SPN Season El-Heaven

[brightly_lit]

I finally ended up seeing the final four eps of S11 of SPN all in one night, and I quite liked them all! Except the crappy-as-usual Buckner/Ross-Leming ep. Like, REALLY liked. I very seldom cry at SPN eps, especially on the first viewing, but 11.20 got me deep.

I'm pretty nervous for S12, now that worst-writer-ever Singer, who never really seemed to understand or respect Show, is one of the showrunners. :-[] The fact that Dabb wrote such an excellent season finale bodes well, though, and I like where it all seems to be going ... which I seem pretty much alone in? I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on this.

I just loved the way S12 finally followed up on and tied up a bunch of outstanding issues, questions, gaps, etc., both in terms of plot and character, that have been left hanging since S5 or before (such as the amulet--not that I'm one of those who needed to see it again on an emotional level, but purely in terms of plot and story, I strongly felt, especially if they were going to bring God back, like they had to address it). I was nervous about them bringing God back and I didn't much want them to, but only because I was afraid it would be so hard to do it right, and then Robbie came through! And Rob and Curtis, awesome actors that they are. Because that was another plot issue I felt was left open that needed attention.

Now, they're both delving more into Men of Letters stuff--which, if they're going to introduce the MoL and have Sam and Dean live in the heart of the organization all this time, only makes sense--and bringing back Mary, which is the only way, as Amara said, to potentially heal some of Dean's crushing brokenness, and I am so eager for that. Plus, the criticism that Mary (and Jess) were only there to spur on the journeys of the (male) main characters and didn't have a real character of her own is a criticism I've heard many times. She's such a big spectre hanging over the whole show; I love the idea of them finally delving into that, their past, and that character, and seeing how that retroactively changes Sam and Dean's perspectives. I love it all. Go, Show!! Still doin' it right after all these years. <3 <3

Comments

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Ahhh so much love for this post, you have no idea!!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Ahh, glad to hear it, dear!

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

It's lovely to see some enthusiasm and some yay for it, I've seen so many down posts about it that it's getting harder to drag up the happy for the review posts!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing about a lot of hate for the season end, but either most of my lj friends didn't express anything like that or it happened on other platforms. I'm glad, because massive amounts of hate for a work of art produced in good faith--especially such a positive, love-affirming work--gets really depressing about human nature, so I feel ya, girl. :-]

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I'm not one of those overly flowery *you MUST love it* girls, but when someone puts their heart and soul into a work like this and it's runs for so long and remains consistently good and deep, then I think the dues have been paid and the odd bad ep should be allowed to slide on by, ya know!

[anactoria.livejournal.com]

I like where it all seems to be going ... which I seem pretty much alone in?

Nooo, you're not alone! While I wasn't super keen on 'Chuck-is-God' being canonised, I loved the finale, and I'm rather looking forward to S12. I'm glad that the show seems to have lowered the cosmic stakes a little -- because big world-is-ending stake don't always mean big emotional stakes -- and brought in something a bit more human for Sam and Dean to face next season.

/desperately ignoring that Singer is co-showrunner, because dammit, we're never getting rid of BuckLemming now, are we?

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I so agree about lowering the stakes being a good thing. There's only so far you can raise the stakes ... and the End of Days/saving the world is about as high as they can get--and that was six whole seasons ago! I love a show like Parks and Rec that ends every season on stakes so minute they mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, and it sure didn't stop anyone from wanting to come back and watch that show again. Besides, SPN has always been about Sam and Dean and their story; I think Show could only benefit from returning to the heart of it in that way.

Baha, I like "BuckLemming." Maybe it'll morph into Buck Lemming, like crappy writer-of-SPN-novels Carver Edlund, only ... way worse at it than Chuck.

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

I loved this season, and I'm looking forward to the next season. I love the idea that we're having other humans as the primary adversary going in to the next season.

I'm also stoked about Mary's return. What I'm hoping they do is get into the idea that Sam and Dean (and especially Sam) really don't know much about Mary as a person. Sam would have practically zero memory of her, and Dean's memories would primarily be of Mary as 'mommy.' What they know about her beyond that would all have been heavily filtered through John's perspective. I hope we'll get some surprises from Mary.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I love the idea that we're having other humans as the primary adversary going in to the next season.

Me too! It's so much fresher of a direction for Show than "What's an even bigger badder supernatural big bad?" Plus, Dean did say he got monsters, but people are crazy, so humans should provide a new kind of challenge for Sam and Dean. They're not so good when it comes to dealing with authority. And while Sam and Dean can pretty much just ignore the police, the MoL pose a genuine, perhaps extreme, threat. I just love it, and that it means we should get to learn more about the MoL, which could be very very cool. (And I love that our first modern, badass "Man of Letters" is a woman.)

Sam and Dean (and especially Sam) really don't know much about Mary as a person.

