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

[oselle.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I've never found Sam all that lovey-dovey about anything. The show has often maintained that Dean is the hard-boiled one while Sam is the tenderhearted softie but I think for so many viewers it's exactly the opposite. Sam had a few moments in the first three seasons where he seemed to have real affection for his brother but he always had a hardened streak of self-interest that was wholly absent from Dean. Since Season 4 -- so for nearly three years -- that side of Sam is the one we've seen more than any other. So I just can't imagine where Jared is getting this bizarre notion that Sam suddenly isn't going to be lovey-dovey anymore because of the 20 minutes he spent in "the worst part of hell." I'm sure he's getting this shit from the writers, which perfectly illustrates what I said a while back about reading interviews that make you go wtf? It astounds me that this is really how they see Sam...and it goes a long way to explaining why they haven't done anything to salvage his character. They don't even realize that he needs salvation.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I was a bit worried about that "worst part of hell" line because it sounds like an attempt to take what happened to Dean and that was actually a coherent emotional arc that Jensen played and just say "Sam had it worse." Probably without ever showing it. It's just an excuse to try to make Sam more of exactly what he was before without him going through actual trauma about it. I keep hearing "He has no ability to feel those emotions anymore." Which conveniently leads to not having to write the emotion or to act those emotions.

When Sam said the thing about not ever going after those people in this ep I didn't even think it was supposed to be going against Bobby's speech, because I thought Sam was basically saying he was coldly logical. Like, if course he was as brave as Dean but he saw those people were already dead so he wouldn't waste his time going after them. And I think that's the type of lovey dovey he always was if he was going to--he just was the one to bring up ethical questions like "But what about the monsters?" or whatever. Dean always seemed to one that was the marshmallow inside. He just limited it to people he considered family or innocents.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

it sounds like an attempt to take what happened to Dean and that was actually a coherent emotional arc that Jensen played and just say "Sam had it worse."

It's such childish, lazy one-upsmanship, and I lay that at Sera Gamble's feet. She keeps wanting to bring Sam to the forefront by making him look stronger than Dean or making him look more deserving of sympathy but it's not working. A while back I did a scene-by-scene breakdown of her "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and on closer analysis Sam comes off even worse than he did on first viewing...but then at the end of that ep, she basically had Dean apologizing to Sam and sympathizing with the "agony" he'd endured while Dean was dead...and none of it made a lick of sense.