Episode insta reaction - spoilers (obv)
May. 14th, 2014 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberdreamsI've just downloaded and watched Episode 22 Stairway to Heaven and my insta-reaction is basically summed up in one word. Perplexed.
I get that Metatron is manipulating the story. It's not the plot as such that is puzzling me, so much as where the writers are trying to take it. I am at the stage of wondering why I'm bothering to think about it at all, because whatever they are doing, it's not pulling me in. Dean isn't selling me on his Mark with the Blade persona, Sam is so much on the sidelines he's like a shadow flitting from scene to scene, and I really cannot get interested in Castiel - either from the point of view of the Angel war (still boring) or personally. I'm sure I should be worried about his fading grace but (especially since seeing the confirmations about Season 10 casting) I can't even muster up a tiny morsel of concern.
I was along for the ride right up until that last scene with Gadreel. Why did Dean do that? I am totally and utterly baffled by his reaction. (Or more to the point, I'm baffled by why the writers wrote it that way). What am I supposed to believe? That Dean was overtaken by the power of the Blade and rage made him slash out at Gadreel? Why would he be angry - because Gadreel deceived him? Because Gadreel 'hurt' Sam? Because Gadreel's been doing all that killing for Metatron (including Kevin)? Yeah, maybe all of those could be true - but that script, and all the build up to this point leave me unconvinced and unsure - and not is a good way. This isn't feeling like a deliberate mystery that is being posed by the storytelling, it just feels like a big bag of plot devices that have been shaken up and thrown out like dice to see how they land.
I think the way they are presenting Dean is the key for me. Dean is disengaged from the people and everything he cares about. He's got a wall up between him and Sam (never mind who's to blame for that). He's mildly worried about Cas. He cares about human collateral damage but not with the passion that he had when I fell in love with him. Dean is the centre of the show - as everyone keeps pointing out, because we see everything from his POV. So by making his POV so dispassionate, so uninvolved (I'm not really getting the extra-angry vibe Cas talked about), it's causing me, the audience, to disengage too.
That's my theory, for what it's worth. I'm sure cleverer people will put all this much better than I can, I'm just musing about the inside of my head here.
Hey ho. If I was scoring this on a Supernatural scale that excluded Seasons 1-5, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. It was better than some of this season's offerings but still not very engaging.
I get that Metatron is manipulating the story. It's not the plot as such that is puzzling me, so much as where the writers are trying to take it. I am at the stage of wondering why I'm bothering to think about it at all, because whatever they are doing, it's not pulling me in. Dean isn't selling me on his Mark with the Blade persona, Sam is so much on the sidelines he's like a shadow flitting from scene to scene, and I really cannot get interested in Castiel - either from the point of view of the Angel war (still boring) or personally. I'm sure I should be worried about his fading grace but (especially since seeing the confirmations about Season 10 casting) I can't even muster up a tiny morsel of concern.
I was along for the ride right up until that last scene with Gadreel. Why did Dean do that? I am totally and utterly baffled by his reaction. (Or more to the point, I'm baffled by why the writers wrote it that way). What am I supposed to believe? That Dean was overtaken by the power of the Blade and rage made him slash out at Gadreel? Why would he be angry - because Gadreel deceived him? Because Gadreel 'hurt' Sam? Because Gadreel's been doing all that killing for Metatron (including Kevin)? Yeah, maybe all of those could be true - but that script, and all the build up to this point leave me unconvinced and unsure - and not is a good way. This isn't feeling like a deliberate mystery that is being posed by the storytelling, it just feels like a big bag of plot devices that have been shaken up and thrown out like dice to see how they land.
I think the way they are presenting Dean is the key for me. Dean is disengaged from the people and everything he cares about. He's got a wall up between him and Sam (never mind who's to blame for that). He's mildly worried about Cas. He cares about human collateral damage but not with the passion that he had when I fell in love with him. Dean is the centre of the show - as everyone keeps pointing out, because we see everything from his POV. So by making his POV so dispassionate, so uninvolved (I'm not really getting the extra-angry vibe Cas talked about), it's causing me, the audience, to disengage too.
That's my theory, for what it's worth. I'm sure cleverer people will put all this much better than I can, I'm just musing about the inside of my head here.
Hey ho. If I was scoring this on a Supernatural scale that excluded Seasons 1-5, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. It was better than some of this season's offerings but still not very engaging.