SPN 5x03 - FTBYAM - Longer thoughts
Sep. 25th, 2009 03:11 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
giandujakissSo, as I said in my previous post...
This episode felt like a lot of filler. Until the very end - and what an ending! - nothing happened. Sam got into trouble with other hunters, except nothing happened. Sam met a nice girl, and didn't sleep with her (due to deletions, apparently). Dean and Cas went looking for information on God, and found nothing. They trapped and archangel, and the archangel did nothing. So this episode spent a lot of time treading water. But parts of it were still very effective nonetheless.
The good.
1. Separation anxiety. Oh, my heart absolutely broke at that opening montage, the obvious loneliness that they both felt. And when Sam even burned his IDs - really as though he was saying a long-term goodbye to hunting - I may have screamed at the television. (Maybe. You can't prove anything). And Dean killing a vampire and splattering blood on his face was an obvious callback to Bloodlust, when that same image was used to demonstrate Dean's deteriorating mental stability. Oh, poor boys!
Also, at the end, that look after Dean said he was happy to have Sam gone - oh, Dean!
In conclusion - fic, please?
2. Sam. Sammy Sam Sam. Sam was awesome in this. From his oiled chestage to his pain over Jessica, to that truly horrifying scene where they almost forced him to drink demon blood - good for you for resisting, Sam! Doesn't that mean you can go back to Dean now??? - to that spooky as hell, terrying last scene with Lucifer, I loved everything. Loved the character development, loved Jared's performance. Hated the shirt, or at least, still can't figure out why the character of Sam would wear such a shirt, but otherwise, this was awesome Sam.
3. Fan service. Personal space? Not dying a virgin? Thanks, guys, much appreciated. And now I know why so many people on my FList were writing fic based on 5x03 before the episode even aired.
4. Lucifer. He was infinitely more terrifying than Raphael in his implacable certainty that Sam would be his vessel, and it worked beautifully. (As for the vessel plot development itself - we all saw that coming and I think it will work well, so I'm excited to see what happens next). I do like their approach to Lucifer as polite but understatedly menacing and, in many ways, far more comfortable to be around than most of the angels we've seen.
5. Lindsay. Who was blonde and survived and because they deleted the sex scene, didn't wear a single white nightgown. 'Tis true, as it's been pointed out, women don't get to do things on this show - notice three hunters walk into a bar and none of them are women - but it's nice if they're at least smart and interesting and not dead. Oh, how low my standards.
6. Adrianne Palicki's moles. Those are hot! Were they airbrushed out of her scenes in other episodes? And they went well with Jared's hot moles. The moles look really good.
7. Needy and/or dishevelled Cas. 'Nuff said.
The bad
1. Vocal chords. Dean, Cas, may I direct your attention here? Because I'm started to get a little worried about you.
2. Jokes. Writers, you are not Joss Whedon. You cannot master his cleverness and lightning tone shifts. You have an unfortunate tendency to ignore character traits in favor of cheap jokes and that undermines the jokes themselves. Trying to cover bad plotting - we need Cas in the Impala - with scatalogical humor particularly does not work for me. Also - and this is not just you - I cannot stand the new trend in TV where you prove that an apparently uptight/straight-laced character is cool by having them finally lose their temper and call someone a bitch. (See, e.g., Fringe, because apparently it's even better when one woman calls another a bitch. SPN, you don't have this problem, because you don't have women.) Which brings us to....
3. Bordellos. I've decided Jimmy is gone forever, he died when Cas did, Cas's body is now his own, reconstructed just for him, AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING DIFFERENT EVER. But that said, I'll buy Cas being interested or tempted or curious, but embarrassed about his inexperience? Terrified? Willing to go to a sex worker? No, no, no, no. Ugh. Begone, canon, it was all Dean's dream while they were waiting for Raphael.
I do, however, find it fascinating that Dean knows the sex industry is built on absent fathers. Something you want to tell us, Dean?
In conclusion - fic, please?
4. Memory loss. Umm, Dean? Raphael didn't start the apocalypse - you did. Also, I seem to recall some pretty awful atrocities before the 20th century. Speaking of -
5. Banality. Show is ... not at its best when supernatural beings are given time to philosophize.
6. Haircuts. I know, in real life it's unavoidable, but Cas got a haircut and now I laugh.
7. Indifference. Umm, Cas, if you expected to die in your battle with Raphael, what was the point of all this? Dean, umm, doesn't the idea of Cas dying upset you even the tiniest bit? Because you seemed concerned about him in the premiere, is all I'm saying.
8. Lost opportunities. They missed it in the premiere, and again today. When the hell is Dean gonna say to the angels, "You're gonna torture me into submission? I hope you're not in any rush for results, then."
And, that's all, except for the burning question that the episode left open - who the hell are all those people on Sam's phone? Tune in next week!
