SPN 6:01: Exile on Main Street

[oselle]

The only reason I'm even bothering to post a review is because I'm still high off the four beers and five cigs I had while watching that episode.

Without further ado:

1. It was smart to keep Lisa and Ben's presence to a minimum, and to not hammer us over the head with Dean's domesticity. Truth be told, Dean seems to be an awkward fit with suburban life which is exactly what he should be. Despite Lisa's assertion that this was "the best year of her life" we can at least tell it was and continues to be tough going for them. I'm discomfited by Dean telling Sam that he basically pushed Dean into that life...i.e., that he wouldn't have chosen it for himself. It makes Lisa and Ben look like the consolation prize and I don't like that. That's why I'll continue to insist that Dean's "settling down" should only have come at the END of the series so that we'd never have to deal with the consequences of it. Now we've got this big mess with the very likable Lisa and her twelve-year-old son...and this guy who -- by his own admission -- is only with them because he made a deathbed promise to his brother.

2. The promos were pushing a "TRUST NO ONE" tagline and I don't know if that means we're supposed to be wary of Sam and all those Campbells. Are they not who they claim to be?

3. Speaking of all those Campbells...too many Campbells. Based on what I heard from ComicCon, I thought the various and sundry Campbell relatives would be rolled out over the season...HAHAHAHA I should know better than to expect anything approaching subtlety. No, instead we get FOUR of them in the premiere, including Gramps, who apparently has been "brought down" from heaven (?) to chaperone Sam and OH MY GOD doesn't anyone besides me remember that all of Mary's relatives were supposed to be dead? And OH MY GOD are we honestly supposed to believe that these Campbells who, apparently, are to hunting what the Kennedys are to politics, WOULD NOT HAVE LOOKED OUT FOR MARY CAMPBELL'S SONS AFTER SHE DIED? That for the past THIRTY YEARS they have been unaware of the existence of Sam and Dean Campbell-Winchester? Please. I DEFY you to fucking fanwank that shit.

4. BOY, Sera Gamble is sure in love with that Mayflower business, isn't she? I'm seeing a Very Special Thanksgiving episode in full period costume.

5. Speaking of Sera Gamble...bringing back the djinns from Raelle Tucker's great "What Is And Never Should Be" final episode does not make Sera Gamble into Raelle Tucker. Frankly, bringing back the djinns made no sense at all and was one of the klutziest plot bridges I ever saw. So what, they've been hanging around for four fucking years waiting to get revenge on Dean?

6. I'm giving Sam a temporary pass on his behavior because I don't know if Sam is really Sam or if Sam was so fucked up by hell that he's all dead inside or what. But there's simply no excuse for Bobby at all. Oh right, Dean's having such a wonderful life in suburbia that HE WOULDN'T WANT TO KNOW HIS BROTHER WAS ALIVE. Mmmhmm.

7. How did Dean even manage to find a manufacturing job in this economy?

8. Jensen clearly put on weight and should not be wearing his shirt tucked into his jeans. Hey, someone had to say it.

9. If Sam Adams Oktoberfest Ale is in the supermarket it shouldn't be ninety fuckin degrees out.

10. Whatever.

Comments

[andycake.livejournal.com]

Hee! I am so glad that somebody else articulated the flabby Jensen thing! I'm sure you've seen those photos of him playing soccer shirtless....All of fandom seemed to think he looked hot. I was all "Whoa! Dude had a very cruisy summer off and obviously didn't hit the gym once".

Apart from a bit of flabbyness, I do think the shirt tucking in thing was deliberate though. I was paying attention to the horrible cut of the jeans and the totally dorky belt they put Dean in. I guess just a subtle reminder of the "wrongness" of Dean's life. For all this scruffy dressing whilst hunting, there was always an inherent coolness in what he wore. Those clothes just did not "fit" Dean.

As for the rest of the episode, I am interested for the season to progresses, with a few caveats. Mostly I want to find out about Sam and how different he is and why, and to see Dean struggle with maybe having a family. But so many Campbells? Urgh. No thanks Sera.

