brightly_lit | 9.08, or, And this one had so much promise, too

With a couple of significant exceptions (namely, Dean's sex talk in the church group--complete with orgasm!--and the end where Sam wonders if this is just the way he is now and Dean tries to fess up), I really didn't like this episode, and it all comes down to crappy writing. Klein has written or co-written only two episodes before this one, and both imo sucked.

Judging from these three episodes, she seems to be a fan of cheap gross-outs, pointless go-nowhere subplots (like the guy suggesting they offer up one of the other victims because she's already wounded, which literally had no bearing on anything else in the episode except to fill time ... or maybe to have Dean act righteous/chivalrous, which these days is pretty damn OOC), shameless shipping moments, other kinds of pandering (like, oh I don't know, getting Dean in bed ... with a porn star) and anvilesque plotting. It would have been cool if it had been a little bit of a surprise when Dean was dropped down the hole ... but there was absolutely nothing about this episode that wasn't plodding and predictable.

Actors should not have to work that hard to make the lines not sound stupid. Was there a single turn of phrase that was clever instead of somewhere between simply serviceable and downright awkward? I liked the "hippie from Bethlehem" line, and that was the only thing that struck me as even marginally clever.

So the SPN writers room is populated almost exclusively with men, and the female writers that remain on the staff a) get to write fewer than half as many episodes on average per years as staff writers as their male counterparts, and b) perhaps relatedly, also happen to be the worst writers on the staff. What's with that? Sorry, CW, you won't be able to convince me it's just that women can't write. Who knows what kind of politics may be at work behind the scenes, but for a show that hands us so many badass female characters who are actual, you know, characters and not just convenient love interests and what-have-you, this state of affairs is a bit troubling--especially considering that two of the best writers on the staff in the early days (Gamble and Tucker) were women.

Sam's hair wasn't even good! But that final scene did get me right in the Sam!girlie feels, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If ever there was a damning indictment it's that Sam's hair wasn't even good! : ) That did make me laugh.
I do know what you mean about the whole kinda desperate cheap eps, this one was a look-to-camera and a cream pie to the face away from slapstick (or porn, whichever) I pretty happy to roll over these to get to the good stuff when it arrives.
But I do think they should end it at S10. No more, or it will be all this, all the time, which will just ruin the rest of it.
Did put me in mind of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE_Glg85-60
Don't know if you've seen these guys, they are very funny but I do wonder if they set up the season with this kind of a writers meeting! : ) x

hee, that video was hilarious!

But NOOOO, don't say it about S10!! I figure if they could come up with something good after S5, they can keep going indefinitely, because the thing is, the premise of SPN is essentially infinite, because themes of family couched in stories of the supernatural have no limits like, say, a mystery (like Lost) or a high-school show that's supposed to end when they graduate. As long as Sam and Dean can still kick some ass and drag themselves around in that old car, I want to see 'em doing it!! I want to see ass-length grey hair on Sam, and the old-man Dean episode from the other side! DON'T TAKE AWAY MY SUPERNATURAL!!! ;-d

Oh Hun, it will never end, at least not for us because the Epic Love Story will run and run here until the world burns!
Plus, we have the spin off the look forward to! I do like me a spin off : ) Praying that it's going to be Garth, Charlie and Dorothy doing all kinds of kick ass stuff and not driving around but I know it won't be.
Also, I have two good friends who were massive Lost fans that I was way behind when watching it and they actually stopped me from watching the later seasons, as they felt the crushing disappointment ruined the whole show for them.
I couldn't bear it if that happen in SPN.
I've not been wholly comfortable post-S5 but since everyone up and left for Revolution it's not the same. I still love it and will never stop watching it and enjoying it but I think Swan Song broke something inside me : ) I think Adam and Ben do okay but really we need Sera or even Cathryn Humphris, she wrote some stellar eps or maybe someone completely new that knows the show but can give a slap round the face.
I don't know
Besides 10 years is all you get when you sell your soul and you can't tell me you didn't when you heard "Dad's on a hunting trip..." for the first time.
I know I did : ) x

One of my greatest dreads is the possibility of SPN going the way of Lost and ... well ... virtually every other once-great show, but I saw that Jensen said he and Sam are game to go on indefinitely AS LONG AS THE SCRIPTS ARE STILL GOOD, so it's my hope that we'd get at most one sucky season before it nose-dived onto that shark.

