spn s3 reactions
I really want an excuse for my obsessive viewing this weekend that sounds a little cooler than "I've spent the last three days in bed being by turns hyperemotional and unconscious and incapable of anything more strenuous than clicking the 'next episode' button" but waaaaah, this cold. No, sometimes I emerge for soup and juice and tylenol, because I'm four. Whatever, you don't know my life.
(I skipped a few of the episodes that apparently weren't great? So if anything important happened in 3x1, 3x6, 3x8, or 3x14, eh.)
I thought the big-question stuff like religious faith wasn't handled in quite such an interesting way as it has been previously. I'm guessing that's a result of the way the plot demanded a lot of theological narratives to come front and center, so there wasn't really the luxury of metaphor and allusion any more. I do like that story development, so I can deal with it, but it's something I missed. Probably that's also why all Christian clergy have suddenly become Catholic? Because wooo, incense, collars, NATURALLY EXORCISM FOLLOWS. I have a lot of issues with the way popular culture both over-uses and others Catholicism in this way, but I still have dayquil-brain, so whatever, some other day.
BELA, my lovely English Rose, NEVER LEAVE ME. And again Lauren Cohen is playing exactly my kind of lady - shamelessly self-interested, with ice-cold terror peeking through it all, pretending to be a hundred times worse than she is to keep everyone as far away as possible. Are we supposed to assume the hellhounds got her? I hope they didn't. Ruby I quite liked, too, but I was disappointed that we never got her motivations drawn out, or found out how she somewhat kept a grip on a little bit of humanity. Also, little-girl Lilith is hilarious.
oh man, the Groundhog Day episode. I've been kind of hoping the trickster would show up again but I didn't think it would be in such a gutwrenching episode. Even those quick later deaths that are played for humor go right up against Sam's miserable face, and I don't think I got around to laughing at one of them. OH SAMMY. Not particularly surprising that the trickster wouldn't be on hell's side, because hell isn't a whole lot of fun, but it's too bad he doesn't care enough to at least fight back against the demon squad.
Of everything we've seen thus far, this is the Sam Season in a big way. Sam's descent into violence isn't necessarily frightening because it's violent, but because he does it all at a little bit of a distance. It's always guns with him. Dean uses guns, but he's more likely to carry them around to threaten than to actually shoot someone. Sam's ability to detach, to see the big picture, it's what lets him question the up close and personal violence Dean has hardened himself against, but it also means he can do the cold thing, the detached thing. He's already come to terms with being not quite human, so he can accept the doctor's cure. I love, especially, that we see Sammy from Gordon's warped POV. Sam's the consequentialist between the two of them. Sam's embraced what he is, and because he's the foil for the arbitrary, self-defeatist lines Dean draws, he doesn't draw any lines at all. It's all a question of degrees. I'll be surprised if he doesn't try to wrench that hell-gate open again to get Dean out.
Meanwhile, Dean doesn't want to try to save himself. I mean, I think he'd take not-hell over hell, but he doesn't want to try to escape it and fail. Partially that's because of Sam, but partially it's because he feels that urge for control and supremacy - if he doesn't fight back, then he let it happen, and at least he went on his own terms. The crossroads demon appealed to his fatalism in such a big way. He's still easily the most compelling character to me, but his development this season was (understandably) stalled - he's just in the holding pattern trying not to think about his Impending Doom.
The nasty parts of the show were particularly glaring this season, I don't know why. I just don't watch Man Shows About Men Who Do Man Things For Men, I guess? So I'm really no longer conditioned for the constant onslaught of misogynist & homophobic language. Like, who uses "bitch" in reference to subjugation? I thought that was so late nineties. As if Dean is transgressing so far by acting like he gives a damn about someone outside of himself, he has to reassert his masculinity every five seconds, preferably by way of hate speech.
It's not just the nasty language, either, though the frequent use of it (and specific meaning that's always attached to it - ie, being about sexuality and subjugation and dominance) would on its own show underlying cause for concern. Mmmm, obviously I was going to be all over an episode named after the Malleus Malefiarum But - okay. The Malleus Maleficarum doesn't refer to a witch's spellbook. It means "the hammer of the witch" and it's heavily associated with the Spanish Inquisition. So to make that an episode about the evil women the boys decide they need to kill seriously disturbing.
Also? Shows should just never, ever use the concept of virginity. Celibacy as part of a character's experience, fine, but as a metaphor for anything else? I've never seen it done in a way that is not vile on every level. Particularly as here, where it's conflated with virtue. She's the sacrificial counterpart to the DEMON, ffs. That's disgusting, and it's not even good worldbuilding. Because how do the spells define virginity when we can't even define it? What, were there going to be gross rapey demon virginity tests? What if you had a celibate demon, surely it's possible if they were people at some point, would it (lol, who are we kidding, she) be a twofer? Anyway, why do virgins always have to get sacrificed? Why can't there ever be, like, a good spell where everyone has to give them ice cream and massages? REAL TALK to screenwriters, if you can't handle something with the subtlety, maturity, and tastefulness displayed in the elegant classic Chasing Amy, IT'S HAMMERTIME, OKAY? JUST STOP.* It's a proud day for whoever managed to make this show more misogynist and less self-aware about it than AtS, SURRIOUSLY.
