SPN Ep: Sam, Interrupted

[the_other_sandy]

Too. Much. Meta. Cannot brain.

That's it, the show has officially gone to the meta well one too many times in too few episodes. I could probably have coped with it better if they'd been spread out a little more, but this has been the Season of Meta. I don't even feel like I'm watching a TV show about 2 demon-hunting brothers anymore, just Jensen and Jared and the writers talking about the show and its characters.

Would I have liked this episode more if it hadn't come at the end of a long line of meta episodes? Probably not. We didn't really learn anything new about Sam or Dean in the meta part of the ep; the writers just took what we already knew and said it out loud, which wasn't enough to hang a whole episode on. Plus, the MOTW plot was pretty dull. The wraith wasn't scary and the case wrapped up too easily.

It wasn't a very visually appealing episode either. Everything looked kind of flat, and everyone looked like they had really bad skin and weren't wearing make-up. I mean, I know Supernatural isn't the most bright and colorful show ever and I like it that way, but this just looked like bad film stock or something.

It's a shame Sam and Dean can't help each other right now. I think they want to, but they have diametrically opposed coping mechanisms. Sam keeps trying to get Dean to talk, but talking has never been helpful for Dean. Meanwhile, Dean wants Sam to repress his issues like Dean does, but Sam isn't very good at repressing things. It would be way better if Sam, analytical type that he is, tried to figure out why he's so angry all the time and kill the issue at its source. I just don't think that swallowing more anger is the way to go here. Plus, all that repressing has just led to insomnia and heavy drinking for Dean, so maybe he needs to look at a different page in his playbook too.

Comments

[painting-walls.livejournal.com]

Amen to that. I definitely agree with you. Especially on the first few paragraphs.

In my opinion the show has gone too far from what it used to be and it doesn't seem to be moving forward. The characters are not developing anymore and it just keeps going round and round with the kind of jokes that writers seem to think all the viewers love...

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the show not moving forward, especially on the character development front. I've always liked how the show could tease us with a mysterious plot point for awhile (OMG, what did John whisper to Dean before he died?), then give us an answer that raised new questions. I wish the same principle was being applied to the character development instead of Sam and Dean having the same issues over and over and over again.

[painting-walls.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what keeps making me almost dislike some of the new episodes. I think that they're so focused on the whole big picture and the apocalypse that they've forgotten how interesting and important the little things can be.

Other thing that I've been missing is how in the past the popculture trivia in the show was snarky and sometimes really hard to spot, but these days, I think everything they use is too obvious and plain. Same goes for monsters in the episodes where they actually hunt something instead of whining about the end of the world. I think that they still have so many good urban legends they could use like they did in the beginning. I don't think there has been a great "monster of the week" episode since like season 3.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I have this theory that if a show is in production long enough, all the major players who have been there from the beginning (producers, writers, actors) start to get bored and approach each episode with the goal of entertaining themselves whether or not what they're doing to entertain themselves makes sense for the show or the characters. I hope Supernatural is not in that place yet, but all the meta episodes are starting to make me think they're getting there.

[painting-walls.livejournal.com]

This is one reason why having Supernatural going to season six doesn't sound appealing to me. Which is sort of sad since it's been probably only show I've been following more than three or four seasons (well, aside stuff like The Simpsons and Futurama...).

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

I'm still wondering how they got out of what happened last episode, which seemed to be a cliffhanger. Also, God, you are so right about the bad skin and flat colors. This was an ugly episode.

With how season 5 has been going, the prospect of a season 6 is not filling me with joy. Supernatural has been all over the place this season. I don't think the creators have any idea what they're doing anymore.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

You're right about the show being all over the place this season. The season story arc doesn't seem as cohesive as it has in the past, but then they don't seem to be spending much time on the apocalypse. They just drop a mention of it once in awhile.

I'm not very excited about a season 6 right now, but to me Supernatural has always been better in the second half of the season than in the first half. We'll see how excited I am at finale time.