Why SPN Needs To Catch A Case of “Glee” (spoilers for SPN 6x08 and Glee 2x06)
Bargggh! Hello, flist! Breaking radio silence! :D I feel like I've been stuck in a well for the last month or two or five, but (I think?) I've escaped for now. *looks around* Freedom means fandom dorkery, which means Show, which means mindless nattering, which sometimes means meta. \o/ So ... after watching this past week’s episode of "Glee", I’ve finally figured out what’s been bothering me about SPN this season.
But first let me blab about Glee a little…
I enjoy Glee. It’s the TV equivalent of cotton candy-light, sticky sweet, and alternately leaves you on a giddy sugar high when it all gels or groaning and feeling sick when it misses the mark. But overall, it’s entertaining, snappy, silly, and has dancing. Sue Sylvester and the satire alone would keep me randomly tuning in indefinitely, but the reason I watch is because this show has somehow found a crazy way of balancing (albeit sometimes disastrously) over-the-top humor with some heartfelt emotion. Strangely, there are stories happening under all of the pop music and hairspray. The story that I find most interesting and fresh is Kurt’s-go figure, he’s the angst magnet who ends up crying in practically every significant character-building scene. :) So this week I found myself bouncing in front of my computer when I saw this:
See Kurt? Not a tear in sight. Look at how elated and disbelievingly happy he is, like he’s walked straight into the dream of a gay-teenager-stuck-in-the-middle-of-tiny-town-Ohio-where-the-most-popular-restaurant-is-named-“Breadsticks”. Oh wait, that is Kurt. ;) But seriously, is that not the look of pure joy? I sat here smiling like a dork at my computer screen despite the fact I’m not really into Katy Perry’s music. You see, I think happiness and newly discovered joy like that-even found in the tiniest things: a song, a look, someone touching your lapel-are magnified and made more beautiful with the contrast of despair, sadness, frustration, and grief. And despite the fact Glee is saccharine, Kurt’s story largely isn’t (his mom died, his dad had a heart attack, his one crush out-right rejected him and may potentially become his step brother, he’s the only openly gay person in school, he’s bullied daily, and his first boy kiss was an oral attack from the person he probably hates the most). I think it’s the contrast of Kurt’s angst-filled story that makes this scene all that much more heartfelt (it wouldn’t have had the same impact if it had been any other character being sung to with such hope and promise). It’s the struggle that makes the reward-or the promise of a reward-that much more sweeter. But the key is that a story and a character need the contrast of both despair and elation in order to emphasize the other. And that emotional contrast is what SPN has been lacking this season, making it a one-way emotional rollercoaster that only goes downhill.
Over the last eight episodes, there have been truckloads of despair, rage, frustration, anger, grief, mistrust, and more anger even by SPN’s standards. There has yet to be a single moment (never mind a scene) between Sam and Dean that’s been filled with genuine joy, happiness, or even connection. I know it’s because Sam doesn’t have a soul and this is all done purposefully to lend more urgency to the “get Sam’s soul back” quest and likely the positive emotions between Sam and Dean will return with Sam’s soul. But, for me, what’s lending even more to the general feeling of “meh-blah” this season and what I think is more troubling as it isn’t necessarily contingent on the return of Sam’s soul is that the writers have forgotten to insert the promise of future joy and happiness. Heroes continue to battle impossible odds not because of the certainty of winning (in most cases the odds are stack against them to impossible heights), but because of the fleeting possibility, the practically unattainable promise of future happiness. They endure because they’ve tasted what they want and will do anything to get it back. Not only does despair becomes darker when contrasted with joy, happiness becomes brighter, more beautiful, and fleeting when its drown out by grief. Without one or the other, the story becomes emotionally monochrome and tiring (hello, one-way downhill rollercoaster). But more than that, by not showing why the characters continue to battle against the odds (in this case i.e. inserting tantalizing bits of connection and/or positive emotion like hope), the story loses credibility. It’s hard to sell the plot to the audience when it seems like the characters don’t even know, let alone feel, what they’re fighting for.
