Twin Peaks: The Return (2017; d. David Lynch)
There’s nothing else like it in all of God’s green earth and I am just so grateful it exists. It’s so pure.
Suze (2025; d. Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart)
I liked this! I reviewed for Ebert.
The Straight Story (1999; d. David Lynch)
This was generally treated as an anomaly in 1999. Like, how WILD it is David Lynch would do THIS. But it makes perfect sense. It’s not an anomaly at all. Lynch goes slowwwwwww. He is never in a rush. He doesn’t rush humor, bits, he doesn’t rush through TIME in general. It is a WILD attribute to have. Rare in artists, rare in general. Here it is in its purest form. I love this movie.
The Fall of Diddy (2025)
I already know this whole shitshow, although I had no idea how bad it was. I can say now I am fully up to speed and I will now try to ignore it.
September 5 (2024; d. Tim Fehlbaum)
ABC Sports was covering the 1972 Olympics in Munich, using a live feed to broadcast the events. Everything changed when armed masked terrorists took members of the Israeli team hostage. ABC “owned” the Olympics, and they made the decision to continue broadcasting – pointing their live feed directly into the Olympic Village, right at the apartment where the terrorists held the hostages … This event is covered in the documentary One Day in September, and this is a dramatization of those events. I thought it was excellent/
Rounding (2025; d. Alex Thompson)
I reviewed for Ebert.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945; d. Albert Lewin)
I was in Chicago this month and it was frigid cold. We didn’t leave the apartment for two straight days. We all lay on the couch, curled up in blankets, and watched TCM the whole day. Angela Lansbury! George Sanders, who was made to play Oscar Wilde. It’s interesting because one of my 2025 reading projects is to read the entirety of Oscar Wilde’s work: plays, stories, journalism, poetry … I’m almost done with it. So Dorian Gray was fresh in my mind.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1945; d. Vincente Minnelli)
We love every moment, every detail. We love Tootie. She’s a hooligan and a menace. We love Rose. The way Judy tastes the sauce. The father standing at the window. The love relationship between the father and the mother. The lighting. Gorgeous. The decor. The high level of artistry involved in every aspect. It’s such a beautiful film.
National Velvet (1945; d. Clarence Leon Brown)
It transported me as a child (book and movie) and I never get tired of re-visiting it! What with this and Dorian Gray, we were on our way to a mini Angela Lansbury film festival.
Swing Time (1936; d. George Stevens)
Magical. I watched this in 6th grade, maybe 5th. It was on afternoon television. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies always were. I wrote a paper on Fred Astaire for my after-school drama club. I still remember the cover I made. I read a book about him and everything. (One MORE reason why that one Eight is Enough episode rocked my world.)
The Last of Sheila (1973; d. Herbert Ross)
Mitchell and Christopher wanted to show this to me. We earmarked it for our Friday night movie. They’ve seen it about five times now and wanted to show it to me. Co-written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins. I’m sorry, WHAT? How had I never seen this before? It’s a great “whodunit” with an amazing cast.
Only Angels Have Wings (1939; d. Howard Hawks)
A big crowd of us went to see this at the Music Box Theatre, my old stomping grounds. It’s very sentimental for me, being back on Southport, in that neighborhood in general. The neighborhood of the window. And to be back there to see my favorite movie ever on the big screen in that gorgeous movie palace was heaven. It was an 11:30 am show and it was packed. The organist played hits from 1939. I was sitting next to one of Mitchell’s friends, whom I just met that morning, and the organist was playing something super familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I said, “What is that?” Mitchell’s friend listened for 5 seconds and said, “That’s the theme from Gone With the Wind.” These are my people. After the movie, we walked back to the car, via our old apartment behind the Music Box. The apartment with the aforementioned window. It’s still there. All’s right with the world.
The White Lotus, Season 3, episode 1 (2025)
We were so excited. Already very intrigued.
SNL 50
We were very excited to see Rachel Dratch’s Debbie Downer get highlighted so heavily. She got to be strangled by Robert De Niro! We’ve known Rachel since our earliest days in Chicago. She and Mitchell are dear friends. We intersect in a million ways. Our other friend Rachel, also an improviser – to this day – is also BFFs with Dratch. We knew all of those people back then. Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Adam McKay, and … Window Boy. Same crowd. (I mentioned this time in my piece on female comedians for Film Comment.) Adam and Window Boy were on the same improv team, the house team called “The Family” at Improv Olympic, their shows were legendary. Weirdly, and totally coincidentally, the guy who wiped the tears off my face as they fell the night I took ecstasy also ended up being at SNL – although he traveled on a completely different track. He wasn’t at all a part of the improv crowd and I knew him totally separately from Window Boy et al. Even WEIRDER, cut to a decade later, I was in New York City and I got a job working for The Today Show. Or, not exactly: the website I worked for made me a liaison with The Today Show, since we were acquired by NBC, blah blah long story boring, and so I had an office in 30 Rock. They had no idea where to put me since I was just a floating little freelancer, so they gave me an office on the 17th floor. The SNL floor. It’s a closed floor. Nobody unauthorized can be up there. I had no business being there except that’s where they put me. So I’d be in the elevator with Lorne Michaels (he must have been like: “This is MY floor. Who is this woman?”) – and it’d be extra intense on the day of the table read. I bumped into Amy in the ladies’ room on occasion and I knew she wouldn’t remember me, but the first time I said to her, “Hey, I’m really good friends with Rachel from back in Chicago”… So after that it was “hi!” “good morning!” etc. Seriously, I was so out of context on that floor I felt the need to let people know that I wasn’t some intruder. Also, it’s just weird that we were all crazy 20somethings together in Chicago and now we’re all HERE yet in totally different capacities. On the same floor. It makes no sense. Still! Jimmy Fallon had left SNL by that point but he had an office on the 17th floor still and it was right next to ours. Caitlin and I would be working and he’d show up at our door and ask if we had a can opener. lol A taxi exploded outside and we saw the black smoke out our windows – we were 17 floors up – and it was only 2006 or 2007 – still scarred by 9/11 – we all – me, Caitlin, and Jimmy Fallon – bolted to the stairs and ran down all 17 flights. It was a weird job but I treasure the memory. My point is: I knew that “guy who wiped the tears off my face” worked for SNL, and he and I had spent a lot of time together back in the Chicago days because he was dating my good friend. But I had no way to get in touch with him since this was pre-social media. I couldn’t message him like “hey, what are the odds, I’m literally right down the hall.” So one day I walked over to the dreaded writers’ room, the famed SNL writers room, knocked on the door, and asked if I could see him. Again: I was so out of context. Nobody else is supposed to be on that floor. I felt like Lorne Michaels was going to show up at any minute and call security. But my old friend came out, saw me, and was like, “…… Sheila? What are YOU doing here??” And we cracked up at the very odd set of circumstances which led us both, separately, to the same spot on the 17th floor of 30 Rock. SNL is wild because once upon a time I knew so many of those people!
Anora (2024; d. Sean Baker)
At the NYFCC awards dinner (we had given Anora Best Screenplay), we sat right next to the Anora table. Yuri Borisov is so good, isn’t he?
The Below Might Be a Difficult Read
… and if you are a Supernatural fan who loved the last two seasons it may be infuriating. I am not trying to tell you you’re wrong. I am just telling you my thoughts. I cannot even begin to describe the stress of the last 3-5 months and something someone said on FB recently about Supernatural Season 15 made me realize that the only part of the whole season I remember was the finale. I didn’t remember one other thing. Granted, it aired in 2020 which was a terrible year and I was preoccupied but still … I was like, “what the hell happened in Season 15? I don’t even know what the PLOT was.” So I decided to re-watch because I basically rarely watch anything for fun anymore and I need down-time. Some of it came back as I watched but most of it was literally brand new to me. Which is WILD considering I know Season 1-9 by heart. So again, to people who AREN’T Supernatural fans, the below might be a difficult read, and to people who ARE Supernatural fans but disagree with everything I say here, it also might be a difficult read. But it had to be done.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 1 (2019; d. John F. Showalter)
I decided to watch Supernatural in reverse order. I am not watching the episodes in reverse order, just the seasons. The late seasons – 12-15 – are a scar in my memory. The finale was good but I remember little else. I wondered what it would look like if I reversed the order. It’s been an interesting experience. Some of it is coming back to me – others it’s as though I never watched it at all, that’s how little of an impression it made.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 2 “Raising Hell” (2019; d.
