Lawdy, Lawdy ...

[dodger_winslow]

After a season filled with one great episode, two half-way decent episodes (if I'm being generous), and 9 craptastic mockeries of what once was, we now have ... two great episodes. THANK you, Supernatural. For reminding me why I'm still willing to hang on by my fingernails long after I should have just turned off the lights and gone home.

Because

Comments

[sen1995]

Dodger, I'm very happy to see you posting again about an SPN episode. I agree with so much that you are saying here -- especially the part about Cas and Sam's soul. I couldn't make sense why anyone, especially Cas, would be content with leaving Sam's soul remain in the cage. I'm glad Dean was of another opinion.

And The Benders and Houses of the Holy are two of my favorite eps ever. I re-watched both of them recently (along with Faith), and loved them all over again. Houses of the Holy always has such a strong impact on me, for the revelations about Dean that allow us to understand why he professes to have no faith in God or angels, and for Sam's hope and faith that there was something else out there watching over him. The final scene between Sam and Dean in that episode gets to me every time. I did want to point out, however, that Sam spoke the actual line "Hope is the whole point" in the episode Roadkill. At least I don't remember the line in Houses of the Holy (though Sam certainly made us feel it).

So again, glad to have you commenting on episodes again. I so hope the rest of the season pans out in a way that will make you want to post after every episode!

[dodger_winslow]

Was it in Roadkill rather than Houses of the Holy? I've had it in my head as Houses' tagline from the jump. Maybe it was in both? Unless my brain has crossed wires (which is totally possible), I seem to recall it being something Sam said in the presence of the angel statues in the church of Houses. But either way, the way it was stated has always seemed like a "we are telling you the secret to the series here."

As for posting after episodes ... I gave up on the series panning out the way I'd hoped back in S3.5. But when I say "gave up" there, I mean I decided it wasn't going to go the way I felt it should, but that does not necessarily mean it wouldn't go in a way I liked just as well, or possibly even better. But I had gotten so married to needing it to go a specific way that I could feel myself angry at episodes because they weren't doing what I wanted them to do, not because they weren't doing something that was just as good as what I wanted them to do.

At which time I decided this was one of those series I needed to just sit back and watch and enjoy for what it is rather than enjoying because it is everything I think it should be. And that worked for me for the rest of the third seasons and all of the forth season. And even gave me some comfort on the episodes I could like despite the mythos inconsistencies in S5.

So for me, it isn't a case of it panning out the way I want it to, but rather it giving me episodes that don't betray the characterizations and that are at least entertaining in their monsterology, even if they corrupt the hell out of the mythos and have logic holes I can drive a truck through. Because honestly? Where SPN has always owned me is in the characterizations. So when the Winchesters and Bobby are who they need to be, interacting as they would obviously interact, for the show to feel like Supernatural to me? Then I'll continue to be engaged enough to find things to write about after new episodes.

But when the characters are betrayed the way I feel theyv'e been betrayed for the last year and a half? Commenting on the show is just a waste of everyone's time as, without the characters I love (meaning Dean being Dean and Sam being Sam and Dean and Sam interacting the way Dean and Sam interact ... with sides of Bobby, Ellen, Rufus et all being whoever they are whenever possible), Supernatural holds no interest for me as a show, even if the episodes are otherwise perfect. Which they aren't. But even if they were, without the characterizations they nailed so hard in those first 2 years, I would turn the show off and never miss it again but for mourning what it once was, back in the day.

Although I must admit, even if I have nothing but negative things to say, there are times I still miss the hell out of posting a response to the episode just because waxing on about this show is something I have enjoyed so much for so long that my world feels a little naked without it.