Sure, in previous seasons, the boys weren’t frolicking through fields of daisies and clovers and pirouetting over rainbows, but despite the beating Sam and Dean’s relationship took in S5, there was always a bond between them, which spoke to the part of me that kept whispering, “It’ll be alright in the end.” For five seasons, Sam and Dean being brothers, taking care of each other, standing shoulder-to-shoulder against the rest of the world was the heart of the show. It was the glue that held together the emotional story but, more importantly, sold the outrageous idea of two brothers triumphing over the agents of Heaven and Hell for each other. The promise of triumph was the scenes of Sam and Dean being brothers and finding joy in the little things (a knowing smile across the Impala’s front seat, the clink of beer bottles, the nudge of an elbow, or the a post-knockdown pat down). Those scenes showed us exactly what Sam and Dean were fighting for and made us believe in their story.
And now, with that bond MIA for 1/3 of the season and replaced with indifference, anger, rage, and overt violence and without any semblance or a tangible promise of happiness, joy, or brighter days, it makes watching SPN emotionally draining and tiresome. The promise of triumph has yet to be shown, and I’m not convinced that Sam and Dean even know why they’re fighting for Sam’s soul.
Sam articulates in 6x08 that he thinks he should get his soul back, but never elaborates why. “But there were also things about it that I remember that I … let’s just say I should probably go back to being him.” Of course, we’re to connect the dots and likely assume Sam intellectually knows he’s not a whole person and wants to feel emotions again, but because the writers didn’t actually have Sam voice his motivation, we can only infer what he wants (argh, why not just have Sam finish the sentence?!). This leaves Sam’s emotional story once again largely playing off screen, creating a distance and disconnect between him, Dean, and the audience. To be fair, Sam can’t feel the emotions that would make him care and hint at what the promise of triumph would bring because he has no soul. But intellectually knowing “what’s best” isn’t the same as feeling it, and that’s the entire point the writers are trying to make. Only I think they’re playing it to the extreme and, as a result, inadvertently alienating half of the pair that made SPN what it is. They may be playing coy and saving Sam’s story from some gigantic, revealing episode, but there’s no point in hoarding your candy to give out later when everyone else leaves because you’ve only demonstrated that you’re a bad sharer.
In response to Sam’s statement, Dean reiterates the mission: “We do what we gotta do. And we get my brother back.” So now we know Dean’s trudging along to get Sam back, but without showing or articulating why, the words have little impact. In fact, I argue that the writers have spent more time actively demonstrating the exact opposite: why Dean should just jump in the Impala and leave Sam in the dust, tinkering with the pieces of his Charger. We’ve seen that Dean is violent and full of anger, resentment, and distain toward Sam, it’s hard to understand why he wants to be in the same hemisphere as Sam, let alone embark on a one-on-one quest with him in the confines of the Impala. And if you take the above dialogue at face value, Dean is stating an action, an objective cause and effect, but he’s not stating what he wants. We infer that Dean wants his Sam back, but like Sam’s dialogue, it’s opaque-Dean’s feelings or desires are never explicitly stated. In fact, we’ve yet to get any indication that Dean feels bereft or a sense of loss regarding soulless Sam. I’m not advocating for touchy-feeling brotherly bonding moments because showing the disconnect between Sam and Dean is meant to get us salivating for the return of Sam’s soul and a real brotherly reunion, but I’m talking about sliding in tidbits of hope, inserting a line of dialogue that would elude to the promise of what could be and provide some familiar character motivation that would resonate emotionally with the audience. The promise of what triumph would bring could simply be sideways glimpses of a determined Dean, who’s willing to fight to get his brother back because that’s what he wants/needs more than anything else, under the layers of anger and incredulous looks. Seriously, Show, throw us a bone!
Furthermore, showing us what could be, tantalizing us with the promise of what triumph would bring would remind us what’s at stake-Sam and Dean’s relationship-and make the quest to get Sam’s soul back more imperative. It’s hard, no doubt, because half of the emotional story is currently being held hostage in a giant hole/cage under a cemetery in Kansas, and, to be fair, Dean trying to have a positive emotional moment with Sam would be like trying to hug a wall. But it’s not if emotional bonding would be a success or not that’s important, it’s the effect the failed effort would have. Showing Dean’s desire to have Sam back whole, wanting to do this not out of duty or because it’s his default “good little solider” or “look out for Sammy” setting or because he feels like hunting is his only life (as he apparently thinks of himself as “a killer”) would not only demonstrate that Dean doesn’t totally detest Sam or feels him to be only a burden, but would make Dean’s motives for tolerating Sam and fighting for Sam’s soul believable. It would show us in a tangible way what Sam and Dean have lost, remind us what they're fighting for, underscore the traditional emotional underpinnings of SPN, and finally give the plot some much needed emotional traction.
