Muppets come out of the closet... *g*
Sep. 26th, 2009 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astri13This week I'll switch it around and present my SPN review before the Merlin one. :)
It was a bit oddly paced, I felt and I'm not sure the two plot threads came together very well but the episode itself certainly wasn't bad.
I am of two minds on the things they changed up from the original script.
The sex scene? Not needed IMO. Sam was still shirtless and I would only have rolled my eyes at the clichéd sponsor and ex-addict immediately hit the sheets stuff. Besides, Lyndsey was a bit too prying for me in the beginning. I get that Sam was a tough nut to crack but maybe that is a sign sometimes that they need their space.
Speaking of, Dean and Castiel with personal space? Hilarious. As was Castiel sucking so much at being a FED and Dean's almost defeated attempts to correct him. Hee. They were so cute.
Did not like Dean making Castiel work for his help. Seems a bit un-Dean to me.
The montage at the beginning also worked really well. Eat it, Twilight. Hahahaha. Eat it, lemons. Okay, he didn't say it but he could have.
But I probably would have liked to keep in the scenes where Sam sees Dean everywhere and Dean sees Sam everywhere. Hm.
I liked Castiel's little faces upon the mention of sex and his being terrified in the "etablisment" but good god, the writers overplayed the sleaziness there in favor of their juvenile humor. Again, some more, just like in early Season 3 and some bits in Season 4. You know in Sin City Dean was pretty "whut, I don't pay". Which I bought because frankly he is hot enough that he doesn't have to. So all those "instructions" for Cas and immediately running after his own hooker? Come on. Both those guys should have no prob hooking up with someone in some random bar. And the commentary on the sex trade was an awkward segue to the angels having the same problem with absent fathers.
Loved Ernie and Bert being outed, though. :D
Lucifer continues to be a bastard but I like him as a character. What he made Jess say at the beginning to Sam was incredibly cruel because you can dismiss stuff like that from your enemies, you can even dismiss it from your loved ones but you can't from DEAD loved ones. It is probably something Sam still on some level fears, that his association with her killed her and her of all people voicing that must have cut. No matter if she said it nicely or not. Now, I'm for some reason not a fan of Adrienne Palicki but she did a good job here.
Mark Pellegrino is also doing a good job. Though I don't buy any of Lucifer's crap of course. "I wish there was another way, wah". Sure, dude. You care about Sam or any other human. You care about nothing but your own butt-hurt from God. "I don't trick and lie". Except when he uses dead loved ones as emmisaries, right? That IS trickery. :-p
I LOVED Raphael and the actor who played him. Yikes, do archangels ride their vessels hard or what? But the way his voice broke when he raged against God. Man, I totally believe every single angel in heaven is still bitter and butt-hurt over God "abandoning" them, they just react differently. The one time I saw genuine emotion from Zachariah? When Dean inquired about God in the Season 4 Finale. Brief but there. And it is basically the same for Lucifer.
You know some lore has it that angels were made to love and worship God? So naturally his absence or the feel that he didn't love THEM anymore must hurt like, pardon the pun, hell. Whereas we as humans can easily believe or not believe. (Dogma played on that as well). No wonder some of them hate us. Doesn't mean I'm sympathetic to the apocalypse, though.
The subplot with the hunters was somewhat meh. And their actions were pretty stupid "here, hulk out and kill our enemies, fiend". Maybe because little was spent on their characters meant they came across rather flat.
I was disappointed about the introspection on Sam it gave us because again we were back about a very general apocalypse guilt. Meh, that is not really his fault. He had good intentions and was duped. I wanted deeper introspection on what War told him last episode and what he himself told Dean at the end of 5.02. That was new and it was the heart of the problem for me. Him thinking he is a freak and angsting about that? That is treading the leaden path, show. Done for four Seasons now. Why did you bring up a new facet and then not milk it? I hope they still do because that is where my interest got piqued.
Dean's speech in the Impala? a) Not all that convincing a proclamation and b) I'm sure it IS a relief to feel a lack of responsibility for others, especially when you can't fix their problems. He is on his own and learning that he doesn't fall over and can't take it, that he isn't the breaking apart guy from Shadow or All Hell etc and that newfound realization astonishes him in a good way. It should. It doesn't in any way say he truly likes being alone or doesn't miss Sam - the episode showed the opposite - or doesn't care for Sam anymore. Seriously, that wasn't a sentiment I don't see Sam sharing a hundred times in his years at Stanford.
