SPN 3.2 & 3.3
3.2 - The Kids Are Alright
On the whole, this was a better episode than 3.1. (Of course, that isn't saying much.)
That's the good news. But there were so many mistakes and missed opportunities that watching it was a mixed pleasure at best. I've finally given up on a return to the level of quality we saw the end of season one through IMToD -- that's just not going to happen and it turns out that I'm still willing to watch as long as the show preserves the things I did like about first two seasons as a whole.
OMG, show. How could you so thoroughly wreck Dean and kids? Dean and kids should be golden, while this was badly thought out and offensive. Setting aside the egregious mood-killing misogyny, maybe-Dean's-kid, while not inherently a bad concept, was executed so badly it boggles the mind. Is this who the show really thinks Dean is? That his essential character is hitting on women in creepy ways? Misogyny? Shoving food in his face and wearing black jackets? Even the mini!Dean heroism was forced. I'd be willing to set aside most of what I know about genetics and inheritable traits if the show had used this as an opportunity to explore who Dean might have been had he grown up normal. Or, more interesting yet, in a mirror image world: wealth, stability, larger social network, mother vs. poverty, dislocation, violence, father. That would have been interesting. This was stupid.
Really, from Dean with that season 1 kid who was too traumatized to speak to this? I have faith that somewhere in fandom there's at least one really great Dean-meets-his-unknown-kid-from-one-night-stand fic, and I comfort myself with this thought.
Also: Dean looked unusually tall this episode. Because he wasn't standing next to Sam enough. I realize they show needs Sam to have some time alone to research, meet demons, and so on, but about 95% of SPN's charm rests on Sam and Dean together, not consecutively. Yes, shooting schedules are a lot more sane when you split your two leads up, but I was disappointed and hope this isn't part of a trend. 'Cause I've seen that happen to buddy shows before and it's never pretty.
3.3 - Bad Day At Black Rock
I'm not going to do a blow by blow for this episode (though I fail to see the connection to the 50's Spencer Tracy film of the same title, if that's even what they were referencing). On the plus side, this season I've liked each episode better than the one before it, but -- I don't know. It feels like all these episodes were written by people who have only a cursory understanding of the show, its themes, universe and characters. They feel hollow, following the broad outline and general formulas, but without that emotional core and surprisingly deep/complex characterization that made the show seem fresh and different, and frankly worth watching. Dean's all over the place, and as much as I would really, really like to credit SPN with having this be some drawn out 'dead man walking/going to hell' reaction -- like his anger and violence last season -- that's not the vibe I'm getting so much as, you know, sloppy and superficial writing.
And I admit I miss the claustrophobic quality that Sam and Dean's world had in the first season -- love and resentment, the elephants-in-the-room tension between them, power dynamics, and the all consuming nature of their relationship. The fact that there was nowhere else to go, no one to turn to, nothing except the silence of John not answering their calls. Other people and the rest of the world that remained untouched by the supernatural were temporary, brief points of intersection with the reality Sam and Dean lived in. And since Sam and Dean were so isolated the show didn't have to think of ways to introduce secondary characters and their backstories -- which, frankly, SPN sort of sucks at when they're trying to do it on purpose. I suppose I'm willing to put up with clumsy exposition of plots and secondary characters' "here, let me tell you all about myself," but I loved that claustrophobic intensity, even though I get that it probably wasn't sustainable long term.
Which brings me to the best thing about this episode: Sam's hilarious, pitiful and oh-so-eight-years-old 'I lost my shoe,' capped with Dean's little expression of 'Oh god, Sammy's lost his shoe' that somehow managed convey years of Sam coming up to him looking sad and embarrassed and having lost things, that Sam was a geek and a loser, but he was Dean's geeky loser and, well, that was that. Sam was his, for better or worse, and Dean was going to go out there and fix this. Same goes for Dean marching Sam into the chair and telling him to stay put.
Show! Listen! Give me more of this! And less 'there's a War coming -- dan dan duuun.' Here's a hint: I don't care about the plight of humanity -- I care about Sam and Dean. These interactions that summon up a shared past in such a natural, brilliant, almost unconscious way are your saving grace. Stick with them. 'kaythxbye.
(And, btw, the role reversal of Sam saving Dean means they should be paying more attention to big brother/little brother dynamic -- not less. This could be so interesting, and the whole reason I watch SPN is because, in the past, this show has had the ability to deal, vividly and viscerally, with the shifting complexities of their relationship at this level of detail and sophistication. SPN, do not let me down.)