It may seem like I’m coming down harder on Dean than Sam, but it’s an artifact of who can better serve the role of bridge builder. At this point, Sam can’t feel emotion and, therefore, he can’t be the one to carry the emotional story. Like I said previously, it would help us understand Sam’s actions if the writers better voiced his motivations, but that can be completely decoupled from emotion (Sam wants to get his soul back because he remembers [insert whatever the writers purposefully left out], not because he feels anything), elucidating why Sam’s doing what he’s doing without having to provide any emotional justification for it. Also, let me say that I think no emotion or neutral emotion isn’t the same as positive emotion. Indifference is a result of not even caring enough to bother with an emotional response-it’s the emotional manifestation of apathy. Unlike Sam, at least Dean cares about something enough to be rage-y (hurray for caring) because this emotionless robot version of Sam is practically impossible to sympathize with let alone understand. So, anyway, it’s Dean that, at least for now, has to be the audience’s emotional anchor, convince us that there’s something at stake to at least one of the characters, and sell us the story of Sam and Dean, brothers against all else. And the writers need to use him for just those purposes … soon.
I like my characters troubled, flawed, full of self-doubt and angst. I like it when they make the wrong choices, do stupid things (with noble intentions). But when they just become agents of self-hatred, anger, violence, distain, and loathing without the writers showing their likelihood of redemption and the promise of triumph (or even giving glimpses at what the promise of triumph would bring), then it makes hopping on the train of suspension of disbelief that much harder and, for me, viewing much less enjoyable. Simply running dialogue (telling) doesn’t have the same effect as showing because it’s an intellectual, not an emotional connection. And if we’re not shown that Sam and Dean know why they’re battling the agents of Hell and Heaven (again), why they want to be brothers again, then how are we supposed to emotionally invest in or even believe the story? Without emotional underpinnings propping up the plot, SPN feels like limbo to me. Call me a monster, but I think I’m in purgatory.
Ha, who would ever have guessed I could fit Glee into blabber about SPN? It just shows that a square peg will fit into a round hole with enough pounding. *raises rubber hammer*
But first let me blab about Glee a little…
I enjoy Glee. It’s the TV equivalent of cotton candy-light, sticky sweet, and alternately leaves you on a giddy sugar high when it all gels or groaning and feeling sick when it misses the mark. But overall, it’s entertaining, snappy, silly, and has dancing. Sue Sylvester and the satire alone would keep me randomly tuning in indefinitely, but the reason I watch is because this show has somehow found a crazy way of balancing (albeit sometimes disastrously) over-the-top humor with some heartfelt emotion. Strangely, there are stories happening under all of the pop music and hairspray. The story that I find most interesting and fresh is Kurt’s-go figure, he’s the angst magnet who ends up crying in practically every significant character-building scene. :) So this week I found myself bouncing in front of my computer when I saw this:
See Kurt? Not a tear in sight. Look at how elated and disbelievingly happy he is, like he’s walked straight into the dream of a gay-teenager-stuck-in-the-middle-of-tiny-town-Ohio-where-the-most-popular-restaurant-is-named-“Breadsticks”. Oh wait, that is Kurt. ;) But seriously, is that not the look of pure joy? I sat here smiling like a dork at my computer screen despite the fact I’m not really into Katy Perry’s music. You see, I think happiness and newly discovered joy like that-even found in the tiniest things: a song, a look, someone touching your lapel-are magnified and made more beautiful with the contrast of despair, sadness, frustration, and grief. And despite the fact Glee is saccharine, Kurt’s story largely isn’t (his mom died, his dad had a heart attack, his one crush out-right rejected him and may potentially become his step brother, he’s the only openly gay person in school, he’s bullied daily, and his first boy kiss was an oral attack from the person he probably hates the most). I think it’s the contrast of Kurt’s angst-filled story that makes this scene all that much more heartfelt (it wouldn’t have had the same impact if it had been any other character being sung to with such hope and promise). It’s the struggle that makes the reward-or the promise of a reward-that much more sweeter. But the key is that a story and a character need the contrast of both despair and elation in order to emphasize the other. And that emotional contrast is what SPN has been lacking this season, making it a one-way emotional rollercoaster that only goes downhill.
