Fresh SPN ep reviews, get 'em while they're hot!
Last night, I got home from work, and had the following conversation with my father-in-law:
FIL: When's dinner?
ME: In a bit, I need to make the potatoes.
FIL: But soon?
ME: Yes.
FIL: Then we can eat and watch Supernatural?
ME: If you want.
FIL: Watch new Supernatural?
ME: Yeah.
FIL: Oh, good, because I've watched the Christmas one three times, already.
ME: *stares* Since last night?
FIL: Yeah. The other ones won't work in the DVD player.
ME: They're iTunes files, there's a thing you gotta do with the laptop and stuff.
FIL: Oh. Well, could you do...whatever? So that we can watch them while we eat? The new ones? That come after the Christmas one?
At least I'm not the only addict in the house. So I did the thing with the laptop, which necessitated calling feliciakw for help not once but twice, and I'm just very grateful that Fee a) does not go to bed very early at night, and b) has such a good sense of humor. Fee demands only episode reviews in payment for her assistance, and since she was nice enough to give me everything I needed to prevent my family from lynching me, I am here to review eps!
A Very Supernatural Christmas
So we sat down Sunday evening to watch this, and one of the pixies asked, "Is this like a Doctor Who Christmas episode, where it's on way more special crack than a regular episode?" I didn't know the answer to this question at that time. Ultimately, the answer turned out to be, "Yes, but SPN is generally on a lot less special crack to begin with than Doctor Who tends to be, so the effect is not quite the same. Also, there is hella schmoop."
I am so amused by the serial killer chimney sweep/Mary Poppins conversation. So, so amused. The banter is all-around delightful in this ep, actually. I love the heart-to-heart and all the angst and stuff that we've been getting the last couple eps, and it's not like they ever really stop bantering, even when knee-deep in Issues, but this ep has lots of the light, funny stuff with Sam actually smiling that makes my heart go pitter-pat. Yay, happy banter!
I'm kind of impressed with how much this version of baby!Sam looks like Jared Padalecki. Good job finding someone with a similar nose, casting department!
I love it when Sam puts himself on the back foot with people by doing or saying something that comes off as way weird, and how he flails for a way to keep them from thinking he's a freak and/or pervert, generally without success. "We just came to watch." Honestly. *snort* And I shall call him Sammy, and he shall be mine. And he shall be my Sammy! *pets him*
Boys attempting to sing "Silent Night" as a cover-up for busting into the wrong guy's house: Oh dear. *spontaneously combusts from laughing*
DEAN: What'd Bobby say?
SAM: That we're morons.
I love how Bobby can be awesome without even being in the episode, at all. Good form.
Okay, I enjoy the flashback scenes, but I have this to say: the idea that Sam really didn't know about any of the supernatural scariness until the age of eight stretches my credulity a bit. I mean, Dad being gone a lot and a weird thing about salt lines is one thing, but how did John and Dean explain the fact that John regularly came home beat to hell and needing stitches? But whatever.
I watched most of this with my brother, not_a_monk, who kibbitzes at the tv even more than I do. He was not pleased with Sam and Dean's lack of stealth: "Guys, if you're going to pick a lock, pick a door that is not the front door. Everyone on the street can see you, guys!" Hee.
So, my dad used to jokingly threaten us with fingernail-removal as a punishment for bad grades. Suddenly, that's not quite as funny as it used to be.
Ow. *cringe*
Alright, the Pagan Deities As Chirpy Suburbanites thing is pretty funny. The sweaters are a nice touch. And I'm a huge fan of the fact that the boys take them down with stakes from their own Christmas tree. Booyah!
And awww! Dean's Creepy Mesopotamian Cuckold Thing necklace is a gift from Sam! *warm fuzzies*
How much do I love the eggnog moment? THIS MUCH!! *holds arms out all the way* I am just dead from the schmoop of that last scene, and loving it. Yaay schmoop!
Malleus Maleficarum
AKA "The One Marie Can Barely Ever Pronounce, Much Less Spell"
I saw this one kind of a while ago, online, and haven't been able to re-watch since, so forgive my hazy memory.
