SPN month: day 25 is multiple choice
25. Pre-apocalyptic, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic?
In terms of sheer story enjoyment, the apocalyptic S4 is my favorite. But in concept, post-apocalyptic - I love that life goes on after the big stuff.
I have a thing about the Big Heroic Ending, where, I hate it? Even when I mostly love it I still kind of hate it. I think the idea of conflict resolution through one big dramatic gesture is narratively way overrated and overdone, I think it's socially irresponsible at best, and I think it's philosophically trite. Give me the messy areas, the fights that won't be won, the thorny harm reductionist obligations, the bets with stakes you can't even quantify.
And so I love S6 and 7. I love watching Cas struggle to clean up the apocalypse, and to do so in a way that led directly to the next big threat. I think SPN sometimes underestimates its own ability to deal with that ambiguity, which is a shame because the show really can bring it on that score.
And oh, S7. I was sure I wasn't going to get any more ridiculous about Sam, you guys, and I was so wrong. Sam's story didn't end with that leap into the pit - this isn't insulting movie-therapy bullshit where you make one big dramatic stand against whatever "inner demons." Sam has been allowed to go through an unbelievably painful reintegration over the past two seasons - it's not even clear that's over, or that it ever will be. And now it's not about "facing" something, because he's done that. Swan Dive was the beginning of Sam Winchester as an integrated entity, him accepting that his good and shadow selves could coexist, not the end of his story. And that's a post-apocalyptic story, one that can only come after a personal crisis, one I'm so glad he's getting to tell.
so, post-apocalypse. where it's at.