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oselleETA: It seems that the promo features a mix of scenes from several upcoming episodes, not just 4:15. So what's behind the cut are spoilers for much of the remainder of Season 4.
Okay, I have seen the new SPN promo and here is what I take away:
The Good
1) Dean's in the hospital Dean's in the hospital!!!!!! YAY! With an oxygen tube and everything!! (Excuse me, a nasal canula, a medical term I actually learned from fanfic).
2) Jensen looks even more freakishly pretty than usual. Maybe the video was not too sharp but he just looks like delicious, creamy perfection. I just wanna eat him for God's sake. He's like a...a..giant marshmallow peep. Or like that marzipan they can shape into anything, you know? All of which is very, very inconvenient because I know it'll distract me and prevent me from making intelligent critique of:
The Bad
3) Judging from what the promo showed, it appears that the big important work the Angels had in store for Dean was becoming their very own Lord High Inquisitor of Demons complete with all kinds of nasty looking tools and grisly acids and stuff. Look, people. If I want to watch a show that promotes torture as a necessary evil I'll go hang out at Dick Cheney's house and catch up on 24. Just...no.
4) I'm putting on my Jumping to Unfounded Conclusions hat to speculate that the show might consider itself oh-so CLEVER by having Dean go darkside instead of the loooong-anticipated Sam and having Sam (and his nubile demon girlfriend) rescue and redeem Dean, not vice versa.
5) Speaking of nubile demon girlfriends, I really don't understand why they're picking up the Sam/Ruby romance storyline again unless it's later revealed that Ruby is using sex to increase her influence over Sam. What could the other reasons be? If the writers just like the gratuitous sex, then they should be writing for Gossip Girls. If the writers want to establish a genuine emotional bond between these two and complete the rehabilitation of Ruby into Saint Ruby of the Perfect Girlfriends, my very erudite critique of that is BLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. What are they going to do? Have Dean turn into a sadistic angel-puppet while Righteous Sam and Saint Ruby team up to save the world via multiple orgasms? EGADS!!! Strap on your water-skiis because if that happens there's gonna be a hell of a lot of shark-jumping on Thursday night.
The Ugly
6) Ruby's torture-porn sequence in "Heaven and Hell" was repellent and do we really, really need a redux of it with Alistair? (At least he's not naked but frankly, that makes the Ruby scene even more grossly gratuitous.) And do we really, really want to see Dean, our Dean, wielding the tools of the torture trade with such evident relish here on earth? I don't. Yech.
I know I shouldn't judge an entire episode based on little teeny out-of-context and out-of-sequence snippets. The whole Torquemada Dean scene could be nothing more than a dream sequence for all I know and then won't I feel silly?
However, aside from DEAN IN THE HOSPITAL YAY! and OMG MARZIPAN JENSEN YAY!, what I've seen of this episode (and what it bodes for the rest of the season) would appear to be exquisitely, and very disappointingly, distasteful.
Okay, I have seen the new SPN promo and here is what I take away:
The Good
1) Dean's in the hospital Dean's in the hospital!!!!!! YAY! With an oxygen tube and everything!! (Excuse me, a nasal canula, a medical term I actually learned from fanfic).
2) Jensen looks even more freakishly pretty than usual. Maybe the video was not too sharp but he just looks like delicious, creamy perfection. I just wanna eat him for God's sake. He's like a...a..giant marshmallow peep. Or like that marzipan they can shape into anything, you know? All of which is very, very inconvenient because I know it'll distract me and prevent me from making intelligent critique of:
The Bad
3) Judging from what the promo showed, it appears that the big important work the Angels had in store for Dean was becoming their very own Lord High Inquisitor of Demons complete with all kinds of nasty looking tools and grisly acids and stuff. Look, people. If I want to watch a show that promotes torture as a necessary evil I'll go hang out at Dick Cheney's house and catch up on 24. Just...no.
