Supernatural: thoughts on "Route 666"
My thoughts on this episode are kind of disjointed, so the review might not hang together very well. Then again, neither did the episode.
Ah, the joys of low-budget television, where everything looks like Vancouver and has Vancouver weather. Nothing like a snow storm in what's supposed to be Mississippi in May to add a touch of versimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
So Dean, who's always getting sneered at for being a liar, was honest with Cassie about who he was and what he did, while Sam with his puppy dog face lied to Jess for a year and a half. Huh. Oh, and Sam, darling? If I'm reading the timeline correctly, you were estranged from your family for, like, two years by the time you hooked up with Jess, so trying to blame them for your lies is a little rich.
Sam was kind of a dick in this episode, actually. In a hilarious, totally believable, bratty-little-brother sort of way. I shudder to imagine what the Winchester household must've been like when Dean first started to date. But really, all the conversations between Dean and Sam were my favorite parts of the episode, because they all made me giggle madly. And Sam had my favorite line of dialogue, with his "I miss conversations that don't start with 'so about this killer truck.'"
Speaking of the killer truck, it really wasn't very scary. Plus, the episode was hampered by the biggest expositionary anvils we've been subjected to since "Phantom Traveller." First, the whole backstory for the episode gets explained to us in a lengthy monologue by Cassie's mom, and then Sam and Dean stand around and summarize it all for us. Yeah, dudes, I get it. Cyrus's ghost possessed the truck. No, really, I get it. You don't have to tell me five times.
I'm afraid I have to agree with everyone who mentioned that Cassie and Dean just didn't have any romantic sparkage between them. Which is a shame, because I liked the actress and the character in other respects. She seemed smart and generally together, and the actress was pretty and gave a good performance in the scenes where she was arguing with the mayor and being Newspaper Girl. Plus, Cassie has my deep and eternal admiration for having the wherewithal to actually dump Dean Winchester. Twice. No, really, I'm impressed. Most women, myself included, would've gotten permanently stuck on the "body of a Michealangelo statue, face of an angel, haunted eyes and a snarky sense of humor" part of the equation and never gotten around to properly considering the "unemployed, indigent bum with a violent lifestyle and enough emotional baggage to fill a train" part. Cassie, my girl, I salute you. But you still have no chemistry with Dean.
Not that this in anyway prevented me from melting into a big, gooey puddle of hormones at the sight of a shirtless, unshaven Dean in a post-coital sprawl. *pauses for a cold shower* I have no great desire to watch the rest of the episode again, but I suspect this particular scene is going to get a lot of play.
Overall, this episode just felt like filler. Even the characterization, normally the show's strong point, seemed kind of perfunctory. Dean shuts down in moments of emotional vulnerability? He uses jokes and evasiveness to hide what he's feeling? Gosh, you don't say! We've never noticed that before! (Okay, I'm abusing sarcasm now, but you know what I mean.) Maybe earlier in the season I would've appreciated it more, but we've had a string of really good episodes starting with "Home," so my expectations have been raised. Even "Faith," which I had some pacing problems with, had plenty of thematic richness and character insight to stand up to multiple viewings. This one, I can't see myself viewing again much. Except for the shirtless Dean parts.
The trailer for next week, OTOH, made me squee with anticipation.
Ah, the joys of low-budget television, where everything looks like Vancouver and has Vancouver weather. Nothing like a snow storm in what's supposed to be Mississippi in May to add a touch of versimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
So Dean, who's always getting sneered at for being a liar, was honest with Cassie about who he was and what he did, while Sam with his puppy dog face lied to Jess for a year and a half. Huh. Oh, and Sam, darling? If I'm reading the timeline correctly, you were estranged from your family for, like, two years by the time you hooked up with Jess, so trying to blame them for your lies is a little rich.
Sam was kind of a dick in this episode, actually. In a hilarious, totally believable, bratty-little-brother sort of way. I shudder to imagine what the Winchester household must've been like when Dean first started to date. But really, all the conversations between Dean and Sam were my favorite parts of the episode, because they all made me giggle madly. And Sam had my favorite line of dialogue, with his "I miss conversations that don't start with 'so about this killer truck.'"
Speaking of the killer truck, it really wasn't very scary. Plus, the episode was hampered by the biggest expositionary anvils we've been subjected to since "Phantom Traveller." First, the whole backstory for the episode gets explained to us in a lengthy monologue by Cassie's mom, and then Sam and Dean stand around and summarize it all for us. Yeah, dudes, I get it. Cyrus's ghost possessed the truck. No, really, I get it. You don't have to tell me five times.
I'm afraid I have to agree with everyone who mentioned that Cassie and Dean just didn't have any romantic sparkage between them. Which is a shame, because I liked the actress and the character in other respects. She seemed smart and generally together, and the actress was pretty and gave a good performance in the scenes where she was arguing with the mayor and being Newspaper Girl. Plus, Cassie has my deep and eternal admiration for having the wherewithal to actually dump Dean Winchester. Twice. No, really, I'm impressed. Most women, myself included, would've gotten permanently stuck on the "body of a Michealangelo statue, face of an angel, haunted eyes and a snarky sense of humor" part of the equation and never gotten around to properly considering the "unemployed, indigent bum with a violent lifestyle and enough emotional baggage to fill a train" part. Cassie, my girl, I salute you. But you still have no chemistry with Dean.
Not that this in anyway prevented me from melting into a big, gooey puddle of hormones at the sight of a shirtless, unshaven Dean in a post-coital sprawl. *pauses for a cold shower* I have no great desire to watch the rest of the episode again, but I suspect this particular scene is going to get a lot of play.
Overall, this episode just felt like filler. Even the characterization, normally the show's strong point, seemed kind of perfunctory. Dean shuts down in moments of emotional vulnerability? He uses jokes and evasiveness to hide what he's feeling? Gosh, you don't say! We've never noticed that before! (Okay, I'm abusing sarcasm now, but you know what I mean.) Maybe earlier in the season I would've appreciated it more, but we've had a string of really good episodes starting with "Home," so my expectations have been raised. Even "Faith," which I had some pacing problems with, had plenty of thematic richness and character insight to stand up to multiple viewings. This one, I can't see myself viewing again much. Except for the shirtless Dean parts.
The trailer for next week, OTOH, made me squee with anticipation.