Sam as the Lucifer suit? Predictable and after all the Cain and Abel anvils in Season 2 and 3 they had to go there somehow.
Now I'm sure nobody will be vesseled up for real and they find some other way to re-imprison Lucifer. I'm of the opinion you shouldn't kill the devil because of cosmic balance. *g*
I would grade it a 2.5 probably.
It was a bit oddly paced, I felt and I'm not sure the two plot threads came together very well but the episode itself certainly wasn't bad.
I am of two minds on the things they changed up from the original script.
The sex scene? Not needed IMO. Sam was still shirtless and I would only have rolled my eyes at the clichéd sponsor and ex-addict immediately hit the sheets stuff. Besides, Lyndsey was a bit too prying for me in the beginning. I get that Sam was a tough nut to crack but maybe that is a sign sometimes that they need their space.
Speaking of, Dean and Castiel with personal space? Hilarious. As was Castiel sucking so much at being a FED and Dean's almost defeated attempts to correct him. Hee. They were so cute.
Did not like Dean making Castiel work for his help. Seems a bit un-Dean to me.
The montage at the beginning also worked really well. Eat it, Twilight. Hahahaha. Eat it, lemons. Okay, he didn't say it but he could have.
But I probably would have liked to keep in the scenes where Sam sees Dean everywhere and Dean sees Sam everywhere. Hm.
I liked Castiel's little faces upon the mention of sex and his being terrified in the "etablisment" but good god, the writers overplayed the sleaziness there in favor of their juvenile humor. Again, some more, just like in early Season 3 and some bits in Season 4. You know in Sin City Dean was pretty "whut, I don't pay". Which I bought because frankly he is hot enough that he doesn't have to. So all those "instructions" for Cas and immediately running after his own hooker? Come on. Both those guys should have no prob hooking up with someone in some random bar. And the commentary on the sex trade was an awkward segue to the angels having the same problem with absent fathers.
Loved Ernie and Bert being outed, though. :D
Lucifer continues to be a bastard but I like him as a character. What he made Jess say at the beginning to Sam was incredibly cruel because you can dismiss stuff like that from your enemies, you can even dismiss it from your loved ones but you can't from DEAD loved ones. It is probably something Sam still on some level fears, that his association with her killed her and her of all people voicing that must have cut. No matter if she said it nicely or not. Now, I'm for some reason not a fan of Adrienne Palicki but she did a good job here.
Mark Pellegrino is also doing a good job. Though I don't buy any of Lucifer's crap of course. "I wish there was another way, wah". Sure, dude. You care about Sam or any other human. You care about nothing but your own butt-hurt from God. "I don't trick and lie". Except when he uses dead loved ones as emmisaries, right? That IS trickery. :-p
I LOVED Raphael and the actor who played him. Yikes, do archangels ride their vessels hard or what? But the way his voice broke when he raged against God. Man, I totally believe every single angel in heaven is still bitter and butt-hurt over God "abandoning" them, they just react differently. The one time I saw genuine emotion from Zachariah? When Dean inquired about God in the Season 4 Finale. Brief but there. And it is basically the same for Lucifer.
You know some lore has it that angels were made to love and worship God? So naturally his absence or the feel that he didn't love THEM anymore must hurt like, pardon the pun, hell. Whereas we as humans can easily believe or not believe. (Dogma played on that as well). No wonder some of them hate us. Doesn't mean I'm sympathetic to the apocalypse, though.
The subplot with the hunters was somewhat meh. And their actions were pretty stupid "here, hulk out and kill our enemies, fiend". Maybe because little was spent on their characters meant they came across rather flat.
I was disappointed about the introspection on Sam it gave us because again we were back about a very general apocalypse guilt. Meh, that is not really his fault. He had good intentions and was duped. I wanted deeper introspection on what War told him last episode and what he himself told Dean at the end of 5.02. That was new and it was the heart of the problem for me. Him thinking he is a freak and angsting about that? That is treading the leaden path, show. Done for four Seasons now. Why did you bring up a new facet and then not milk it? I hope they still do because that is where my interest got piqued.