Also: let the boys do their own damn research.
On the whole, this was a better episode than 3.1. (Of course, that isn't saying much.)
That's the good news. But there were so many mistakes and missed opportunities that watching it was a mixed pleasure at best. I've finally given up on a return to the level of quality we saw the end of season one through IMToD -- that's just not going to happen and it turns out that I'm still willing to watch as long as the show preserves the things I did like about first two seasons as a whole.
OMG, show. How could you so thoroughly wreck Dean and kids? Dean and kids should be golden, while this was badly thought out and offensive. Setting aside the egregious mood-killing misogyny, maybe-Dean's-kid, while not inherently a bad concept, was executed so badly it boggles the mind. Is this who the show really thinks Dean is? That his essential character is hitting on women in creepy ways? Misogyny? Shoving food in his face and wearing black jackets? Even the mini!Dean heroism was forced. I'd be willing to set aside most of what I know about genetics and inheritable traits if the show had used this as an opportunity to explore who Dean might have been had he grown up normal. Or, more interesting yet, in a mirror image world: wealth, stability, larger social network, mother vs. poverty, dislocation, violence, father. That would have been interesting. This was stupid.
Really, from Dean with that season 1 kid who was too traumatized to speak to this? I have faith that somewhere in fandom there's at least one really great Dean-meets-his-unknown-kid-from-one-night-stand fic, and I comfort myself with this thought.
Also: Dean looked unusually tall this episode. Because he wasn't standing next to Sam enough. I realize they show needs Sam to have some time alone to research, meet demons, and so on, but about 95% of SPN's charm rests on Sam and Dean together, not consecutively. Yes, shooting schedules are a lot more sane when you split your two leads up, but I was disappointed and hope this isn't part of a trend. 'Cause I've seen that happen to buddy shows before and it's never pretty.
3.3 - Bad Day At Black Rock
I'm not going to do a blow by blow for this episode (though I fail to see the connection to the 50's Spencer Tracy film of the same title, if that's even what they were referencing). On the plus side, this season I've liked each episode better than the one before it, but -- I don't know. It feels like all these episodes were written by people who have only a cursory understanding of the show, its themes, universe and characters. They feel hollow, following the broad outline and general formulas, but without that emotional core and surprisingly deep/complex characterization that made the show seem fresh and different, and frankly worth watching. Dean's all over the place, and as much as I would really, really like to credit SPN with having this be some drawn out 'dead man walking/going to hell' reaction -- like his anger and violence last season -- that's not the vibe I'm getting so much as, you know, sloppy and superficial writing.
And I admit I miss the claustrophobic quality that Sam and Dean's world had in the first season -- love and resentment, the elephants-in-the-room tension between them, power dynamics, and the all consuming nature of their relationship. The fact that there was nowhere else to go, no one to turn to, nothing except the silence of John not answering their calls. Other people and the rest of the world that remained untouched by the supernatural were temporary, brief points of intersection with the reality Sam and Dean lived in. And since Sam and Dean were so isolated the show didn't have to think of ways to introduce secondary characters and their backstories -- which, frankly, SPN sort of sucks at when they're trying to do it on purpose. I suppose I'm willing to put up with clumsy exposition of plots and secondary characters' "here, let me tell you all about myself," but I loved that claustrophobic intensity, even though I get that it probably wasn't sustainable long term.
Which brings me to the best thing about this episode: Sam's hilarious, pitiful and oh-so-eight-years-old 'I lost my shoe,' capped with Dean's little expression of 'Oh god, Sammy's lost his shoe' that somehow managed convey years of Sam coming up to him looking sad and embarrassed and having lost things, that Sam was a geek and a loser, but he was Dean's geeky loser and, well, that was that. Sam was his, for better or worse, and Dean was going to go out there and fix this. Same goes for Dean marching Sam into the chair and telling him to stay put.
Show! Listen! Give me more of this! And less 'there's a War coming -- dan dan duuun.' Here's a hint: I don't care about the plight of humanity -- I care about Sam and Dean. These interactions that summon up a shared past in such a natural, brilliant, almost unconscious way are your saving grace. Stick with them. 'kaythxbye.
(And, btw, the role reversal of Sam saving Dean means they should be paying more attention to big brother/little brother dynamic -- not less. This could be so interesting, and the whole reason I watch SPN is because, in the past, this show has had the ability to deal, vividly and viscerally, with the shifting complexities of their relationship at this level of detail and sophistication. SPN, do not let me down.)
Also: let the boys do their own damn research.