Supernatural Season 8
I've had a hard time watching Supernatural for the last few seasons. In fact, I even stopped watching Supernatural for a while, but I was recently stuck at home and mainlined most of the 8th season in a week. I'm glad I did! First of all, I think watching it all at once made the annoying flashbacks (Dean's Purgatory memories, Sam's memories of Amelia) a lot easier to get through. When I knew I had many hours left to watch, losing five minutes of an episode to Sam watching Amelia play with a dog wasn't so frustrating. (I still have no idea why the writers chose to revisit the Sam-wants-a-normal-life idea, since they've dealt with it repeatedly already and I thought that piece of characterization had already been resolved. And seriously, there's very little that's more boring than watching two people be blandly happy together.)
Secondly, I like season 8 better than seasons 6 and 7. Sam and Dean seem to have a better relationship, especially after the first few episodes. The plots are a little more interesting to me. And the boys get friends! Multiple friends, none of whom die! Kevin has become a favorite character of mine, because he brings such a different view point to the show. And every time Charlies pops up on screen, I'm happy. Plus more allies, like the golem and his rabbi, who I can't help but hope show up again. I still think the writers use characters up too fast--I think meeting Grandpa Winchester, learning about the Men of Letters, and eventually learning to work with each other's strengths should have taken up more than just one episode, and led to some interesting character choices for Sam and Dean. Sam would be confronted with someone he'd like to learn from, while Dean would have to work through the complicated issues his own father left him with. It could have been far meatier than it was. But regardless, introducing the Men of Letters did open the world up more, which I'm pleased with.
Plus, it's a pleasure to see them go up against truly competent foes. That said, giving Crowley smart plans just showcases the Winchester's inability to think things through. When Crowley threatens to kill someone every twelve hours unless the Winchesters give up on closing the gates of hell, I was astounded that Sam actually seemed to be seriously considering it. For a smart character, he acts like a dim bulb. If they give up on the trials, then Crowley is free to continue killing and torturing people for (presumably) all of eternity, just like demons have done throughout human history. Whereas if they go through with the trials, they would lose a few people but they would stop all demons from tormenting humans for all time. That seems like a really, really easy choice to make. Especially since I doubt it's going to be all that difficult to find a demon to "cure"--Abaddon won't obey Crowley's orders and would probably be pretty easy to lure into trying to kill the Winchesters. I wish the heroes were better at problem solving!
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Secondly, I like season 8 better than seasons 6 and 7. Sam and Dean seem to have a better relationship, especially after the first few episodes. The plots are a little more interesting to me. And the boys get friends! Multiple friends, none of whom die! Kevin has become a favorite character of mine, because he brings such a different view point to the show. And every time Charlies pops up on screen, I'm happy. Plus more allies, like the golem and his rabbi, who I can't help but hope show up again. I still think the writers use characters up too fast--I think meeting Grandpa Winchester, learning about the Men of Letters, and eventually learning to work with each other's strengths should have taken up more than just one episode, and led to some interesting character choices for Sam and Dean. Sam would be confronted with someone he'd like to learn from, while Dean would have to work through the complicated issues his own father left him with. It could have been far meatier than it was. But regardless, introducing the Men of Letters did open the world up more, which I'm pleased with.
Plus, it's a pleasure to see them go up against truly competent foes. That said, giving Crowley smart plans just showcases the Winchester's inability to think things through. When Crowley threatens to kill someone every twelve hours unless the Winchesters give up on closing the gates of hell, I was astounded that Sam actually seemed to be seriously considering it. For a smart character, he acts like a dim bulb. If they give up on the trials, then Crowley is free to continue killing and torturing people for (presumably) all of eternity, just like demons have done throughout human history. Whereas if they go through with the trials, they would lose a few people but they would stop all demons from tormenting humans for all time. That seems like a really, really easy choice to make. Especially since I doubt it's going to be all that difficult to find a demon to "cure"--Abaddon won't obey Crowley's orders and would probably be pretty easy to lure into trying to kill the Winchesters. I wish the heroes were better at problem solving!
This entry was originally posted at http://wealhtheow.dreamwidth.org/13150.html. Please comment there using OpenID.