I was interested to see how the boys would react to witches, and I have to say that I like how they and the show in general handle the whole concept.
My main reaction to this ep: Ew.
Seriously, I am with Dean: witches are just downright unsanitary.
This ep contained a higher gross-out and straight-up horror aspect than I was really comfortable with. I'm glad they don't make this level of ick a regular thing. I'm also glad that I don't have this one to watch on DVD, since I'm pretty sure it would really freak the pixies and my mother-in-law out, and I'd rather not have this show banned from the living room at this stage.
That said: a fun case, some solid brother moments, and Ruby and Dean sniping at each other. Yay!
Wait, demons can stop bullets? I'm not on board with them being able to do that. Just for the record.
The thing that made me laugh out loud and say, "Oh, Dean. Never, ever change," was the moment toward the end when both brother's are having their asses handed to them by the Tammy demon, and Ruby sweeps in. Her initial exchange of barbs with Tammy takes the two women well into each other's personal space, and between that and the actual content of said barbs, the apparent chance of angry girl-on-girl snogging suddenly goes up. And Dean, who is pinned to a wall by demonic forces, moments away from possible messy death, still has the resources for an eyebrow lift that manages to telegraph the following sentiments: "Well, things are not really going my way, at the moment, but hey, hot chicks might make out right in front of me, so at least the day's not a complete loss!"
Or at least, that's what I got out of it, and it cracked me up, so I'm sticking with it. It's possible that I'm just reading too much into a tiny, brief facial quirk, but then Jensen Ackles can give you three pages of dialog by moving nothing but his left ear, so...
Hm. So do we consider Ruby's assertions about the origin of demons as canon, or do we file this one under "Who knows? Demons lie"?
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Dude. Ow.
It's funny, between the things said in this ep, and the flashbacks in the Christmas ep, I'm starting to get slightly annoyed with the show, in the same way I get annoyed with fanfic when it focuses too heavily on what a crappy father John was. Let us not forget that John Winchester kicks ass, guys. Nobody is a perfect parent, especially not when they're as damaged as John, but come on, guys, cut the man some slack.
Okay, I feel better, now. Onward.
I like that Dean is Bobby's emergency contact, and that the boys come running the minute they hear of Bobby in trouble. *loves Bobby*
DEAN: Crap.
SAM: What?
DEAN: Bela.
SAM: Bela? Crap.
The little short-hand exchanges always make me happy. And always seem to heavily involve the word "crap." Hm.
The boys calling Bela strikes me as a bit...odd, since she did just sell them out to Gordon a few eps ago. Of course, she also sold him out to them, and calling her for dream root results in banter, so I'll buy it for a nickel, I guess.
Well thank goodness my mother-in-law was not in the room for Sam's Bela dream, is all I'm saying about that.
Actually, now that I think of it, what was the point of Sam's Bela dream? I guess it was just for comedic value, since it didn't have much of anything to do with anything else. Which is fine, I suppose, "Because it's funny" is an acceptable reason for a lot of things, with me. It was just kinda...weird. Coming out of nowhere, as it did. But I guess it's only fair that Sam have an embarrassing dream to make up for later in this ep. Anyway.
And the "Dark Side of the Moon" thing kinda cracks me up.
Re. Bobby's backstory with his possessed wife: *sniff* Poor Bobby! *hugs him*
Sleep-deprived and overly-caffeinated Dean is really, really funny, and I'm really glad that it's Bobby and Sam having to put up with him and not me. Heh.
Also: Bobby Singer is awesome.
So Bela's spirit-world connections can get her all kinds of info at all hours of the day and night...except when they can't. Very slick move, there, show, nicely done.
And now: the part where we get to rummage around in Dean's head! This show really is fanfic on wheels. I love it.
So that's twice this season (and three times if you count "What Is and What Should Never Be" in S2) that we get the point hammered home that Dean's deepest desires lie in a slightly different direction than his outward behavior might lead one to believe. Poor Dean and his Dream Picnic.
