Season 13 thoughts so far

[amberdreams]

With spoilers for episodes aired, none (hopefully) for future ones.

Firstly - I am enjoying what we've been given so far. I'll put that up front before I start, because the rest of my ramblings might give a contrary view.

The griping part - Things I Did Not Love:

• I did not enjoy that they killed Missouri. Not one little bit. I've been wanting her brought back since I first saw her back in Season 1, and then this bunch of wankers go and kill her off before she's had more than a couple of scenes. I'm not a happy bunny.


• I really, really wish I did not know about the spin off. I wish I didn't know that the CW favour pretty young things. Because it was like an anvil dropping on our toes to have Missiouri ( the middle aged, charismatic and kick ass character) killed off in order to preserve the obviously-to-be-spun-off, oh-so-pretty Patience. And if that actress is 18 I'll chew off my crushed toes and feed them to my non-existent cat.


• Castiel is back. Sigh. Surprise surprise - even without Jared's blurt at JIB, or all the promo posters having Cas on them, etc, etc, it was bloody obvious he'd be back. I had held out some hope for AU Cas which might have made him more interesting again, but from what we got here, it looks like he's just been resurrected. Again. By Jack, which is what I'd predicted/feared when the Season12 finale aired.


• Sigh - I accidentally saw the title of next week's episode. Way to kill off any speculation about where Castiel might be.

The more positive parts:

• The shallow stuff - Our boys, they are so pretty... Dean is looking older, tired and worn, Sam is being lit beautifully with deep shadows and stubble, and it's all gorgeous.


• I'm really liking how the Winchesters are interacting. They are being brutally frank with each other, but the knives aren’t out. They are listening.


• Sam is softer and more reminiscent (in the way he's speaking) of early Seasons Sam, but without that fierce undercurrent of rage that used to fuel him. That's been replaced by something steely and determined, and I've got to say, Jared's acting is just wonderful. He's conveying such compassion but combined with an inner strength that makes him suddenly imposing, and for more than his sheer physical presence.


• Dean is such a master of suppression by now I doubt he even knows he's doing it. I'm loving how weary this Dean is, even while I miss his childlike pleasure in things. The grief he carries is part of his very fabric, and I also loved that Missouri could see that so clearly.


• Jack could be a very interesting character - so far the actor playing him has been excellent, giving us nicely nuanced performances. This latest episode didn't give him quite as much to play with, but it was enough to keep me hopeful that the writers will do something that allows him to develop in unpredictable ways.


• I’m still hopeful!

The odd observations:

• I want to watch the show. I want to know what happens to our boys – but I’m not excited about it any more. I’m liable to forget it’s a show day, and I’m not waking up too early, eager to see each episode like I used to be. I’m happy to wait for the email from iTunes telling me the episode is ready to watch, instead of trawling the internet for downloads because I can’t wait that long.


• Fandom – fanfic, fanart and conventions – are what is keeping me attached and interested.


• I’ve started watching a few other tv shows – Man in the High Castle, restarted Arrow, trying to get into Preacher. I’m reading Marvel fanfic, I think I could get into the Red Hood and Nightwing.


• While I’m happy Wayward Sisters got the go ahead, I’m half dreading it.


• There is nothing else coming close to replacing SPN in my heart.

Comments

[toratio.livejournal.com]

I'm really anxious about Jack. I want them to do something interesting and different with him. If he just becomes evil and the next big bad, and Dean just spends his time rubbing it in Sam's face I'm gonna be pissed - I'm hoping they won't do that, because he's an interesting, and quite sweet, character. I've been watching bits online (since it hasn't fucking started in Australia) and every time Dean starts yelling I get seriously anxious, like I'm listening to my parents fight. I have no idea why, but this show sometimes stresses me the fuck out.

And yeah, Cas coming back. I dunno. Can they find anything new and interesting for him? Sometimes bringing him back feels too much like fan pandering.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with the first two things you didn't love! I am so angry that they brought Missouri back just to kill her off. I knew from spoilers that her granddaughter would be in the spin-off (frankly I'm surprised they're having Jodie and Donna in it at all, aren't they way too old??!!) but I thought Missouri would still be around.

I also hoped Cas would come back in a different version, but I'm looking forward to Cas being Jack's dad if that's where this is going, as I think they'll be pretty funny together.

Dean's sorrow, Sam's compassion and Jack's sweetness redeemed this episode for me, and I agree wit you that Jared's acting is wonderful. Sometimes I overlook how good he is because JENSEN!! but he's become an amazing actor.

[fanspired]

I don't believe anything will replace the original 5 seasons of SPN in my heart, not in this lifetime. I've become a recent convert to Game of Thrones, though, and that has inspired a degree of obsession that nothing else since SPN has. Just starting my 4th re-watch of season 7 now. But bear in mind that, in the 7 years since I first watched SPN, I have never stopped rewatching it - over, and over, and over . . . Like I said, that kind of obsession comes once in a lifetime.

[jimbobjoe.livejournal.com]

I want to watch the show. I want to know what happens to our boys – but I’m not excited about it any more.
Yeah, that's it for me, too. I still love watching the boys; I still love looking at the pretty. But like you, I usually forget it's Show Day until about an hour before it starts.

Also, OMG, you are so right about Jared's acting. I'm blown away!

