10.09 (non)-review
Dec. 15th, 2014 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ash48I prepared a "proper" review for 10.09 but after mulling over it I've decided that I don't really have much more to add since my reaction post (and other discussions I've had recently), so I'll leave it be.
I do have a couple of reviews that I think are worth checking out though. Fangasm's review is balanced and presents some interesting points about the episode. It's not all sunshine and roses, nor is it negative. It's certainly much more objective than I could have been.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cuddyclothes review is hilarious and entertaining. It's not a positive look at the episode, but it did make me smile and help me to pin point why I had some issues with the episode.
After writing a heap of stuff about the episode I came to the conclusion that the main reason I didn't like it is simply because it's just not my favourite genre when it comes to television. Family dramas have never really been my thing, so when it felt like my show had been hijacked by teenage angst and parent dilemmas I kind of got a little pissed off. And since there was nothing supernatural in it, it really wasn't the show I was used to watching (I even mused that this might be the spin off they've been talking about ;D)..
I re-watched it and nothing much changed for me (except I did notice the gorgeous cinematography and will be posting about that shortly). I did watch all the Hell scenes this time and I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed Rowena. I loved that she wasn't made to be sympathetic. She was clever and nasty. I loved the twist of her playing everyone so beautifully.
I loved that Sam is looking after Dean but was saddened that (as was said so eloquently in a comment to me) Sam could have been played by a sexy lamp and it wouldn't have effected what he did in the episode (except the grilled cheese might not have tasted so good). It's not that I mind Sam being in the caretaker role - I'm enjoying the role reversal, but I'm not sure why he has to be completely ineffectual -that he has to be reduced to worrying looks and inaction? Is that how Dean fans see Dean when he's caring about Sam? Does the "carer" automatically become a side player with little or no input (or story of their own?) I don't remember Dean ever being a side player, but I accept that could just the the way I view the show. Anywho *muses that Sam is a very sexy lamp indeed*.
The scene where Sam and Cas leave Dean behind has created much discussion. I know that there are many ideas about what happened there - from Sam being a bad brother for not watching Dean's back, to Sam believing Dean when he said he was ok and therefore trusted he would bring up the rear as he usually does, to Sam denying anything is happening to Dean, to slopping writing because there's no way Dean could have killed all those guys in the space it took Sam and Cas to realise he wasn't behind them. For me, the only thing that was important in all of that was Dean needing to be by himself to allow the mark to take hold and kill all those people. No one could be there because then the confusion about "what happened" would be too clear going into the next episodes. I think it could be have been better handled, just so it didn't create so much confusion (or arguing...). I'm not going to dwell on it much more because it was a means to an ends and I think any range of interpretations are valid (except Sam is a bad brother of course...;D).
I am curious about Dean now and what it means that he's now killed five humans. And I wonder if premonitions are actually a side effect of the mark or if that scene was just used for dramatic effect.
That's it. Looking at the cinematography has made me feel more positive about it. It still isn't my kind of thing and I'll probably remain a little annoyed at it for a while (because dammit! I don't want to be disinterested in an ep), but I'll move on. As I often have done. :)
I do have a couple of reviews that I think are worth checking out though. Fangasm's review is balanced and presents some interesting points about the episode. It's not all sunshine and roses, nor is it negative. It's certainly much more objective than I could have been.
cuddyclothes review is hilarious and entertaining. It's not a positive look at the episode, but it did make me smile and help me to pin point why I had some issues with the episode.After writing a heap of stuff about the episode I came to the conclusion that the main reason I didn't like it is simply because it's just not my favourite genre when it comes to television. Family dramas have never really been my thing, so when it felt like my show had been hijacked by teenage angst and parent dilemmas I kind of got a little pissed off. And since there was nothing supernatural in it, it really wasn't the show I was used to watching (I even mused that this might be the spin off they've been talking about ;D)..
I re-watched it and nothing much changed for me (except I did notice the gorgeous cinematography and will be posting about that shortly). I did watch all the Hell scenes this time and I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed Rowena. I loved that she wasn't made to be sympathetic. She was clever and nasty. I loved the twist of her playing everyone so beautifully.