Robert Singer)
The ghosts in daylight are EMBARRASSING. Why not put a little work in and have a night shoot? The makeup job is terrible. The ghosts standing around in daylight – with the costumes and the makeup – look like a wandering community theatre production of Sweeney Todd.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 3 “The Rupture” (2019; d. )
It is just shockingly terrible. I don’t even know what to say. Start to finish: an embarrassment and an abomination to those of us who were in this thing from the start.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 4 “Atomic Monsters” (2019; d. Jensen Ackles)
Benny sighting! I hate what was done to Chuck and I basically reject it from my Supernatural worldview. It doesn’t exist. Which makes these later seasons a real problem for me. Besides all the other problems. And even worse than God-Chuck is self-PITYING God-Chuck. Insufferable. Good Impala scene at the end, even if it’s overwritten, with no subtext.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 5 “Proverbs 17:3” (2019; d. Richard Speight, Jr.)
I forgot how repetitive this show got in the late seasons. Every episode starts with the brothers in the bunker. Funny business with the beef jerky. Funny ongoing bit with everyone asking Dean if his fake ID – from 15 years ago – is really him. And Dean being surprised that he looks any older. But still. Why am I putting myself through this. Speight is a good director: he looks for humor too. So far this episode has been the only episode in the season, thus far, with any humor. This is a CRIME. by the way, I actually watched Season 15 and I remember almost none of it. It’s kind of wild.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 6 “Golden Time” (2019; d. John Showalter)
Oh God it’s spa-day in the bunker for Eileen and Sam. I’m so embarrassed!
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 7 “Last Call” (2019; d. Amyn Kaderali)
Good horror-genre opener. Drunk girls, lonely bar in the middle of nowhere, sudden abduction by a monster. It’s a relief after the endless YA-fantasy bullshit of the first three episodes. Of the series in general. This episode features what became a truly distressing regular feature: The Winchesters shooting at another human. God, it hurts my heart every time it happens.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 8, “Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven” (2019; d. Richard Speight, Jr.)
Good to see Jake Abel. He gives a good performance in what is a ridiculous double-role. He’s commanding. Castiel has been sulking for three straight episodes and it’s slightly grotesque. I’m at the point where I roll my eyes every time Chuck appears onscreen. Hate every second of the Chuck-God thing.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 9, “The Trap” (2019; d. Robert Singer)
More Chuck. It’s interminable. We haven’t had one straight monster-hunting ep. The show is broken. However: Jensen CRUSHES it in his purgatory monologue/prayer to Castiel. Who I have been annoyed with for years now but regardless. Jensen acts the SHIT out of that monologue. He makes it look so easy. Chuck: “Other Sams and other Deans in other worlds.” I just cannot with this bullshit. The people writing the show post-season 11 basically hated it for what it was and deconstructed it with contempt.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 10, “The Heroes Journey” (2020; d. John F. Showalter)
I hate this. Dean has a toothache and suddenly they realize they’re “normal”, that Chuck made them normal. But that was always the thing: they were regular humans with human bodies – they weren’t superheroes. They had to fill the gas tank. They had to fix the car. They certainly got things like headaches, they vomited, I mean Jesus Christ. They weren’t magical beings. There is some funny stuff here but the concept annoys me. It makes it so obvious that this new-ish team literally did not understand the show. It wasn’t some CW fantasy-superhero show. It was a show about two brothers who hunt monsters, with all the fallibility of humans. Their strength wasn’t superhuman. Their strength was because they were trained since they were kids to fight like tigers. Ugh. I hate it. (A bonus: we do get the spectacle of Jensen Ackles doing a tap dance in the bunker wearing a boater hat.)
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 11, “The Gamblers” (2020; d. Charles Beeson)
Okay I actually enjoyed this one. Even though it wasn’t a monster-killing ep – we still haven’t had one of those, what the HELL – but I liked the scenario in the pool hall. The whole “get our luck back” thing is a repeat of the far superior “Bad Day at Black Rock”. Like, why would you set yourself against one of the best episodes in the entire history of the series? Besides, I’m still annoyed at the entire concept. Baby broke down before. Baby is a car that sometimes breaks down. Sam and Dean were normal guys who had to do normal things like fix their cars. That’s the whole point, that’s the whole APPEAL. Superhero lore has poisoned your brains.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 12, “Galaxy Brain” (2020; d. Richard Speight, Jr.)
In the teaser opener, an announcer on the radio refers to “President Hillary Clinton” and my heart broke. Followed by Chuck launching into a monologue with “It’s monologue time.” This is hell. At one point he says, “I don’t care.” Which is WILD. Because he’s the Big Bad of the season and he literally does not care. How is this tense? None of it is believable. The way we buy in to this thing is through THEM. Sam and Dean. There aren’t millions of Sams and Deans to us. There’s only one Sam and Dean. This whole thing is just a writer bored and jerking off. Out of ideas. And then we have fucking KAIA. One of the most embarrassing side-plots in the entire show. Again, everyone is in love with fantasy over there. Did nobody notice the genre shift? This did not start as a fantasy show. I am trying to think of another well-established television series that just quietly – and seemingly inevitably (like, they couldn’t stop themselves) – switched genres. This one aired on March 16, 2020.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 13, “Destiny’s Child” (2020; d. Amyn Kaldari)
This season is so in the weeds. Everything is about casting spells to open the gate to hell, give access to The Empty, going to purgatory – and blah blah all finding ways to combat Chuck. The show doesn’t give a shit anymore.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 14, “Last Holiday” (2020; d. Eduardo Sanchez)
Another episode that starts in the bunker. Again with the Nazis. I had successfully blocked out the whole “I killed Hitler” thing. Some amusing stuff here but again … what is this show now? lol We are literally almost to the end and we have had no evidence of monster-hunting brother road trips. The whole concept of the show is not in evidence. So the last two episodes aired in March, this one aired in October, 2020.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 15, “Gimme Shelter” (2020; d. Matt Cohen)
Finally a monster-hunting episode! But the hunters are Jack and Castiel. This show hates its original fans. Also, seven deadly sins … we already did that. Season 3. Great scene between Dean and good old Amara, but we still are treated to a little lecture about how the “real” Mary is better than the “myth” Mary because she was “just a person”. Nope. Sorry. “Real” Mary sucked, not just in terms of the character (and the performance, which was terrible), but the overall story itself. I know what I’m sounding like but I don’t care: the downfall of this show is fascinating.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 16, “Drag Me Away (From You)” (2020; d. Amyn Kaderali)
Our first motel room of the entire season. Flashback to childhood. I have zero memory of this. I had a lot going on in October 2020 when it aired. A family tragedy. An unexpected change of life plans. A pandemic. I do remember one thing and it is still the best part of the episode. Dean to waitress: “I hate to ask but my brother will want to know if you have any arugula salad or any kale?” Deadpan waitress: “We’ve got iceberg lettuce with ranch.” Dean: “Good for you.”
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 17, “Unity” (2020; d. Catriona McKenzie)
Chuck is insufferable. He’s basically being villainous because he’s “bored”. Again, he is not a compelling villain. It is not a compelling motive. The ep is again all Chuck and Amara and Jack and etc. Chuck shows up and monologues about how much he “doesn’t care”.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 18, “Despair” (2020; d. Richard Speight, Jr.)
Misha Collins’ big goodbye scene was way more effective than I remembered. I was “over” Castiel by season, oh, 8. I understand he had a huge fan base so I know why he was kept around. I didn’t feel the same way but I am not the boss. My favorite Castiel was season 4 and season 5, when he was uncanny and strange. And seemed legit dangerous and unpredictable. Even though the monologue was the ultimate in pandering – and therefore felt like it came out of nowhere if you’re not a part of the base, the monologue was well written, I think, and he played it beautifully. The problem with making subtext text is that the end result can feel quite empty. Considering that Misha Collins knew this would be his final scene, he seemed overcome and it was genuine. And poor Dean/Jensen looked basically blindsided and confused, lol.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 19, “Inherit the Earth” (2020; d. John F. Showalter)
Unnerving acknowledgement of the pandemic, which shut the show down earlier in the year, delaying the end of the season. The emptiness, the silent streets, the empty playgrounds … 2020 was a year, man.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 20, “Carry On” (2020; d. Robert Singer)
Really glad that Robert Singer – one of the creators of the show, really, who was so instrumental as a producer and a director for setting the tone – directed the finale. After all my bitching and moaning, the scene in the barn makes me cry like a baby.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 1, “Stranger in a Strange Land” (2018; d. Thomas J. Wright)
I’d blocked out the era where the bunker was full of random hunters, just wandering around being macho. You couldn’t distinguish them. And the dreaded Maggie: why is she there? She doesn’t DO anything. I feel like “they” (as in the writers’ room) thought she would be adorable and relatable to us “normies”. “Oh we would be Maggie too! Give her a chance!” Sam and Dean would NEVER have given Maggie ANY responsibility in their former lives. Samantha Smith can’t act. Plain and simple. It was a problem.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 2, “Gods and Monsters” (2018; d. Richard Speight, Jr.)
