The Week in TV...
Finally saw last week's Chuck, which was fun ("Sweep the leg!") and featured more dancing in place regarding Chuck, Sara, and Chuck's future. And maybe it's just me, but I didn't find the British agent at all attractive. Not good-looking, too pushy to be charming, though I give full marks for bravery.
The Mentalist - I really liked this week's glimpses into Patrick's past, where it's clear that he harmed people with his psychic charade and that he knows and regrets it. I also think Kimball is the funniest person on the show. SO dry, and yet all the more hilarious.
Tonight's SPN, 4x16: Ugh.
There were a few isolated moments in this week's episode that impressed me, but so much fail otherwise. I've said before that I'm not on-board with the whole Apocalyptic-arc and the angels vs. demons aspect of this season, so the episodes that focus heavily on that premise tend not to work well for me.
Much as I like the actress playing Anna, and liked some of her story in her prior episode, the idea of her "grace" being stuffed in a pseudo-locket and falling into a tree (to be recovered later) just hurt me with the stupidity of it all. God, what a clunker of an idea. That episode also introduced one of the most ridiculous recurring features of the season, which is angels and demons having fistfights. C'mon-they're more powerful than that! Pull your head out of your American-movie mindset and think for two seconds about how to represent that in a way that isn't utterly craptastic. Kripke, you can do better.
Last week's episode had three bothersome moments. The first was what happened to Pamela, of course. There was no reason for her to actually die-couldn't she just be pissed off at the Winchesters and go off to lead her own "I swear I'll never pick up the phone for you again" life elsewhere? The dying was unnecessary. The second issue was Tess the Reaper kissing Dean to bring back his memories of their prior meeting. A simple touch, or a directed look should have done it-Reapers have supernatural capabilities, after all-so can we dispense with the cheap attempt to throw sex into episodes that aren't about that? And the last part was Sam & Dean in non-corporeal form having a fistfight with Alistair in the Reaper-murdering body. Come on.
Since the writers and producers of the show are so bent on bringing the metaphysical into this season... I'd like them to take a moment and look up what the "meta" part of that word means. Hint: higher-powered beings will not be doing battle with their fists. That would be dumb.
This week's episode's good moments involved Dean getting hacked off at Castiel and Uriel for, as he put it, not resisting the urge for even five minutes to jerk them around yet again. Dean was utterly justified in feeling that way, and it was good to hear him say it. The scene involving Dean's private pleas with Castiel not to make him torture Alistair provided well-acted drama on both sides. And Alistair vs. Dean was well-written in terms of knowing exactly which of Dean's buttons to push. On the humor front, I loved Sam's explosion of frustration after the angels kidnapped Dean, and I got such a kick out of "Uriel is the funniest angel in the garrison. Ask anyone" being delivered with such deadpan.
But on the side of the painful...
Dean calling Castiel "Cas" has never worked for me. It's not cute, it's not humor, it's just wrong-even for someone as irreverent as Dean. Please stop hammering me over the head with it!
Then there's the ongoing disaster of Ruby 2.0 (in general-the lisping and unconvincing line delivery are still a problem, and she still doesn't seem anything like Ruby 1.0), and then there was the climbing all over Sam and kissing him (I'm bothered that he allowed it, not that she wanted it). The drinking of her blood? Just ugh. How does Ruby's demon blood impart MORE POWER to Sam than Ruby has on her own? It doesn't make sense, in addition to the whole idea being completely disgusting. I hate that the show went there.
Alistair and Castiel in another fistfight, and then the Uriel vs. Castiel death-match, goes right back to my previous issue with the whole fistfight concept. I hate being thrown right out of the story with how ridiculous that idea is, especially during multiple episodes.
I pegged both the actual "side" of the battle that was killing the angels and the exact "who," but many of you probably did too. That didn't necessarily detract from anything. The plot-within-the-plot puts many of Castiel & Uriel's seemingly inhumane instructions in better context now, and that does work for me.
As for the ending, though, I'm just... I'm as tired as Dean now, tired of the size of the burden placed on his shoulders, tired of watching him become still more broken and hopeless, tired of the show doing that to him over and over again.
I mean, I hate to say this and you know how I love Dean and his woobie angst and his pretty tears and all that, but enough. That hasn't been entertaining for me for a long time now because I'm worn down by it. I simply don't want to see any more of it for awhile-not until both we and Dean have had a chance to recover from the unrelentingness of it all.
Is that so crazy? The show is starting to pummel me into apathy, rather than tug at my heartstrings, and while I'm not going anywhere as a fan I still can't pretend to enjoy this. It's frustrating and it's exhausting, and it's not what I want from this show. There, I've said it.
I'm sure most of you feel differently, and if so that's good. I hope your love of the show is undeterred and undamaged. Obviously Kripke loves what he's doing with it all, even if I don't.
Next week? Wincest AU plot setup becomes canon!
