SPN Episode reaction 10x17
10x17 - Inside Man
I’m actually surprised to find that I liked this episode a lot. I heard a few days ago that Bobby was coming back in 10x17 and while I’ve been looking forward to it, I was worried that it wouldn’t come off and would just seem like they were bringing him back for the fans and not for any real plot, but I was pleased to find that it seemed natural and wasn’t out of place.
Liked
Not So Much
Wow, it’s rare in these latest seasons for me to not have many gripes with an episode, but actually I can’t think of much else that I didn’t like. I thought the writing was fairly solid and nothing really jumped out at me as being boring or not quite right.
One thing I did wonder when I was watching though was why has it taken this long to get to these scenes and confrontations? This season, it feels very much like the writers simply don’t have enough major storyline material for a whole season and so they are having to pad out the rest of the episodes with slow-moving story and unnecessary filler (Cas and Hannah in the car for several episodes, for example, or nothing much happening with Crowley/Rowena and with Cas for several episodes). I think they either needed to condense the Mark of Cain storyline into a smaller number of episodes and then move on to something else, or allow the Demon!Dean storyline to continue to mid-season and then spend the second half of the season on getting rid of the Mark.
This is why I think that shorter seasons of TV shows, like on HBO/Showtime or UK TV shows can work much better - just having 8 to 12 episodes in a season allows for every episode to be tightly written and contain essential plot and storytelling without having to rely on filler.
Alternatively, what I’ve noticed that other US shows are starting to do now is focus on one storyline for the first half of the season and then completely mix it up with a new storyline for the second half, so it’s like two small seasons in one - Teen Wolf does it (though with a long break between the season halves), Scandal has done it too. I think at this point, Supernatural could benefit from that kind of structure too.
Back in the early seasons of SPN, the writers were very good at pacing and just giving enough extra main arc info in each episode to keep the story moving while also focusing on MOTW episodes (i.e. each episode, even if the MOTW was not that great, there was always a scene tied to the main arc or emotional continuity that kept you watching - even Bugs and Red Sky at Night had this), but the last few seasons they seem to have run out of ideas - they have all these plot ideas with good potential, but then don’t seem to be able to follow through and carry them off effectively.
I’m actually surprised to find that I liked this episode a lot. I heard a few days ago that Bobby was coming back in 10x17 and while I’ve been looking forward to it, I was worried that it wouldn’t come off and would just seem like they were bringing him back for the fans and not for any real plot, but I was pleased to find that it seemed natural and wasn’t out of place.
Liked
- The first scene where we see Bobby - I love that Kenny Rogers song as it reminds me of living in the Falklands 18 months ago (the on-base band sang it a lot), which is kind of fitting since I’m in the Falklands again right now.
- The flash of black in Dean’s eyes… so unexpected that, like Dean, it made me jump. I thought that scene was very well done.
- Feeling like they were going back to basics a bit again - I’d just been watching the J2 panels from Seattle last weekend and the boys were talking about seeing Sam and Dean just doing every day stuff, so it was cool to see Dean hanging around in the bunker, going to a bar and hustling some pool again
- The Dean/Rowena and Dean/Crowley scenes - for once it felt like there was a point to Rowena and Crowley being in the show still
- Crowley finally showing that he’s not an idiot and that he wasn’t going to take any of Rowena’s crap
- The old photo of Dean, Sam and Bobby - brought back memories of the ‘good old days’
- Bobby’s letter to Sam - I actually felt myself tearing up a little
- Amazingly, I didn’t even mind Metatron this episode
Not So Much
- A fairly minor thing, but the white corridors and structure in heaven - I liked heaven better when it was not so clinical. I thought they did it well in Dark Side of the Moon, where they just flitted between different peoples’ heavens without any real structure to the place
- The part with the toothbrush in Sam’s bedroom - that’s just icky :P.
Wow, it’s rare in these latest seasons for me to not have many gripes with an episode, but actually I can’t think of much else that I didn’t like. I thought the writing was fairly solid and nothing really jumped out at me as being boring or not quite right.
One thing I did wonder when I was watching though was why has it taken this long to get to these scenes and confrontations? This season, it feels very much like the writers simply don’t have enough major storyline material for a whole season and so they are having to pad out the rest of the episodes with slow-moving story and unnecessary filler (Cas and Hannah in the car for several episodes, for example, or nothing much happening with Crowley/Rowena and with Cas for several episodes). I think they either needed to condense the Mark of Cain storyline into a smaller number of episodes and then move on to something else, or allow the Demon!Dean storyline to continue to mid-season and then spend the second half of the season on getting rid of the Mark.
This is why I think that shorter seasons of TV shows, like on HBO/Showtime or UK TV shows can work much better - just having 8 to 12 episodes in a season allows for every episode to be tightly written and contain essential plot and storytelling without having to rely on filler.
Alternatively, what I’ve noticed that other US shows are starting to do now is focus on one storyline for the first half of the season and then completely mix it up with a new storyline for the second half, so it’s like two small seasons in one - Teen Wolf does it (though with a long break between the season halves), Scandal has done it too. I think at this point, Supernatural could benefit from that kind of structure too.
Back in the early seasons of SPN, the writers were very good at pacing and just giving enough extra main arc info in each episode to keep the story moving while also focusing on MOTW episodes (i.e. each episode, even if the MOTW was not that great, there was always a scene tied to the main arc or emotional continuity that kept you watching - even Bugs and Red Sky at Night had this), but the last few seasons they seem to have run out of ideas - they have all these plot ideas with good potential, but then don’t seem to be able to follow through and carry them off effectively.