The transition from the forest to the hallway with forest wallpaper was really, really cool. The set department must have had fun with this ep.
I...don't have a lot to say about Dean's whole encounter with his scary self, here. Analysis is not my thing. What I will say is that this ep made me want to hug Dean and maybe have a good cry on his behalf like never before. (And I don't cry! Well, I cry roughly twice a year, maybe three times, if things are really rough. But I'd fit in an extra cry for Dean if he were real and would let me hug him and occasionally shake him violently with frustration.)
Oh, Dean.
The debrief-with-car is a doozy, as usual. Guh. *dies of awesome brother moment*
Mystery Spot
I believe the technical term for my reaction to this episode is "askslfsggzkjkhiou."
Yeah.
On one hand, we have banter and brother-baiting and happiness of the highest order.
And on the other hand, we have pain, pain and MORE PAIN!!
This episode wore me out, man. I don't think I can really do a proper review for it. *deep breath* Okay, so let's start with the happy and funny, shall we?
Pretty much the whole teaser just filled me with glee. I think I've said before that when he's hurting, Dean's face and body language often remind me forcibly of my brother. When Dean is happy and being his dorky self, he sometimes reminds me of my friend Greg. That whole first segment, with the lip-syncing, and the "You love this song, and you know it," and the head-bopping along to the music? Straight-up, Grade-A Greg, right down to the way Dean makes getting up off the bed into a weird little dance move when he's done with his boots. Incidentally, Greg is the guy who first introduced me to Journey, Boston, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin. Coincidence? You be the judge.
So, I love time loops, mostly because of their potential for comedy, but also just because the whole idea appeals to me on a story-telling level. I don't really know why. Apparently, there's a time-loop ep of X-Files that I've never seen (a pox upon whoever decided to make and air "Home" because it is entirely their fault that X-Files was banned from our house in Season 4) and I need to look into that. My adoration for the time-loop ep of Stargate knows no bounds, and there is, of course, Groundhog Day, which is just too many kinds of awesome to list.
Naturally, I love this episode. Even the parts the hurt liek whoa. But my favorite thing about it may be the fun of just seeing the boys being themselves and having a normal morning, brushing teeth and cheerfully messing with each other over breakfast. The banter and crankiness after Sam's been through a few rotations are very amusing, too. And of course Dean completely fails to take his own repeated death seriously.
I like that the first few times Dean dies, it's appropriately heart-wrenching and startling, but then it quickly devolves to the level of morbid humor, the means of death becoming more and more ridiculous.
At this time, I would like to say "SAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!"
Thank you.
Dude. Sam.
I approve of the way Sam goes all scary para-military stone-cold crazy in the wake of the Wednesday death. The arsenal in the trunk loses the rough-and-ready condition that Dean always kept it in, and gets molded foam ala John's weapon's box. Sam demonstrates his dad's same style of tracking and note-keeping, only with an added element of truly scary organization. That much focus and discipline cannot be healthy, man. Very neat time-elapse of Sam's stone-cold-crazy time, and nicely executed, gave me chills in a very not-good way.
This is where I whine about the trickster and his too-potent powers for a bit. His ability to do literally anything just does not sit well with me, mostly because it's just too big a can of worms. With a trickster alive and breathing, you really can't ever be sure of anything. And if he can reverse time and bring Dean back, why can't he reverse it some more and bring John back, and Mary for that matter? Why can't he make it so that Licoln was never shot and the Star Wars prequels were never made? If he's willing to completely re-arrange time and space like this for Sam, why not do more? I'll stop harping on this, now, it just...really bugs me. I guess I should give it a pass one way or the other, because the fact of the trickster's existence buys us such an awesome episode. Anyway.
Wednesday again. Brother hug! Everybody drinks!
And wow, I'm kind of wondering how the show's going to deal with this new development of Sam's character. I mean, if it were Stargate, they'd just be like "What life-changing, personality-altering experience? Where?" and I'd be cool with that, because it's Stargate, and that's what they do. but I'm interested to see if SPN has something of a little more substance to offer, here. We shall see.
