5x11, 5x12
If someone hadn't told me that 5x13 was going to kick my ass and 5x16 (or was it 14?) and 5x18 are worth waiting for, I would be very close to done with this season. My god, it's never fallen off the rails this badly as it did after the first disc. Two bright spots (one a pure joy and I have no complaints whatsoever, and the other only bright by virtue of immense acting and certainly not if I examine it closely) and the promise of those other few bright spots have been all that have kept me going lately.
5x11 was like someone re-wrote Asylum themes in crayon while listening to Wilson Phillips covering Muse covering Alanis Morissette, and didn't know whether to make it a comedy or a drama. Despite all that they do right with the boys individually and with their relationship, that last scene just sums up all of the things they do wrong with this epic angst they put the boys through. Sam goes through this awful self-revelation and hits this very dark place, and is trying to find space and honesty to express it, and what does Dean say, essentially? What does the show tell them? "Suck it up and shut up about it. At least until the next Big Moment." Ugh. I guess I should expect this now. But if I'm to expect this now, why the hell should I care about it? Just give me the comedy and the monsters of the week. Oh, and re: 5x10. That's all? Of course that's all. Something for the boys to angst over. Stick a pacifier in me, I'm done. The worst and most prominent themes of S5 seems to be manufacturing and/or regurgitating issues that have been stripped of all nuance, or simply pulled out of the blue. As if they didn't have enough to angst over. I said this in an email, and I'll say it again, S4 worked so well for me because it felt like everything that had gone on between them (everything, not cardboarded down to Issue #3 and Misunderstanding #8) built up to this natural climax. There was no stopping it, there was no escape, because all of that history had built up against their backs, pressing them forward. Now S5 is... is so kindergarten by comparison. As if the writers don't trust the actors to deliver nuance anymore. Or for us to understand without big bold letters spelling out the tiresome themes that they are apparently married to 'til death parts them. And don't get me started on how they treated the patients there. Just don't. It reminded me unkindly of SG-1's Hathor/Daniel comedy hour and the way women under whatever influence are "granted" sexual carte blanche because it's all about the guys' gratification and pathetic date rapists getting their jollies however they can because the tragedy and the triumph is all about them, the woman's still and ever the plaything crafted by mad scientists and sad sap writers and, just... no.
In other news, Jared continues to prove he cannot do under the influence convincingly. Jensen did well except for the Pudding scene. I'm tired of watching him waste effort on bad material, and I'm tired of watching people (specifically any women) be sacrificed so that he has more and more to act tortured over. I appreciate Jensen, but shut up, show.
In any case, I thought that episode was dumb until I saw 5x12. What a stupid, pointless episode. I have no patience for it whatsoever. I could barely make it past the atrocious opening scene of bad acting and misogyny before I got to the "she was the best babysitter we ever had!" or whatever that retconned shit was, and you know what, I was done with it. Just done.
I hate this show right now. Hate it. I couldn't even use my I ♥ these boys tag because I don't feel that way at all. I feel like I should post in depth about how 5x10 made me feel, but I'm still so overwhelmed by it and getting angrier the more I think of it, that I don't trust myself to be calm right now. I'm sure much of my reaction to 5x11-12 has to do with that. The trek from 5x13 to 5x22 seems impossibly long and difficult right now. I'm not sure I can get caught up in time, or if I even care to. I have no patience for this show right now. None. I couldn't care less about the big bad mytharc. I couldn't care less about their doom and destiny. Let 'em just jump off a cliff and end it, already. I couldn't care less about the latest Issue to Angst Over, and you want to know why? Because I hate their Issues to Angst Over. There's like three hundred of them on this show, and they're all the freakin' same. It's like, "Oooh, someone else died. I need a moment to cry." Oh, shut up! I hope they die. I hope that's the twist at the end. I hope they die and that next season, we follow Meg in the underworld. Or young Mary. Or both. Or that Faith storms in and hunts their asses down, because they've fucked up the world and all they have to show for it is a few half-assed non-apologies and a shitload of self-serving angst. I miss Sanctuary. I miss Angel telling Faith yes, you fucked up, now pick your own self up and face the music, and not this cheap yes, you fucked up but aww, it's not your fault, poor thing hand-washing SPN serves up for its protagonists time and time and time again. Oh, shut up.
