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oselleSigh. In a case of the world's shortest hiatus, I'm popping back on to bleg for help. In an act of unspeakable stupidity, I bought my dad a DVD player for his birthday today. I didn't know what else to get for a man who has no interests and no hobbies. He'd seen The Departed on TV a few weeks ago and had mentioned several times how much he liked it so stupid me I thought Maybe he'd like to watch movies at home. So I bought him this stupid, very basic little $49 Sony DVD player and The Departed and No Country For Old Men which I thought he'd enjoy and of course the only sentiment expressed was mystification over why anyone would want to own a movie. I also gave him a Blockbuster Video card though he seemed to find the concept of renting movies fairly ridiculous as well. I just...whatever. I wish he'd start smoking again so I could just buy him a couple of goddamn cartons and be done with it LOL. LOL, two cartons of Marlboros would've cost more than the DVD player and the movies combined.
As if this isn't enough of a fuckup already, because my parents' apartment is some sort of vast, sucking black hole where Hope Goes To Die and Nothing Ever, Ever Works...every DVD is playing with English-language subtitles, even though I didn't select them on the DVD menu and even though it's not selected on the DVD player's setup. If I DO turn the DVD subtitles on(either via the DVD menu or the player), you see TWO sets of subtitles at the same time. The ones I can't turn off don't even look like DVD subtitles, they look like TV closed-captions, you know what I mean? But there are no captions when watching television only DVDs. My father's TV is a Sharp LCD, only about a year old. I checked the TV's setup menu and couldn't even select captions so they're not turned on and so I have no idea where these stupid captions are coming from. I said I'd take the DVD player back to the store if we couldn't figure it out (which we couldn't) and I just know it's not going to do it over there, it has something to do with the television and I don't know how to fix it. So if you know any way to fix this please help.
Whatever, while I'm here anyway I might as well talk about something interesting so
I enjoyed this episode the most out of the whole season so far. For the moment, I kind of like Dean and Sam apart. Dean and Castiel are funny as shit together (although I can't stress enough that this kind of humor will get old really fast if it's over-used). I laughed out loud an awful lot. I don't know what was funnier -- Dean's half-assed spot-cleaning of blood off his jacket, Dean lamenting his celestial constipation or Dean snapping "Can it, Twilight!" at a very non-sparkly bloodsucker.
I dug Sam a lot too, and I have to admit this was pretty much the first time in the entire series where he's seemed like an actual grown up to me. And there was something about Sam taking a crappy busboy job in the middle of nowhere that was very Zeke Tyler in Birthright for those of you who know of what I speak.
The appearance of Lindsey had me cringing, mostly due to the casting department's very cringeworthy description of her as a "spunky bar waitress." I kept waiting for the inevitable hijinks to occur -- the sassy talk, the hair flippage, the instantaneous sexual tension, the painfully cute banter, the coy looks and of course someone to tell us how awesome Lindsey is so that we'll all just tumble in love with her. None of that stupid shit ever happened, much to my relief and surprise. Lindsey, amazingly, seems very much like...the sort of person who'd be working in a place like that. And her interactions with Sam were believable and wholly not-annoying. If you didn't know that Sam had started the apocalypse, they would both seem like two people who had just made a lot of mistakes in their lives and wound up someplace they didn't really want to be...so there's a connection there that's real, not forced and awkward. So for now, I'll say that SPN has finally managed to "get it right" with a female character, but I'm more than willing to rescind that praise if the usual stupidities get cranking in a future episode.
BTW, can anyone tell me what is so funny about "Keith Sam?" Does it sound out something dirty that I'm missing?
The only fly in the ointment was that whole whorehouse bit. I thought Dean was just going to take Castiel to some strip joint -- going to an actual bordello took the gag too far (and it's not even like they were in Nevada, where such establishments are legal). I don't really consider prostitution a harmless and fun diversion and I take a pretty dim view of men who buy women for sex. And frankly, Mr. Carver, the sex industry is very much built on abusive fathers and father-figures, not on absent fathers...make that sexually abusive fathers and father-figures, which is nothing to soft-pedal or turn into a joke. So really...that whole scene begged for some judicious rewriting.