FIL: When's dinner?
ME: In a bit, I need to make the potatoes.
FIL: But soon?
ME: Yes.
FIL: Then we can eat and watch Supernatural?
ME: If you want.
FIL: Watch new Supernatural?
ME: Yeah.
FIL: Oh, good, because I've watched the Christmas one three times, already.
ME: *stares* Since last night?
FIL: Yeah. The other ones won't work in the DVD player.
ME: They're iTunes files, there's a thing you gotta do with the laptop and stuff.
FIL: Oh. Well, could you do...whatever? So that we can watch them while we eat? The new ones? That come after the Christmas one?
At least I'm not the only addict in the house. So I did the thing with the laptop, which necessitated calling feliciakw for help not once but twice, and I'm just very grateful that Fee a) does not go to bed very early at night, and b) has such a good sense of humor. Fee demands only episode reviews in payment for her assistance, and since she was nice enough to give me everything I needed to prevent my family from lynching me, I am here to review eps!
A Very Supernatural Christmas
So we sat down Sunday evening to watch this, and one of the pixies asked, "Is this like a Doctor Who Christmas episode, where it's on way more special crack than a regular episode?" I didn't know the answer to this question at that time. Ultimately, the answer turned out to be, "Yes, but SPN is generally on a lot less special crack to begin with than Doctor Who tends to be, so the effect is not quite the same. Also, there is hella schmoop."
I am so amused by the serial killer chimney sweep/Mary Poppins conversation. So, so amused. The banter is all-around delightful in this ep, actually. I love the heart-to-heart and all the angst and stuff that we've been getting the last couple eps, and it's not like they ever really stop bantering, even when knee-deep in Issues, but this ep has lots of the light, funny stuff with Sam actually smiling that makes my heart go pitter-pat. Yay, happy banter!
I'm kind of impressed with how much this version of baby!Sam looks like Jared Padalecki. Good job finding someone with a similar nose, casting department!
I love it when Sam puts himself on the back foot with people by doing or saying something that comes off as way weird, and how he flails for a way to keep them from thinking he's a freak and/or pervert, generally without success. "We just came to watch." Honestly. *snort* And I shall call him Sammy, and he shall be mine. And he shall be my Sammy! *pets him*
Boys attempting to sing "Silent Night" as a cover-up for busting into the wrong guy's house: Oh dear. *spontaneously combusts from laughing*
DEAN: What'd Bobby say?
SAM: That we're morons.
I love how Bobby can be awesome without even being in the episode, at all. Good form.
Okay, I enjoy the flashback scenes, but I have this to say: the idea that Sam really didn't know about any of the supernatural scariness until the age of eight stretches my credulity a bit. I mean, Dad being gone a lot and a weird thing about salt lines is one thing, but how did John and Dean explain the fact that John regularly came home beat to hell and needing stitches? But whatever.
I watched most of this with my brother, not_a_monk, who kibbitzes at the tv even more than I do. He was not pleased with Sam and Dean's lack of stealth: "Guys, if you're going to pick a lock, pick a door that is not the front door. Everyone on the street can see you, guys!" Hee.
So, my dad used to jokingly threaten us with fingernail-removal as a punishment for bad grades. Suddenly, that's not quite as funny as it used to be.
Ow. *cringe*
Alright, the Pagan Deities As Chirpy Suburbanites thing is pretty funny. The sweaters are a nice touch. And I'm a huge fan of the fact that the boys take them down with stakes from their own Christmas tree. Booyah!
And awww! Dean's Creepy Mesopotamian Cuckold Thing necklace is a gift from Sam! *warm fuzzies*
How much do I love the eggnog moment? THIS MUCH!! *holds arms out all the way* I am just dead from the schmoop of that last scene, and loving it. Yaay schmoop!
Malleus Maleficarum
AKA "The One Marie Can Barely Ever Pronounce, Much Less Spell"
I saw this one kind of a while ago, online, and haven't been able to re-watch since, so forgive my hazy memory.