YES, this. They've lived their lives in large part based on an idea they had of this person. It could change everything about how they've perceived everything, depending on what they discover about her. Sam especially will be an interesting case, since he basically grew up completely without any concept of a mother, so what would that relationship mean to Sam and Mary? I love it.

Don't let us down, Dabb! I love what you're doing so far!

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

No, you're not alone in enjoying where it might be going! There are things I like and don't like about the show (almost in equal parts these days) but it's still My Show and I'm sticking with it.

I actually liked the way it ended (for a bunch of different reasons, some good some bad), but I do think it opens up lots of possibilities for 12. And personally, I kinda hope they dial back the CATACLYSMIC UNIVERSE-ENDED DRAMA. You just can't maintain that level of bombasticness (I just made that word up, yep). The friction needs to be made tighter, more intimate now. And they've set that up perfectly, IMHO.

Singer helped showrun with Kripke, if I recall, so his hand in Dabb's pot (hur hur) may not be as tramatic as feared. BuckLeming, however, is still probably on-board because of Singer; all we can hope is that they don't write a bazillion episodes.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I think I'm right where you are with the like/don't like ratio, especially the # of episodes I like vs. the # I don't, taking the last four seasons all together.

I'm intrigued about these things you liked for bad reasons, though ...

The friction needs to be made tighter, more intimate now.

YES. The stakes have to become personal. Any more saving-the-world would start getting ridiculous.

Singer helped showrun with Kripke, if I recall

Ohh, this is good news if true! I like that the media has apparently already reverted to only mentioning Dabb as showrunner.

And now it's time for Singer/Dabb slash fic with warnings for hand in pot.

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

For me there were parts that I loved about the last four episodes, and parts that I only liked. I loved the whole absent father trope that we've seen from the very beginning of Show, and part of me was quite sad to see that go, but they were certainly building to an SPN!God reveal as soon as we heard about Amara being the sister. And it does make we wonder if we'll now see John?

Like you say, I think I'm ready to scale and dial back when it comes to 'the big bad'; seeing a human threat, and a threat that could be born from MoL knowledge over brawn, has all kinds of potential, as does the Mary story line. So yeah, bring it one Show!!!! :)

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

It's a different show than it used to be, and I haven't been able to love it unreservedly for many seasons now--except for some of the amazing eps from this season, hence why I so loved this season!--so there were things I only liked, too, but I enjoyed it so much more than I've enjoyed the past few seasons, and was so pleasantly surprised with how they resolved the main arc, that I was pleased with how it ended.

Definitely yay to scaling back on raising the stakes and making it more human!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

No, you're not alone, I LOVED Season 11 and I was really pleased with the ending as I was hoping Amara would see some good in what Chuck had created and not want to destroy it all. Of course, she saw plenty of good in Dean and who can blame her, he's pretty much Chuck's best creation!

I am looking forward to seeing what happens with the MoL story, and although 'Lady Posh-stereotype' was a bit annoying, it's always good to see another strong female character.

And Mary! What a shock! I hope we get to see her both as a kickass hunter, and the mom the boys desperately need.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sibling reconciliation is such a strong theme in the show (as well as banishing one's sibling for eons, hmmm ... all kinds of interesting meta about how that relates to Sam and Dean's relationship could come out of that one! :-D), I loved seeing it reflected in Chuck and Amara's relationship.

lol 'Lady Posh-stereotype'--she IS a stereotype, but not one SPN had really explored before, and I have faith that they'll give her a real character once she gets some more screentime. I actually liked the character and the actress. Just the idea of Sam and Dean encountering someone who's wealthy and powerful in a worldly way where they've always been scraping by and trying to evade the powers that be is kind of exciting to me; she's really their antithesis, though they're all MoL. I'm psyched!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Yes, banishing a sibling for eons does seem a little harsh! I'd love to be a fly on the wall as Chuck and Amara talk THAT out!

I actually like the actress who plays Lady Posh, she's in The Originals, I just wish they'd avoided the usual Brit stereotype! It seems we're either as posh as the Queen (and usually baddies) or lovable salt-of-the-earth commoners!

But, as you said, "the idea of Sam and Dean encountering someone who's wealthy and powerful in a worldly way...is kind of exciting to me; she's really their antithesis, though they're all MoL." Yep, bring on S12!!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

LOL fly on the wall.

Posh stereotype--hee hee, yeah, although to me she was so over-the-top rich and fancy she's like 007 meets Batman--at the time I didn't think of it as a Brit thing so much as the writers being like "How can we make her even MORE fancy and elegant? I know!: Brit." ;-D I'm hoping that's more where their minds were, anyway ...

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

I am so looking forward to seeing her and Dean face-off in S12! It will be like Dean/Bela - hopefully!

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Yes! Dean/Bela was too truncated! I'd love to see that finally play out.