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

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

I gotta say, I'm pretty glad this is a un-glowing review. Cause I watched the whole thing with a sort of 'eh?' look on my face, wondering if I was missing something. (Like anything resembling fondness for Cas... who said that?)

I agree, the ep didn't flow well, some of the jokes we should get felt weird, the whole Cas/Meg implication was just blegh material (though I do like the assumption that when the angels find Sam and Meg in a room they want to "kill the demon and her lover".

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.

Maybe because they are the same cage-scars as Sam's, and he seemed to be doing remarkably well comparably? he has no remorse, no pain, seeing Lucifer wasn't a big deal to him. he obviously doesn't think his plight is much of a plight, so it kinda seems like he came out on top here. kinda hard to sympathize with :/

And speaking of, I actually thought some of the responses to what was going on were the best part. When Hester went to angel-stab Cas and Meg stopped her, did you notice neither of the boys moved to help? Not even Dean. That's quite a statement in and of itself.

And before all that, when they open the Word of God, the thunder tells them not to, and they could care less (typical for Dean, less so for Sam, until recently). then in the morning, the radio had reports of every woman more than 8 months pregnant going into labor (4 weeks premature is still a big deal!) and all the power-outage related deaths, and again they're unphased. it says a lot about how much they've been through, and the scope they're used to fighting on that this doesn't even bother them. and it maybe also suggests...dare I say it... that they're not really the good guys anymore. they're not fighting for good just against evil, which is not the same thing. they've been beat down, and they're sticking to their side because it's theirs, but they haven't really been concerned with the cost of one individual innocent life in a long time (and isn't that supposed to be the hallmark of the good guys?)

I guess I feel like I learned a lot from this ep, but none of it came from the Word. (Also, did it bother anyone else that Sam didn't know who Metatron was? Granted, I learned from a Kevin Smith Movie (Dogma) but I thought Sam was the one who prayed and was up on all the angel lore?) argh, yeah, exactly like you said. too much/not enough, who knows. jeez.

I'm with you on hoping the next 2 eps give us some great brother-centric moments, preferably in some way we can understand and/or relate to.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yeah - them assuming Sam was Meg's lover was a nice call back to season four. I did like that continuity.

did you notice neither of the boys moved to help?

yes yes!! You know, it was so weird. When Cas was being beaten I thought we'd get an angsty shot of the boys reacting - maybe even a jump forward but no. They were remarkably placid. I couldn't figure if that was bad directing or we were really to assume that the boys just don't care what happens to Cas.

I DON'T GET IT!! One minute they voice concerns, talk of him as a friend etc. (even though they were pissed by what he did) but then they leave him in a mental hospital, not mention him at all for a couple of episodes and then react like that when he's being hurt. *head shake* Maybe they really can't forgive him for what he did.

Dean going ahead and breaking open the clay even though it was getting the thunderstorm reaction was interesting. At first I thought it was out of character for them but what you say here is true. They really don't seem to care that much about their actions - especially when there are clear danger warnings.. I wonder if this is a new "thing" for them or if it's part of this being a bad episode.

I worry that if Sam and Dean have a "don't care" attitude then it's hard for us to. Equally, it could be an interesting direction for the characters to go - not realising how far is too far. It's been a long time since they cared about demon vessels, maybe other people could start becoming casualties. Hmmm.... interesting....

I feel like there was a lot of information to be gleaned from this episode. I think I'll wait to see what meta comes out of it to see all the stuff I probably missed.

And I think the dumbing down of Sam was a sticking point for a lot of people. A few have mentioned it here. Show should know by now that making them do dumb things (leaving the Word!) makes us annoyed. especially things like having him not know who Metatron was for the sake of a lame joke.

So. *finger crossed* for our boys to be back for the next two episodes and they have a couple of surprises up their sleeves.

xx

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

And before all that, when they open the Word of God, the thunder tells them not to, and they could care less (typical for Dean, less so for Sam, until recently). then in the morning, the radio had reports of every woman more than 8 months pregnant going into labor (4 weeks premature is still a big deal!) and all the power-outage related deaths, and again they're unphased. it says a lot about how much they've been through, and the scope they're used to fighting on that this doesn't even bother them. and it maybe also suggests...dare I say it... that they're not really the good guys anymore. they're not fighting for good just against evil, which is not the same thing. they've been beat down, and they're sticking to their side because it's theirs, but they haven't really been concerned with the cost of one individual innocent life in a long time (and isn't that supposed to be the hallmark of the good guys?)

oh, THIS - I had to copy the whole paragraph because yes, maybe this is why the show has been missing for me just lately. Excellent thoughts and yes, it does bear saying - they're not that concerned about anything or anyone any longer and I think maybe that's where I get some of this overwhelming depression from watching them these days.

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

Yeah :/ I completely see what you're saying. I mean, a lot of us are hanging around for the Sam'n'Dean h/c, but it's true that we've kinda lost the 'saving people, hunting things' mentality that made them so sweet and true and lovable. I think (and forgive me for waxing poetical here) that I get over that by affording them a certain amount of nobility.

I mean, who else could face that much hell and grief and pain and still get up in the morning? On a realistic level, it may just be a defense mechanism. If they're gonna let the weight of one death bog them down, the natural disasters from the Michael/Lucifer duel will leave them catatonic. And knowing that they can't do this job without sustaining mental and moral damage, I guess I kinda see that effed up mentality as a wound. In a way, it is noble to charge ahead knowing that the fight will handicap them. Not now, but back then, and this is just the aftermath. If they were physical wounds, we'd be wanting to coddle them and write loads of h/c (cough) but as it is, it's just kinda painful to see them lose so much of themselves :/ I agree that it's a pretty sad story, but maybe kind of poignant too? they ruined themselves to save the world.

TL;DR: I want a reason to keep loving them, and this one seems to work for me

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's a pretty sad story, but maybe kind of poignant too? they ruined themselves to save the world.

Very true - that is indeed a very noble act - I like the way you put that, and certainly a great reason for loving them - always. And of course there's always moments like this -

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

yeah :P I take it back, that's the reason I love them :)