SPN
Now, I promised to elaborate on my reactions on SPN, and I will. Let me start by saying that there were things I liked about the ep, and for all I know the rest of it may have been a very good ep too (or at least no worse than any others), but it rubbed me the wrong way too many ways. Long story short is that it made me annoyed and unhappy, and obviously I can't enjoy an ep that does that.
Also, since this is mostly a personal "argh!" feeling, it's quite possible that what follows below are rationalizations of that "argh!" rather than actual reasons.
First: All this time, and the boys haven't even touched on things like ”are angels real” before? No thoughts on why demons flinch at the name "Christo"? (Not to mention why it has to be in *coughGreek* Latin *cough cough*. Are demons stuck 2000 years back in time?) I'm not saying the answers to those questions have to be Christian, but to not even consider those answers? Wow. Way to respect a religion. It reminds me of the people who are OMGupset that Swedish secular schools with many Muslim kids sometimes choose not have graduation ceremonies in church, because it's tradition, see, and the kids should sit there yawning while the preacher desperately tries to avoid saying anything remotely religious. Apparently, the house of God is a fucking tree ornament, and not a place of worship at all.
Second: Either smiting evildoers is bad, or it's good. If it's only good when angels do it and not when ghosts do it, I want a reason why. That humans can't be allowed to decide who lives or dies, or that ghosts are always bad (but then what about Mommy Ghost?), or something.
Third: Maybe it would have helped suspend my disbelief if the "angel's" appearance at the prostitute's hadn't been accompanied by shaking furniture and creepy televangelists. Angels being scary? Sure. Angels being skeevy? Not the good kind. Which (points to second), why is there not so much as an acknowledgement that according to lore, not all angels are good?
Fourth: On angels "being" comforting or fierce. Angel is a job description. It's not a personality description, or even a description of what kind of creatures they are. Personally, I've always been fond of the kind that show up looking like humans, leave their message, and head off, but that's not the only kind. Point is, angels aren't carbon copies of another any more than humans or ghosts are.
Fifth: The word "angel", though it really just means messenger, is normally used only about spiritual messengers. So I'm willing to accept the idea that humans can't be angels. They can be prophets, saints, and all kinds of other messengers from God, though. Plus that for all we know, a seeming human can be an angel all along and not even know it. Is living!Priest's disbelief in dead!Priest due to dead!Priest being human, or in the fact that he's encouraging murder? (Yes, I know, tying into second again.)
Sixth: The deus ex machina death at the end and how this just might be the will of God. Fuck you, Dean. Fuck you, Kripke, for that matter. This is God you're talking about. Creator of the universe and all laws of nature. You think he needs cheap parlor tricks to do his will? Rapist bastard could have lost control of his car and steered it into a wall. If it's a way to get Dean to believe, good for him. But a way to appease the viewers? Why would God work through weird coincidences and not through logical events? Why couldn't weird coincidences exist in a Godless world? Weak. Really really weak.
All in all, I felt that the episode went "Ooh, let's talk about religion!" and then did its best to avoid saying anything about religion, or even thinking too hard about it. The weird part is, I'm not even sure I believe in angels. There are times I'm not sure I believe in Christ, or even God. And there are supposedly blasphemic stories I adore to pieces, like Last Temptation of Christ. But maybe that's just it. This wasn't blasphemic - that would require having opinions, or at least wanting to have opinions. This was 40 minutes of religious waffling. Philosophy Light, if you will, or Hallmark of Horror.
Also, since this is mostly a personal "argh!" feeling, it's quite possible that what follows below are rationalizations of that "argh!" rather than actual reasons.
First: All this time, and the boys haven't even touched on things like ”are angels real” before? No thoughts on why demons flinch at the name "Christo"? (Not to mention why it has to be in *coughGreek* Latin *cough cough*. Are demons stuck 2000 years back in time?) I'm not saying the answers to those questions have to be Christian, but to not even consider those answers? Wow. Way to respect a religion. It reminds me of the people who are OMGupset that Swedish secular schools with many Muslim kids sometimes choose not have graduation ceremonies in church, because it's tradition, see, and the kids should sit there yawning while the preacher desperately tries to avoid saying anything remotely religious. Apparently, the house of God is a fucking tree ornament, and not a place of worship at all.
Second: Either smiting evildoers is bad, or it's good. If it's only good when angels do it and not when ghosts do it, I want a reason why. That humans can't be allowed to decide who lives or dies, or that ghosts are always bad (but then what about Mommy Ghost?), or something.
Third: Maybe it would have helped suspend my disbelief if the "angel's" appearance at the prostitute's hadn't been accompanied by shaking furniture and creepy televangelists. Angels being scary? Sure. Angels being skeevy? Not the good kind. Which (points to second), why is there not so much as an acknowledgement that according to lore, not all angels are good?
Fourth: On angels "being" comforting or fierce. Angel is a job description. It's not a personality description, or even a description of what kind of creatures they are. Personally, I've always been fond of the kind that show up looking like humans, leave their message, and head off, but that's not the only kind. Point is, angels aren't carbon copies of another any more than humans or ghosts are.
Fifth: The word "angel", though it really just means messenger, is normally used only about spiritual messengers. So I'm willing to accept the idea that humans can't be angels. They can be prophets, saints, and all kinds of other messengers from God, though. Plus that for all we know, a seeming human can be an angel all along and not even know it. Is living!Priest's disbelief in dead!Priest due to dead!Priest being human, or in the fact that he's encouraging murder? (Yes, I know, tying into second again.)
Sixth: The deus ex machina death at the end and how this just might be the will of God. Fuck you, Dean. Fuck you, Kripke, for that matter. This is God you're talking about. Creator of the universe and all laws of nature. You think he needs cheap parlor tricks to do his will? Rapist bastard could have lost control of his car and steered it into a wall. If it's a way to get Dean to believe, good for him. But a way to appease the viewers? Why would God work through weird coincidences and not through logical events? Why couldn't weird coincidences exist in a Godless world? Weak. Really really weak.
All in all, I felt that the episode went "Ooh, let's talk about religion!" and then did its best to avoid saying anything about religion, or even thinking too hard about it. The weird part is, I'm not even sure I believe in angels. There are times I'm not sure I believe in Christ, or even God. And there are supposedly blasphemic stories I adore to pieces, like Last Temptation of Christ. But maybe that's just it. This wasn't blasphemic - that would require having opinions, or at least wanting to have opinions. This was 40 minutes of religious waffling. Philosophy Light, if you will, or Hallmark of Horror.