Supernatural, Why Did I Watch 5 Seasons of This Rubbish, Ooh Crowley
As someone who just spent two weeks of their life watching all the way from Seasons 4 through 9 of Supernatural I feel fairly confident in having definite opinions of general levels of interesting-ness.
Season 4 I'd basically seen most of, I just rewatched the end so I knew where Season 5 was starting off. Yes, I stopped watching back when Season 5 aired. Yes, that was when Smallville was still on television. Yes, it meant there was a lot of random monster-killing tv to fit into a fortnight. No, I haven't got my sleep schedule back to anything resembling normal :P
So...S5. It's...good. Like actually interesting and genuine fun to watch. I was there watching it and being all 'I forgot I loved Supernatural! This is awesome!' and generally cooing over all the idiots and caring about Jo and Ellen and adoring Gabriel more than words can adequately convey (seriously. Gabriel is my new second favourite and was new actual favourite for a whole half season). And it all made sense, more or less. There was Lucifer and Michael and finding a way to fight back and Dean being a total pillock out of basically nowhere 20-odd episodes in and deciding that all the suffering of the last season should be totally ignored and he should say yes and Bobby and Cas providing much needed common sense. But yeah, enjoyable.
Season 6 is totally my favourite. I can say with absolute certainty that it was a filler season of epic proportions (so so obvious when watching all the way through in a manner that doesn't leave much room for sleeping or leaving the house at all in any way) in that everything plotful in the season was just gearing up for S7.1 and Cas going off the rails in a delightful twist that was actually really interesting to see.
But it was so beautifully cracked. The entire season is homages to random shows and genres- X-Files, Wild West, etc.- and is basically the entire reason freedomdarkness got texts like 'the episode with the time travel. the time travel to the past. the other time travel to the past, no other than that one' (she's gotten ones in subsequent seasons that just saying FUCKING TIMETRAVEL WTF). Balthazar! Balthazar alone would've been enough reason to watch, and all the episodes from other PoVs were amazing. I actually gave more of a damn about a day in the life of Bobby Singer than any of the long tedious scenes about Samuel Totally-Evil-And-Here-To-Screw-You-Over Campbell. And seeing the season from Cas' point of view at the end, ah, my feels *flails*
Also the Titanic. That's not going to stop being funny any time soon.
S6 also wins for Crowley. Love Crowley. Gabriel was my favourite for like S5 but then Crowley came along with his snark and his suit and his voice and my sexuality is now gay with a side of Crowley, and I'm totally okay with that ;D I loved watching Crowley get his torture on and him working with Castiel was so awesome I'm actually trying to smush my hands together whilst I type right now to convey what it did to me in terms of feels.
S7 was where all the plot went though. Everything about S6- Cas fighting Raphael, Purgatory, Crowley, everything- was leading up to the Leviathans. Also it was basically a season of seeing what else you could take away from the Winchesters. Bobby, check. The car, check (I missed the car more than I missed Cas, I'm a horrible person). It was just misery piled on loss, topped with pain and death and angst and woe. And Bobby. Poor Bobby. Also Crowley's scruffy beard really works for me, just keeping things in perspective.
Oh yeah, Sam being crazy. Honestly it made him more likeable until Cas came and swapped their brains over or whatever. Lucifer's forked tongue and general ability to be the most annoying little brat to ever exist brightened up many a dull episode.
Meg and Cas was kind of sweet.
But again the last couple of episodes were basically paving the way for the next season. It kind of made sense when watching it, unexpected prophet + magical tablet = helpful and timely way to kill Dick (and god what a dick he was) that would've been more helpful before everybody had been killed off, but made more sense when S8 came around and it was suddenly the entire plot.
Charlie is my third favourite btw. Charlie is wonderful. Charlie should never leave Oz. Charlie is too awesome to hang out with Winchesters.
This season also introduced the novel concept of timetravel (to the past, not the future, to not the 70's, or the 70's again, but to the 1940's and seriously enough with the time travel) not done by angels.
