SPN 6.21 & 6.22 - and pondering Season 6
Late opinion is late. I've been letting this sit, trying to weed out insta-fan reaction from deeper, story-telling opinions. I haven't had a lot to say here about Season 6 because as I watched it seemed extremely disjointed and as if too many stories were being told. I figured I wouldn't really know how all the balls in the air would fall until they, well, fell in the season finale. Oddly, I still don't know what I think of the ending as a whole.
LISA & BEN: My very least favorite part is how they dealt with Lisa & Ben. They were destined to be written out - the writers of this kind of show don't do well with romantic entanglements - and I really thought that when Lisa told Dean it wasn't going to work and had started dating another man that that was the end. That felt closed to me.
Removing all her memories of Dean offends me. First and foremost, removing her agency bugs the crap out of me. I've been unhappy with how they saw no issues with writing a Great Mom inviting a guy whose drink of choice with dinner is hard alcohol and ~issues to live in the house with her son because they'd slept together one weekend a decade ago. I liked her when she stood up for her kid and told Dean that shoving Ben was a deal-breaker and not acceptable. Now he's just a stranger and there's no strength left in her decision to put her son first.
From a storytelling stand point, it stinks. It's lazy and it makes no sense. The problem never was that Lisa & Ben knew who Dean was; the problem was that Dean cared about them. He still does. They're still targets but now they don't know why or whom to call for help. I'm assuming Dean's directive to "never again mention them" means the show is done with Lisa & Ben and will conveniently ignore this obvious loophole.
What I did like about Lisa & Ben in these episodes was Cindy Sampson's acting. I thought she (again) knocked it out of the park. She went toe to toe with Jensen and handled the fight scene well. Given her talent, I wish her storyline had been better written.
Sam's Wall: They spent several episodes telling us about how horrible it would be for Sam to have memories of the Cage in Hell and angsting over whether they should put his soul back. How it would be better to kill him rather than let him suffer the fate of possessing a flayed soul. Death himself takes time to warn Dean AND Sam about it. After his soul is back, Sam angsted over the awful, unknowable things his soulless self must have done. He scratches at the itch and collapses in hell fire. We, the audience, get it: destroying the wall is bad juju.
So Sam's Wall is removed by Castiel (Oh, Cas!)...and we got a really cool sequence of Sam confronting the pieces of his fractured psyche. I loved it. HellMemory!Sam broke my heart. Jared was a-MAZ-ing. But seriously? That was it? Half an episode and he's up and moving around, following Dean and Bobby to fight the fight? Sam suffered more when de-toxing from demon blood. I expected far more dire consequences. IDK. What we got was awesome but it was also just not enough.
What did I like about it?
Jared, Jared, and Jared. I thought he was awesome in playing the three different Sams. He was, at turns, endearing, ruthless, and heartbreaking. He sold me on it (although the flopping on the cot in the panic room was hokey made me laugh). I loved that Sam was determined to put himself back together to be there for his brother. That's the essence of the Winchesters and I'm loving that their relationship is solid. After years of butting heads they're on the same page and I like that. A lot.
Erica Cerra was awesome and had great chemistry with Jared. I've long thought she was one of the best things about Eureka and this appearance confirmed that I'd like to see more of her on my screen. She has an excellent onscreen presence. I'm really sorry this character is dead.
Crowley: I'm a fan of clever, hard to defeat villains. I thought the YED was an excellent adversary. Ruby was brilliant. Gordon and Henricksen were brilliant (usually) human adversaries. I rank Crowley with them and so I'm thrilled at his survival to menace another day. Yay! I see no downside to this development. Long live Mark Sheppard!
Castiel is the New God: I have no idea how I feel about this. It's an awesome twist; one I certainly didn't see coming. Looking at S6 only, I love it. Rumors are flying fast and furious, however, that the show plans to kill Castiel in the season 7 opener. If true, then I HATE this twist.
What I've been puzzling over is why Castiel's arrangement with Crowley is a deal breaker with Dean and Sam. Well, no, I get why for Sam. But did the writers watch Season 5 through to the end? Because both Dean AND Bobby were making deals with and working with Crowley. Sam objected the whole time so I think he has been consistently written. When did it become a mortal sin to work with Crowley to stop an impending Apocalypse? Shouldn't that have happened onscreen?
I did like that Castiel's increasingly poor choices in these episodes were often motivated by the desire to keep Dean & Sam alive and away from Crowley; he's trying to save them. I don't agree with his actions but I liked where he was coming from. (Side thought: When Dean told Cas he was like a brother, my first thought was, "OMG! D/C is the new Wincest!")
