, using the monster of the week as a metaphor for what's going on in the relationship between the brothers. When they started using it as a metaphor is when the show really impressed me and drew me in, and now that they barely do that anymore, it takes a really great story to make me feel fulfilled by an episode. This ep was the first time in a long time where you could say the MoW story was even in any way related to the issues between the brothers, so that pleased me.
Loved Dorothy, loved all we learned about the bunker and MoL history, enjoyed Charlie (even though I'm not the biggest Charlie fan), Sheppard was as awesome as ever, loved the clarity and precision in the way it was shot, love that Sam is getting suspicious ... I just loved it!
And next episode looks UTTERLY ridiculous ... but potentially awesome.
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Also, Yellow Fever
Date: 2013-11-05 04:29 pm (UTC)Because OH MY GOD, they ROAD DRAGGED A MENTALLY CHALLENGED GUY TO DEATH, when he was THE GOOD GUY WHO WAS WRONGFULLY MURDERED. Hmmm, he was killed in a horrible way and that’s what created all this horror and fear? LET’S SOLVE IT BY DOING IT AGAIN! It’s funny; in my memory the ghost was a black man, I guess because that would be the only possible way it could have been more offensive. I looked on the Superwiki page and saw that he was white. Frankly, I don’t know how the hell that got away with that ending. Did other fans object? I get that Sam and Dean didn’t LIKE doing it, but… wow. Really one of the worst moments on Supernatural ever. It left me with a terrible feeling. Also, the writers could have come up with a better solution. Would it not be possible to… OH I DON’T KNOW—make his fears BETTER in some way? Find some other way to put him to rest? The episode tried to say that road-dragging him was their only option, but didn’t do a good job of it IMO. JUST NO. There should’ve been a better solution.
Too bad, because the earlier part of the episode had some absolutely hysterical moments. Getting to see Jensen really explore comic acting was really fun. It started off as a potentially great episode! There was even some good serious stuff, too; explorations of the brothers’ relationship, a view into Dean’s fears. Then the end ruined it for me, so I couldn’t watch the episode again.
What did you think?
Re: Also, Yellow Fever
Date: 2013-11-17 03:08 am (UTC)(Dean) fandom is divided and fervent about this episode because on one hand, people thought it was really funny, and Eye of the Tiger, and H/C, etc. But then other people found it really upsetting because it was making light of the trauma Dean experienced in Hell by pairing it with something to silly and offering him zero sympathy from Sam and Bobby. (Sam and Bobby don't know at that point, no, but I guess it was more that fans took issue with the writers for not having them give something, I guess. I don't have any issues with that, though.) Or really with Dean's trauma not being addressed, or being treated flippantly--I guess this is similar to me in terms of Sam fandom and Sam's clown phobia in 7x18. I honesty think a lot of what happens to the Winchesters is a bigger deal to fandom than it is to them--or I guess, a different deal, processed very differently than fandom seems to assume it must. I'm not sure if anyone else had an issue with the treatment of the ghost!
But personally, I didn't see a whole lot of difference between 4x06 and the way the Winchesters deal with most of their cases--even ghost cases. Gay love may have saved the day in 3x13, but even from the pilot I think a pretty large proportion of their ghost handlings have tended toward the more gruesome side. Sure, the Woman in White was actively going around killing people and the ghos tin 4x06 wasn't actually doing anything but propagate a virus, but when it comes to vengeful spirits, I feel like questions of agency really aren't on the table any more--not having any control over what they're doing is the definition of a vengeful sprit, right? So Constance Welch's ghost wasn't any more evil than the man in 4x06 was. I mean, in the end it comes down to exigency, and that's played out ugly for the Winchesters probably more often than not--especially if there's a definite time limit they need to play against. Their track record with these things is disturbing to say the least--I mean, in the first handful of episode alone they terrorized a ghost by forcing her to face her grief and guilt in the form of the ghosts of her drowned children, burned to death something that used to be a scared, hungry, desperate human, eliminated an evil spirit by letting it exact revenge on a dude, and terrorized yet another ghost by forcing her to face herself in the mirror.
Not that I don't think there are different nuances to these things--7x03/7x07/7x13 harp on this pretty sharply (...finally, XD) but for me I didn't really feel like it was off their norm. Not that that absolves what happened, I mean. But I do think that the way SPN handles these things has made me a lot more conscious of the higher moral accountability of lots of other "crime" fighters in other shows, aha. Which is sometimes lovely and refreshing and other times just feels far too manicured to be likely. There's definitely an ambivalence to contend with, absolutely.