Season 10 Episode 13 post
Feb. 11th, 2015 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberdreamsS10E13 Halt and Catch Fire - maybe 6 out of 10?
This isn’t really a reaction or a review, more a few observations.
Yesterday I rewatched S05E13 The Song Remains the Same. If you’d asked me before I watched it, I wouldn’t have put it up there as an all time favourite episode. In fact one of the reasons I was rewatching was to remind myself which one it was. I had thought I’d just check out a couple of scenes to get the jist of it then go and vote in the all_spn best Episode 13 poll.
Instead I was gripped, and watched it straight through. I even got all teary at the scene where the boys tell Mary they are her sons, and try and persuade her to leave John.
So my observations as a result of this rewatch?
That in Season 5 Episode 13, there wasn’t a single wasted moment, or a throwaway line. That, taken as a whole, the episode packed a punch. It meant something – to the progress of the season’s story arc, to the development of the characters (past and present, human and angel). It was coherent, it drew on established canon and gave it a twist, gave us new insight. It also gave us some memorable lines and some humour amongst the serious stuff.
Dean’s stripper dream, Team Free Will, I don’t understand that reference, angels watching over you.
So what about last night’s Episode 13 then? What did that leave us with? My initial impression is – not a lot. I enjoyed it while I was watching it – Dean looked hot, Sam’s hair swished, the ghost story was reasonably interesting.
But.
Where in Season 5 they poked fun at Dean’s sixteen year old boy’s libido with a humorous stripper dream full of blatant but relevant symbolism and then called him on it by having Ana visit him there, this one had a considerably older Dean in a flasher coat ogling teenage girls in a very weird way. It must have been bad, because even I noticed it on the first watch through and I’m notoriously rubbish at spotting the obvious. It had no relevance to the story, I thought perhaps they might call Dean out on it by having him try and chat up one of the students and get told she doesn’t go for older men but nope. We did get a vaguely amusing sequence where Dean and Sam both got caught on different aspects of pop culture – which was fine, but what was the point of having Dean letch after the kids (apart from making him look like a dirty old man)?
Anyhow, I don’t want to sit and nit pick, or try and spoil the enjoyment of anyone who watched and loved it, because it wasn’t a bad episode. It just wasn’t very good either. I didn't halt, and I certainly didn't catch fire, even when they used Hozier's Take Me to Church.
And I kind of wish I hadn’t watched Season 5’s Episode 13 immediately before I saw this one, because it really didn’t compare.
I think I’m a little bit in mourning for the good old days now, even though I’m really enjoying this season more than any for a while. Never mind, eh. There’s still a mountain of fanfic and fanart to savour, and I still have hope that they will give us something meaty to chew on (besides Jensen Ackles thighs….mmmm) before the season is over.
This isn’t really a reaction or a review, more a few observations.
Yesterday I rewatched S05E13 The Song Remains the Same. If you’d asked me before I watched it, I wouldn’t have put it up there as an all time favourite episode. In fact one of the reasons I was rewatching was to remind myself which one it was. I had thought I’d just check out a couple of scenes to get the jist of it then go and vote in the all_spn best Episode 13 poll.
Instead I was gripped, and watched it straight through. I even got all teary at the scene where the boys tell Mary they are her sons, and try and persuade her to leave John.
So my observations as a result of this rewatch?
That in Season 5 Episode 13, there wasn’t a single wasted moment, or a throwaway line. That, taken as a whole, the episode packed a punch. It meant something – to the progress of the season’s story arc, to the development of the characters (past and present, human and angel). It was coherent, it drew on established canon and gave it a twist, gave us new insight. It also gave us some memorable lines and some humour amongst the serious stuff.
Dean’s stripper dream, Team Free Will, I don’t understand that reference, angels watching over you.
So what about last night’s Episode 13 then? What did that leave us with? My initial impression is – not a lot. I enjoyed it while I was watching it – Dean looked hot, Sam’s hair swished, the ghost story was reasonably interesting.
But.
Where in Season 5 they poked fun at Dean’s sixteen year old boy’s libido with a humorous stripper dream full of blatant but relevant symbolism and then called him on it by having Ana visit him there, this one had a considerably older Dean in a flasher coat ogling teenage girls in a very weird way. It must have been bad, because even I noticed it on the first watch through and I’m notoriously rubbish at spotting the obvious. It had no relevance to the story, I thought perhaps they might call Dean out on it by having him try and chat up one of the students and get told she doesn’t go for older men but nope. We did get a vaguely amusing sequence where Dean and Sam both got caught on different aspects of pop culture – which was fine, but what was the point of having Dean letch after the kids (apart from making him look like a dirty old man)?
Anyhow, I don’t want to sit and nit pick, or try and spoil the enjoyment of anyone who watched and loved it, because it wasn’t a bad episode. It just wasn’t very good either. I didn't halt, and I certainly didn't catch fire, even when they used Hozier's Take Me to Church.
And I kind of wish I hadn’t watched Season 5’s Episode 13 immediately before I saw this one, because it really didn’t compare.
I think I’m a little bit in mourning for the good old days now, even though I’m really enjoying this season more than any for a while. Never mind, eh. There’s still a mountain of fanfic and fanart to savour, and I still have hope that they will give us something meaty to chew on (besides Jensen Ackles thighs….mmmm) before the season is over.