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

[brightly_lit]

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.

Comments

[kalliel]

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

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

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.)