This episode was extremely disappointing. Your contrasting it to Hello, Cruel World really worked to point out the weaknesses. It was all over the place and the destruction of so many points of canon was just infuriating. Sam should have been traumatized by going to Hell. Dean should have been more concerned about Sam at the beginning. Heck, it would have been more compelling for me if the person they thought was Bobby wasn't Bobby, but a demon in disguise and Sam had to work to figure it out. I don't know what has happened to Crowley. He went from a guy who made Hell an endless queue and sort of eliminate torture has suddenly become torture happy and (if he wasn't a hallucination) able to overcome demon sigils.
The trouble is that Taxi Driver is completely unconcerned about how Sam feels about going to hell.
Can I say that since Gabriel, as the Trickster, told Sam that Sam was basically Travis Bickel in a dress, that any episode called Taxi Driver should have been a real look at Sam's psyche. Just such a let down. A better writer should have handled this episode.
It was all over the place and the destruction of so many points of canon was just infuriating.
Yeah, I didn't get into all the canon that they got wrong because I wanted to focus on the structure instead of putting together a list of nitpicks. But those are problematic too. Any one on its own could be forgivable as a minor error, but when you put them all together it suggests that the writers didn't care about the history. And that means that they don't care about what kind of hell they're writing. It's not just a generic hell, it's the one specific to Supernatural.
Heck, it would have been more compelling for me if the person they thought was Bobby wasn't Bobby, but a demon in disguise and Sam had to work to figure it out.
I'm sure there are any number of things they could have done with it. We could sit around and brainstorm better hells. But I think the key element here is that it has to be psychological. No amount of fire and brimstone is going to work. They have to take something important and twist it. That is the scariest thing of all.
Can I say that since Gabriel, as the Trickster, told Sam that Sam was basically Travis Bickel in a dress, that any episode called Taxi Driver should have been a real look at Sam's psyche. Just such a let down. A better writer should have handled this episode.
Mystery Spot is my absolute favourite episode. It's a study of Sam and Dean's partnership, an elegant exercise in psychological torture, a comedy and an homage to a famous film all in one glorious 40-minute package. And it shows what they can do, when they put together a strong story and know what they want to do with it.
The trouble is that Taxi Driver is completely unconcerned about how Sam feels about going to hell.
Can I say that since Gabriel, as the Trickster, told Sam that Sam was basically Travis Bickel in a dress, that any episode called Taxi Driver should have been a real look at Sam's psyche. Just such a let down. A better writer should have handled this episode.
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Yeah, I didn't get into all the canon that they got wrong because I wanted to focus on the structure instead of putting together a list of nitpicks. But those are problematic too. Any one on its own could be forgivable as a minor error, but when you put them all together it suggests that the writers didn't care about the history. And that means that they don't care about what kind of hell they're writing. It's not just a generic hell, it's the one specific to Supernatural.
Heck, it would have been more compelling for me if the person they thought was Bobby wasn't Bobby, but a demon in disguise and Sam had to work to figure it out.
I'm sure there are any number of things they could have done with it. We could sit around and brainstorm better hells. But I think the key element here is that it has to be psychological. No amount of fire and brimstone is going to work. They have to take something important and twist it. That is the scariest thing of all.
Can I say that since Gabriel, as the Trickster, told Sam that Sam was basically Travis Bickel in a dress, that any episode called Taxi Driver should have been a real look at Sam's psyche. Just such a let down. A better writer should have handled this episode.
Mystery Spot is my absolute favourite episode. It's a study of Sam and Dean's partnership, an elegant exercise in psychological torture, a comedy and an homage to a famous film all in one glorious 40-minute package. And it shows what they can do, when they put together a strong story and know what they want to do with it.
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