I remember christmas

[krickets]

001. Let it first be said that I love this show. I feel like every time I complain or don't like an episode or say, yes, good, but there's something missing, that it probably makes everyone assume that I don't like the show. But no. I do. I love this show.


002. Let's start off by what I did like. The goofy moment with the elf at the beginning, the amulet, silent night debacles, fudge, the scene at the end (sort of), and well, Dean and Sam were in it...


003. Wee!Sam was the cutest thing ever. But overall I did not like these scenes. The moment with the amulet was pure gold, and tugged at the heartstrings and all of that, but I was mostly just underwhelmed with the quality of these scenes. The dialogue, even the performances by the young actors - with the slight exception of wee!sam. It mirrored much of how I feel about that last scene between Dean and Sam, so I'll explain what I mean by that in numbers 5 & 6.


004. The villians were goofy, with some horribly cringe-worthy gore mixed in. I'm not impressed. Honestly? It looked downright scary from the ads and I was so looking forward to it. Instead we got June and Ward Cleaver. I am well aware that that was the point. But I'm so sick of this new bright, but gory!, world I could scream. And okay, I get that they were "gods" - but since when do Dean and Sam fight like a couple-a nancy-boys? Just saying.


005. While I did enjoy that last scene, I was torn because it felt like there should have been so much more. During it, and other parts of the show (with the wee!chesters and the earlier talks of Christmas) - I felt like the actors weren't even in the same room as each other. There's something stifled and empty, like they just keep aiming and missing each other every time. And I don't know who to blame. The writers? Oh surely. This could go so much futher, so much deeper, and it has before. Remember some choice moments from season 1, John and Sam at each other's throats and Dean as the unwitting mediator. Among others, but that is the most vivid example I can recall.


006. I just don't think there was anything really great about this episode. And it has been, so far, the one and only holiday episode. I remember Buffy. (And I'm not mentioning it just because of the similar supernatural themes.) And I remember Amends and I remember how utterly brilliant that whole thing was. And how it sticks out in my memory even now. The things the characters said to each other, and how they hurt each other, and how they loved each other, were all so raw and open and could fill whole rooms with their heaviness. (And that was season 3 of that series, too.) And with Supernatural, we're not even dealing with an ensemble cast. We are dealing with, essentially, two characters. So why is it so hard, it seems for the writers to reach them? And maybe I'm utterly stupid, or maybe I just expect too much, but this episode of Supernatural, and this season in fact, just feels so disconnected, and so empty, when there should be so much more

Comments

how did this comment get so long? (sorry!)

[cynthia-arrow.livejournal.com]

I've been feeling that disconnect, too (although not as much last night as I did earlier in the season), and I've come to think maybe it's as much me as it is them. Honestly, I've been distancing myself from Dean's emo crap just like Dean's been distancing himself from it. I just don't let myself get invested. Which is weird, because I didn't have that problem with Sam last season during his I-Might-Be-Evil-OMG-ANGST!, and I'm a freakin' Sam girl, for crissakes! But I just can't handle the emo.

Of course, maybe it really IS the writers' (or actors') fault. I think there are just some writers who can tap into the Winchester angst and some who can't, and different episodes cut different people to the quick. I think I was in the minority who didn't feel anything when Sam shot Maddison, despite the tears and the pleading and the Implications for Sam's Eternal Fate. It just didn't click for me, felt forced.

Other times, it's not a matter of forcing but a matter of not bringing out enough emotion. I think the reason I was okay with last night was that Sam and Dean individually seemed to be emoting and feeling and dealing with shit; it was just the spark between them was maybe not as strong (except when they're grinning at each other at the end). But consider the plot, how it dealt with the way they were on different wavelengths. Even if the fangirls weeped and wailed and squeed, I don't think the episode was designed to elicit that. To me, it seemed to focus on how hard it is for them to negotiate what's happening to Dean. A little schmoop on top of a lot of awkwardness and confusion. Some people turn that little schmoop into a lot; some people tap into that confusion and feel...weird when it's over. Most of us are somewhere in between, I think.

And we can just respectfully disagree about the kids. ;) (I didn't think the scenes were stellar--low energy there, too--but I thought they perfectly cast those kids and I enjoyed seeing those flashbacks.)

Re: how did this comment get so long? (sorry!)

[crickets.livejournal.com]

I guess I didn't totally hate the ep. I mean, no I didn't. But I certainly didn't love it. Not nearly as much as the rest of fandom did. Makes me feel kind of... insane, everyone around me going into epileptic fits of joy while I'm just kind of meh.

I gotta say, wee!sammy hit the ball out of the park, but he didn't have much to work with. And I am so not a fan of wee!dean. Just... not at all.