Over the last eight episodes, there have been truckloads of despair, rage, frustration, anger, grief, mistrust, and more anger even by SPN’s standards. There has yet to be a single moment (never mind a scene) between Sam and Dean that’s been filled with genuine joy, happiness, or even connection. I know it’s because Sam doesn’t have a soul and this is all done purposefully to lend more urgency to the “get Sam’s soul back” quest and likely the positive emotions between Sam and Dean will return with Sam’s soul. But, for me, what’s lending even more to the general feeling of “meh-blah” this season and what I think is more troubling as it isn’t necessarily contingent on the return of Sam’s soul is that the writers have forgotten to insert the promise of future joy and happiness. Heroes continue to battle impossible odds not because of the certainty of winning (in most cases the odds are stack against them to impossible heights), but because of the fleeting possibility, the practically unattainable promise of future happiness. They endure because they’ve tasted what they want and will do anything to get it back. Not only does despair becomes darker when contrasted with joy, happiness becomes brighter, more beautiful, and fleeting when its drown out by grief. Without one or the other, the story becomes emotionally monochrome and tiring (hello, one-way downhill rollercoaster). But more than that, by not showing why the characters continue to battle against the odds (in this case i.e. inserting tantalizing bits of connection and/or positive emotion like hope), the story loses credibility. It’s hard to sell the plot to the audience when it seems like the characters don’t even know, let alone feel, what they’re fighting for.
Sure, in previous seasons, the boys weren’t frolicking through fields of daisies and clovers and pirouetting over rainbows, but despite the beating Sam and Dean’s relationship took in S5, there was always a bond between them, which spoke to the part of me that kept whispering, “It’ll be alright in the end.” For five seasons, Sam and Dean being brothers, taking care of each other, standing shoulder-to-shoulder against the rest of the world was the heart of the show. It was the glue that held together the emotional story but, more importantly, sold the outrageous idea of two brothers triumphing over the agents of Heaven and Hell for each other. The promise of triumph was the scenes of Sam and Dean being brothers and finding joy in the little things (a knowing smile across the Impala’s front seat, the clink of beer bottles, the nudge of an elbow, or the a post-knockdown pat down). Those scenes showed us exactly what Sam and Dean were fighting for and made us believe in their story.
And now, with that bond MIA for 1/3 of the season and replaced with indifference, anger, rage, and overt violence and without any semblance or a tangible promise of happiness, joy, or brighter days, it makes watching SPN emotionally draining and tiresome. The promise of triumph has yet to be shown, and I’m not convinced that Sam and Dean even know why they’re fighting for Sam’s soul.
Sam articulates in 6x08 that he thinks he should get his soul back, but never elaborates why. “But there were also things about it that I remember that I … let’s just say I should probably go back to being him.” Of course, we’re to connect the dots and likely assume Sam intellectually knows he’s not a whole person and wants to feel emotions again, but because the writers didn’t actually have Sam voice his motivation, we can only infer what he wants (argh, why not just have Sam finish the sentence?!). This leaves Sam’s emotional story once again largely playing off screen, creating a distance and disconnect between him, Dean, and the audience. To be fair, Sam can’t feel the emotions that would make him care and hint at what the promise of triumph would bring because he has no soul. But intellectually knowing “what’s best” isn’t the same as feeling it, and that’s the entire point the writers are trying to make. Only I think they’re playing it to the extreme and, as a result, inadvertently alienating half of the pair that made SPN what it is. They may be playing coy and saving Sam’s story from some gigantic, revealing episode, but there’s no point in hoarding your candy to give out later when everyone else leaves because you’ve only demonstrated that you’re a bad sharer.