~~**~~
So, Season 6. *sigh* What a mess in storytelling. We spent a lot of time on stories that were ultimately dropped or meaningless. Then they had to stuff all the "important bits" into the last 4 episodes and do some re-writing of the season's story. There was plenty of room to have developed these issues if we hadn't had so many aborted stories instead. Just think of how much room there was to explore the good stuff if they'd dropped:
- The Campbells. We never got to know them or care about them. Re-writing family history for two guys who are fanatical about family implies they're meant to be important. Instead they were red-shirts. WTF? I get that Crowley pulled Samuel out of Hell but it was glossed over in a single line in a "memory." That's some pretty heavy star power and screen time wasted on a role that was, essentially, pointless.
- Monsters behaving differently post-Apocalypse - Remember at the beginning of S6, how we saw monsters leaving their home countries or nocturnal monsters attacking during the day or nearly extinct monsters stepping up "recruitment" to build armies? I thought this was the most interesting development and a brilliant way to extend the story post-Apocalypse. New mythology to learn, throw out the old canon to start something fresh, and finally SOME kind of world-changing effect to the friggin' Apocalypse. Yeah, I'd kind of forgotten that set of storylines, too.
- Mom. She could have been so cool, especially if she'd risen early in the season and been played by Samantha Smith the whole time. She brought a gravitas and menace to the role that I quite liked -- and was so much better than the young & barefoot virginal ingenue roaming the countryside. (Oh show, your age and gender issues will never stop making me embarrassed to like you.) PLUS! Bonus angst in having to hunt your own mother. Alas, she was a red herring; remember all those media articles about the New Big Bad? Not so much.
- All the wasted angst over Sam's wall. If it wasn't a huge plot point, I wish they'd just had Death empowered to build a wall that would hold. I'd still believe that Soulless!Sam didn't want his soul back; he felt he was a better and sharper hunter without it.Maybe they'll pick it up again in Season 7 so this could still payoff. In which case, I'm wrong about this.
- Heavenly weapons. We heard about them, there was angel jockeying for them. But Castiel chose not to use them. They played no role whatsoever in the showdown. Huh????
So, lots of chaff and not a lot of wheat in this season. The emotional stories & plots of the early season didn't pay off. The emotional story of the finale was crammed into the final few episodes with little building during the season.
I *hope* that the way the final episodes rocked along are evidence that the writers have gotten better at pacing and telling a story in 22 parts. That would bode well for Season 7. I really really hope so. I hope the pacing problems of Seasons 5 & 6 aren't the norm. *fingers crossed*
LISA & BEN: My very least favorite part is how they dealt with Lisa & Ben. They were destined to be written out - the writers of this kind of show don't do well with romantic entanglements - and I really thought that when Lisa told Dean it wasn't going to work and had started dating another man that that was the end. That felt closed to me.
Removing all her memories of Dean offends me. First and foremost, removing her agency bugs the crap out of me. I've been unhappy with how they saw no issues with writing a Great Mom inviting a guy whose drink of choice with dinner is hard alcohol and ~issues to live in the house with her son because they'd slept together one weekend a decade ago. I liked her when she stood up for her kid and told Dean that shoving Ben was a deal-breaker and not acceptable. Now he's just a stranger and there's no strength left in her decision to put her son first.
From a storytelling stand point, it stinks. It's lazy and it makes no sense. The problem never was that Lisa & Ben knew who Dean was; the problem was that Dean cared about them. He still does. They're still targets but now they don't know why or whom to call for help. I'm assuming Dean's directive to "never again mention them" means the show is done with Lisa & Ben and will conveniently ignore this obvious loophole.
What I did like about Lisa & Ben in these episodes was Cindy Sampson's acting. I thought she (again) knocked it out of the park. She went toe to toe with Jensen and handled the fight scene well. Given her talent, I wish her storyline had been better written.
Sam's Wall: They spent several episodes telling us about how horrible it would be for Sam to have memories of the Cage in Hell and angsting over whether they should put his soul back. How it would be better to kill him rather than let him suffer the fate of possessing a flayed soul. Death himself takes time to warn Dean AND Sam about it. After his soul is back, Sam angsted over the awful, unknowable things his soulless self must have done. He scratches at the itch and collapses in hell fire. We, the audience, get it: destroying the wall is bad juju.
So Sam's Wall is removed by Castiel (Oh, Cas!)...and we got a really cool sequence of Sam confronting the pieces of his fractured psyche. I loved it. HellMemory!Sam broke my heart. Jared was a-MAZ-ing. But seriously? That was it? Half an episode and he's up and moving around, following Dean and Bobby to fight the fight? Sam suffered more when de-toxing from demon blood. I expected far more dire consequences. IDK. What we got was awesome but it was also just not enough.