Season 8 is rubbish. Tedious rubbish with 3 soft-focus flashbacks every episode and monologuing about family and responsibility and ffs, it took actual cheerleading from Sian and copious amounts of Benny (the only good thing to come out of S8) and Crowley to get me to finish. It's dull. Endlessly preachy from Dean, needlessly whiny from Sam, tiresome stupidity from everyone about why Cas has gone off the rails again, and hypocrisy so strong I had to go away and watch the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony to escape it.
Also more time travel, yays. Nothing says running out of ideas quite like another hunter-royalty grandfather suddenly rocking up in modern times, although this one at least came with a super secret bunker of awesomeness that looks like something out of Captain America and provided a very welcome home base.
Charlie continues awesome. Only awesome people get to be queen.
And then all the shitstorm with the trials and Metatron happen and Dean and Sam are too stupid to read the fine print before throwing themselves in, Cas is too stupid to ask for help from someone that hasn't been creeping about earth since before Gabriel ran off into witness protection, Heaven is filled with morons that don't know when to just give up on the system, and Crowley is the only one with sense (and even that is wasting away the longer he spends round the idiot Winchesters).
Season 9. More watchable than 8, more plotful than 6 and 7, just as much stupidity as 8 but almost entirely from Dean and therefore it's amusing to watch his life fall apart and snicker when everything he does, whilst monologuing about family and doing the right thing, kills people and rips the world apart even more.
Also Gabriel. I'm shallow. I like my pretties onscreen and snarky. Not-dead would be nice but it's not a deal breaker. Crowley, wonderful crazycakes drugged Crowley. Getting an intervention from the Winchesters was basically the lowest point his character could possibly go through so everything was up from there, even extended time in the creepy supernatural sex dungeon that basically exists to prove all Winchesters have had kinky bondage things going on with monsters since like the 20's.
Also Metatron is a millions kinds of skeevy. He's like all the weird 'no-one liked me in highschool. or now' of Warren from Buffy and none of the unexpected horror that came from having a normal human be basically the most successful bad guy when it came to killing off main characters. He was just so convinced of his own intelligence and batshit crazy obsessed with plots and people playing their roles like that worked out so well for God in S5.
Thus end all my belated thoughts about Supernatural and everything that happened since I stopped watching in Season 4 ;P
Season 4 I'd basically seen most of, I just rewatched the end so I knew where Season 5 was starting off. Yes, I stopped watching back when Season 5 aired. Yes, that was when Smallville was still on television. Yes, it meant there was a lot of random monster-killing tv to fit into a fortnight. No, I haven't got my sleep schedule back to anything resembling normal :P
So...S5. It's...good. Like actually interesting and genuine fun to watch. I was there watching it and being all 'I forgot I loved Supernatural! This is awesome!' and generally cooing over all the idiots and caring about Jo and Ellen and adoring Gabriel more than words can adequately convey (seriously. Gabriel is my new second favourite and was new actual favourite for a whole half season). And it all made sense, more or less. There was Lucifer and Michael and finding a way to fight back and Dean being a total pillock out of basically nowhere 20-odd episodes in and deciding that all the suffering of the last season should be totally ignored and he should say yes and Bobby and Cas providing much needed common sense. But yeah, enjoyable.
Season 6 is totally my favourite. I can say with absolute certainty that it was a filler season of epic proportions (so so obvious when watching all the way through in a manner that doesn't leave much room for sleeping or leaving the house at all in any way) in that everything plotful in the season was just gearing up for S7.1 and Cas going off the rails in a delightful twist that was actually really interesting to see.
But it was so beautifully cracked. The entire season is homages to random shows and genres- X-Files, Wild West, etc.- and is basically the entire reason freedomdarkness got texts like 'the episode with the time travel. the time travel to the past. the other time travel to the past, no other than that one' (she's gotten ones in subsequent seasons that just saying FUCKING TIMETRAVEL WTF). Balthazar! Balthazar alone would've been enough reason to watch, and all the episodes from other PoVs were amazing. I actually gave more of a damn about a day in the life of Bobby Singer than any of the long tedious scenes about Samuel Totally-Evil-And-Here-To-Screw-You-Over Campbell. And seeing the season from Cas' point of view at the end, ah, my feels *flails*
Also the Titanic. That's not going to stop being funny any time soon.