I'm gonna go watch Aliens and imagine she is blowing the hell out of every fridge-keeping, sad sap date rape apologist ever.
ETA: OKAY, SO MAYBE I SHOULDN'T WORRY ABOUT BEING CALM ENOUGH TO WRITE ABOUT 5X10...
5x11 was like someone re-wrote Asylum themes in crayon while listening to Wilson Phillips covering Muse covering Alanis Morissette, and didn't know whether to make it a comedy or a drama. Despite all that they do right with the boys individually and with their relationship, that last scene just sums up all of the things they do wrong with this epic angst they put the boys through. Sam goes through this awful self-revelation and hits this very dark place, and is trying to find space and honesty to express it, and what does Dean say, essentially? What does the show tell them? "Suck it up and shut up about it. At least until the next Big Moment." Ugh. I guess I should expect this now. But if I'm to expect this now, why the hell should I care about it? Just give me the comedy and the monsters of the week. Oh, and re: 5x10. That's all? Of course that's all. Something for the boys to angst over. Stick a pacifier in me, I'm done. The worst and most prominent themes of S5 seems to be manufacturing and/or regurgitating issues that have been stripped of all nuance, or simply pulled out of the blue. As if they didn't have enough to angst over. I said this in an email, and I'll say it again, S4 worked so well for me because it felt like everything that had gone on between them (everything, not cardboarded down to Issue #3 and Misunderstanding #8) built up to this natural climax. There was no stopping it, there was no escape, because all of that history had built up against their backs, pressing them forward. Now S5 is... is so kindergarten by comparison. As if the writers don't trust the actors to deliver nuance anymore. Or for us to understand without big bold letters spelling out the tiresome themes that they are apparently married to 'til death parts them. And don't get me started on how they treated the patients there. Just don't. It reminded me unkindly of SG-1's Hathor/Daniel comedy hour and the way women under whatever influence are "granted" sexual carte blanche because it's all about the guys' gratification and pathetic date rapists getting their jollies however they can because the tragedy and the triumph is all about them, the woman's still and ever the plaything crafted by mad scientists and sad sap writers and, just... no.
In other news, Jared continues to prove he cannot do under the influence convincingly. Jensen did well except for the Pudding scene. I'm tired of watching him waste effort on bad material, and I'm tired of watching people (specifically any women) be sacrificed so that he has more and more to act tortured over. I appreciate Jensen, but shut up, show.
In any case, I thought that episode was dumb until I saw 5x12. What a stupid, pointless episode. I have no patience for it whatsoever. I could barely make it past the atrocious opening scene of bad acting and misogyny before I got to the "she was the best babysitter we ever had!" or whatever that retconned shit was, and you know what, I was done with it. Just done.
I hate this show right now. Hate it. I couldn't even use my I ♥ these boys tag because I don't feel that way at all. I feel like I should post in depth about how 5x10 made me feel, but I'm still so overwhelmed by it and getting angrier the more I think of it, that I don't trust myself to be calm right now. I'm sure much of my reaction to 5x11-12 has to do with that. The trek from 5x13 to 5x22 seems impossibly long and difficult right now. I'm not sure I can get caught up in time, or if I even care to. I have no patience for this show right now. None. I couldn't care less about the big bad mytharc. I couldn't care less about their doom and destiny. Let 'em just jump off a cliff and end it, already. I couldn't care less about the latest Issue to Angst Over, and you want to know why? Because I hate their Issues to Angst Over. There's like three hundred of them on this show, and they're all the freakin' same. It's like, "Oooh, someone else died. I need a moment to cry." Oh, shut up! I hope they die. I hope that's the twist at the end. I hope they die and that next season, we follow Meg in the underworld. Or young Mary. Or both. Or that Faith storms in and hunts their asses down, because they've fucked up the world and all they have to show for it is a few half-assed non-apologies and a shitload of self-serving angst. I miss Sanctuary. I miss Angel telling Faith yes, you fucked up, now pick your own self up and face the music, and not this cheap yes, you fucked up but aww, it's not your fault, poor thing hand-washing SPN serves up for its protagonists time and time and time again. Oh, shut up.
I'm gonna go watch Aliens and imagine she is blowing the hell out of every fridge-keeping, sad sap date rape apologist ever.
ETA: OKAY, SO MAYBE I SHOULDN'T WORRY ABOUT BEING CALM ENOUGH TO WRITE ABOUT 5X10...