Review(s) - Spn ep's. 18-20

[ferrous_wheeler]

Okay, I've been extremely lazy (again) and I am waaaayyyyy behind with my reviews, so I'm going to catch up on the last three ep's and will keep it short and sweet... or critical and bitter, whatever ;P

Ep. 6.20 Bloodlines:
Well... there was that... I'm going to go out on a limb and say: THAT WAS TERRIBLE!
Things I didn't like:
The clichés! Oy vey the clichés!

• girlfriend/almost fiancée dying - check (sorry Sam but you're not unique)
• evil sister/sibling - check (any number of movies/tv shows)
• star-crossed lovers - check (Romeo and Juliet)
• the warring factions  - check (oh heck, far too many shows current and past to mention)
• the lovers agreeing to meet at a location and only show up if they wanted to run away together (yup, Sam did that too)
• missing (dead?) mysterious father - check and check (this could also go in the next category)

I'm sure there's more but, really, why bother.

Things I really didn't like:

• the retcon! Since when can Shifters just poof! change?! What happened to the gross skin stripping and teeth dripping?! Maybe it's only their country cousins that are so declassé, but I don't think so. Plus, why would David(?) need to ask what'shisname for info. when he was pretending to be the cop as, previously, shifters linked mentally to the people they were copying and knew everything they knew?
• since when did all these monster types get together enough that they could take over a city and not have any hunters (Bobby!) apparently know about it? One would think that that sort of thing would be a little more noticeable .
• that the motw was a cross between Freddy Kreuger and Riddick and had his own cliché reason for his version of hunting

Things I despised:

• the acting! Ye gods the acting! Or should I say, the near total lack thereof.
• that there was extremely little of Sam and Dean and that they were actually almost blasé about monsters forming organized units and running Chicago

So, in short: will I be watching the spin-off? At this point, highly unlikely though I like to keep an open mind and will check it out in the hope that things might change drastically in the actual series and that it won't look like another version of The Originals.
Very disappointed *sigh*...

Ep. 19 Alex/Annie whatever:
Good Motw. Loved the blurry shots. Thought Alex/Annie was annoying. Dean with the hand remark was funny. Got really worried for a bit there that they were going to kill off Jody too. Sam recovered verrrryyyy quickly from the blood loss. And last but not least - hey! where did the snow come from? One moment they're walking on dirt, and then they get to the cabin and there's all sorts of snow. Yeah, I know it's weird that I think it's important, but hey I'm Canadian, just been through 7 months of winter, it's nearly May AND IT'S STILL NOT WARM! so, yeah, I notice these things ;p

Ep. 18 Meta-fiction
Had a little problem with this one - for some reason the cable died for this channel, and this channel only. So, I got to see Dean take his shower (yaya!) but then pfft! that was it. Blue screen. They did eventually get it working again but not until after the show ended and then, to my great surprise, they actually still broadcast the show buuutttt there was no sound - which I got around by putting on the subtitles *sigh* The things you have to do... Anyway:

• Liked the cool title card banner.
• Jensen's acting was just fantastic!!! He can pull off menacing like no one's business and he also did a great job of showing how Dean is totally on the edge - when Sam left and Gadreel was left with Dean, I could really feel that the angel should have been considerably afraid as he'd just been left alone with the far more dangerous brother.
• Idk, for some reason this ep. really reminded me of Swan Song where Chuck is talking to the screen(?) and goes on about how 'endings are hard' - not much different from Metatron talking about his writing.
• Metatron: Is he now the new prophet? And, if so, is he transcribing things before or after they have happened? And if he's receiving images, like the prophets, then doesn't that mean that God is still out there. Plus, how do you beat someone who knows what's going to happen before you do? Hmmmm....