I’m working my way backwards and I have no idea what’s going on. I totally forgot that Nick (Lucifer) returned and … tries to investigate his wife and child’s murder? Like … who cares? They were desperate to drum up another plot-line to take the pressure off of Sam and Dean. The whole goal was to move the show away from being centered on the brothers. That being said, Mark Pellegrino is an excellent actor and his explosion of grief when he “comes to” as Nick was moving.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 3, “The Scar” (2018; d. Robert Singer)
I hate the hunters in the bunker. I hate how they call Sam “chief”. Along with teenagers, the new show was obsessed with militarization of hunting, and this is part and parcel with the lack of imagination. Everything had to be The Hunger Games or Harry Potter. Dark Kaia sucks. It’s embarrassing. Jody’s long monologue about her girls reminds me of the Wayward Sisters situation – which mattered a lot to some people, but annoyed me. I realize what I am doing now must be annoying. Why re-watch and bitch about it like this? Because I need to unwind. Again, I barely remember any of this. There are gems in most every episode – because I love the actors – but it’s painful to see the show so lose its way.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 4, “Mint Condition” (2018; d. Amyn Kaderali)
Dean schtick! Good to see! Sam: “That was Riley.” Dean: “I don’t know who Riley is.” Neither do I. This episode contains the abomination: “Panthro’s b—” “Rhymes with itch?” I yearn for the earlier seasons when they threw around the words “bitch”, “dick”, “douchebag” (my personal favorite). Making Sam stop himself from saying “bitch” is extremely irritating. Production designer/cinematographer clearly had a lot of fun creating the cheesy 1980s horror flick. It’s a good old monster-hunting brother episode, with no Castie, Jack, or Rowena in sight. Also no Riley in sight, whoever he/she is. Dean geeking out on horror – details like that, character-driven, specific – is the kind of thing that really MADE the show. Because even though there is a plot, the episode is about the characters.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 5, “Nightmare Logic” (2018; d. Darren Grant)
Opens with Maggie, who comes on hunts despite not knowing how to do anything and then needing to be saved by Sam and/or Dean. It’s so dumb. Why would Sam and Dean tolerate this? She is incompetent. She is always on the verge of hysteria, not exactly a hunter mindset. I feel bad for the actress. It’s not her fault. She played it one-note but, to be fair, it’s written that way. Fans, as a whole, rejected her, and it can’t have felt good. Hunters uploading videos to livestream. So stupid. again: militarizing hunting. I don’t like it. I’m annoyed by a lot of this but it’s still good to have a regular monster hunt episode. Yes, we have Bobby and Mary having some kind of love relationship problems (Oh God. stop it.) but … we at least get the brothers working a case, which has become sadly rare. Also: I love the connection made between Dean and Sarah (Leah Cairns). This quiet understanding between two adults: an unexpected connection. Maybe even chemistry. The show used to do this so well.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 6, “Optimism” (2018; d. Richard Speight, Jr.)
I forgot how much I loathed – and I mean loathed – bringing back all these familiar characters – Bobby, Charlie – from the wretched alternate world, and yet stripping them of their relationship to the brothers. Alternate Charlie. etc. The show was counting on us just being happy to see these people again (also, cynically, I think they were looking at conventions: they wanted to be able to drop more actors into the convention circuit.) So no, I’m not happy to see Charlie again because the relationship is no longer there. Having all these traumatized battle-scarred veterans was also a way to show up Sam and Dean, who were “soft” compared to them. Can’t stand it. One small shot that made me laugh out loud: In the diner, Dean gently pushing the rooster sculpture away from him. It was pointing at his crotch. Fun schtick between Dean and Jack.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 7, “Unhuman Nature” (2018; d. John F. Showalter)
Nick on his revenge tour. I can’t even struggle to care. This episode has THREE plots. The Dean-Jack-fishing scene is corny but Jensen plays the hell out of it, especially when dealing with Jack’s transparency. It’s like Jack’s openness hits him in the face. Jensen is never “general”. It’s always specific. The show is repetitive but he doesn’t repeat himself. To add insult to injury: Not only is Rowena called in to save the day, but a new character – a shaman named Sergei – is ALSO introduced, because Sam and Dean can’t figure things out by themselves anymore. People have shown up on this site before and told me that sidelining Jared and Jensen was deliberate because they wanted more time with their families blah blah. I mean, okay? The reason doesn’t change the criticism! Maybe the show should have ended at Season 10. These issues would not be as glaring if Supernatural’s seasons were 10 episodes long, or 8, as opposed to 20 episodes. That’s a lot of time to fill.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 8, “Byzantium” (2018; d. Eduardo Sánchez)
The scene of Dean, Sam and Castiel getting drunk is clearly supposed to be incredibly moving for me to watch but … Castiel laughing uproariously? Really? When have we ever seen that before, ever, in the entire history of the show? What we’re looking at is Jared, Jensen and Misha. It makes no sense. I also can’t stand how Dean is suddenly a slob in these late seasons and Sam is a neatnik, when anyone who’s watched from the beginning knows it’s the other way around. The writers lose the subtleties of the characters and go with the cliches: macho Dean cluttering up his room with pizza boxes, and not making his bed, Sam being meticulous. No, no, no. Does anyone not remember homebody Dean rhapsodizing about memory foam and Sam throwing a crumpled piece of paper on the floor? Do I have to do everything around here? Suddenly the bunker is empty of hunter squads calling Sam “chief”. So … sometimes they’re there and sometimes they’re not? Veronica Cartwright is amazing. She should have been nominated for an Oscar for Witches of Eastwick.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 9, “The Spear” (2018; d. Amyn Kaderali)
Dark Kaia’s hooded gorgeously-fitted robe is so embarrassing.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 10, “Nihilism” (2019; d. Amanda Tapping)
Now this episode I remember, and for good reason. We get another Maggie sighting. Naturally, she is on the verge of hysteria. She is a liability. If Sam or Dean were like themselves, they would send Maggie packing. But here, she’s been given a leadership role! Sam makes her a leader! It makes no sense. ALSO: a reaper shows up whose name is Jessica. Why would you give give that name to a character and NOT acknowledge the “Jess” who is such an iconic part of the Winchester myth from Season 1, episode 1? Seriously. There are so many other names you could choose. “Jessica” is taken. This is also the era where everyone talks about “monsters”. “The monsters are at the door.” “The monsters are leaving.” Back in the day, monsters were specific.