What did I like about it?
Jared, Jared, and Jared. I thought he was awesome in playing the three different Sams. He was, at turns, endearing, ruthless, and heartbreaking. He sold me on it (although the flopping on the cot in the panic room was hokey made me laugh). I loved that Sam was determined to put himself back together to be there for his brother. That's the essence of the Winchesters and I'm loving that their relationship is solid. After years of butting heads they're on the same page and I like that. A lot.
Erica Cerra was awesome and had great chemistry with Jared. I've long thought she was one of the best things about Eureka and this appearance confirmed that I'd like to see more of her on my screen. She has an excellent onscreen presence. I'm really sorry this character is dead.
Crowley: I'm a fan of clever, hard to defeat villains. I thought the YED was an excellent adversary. Ruby was brilliant. Gordon and Henricksen were brilliant (usually) human adversaries. I rank Crowley with them and so I'm thrilled at his survival to menace another day. Yay! I see no downside to this development. Long live Mark Sheppard!
Castiel is the New God: I have no idea how I feel about this. It's an awesome twist; one I certainly didn't see coming. Looking at S6 only, I love it. Rumors are flying fast and furious, however, that the show plans to kill Castiel in the season 7 opener. If true, then I HATE this twist.
What I've been puzzling over is why Castiel's arrangement with Crowley is a deal breaker with Dean and Sam. Well, no, I get why for Sam. But did the writers watch Season 5 through to the end? Because both Dean AND Bobby were making deals with and working with Crowley. Sam objected the whole time so I think he has been consistently written. When did it become a mortal sin to work with Crowley to stop an impending Apocalypse? Shouldn't that have happened onscreen?
I did like that Castiel's increasingly poor choices in these episodes were often motivated by the desire to keep Dean & Sam alive and away from Crowley; he's trying to save them. I don't agree with his actions but I liked where he was coming from. (Side thought: When Dean told Cas he was like a brother, my first thought was, "OMG! D/C is the new Wincest!")
~~**~~
So, Season 6. *sigh* What a mess in storytelling. We spent a lot of time on stories that were ultimately dropped or meaningless. Then they had to stuff all the "important bits" into the last 4 episodes and do some re-writing of the season's story. There was plenty of room to have developed these issues if we hadn't had so many aborted stories instead. Just think of how much room there was to explore the good stuff if they'd dropped:
- The Campbells. We never got to know them or care about them. Re-writing family history for two guys who are fanatical about family implies they're meant to be important. Instead they were red-shirts. WTF? I get that Crowley pulled Samuel out of Hell but it was glossed over in a single line in a "memory." That's some pretty heavy star power and screen time wasted on a role that was, essentially, pointless.
- Monsters behaving differently post-Apocalypse - Remember at the beginning of S6, how we saw monsters leaving their home countries or nocturnal monsters attacking during the day or nearly extinct monsters stepping up "recruitment" to build armies? I thought this was the most interesting development and a brilliant way to extend the story post-Apocalypse. New mythology to learn, throw out the old canon to start something fresh, and finally SOME kind of world-changing effect to the friggin' Apocalypse. Yeah, I'd kind of forgotten that set of storylines, too.
- Mom. She could have been so cool, especially if she'd risen early in the season and been played by Samantha Smith the whole time. She brought a gravitas and menace to the role that I quite liked -- and was so much better than the young & barefoot virginal ingenue roaming the countryside. (Oh show, your age and gender issues will never stop making me embarrassed to like you.) PLUS! Bonus angst in having to hunt your own mother. Alas, she was a red herring; remember all those media articles about the New Big Bad? Not so much.
- All the wasted angst over Sam's wall. If it wasn't a huge plot point, I wish they'd just had Death empowered to build a wall that would hold. I'd still believe that Soulless!Sam didn't want his soul back; he felt he was a better and sharper hunter without it.Maybe they'll pick it up again in Season 7 so this could still payoff. In which case, I'm wrong about this.
- Heavenly weapons. We heard about them, there was angel jockeying for them. But Castiel chose not to use them. They played no role whatsoever in the showdown. Huh????
So, lots of chaff and not a lot of wheat in this season. The emotional stories & plots of the early season didn't pay off. The emotional story of the finale was crammed into the final few episodes with little building during the season.
I *hope* that the way the final episodes rocked along are evidence that the writers have gotten better at pacing and telling a story in 22 parts. That would bode well for Season 7. I really really hope so. I hope the pacing problems of Seasons 5 & 6 aren't the norm. *fingers crossed*