Supernatural was at one point, a really great show. It was evocative, had great play with the two main actors, and was honestly one of the shows I told everyone they needed to watch. Dean is one of the greatest characters on television currently, and Jensen Ackles is ones of the best actors I can think of through the portrayals he has done.
But this season, more recently these last two episodes, have been terrible. They both start out strong, with interesting themes, character developments, and progressions, until it comes to the climax, where it becomes just a hodge-podge of stupidity, a lack of understanding of Christian mythology (sidenote: yes, I said mytholgy; If you have a problem with that, then get over it, as I have an opinion on that), and just stupid "twists." It's like they added M. Night Shyamalan to their writer's circle.
Every season of Supernatural has had a meta-plot, a guiding hand throughout the course of the episodic events. It has been different in each season, and each season has a different feel because of it. Season 1 focused on the brothers doing their thing as hunters, alone except for each other, as they search for their Dad. A hint of the theme was mentioned each episode, but only three episodes in the whole season even dealt with this plot (and I am stretching on one of them). 2.5/22
Season 2 delved deeper into some setup that had been thrown around in Season 1, with Sam's strange psychic powers coming to the forefront of the metaplot. In the long run, the whole season was about Sam and the other Psychic Children, but instead of touching on it each episode, it devoted a certain number of episodes to furthering this plot, while still keeping the rest of the season episodic in nature. Overall, there were six episodes dealing with these themes, as well as a few episodes that dealt with themes from last season (and a few that were foreshadowing later events, like Houses of the Holy). 6/22
Season 3 is all about Dean, as at the end of Season 2, Dean sold his soul to bring Sam back to life. This is a very different metaplot, that even hinged on a Season 2 episode. It touched and drove EVERY episode of this season, which was a nice change, as the whole season was about different things, but they all tied into the metaplot seemlessly. Only two episodes truely were solely about this plot. 2/16
Season 4 ... started VERY strong, with Dean coming back from hell, saved by the Angels to do God's work. There are some GREAT episodes of Season 4, all of them dealing with Dean and Sam as they both changed because of the events between the two seasons. But after these past two weeks, things are getting out of hand. Including last Thursday's episode, there have been eight episodes that dealt with this plot either singlehandedly or worse (more on that in a minute.) 8/18!! That isn't even including a season finale yet!!
Then you have "It's a Terrible Life" - ha, ha, I get it, it is a play on that movie ... - and "The Monster at the End of this Book".
It's a Terrible Clique starts with the two brothers in very different life than the last episode, working for a computer company of some sort. Sam is a Tech guy, and Dean is one of the middle management types. Twists and turns reveal a ghost is forcing bad employees to be GREAT employees, so commited that after a single failed action for the company, like the computer freezing and losing a days work or forgeting a memo, they kill themselves. Sam and Dean, having no memory of their hunter lives, still are able to stop the ghost! It was a great episode ... until the last five minutes. There is a great recurring character that SHOULD have been the plot of this epiosde, the Trickster, from Season 2 and my favorite episode from Season 3. He is all about screwing with Sam, and this is what this episode did. Until the guy I thought was the Trickster killed himself, and even up until the last scene, I was sure that was gonna be the reveal. But what was the reveal? A fucking Angel, dicking around with Dean, since Dean had a terribly powerful and emotion scene about how he isn't strong enough to do what God wants him to. What the hell?! Why did this episode have to tie in to that plot line at ALL?! It could have stood on its own, especially after the involvement of the NEXT episode.
The Monster at the End of this Episode is a GREAT premise of meta-fiction. Sam and Dean find out that books have been written about their lives. Literally. Episode titles and straight out scenes, to the T. They track down the precognitive author, who in a bit of meta-fiction reveals that he never stopped writing, though the books stopped being published, and this is all currently happening as he wrote it. There are so many good things to say about this first part of the episode that it makes me EVEN MORE ANGRY THAT THE REST WAS TERRIBLE!
In a nice plot hole, the author shows the last chapter he wrote, that ends with Sam sleeping with Lilith, the big bad of this season and last. Come to find out, if only the precognitive author had seen ONE FUCKING SECOND LONGER, he would have seen Sam was luring her in to kill her. But nope, we needed worthless stupid conflict between the brothers.
Oh yeah, why is the author a pre-cog? Because he is a PROPHET FROM GOD WRITING THE "Winchester Gospels". What the fuck?! First off, the Gospels are the "Good News of CHRIST!" Jesus has to be in them for them to be Gospels! Secondly, WHY DID THIS HAVE TO GET TIED INTO THE PLOT?! Why couldn't this episode have stood on its own? Nope, we have to listen to Dickhead Angel as he tells the author/prophet that he has to keep writing, and isn't allowed to help Sam and Dean, and if he kills himself, the angels will just RESSURECT HIM AND FORCE HIM TO KEEP DOING IT!
Now, there is some great Castiel moments, who is the best thing to come out of this season - except for "Kneel before Todd!" - and the introduction of the idea of Archangels was intriguing, though it played out like a lame jury-rigged poor man's process earthquake with lights outside ...
So help me, if the rest of this season is going to keep forcing this dickhead Angel and these stupid plots into my face, I'm gonna drop the show entirely.
3.4.09
On April Fool's Day 2009
April 1st, 2009 has rolled along. And I look back to the great pranks that happened this year like ... youtube flipping videos upside down ... and ... really fake news about Firefly coming back and Lost being canceled.
What the hell? What happened? Last year, the internet was ablaze with the GREATEST prank for a LONG time, the RickRoll. And what do we get this year? Hackneyed efforts and lame jokes. Hell, "I herd u lik Mudkips" last year, but this year, you just ban everyone, DA?
I am sadden by the state of prankster affairs this year.
But know this, April Fool's Day, I'm never going to give you up. I'm never going to let you down. Never going to run around and desert you. Never gonna ... ok, I'm sure you get the joke, so I'll leave it at that.
By the by, Blizzard. If you DID do PVP Dance-offs, I'd actually pay for WoW. Just sayin'. I said the same thing about Bard. And about playing as a Wisp. Why is it that Blizzard's best ideas to get me hooked on their game are only jokes to them? They need to do more field testing and surveys.
What the hell? What happened? Last year, the internet was ablaze with the GREATEST prank for a LONG time, the RickRoll. And what do we get this year? Hackneyed efforts and lame jokes. Hell, "I herd u lik Mudkips" last year, but this year, you just ban everyone, DA?
I am sadden by the state of prankster affairs this year.
But know this, April Fool's Day, I'm never going to give you up. I'm never going to let you down. Never going to run around and desert you. Never gonna ... ok, I'm sure you get the joke, so I'll leave it at that.
By the by, Blizzard. If you DID do PVP Dance-offs, I'd actually pay for WoW. Just sayin'. I said the same thing about Bard. And about playing as a Wisp. Why is it that Blizzard's best ideas to get me hooked on their game are only jokes to them? They need to do more field testing and surveys.
29.3.09
On Childish Things
If you know me, then you know that Labyrinth is my absolute favorite movie of all time. It's got adventure, morals, clear lines of thought and directing, great cinematography, and David Bowie. There isn't much more you can ask for from a flick. Why do I lead this blog in with that? Because two scenes in particular have been in my mind recently.
The first scene is that of the junk lady and Sarah. Long story short, Sarah is brought into her room, and has all of her toys and things piled around and on her, weighing her down, as the Junk Lady tries to make Sarah forget about her purpose there in the Goblin Kingdom. And it works, until Sarah realizes that all these things are just that: things, toys, trifles. And declaring "they're all junk" the entire room begins to collapse into itself, showing the junk that lined it, as she goes on to her quest to save her baby brother.
Obviously, this scene has a lot of important things happening in it, though the one I wanna harp on is the most blatant: the idea of Sarah realizing the worthlessness of her toys and "throwing away" as it were her childish things. This is an interesting scene, as the movie gives a good character view of Sarah through these items in particular, as well as foreshadowing the vast majority of the movie through them, let alone sparks off the conflict that sets up the plot with the Goblin Kingdom through her own love of her toys. It goes so far as having her throw away the lipstick she used earlier in the movie to help solver her way through the labyrinth which ended up being worthless, as the denizens continued to screw with her.
As the junk lady tries to smother and bury Sarah in these items (coincidentally, turning Sarah into a Junk Lady herself), our heroine realizes her folly in caring so much about these things and tosses them aside, and pulls herself out of the pile of junk she had almost buried herself in.
We as watchers can take a certain amount of advice from this obviously: let go and put away your childish things, your games, and books, and toys. It is a step along the road to being an adult. You have to put aside those things so you can focus. You hear messages like this all over the place, especially in circles of advice and foundations of faith, like your parents and churches and elders and what have you.
But this is merely the prelude to my main point. The ending of the film has Sarah, now finished on her Heroic Journey to become an adult, or at least to stop acting like a foolish child, as she is putting things away in her room, letting go of not only those toys and things, but the memories that have been keeping her from enjoying life with her father and step-mother (this is another entirely separate topic, hell the whole movie is really, heh). She then sees the reflection of her friends she made within the Labyrinth. First Ludo, then Sir Didymus, and finally Hoggle, who implores: "...should you need us, for any reason at all ..."
At this, Sarah breaks down. She says that she does, for no reason in particular, but she does need them. All of them. Which leads to a happy dance sequence where friend and foe and imaginary creature alike laugh and have fun, as Jareth (temptation, but again, that is another topic) flies off, not invited.
What does this truely have to do with the previous idea?
We all have items in our lives that are childish. We have our games, our toys, our hobbies, that are not what a self-respecting adult would do. But this is a new age, and we are a new generation, and Sarah reminds us that we NEED these things in our lives. We need to be able to think like a child and have joy like a child sometimes in our adult lives. We cannot remove everything, or else we lose a piece of who we are. It is inexplicable, and highly attested (especially by our parent's generation), though for no reason at all, I am sure everyone can understand this. And agree.
Do not let go of your childish things. Not all of them at least. They are what built you up to where you are. They are a foundation that once chipped away, leaves nothing, and a new building is set where the old one existed. Cling tightly, for no reason at all. Just because you choose to continue to cling.
The first scene is that of the junk lady and Sarah. Long story short, Sarah is brought into her room, and has all of her toys and things piled around and on her, weighing her down, as the Junk Lady tries to make Sarah forget about her purpose there in the Goblin Kingdom. And it works, until Sarah realizes that all these things are just that: things, toys, trifles. And declaring "they're all junk" the entire room begins to collapse into itself, showing the junk that lined it, as she goes on to her quest to save her baby brother.
Obviously, this scene has a lot of important things happening in it, though the one I wanna harp on is the most blatant: the idea of Sarah realizing the worthlessness of her toys and "throwing away" as it were her childish things. This is an interesting scene, as the movie gives a good character view of Sarah through these items in particular, as well as foreshadowing the vast majority of the movie through them, let alone sparks off the conflict that sets up the plot with the Goblin Kingdom through her own love of her toys. It goes so far as having her throw away the lipstick she used earlier in the movie to help solver her way through the labyrinth which ended up being worthless, as the denizens continued to screw with her.
As the junk lady tries to smother and bury Sarah in these items (coincidentally, turning Sarah into a Junk Lady herself), our heroine realizes her folly in caring so much about these things and tosses them aside, and pulls herself out of the pile of junk she had almost buried herself in.
We as watchers can take a certain amount of advice from this obviously: let go and put away your childish things, your games, and books, and toys. It is a step along the road to being an adult. You have to put aside those things so you can focus. You hear messages like this all over the place, especially in circles of advice and foundations of faith, like your parents and churches and elders and what have you.
But this is merely the prelude to my main point. The ending of the film has Sarah, now finished on her Heroic Journey to become an adult, or at least to stop acting like a foolish child, as she is putting things away in her room, letting go of not only those toys and things, but the memories that have been keeping her from enjoying life with her father and step-mother (this is another entirely separate topic, hell the whole movie is really, heh). She then sees the reflection of her friends she made within the Labyrinth. First Ludo, then Sir Didymus, and finally Hoggle, who implores: "...should you need us, for any reason at all ..."
At this, Sarah breaks down. She says that she does, for no reason in particular, but she does need them. All of them. Which leads to a happy dance sequence where friend and foe and imaginary creature alike laugh and have fun, as Jareth (temptation, but again, that is another topic) flies off, not invited.
What does this truely have to do with the previous idea?
We all have items in our lives that are childish. We have our games, our toys, our hobbies, that are not what a self-respecting adult would do. But this is a new age, and we are a new generation, and Sarah reminds us that we NEED these things in our lives. We need to be able to think like a child and have joy like a child sometimes in our adult lives. We cannot remove everything, or else we lose a piece of who we are. It is inexplicable, and highly attested (especially by our parent's generation), though for no reason at all, I am sure everyone can understand this. And agree.
Do not let go of your childish things. Not all of them at least. They are what built you up to where you are. They are a foundation that once chipped away, leaves nothing, and a new building is set where the old one existed. Cling tightly, for no reason at all. Just because you choose to continue to cling.
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