SPN 7:01

[oselle]

This was the first time I ever had someone over to watch the season premiere with me, so we were gabbing more than we were watching. I recorded it on my "VCR" (you kids won't know what that is -- let's just say it's a sort of primitive ancestor of the DVR, in which television shows were recorded on big plastic cartridges known as "cassette tapes"), so I'll have to rewatch this weekend. These are just my initial impressions:

1) Nothing could have annoyed me more than having a Sera Gamble "behind-the-scenes" featurette foisted on me. You folks who download the episode will at least be spared listening to Gamble babble on about "urban legends" as if that premise hadn't been played out years ago, and having to look at her acting all important in her office made me want to peel off my skin. I hate this woman.

2) Although I know (I think?) it's just a hallucination, the suggestion that Sam is still in hell and that everything he's experienced since supposedly leaving hell has just been conjured up to torture him is (hallucination or not) one that was floated by viewers all the way back in Season 4...when it actually would have been interesting. I actually held out a hope through most of Season 4 that we would find out that the radically altered Sam and the awful Ruby were nothing more than the supporting cast of Dean's custom-tailored hell, and that part of Season 5 would revolve around the REAL Sam springing his brother from the Pit. Alas, Gamble chose to take what was a good idea three years ago and finally use it...for Sam.

3) Speaking of things that were good ideas, I had Meg in hiding in a broken-down white trash trailer years ago in one of my stories, so Crowley hiding out in a broken-down white trash trailer sort of felt like something I came up with. A long time ago.

4) I amend my statement in (1). Nothing could have annoyed me more than seeing that the not-so-dynamic duo of Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin have now been elevated to producers, thereby continuing and expanding their Reign of Suck. I hate these guys.

5) The one bright spot was that Castiel looked so vicious at the end of the episode that it sure seemed like he was finally going to do to Dean what he's clearly wanted to do to Dean for a long time, whether Dean was on board with it or not, but of course that's not going to happen on television. It should at the least inspire some really filthy fanfic, though.

6) If they want us to feel for Sam, they should endeavor to make his hell look a little less like a kids' Halloween party. Where did they get the props for that scene, Party City?

7) To be honest, I DON'T feel for Sam. I know this is a dead horse, but Dean appeared to get over his time in hell pretty quickly (even without a "wall") so I don't know why we're expected to believe that Sam's trauma is so much worse. I know, I know, "worst part of hell" and all that but please, that is SO Season Six, and it didn't make any sense back then, either.

8) Castiel loves Dean so very, very much that all he could do in his brief return to himself was apologize to Dean while gazing at him with heartbroken regret. Man, that cat is smitten.

9) The Tao Te Ching says "to compare one thing to another is a disease of the mind." Well I say, the hell with that. I started watching The Vampire Diaries over the summer and caught both the season premiere and this week's episode and cannot believe how good it is. Not just great storytelling and characters, but also genuinely scary. That scene in the woods with all the zombie-like werewolf/vampire hybrids was so creepy it gave me goosebumps -- I don't think I've ever seen anything on SPN that was remotely as frightening. I don't know why TVD can maintain a consistent, compelling, forward-moving storyline and SPN just seems to flounder all over the place, hardly knowing what kind of show it's supposed to be (Procedural or serial? Drama or comedy? Ghost story or grossout?) As an added benefit, Steven R. McQueen is giving Jensen Ackles a serious run for his money in the pretty department, and I'm hoping the increasingly lovely Jeremy has a more central involvement in the episodes this season so that I can get all fluttery over a character who's actually in a good show. From what I've observed on the few occasions when he's gotten beaten up/bitten/murdered, he also suffers quite beautifully, and the writers and producers should take note of this and have him suffer more. Yesss, a great deal more. Right now he's being tormented by the ghosts of not one but two dead girlfriends, and that's a great start.

10) I found out today that Lauren Cohan, who once occupied the thankless role of Bela on SPN, will be part of the second season of The Walking Dead. I always feel happy for her when I see her in something good (like her brief turn on TVD last year) because she was so ill-used on SPN that it was downright painful to watch.

Comments

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

One of the things that nearly made me drop TVD in the beginning was the fact that Elena seemed to be a bit of a Lana Lang, but they did tone that down and having Katherine in the mix helped a lot. Caroline, however, is just adorable :)

I watched the first episode of a British show called The Fades last week and whilst a bit uneven some of the supernatural stuff in that was utterly terrifying. SPN has never been very scary, but at least there were a few in the first season that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. For me it dates to the move from urban legends to Angels v Demons - the further they got from "real life" stuff the less scary it got.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I've been sitting here trying to think if I ever found anything on SPN even a little scary and I don't think I have. They tend to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to their spooks and monsters that really defuses the fright factor.

Actually, the one thing on SPN that at least startled me was when the car got hit at the end of the Season One finale. That STILL gets a jump out of me, no matter how many times I've seen it.