spn 3x05 and 3x06
I almost thought my show was back last week, with "Bedtime Stories." We had a good story (with hints of pathos on the part of the doctor), and we had Sammy taking the bull of Dean's Fate by the horns. The "gay" crack wasn't good, and the casting of Jared's girlfriend was oddly incestuous and distracting, but it was a good, solid episode and light on the mytharc stuff. I still don't like how the brothers are splitting up all the time this season, but it was handled better.
This week's show started off promising-- nice, creepy premise that was actually made better by the death-omen sighting of something in a place where it clearly didn't belong. You know, aside from the incredibly gratuitous T&A for this week (because I always jog in my 100-degree clothing at night).
But then it turned into Remington Steele somehow, and the spooky got undercut by the secondary story involving Bela-- who realistically should not have run into the boys again for a case like this, because c'mon, it's a big country! It's more likely, in fact, that she would have stumbled on the case than they did, given that she already knew the cause of the phenomena the boys were chasing.
I'm going to be contrary here, and say that a big part of that episode was aimed at getting Dean in a tuxedo for the fangirls. Now, Jensen looks fabulous in a tux, and there's some comic fun in the fact that Dean looks much less fabulous as soon as he starts moving. He still walks like an ape (I actually liked that, because it's true to Dean), and he's still ill-mannered.
But the "buffoon-Dean," which I find fun on occasion, is starting to become the bulk of what we've seen in him for S3. He's either a sexaholic, gluttonous buffoon, or he's a slow-witted, uncouth baffoon.
This is a man with less book-learning than Sam, and who is arguably less bright than the very-bright Sam, but he used to be good at what he did, and a guy with the wherewithal to hack an EMF meter together out of a Walkman or to Devil's Trap a crossroads demon is not exactly stupid.
Poor Sam was stuck being bait (with the goofy slicked-back hair yet again, no less). I'm on the fence about the older woman here. She looked pretty darn good for a gal her age, but was reduced to being a one-note lech who didn't seem to have a passing care that her niece had just died.
Now on the plus side, I really like that Sam and Dean's "Yeah, I know your brother just died, but what about the boat he saw, huh?" comes off as really insensitive and random (just as it should) and you hurt for the surviving sibling... only to have that completely erased by finding out his history. I like that he wasn't immediately painted as a villain, and that he was layered enough to be heartless about his father and heartbroken over his brother.
I was beyond overjoyed that Sam told Dean to stuff it in the car-- first there's the berating of "You don't go trying to save me, because I told you not to!" coupled with the valid realization that Dean's put Sam in an awful position, but just as Sam said, what was missing was any idea that Dean even gives a damn about a chance to survive. Apologizing for being the one to leave out of one side of your mouth while you totally ignore any possibility of NOT doing that... yeah, Dean deserved to be called on that one.
The fangirl in ME would have liked to have seen the $10K being used for a fun little vacation for the boys that we'd get to see in a future episode-- preferrably for the boys and not just Dean parking Sam somewhere and sleeping with every girl on the beach. Blowing the money on the roulette wheel is so anticlimactic and stupid, somehow. Back to DumbDean once again.
I'm hoping that's the last we see of Bela for awhile, but I just know there are people on my f-list who are all excited about her (and that an explosion of Dean/Bela porn is imminent). Randomly, she looked much less attractive in this episode-- the way she uses her mouth for that British accent really diminishes her looks, and I don't recall ever thinking that about anyone who spoke with that kind of accent!
ETA: The words "Flying Dutchman" were out of my mouth as soon as the ship made its first appearance. But when I think of that, I'm thinking of the Wagner opera long before the Pirates Of The Carribean substory. :0
ETA2: Damn, but this is long...