Uppercut (2025; d. Torsten Ruether)
I reviewed for Ebert.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 11, “Damaged Goods” (2019; d. Phil Sgriccia)
Dean to his mother: “Two terrible cooks …” But he’s not a terrible cook. This has been well established. It’s stuff like this that drives me crazy, even more than spending all this time following Nick around on his revenge world tour. I will say though: Jensen does SO MUCH with just a look, a glance, a pause: and through this episode he’s basically pretending he’s all right but he is really REALLY not all right. Jensen is so so good at this kind of thing.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 12, “Prophet and Loss” (2019; d. Thomas J. Wright)
I like how dark this episode is: shadows, low lights, and almost no bunker scenes. There’s even a motel room! As bored as I am by Nick’s journey, Mark Pellegrino’s acting in the scene with his dead wife was superb. Quite amazing, really. And good satisfying final scene between Sam and Dean.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 13, “Lebanon” (2019; d. Robert Singer)
Here’s a regular brother-monster-hunt, with the teens in Lebanon being rebellious, even though they don’t feel like teenagers to me, but that’s okay. I enjoy Sam and Dean as cranky Gen X guys, old enough to be these kids’ fathers, and ordering them around irritably. John and Mary return. Sam is doing a Ted talk. (Dean: “I mean, I’m good, but you …”) Suddenly John is all softboi? I am not in charge but I would have preferred more conflict, at least initially. The old John. Showing up and being officious or bossy with them. Sam and Dean having to correct him, stand up to him, “No, Dad. Things are different now. You can’t do that to us anymore.” John having to realize what has happened and THEN apologizing for everything he did to them. Not immediately burst into tears and say “I treated you badly, I am so sorry.” But that’s just me. I don’t understand making choices where there isn’t conflict. Choice without a conflict isn’t a choice. There were interesting parts of this family reunion – but I feel like they were accidental rather than deliberate. The way John focused solely on Sam, big teary talk with Sam. With Dean it was more practical. He didn’t say “I did a lot of wrong things to you, son …” He said all that to SAM. But I feel like this was just sloppy scriptwriting as opposed to a deliberate POINT being made that … John really hasn’t changed all that much. Once again, Dean is being ignored. Or, if not ignored, then “Dean’s fine, Dean’s strong, he gets it, he doesn’t need an apology.” Can’t we MAKE something of that? No? (Me bitching about John here is not to dismiss what Jeffrey Dean Morgan does with what he has. He is overwhelming, his emotion is overwhelming. I just would have liked more conflict before he got to that point. To actually have John realize – in the moment – that his sons are grown, and he has some explaining to do.)
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 14, “Ouroboros” (2019; d. Amyn Kaderali)
May be a stretch – and of course it is a stretch – based entirely on my own sometimes-theory about what Dean did as a teenager to make money … (see “Alex Annie Alexis Ann”) … but I think the good-looking gorgon propositioning truckers at a truck stop late at night, all fetching in his snakeskin jacket and bedroom eyes … could be a nod to my own personal Dean Headcanon. The interaction between gorgon and trucker is explicit and the gorgon looks like a young hustler out of My Own Private Idaho. Note: the mirror shot of the dog and then Jack, on all fours on the veterinarian’s table, made me laugh out loud. “I wish I could have got it before she took my temperature.” Clever and absurd. Referencing the #MeToo movement carbon-dates this episode to 2019. Maggie sighting. Hunters playing cards and being all manly commandos and I can’t stand it. I’m not sorry about what happened. The writers made the right call. Get rid of those clowns.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 15, “Peace of Mind” (2019; d. Phil Sgriccia)
“Pink Shoelaces” by Dodie Stevens is an exciting musical cameo. Production designer/set decorator clearly had fun designing this little Pleasantville town, where the movie theatre is showing Scooby Doo for $2. Cas says to brainwashed Sam: “I know what it’s like to lose your army.” I thought, “What army? What is he talking about?” Then I remembered literally the last episode, which I watched 5 minutes ago, when all the hunters were killed. That’s how big an impression they made on me.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 16, “Don’t Go Into the Woods” (2019; d. John Fitzpatrick)
“I’m two.” [long pause] “Enty.” Lebanon teens again. Ghost Facers sighting. I can’t help but feel that after the failure of Wayward Sisters … and Bloodlines … Dabb was still searching around for potential spin-offs so he’d have a job after Supernatural ended and the Lebanon teens checked off the boxes the Wayward Sisters checked off and so maybe … I’m cynical.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 17, “Game Night” (2019; d. John F. Showalter)
No memory of this.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 18, “Absence” (2019; d. Nina Lopez-Corrado)
Lopez-Corrado directed “Red Meat” and she has my trust forevermore. This is the big episode, multiple locations, a lot a lot of special effects, a ton of shit going on – (whereas “Red Meat” was more of a chamber piece, a quartet, if you will) – I think she did a wonderful job. My feelings on Mary once she was brought back are obvious. To me. I hate lines like “You know how mom is after a hunt” – with this kind of knowing chuckle, like, Mary wants to eat a burger, drink whiskey, she don’t need no angel healing, she’s a tough hunter broad! Girlboss! I just don’t like it. Maybe I would like it if Samantha Smith were a good actress, and could suggest an actual character onscreen. You know who WAS like this? Ellen. Samantha Ferris could make me believe all of those things just by standing there. Dean’s eulogy and all the hunters’ knowing chuckles … I just can’t. I wish I could, but I can’t. Maybe it was a smart move to make Mary so … blah … considering the actress playing her. As long as Mary was a mystical vision in dream sequences, we were on solid ground, performance-wise.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 19, “Jack in the Box” (2019; d. Robert Singer)
Singer gets it. The episode has a lot of plot and has to cover a lot of ground but the overall interest is in the characters and their conflicts (inner and outer). The focus and proportion isn’t skewed. Singer always kept the characters first in his mind.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 20, “Moriah” (2019; d. Phil Sgriccia)
The scary box which took up 4, 5 episodes held Jack for, what, 20 minutes? lol Dean is always a little bit angry but here his fury is incandescent. Jensen is actually scary. I love it when he’s scary because you think he’s gone as deep as he can go, and then he finds another layer.
Supernatural, Season 13, episode 1, “Lost and Found” (2017; d. Phil Sgriccia)
It’s kind of interesting watching these seasons in reverse order. I have no idea what’s going on. The earlier seasons, I have each arc locked into my head. I can call up the entirety of, say, Season 4 in my head, and how Season 4 leads to Season 5. The Amara season is the last time I can do that. After Amara, I lost interest, and the show derailed, and now I have no idea what events lead up to what. In my memory, Season 12 was the absolute nadir. I may have to adjust that, though, and bump Season 15 to the top of the list. But Season 12 is when I gave up hope and realized the show didn’t understand itself anymore. We’ll see. Observation: one of the unforgivable sins of the last 4 seasons is how ugly the show got, just visually and aesthetically. Flat lighting, no blocking – people just standing around in wide shots – forever – it was such a betrayal, especially for someone like me who was drawn to the show initially for its cinematic beauty, the artistry of lighting, the fluidity of camera movements, everything. When there are exceptions I will point it out. This episode is an exception, no surprise when you consider the director. The camera movements are interesting: look for the cuts, they flow. The “payoff” of the “joke” of the kid re-naming all the items on the menu – and then having Sam see it, with no context. Sam’s quick glimpse of “wait … what?” That’s how you pay off a joke. These things don’t further the plot, but they keep things grounded in the human. There’s creativity in positioning Jack – naked with the freakin’ pirate statue in front of his privates – all of that: you get the vibe, you get the strangeness, the larger scenery is utilized (the river, the cruise ship) … Whatever happens here feels like it is happening in the real world, not on a shoddy soundstage. These things really matter! Especially here, where the plot involves a supernatural teenager wandering the earth without any clothes on. Final note: Alexander Calvert was a real find. He’s perfect. And it was all going so well until it ends in the alternate universe whatever. Hate every second of it.
Supernatural, Season 13, episode 2, “The Rising Son” (2017; d. Thomas J. Wright)
“He will make Hell great again.” Words can’t express how much I despised the looping in of current-day politics into this show. I get that 2017 was that kind of year, and anyone who walked around saying they didn’t care about politics or who were “apolitical” would have been approved of Neville Chamberlain in Munich in 1939. I still feel that way. But there’s a way to “comment” on the times without little snarky nods to us in the audience, which is blatant pandering. I had forgotten about Asmodeus and what a weird choice it was to make him a Tennessee Williams character. I like the motel room – at the “Black Hat Hotel” – nice touch – and also the schtick of Jack imitating Dean, etc. It is irritating to have to switch back to the alternate universe, which holds no interest for me.
Supernatural, Season 13, episode 3, “Patience” (2017; d. Robert Singer)
Why bring back the wonderful Missouri just to murder her? And oh God I forgot. This is the beginning of the Wayward Sisters collective. We had to suffer through it then and I’ll suffer through it now. Patience is supposedly a bookworm normie and yet when she is violently attacked she’s suddenly Jackie Chan. Pandering. Jared is particularly lovely in this episode. It’s subtle quiet work, very effective. And a final irritation: Missouri was a PSYCHIC, not a HUNTER. So they bring her back, her son calls her a “hunter” and it’s like … why even bother with you people if you can’t get the most basic thing right? GREAT fight scene between the wraith, Jody and Dean: mainly because it was such an interesting specific place, and there were details – ropes – and wooden beams – and hanging things – that gave visual interest and the choreography is great too, Dean having to improvise. It’s not just throwing punches back and forth endlessly which the show is definitely guilty of.
