Supernatural...or What The Heck Was Everybody Doing During The Season Finale?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/emhuffpost-reviewsem-emsu_b_616888.html
You know, everyone applauded with great abandon season or series finales of Lost, Heroes, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, V, One Tree Hill, 24, 90210, blah, blah, blah. And when it got right down to it, most of these alleged earth-moving episodes were just that...blah, more blah, and serious blah. Just where were our most trusted (and most sanctimonious) culture warriors and pundits when it came to one of the best season finales of the year? In its closer, Supernatural delivered not only one of the finest hours of network television of 2010, but it also supplied one of the most intellectually and satisfying--and yes, sad--closures any sci-fi or horror series ever broadcast.
This show increasingly has become one of the best sci-fi/horror offerings in years, regardless of its origin as an also-ran to the old WB's Smallville. The two shows really never had anything in common--well, except good looking male casts and a year's stint with Jensen Ackles stuck in a ridiculous role on the Superboy primer. But because Smallville had such a loyal following, it was assumed Supernatural would pick off at least a portion its audience, which it did. However, regardless of Smallville's sudden renaissance in scripting, casting, and acting this past year, it's run its course while Supernatural actually feels like it's getting a second wind.
Over the past five years--and especially this last one with that exceptional story arc about the war between angels and devils--those of us who have been supportive of this red-headed stepchild of a series have been pretty blown away by plot lines so well-conceived and delivered, they would have challenged some great moments of sacred cows like The X-Files, The Exorcist, The Omen, and let's throw in The Outer Limits to get some folks really riled-up.
The jokes and timing between every cast member move like Fosse, and none of this would have ever worked if it weren't for the on and off screen chemistry between its stars, Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester). Their bromance--chided in a recent episode and randomly over five years--apparently is real, Ackles even serving as Padalecki's groomsman in his recent marriage.
The show also features a very strong supporting cast such as Misha Collins who plays their "guardian" angel Castiel, and Jim Beaver who is Bobby Singer, their de facto father figure. And, of course, it has a revolving door of hot actresses who come and go, you know, love 'em and stake 'em since they're mostly demons. But what this season finale did that virtually nothing else on network television attempted was it expertly gave a satisfying closure--albeit depressing as "Hell"--to its five-year storyline without treating its audience like it am dumb. More on that in a sec.
For those who still haven't committed to this awesome show, here are some more reasons why you should jump on board for its sixth outing: It employs--intentionally or not, doesn't matter--the Ray Bradbury rule of building your story from the heart up. Its music mostly is classic, prog, or hard rock depending on just how fierce the action is surrounding our favorite demon hunters and how cleverly the writers and producers want to title their episode (yeah, that also was a Farscape trick, but it's still pretty cool). Overall, its plots and twists always are smart (including running jokes and series-within-a-series revisits), its dialogue is extremely well-written and acted-out, and after this season's operatic finale (that also could have served as the series ender), you'll get to watch the show rebuild itself based on the one major bone thrown to its fans in the last scene.
Okay, here's that terrific teaser as well as your spoiler alert: Did Sam escape Hell because he can now control Lucifer who is still inside him (that ability established during the apocalyptic fight scene)? If so, will his loyal brother Dean trust that it can last? If not, how the hell did Sam escape Hell? Did God intervene with these guys yet again and pull Sam's bacon out of the fire (so to speak)? And if their step-brother was a vessel for Michael the Archangel, how come he's still trapped in Hell (and Castiel now the main angeldude) when Sam could escape?
Some of you non-believers ("Sh-sh-sh-shun the non-believer...shuuuun...") are probably reading this and thinking, "Riiiiiight," but maybe this'll move your cold, cold hearts: In the last ten or so seconds of the finale, during this tiny yet effective snippet, we see a forlorn, no longer banished-to-Hell Sam staring from the street at his depressed, alcoholic brother Dean who's sitting at a dinner table with his new nuclear family. So much is said with not one word.
With all due respect to NBC, this truly is "must see TV," and you journalistic Kingmakers out there who made franchises out of really questionable crap (V? Heroes?? Really???) should go back one more time and let your heart do the re-evaluating. Any show that can capture the intensity and pathology of two cosmically-screwed and screwed-up brothers silently stargazing on their car hood, or use the placement of a childhood toy soldier as a plot device that reasserts one of these bros' lost humanity (no, not in a cliché'd "Rosebud" way), deserves another look-see, right?