I was interested to see how the boys would react to witches, and I have to say that I like how they and the show in general handle the whole concept.
My main reaction to this ep: Ew.
Seriously, I am with Dean: witches are just downright unsanitary.
This ep contained a higher gross-out and straight-up horror aspect than I was really comfortable with. I'm glad they don't make this level of ick a regular thing. I'm also glad that I don't have this one to watch on DVD, since I'm pretty sure it would really freak the pixies and my mother-in-law out, and I'd rather not have this show banned from the living room at this stage.
That said: a fun case, some solid brother moments, and Ruby and Dean sniping at each other. Yay!
Wait, demons can stop bullets? I'm not on board with them being able to do that. Just for the record.
The thing that made me laugh out loud and say, "Oh, Dean. Never, ever change," was the moment toward the end when both brother's are having their asses handed to them by the Tammy demon, and Ruby sweeps in. Her initial exchange of barbs with Tammy takes the two women well into each other's personal space, and between that and the actual content of said barbs, the apparent chance of angry girl-on-girl snogging suddenly goes up. And Dean, who is pinned to a wall by demonic forces, moments away from possible messy death, still has the resources for an eyebrow lift that manages to telegraph the following sentiments: "Well, things are not really going my way, at the moment, but hey, hot chicks might make out right in front of me, so at least the day's not a complete loss!"
Or at least, that's what I got out of it, and it cracked me up, so I'm sticking with it. It's possible that I'm just reading too much into a tiny, brief facial quirk, but then Jensen Ackles can give you three pages of dialog by moving nothing but his left ear, so...
Hm. So do we consider Ruby's assertions about the origin of demons as canon, or do we file this one under "Who knows? Demons lie"?
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Dude. Ow.
It's funny, between the things said in this ep, and the flashbacks in the Christmas ep, I'm starting to get slightly annoyed with the show, in the same way I get annoyed with fanfic when it focuses too heavily on what a crappy father John was. Let us not forget that John Winchester kicks ass, guys. Nobody is a perfect parent, especially not when they're as damaged as John, but come on, guys, cut the man some slack.
Okay, I feel better, now. Onward.
I like that Dean is Bobby's emergency contact, and that the boys come running the minute they hear of Bobby in trouble. *loves Bobby*
DEAN: Crap.
SAM: What?
DEAN: Bela.
SAM: Bela? Crap.
The little short-hand exchanges always make me happy. And always seem to heavily involve the word "crap." Hm.
The boys calling Bela strikes me as a bit...odd, since she did just sell them out to Gordon a few eps ago. Of course, she also sold him out to them, and calling her for dream root results in banter, so I'll buy it for a nickel, I guess.
Well thank goodness my mother-in-law was not in the room for Sam's Bela dream, is all I'm saying about that.
Actually, now that I think of it, what was the point of Sam's Bela dream? I guess it was just for comedic value, since it didn't have much of anything to do with anything else. Which is fine, I suppose, "Because it's funny" is an acceptable reason for a lot of things, with me. It was just kinda...weird. Coming out of nowhere, as it did. But I guess it's only fair that Sam have an embarrassing dream to make up for later in this ep. Anyway.
And the "Dark Side of the Moon" thing kinda cracks me up.
Re. Bobby's backstory with his possessed wife: *sniff* Poor Bobby! *hugs him*
Sleep-deprived and overly-caffeinated Dean is really, really funny, and I'm really glad that it's Bobby and Sam having to put up with him and not me. Heh.
Also: Bobby Singer is awesome.
So Bela's spirit-world connections can get her all kinds of info at all hours of the day and night...except when they can't. Very slick move, there, show, nicely done.
And now: the part where we get to rummage around in Dean's head! This show really is fanfic on wheels. I love it.
So that's twice this season (and three times if you count "What Is and What Should Never Be" in S2) that we get the point hammered home that Dean's deepest desires lie in a slightly different direction than his outward behavior might lead one to believe. Poor Dean and his Dream Picnic.