S6 also wins for Crowley. Love Crowley. Gabriel was my favourite for like S5 but then Crowley came along with his snark and his suit and his voice and my sexuality is now gay with a side of Crowley, and I'm totally okay with that ;D I loved watching Crowley get his torture on and him working with Castiel was so awesome I'm actually trying to smush my hands together whilst I type right now to convey what it did to me in terms of feels.
S7 was where all the plot went though. Everything about S6- Cas fighting Raphael, Purgatory, Crowley, everything- was leading up to the Leviathans. Also it was basically a season of seeing what else you could take away from the Winchesters. Bobby, check. The car, check (I missed the car more than I missed Cas, I'm a horrible person). It was just misery piled on loss, topped with pain and death and angst and woe. And Bobby. Poor Bobby. Also Crowley's scruffy beard really works for me, just keeping things in perspective.
Oh yeah, Sam being crazy. Honestly it made him more likeable until Cas came and swapped their brains over or whatever. Lucifer's forked tongue and general ability to be the most annoying little brat to ever exist brightened up many a dull episode.
Meg and Cas was kind of sweet.
But again the last couple of episodes were basically paving the way for the next season. It kind of made sense when watching it, unexpected prophet + magical tablet = helpful and timely way to kill Dick (and god what a dick he was) that would've been more helpful before everybody had been killed off, but made more sense when S8 came around and it was suddenly the entire plot.
Charlie is my third favourite btw. Charlie is wonderful. Charlie should never leave Oz. Charlie is too awesome to hang out with Winchesters.
This season also introduced the novel concept of timetravel (to the past, not the future, to not the 70's, or the 70's again, but to the 1940's and seriously enough with the time travel) not done by angels.
Season 8 is rubbish. Tedious rubbish with 3 soft-focus flashbacks every episode and monologuing about family and responsibility and ffs, it took actual cheerleading from Sian and copious amounts of Benny (the only good thing to come out of S8) and Crowley to get me to finish. It's dull. Endlessly preachy from Dean, needlessly whiny from Sam, tiresome stupidity from everyone about why Cas has gone off the rails again, and hypocrisy so strong I had to go away and watch the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony to escape it.
Also more time travel, yays. Nothing says running out of ideas quite like another hunter-royalty grandfather suddenly rocking up in modern times, although this one at least came with a super secret bunker of awesomeness that looks like something out of Captain America and provided a very welcome home base.
Charlie continues awesome. Only awesome people get to be queen.
And then all the shitstorm with the trials and Metatron happen and Dean and Sam are too stupid to read the fine print before throwing themselves in, Cas is too stupid to ask for help from someone that hasn't been creeping about earth since before Gabriel ran off into witness protection, Heaven is filled with morons that don't know when to just give up on the system, and Crowley is the only one with sense (and even that is wasting away the longer he spends round the idiot Winchesters).
Season 9. More watchable than 8, more plotful than 6 and 7, just as much stupidity as 8 but almost entirely from Dean and therefore it's amusing to watch his life fall apart and snicker when everything he does, whilst monologuing about family and doing the right thing, kills people and rips the world apart even more.
Also Gabriel. I'm shallow. I like my pretties onscreen and snarky. Not-dead would be nice but it's not a deal breaker. Crowley, wonderful crazycakes drugged Crowley. Getting an intervention from the Winchesters was basically the lowest point his character could possibly go through so everything was up from there, even extended time in the creepy supernatural sex dungeon that basically exists to prove all Winchesters have had kinky bondage things going on with monsters since like the 20's.
Also Metatron is a millions kinds of skeevy. He's like all the weird 'no-one liked me in highschool. or now' of Warren from Buffy and none of the unexpected horror that came from having a normal human be basically the most successful bad guy when it came to killing off main characters. He was just so convinced of his own intelligence and batshit crazy obsessed with plots and people playing their roles like that worked out so well for God in S5.
Thus end all my belated thoughts about Supernatural and everything that happened since I stopped watching in Season 4 ;P