*I totally love and recommend Chasing Amy, btw, because it's all about exposing the toxic rationalizations around the "virginity" social construct? But said necessary honesty means that, uh, network prime time viewing, it is not.
(I skipped a few of the episodes that apparently weren't great? So if anything important happened in 3x1, 3x6, 3x8, or 3x14, eh.)
I thought the big-question stuff like religious faith wasn't handled in quite such an interesting way as it has been previously. I'm guessing that's a result of the way the plot demanded a lot of theological narratives to come front and center, so there wasn't really the luxury of metaphor and allusion any more. I do like that story development, so I can deal with it, but it's something I missed. Probably that's also why all Christian clergy have suddenly become Catholic? Because wooo, incense, collars, NATURALLY EXORCISM FOLLOWS. I have a lot of issues with the way popular culture both over-uses and others Catholicism in this way, but I still have dayquil-brain, so whatever, some other day.
BELA, my lovely English Rose, NEVER LEAVE ME. And again Lauren Cohen is playing exactly my kind of lady - shamelessly self-interested, with ice-cold terror peeking through it all, pretending to be a hundred times worse than she is to keep everyone as far away as possible. Are we supposed to assume the hellhounds got her? I hope they didn't. Ruby I quite liked, too, but I was disappointed that we never got her motivations drawn out, or found out how she somewhat kept a grip on a little bit of humanity. Also, little-girl Lilith is hilarious.
oh man, the Groundhog Day episode. I've been kind of hoping the trickster would show up again but I didn't think it would be in such a gutwrenching episode. Even those quick later deaths that are played for humor go right up against Sam's miserable face, and I don't think I got around to laughing at one of them. OH SAMMY. Not particularly surprising that the trickster wouldn't be on hell's side, because hell isn't a whole lot of fun, but it's too bad he doesn't care enough to at least fight back against the demon squad.
Of everything we've seen thus far, this is the Sam Season in a big way. Sam's descent into violence isn't necessarily frightening because it's violent, but because he does it all at a little bit of a distance. It's always guns with him. Dean uses guns, but he's more likely to carry them around to threaten than to actually shoot someone. Sam's ability to detach, to see the big picture, it's what lets him question the up close and personal violence Dean has hardened himself against, but it also means he can do the cold thing, the detached thing. He's already come to terms with being not quite human, so he can accept the doctor's cure. I love, especially, that we see Sammy from Gordon's warped POV. Sam's the consequentialist between the two of them. Sam's embraced what he is, and because he's the foil for the arbitrary, self-defeatist lines Dean draws, he doesn't draw any lines at all. It's all a question of degrees. I'll be surprised if he doesn't try to wrench that hell-gate open again to get Dean out.
Meanwhile, Dean doesn't want to try to save himself. I mean, I think he'd take not-hell over hell, but he doesn't want to try to escape it and fail. Partially that's because of Sam, but partially it's because he feels that urge for control and supremacy - if he doesn't fight back, then he let it happen, and at least he went on his own terms. The crossroads demon appealed to his fatalism in such a big way. He's still easily the most compelling character to me, but his development this season was (understandably) stalled - he's just in the holding pattern trying not to think about his Impending Doom.
The nasty parts of the show were particularly glaring this season, I don't know why. I just don't watch Man Shows About Men Who Do Man Things For Men, I guess? So I'm really no longer conditioned for the constant onslaught of misogynist & homophobic language. Like, who uses "bitch" in reference to subjugation? I thought that was so late nineties. As if Dean is transgressing so far by acting like he gives a damn about someone outside of himself, he has to reassert his masculinity every five seconds, preferably by way of hate speech.
It's not just the nasty language, either, though the frequent use of it (and specific meaning that's always attached to it - ie, being about sexuality and subjugation and dominance) would on its own show underlying cause for concern. Mmmm, obviously I was going to be all over an episode named after the Malleus Malefiarum But - okay. The Malleus Maleficarum doesn't refer to a witch's spellbook. It means "the hammer of the witch" and it's heavily associated with the Spanish Inquisition. So to make that an episode about the evil women the boys decide they need to kill seriously disturbing.
Also? Shows should just never, ever use the concept of virginity. Celibacy as part of a character's experience, fine, but as a metaphor for anything else? I've never seen it done in a way that is not vile on every level. Particularly as here, where it's conflated with virtue. She's the sacrificial counterpart to the DEMON, ffs. That's disgusting, and it's not even good worldbuilding. Because how do the spells define virginity when we can't even define it? What, were there going to be gross rapey demon virginity tests? What if you had a celibate demon, surely it's possible if they were people at some point, would it (lol, who are we kidding, she) be a twofer? Anyway, why do virgins always have to get sacrificed? Why can't there ever be, like, a good spell where everyone has to give them ice cream and massages? REAL TALK to screenwriters, if you can't handle something with the subtlety, maturity, and tastefulness displayed in the elegant classic Chasing Amy, IT'S HAMMERTIME, OKAY? JUST STOP.* It's a proud day for whoever managed to make this show more misogynist and less self-aware about it than AtS, SURRIOUSLY.
*I totally love and recommend Chasing Amy, btw, because it's all about exposing the toxic rationalizations around the "virginity" social construct? But said necessary honesty means that, uh, network prime time viewing, it is not.