Also, although Castiel has been depicted as being out of step with normal human interaction, he, and all of the angels in SPN-verse, are also ancient and jaded and world-weary. The Blushing Virgin routine they suddenly slapped onto Castiel hardly jives with that. Just for laughs they've conflated angels with cloistered nuns and that's just silly. Angels in their natural form are asexual (Dean even mocked Uriel last season for being "junkless") so it's not like Castiel was just practicing abstinence, denying his own desires, during his whole, long life as an angel. He wouldn't have even had those desires. And even if he suddenly developed them once he was in a human vessel well...Jimmy, his vessel, wasn't a virgin so presumably Castiel would have those memories in his physical body and hardly be such a timid stranger to carnal knowledge.
Besides, it's TOTALLY obvious that Castiel doesn't want some trashy-lingerie whore, he wants DEAN. Which I actually yelled at the television, "Dean, you idiot! Can't you see Castiel's in love with YOU?!"
Kudos to all the fans who accurately predicted that Sam would be Lucifer's vessel and Dean Michael's. I thought Sam's scene with Lucifer was chilling and very well-done. I also appreciated finally getting some real insight into why the angels are so bent on bringing about the end of times and I have to say...I kind of agree with them. So if Dean isn't willing to be Michael's vessel, maybe his archangelness would settle for a middle-aged and out-of-shape and not-terribly-clever spinster from Queens? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Finally -- I've heard through the grapevine that some viewers took great offense at Dean's little monologue there at the end. I'm not at all surprised, since some people think Dean is a piece of shit no matter what, so of course they're content to take this speech at face value. I'm sure that none of these folks were upset by the very real and incredibly callous way that Sam rejected his back-from-perdition brother all of last season, and insulted him, and betrayed him (oh, and the whole world too), but a little bit of barely convincing bravado from Dean and yeah, that guy's the real asshole. Whatevs. YMMV.
Hey don't forget about my DVD question up there plz.
ETA: I just need to add that I got kind of soused today. By myself. In an Applebee's. By myself in an Applebee's for God's sake. So the next time you want to feel bad about yourself? Just think, At least I'm not getting drunk on Sutter Home Chardonnay at Applebee's. Hmm?
.
As if this isn't enough of a fuckup already, because my parents' apartment is some sort of vast, sucking black hole where Hope Goes To Die and Nothing Ever, Ever Works...every DVD is playing with English-language subtitles, even though I didn't select them on the DVD menu and even though it's not selected on the DVD player's setup. If I DO turn the DVD subtitles on(either via the DVD menu or the player), you see TWO sets of subtitles at the same time. The ones I can't turn off don't even look like DVD subtitles, they look like TV closed-captions, you know what I mean? But there are no captions when watching television only DVDs. My father's TV is a Sharp LCD, only about a year old. I checked the TV's setup menu and couldn't even select captions so they're not turned on and so I have no idea where these stupid captions are coming from. I said I'd take the DVD player back to the store if we couldn't figure it out (which we couldn't) and I just know it's not going to do it over there, it has something to do with the television and I don't know how to fix it. So if you know any way to fix this please help.
Whatever, while I'm here anyway I might as well talk about something interesting so
I enjoyed this episode the most out of the whole season so far. For the moment, I kind of like Dean and Sam apart. Dean and Castiel are funny as shit together (although I can't stress enough that this kind of humor will get old really fast if it's over-used). I laughed out loud an awful lot. I don't know what was funnier -- Dean's half-assed spot-cleaning of blood off his jacket, Dean lamenting his celestial constipation or Dean snapping "Can it, Twilight!" at a very non-sparkly bloodsucker.
I dug Sam a lot too, and I have to admit this was pretty much the first time in the entire series where he's seemed like an actual grown up to me. And there was something about Sam taking a crappy busboy job in the middle of nowhere that was very Zeke Tyler in Birthright for those of you who know of what I speak.
The appearance of Lindsey had me cringing, mostly due to the casting department's very cringeworthy description of her as a "spunky bar waitress." I kept waiting for the inevitable hijinks to occur -- the sassy talk, the hair flippage, the instantaneous sexual tension, the painfully cute banter, the coy looks and of course someone to tell us how awesome Lindsey is so that we'll all just tumble in love with her. None of that stupid shit ever happened, much to my relief and surprise. Lindsey, amazingly, seems very much like...the sort of person who'd be working in a place like that. And her interactions with Sam were believable and wholly not-annoying. If you didn't know that Sam had started the apocalypse, they would both seem like two people who had just made a lot of mistakes in their lives and wound up someplace they didn't really want to be...so there's a connection there that's real, not forced and awkward. So for now, I'll say that SPN has finally managed to "get it right" with a female character, but I'm more than willing to rescind that praise if the usual stupidities get cranking in a future episode.