Supernatural, Season 13, episode 4, “The Big Empty” (2017; d. John Badham)
So here’s where my mind is at. They bring back the wonderful Rukiya Bernard to play the grief counselor – but of course I remember her from one of my favorite one-offs, the psychic town in Season 8, where Melanie – MELANIE – provided me with the loneliest ship in this shippiest of shows. Bernard played the best friend. Here, she’s back, I saw her and thought: MELANIE. WHY WON’T THEY BRING BACK MELANIE? Meanwhile, it’s not even the same character, just the same actress. Castiel’s double in the Empty was … what was that. A Clockwork Orange Castiel? I don’t understand the choice! It’s not good! Final note: John Badham. He comes with chops. And it shows.
Supernatural, Season 13, episode 5, “Advanced Thanatology” (2017; d. John F. Showalter)
It’s kind of sad how amazed I am that this is 100% brother-focused. No other cast, no off-shoots, nobody else, no “and here’s what’s happening back at the bunker”. It’s just them working a case. It’s not the most thrilling case in the world but it’s so nice to not have all that other STUFF around them.
Supernatural, Season 14, episode 18, “Absence”
You had to go and mention Ellen/Samantha Ferris. Somehow that really brought home the sense of loss and disappointment of the last 5 seasons. Funny how a single comparison illuminates all the contrasts.
They did nail the last two episodes of season 15. And built up so much good will that we watched 4 or 5 seasons of such low quality. I suppose it’s like the Kurt Russell quote about Elvis movies, “worth watching because of Elvis.” Supernatural: worth watching because of Jensen and Jared.
Elvis didn’t subject us to 20 episodes of bad television for four straight years after 10 years of being excellent. And even with the bad Elvis movies, he’s front and center in all of them. Half of these, Sam and Dean are barely in them. Or their plot is just one of three plots. so I’m just hanging around watching Asmodeus or Ketch and I have no interest in either of those creatures. Season 15 is worse than I remembered – granted, I remembered nothing about it except Casstiel’s declaration and the finale.
For Season 12, I am going to watch the episodes in reverse order as well. lol I am so busy and have so much going on – I need a random project that has nothing to do with anything.
Of course it’s not all bad – Season 13 and 14 have flashes here and there of okay-ness.
I noticed Sheila watching the show backwards when I was just starting a re-watch – I timed my nervous breakdown perfectly, it seems. God, season 1, I love them so much. BUT, much like I usually eat what I don’t like first, I’m going to watch season 15 to 11 first. And start with the end of the seasons, because it’s not like it’s gonna spoil anything.
Even that way, it is so painful. I don’t remember much either, except extreme discomfort watching those latest seasons for the first time a few years ago – I had stopped watching somewhere in season 12 or 13. I’m not going to read your notes before I watch, so we can compare notes, haha. I’m just so curious about what will come back to me. All of a sudden I was like “oh no, there’s a fistfight with god coming up, I remember now, I hope I’m wrong” — I wasn’t.
Soooo, my most sincere apologies to people who are not fan of Supernatural, and maybe even to you all too — I’m gonna be annoying. My most sincere thanks to our host Sheila.
I just S15 E19-E15 and MY GOD what the fuck. I am so angry. I try to hang on to the good stuff – Jared and Jensen, a shot of the car, Calvert being really good, Emily Swallow being good and also extremely hot. But it’s hard. Those plots are so bad. The brothers are almost spectators in it. Chuck is bad, and not in a good way.
Season 15 was bleak even by other standards. I guess some audience members were better able to adjust to the entire change of the show’s format and structure – the swing from horror to fantasy – the inclusion of many other regulars, like Ketch (ugh), Rowena, just the whole kit and kaboodle. I was not at all opposed to having regular secondary characters – I was full on board with seeing Bobby – Ellen – Jo – Castiel – Charlie – Garth – Jody – and of course Crowley – on the regular in earlier seasons. I liked having people outside the Dean-Sam belljar, who could reiterate the reality of the world, who sort of created a larger context, and made THEM seem more real. I liked that. As the seasons went on it became less and less believable that John would have raised Sam and Dean in such total isolation that they had no idea that there even WERE other hunters – but whatever.
But the use of secondary characters changed – and this probably has something to do with Castiel getting his own devoted fan base. And so Castiel needed more screen time – alone, if necessary – so he started having his own separate plots, and even episodes. But that’s nothing compared to the fracturing on display in Season 12-15 – where we sometimes have three plots per episode, with Sam and Dean present in only one of them.
So there clearly was a huge audience who APPROVED of this structural change. For me, it would be like sidelining the Dukes of Hazzard in their own show … but to others they loved it. Found family, chosen family, family don’t end in blood. I’m not really up to date on the ongoing SPN fandom wars – so I’m not sure about the battles going on in fandom about all of this – but clearly what the show decided to do – what Dabb decided to do – wasn’t unpopular with everyone.
To me, it doesn’t work at all because no matter what you do – nobody onscreen is as interesting as sam and Dean. Because of the DEPTH of those early seasons – or, not even just early seasons – say, HALF of the show – someone like Ketch comes along, and we’re given a quick glimpse of a backstory, and then we just are supposed to be on board with seeing him endlessly, week after week? Think back to the introduction of Ellen and Jo. They were instantly interesting. They seemed real. They were IN Sam and Dean’s world, but they had their own thing going on outside of it. Same with Bobby.
Someone like Rowena is a plot device, not a character. Ive said it before – she broke the show. She and the bunker broke the show’s structure. Keeping her on – and keeping the bunker on – shattered the format forever – it was like a magnet, as long as Rowena and the bunker existed, a certain amount of tension (“will they figure things out in time?” etc.) vanished. They had a fail safe, they could just call Rowena.
I do think there was a subset of the fandom – perhaps its most toxic part (although I don’t interact with that part of the fandom) – that didn’t like Sam and Dean – or, had some hostility to the entire concept – and yet still remained fans. I don’t know. That gets really in the weeds of fandom and I’m not sure what really was going on there. I’d catch a glimpse of that part of fandom on Twitter – when Twitter still existed – and it was like getting glimpses of another dimension. It felt like we weren’t even talking about the same show!
Yes, secondary characters used to look and sound real. In season 15, they all look like models – a bland kind of pretty, and indistinguishable from one another.
Ketch, Rowena… I mean, it’s the writing, but the actors also play in a sort of cartoonish that, even when there is tragic backstory added, or whatever, isn’t very effective. Remember the first crossroad demons, those women in black dresses? They were evil and gorgeous, but they had character, they were unique, and they didn’t feel like cardboard cutouts.
Watching the end of season 15 just a few days after watching Wendigo, it’s shocking how almost so many aspects collide to make things bad andn dumb: everything in bright sunlight, with bright colours, actresses CAKED in makeup, what they’re wearing is nondescript,… a few times I was even like, what’s wrong with the sound? It’s so weird. And so it looks like a dumb show and many actors seem to show up to do the bare minimum in a dumb show. To the point that the ones who don’t – Emily Swallow – stand out when they don’t.
Also, watching it completely in reverse is so funny, you really see what sounds stupid and out of place – that screenshot I sent you of Sam, for the first time (backwards) talking about “the Apocalypse World refugees”… what the fuck
(oh my god the typos. apologies)
For me it doesn’t spoil the many good seasons of the show I love, because I’ve decided long ago that none of that is canon – everything after Don’t Call me Shurley is rejected as (very bad) fanfiction.
// everything after Don’t Call me Shurley is rejected as (very bad) fanfiction. //
Yeah that’s pretty much my view too.
Those early crossroads demons were so excellent. Yes! There was a type – beautiful brunettes – but each one was different – and they were beautiful – and used their beauty – but also not to be messed with. I’m looking forward to revisiting.
Yes – Amara with her odd stilted way of speaking, her performance-art movements – I DUG what she was doing. I loved the Darkness season – and now I’m not remembering what season it was. 11, correct? which I was fully on board with until those last three episodes. But I’m not even remembering what happened – except that Mary was returned – AND that the whole premise of the season – Dean’s helplessness and inability to resist Amara – kinda went … plop. It just didn’t pan out, it didn’t reach some conclusion (in the way, say, it did with him becoming Michael). I feel like that plot line – with Dean/Amara – was REALLY uncharted waters and finally they just didn’t quite know how to exploit it to the fullest which was a disappointment. The details are lost to me though.
