7.21 Reaction

[ash48]

Perhaps CONFUSED?! UNDERWHELMED, ANNOYED! What the hell was that?!

Yeah.. so, um... TURN BACK NOW because I am seriously struggling to find anything good to say about this one. Sorry. :(

I can't pinpoint whether it was bad direction, bad writing, bad acting or the fact that the writer was also the director (writer/director is a tricky combo to get right). It was Ben Edlund so I'm surprised it was so awful. He's written some pretty good episodes (Bad Day at Black Rock probably my favourite of his) but his directing is yet to impress me. This is his second directing gig for SPN (other one being The Man Who Would be King) and to be honest I'd think like to see it stay that way.

It was both too much and not enough. Too much new information (most of which made little sense) and not enough... well, everything else. It lacked energy and the pacing was woeful. It lacked the crucial element of tension. The was no build up - no urgency what so ever (compared to say last week that had us on the edge of our seats). It's not really fair to mention the bad acting because I think a director is mostly to blame for that but wow... there were some seriously medicore performances in there. I'm sorry but Hester never convinced me. Meg was better than last time I thought but there were still some issues.

I suppose I enjoyed Misha's performance. There were some nice laugh out loud moments but because the whole episode had that feeling of "what the hell is going on" he was kinda lost in there. There were some lovely little moments but they were surrounded with some truly awful ones. Something I did like was the feeling that he really was seeing "everything". I actually think that an opportunity was missed here to appreciate Castiel's plight. Or to connected with him in any way.

I suppose the thing that annoyed me the most was ALL THAT was going on in the hospital and NO ONE WAS AROUND! Ever! Hospitals are busy places... or did I miss something? Was there an explanation for why they could be going in and out like it was their home, chase and knock people out on the grounds etc.? Did I zone out and miss that? I just. IT MADE NO SENSE!

I did like Kevin Tran, but again because there was so much going on his character drew little interest or sympathy.

Our boys were sidelined and became observers. They seemed so out of their depth, (which might have been the whole point), but by doing that I felt we lost the connection to what was going on. We were left as damn confused as they were.

Some of the jokes seemed to be there just for us. Which, ok, sometimes that's fun but in an episode like this it felt try-hard. I'm not sure it ever made up it's mind what kind of episode it was going to be. It started of a little quirky, got quite serious, then there was that strange moment with action music, moments where Cas was "connecting" with first Sam and then Dean. Throw in suggested Cas/Meg romance and... yeah. A COMPLETE MESS!

So the boys now know how to kill the Leviathans. I probably should be more excited about that but I think because the way it came about seems so contrived I have little excitement for it. I suppose it might depend how they use that information now.

There's a lot more but I think I'm just depressing myself the more I write.

ACK!!! I DON'T KNOW?!! Is it just me? Am I being too harsh? Does it need a second viewing to appreciate it? (please no!) Other than some funny one liners was there actually anything good about that ep that I missed?

Sorry to be so negative. It's not usually like me. I always try to look for the positive but I'm struggling with this one. Thank God there are 2 more episodes. Please Show be building up to something interesting - something that actually involves the boys rather than having them watch other characters. Something that makes some sense would be good...*sigh*

Comments

[cherry916.livejournal.com]

This was definitely a miss for me (I think it was almost as bad as The Man Who Would Be King) it just had too much going on, I was confused for most of the episode and couldn't keep up with anything. I think important things were mentioned but since I was so lost I likely didn't catch them or forgot them. It was interlaced with some good moments, but it was drowned out by the horrible pacing and just random moments that weren't really necessary especially being so close to the finale.

I normally do like Edlund's writing but he seems to have a thing with Castiel, and it shows with this episode. I guess I preferred more of Sam and Dean, I thought some of their dialogue was off and even after all this I still think Dean should be more angry. He just seemed frustrated more than anything, which is perfectly fine given what he's been through this year but I guess I expected more anger on his part given all that he lost and almost lost from what Castiel did.

This episode really disappointed me. It's likely one I'll only watch once and never again.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This. I also wondered if Edlund has a thing for Cas because he certainly got most of the good lines - and a lot of the story. Though I'm still trying to work out where we are with now with Cas. He's back to being an angel, he's still sorry for what he did, he's a bit crazy and he's not going back to heaven. I think. I wonder if he'll going and find the person he married...?

I hope the next two episodes are a lot stronger.

xx