You know, everyone applauded with great abandon season or series finales of Lost, Heroes, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, V, One Tree Hill, 24, 90210, blah, blah, blah. And when it got right down to it, most of these alleged earth-moving episodes were just that...blah, more blah, and serious blah. Just where were our most trusted (and most sanctimonious) culture warriors and pundits when it came to one of the best season finales of the year? In its closer, Supernatural delivered not only one of the finest hours of network television of 2010, but it also supplied one of the most intellectually and satisfying--and yes, sad--closures any sci-fi or horror series ever broadcast.
This show increasingly has become one of the best sci-fi/horror offerings in years, regardless of its origin as an also-ran to the old WB's Smallville. The two shows really never had anything in common--well, except good looking male casts and a year's stint with Jensen Ackles stuck in a ridiculous role on the Superboy primer. But because Smallville had such a loyal following, it was assumed Supernatural would pick off at least a portion its audience, which it did. However, regardless of Smallville's sudden renaissance in scripting, casting, and acting this past year, it's run its course while Supernatural actually feels like it's getting a second wind.
Over the past five years--and especially this last one with that exceptional story arc about the war between angels and devils--those of us who have been supportive of this red-headed stepchild of a series have been pretty blown away by plot lines so well-conceived and delivered, they would have challenged some great moments of sacred cows like The X-Files, The Exorcist, The Omen, and let's throw in The Outer Limits to get some folks really riled-up.
The jokes and timing between every cast member move like Fosse, and none of this would have ever worked if it weren't for the on and off screen chemistry between its stars, Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester). Their bromance--chided in a recent episode and randomly over five years--apparently is real, Ackles even serving as Padalecki's groomsman in his recent marriage.
The show also features a very strong supporting cast such as Misha Collins who plays their "guardian" angel Castiel, and Jim Beaver who is Bobby Singer, their de facto father figure. And, of course, it has a revolving door of hot actresses who come and go, you know, love 'em and stake 'em since they're mostly demons. But what this season finale did that virtually nothing else on network television attempted was it expertly gave a satisfying closure--albeit depressing as "Hell"--to its five-year storyline without treating its audience like it am dumb. More on that in a sec.
For those who still haven't committed to this awesome show, here are some more reasons why you should jump on board for its sixth outing: It employs--intentionally or not, doesn't matter--the Ray Bradbury rule of building your story from the heart up. Its music mostly is classic, prog, or hard rock depending on just how fierce the action is surrounding our favorite demon hunters and how cleverly the writers and producers want to title their episode (yeah, that also was a Farscape trick, but it's still pretty cool). Overall, its plots and twists always are smart (including running jokes and series-within-a-series revisits), its dialogue is extremely well-written and acted-out, and after this season's operatic finale (that also could have served as the series ender), you'll get to watch the show rebuild itself based on the one major bone thrown to its fans in the last scene.
Okay, here's that terrific teaser as well as your spoiler alert: Did Sam escape Hell because he can now control Lucifer who is still inside him (that ability established during the apocalyptic fight scene)? If so, will his loyal brother Dean trust that it can last? If not, how the hell did Sam escape Hell? Did God intervene with these guys yet again and pull Sam's bacon out of the fire (so to speak)? And if their step-brother was a vessel for Michael the Archangel, how come he's still trapped in Hell (and Castiel now the main angeldude) when Sam could escape?
Some of you non-believers ("Sh-sh-sh-shun the non-believer...shuuuun...") are probably reading this and thinking, "Riiiiiight," but maybe this'll move your cold, cold hearts: In the last ten or so seconds of the finale, during this tiny yet effective snippet, we see a forlorn, no longer banished-to-Hell Sam staring from the street at his depressed, alcoholic brother Dean who's sitting at a dinner table with his new nuclear family. So much is said with not one word.
With all due respect to NBC, this truly is "must see TV," and you journalistic Kingmakers out there who made franchises out of really questionable crap (V? Heroes?? Really???) should go back one more time and let your heart do the re-evaluating. Any show that can capture the intensity and pathology of two cosmically-screwed and screwed-up brothers silently stargazing on their car hood, or use the placement of a childhood toy soldier as a plot device that reasserts one of these bros' lost humanity (no, not in a cliché'd "Rosebud" way), deserves another look-see, right?