Dabb and Lofin should never *ever* be allowed to write a 'comedic' episode again. This is beyond 'tin ear' right to 'offending your audience'.
I liked Becky before, and making her a rapist-by-magic just mad me recoil from this entire episode. I couldn't do anything more than fast forward to the end and Mark Sheppard's appearance, which while it furthered the season's arc, didn't redeem this stinker of an episode.
I'm seriously considering writing Sera Gamble and the writing staff with a note about "rape jokes aren't as funny as you think they are. In fact, they aren't funny at all, so please stop building an entire episode around them."
It's interesting I think that they were aware enough of the problems with such a storyline to put into the dialogue that Becky and Sam never actually consumated their marriage.
But yes, the way they handled the whole thing made Becky a much less likable character and when she is, in a way, supposed to be representing the fans, that's not a character you want to do that to.
i don't think becky was the writers poking gentle fun at the fans. i think she was the writers laughing at the fans. it went beyond meta and into mockery.
and yes, crowley's appearance was completely awesome, and i think the best thing about the episode. i kinda like the beard too - scruffy is a good look for him.
This really was the first time they've used Becky that I did feel like it was laughing at instead of laughing with. It just struck a real sour chord for me, especially since she'd never ping for me that way before. :/
It's sad really, because if handled just a little differently I think it could have been hilarious without the feeling of mocking -- I did kinda love the idea of a fan living out a Mary Sue fic. But it needed more... winking at the audience and less making the onshow fan persona so pathetic and wrong headed at the same time? If that makes sense?
The Crowley scene was definitely the best bit of the ep, agreed.
The ep was written by two of the newer writers I believe -- so maybe they just haven't found the way to handle this kind of subject matter without it falling over into mockery. There were some interesting ideas in there, just the execution didn't quite work the way it needed to.
>>But it needed more... winking at the audience and less making the onshow fan persona so pathetic and wrong headed at the same time? If that makes sense?<<
that makes total sense. she was portrayed as pathetic and sad, the way she drugged sam made her unlikable, and as soon as she tied him to the bed it pushed her into misery territory in a bad way. there was nothing about her to let the viewers know that the ptb have any kind of genuine affection for their fans. she was kind of a joke top to bottom.
(did the writers want the fans to see themselves in her and thus sympathize with her? because if so, their picture of their own fans is pretty depressing and a bit condescending.)
(did the writers want the fans to see themselves in her and thus sympathize with her? because if so, their picture of their own fans is pretty depressing and a bit condescending.)
I can say with a degree of certainty that the actors don't see the fans that way, having heard Jared and Jensen and all talk at the cons about the SPN family and seen how moved they really are with fandom's support. I think the same can be said for the crew in Vancouver, and I'd think for at least the writers/producers that have been there for a while. (Ben Edlund, Robert Singer, Kripke, and I think Sera as well) This ep was done by a couple newer writers though and they might not have been there long enough to get the same picture?
Whatever it is, I think they definitely made a mistep with the way they portrayed Becky in this.
My mom once commented that when a show goes on long enough, the characters can become caricatures of themselves. Seeing as we've essentially had a total of four regular characters on this, we've managed to avoid it to some extent.
Not so much on Becky though. She very much took a step backward in her characterization, losing dimension on this. It was just such an obvious choice to make, to give her that background. It added absolutely nothing to the over all story arc either for her or for the show in general. It was a one dimensional trope they threw in to avoid trying to do anything more three dimensional.
Sorry, I get really annoyed by that sort of thing.
You've expressed pretty well my thoughts on the ep, here. So, yeah.
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I liked Becky before, and making her a rapist-by-magic just mad me recoil from this entire episode. I couldn't do anything more than fast forward to the end and Mark Sheppard's appearance, which while it furthered the season's arc, didn't redeem this stinker of an episode.
I'm seriously considering writing Sera Gamble and the writing staff with a note about "rape jokes aren't as funny as you think they are. In fact, they aren't funny at all, so please stop building an entire episode around them."
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But yes, the way they handled the whole thing made Becky a much less likable character and when she is, in a way, supposed to be representing the fans, that's not a character you want to do that to.
Reply
and yes, crowley's appearance was completely awesome, and i think the best thing about the episode. i kinda like the beard too - scruffy is a good look for him.
Reply
It's sad really, because if handled just a little differently I think it could have been hilarious without the feeling of mocking -- I did kinda love the idea of a fan living out a Mary Sue fic. But it needed more... winking at the audience and less making the onshow fan persona so pathetic and wrong headed at the same time? If that makes sense?
The Crowley scene was definitely the best bit of the ep, agreed.
The ep was written by two of the newer writers I believe -- so maybe they just haven't found the way to handle this kind of subject matter without it falling over into mockery. There were some interesting ideas in there, just the execution didn't quite work the way it needed to.
Reply
that makes total sense. she was portrayed as pathetic and sad, the way she drugged sam made her unlikable, and as soon as she tied him to the bed it pushed her into misery territory in a bad way. there was nothing about her to let the viewers know that the ptb have any kind of genuine affection for their fans. she was kind of a joke top to bottom.
(did the writers want the fans to see themselves in her and thus sympathize with her? because if so, their picture of their own fans is pretty depressing and a bit condescending.)
Reply
I can say with a degree of certainty that the actors don't see the fans that way, having heard Jared and Jensen and all talk at the cons about the SPN family and seen how moved they really are with fandom's support. I think the same can be said for the crew in Vancouver, and I'd think for at least the writers/producers that have been there for a while. (Ben Edlund, Robert Singer, Kripke, and I think Sera as well) This ep was done by a couple newer writers though and they might not have been there long enough to get the same picture?
Whatever it is, I think they definitely made a mistep with the way they portrayed Becky in this.
Reply
As for teh picture - when I first heard of the show, I too thought it was about ST...
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Not so much on Becky though. She very much took a step backward in her characterization, losing dimension on this. It was just such an obvious choice to make, to give her that background. It added absolutely nothing to the over all story arc either for her or for the show in general. It was a one dimensional trope they threw in to avoid trying to do anything more three dimensional.
Sorry, I get really annoyed by that sort of thing.
You've expressed pretty well my thoughts on the ep, here. So, yeah.
Reply
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