Even in season 15, Amara’s situation is ridiculous – she’s reading and drinking wine in Iceland? wow ok. BUT when she talks to Dean, there is a depth of feeling, I can believe she is one of the most ancient forces on earth. Kinda like original Death was (the only Death, as far as I’m concerned).
//now I’m not remembering what season it was. 11, correct? //
Yes. And from memory, the end of the season is:
Dean was going to be a bomb, but it doesn’t happen!
Then God and his sister walk in a shitty little park.
Mary is back. (ugh)
// I can believe she is one of the most ancient forces on earth. //
yes, there’s that strange-ness about her – kind of like Castiel had when he first showed up in Season 4.
Oh and now I’m remembering, yeah, Dean as Bomb. Or as almost-bomb. It was a let down. The whole season was leading up to some huge THING with amara – turns out it was all a way to get to …. Chuck? Disappointing. Still – I think they had a lot of fun exploring Dean’s helplessness – which honestly was something we’d never seen before, at least not in that particular way. I was super into it!
Outstanding. I actually popped over to let all the spn people here know about another twentieth anniversary event (https://www.tumblr.com/spn20fest – you don’t need a tumblr to participate! everyone can participate in their own way!) and I was worrying maybe I’d have to rudely hijack a random other post for it but here you are, putting yourself through some of the most torturous bingeing known to man.
I really enjoyed reading this two-and-a-half seasons of recaps! It taps into the righteous and bewildered anger I still feel (let it go? you’re joking) and reminds me of all those fun conversations and how we clung to each other.
Season 15, episode 16 – Our first motel room of the entire season. this knocked me down when I read it. could that really be so?! 16 episodes before exploiting one of your richest veins of pleasure?
Season 15, episode 2 – a wandering community theatre production of Sweeney Todd. may be the closest anyone has ever gotten to describing these specific horrors. At least with the terrible flying squirrel wirefight it was the end of the season and you could conceivably blame time & money. Not so here. This was a team operating at the fullest of their potential.
I am very excited for you to blast through s12 and into the deepfelt charms and heart of s11. It will be a well-earned reprieve!
// but here you are, putting yourself through some of the most torturous bingeing known to man. //
hahahaha
It’s meant to be!
I think I saw someone on the Plaidcast Facebook page – which is VERY entertaining, I really like them – and they were talking about Season 15 and suddenly without warning started a re-watch. I was mainly curious because I had no idea what she was referring to and I watched the season. That’s a little scary!
Jessie – that summer project sounds like so much fun! Can it really be 20 years?? WHAT ON EARTH.
// 16 episodes before exploiting one of your richest veins of pleasure? //
I know!! It stopped becoming a road show at some point along the way … so sad. the motel rooms were just classic! and here we were in the last season – and it was a walk down memory lane – with so many characters brought back – Bloody Mary! Woman in White! PAMELA! – and yet … they left out the motel rooms. Honestly I think at some level they must have known how much they fell away from the original mood – so maybe they didn’t want to hold it up in so blatant a comparison. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit.
// This was a team operating at the fullest of their potential. // I KNOW. and it made so sad that Robert Singer directed it, one of my favorites on the roster, and an original creator. Such a smart guy. Bright day light and Sweeney Todd cast gathered in a suburban kitchen talking in Cockney accents? I still can’t believe my eyes!
My feelings about so many of my early days heroes were rendered SO conflicted by the last few seasons – namely Singer, Wanek, Ladouceur, but also the art departments. I am so desperate for explanations – I cannot handle the mystery of what happened haha. I need to practice radical acceptance or I’m gonna be in trouble for the rest of my life.
Re: motels yes they really put themselves in a bind. they got bigger, blander, emptier – you could feel the lighting rigs just north of the frame.
I will have to check out the plaidcast podcast – I’ve been burned a couple of times recently on spn podcasts!
it was a walk down memory lane
How did the “God’s writing a story” narrative conceit of the last season hold up on a binge? He’s got all these drafts that he’s writing and ditching? It really didn’t work for me at the time – felt like a cheap way to excuse lazy writing – but part of me still wants to like the idea of the last season being about how they were protagonists in a larger preordained story, and how they could escape from it. The story itself being the final monster (a deeply wry theme for s15).
Yes – 20 years – insanity! And something to celebrate!
// part of me still wants to like the idea of the last season being about how they were protagonists in a larger preordained story//
The problem is, they’ve stopped being protagonists. They’re beloved supporting characters for the Castiel, Jack and Chuck show.
Oh, I’m gonna be sick.
// felt like a cheap way to excuse lazy writing //
Really, I think that’s all there is to it. I mean, even Chuck’s last words are “what kind of an ending is this?” and it’s so strange to see the writers acknowledge it, via the character who is a stand in for them. Do they have no professional pride? Do they not care? Or did covid eat their brains and they really they were being SMART??
I am baffled.
I’m sorry, I know you weren’t asking me my opinion, but I can’t shut up about it. I’ve only watched a few episodes and I’m already so angry.
Lyrie we need to get you on a blood pressure monitor! but no, thank you- it really seems like they were deep in the weeds. the character who is a stand in for them I wonder if one of the issues is that Chuck was a stand in for both them, but they also intended him to be a stand-in for us. S&D are his favourite toys, the story has to keep happening because he can’t let it go, he’s essentially writing fan fiction, etc. It’s all very muddy.
Jessie, you should see me yell at my screen, and squirm, and pause a scene several times because I’m too embarrassed for everyone involved (Castiel’s declaration…) — I get so worked up, it’s all very ridiculous.
You make a very good point! Those writers lost the plot – Becky was the stand in for the fans, which was insulting, haha, but at least the separation of the creator and the fans made sense.
But then I suppose they got so caught up in people’s immediate reaction that it would make sense that we (or the most rabid among us), in a sense, became creators too.
Seasons 6-7 were a different time, but social media already existed, and Sera Gamble still held her ground, despite people’s criticism, which, I’m sure, had nothing to do with the fact that she was a young woman. And those seasons are so much better overall, even when the main plot is weak.
// I am so desperate for explanations – I cannot handle the mystery of what happened //
I feel the same way. It’s been 5 years at this point but I would so love a backstage confession, or someone breaking ranks to talk about what really went down.
I think often about Season 7, and how Sera Gamble decided to shake things up. Get rid of the Impala for more than half the season is the main one. She was being bold and making choices that shook things up – in my opinion these choices worked, on the whole: I liked that their “criminal” past returned – which felt very real-life – and so they needed to take it seriously enough to take precautions. (Interestingly in one of the recent episodes – I think in Season 13 – when Donna’s niece was abducted – I believe Sam and Dean got freaked out because a real FBI guy was working the case, and Dean got paranoid that the dude would look them up and find that old Wanted poster from a decade ago. I appreciate these real world complications!
But anyway, I know the things Sera did were controversial at the time – but I wasn’t watching the series yet, so I was not in touch with fandom response.
On one of the commentary tracks – Jensen said something like, “Eventually I just had to say ‘Okay enough, we gotta bring the Impala back.” it was an interesting glimpse of a behind the scenes thing – and maybe some pushback against the powers that be. The difference of coure was Sera’s sincere LOVE for the show she was working on – and I think that choice – to remove the Impala (with the understanding that it would be brought back) – was perhaps unpopular but it worked out to destabilize what was a sometimes shaky season. destabilize in a GOOD way. It made Sam and Dean on edge, they were outside their comfort zone.
I feel like by the time we got to Season 12-15 – the team just couldn’t be bothered to build a bunch of motel rooms anymore. The bunker was just way too easy. And because Sam and Dean had a home base and a comfort zone – even though the bunker was infiltrated every other day – it made THEM lazy, sitting around looking at iPads drinking scotch out of fancy glasses.
It hurts to see – because I truly believe the team – particularly the three you mention – were artists of great gifts and integrity. I get that people get tired – and SPN clearly – CLEARLY – was on the air five seasons too long. lol
But still. I would LOVE to know what really went down. were any bridges burned? I think they burned a bridge with Mark Shepard – although I don’t really know what happened there. Like, they brought KETCH back and not CROWLEY??
your comment makes me wonder what possibilities could have been awoken in withholding the bunker for half or part of a season. It is a Tuesday so someone’s invaded it – but this time they’ve done something to it – locked the boys out out of their home, slept in their beds, burned soup in their pots, (am I talking about goldilocks? haha), stole all their magic stuff, graffitied the Table Of Sacred Initials – Dean would have lost his damn mind! It would have been exciting to get back in there. But it goes back to what you say about the show’s understanding of conflict and comfort. It was a rare day that they hit upon a thrilling idea and conveyed it with stakes and verve.