This episode felt like a lot of filler. Until the very end - and what an ending! - nothing happened. Sam got into trouble with other hunters, except nothing happened. Sam met a nice girl, and didn't sleep with her (due to deletions, apparently). Dean and Cas went looking for information on God, and found nothing. They trapped and archangel, and the archangel did nothing. So this episode spent a lot of time treading water. But parts of it were still very effective nonetheless.
The good.
1. Separation anxiety. Oh, my heart absolutely broke at that opening montage, the obvious loneliness that they both felt. And when Sam even burned his IDs - really as though he was saying a long-term goodbye to hunting - I may have screamed at the television. (Maybe. You can't prove anything). And Dean killing a vampire and splattering blood on his face was an obvious callback to Bloodlust, when that same image was used to demonstrate Dean's deteriorating mental stability. Oh, poor boys!
Also, at the end, that look after Dean said he was happy to have Sam gone - oh, Dean!
In conclusion - fic, please?
2. Sam. Sammy Sam Sam. Sam was awesome in this. From his oiled chestage to his pain over Jessica, to that truly horrifying scene where they almost forced him to drink demon blood - good for you for resisting, Sam! Doesn't that mean you can go back to Dean now??? - to that spooky as hell, terrying last scene with Lucifer, I loved everything. Loved the character development, loved Jared's performance. Hated the shirt, or at least, still can't figure out why the character of Sam would wear such a shirt, but otherwise, this was awesome Sam.
3. Fan service. Personal space? Not dying a virgin? Thanks, guys, much appreciated. And now I know why so many people on my FList were writing fic based on 5x03 before the episode even aired.
4. Lucifer. He was infinitely more terrifying than Raphael in his implacable certainty that Sam would be his vessel, and it worked beautifully. (As for the vessel plot development itself - we all saw that coming and I think it will work well, so I'm excited to see what happens next). I do like their approach to Lucifer as polite but understatedly menacing and, in many ways, far more comfortable to be around than most of the angels we've seen.
5. Lindsay. Who was blonde and survived and because they deleted the sex scene, didn't wear a single white nightgown. 'Tis true, as it's been pointed out, women don't get to do things on this show - notice three hunters walk into a bar and none of them are women - but it's nice if they're at least smart and interesting and not dead. Oh, how low my standards.
6. Adrianne Palicki's moles. Those are hot! Were they airbrushed out of her scenes in other episodes? And they went well with Jared's hot moles. The moles look really good.
7. Needy and/or dishevelled Cas. 'Nuff said.
The bad
1. Vocal chords. Dean, Cas, may I direct your attention here? Because I'm started to get a little worried about you.
2. Jokes. Writers, you are not Joss Whedon. You cannot master his cleverness and lightning tone shifts. You have an unfortunate tendency to ignore character traits in favor of cheap jokes and that undermines the jokes themselves. Trying to cover bad plotting - we need Cas in the Impala - with scatalogical humor particularly does not work for me. Also - and this is not just you - I cannot stand the new trend in TV where you prove that an apparently uptight/straight-laced character is cool by having them finally lose their temper and call someone a bitch. (See, e.g., Fringe, because apparently it's even better when one woman calls another a bitch. SPN, you don't have this problem, because you don't have women.) Which brings us to....
3. Bordellos. I've decided Jimmy is gone forever, he died when Cas did, Cas's body is now his own, reconstructed just for him, AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING DIFFERENT EVER. But that said, I'll buy Cas being interested or tempted or curious, but embarrassed about his inexperience? Terrified? Willing to go to a sex worker? No, no, no, no. Ugh. Begone, canon, it was all Dean's dream while they were waiting for Raphael.
I do, however, find it fascinating that Dean knows the sex industry is built on absent fathers. Something you want to tell us, Dean?
In conclusion - fic, please?
4. Memory loss. Umm, Dean? Raphael didn't start the apocalypse - you did. Also, I seem to recall some pretty awful atrocities before the 20th century. Speaking of -
5. Banality. Show is ... not at its best when supernatural beings are given time to philosophize.
6. Haircuts. I know, in real life it's unavoidable, but Cas got a haircut and now I laugh.
7. Indifference. Umm, Cas, if you expected to die in your battle with Raphael, what was the point of all this? Dean, umm, doesn't the idea of Cas dying upset you even the tiniest bit? Because you seemed concerned about him in the premiere, is all I'm saying.
8. Lost opportunities. They missed it in the premiere, and again today. When the hell is Dean gonna say to the angels, "You're gonna torture me into submission? I hope you're not in any rush for results, then."
And, that's all, except for the burning question that the episode left open - who the hell are all those people on Sam's phone? Tune in next week!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 02:22 am (UTC)That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. *nods*
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 06:00 pm (UTC)I'm sort of stumped by why Castiel thought Raphael was going to be so hard to deal. It looked pretty easy unless contact with Raphael starts some sort of slow death process?
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 06:15 pm (UTC)By gum, that's it! By 5x22 we'll find out Cas is terminal!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 03:58 am (UTC)