In response to Sam’s statement, Dean reiterates the mission: “We do what we gotta do. And we get my brother back.” So now we know Dean’s trudging along to get Sam back, but without showing or articulating why, the words have little impact. In fact, I argue that the writers have spent more time actively demonstrating the exact opposite: why Dean should just jump in the Impala and leave Sam in the dust, tinkering with the pieces of his Charger. We’ve seen that Dean is violent and full of anger, resentment, and distain toward Sam, it’s hard to understand why he wants to be in the same hemisphere as Sam, let alone embark on a one-on-one quest with him in the confines of the Impala. And if you take the above dialogue at face value, Dean is stating an action, an objective cause and effect, but he’s not stating what he wants. We infer that Dean wants his Sam back, but like Sam’s dialogue, it’s opaque-Dean’s feelings or desires are never explicitly stated. In fact, we’ve yet to get any indication that Dean feels bereft or a sense of loss regarding soulless Sam. I’m not advocating for touchy-feeling brotherly bonding moments because showing the disconnect between Sam and Dean is meant to get us salivating for the return of Sam’s soul and a real brotherly reunion, but I’m talking about sliding in tidbits of hope, inserting a line of dialogue that would elude to the promise of what could be and provide some familiar character motivation that would resonate emotionally with the audience. The promise of what triumph would bring could simply be sideways glimpses of a determined Dean, who’s willing to fight to get his brother back because that’s what he wants/needs more than anything else, under the layers of anger and incredulous looks. Seriously, Show, throw us a bone!
Furthermore, showing us what could be, tantalizing us with the promise of what triumph would bring would remind us what’s at stake-Sam and Dean’s relationship-and make the quest to get Sam’s soul back more imperative. It’s hard, no doubt, because half of the emotional story is currently being held hostage in a giant hole/cage under a cemetery in Kansas, and, to be fair, Dean trying to have a positive emotional moment with Sam would be like trying to hug a wall. But it’s not if emotional bonding would be a success or not that’s important, it’s the effect the failed effort would have. Showing Dean’s desire to have Sam back whole, wanting to do this not out of duty or because it’s his default “good little solider” or “look out for Sammy” setting or because he feels like hunting is his only life (as he apparently thinks of himself as “a killer”) would not only demonstrate that Dean doesn’t totally detest Sam or feels him to be only a burden, but would make Dean’s motives for tolerating Sam and fighting for Sam’s soul believable. It would show us in a tangible way what Sam and Dean have lost, remind us what they're fighting for, underscore the traditional emotional underpinnings of SPN, and finally give the plot some much needed emotional traction.
It may seem like I’m coming down harder on Dean than Sam, but it’s an artifact of who can better serve the role of bridge builder. At this point, Sam can’t feel emotion and, therefore, he can’t be the one to carry the emotional story. Like I said previously, it would help us understand Sam’s actions if the writers better voiced his motivations, but that can be completely decoupled from emotion (Sam wants to get his soul back because he remembers [insert whatever the writers purposefully left out], not because he feels anything), elucidating why Sam’s doing what he’s doing without having to provide any emotional justification for it. Also, let me say that I think no emotion or neutral emotion isn’t the same as positive emotion. Indifference is a result of not even caring enough to bother with an emotional response-it’s the emotional manifestation of apathy. Unlike Sam, at least Dean cares about something enough to be rage-y (hurray for caring) because this emotionless robot version of Sam is practically impossible to sympathize with let alone understand. So, anyway, it’s Dean that, at least for now, has to be the audience’s emotional anchor, convince us that there’s something at stake to at least one of the characters, and sell us the story of Sam and Dean, brothers against all else. And the writers need to use him for just those purposes … soon.
I like my characters troubled, flawed, full of self-doubt and angst. I like it when they make the wrong choices, do stupid things (with noble intentions). But when they just become agents of self-hatred, anger, violence, distain, and loathing without the writers showing their likelihood of redemption and the promise of triumph (or even giving glimpses at what the promise of triumph would bring), then it makes hopping on the train of suspension of disbelief that much harder and, for me, viewing much less enjoyable. Simply running dialogue (telling) doesn’t have the same effect as showing because it’s an intellectual, not an emotional connection. And if we’re not shown that Sam and Dean know why they’re battling the agents of Hell and Heaven (again), why they want to be brothers again, then how are we supposed to emotionally invest in or even believe the story? Without emotional underpinnings propping up the plot, SPN feels like limbo to me. Call me a monster, but I think I’m in purgatory.
Ha, who would ever have guessed I could fit Glee into blabber about SPN? It just shows that a square peg will fit into a round hole with enough pounding. *raises rubber hammer*