BTW, can anyone tell me what is so funny about "Keith Sam?" Does it sound out something dirty that I'm missing?
The only fly in the ointment was that whole whorehouse bit. I thought Dean was just going to take Castiel to some strip joint -- going to an actual bordello took the gag too far (and it's not even like they were in Nevada, where such establishments are legal). I don't really consider prostitution a harmless and fun diversion and I take a pretty dim view of men who buy women for sex. And frankly, Mr. Carver, the sex industry is very much built on abusive fathers and father-figures, not on absent fathers...make that sexually abusive fathers and father-figures, which is nothing to soft-pedal or turn into a joke. So really...that whole scene begged for some judicious rewriting.
Also, although Castiel has been depicted as being out of step with normal human interaction, he, and all of the angels in SPN-verse, are also ancient and jaded and world-weary. The Blushing Virgin routine they suddenly slapped onto Castiel hardly jives with that. Just for laughs they've conflated angels with cloistered nuns and that's just silly. Angels in their natural form are asexual (Dean even mocked Uriel last season for being "junkless") so it's not like Castiel was just practicing abstinence, denying his own desires, during his whole, long life as an angel. He wouldn't have even had those desires. And even if he suddenly developed them once he was in a human vessel well...Jimmy, his vessel, wasn't a virgin so presumably Castiel would have those memories in his physical body and hardly be such a timid stranger to carnal knowledge.
Besides, it's TOTALLY obvious that Castiel doesn't want some trashy-lingerie whore, he wants DEAN. Which I actually yelled at the television, "Dean, you idiot! Can't you see Castiel's in love with YOU?!"
Kudos to all the fans who accurately predicted that Sam would be Lucifer's vessel and Dean Michael's. I thought Sam's scene with Lucifer was chilling and very well-done. I also appreciated finally getting some real insight into why the angels are so bent on bringing about the end of times and I have to say...I kind of agree with them. So if Dean isn't willing to be Michael's vessel, maybe his archangelness would settle for a middle-aged and out-of-shape and not-terribly-clever spinster from Queens? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Finally -- I've heard through the grapevine that some viewers took great offense at Dean's little monologue there at the end. I'm not at all surprised, since some people think Dean is a piece of shit no matter what, so of course they're content to take this speech at face value. I'm sure that none of these folks were upset by the very real and incredibly callous way that Sam rejected his back-from-perdition brother all of last season, and insulted him, and betrayed him (oh, and the whole world too), but a little bit of barely convincing bravado from Dean and yeah, that guy's the real asshole. Whatevs. YMMV.
Hey don't forget about my DVD question up there plz.
ETA: I just need to add that I got kind of soused today. By myself. In an Applebee's. By myself in an Applebee's for God's sake. So the next time you want to feel bad about yourself? Just think, At least I'm not getting drunk on Sutter Home Chardonnay at Applebee's. Hmm?
.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 06:09 am (UTC)Besides, it's TOTALLY obvious that Castiel doesn't want some trashy-lingerie whore, he wants DEAN. Which I actually yelled at the television, "Dean, you idiot! Can't you see Castiel's in love with YOU?!"
Exactly what I was thinking. And
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 06:10 am (UTC)Oh, and you have totally kick-ass taste in movies.
One more thing - I'm a total Dean girl and thought the bit at the end was just short of heartbreaking. So there, haters!!!
:-D
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 06:20 am (UTC)Found this on a forum:
See if there's a subtitle ON/OFF button on your remote .... not just the subtitle button which changes the subtitle track - this is common on Sony DVD Players, otherwise check the setup menu on your dvd player and turn off the default language for subtitles.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:51 am (UTC)turn off the default language for subtitles.
Argh, this is the weird thing -- you can't. The default is something called "Auto Follow" which means the subtitles will just follow the language in which the DVD was recorded. There's no "OFF" choice! Thanks for your help!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 08:24 am (UTC)I too was pleasantly surprised with Lindsey and I think they made the right decision to cut the sex scene and dispense with the usual meet cute stuff. Now if they’d just stop labelling the female characters with such patronising clichés…
I’m afraid the soft focus Bordello full of beauty queens in 1960s baby-doll nighties was so far away from the reality of half-starved heroin-addicted Eastern European teenagers round the back of Victoria Station that I couldn’t take it seriously enough to get offended by the rest of the inaccuracies. I would, however, have liked them to have clarified the position vis-à-vis Jimmy before the scenes began - I assume he’s gone, but if he isn’t then there’s a devout married man along for the ride. I do think that Dean’s approach had some validity given the fact that Anna cited sex as one of the main reasons she’d fallen, though (as you say) he didn’t manage to cotton on to who it was that Castiel actually wants to have sex with.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:43 am (UTC)Well, yeah, but that was sort of my problem with it. If they'd at least been in Nevada I could have accepted the whole "bordello" idea, but any such establishment in Waterville, Maine would be illegal and most likely staffed by trailer trash meth addicts with gray skin and rotting teeth. There are some things about which I simply can't suspend my disbelief.
