Supernatural S712 Time after Time after Time
1. NICK LEA! Love his Elliot Ness, loved the set up, loved that he's a Hunter, why he's a Hunter, and what he thinks about being a Hunter. Actually there was nothing about the flashback I didn't love.
2. Jensen's next job should require him to wear a fedora. All the time.
3. But, here's the thing... if you want me to watch characters I have come to love being emotionally -- and sometimes physically -- flayed, you have to give me hope it'll get better by giving them hope. There must be some indication that those characters can change their situation. You can yank it out from under them at the last minute, hello final heartbreak, fade to black -- which, btw, I'd hate but it's a valid horror trope -- but there has to be a perceived chance of winning. PERCEIVED CHANCE. That they cling to. And fight toward. And even if winning only means a temporary reprieve before the battle starts again, at least they have that success to build on rather than something they pulled out of their ass at the last minute that allows only survival, no change, no growth.
Life's an impossible battle against the darkness and it's only going to get worse so let's watch the boys struggle futilely while fully aware their struggle is futile, that the deck is stacked and they can not win is not something I'm particularly interested in. No matter how prettily they suffer. After a while, pretty suffering begins to feel like sideshow sin-eating. "Step right up! See them writhe and weep! Walk away with the cathartic feeling of having responded to suffering that requires you to change nothing at all about how you live your life!"
Didn't we once want to watch characters overcome adversity? Now we seem content to watch them barely keeping their head above the shit storm, happy that at least our lives will never suck quite that badly.
And yes, the fact that, although broken emotionally and physically, Sam and Dean keep struggling, even knowing they can't win, is admirable. But the weight of that knowledge has squeezed the joy from the smaller victories and splintered their relationship and the strongest emotion they evoke in me now, is pity.
As always, your mileage may vary. This is my response, not one I expect anyone else to have.
If Bobby has Pandora's Box tucked into one of his storage lockers, the boys need to find it and release hope back into their world because you can't send Dean to the 1940s every episode...