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

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

I like reading your reviews and the comments from your Flist because I'm basically the only one around here who likes Cas, LOL. I enjoy seeing a different perspective.

To me, this episode seemed like every single moment in which we were to learn something was interrupted. All of Castiel's scenes felt truncated. I kept wanting more explanation, more information, more of *anything* to explain exactly what happened to him. Same with Kevin. Same with Meg, even.

Everything just felt *off* in this episode. I did enjoy the moment Sam had with Castiel in which he tried to understand what was happening. Sam has always been the empathic one, and it showed.

I'm annoyed with Rachel Miner's portrayal of Meg with her voice affectations and the way she speaks. I miss original Meg.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

because I'm basically the only one around here who likes Cas,

ha! I have to jump down here because that makes me smile. :) My darling friend greyowl88 loves Cas! :D And in fact I don't dislike him at all. For me it's a shame that whenever there's a Cas episode there has to be the accompanying demons and angels in the story line. I really did like Cas in this episode - he added a brevity that it desperately needed and Misha's performance was consistent. I just found the surrounding story confusing. And they seemed to dismiss what happened to Lucifer. Has he gone now? Completely? That will be a complete fizzer if that's that.


All of Castiel's scenes felt truncated.

Yeah. Questions were asked and it felt like we were going to get some answers, but no. Cas went off on a tangent and we were left needing more.

I have wondered how Cas fans have reacted to this episode. I had wondered if it was that I'm not particularly invested in his story that I didn't like it. But I'm sure it was more than that. I felt the overall episode lacked structure and tension. And that really had nothing to do with whether Cas was in the episode or not. That's just bad directing and writing.

I seriously miss original Meg. I agree Rachel is just not cutting it as Meg at the moment (sadly because I really loved the character and I think there is potential to do something interesting with her. Other than be Cas's love interest).

thanks for your thoughts hun.
xx

[tiniowien.livejournal.com]

Lol, another Cas fan jumping in here so you're not alone. :P *waves*

Apologies for darting into the middle of the whole comments section. I'm enjoying reading through everyone's opinions on the episode! I have to agree with a lot of what was written. Apart from my joy at seeing Cas, the episode felt most peculiar on all fronts.

And Ash, in answer to an earlier line by someone (sorry, on the iPhone so scrolling makes my eyes hurt after a while :P), as to why the boys didn't leap to Cas' defense, I'm going with poor direction also. A second before both the angels gave the "I will teleport the shit out of you" fingers of doom, each trained on them both. But in the following shots you didnt see them in the frame, though they're obviously still there. The lack of them made that moment seem off, but that threat is the only motivation I could see for them not moving. Their lack of reaction though... It all seems to fall in with the oddness of the ep, imo.

Hopping of my little box now and into bed!

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

Yay! No one on my Flist seems to care about Show anymore, so I always come and see what's happening here around Ash's place to get my post-episode fix. Even though I cheer for the pretty-boy angel ;-)