YES. Exactly!! We came close in whatever season that was with the evil Southern monster dynasty (?) – like descendants of Frankenstein or something? One of the offspring infiltrated the bunker, piled the books in the center room and was going to torch the books. I was like “DO IT.” We came so close!
Haha, like when Jack killed Mary, I had no idea it was coming, I was SO EXCITED, I was like oh my god yes, finally!
They did it before: the road house, Bobby’s house… once upon a time the weren’t cowards.
Or hell end of Season 1 – when Baby was totaled.
Just big ideas to keep the brothers on edge and angry and thrown off – not comfortably making scrambled eggs every day.
yes exactly Lyrie – they burned the roadhouse. and Kripke made that decision in one seeason. Nope. Doesn’t work. Get rid of it. Burn Bobby’s house. Burn every single respite/oasis they have.
oh yeaaaah hahaha I totally forgot about – what did we call them, the wankensteins? they were an unfortunate aspect of s10 but that’s the template! commit!!!!
No one can say the show didn’t get their money’s worth out of that very expensive bunker set.
when did it arrive – season 8? they definitely could have afforded to have Frankenstein Southern boy burn it down in season 11 or whenever that was.
Wankensteins, hahaha Season 10.
did they have something to do with the Book of the Damned? Never mind. I am sure the answer is irrelevant.
yes the most important part of that storyline (and thus virtually the only part I remember) was Jensen pushing a cop’s mug of pens off the desk like a cat
//Jensen pushing a cop’s mug of pens off the desk like a cat//
Followed by an extremely LEGS moment. I don’t like the Frankensteins (although I had hope for a minute), but that moment Dean strangles the cop with his legs does things to me. It’s only topped by the car’s 180 in Baby.
// How did the “God’s writing a story” narrative conceit of the last season hold up on a binge? //
It was terrible mainly because … didn’t we already do this with Metatron?? at least Metatron was powered by rage – which was interesting – whereas Chuck was powered by boredom. Honestly, this says a lot about where the writing team was probably at. Bored.
It’s upsetting to watch.
// The story itself being the final monster (a deeply wry theme for s15). //
That is an interesting idea but it seems like that would fit better with Metatron – than bored complacent Chuck. Making Chuck God was another huge mistake, imo.
oof, I don’t remember boredom being such a prominent emotion (inside the story, not me watching the latest Rowena monologue). yes, very upsetting – patronising and wasteful.
I’m kind of glad it wasn’t Metatron – we didn’t need to see Curtis Armstrong be put through all that – but it does seem kinda logical, right? the seeds were laid in s9, he’s gone rogue, usurped god’s power to mess with s&d. you can still bring chuck in at the end to kill him and end the story!
agreed that Metatron wouldn’t have worked – and by the time Metatron bit it he also had stayed too long – although I did really appreciate what he brought. Rob Benedict played God as a bored guy just playing around. He was kind of written that way – he had no malice towards Sam and Dean – they were his “favorite show”.
It just was a terrible choice for the final conflict – emotionally. also just not crazy about having Chuck by God, mainly because I loved Chuck back when he first appeared. He was another one – a very welcome guest character, whose energy was so different from Sam and Dean’s – it was always such a funny contrast.
And Rowena … don’t even get me started. Ruth Connell is clearly a very talented actress – and her line readings are perfection – not too many people could pull off what she pulls off – but her function in the story, as their SOS-call was another factor that just contributed to the whole “we;re out of ideas” thing.
I’m not saying Ruth Connell isn’t good, but I feel like her character is from a different world completely – something less grounded and more goofy than the show used to be. Like, Kyle Gallner is ALWAYS good, and he’s not bad in Band of Robbers, but his vibe doesn’t match what the others are doing, it’s just really odd.
(please admire how I will manage to bring all my little obsessions together and make them kiss on the mouth)
yeah I’m just talking about how she works with what she was given – it’s hard to imagine how else you would play that part. agreed, she’s from another world – and also the whole flip-flop on witches is wild. think about the first time we had a witch episode, andDean being grossed out – etc. But they were HUMAN. so killing them was a no-no.
suddenly witches are supernatural eternal beings and there are “witch killing bullets”. I don’t like it when they don’t remember what they themselves established.
This made me realise how little I retained from the last few seasons. I’m showing SPN to my fiance at the moment– they’d never seen it before and are now hooked, lol. We’re on Season 6, which I haven’t rewatched for years, and god it’s so EFFECTIVE. I was kind of hoping the last few seasons wouldn’t be as bad as I remember but now I fear they might actually be worse, lol. Anyway, your commentary made me laugh.
At least your rewatch will only get better :)
// I’m showing SPN to my fiance at the moment– they’d never seen it before and are now hooked, //
How fun!! I’m so curious about their reactions! (and congrats on your engagement!)
I LOVE Season 6. It was one of my favorites. SO many good episodes!!
I don’t think I’ve re-watched Season 12 – ever – I was so upset by it at the time. I’m having a vague memory of the Mary return and how it was handled and just being so unsatisfied, but beyond that I don’t remember much. I seem to recall the President of the United States was a demon … and at some point Dean “kills Hitler” … but beyond that I don’t know. Definitely going to go back and watch earlier seasons after this little experiment in reverse-order viewing.
mazel tov!!
Hey, congratulations on the engagement!
Are you planning on re-watching the entire show, or are you stopping somewhere. If so, where? I think I would be too embarrassed to show those latest seasons to a loved one.
Thanks everyone! Val finds it totally fascinating when TV shows go bad and is claiming to want to watch all the way through. I’ll see if I can take it. (I too find bad TV totally riveting, just not when it’s a show I’m deeply emotionally invested in)
I’m trying to think of a similar equivalent to Supernatural – is there one?
I can definitely think of long running shows that might have had a bad season or didn’t stick the landing – but this seems unprecedented. I could be wrong!
Imagine if you STARTED watching Supernatural in season 13. Imagine if your first impression of it was some Hunger Games cosplay with men flying through the air on wires with their eyes glowing blue.
Like, what the heck HAPPENED.
It really highlights the artistry of that initial team – and Kripke’s vision – what they established was so specific, and unlike anything else on TV at that time – and they did it with such authority, the look of it, and the characters – their world – the junk yards and motel rooms and greasy hands – all of that.
The Walking Dead – not every storyline was equally successful, but there was an overall quality, up until season 9 (I think). All of a sudden it took a HUGE nosedive – the main character for nine season was gone, and although the show had always been an ensemble cast (with some turnover, lots of people die lol), a bunch of new characters were introduced that just looked like there were from a different world – they looked fake and young, and the writing and acting was, wow, really not good.
And listen, the original cast was full of hot people – Lauren Cohan, Steven Yeun, Danai Gurira – like HOT. But they looked dirty and smelly and like real people. The new ones looked like they were just out of the plastic surgeon’s office with some fake dirt on their faces.
It was all very baffling and disappointing — and I was like AGAIN?? Because of course I was still hurting from the SPN debacle, lol. But at least TWD started as a zombie show in the South and stayed a zombie show in the South.
// at least TWD started as a zombie show in the South and stayed a zombie show in the South. //
Yes. Very important. lol
It’s very disappointing. and SPN is unique in that – like X Files – it had such a distinctive visual STYLE. and they just abandoned it completely. and then expected us not to notice.
Congratulations!
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 14, “Last Holiday”
Dean: Who the hell are you?
Random broad: Oh, language.
Dean: That’s it, I’m getting my gun.
I have zero memory of seeing this, NONE. But this made me laugh, at least.
Exploring the possibilities of the bunker was fun… seven seasons earlier. Now? Yawn.
Yeah I had forgotten about that one too. It definitely felt like an episode from 6 years ago – when the brothers might be unused to having a home base and cooking food etc.
Ever since this episode I feel like I see the Mrs Butters actress, Maegan Fay, pop up all the time in random stuff. She is one of those true working actors who can blow in out of nowhere, kill a guest part by perfectly understanding the assignment and coming in with a specific perspective, give the core cast someone to actually listen and respond to, and lift a scene or whole episode. She has a million credits and deserves a million more. They needed actors like this so sorely in those final seasons and they never got them! Textureless casting – smooth as a dolphin’s belly.
