So ya know...

[ash48]

I'm not going to be writing up a reaction or review of 10.12. In fact, it's unlikely I'll be writing them any more. I feel I only want to complain these days and that's not fair on anyone (though I'm thinking of writing up some general stuff - mostly to help me try and work why I'm feeling just over it all).

I am still curious about what every one thought so I'll still do the polls (if you're all still happy to fill them out *g*).

[Poll #1998102]

Comments

[fanspired]

Tbh, if it weren't for the serial I'm writing, I wouldn't be watching the show any more but, so long as my readers are, I feel I have to be in touch with what's going on there. But it's been several seasons now since I've regarded show as canon. In order to remain philosophical about it, I find it helps to regard it as professional fanfiction - of variable standard, some goodish some bad some indifferent. Glass is actually one of the better writers, I think, but that's only measured by the standard of what we've got left. The trouble is, they lost my willing suspension of disbelief a long time ago, and once that's gone I think it's next to impossible to get it back. After that, all you can see is holes.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's me now. It upsets be greatly (real tears last night.../o\) because I LOVED my disbelief being suspended. I loved believing they had a plan. I loved thinking this universe was solid and meant something. I saw through it all in that episode and it kind of killed me. But. At the same time, I think it might be a good thing. By not doing the reactions anymore I might stop watching it trying to find layers and connecting threads.

For me the fact that they don't seem to have anyone who can write Sam left on staff is just so depressing. We've had 12 episodes and not one examining Sam - even when there's been opportunities to do so.

[fanspired]

At the end of the day, I think it comes down to economics. The coveted demographic is the 18-30 bracket so that's who they're marketing the show to. And I get the impression that the majority of the younger audience is a/ all about Dean (and the naive ideal of heroism they think he represents) and b/ mostly indifferent about layers. Sadly, the needs of the show's original core audience of middle aged women are no longer relevant.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

True that. And sad. But yes. Good point. The show doesn't really cater to me so it's not really surprising it's not doing it for me like it used to. I'm not the CWs targeted demographic, so I shouldn't really complain I suppose.

(and it's Dean's heroism that I seemed to be having the most trouble with lately. I am struggling with the fact that the show is going to a lot of trouble to have Dean address his past wrongs by giving him a journey to go through. A journey that will help him feel better about himself (and maybe address all that self loathing) but at no point will the effects of what he's done ever be addressed (because they essentially don't exist because we never get to see the damage. As far as we know Sam's possession had no effect on Sam).

[fanspired]

The thing that still pisses me off about the show post season 5 is the number of times we've seen potentially interesting story development abandoned, presumably because it didn't sit well with the target demographic. I still think s7 was trying to adress important points about loss, identity, perception, reality and mental illness, but in the end all that was abandoned in favour of a lame dungeons and dragons denouement. Similarly s9 started telling a story about violated consent, denied personal autonomy and gaslighting but that was abandoned too. In the early part of the season it seemed clear to me that Ezekiel was going to turn out to be an outright villain. The subplot of the pilot episode clearly implied that he needed Sam's vessel to survive, and that he was healing himself by feeding off of Sam's soul. If they'd had the courage of their convictions they could have had a great story that really demonstrated the consequences of Dean's actions and forced him to confront the reality that what he did was not heroism but violation: if Metatron's spell had the effect of returning all the angels to Earth, Sam's possessor might easily have turned out to be Lucifer. But, instead, he turns out to be the poor misguided dupe, Gadreel, and Sam absolves him of having had any harmful intent. What a lost opportunity.