You are so right that it hasn't been the same since everyone left for Revolution and that we need some fresh blood, but truly, I have faith that it could be fixed ... although if it did keep going and going, maybe Destiel really WOULD be canon by, oh, say, S20. XD

... Because that's the other reason I want it to keep going forever: because no matter how great a show was, once it's no longer on the air, the fandom starts to dwindle, and I need my fandom!!

But I'm looking forward to the spin-off, too! It sounds like it WON'T involve lots of driving (it takes place in Chicago, I believe), so there's that. And hey, maybe we'll even have some actual female characters that stick around ...

I pretty much agree with all of this. I was completely disappointed by this episode, and especially by the fact that it was by a female writer. Just, nothing about this episode was good and a lot of it was really BAD.

Dean's characterization bugged me, obviously. He was so reminiscent of S1 Dean, and that's not a good thing, IMO. He's grown and changed since then and I've never been one that wants the show to "go back to the way it used to be." That's just boring, I think.

The whole pornstar subplot was just dumb and frankly added nothing to the storyline. Just, this was not one of my favorites.

That's a really good point about him being more like S1 Dean. I couldn't shake the feeling that the writer basically compiled a list of "things fans like" (horror! Dean having sex! early-season vibe!) and jammed them all in there.

I'm really glad someone else felt about it the way I did.

Oh, but I forgot to mention the other thing I actually liked in the ep--Sam, upon learning they need virgin blood to kill the baddie: "I'M a virgin!" :-D

Ack, LJ ate my first comment. Anyway, I was saying that I definitely liked that moment - and all of Sam's scenes with Jodi. People usually comment that Dean's closer to most of their "friends" these days, and that may be true, but I'd say that Sam's closer to Jodi. I really like the rapport that has developed between their characters.

And yeah, the episode's not my least favorite, because it did have some good, funny moments. Just on the whole it was not the best.

Oh, man, I love Jody too, and I'm glad she's still alive, even if it seemed pretty certain that Crowley killed her and they just kinda ... overlooked that little problem, too. I guess she and Sam bonded when they were hunting for Dean together ...

(deleted comment)

ha, I'm glad I wasn't the only one cringing, but I'd never close my eyes, because then I couldn't gaze upon the beautiful faces that are ALWAYS good in EVERY episode! ;-)

I thought this episode was preetttyyyy boring, yeah. And mostly just kind of safe, in the sense that Jenny Klein seemed to be writing exactly what she thought she should be writing. AND I AGREE WITH YOU ON THE NAILS ON THE WALL THING LIKE, WHY. It was gratuitous like 'omg what's with the gratuitous horror' kind of gratuity, because SPN is often intentionally gratuitous about things in a fun way, but it was just so. Obviously just there to be a pointless 'horror moment.'

I didn't mind the porn star thing, because I liked Suzy well enough (though as I was telling someone else, that might have just been me projecting my love of Gillian Jacobs onto her, because I love Gillian Jacobs and she looks similar), but I'm pretty sure my personal reading of it is different than Jenny Klein probably meant it to be. Same goes for Dean's Random Moment of Pointless Leadership While We Advocate Against Killing Off Honor. That is, my readings of these things were "Dean realizes that everything is actually terrible and nothing fits together like it used to, however hard he tries."

Mostly this episode made me severely not ready for a mid-season finale. And really really really nervous for next week. XP

Yeah, as I said to someone above, she just seemed to have come up with a list of "things fans like" and ticked them off. ARRGHHH--the nails on the wall--also that they spent like a solid minute and a half of screen time on this thing that a) was pointless and b) was a pretty basic concept that PROBABLY DIDN'T REQUIRE A MINUTE AND A HALF TO EXPLAIN.

Ah, well, I much prefer your reading of Dean's RMoPLWWAAKOH to my own ("fans like honorable!chivalrous!Dean")

GAAAAHHH, I know, next week. A little abrupt for a mid-season finale, and now that you say who's writing, *bites nails*. (But does not scratch them down the wall for a minute and a half and then drink the blood.)

9.08, or, And this one had so much promise, too

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject