pick up your blasted cues, show!
May. 2nd, 2008 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseThis isn't about "Long Distance Caller" so much as it's about the entire third season, but I'mma put it behind a cut anyway.
Man, I don't know what to do with this season. Last night's ep really didn't work for me, but I kind of feel like it's the season's fault. I think they made a mistake with the way they handled Dean's deal, because it's sucked all the momentum right out of the show. Sam and Dean have been so helpless in the face of it that the audience is just waiting out the ticking clock, and that's not the best position for them to be in.
The characterizations last night were all messed up. Dean was too trusting, and did a total 180 on trying to break his deal. Sam was too skeptical, too harsh, and wasn't there for his brother when Dean clearly needed him. But I also felt like they misused John - because John sold his own soul for Dean, he gets why a man would do that sort of thing, and whatever Dean did he kept Sammy alive, and that matters too. John would yell at Dean for the deal, but he'd also be glad, deep down inside, that for one year longer both of his sons were alive. See also: Bobby in AHBL 2. And Sam should have talked to John. Sam's daddy issues run just as deep, but for different reasons. His problem is that he's so much like his daddy that they can't ever manage to just love each other without fighting. He fought with his daddy right before his daddy died. How shiny would it have been for Sam to get to talk to John for beyond the fricking grave, to have the chance to patch it up that he never got in real life, and then to end up fighting with him over Dean's deal? Salt in a wound, man. That would push the character buttons like nobody's business.
All year, so many threads have been dropped. We keep being told that these players in the demon war want something to do with Sam - Ruby, Lilith, Pride. I have no idea, from anything the show has given me, why that would be. There was a throwaway reference to Sam's psychic thing waaaay back in "Dream a Little Dream," but nothing since. Right now, I honestly can't see as a viewer why the demons would want Sam Winchester any more than they'd want any other hunter.
I want some damn build, here! We're two episodes away from the end of the season, and I want something that drives forward. I want something that arcs out over three or four episodes in a row, they way it used to in Season Two. I want to be able to intuit something about where we'll be, emotionally, next week based on last night's ep, and I really can't do that. It's a problem.
They've had a hard row to hoe this year, I guess. The strike couldn't have been easy, and they're still trying to create a new mytharc after killing off Azazel. Parallel circumstances to Buffy Season Four - kind of with the flailing. But right now I don't feel like this season is going to fulfill me in any way. I'm sure - albeit unspoiled - that we're coming up to a pretty agonizing cliffhanger. I don't think we're getting any resolution before that. I think we're just counting down until the deal comes due.
Maybe next season will be better?
Man, I don't know what to do with this season. Last night's ep really didn't work for me, but I kind of feel like it's the season's fault. I think they made a mistake with the way they handled Dean's deal, because it's sucked all the momentum right out of the show. Sam and Dean have been so helpless in the face of it that the audience is just waiting out the ticking clock, and that's not the best position for them to be in.
The characterizations last night were all messed up. Dean was too trusting, and did a total 180 on trying to break his deal. Sam was too skeptical, too harsh, and wasn't there for his brother when Dean clearly needed him. But I also felt like they misused John - because John sold his own soul for Dean, he gets why a man would do that sort of thing, and whatever Dean did he kept Sammy alive, and that matters too. John would yell at Dean for the deal, but he'd also be glad, deep down inside, that for one year longer both of his sons were alive. See also: Bobby in AHBL 2. And Sam should have talked to John. Sam's daddy issues run just as deep, but for different reasons. His problem is that he's so much like his daddy that they can't ever manage to just love each other without fighting. He fought with his daddy right before his daddy died. How shiny would it have been for Sam to get to talk to John for beyond the fricking grave, to have the chance to patch it up that he never got in real life, and then to end up fighting with him over Dean's deal? Salt in a wound, man. That would push the character buttons like nobody's business.
All year, so many threads have been dropped. We keep being told that these players in the demon war want something to do with Sam - Ruby, Lilith, Pride. I have no idea, from anything the show has given me, why that would be. There was a throwaway reference to Sam's psychic thing waaaay back in "Dream a Little Dream," but nothing since. Right now, I honestly can't see as a viewer why the demons would want Sam Winchester any more than they'd want any other hunter.
I want some damn build, here! We're two episodes away from the end of the season, and I want something that drives forward. I want something that arcs out over three or four episodes in a row, they way it used to in Season Two. I want to be able to intuit something about where we'll be, emotionally, next week based on last night's ep, and I really can't do that. It's a problem.
They've had a hard row to hoe this year, I guess. The strike couldn't have been easy, and they're still trying to create a new mytharc after killing off Azazel. Parallel circumstances to Buffy Season Four - kind of with the flailing. But right now I don't feel like this season is going to fulfill me in any way. I'm sure - albeit unspoiled - that we're coming up to a pretty agonizing cliffhanger. I don't think we're getting any resolution before that. I think we're just counting down until the deal comes due.
Maybe next season will be better?