The transition from the forest to the hallway with forest wallpaper was really, really cool. The set department must have had fun with this ep.
I...don't have a lot to say about Dean's whole encounter with his scary self, here. Analysis is not my thing. What I will say is that this ep made me want to hug Dean and maybe have a good cry on his behalf like never before. (And I don't cry! Well, I cry roughly twice a year, maybe three times, if things are really rough. But I'd fit in an extra cry for Dean if he were real and would let me hug him and occasionally shake him violently with frustration.)
Oh, Dean.
The debrief-with-car is a doozy, as usual. Guh. *dies of awesome brother moment*
Mystery Spot
I believe the technical term for my reaction to this episode is "askslfsggzkjkhiou."
Yeah.
On one hand, we have banter and brother-baiting and happiness of the highest order.
And on the other hand, we have pain, pain and MORE PAIN!!
This episode wore me out, man. I don't think I can really do a proper review for it. *deep breath* Okay, so let's start with the happy and funny, shall we?
Pretty much the whole teaser just filled me with glee. I think I've said before that when he's hurting, Dean's face and body language often remind me forcibly of my brother. When Dean is happy and being his dorky self, he sometimes reminds me of my friend Greg. That whole first segment, with the lip-syncing, and the "You love this song, and you know it," and the head-bopping along to the music? Straight-up, Grade-A Greg, right down to the way Dean makes getting up off the bed into a weird little dance move when he's done with his boots. Incidentally, Greg is the guy who first introduced me to Journey, Boston, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin. Coincidence? You be the judge.
So, I love time loops, mostly because of their potential for comedy, but also just because the whole idea appeals to me on a story-telling level. I don't really know why. Apparently, there's a time-loop ep of X-Files that I've never seen (a pox upon whoever decided to make and air "Home" because it is entirely their fault that X-Files was banned from our house in Season 4) and I need to look into that. My adoration for the time-loop ep of Stargate knows no bounds, and there is, of course, Groundhog Day, which is just too many kinds of awesome to list.
Naturally, I love this episode. Even the parts the hurt liek whoa. But my favorite thing about it may be the fun of just seeing the boys being themselves and having a normal morning, brushing teeth and cheerfully messing with each other over breakfast. The banter and crankiness after Sam's been through a few rotations are very amusing, too. And of course Dean completely fails to take his own repeated death seriously.
I like that the first few times Dean dies, it's appropriately heart-wrenching and startling, but then it quickly devolves to the level of morbid humor, the means of death becoming more and more ridiculous.
At this time, I would like to say "SAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!"
Thank you.
Dude. Sam.
I approve of the way Sam goes all scary para-military stone-cold crazy in the wake of the Wednesday death. The arsenal in the trunk loses the rough-and-ready condition that Dean always kept it in, and gets molded foam ala John's weapon's box. Sam demonstrates his dad's same style of tracking and note-keeping, only with an added element of truly scary organization. That much focus and discipline cannot be healthy, man. Very neat time-elapse of Sam's stone-cold-crazy time, and nicely executed, gave me chills in a very not-good way.
This is where I whine about the trickster and his too-potent powers for a bit. His ability to do literally anything just does not sit well with me, mostly because it's just too big a can of worms. With a trickster alive and breathing, you really can't ever be sure of anything. And if he can reverse time and bring Dean back, why can't he reverse it some more and bring John back, and Mary for that matter? Why can't he make it so that Licoln was never shot and the Star Wars prequels were never made? If he's willing to completely re-arrange time and space like this for Sam, why not do more? I'll stop harping on this, now, it just...really bugs me. I guess I should give it a pass one way or the other, because the fact of the trickster's existence buys us such an awesome episode. Anyway.
Wednesday again. Brother hug! Everybody drinks!
And wow, I'm kind of wondering how the show's going to deal with this new development of Sam's character. I mean, if it were Stargate, they'd just be like "What life-changing, personality-altering experience? Where?" and I'd be cool with that, because it's Stargate, and that's what they do. but I'm interested to see if SPN has something of a little more substance to offer, here. We shall see.