4) I'm putting on my Jumping to Unfounded Conclusions hat to speculate that the show might consider itself oh-so CLEVER by having Dean go darkside instead of the loooong-anticipated Sam and having Sam (and his nubile demon girlfriend) rescue and redeem Dean, not vice versa.
5) Speaking of nubile demon girlfriends, I really don't understand why they're picking up the Sam/Ruby romance storyline again unless it's later revealed that Ruby is using sex to increase her influence over Sam. What could the other reasons be? If the writers just like the gratuitous sex, then they should be writing for Gossip Girls. If the writers want to establish a genuine emotional bond between these two and complete the rehabilitation of Ruby into Saint Ruby of the Perfect Girlfriends, my very erudite critique of that is BLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. What are they going to do? Have Dean turn into a sadistic angel-puppet while Righteous Sam and Saint Ruby team up to save the world via multiple orgasms? EGADS!!! Strap on your water-skiis because if that happens there's gonna be a hell of a lot of shark-jumping on Thursday night.
The Ugly
6) Ruby's torture-porn sequence in "Heaven and Hell" was repellent and do we really, really need a redux of it with Alistair? (At least he's not naked but frankly, that makes the Ruby scene even more grossly gratuitous.) And do we really, really want to see Dean, our Dean, wielding the tools of the torture trade with such evident relish here on earth? I don't. Yech.
I know I shouldn't judge an entire episode based on little teeny out-of-context and out-of-sequence snippets. The whole Torquemada Dean scene could be nothing more than a dream sequence for all I know and then won't I feel silly?
However, aside from DEAN IN THE HOSPITAL YAY! and OMG MARZIPAN JENSEN YAY!, what I've seen of this episode (and what it bodes for the rest of the season) would appear to be exquisitely, and very disappointingly, distasteful.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 08:08 pm (UTC)ETA: Bugger - I can't spell today
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 08:44 pm (UTC)Seriously though - I signed on for SPN in part because of the absence of all of this sort of stuff :(
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 09:04 pm (UTC)See, this is why I will always give props to The X-Files. Regardless of what you think of the meandering last two seasons, they never descended into romantic soap opera just because they had two attractive leads.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 09:13 pm (UTC)The X-Files wasn't perfect (especially in its latter days) but it certainly packed more sexual tension into the storyline than most shows I can think of.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 10:31 pm (UTC)IMO, SPN has two problems with trying to introduce romance into the show. First, because that's not what the show is essentially about so any love affair automatically becomes a time-wasting distraction from the show's premise. Second, because two guys are the main characters, you can't even introduce romance or at least UST without forcing in a new character and then trying to find a reason for her to be there other than taking her clothes off.
Of course, the overriding issue is that there already is a fascinating and fiery relationship on the show and any other relationship they try to introduce naturally pales in comparison.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 08:41 am (UTC)Of course, the overriding issue is that there already is a fascinating and fiery relationship on the show and any other relationship they try to introduce naturally pales in comparison.
Which is why they then have to try to make one of the guys look bad to justify why the other would value the new character above them.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 01:08 am (UTC)Since Kripke grew up on that stuff the same way we did, you'd think SPN would follow in that tradition as well. I suspect the network itself may be partially to blame for these repeated attempts to inject romance, or at least sex, into the story. Or maybe the chemistry between Jared and Jensen is just so overpowering that they feel the need to temper it with some very very heterosexual nookie.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 09:57 pm (UTC)Because, yeah, even in Kripke's little world, I have a hard time imagining we're supposed to cheer for Dean the Torturer doing evil and a Heaven that condones it. At least I'm praying that Kripke hasn't completely lost his fucking mind. Because if it turns out that St. Gluby and Savior Sam ride in their chariot of fire to rescue humanity while Dean cackles merrily with his instruments of torture, I am so beyond through.
(But Dean in a hospital? With a nasal canula? Whee! *throws confetti*)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 09:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 01:03 am (UTC)