9.04, or, the writers are even shipping Men of Letters from the 1930s!

[brightly_lit]

Actually, 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.

Comments

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

I liked it! The Men of Letters have a Batphone!

LOL, all I could think of watching the wicked witch was "what an eccentric performance".

I love, love, loved Crowley and the witch interacting. Mark Sheppard really is phenomenal.

[kalliel]

Apparently this episode was filmed DURING VanCon and I was just like, oh heavens above, how did anyone on this show survive that week. XP Though my dissatisfactions are all script-based, rather than performance-based.

But anyway, yes, as per the previous sentence, I'm in the "didn't like this episode" camp. I'm surprised by your flist, though! Mine was fairly unanimous in their overall enjoyment of it (though I'll admit that my flist is also fairly consciously cultivated to be that way, XD), so reading everyone's reactions and talking it out has been really excellent for me. \O/ Yay! Certainly it's one of those episodes that I enjoy discussing a lot more than actually watching.

I agree with what you said here about the MotWs--I really adore that aspect, too. My memory of the vast majority of S8 is too poor to speak to what its MotWs did, but maybe that's why. XD For S7, at least in its first half, that aspect of the MotW cases was handled uh, pretty poorly for the most part. (Case--->Sam verbally relating it to them at the end, lolz) And while I don't think Show's objective success with that balancing act has necessarily been all that pristine from the get-go, their success in these things is not something that tops my list of needs, let's be real. The sheer fact of their existence, however, is always a pleasure, though! <333

[toratio.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it yet (trying to get my friend around for Monday because she's a massive Wizard of Oz fan so it'd be nice to geek together - she finds Supernatural too scary generally) but it seems to be quite polarising from what is on my flist. You either love it or loathe it.

Next week's looks kind of cool. I'm looking forward to some classic Jackles overacting a la Yellow Fever. I think concepts and moments people loved earlier on are now making people annoyed now, but I think it's all still pretty cool.

Having survived the tail end of X Files after watching it from the second season on, I think Supernatural is doing damn good where it is. It could be a hell of a lot worse!