Sera - Please also keep Ben to a minimum. I think that kid may suck balls at acting. He's no Colin who knocked it out of the park as mini Sam and I think they'll have the same problem they had with the last mini Dean. They cast a kid who is not that great and realise later when they want him to play a bigger part that he doesn't have the chops to back up the dialogue and storyline.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

Wait, something happened in the episode after those images of Dean scrambling eggs? Um, I mighta gotten a little stuck there...

Seriously, JA, fat or not (there's a reason they call them love handles *g*) gave the episode what little emotional continuity it had--he's just such an expressive actor.

And, since we're in the business of home truths--the ep was a little like Yellow Fever for me: I couldn't tell if Sam's inexpressiveness was a character point or just a byproduct of JP's acting...

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

I'm back, because nobody on my flist is posting on my own entry. ;)

I thought about something today. Remember last season when Bobby had a come-to-Jesus moment about Sam's pure awesomeness and how it would be no sweat for him to fight the Devil? That was based on how Sam unflinchingly kept going back for survivors in the Croatoan virus warehouse.

And then yesterday Sam tells Dean that he should get back in the game because of the way he just throws himself into a situation and never hesitates, and how he, Sam, wouldn't even think about trying to do that. @$*&! retcon!!! Which is it? Is Sam the most awesome hunter on the planet, or is he a spineless wimp who holds back?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I mighta gotten a little stuck there...

Oh no no sister...I nearly got stuck on Dean in his BARE FEET and SWEATPANTS doing the nightly check of all the locks on the doors before hitting the sack. Hello, adorable. BARE FEET. Seriously? That was just about the only part of the episode that resonated with me.

I couldn't tell if Sam's inexpressiveness was a character point or just a byproduct of JP's acting...

TBH, I never know what's going on with JP and the fact that the writers never seem to know what's going on with Sam doesn't help.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I was all "Whoa! Dude had a very cruisy summer off and obviously didn't hit the gym once".

And I was all, "Dude is over thirty and everything starts to shift downwards after that." Sad, but true.

In all honesty, I don't want anyone to think I'm picking on Jensen's weight because he's still better looking than a good 99% of the men out there but it IS really funny to see him putting on that thirtysomething pudge, especially if you know how incredibly slender he was during his Dark Angel-era twenties.

For all this scruffy dressing whilst hunting, there was always an inherent coolness in what he wore. Those clothes just did not "fit" Dean.

Oh yeah. What Dean was wearing was the male equivalent of "Mom Jeans."

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Bobby's come-to-Jesus moment about Sam in the warehouse may have been the single stupidest moment in five years of this show. To this day, I have no idea what the fuck Bobby was talking about.

There was retconning going on all over this ep. For example...is Lisa the love of Dean's life (as we were led to believe last year) or is he only with her because Sam made him promise to be with her? HELP ME UNDERSTAND, SHOW!

[pedx.livejournal.com]

I saw someone else refer to Sam as Robo-Sam, which is now stuck in my head. I loved how Robo-Sam is all, I totally just dropped into your life all non-chalant and have given you exactly four seconds to readjust to the idea that I am alive and well and then demanding a hug but then smirking when you actually do so. Oh Dean and your silly human emotions!

[pedx.livejournal.com]

Also if I had balls this episode would have made them crawl back up. I was just so uncomfortable for Dean the whole time. And I had no idea I could hate canon-Sam any more than when he was trying to choke out a stunned and down Dean.

I hope if Sam ever gets back to "normal" and talks about his, what - one day, two days tops in Hell? - that Dean says boohoo.

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

And don't forget crapping all over Dean's offer to take the Impala, in the meanest possible way. Way to consider someone else's feelings, Robo-Sam! I guess when you don't have any feelings of your own, it's no problem shitting on others'.

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

I don't mind a retcon or two here and there over the course of a show. But when you go out of your way to spotlight Teh Awesomeness of Sam's Selflessness, it's kinda hard to take it back with a "I wouldn't even think of trying to save people."

Sorry, I am spewing all over your thread, but I have FEELINGS about this shitty new direction that Show has taken, and they must be expressed!

[pedx.livejournal.com]

ALSO AGAIN I forgot to mention that because I've spent so much time reading Sam written as a human being by awesome fic authors, the incompetence presented by show writers often staggers me. I forget that the Sam character I love IS NOT REAL!