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Before I read any comments, I have to reply with a resounding ME TOO. My experiences are echoing yours, almost verbatim. Right down to the odd observations. (If I could go to more cons, I would.) I think we're outgrowing what the show is becoming. I mean, it has been a loooooong time. I'll stick with it to the end, but the writing just isn't there anymore. Hasn't been for ages, but hey, hope springs eternal, right? Well, my spring has gone done dried up. While I really cheered over the conversation Dean and Sam had at the end there--mostly because this baggage has been hanging over everyone's heads like a giant anvil--the rest of the show is a wan shadow of its old self. I get that things must evolve and time marches on and all that yakkity smack, but the lightning is out of the bottle and the spark that made SPN "the little show that could" is no more. I feel like they're trying to manufacture it for Wayward Sisters, and it JUST. AIN'T. THERE. Point of fact, I couldn't be less interested in any of the characters they've been grooming for the new show. Just feels like a seething morass of Mary Sues; a 'healthy', social-justice approved snore fest. It's not like I don't want better rep and a lack of misogyny, of course I want better! But I also want pretty guys and horror and flawed characters and ESCAPISM. Anywho, I'm sure this all makes me a bad feminist and a bad fan. Oh well. Guess that's what I am, then.

I'm also super-bitter that Wayward Sisters is taking up valuable real estate in the SPN season. I totally understand why it has to be done, but it's sure has hell not endearing me to the spin-off either.

No other show is tickling my fandom fancy, and I'm half glad. I'll be working on more original stuff once SPN has worked its way out of my system; I don't need another fixation, heh. I'm enjoying Preacher and Ozark and The Expanse ... none of which are airing right now, dern it. The John Wick universe is interesting to me, but not so much that I wanna do fanworks for it. Same with Kingsman. It's at once more fun but less passionate to watch shows w/o an eye to how to manipulate that into fanworks, and worry about how fandom will respond to this, that or the other. Maybe I'll actually start reading original fiction again, gasp!

Big hugs, woman. Big hugs.

[fufaraw]

Pretty much what you said, all of it, even in the comments. Not excited, but still dedicated and invested. Disappointed in the return of Same Old Cas. Appreciating Jared's acting maturity and Sam's self-understanding maturity. I think my love for Dean's self-imposed blindness and stubborn refusal to deal has all but disappeared, until Jensen's onscreen work brings all that love back. Mostly. The scene behind the fast fish place left me eyebrow lifted and "really? again with this?" which saddens me. I should not be indifferent about Dean's pain.

I'm angry they fridged Missouri, after we kept her alive in our hearts and fic and kept hoping they'd bring her back. I sneer at CW's worship of callow and spuriously attractive youth over beauty and complexity and maturity, and frankly, I grow weary of hoping for better.

Jack is beginning to grow on me, and I'm interested in the dynamic between him and Sam, and I hate to see that diluted, or more likely replaced, by Jack's relationship with daddy!Castiel.

I miss Crowley. I miss Rowena. I want Bobby to run a long pike through Lucifer and team up with Mary to kick some AU ass. If we get to see them doing so on that side of the rift, I'm not sure I want them back in the same world with the brothers.

I hadn't found another show to be invested in, but I stumbled across Shadowhunters this summer, and I am intrigued. I DVRd new eps after I caught up on previous ones--and for the first time since SPN S6, I rewatched eps immediately after they aired. I love the characters, I love the cast, personally, and because they're diverse. I love the social issues addressed by the scripts, and whooboy! I love love love the pretty! It is silly, it's fantastic, but they don't ask for your belief in magic, you just fall into it as you watch. I really haven't felt this way about a show since S1-2 of SPN. I may not love it for 12 seasons, but for right now, it's just fine.

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

I agree with several of your thoughts, especially regarding the spin-off. I'm glad for Kim and Brianna that it got picked up, and I will hope for it to do well, but - righty or wrongly - I favour shows with male characters, and male leads. Always have, always will. That's why I could never get particularly excited over Buffy. And while nowadays I make a point of getting up early on Fridays to download our boys and watch them over my breakfast, I can't see me doing that for the spin-off.

[hugemind.livejournal.com]

I agree with your griping and more positive parts, every single one of them. I even tried to see the IMDb page for the actress playing Patience but her age wasn't listed there (in fact, I can't find it anywhere within Google search results which is kind of interesting).

I've realized that I have no emotional attachment to Jack. The actor playing him is doing a good job, and the character is bringing out new sides in Sam, but other than that, I don't really care what happens to Jack. Maybe that's just my self-preservation instincts at work, trying to shield me from the inevitable moment when Jack turns evil the writers make jack turn evil for the drama, or maybe I'm just dreading that Jack will be used for something impossible like Lucifer's redemption arc (I really really really hope that arc never happens). Maybe I'm already feeling the 'meh' that will happen when Cas returns and plays dad to Jack. And since we're being honest, I can tell you that haven't found Cas interesting in many seasons now and I mostly just fear what he's going to do to screw the boys over this time (likely by ignoring whatever the boys are telling him).

I also seem to have no interest in the spin-off. Claire was already such a Mary Sue tailored for the Cas fans that it put me off and now we get another Mary Sue and all it took was sacrificing Jody's competence and Missouri, BOOOOOOO. All the blah blah lifted from self-help and positive thinking books isn't going to make it interesting when the characters themselves are not interesting.

Your last statement is very true for me, too, but I still wake up too early on Show days and do an eager little seal clap bounce dance. :)

[sillie]

I'm pretty upset about Missouri (and I wasn't even her biggest fan; I wasn't to fond on how she treated Dean in season 1.). Bringing her back just to kill her, why show, why? :(

Also, the less I say about Castiel, the better. Just... ugh.

[fireheart13.livejournal.com]

all these thoughts are excellent and I relate