SPN Ep: A Little Slice of Kevin

[the_other_sandy]

What was that, even?

No, seriously, what was that? I'm sure it said Supernatural on the title card, but it felt more like one of those craptacular movies Syfy runs on Saturday nights. Okay, it wasn't actually two hours long...but it sure felt like it.

I mostly blame the direction. The pace was excruciatingly slow, there were a number of lines that seemed like they were intended to be humorous on paper but were delivered as if they were deadly serious, and the whole visual appearance of the show was off. The main characters didn't even seem like people I knew. I kept waiting for it to turn out to be a dream sequence or something.

The writing wasn't winning any prizes either. I've really been wanting Sam and Dean to have an air-clearing, honest discussion with each other about what they're both going through, but I take it all back if it means having to sit through anvilicious soap opera dialogue like this.

At least Mrs. Tran is still awesome, even if she does have a blind spot about Craigslist.

What do you say we just pretend this episode never happened, hmm?

Comments

[etoile444.livejournal.com]

Did we watch the same episode? Last week was painfully slow, but this one move from scene to scene quickly. I felt that perhaps the Winchesters had relevance to the story again.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I wish I had.

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

What? I actually felt like we were seeing Dean again instead of the post-Hell post-Purgatory guy who doesn't feel much beyond anger. I'm glad the Trans are finally going to get some hunter protection since the Winchesters can't be relied on for it. Heaven playing games with Cass' head introduces some potentially interesting future plot ideas.

But yeah, the "witch" was a really bad idea from the otherwise awsome Mrs. Tran.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I felt like we were seeing the teen soap opera version of Dean (and Sam and Castiel). Or maybe an early season schmoopy fan fic version. The Sam and Dean I've been watching for 7+ years don't talk like they're in a Lifetime movie of the week.

I've since had time to look up the director of this episode, and I totally called it. His previous directing experience has been almost entirely TV movies-of-the-week. When he's not directing those, he's also writing screenplays for movies like Gymkata. I seriously hope they don't hire him for a second episode.

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

To me, it was better than what I've been seeing of them all season. Plus, no flashbacks of the bitchy veternarian!

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Plus, no flashbacks of the bitchy veternarian!

That's always a plus in my book.

[fromyourashes.livejournal.com]

Really? I loved pretty much all of it except for the potential prophets, but that was mainly because I hate how often SPN leeches BTVS stuff.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

This would not be the first time I held a minority opinion in reaction to an episode, and I seriously doubt it'll be the last.

[un-conscience.livejournal.com]

For me, it was the enormous amount of gore that detracted from the episode. I get that Crowley is evil, but this was just over the top. I did enjoy Mrs. Tran (glad she wasn't permanently catatonic) and even Castiel.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Having Mrs. Tran go from catatonic in her last episode to being back to her regular self here was kind of jarring. I wish she had either still been in the process of recovering, or a line had been thrown in about it.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Before she became catatonic and after she expelled Crowley, she was moving and reacting. I think the catatonia was faked so they could escape the Winchesters.

[and-ed.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...once again we seem to have wildly diverging opinions here. I really enjoyed this one whereas it was last week's I wanted to hand-wave away.

Maybe that means we'll both love the next one? Hope so. =)

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I hope so, too. I'm consoling myself with the belief that whatever the episode is, it can't be worse than this one.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Watching this the first time around, I felt like a lot of stuff was being thrown at me and it didn't make sense. (Although I am always insanely happy to see Cas again. WTF, CW, spelling it "Cass"?) I watched it again, sans commercials, and it held together very well. It does throw in a ton of info very fast, but I felt that many important clues were given and a lot of interesting questions raised.

ETA: I don't even bother asking the questions since they never turn out the way I expect. And I have to let the clues reveal themselves. What does it mean, mentioning Chuck and Metatron? The latter name still sounds like a children's cartoon villain.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

It does throw in a ton of info very fast, but I felt that many important clues were given and a lot of interesting questions raised.

I agree, I just thought it was done very badly.

The latter name still sounds like a children's cartoon villain.

That was my first thought! I thought Metatron was an evil Transformer or something. Or maybe a villain on Robotech.

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

I've always felt the same way about Metatron's name, even though that's been a, uhm, canonical name for a very long time. *g*

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

The show really does make up its own rules as it goes along. "Only an angel can kill another angel" has morphed into "anyone holding this thing can kill another angel." And prophets are supposed to be protected by Archangels, as we saw with Chuck. So where is Kevin's Archangel?

And I confess, I can't take "Metatron" seriously as a name. Speaking of Cas, did you ever hear Jensen Ackles talking about last year's coat scene when he finds Cas? He didn't want to do it because it was ridiculous--if you can find it on Youtube (type in Jensen Ackles trenchcoat) it is a stitch.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I did just look that up. See? Even they don't like every episode.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of one of the gag reels where Misha Collins says, "Somebody has to say this dialogue."

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatron

It still sounds funny.