[pedx.livejournal.com]

Sam likes his ugly douchebag car! We can't have the old Impala slowing down his trail of awesomeness, can we?

I also enjoyed his guilt-trip "it's better when you're around" speech which follows on the heels of A) you're a rusty loser and B) I let you wallow in misery so you could enjoy yourself because you deserve to struggle with thinking I'm still in a cage in Hell while attempting to build or maintain some semblance of a livable life. OH BUT COME ON BACK NOW BECAUSE YOU'LL ALWAYS BE PUTTING THEM IN DANGER.

[caesia390.livejournal.com]

(Hi! I read your comments at sistermagpie's journal and followed you here.)

So I've never watched an episode of Supernatural, but reading about this abusive yet addictive trainwreck of a show reminds me of exactly what it was like to love the X-Files.

As (early series) Scully would say: Never Again.

You have my deepest sympathies.

(PS - Re: America. It's horrible. It's horrible all over the world. More and more I see something Malthusian in it... People get very ugly when they feel threatened. And to be poor in a society that worships wealth - that alone is a threat. And then the reaction takes on its particular form...)

[andycake.livejournal.com]

I'm the same. I think Jensen is still one of the most beautiful mean around, but it's obvious he is not that in to working out in the gym. I think JP has mentioned this in numerous interviews, that he works out heaps, while Jensen does not. Hope Danneel is cool with him letting himself go now he's married! :-P

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Well you know, Jensen has never been totally ripped and he's always had a little softness about him...which frankly, I find a lot more attractive than that whole abs-of-steel look. But they did a number of cons in Europe this summer and it looks like Jensen may have enjoyed the food a little too much!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

but then smirking when you actually do so.

I'm on the fence about whether that was actual smirking or not. Jared's never been one of those actors who can successfully convey emotion with just his face. It's possible that expression was meant to be...rueful or something. I honestly didn't know what to make of it.

I do know that this is the second back-from-hell reunion these boys have had, and both times, only Dean seemed to be putting his heart into it. Now, I remember how Sam looked when he hugged Dean at the end of "Mystery Spot"...that was heartfelt. We haven't seen that side of Sam in years.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I hope he says, "Boo-hoo, princess." Gotta get the "princess" in there.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I have to give a lot of credit to writers who are still able to write Sam "as a human being." I honestly don't think I could do it anymore unless I was writing an AU. There's just next to nothing left in canon to suggest Sam really cares about Dean, or about much of anything except himself.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

"Abusive" is a word I jokingly used a lot last season...loving Supernatural is seriously like being stuck in a really terrible relationship. When it's good, it's very good and when it's bad (which lately, is more often than not) it's bloody awful.

I sort of enjoy bitching about it, though. It's fun to fret over something so essentially trivial when the whole world is, indeed, going to hell.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

That was just more weirdness and Dean's lack of reaction to it compounded the weird. Some people are suggesting that everything happening right now is just an illusion or a hallucination and that's kind of what it feels like.

Off Topic

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Oh by the way...I seem to recall a while back you were asking for user opinions on the Amazon Kindle. I just got mine this week (the new $139 one) and OMG...I don't know how I ever lived without it. It's obviously not a tablet computer like the iPad but for reading? It's bliss. I actually enjoy reading on the Kindle more than reading on paper...and it's nothing like reading on a computer screen, which I find pretty difficult to do after a while. HIGHLY recommended and I think the price can't be beat.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Me too. In fact I would have preferred to watch an entire episode of this instead the all the mangsting over douchey sam and douchy bobby and the couchey campbells. They could have saved that for episode 2 so that we actually got a real sense of Dean would be giving up when he went back the douchey side of his family.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be blunt but to me that's typical Sam. He always knows what's best and Dean needs to fall in line or Sam will run off and find someone who's not so "bossy." Yeah, I think I'm still bitter about season 5. :(

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Agree with this. The show is so terrified of Dean's popularity no matter what incarnation he takes that they deliberately undermine the character even when it makes absolutely no sense. It's bizarre.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

God I want more Dean cooking scenes. He seems just as competent in the kitchen as he is with machete. Hawt.