I do think that Dean’s approach had some validity given the fact that Anna cited sex as one of the main reasons she’d fallen
Considering she ranked sex on a par with chocolate cake, I still think the whorehouse was overkill :). In truth, I really do think Castiel would have been far happier spending the evening alone with Dean, whom he clearly adores, whether you interpret that sexually or not.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 03:47 pm (UTC)Totally agree on everything in the episode. As much as I laughed at Castiel's performance of extreme fear, I wasn't quite sure what his attitude about sex was supposed to be. But your theory that he's really just in love with Dean actually makes sense so is now canon to me. I was glad that Castiel didn't actually have sex with the prostitute, though her response didn't quite make sense to me either. A guy telling her her father loved her I'd expect to get a reaction of either happiness or terror, though I guess the idea was that she thought he was a friend of her dad's maybe?
Also word on people having problems with Dean's speech. Please.
Also I have a friend who also had a funny story about getting drunk at Appleby's. You're right in thinking there's a special kind of cache to that place and liquor.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:31 am (UTC)But your theory that he's really just in love with Dean actually makes sense so is now canon to me.
The beauty of this theory is that it doesn't even have to be slashy. Maybe Castiel really did want to just "sit quietly" with Dean all night rather than being dragged off to some trashy "den of iniquity." Speaking of iniquity, I'm also not at all sure why the writers have decided that angels are Puritan prudes when it comes to sex, and yet completely not "angelic" about anything else. Guess they just think it's funny.
You're right in thinking there's a special kind of cache to that place and liquor.
LOL -- it's called "desperation."
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 06:57 pm (UTC)I agree with almost all of your SPN comments, except that I did not like the barmaid. I found her pushy and annoying - I also kept expecting her eyes to go black so maybe I just wasn't ready to like her no matter what.
The whorehouse scene was so weird to me. So much of it made no sense that I really think it only works if you look at it through Dean/Castiel coloured glasses. Castiel goes along with Dean, thinking that this is what Dean wants and maybe it will lead to something else. I still don't know why Dean, who hates the idea of someone thinking that he would pay for sex, would take Cas to a whore. It felt like the writers just said - hey wouldn't it be funny if Dean took Castiel to a brothel - and that was as much thought as they gave it.
Just so yo know, the same people who are pissed at Dean for being "happy" without Sam, are calling Dean Kripke's Mary Sue. They seem to think that Kripke, the same man who thought that without hunting Dean would be an unemployed barfly (commentary on WIAWSNB) writes Dean as Mr. Perfect Perfect.
Whatever. I guess we're all watching different shows.
Good Luck with the DVD Player!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:24 am (UTC)It felt like the writers just said - hey wouldn't it be funny if Dean took Castiel to a brothel - and that was as much thought as they gave it.
You are 110% correct about this -- they did it for the lulz and that was it. There are many things about this show that I love and many things that annoy the shit out of me, and this tendency of theirs to go for a quick, thoughtless laugh is right at the top of the latter list.
Just so yo know, the same people who are pissed at Dean for being "happy" without Sam, are calling Dean Kripke's Mary Sue.
If you ask me, the I-Hate-Dean gang has finally jumped the shark. Now they're just making shit up.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 03:42 am (UTC)Hmph. I hate tech sometimes. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 05:17 am (UTC)it's TOTALLY obvious that Castiel doesn't want some trashy-lingerie whore, he wants DEAN
Ahaha, maybe that was exactly why Dean brought Castiel there in the first place, he knew that Castiel wants him!! :D
no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 12:14 am (UTC)Ahaha, maybe that was exactly why Dean brought Castiel there in the first place, he knew that Castiel wants him!!
The whole scene where Dean was talking to Castiel about whether he's ever had sex was so hilariously awkward that I wonder if the writers did it on purpose to tease the Dean/Castiel shippers. Poor Castiel looked so tormented with longing (and not for a hooker!) and Dean just looked so blithely oblivious to what was really going on (typical guy!) that really...you hardly have to dig for subtext.