I loved that Sam is looking after Dean but was saddened that (as was said so eloquently in a comment to me) Sam could have been played by a sexy lamp and it wouldn't have effected what he did in the episode (except the grilled cheese might not have tasted so good). It's not that I mind Sam being in the caretaker role - I'm enjoying the role reversal, but I'm not sure why he has to be completely ineffectual -that he has to be reduced to worrying looks and inaction? Is that how Dean fans see Dean when he's caring about Sam? Does the "carer" automatically become a side player with little or no input (or story of their own?) I don't remember Dean ever being a side player, but I accept that could just the the way I view the show. Anywho *muses that Sam is a very sexy lamp indeed*.
The scene where Sam and Cas leave Dean behind has created much discussion. I know that there are many ideas about what happened there - from Sam being a bad brother for not watching Dean's back, to Sam believing Dean when he said he was ok and therefore trusted he would bring up the rear as he usually does, to Sam denying anything is happening to Dean, to slopping writing because there's no way Dean could have killed all those guys in the space it took Sam and Cas to realise he wasn't behind them. For me, the only thing that was important in all of that was Dean needing to be by himself to allow the mark to take hold and kill all those people. No one could be there because then the confusion about "what happened" would be too clear going into the next episodes. I think it could be have been better handled, just so it didn't create so much confusion (or arguing...). I'm not going to dwell on it much more because it was a means to an ends and I think any range of interpretations are valid (except Sam is a bad brother of course...;D).
I am curious about Dean now and what it means that he's now killed five humans. And I wonder if premonitions are actually a side effect of the mark or if that scene was just used for dramatic effect.
That's it. Looking at the cinematography has made me feel more positive about it. It still isn't my kind of thing and I'll probably remain a little annoyed at it for a while (because dammit! I don't want to be disinterested in an ep), but I'll move on. As I often have done. :)
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Date: 2014-12-16 11:42 am (UTC)Yes. That could have worked much better. I could suspend my disbelief that there was a time shift - in that what was happening in the cabin happened so fast that neither Cas or Sam had time to realise Dean wasn't there. I remember when I was watching it, it puzzled me that Sam actually got into the car without Dean. I went back and re-watched that scene to try and make sense of how it was all working. But it really just didn't. Dean yells "back off" immediately after Sam leaves and Sam would have heard him. Again, we can "pretend" he wasn't able to hear but it just makes the scene all the more clunky.
Why is this going on without that?
Good question. In my review that I didn't post I had a whole section on trying to understand what was going on with Dean. I mean, why now? I wondered if maybe that dream triggered something that made him "hungry" again. He was eating lots of food in the episode - perhaps suggesting he was trying to feed the mark. In the end he was presented with an opportunity to kill and took it. It looks like the blade isn't needed anymore maybe. Last season he killed that vampire and kidnapper without the blade I think (?) so his bloodlust exists without the blade.
It could be a hell flashback but it seems weird that they would be suggesting that now, after all this time. It looks like he might be in a hell cell (perhaps symbolic more than his real time in hell?). TBH I just don't think they figure this stuff out. Having an opening and ending scene with Dean slaughtering people is a powerful image and the whys and hows don't really matter that much to them. Sadly.
I really think they need to have Sam talk with someone about what is going on in his head so we have somebody who we can connect with.
From your brain to the writers room! I honestly don't think it crosses the writers' minds. I actually think they believe there's nothing else we need to know. Sam's worried about Dean and that's it. Not even the "monstrous lengths Sam went to get his brother back" has featured - other than to give Dean something to hold against him.
I think another reason why I was so angry after this episode is because I've been trusting ALL THIS TIME that we'd finally get some Sam POV in the mid-season finale. I've enjoyed S10 so far and felt we've be coming to a climax that effected Sam in some way. But it didn't happen. Most of the screen was filled with OCs having their moment.
Aaanyway. I am trying not to be toooo negative (which might not be working as well as I had hoped.../o\).