Dean's speech in the Impala? a) Not all that convincing a proclamation and b) I'm sure it IS a relief to feel a lack of responsibility for others, especially when you can't fix their problems. He is on his own and learning that he doesn't fall over and can't take it, that he isn't the breaking apart guy from Shadow or All Hell etc and that newfound realization astonishes him in a good way. It should. It doesn't in any way say he truly likes being alone or doesn't miss Sam - the episode showed the opposite - or doesn't care for Sam anymore. Seriously, that wasn't a sentiment I don't see Sam sharing a hundred times in his years at Stanford.
Sam as the Lucifer suit? Predictable and after all the Cain and Abel anvils in Season 2 and 3 they had to go there somehow.
Now I'm sure nobody will be vesseled up for real and they find some other way to re-imprison Lucifer. I'm of the opinion you shouldn't kill the devil because of cosmic balance. *g*
I would grade it a 2.5 probably.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-26 06:21 pm (UTC)LOL, I feel like the only moron who didn't see that coming. *facepalms*
It was a bit oddly paced, I felt and I'm not sure the two plot threads came together very well but the episode itself certainly wasn't bad.
I agree with you there, my interest kept slipping, because all the parts weren't as interesting. And they kept cutting the scenes to show both the boys at the same time, which wasn't the smartest way to do it, except for the first scene when we see the boys doing their own things of course.
But it brought several interesting elements that I thought it was a good enough episode in the end.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-26 08:12 pm (UTC)They did fake-out a bit with Nick the vessel but somehow I expected Sam's vesseldom still to come.
I agree with you there, my interest kept slipping, because all the parts weren't as interesting.
Yeah, if you do parallel storylines like this, they should have a common theme or something but as it was, they were pretty disjointed from each other. If maybe Dean/Castiel had dealt with Raphael while Sam would have stumbled over one of these demon/angel skirmishes where Raphael also had shown or something, it would have seemed more like one story.
As it was, it reminded me of my old Star Wars novels. Every single one of them followed the same plot: split up the core characters in two to three groups and send them on totally different adventures and have one chapter with group a, then b, then c and in the end all would miraculously meet up on the same planet or something.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-26 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-26 08:07 pm (UTC)Now I'm with you on hoping they won't make it suck by foregoing an organic rebuild in the brotherly relationship in favour of tucking a neat little bow around it and not adress all the problems from last Season (and practically forever). Because I'm really afraid they will. :/ Guess next episode will be key.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-26 10:11 pm (UTC)Not that they were bad but they didn't have the same "omph".
Well, the past season had 4x03 which is the single-most shittiest episode they ever had--that "let's try to squeeze in some mythology to have some artificially blown-up plot and act as if we knew this was going to happen all along" crap just ruined the entire season for me, as well as pretty much all canon the show ever had. So, BIG plus for season 5 so far. Three episodes without a completely shitty one...
Oh please. Like they're actually going to actually address the problems neatly. They danced around that all the way in season four and tried to solve it by neat little talks at the end of each episode instead of actually having the characters act accordingly. Let them tuck a neat little bow around the relationship for all I care--as long as we don't get a forced heart-to-heart by the end of each episode, I'm good. Yes, I'm still bitter and not holding my breath about the show :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-26 10:43 pm (UTC)I remember feeling that way about Season 3 though I held out through it. So Season 4 was practically my shining beacon of hope. The one thing they did manage in Season 4 and with the beginning of Season 5, I'm over Bobby. I hated his speech in the Finale and I've never forgiven it.
Well, the past season had 4x03 which is the single-most shittiest episode they ever had
I liked it but incidentally Season 4 did have the shittiest episodes for me, too. Yellow Fever and After School Special. There is not enough burning hatred in the world to describe my burning hatred for them. *burns*
Let them tuck a neat little bow around the relationship for all I care
That is the thing for me, unless it gets to be a better one, I can't care about that relationship anymore. It got so bad in Season 4, I just wanted them to split and never see each other again and if they go back to that codependent suckfest, I will scream.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-27 12:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-27 11:55 am (UTC)If we can get more like in the Sheriff's office, I would totally welcome it. The whorehouse stuff was a bit too much for me. Only the actors saved it.