I'm sure that'll be fun, I just wish that Kripke would lessen the overall torture rather than thinking that occasional "humor" epidodes accomplish the same thing. :(
The Mentalist - I really liked this week's glimpses into Patrick's past, where it's clear that he harmed people with his psychic charade and that he knows and regrets it. I also think Kimball is the funniest person on the show. SO dry, and yet all the more hilarious.
Tonight's SPN, 4x16: Ugh.
There were a few isolated moments in this week's episode that impressed me, but so much fail otherwise. I've said before that I'm not on-board with the whole Apocalyptic-arc and the angels vs. demons aspect of this season, so the episodes that focus heavily on that premise tend not to work well for me.
Much as I like the actress playing Anna, and liked some of her story in her prior episode, the idea of her "grace" being stuffed in a pseudo-locket and falling into a tree (to be recovered later) just hurt me with the stupidity of it all. God, what a clunker of an idea. That episode also introduced one of the most ridiculous recurring features of the season, which is angels and demons having fistfights. C'mon-they're more powerful than that! Pull your head out of your American-movie mindset and think for two seconds about how to represent that in a way that isn't utterly craptastic. Kripke, you can do better.
Last week's episode had three bothersome moments. The first was what happened to Pamela, of course. There was no reason for her to actually die-couldn't she just be pissed off at the Winchesters and go off to lead her own "I swear I'll never pick up the phone for you again" life elsewhere? The dying was unnecessary. The second issue was Tess the Reaper kissing Dean to bring back his memories of their prior meeting. A simple touch, or a directed look should have done it-Reapers have supernatural capabilities, after all-so can we dispense with the cheap attempt to throw sex into episodes that aren't about that? And the last part was Sam & Dean in non-corporeal form having a fistfight with Alistair in the Reaper-murdering body. Come on.
Since the writers and producers of the show are so bent on bringing the metaphysical into this season... I'd like them to take a moment and look up what the "meta" part of that word means. Hint: higher-powered beings will not be doing battle with their fists. That would be dumb.
This week's episode's good moments involved Dean getting hacked off at Castiel and Uriel for, as he put it, not resisting the urge for even five minutes to jerk them around yet again. Dean was utterly justified in feeling that way, and it was good to hear him say it. The scene involving Dean's private pleas with Castiel not to make him torture Alistair provided well-acted drama on both sides. And Alistair vs. Dean was well-written in terms of knowing exactly which of Dean's buttons to push. On the humor front, I loved Sam's explosion of frustration after the angels kidnapped Dean, and I got such a kick out of "Uriel is the funniest angel in the garrison. Ask anyone" being delivered with such deadpan.
But on the side of the painful...
Dean calling Castiel "Cas" has never worked for me. It's not cute, it's not humor, it's just wrong-even for someone as irreverent as Dean. Please stop hammering me over the head with it!
Then there's the ongoing disaster of Ruby 2.0 (in general-the lisping and unconvincing line delivery are still a problem, and she still doesn't seem anything like Ruby 1.0), and then there was the climbing all over Sam and kissing him (I'm bothered that he allowed it, not that she wanted it). The drinking of her blood? Just ugh. How does Ruby's demon blood impart MORE POWER to Sam than Ruby has on her own? It doesn't make sense, in addition to the whole idea being completely disgusting. I hate that the show went there.
Alistair and Castiel in another fistfight, and then the Uriel vs. Castiel death-match, goes right back to my previous issue with the whole fistfight concept. I hate being thrown right out of the story with how ridiculous that idea is, especially during multiple episodes.
I pegged both the actual "side" of the battle that was killing the angels and the exact "who," but many of you probably did too. That didn't necessarily detract from anything. The plot-within-the-plot puts many of Castiel & Uriel's seemingly inhumane instructions in better context now, and that does work for me.
As for the ending, though, I'm just... I'm as tired as Dean now, tired of the size of the burden placed on his shoulders, tired of watching him become still more broken and hopeless, tired of the show doing that to him over and over again.
I mean, I hate to say this and you know how I love Dean and his woobie angst and his pretty tears and all that, but enough. That hasn't been entertaining for me for a long time now because I'm worn down by it. I simply don't want to see any more of it for awhile-not until both we and Dean have had a chance to recover from the unrelentingness of it all.
Is that so crazy? The show is starting to pummel me into apathy, rather than tug at my heartstrings, and while I'm not going anywhere as a fan I still can't pretend to enjoy this. It's frustrating and it's exhausting, and it's not what I want from this show. There, I've said it.
I'm sure most of you feel differently, and if so that's good. I hope your love of the show is undeterred and undamaged. Obviously Kripke loves what he's doing with it all, even if I don't.
Next week? Wincest AU plot setup becomes canon!
I'm sure that'll be fun, I just wish that Kripke would lessen the overall torture rather than thinking that occasional "humor" epidodes accomplish the same thing. :(