Jessie, I was thinking about that watching the episode, exactly – she is so excellent, and even though I’m pissed Jack is the main engine of the episode, she and Calvert have excellent scenes, they both do such good work. And in the latest seasons, so many guest actors are either very bland – textureless, yes! But also so many give such terrible performance, they don’t even look like professionals.
It makes me so sad.
// Textureless casting – smooth as a dolphin’s belly. //
Yes. I mean, look what happened by casting a heavy hitter like Veronica Cartwright. It was a nothing episode – but she alone made me cry. Her stakes were SO high. It was a reminder of what stakes ARE.
Having bored demons rolling their eyes at Asmodeus – and bored Chuck zapping people into different locations – and bored everyone – is just … it’s shocking really. This is what I can’t get my mind around. It’s like they forgot what works – not just this show but storytelling in general.
Sheila, I tried to post something and maybe it got eaten by the spam filter? Is it rescuable? (Feel free to delete this!)
oh wait let me look. if there’s a link it’s usually flagged.
Found it and approved it! Phew!
ty!
just to give this thread a point – Suze looks SO much up my alley, glad you were able to review and highlight it! I love that actress. Also I’m glad that your fall wasn’t more serious – scary stuff.
Suze is so good – really unexpected! and yeah, she’s great. She’s always good but usually a supporting character so it’s cool to see her play the lead. I loved how flawed everyone was – at the beginning AND at the end – they’re just people – but they were able to shake themselves out of being stuck and it was very good!
and thanks in re: the fall. It could have been so much worse. I shiver to think.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 12, “Galaxy Brain”
In the teaser, “god” says that there are many Sams and Deans, but only ours are the real ones, the interesting ones. He even ends his monologues on saying it’s time to end the failed spin-offs.
Two years later in the Winchesters, the season finale reveals the John & Mary we have been following are not “the real ones” since our Dean visits them from a different world. GOD literally says that all the other worlds are uninteresting and failed.
Even if TW had been a success (and I don’t just mean commercially), it was set to fail because its parent show decided to throw everything out the window with a petty, boring, bored god.
This really reads like bad fanfic. It’s just wild. Kripke, I get you’re gonna cruise on the royalties for this show for the rest of your life, but come ON, dude, what didn’t you pull the plug?
My new theory is that the people who like these seasons have not yet discovered they enjoy Dom/sub dynamics and they just want someone to spit in their mouth and kick them in the balls. Which is fine! Great, even, do you! Don’t do it using my favourite show, I’m not into degradation!
I never watched The Winchesters. I just had a bad feeling about it.
// the John & Mary we have been following are not “the real ones” since our Dean visits them from a different world. //
that is so stupid. I mean, it’s Robbie Thompson – like, how could he let this happen? or, not even “let”. He was in charge. why are they all ON BOARD with this? at least with SPN you could say – okay, so the ship kind of careened off course and we couldn’t stop it – but with The Winchesters you’re starting fresh. why …
// have not yet discovered they enjoy Dom/sub dynamics //
lol yeah there may be something to that
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 11, “The Gamblers” (2020; d. Charles Beeson)
//The whole “get our luck back” thing is a repeat of the far superior “Bad Day at Black Rock”. //
Okay, but they make it its own thing, and bring back several classic Supernatural elements who are, in general, sorely missing from those last seasons: a dive bar, hustling, some Impala love, and hot women who are not 20 something CW clones.
Davy Perez has written a lot of the more watchable episodes of those last seasons – a feat, considering he was hired in season 12. It looks like he did his homework, and brings it as close as possible to its origins.
Also, what I love about this episode, is that sure, there’s a god, but it’s deeply human. The stakes are human – people want money to save their marriage, or not to have cancer, Sam and Dean want to save those humans – and the solution is Sam and Dean being bold and competent. None of that let’s make a pot pourri that makes some weird light (ugh).
Beautifully directed by Charles Beeson, who, I just saw, died not long after, in 2021. He directed The French Mistake, and many other episodes I love, this news makes me sad.
Looking up Davy Perez’ episodes on IMDb, and the summary for Damaged Goods (season 14) reads: “Dean spends some bonding time with Mary and Donna. Nick finally finds the answer he has been searching for. Sam is left to make an unimaginable choice.”
Who THE FUCK is Nick? (I don’t care) Why is he before Sam Winchester, who was the protagonist of the pilot??
Also the genres listed for the show are, in order: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller.
Sammy third? Horror third?? WHAT???
“Nick” is the guy Lucifer inhabited – i.e. Mark Pellegrino, visited by his dead wife – actually Lucifer. Way back in season whatever.
they were desperate in Season 14, and there are a LOT of episodes where Nick – no longer with Lucifer inside him (ew) – decides to investigate the murder of his wife and baby years before. It’s endless and pointless.
Fantasy before Horror is our main problem!!
Yes it’s definitely one of the stronger episodes in the last four seasons! also: first visit to Alaska? I knew I recognized the head lady – she was the fabulous woman in the business suit in that one episode when Charlie tried to be a hunter and she asked her for advice about pant suits – and of course fabulous lady ended up being the “monster”. I am not good with episode names.
Agreed about the stakes being human – AND Sam and Dean negotiating for them to be let go. That poor bartender.
//I decided to watch Supernatural in reverse order//
for some reason I first understood that to mean you were starting with the very last episode of the show and working backwards, and I did say to myself, now that is a project.
At least with watching it in reverse you have the good stuff to look forward to.
// At least with watching it in reverse you have the good stuff to look forward to. //
That’s exactly right! I’m trudging through the horror of Season 12 – in order but now I have Season 11 to look forward to (up until the end, that is).
I actually did consider going backwards by episode – which would have made me even more confused. There are times when everyone – Ketch, Sam, Dean, Castiel, Jack – are all just standing around talking and I admit I’m like “wait, what is going on?”
There’s a very revealing blooper – from maybe season 13 – where an entire scene has to stop filming so that Misha and Jensen can literally explain the plot to Jared. Jared literally didn’t know what kind of reaction he was supposed to have to a certain moment – he didn’t even retain the timeline of events. It took two people to explain it to Jared. Now that is a horrible script and everyone should be embarrassed! well, not the actors.
// for some reason I first understood that to mean you were starting with the very last episode of the show and working backwards,//
Hi Helena! That’s what I’m doing. I didn’t watch the show finale (might re-watch when I’ve seen everything else) but I watch 15×19, 15X18, etc. I’m at the beginning of season 15, now, and it’s an experience. It really shows the wires of the season structure even more clearly – and how thin they are. It’s so ridiculous.
I’ll do that for season 15 to 12, and I might add the end of season 11.
Then I’ll go back to watch the ACTUAL show with the respect it deserves.
Hi Lyrie!
Wow! You’re actually doing it! I salute you!!!
Maybe our next time through we can just watch episodes at random, chosen by some algorithm. to REALLY remove any attempt to actually make sense of what’s going on.
that was really why Istarted this. If I stop trying to understand the plot – which is often so stupid I don’t want to understand it – what else might be there?
It really exposes the skeleton. very dismaying. The eps are bad IN context, and absurd out of context.
I’m deep in the British Men of Letters bullshit. I can’t stand it.
They really show how broken the show is. And the love affair with GEAR. so different from the greasy hand-made tools of the Winchesters. It’s gross. You can just feel that Dabb et al, frankly, wish they were working on another kind of show. Every single choice they make is to downgrade Sam and Dean’s “competence”. It’s kind of infuriating.
Lyrie – I’m so glad you’re on the same journey. We can support each other.
UGH, this is such bullshit, and a complete misunderstanding of the show. Even bringing the British into this – you wanted some James Bond typa shit, but this show is all about AMERICANA, damnit!
Last night I started watching the one with the “monster fight club” (god this is bad for my blood pressure and my acid reflux), and i stopped midway because it’s so fucking dumb. Written by the showrunner himself, so you know that when they go with “you’ve never had cavities before because of some sort of undefined supernatural power”, it’S HIM showing how he doesn’t understand the show he’d been writing for years.
Also, I’m sorry: “b-word”, “monsters”, and there were a few other examples my memory is protecting me from, but it’s really strange watching middle aged men who went to hell, fucked demons, hell, WERE demons, speak like toddlers.
// ou know that when they go with “you’ve never had cavities before because of some sort of undefined supernatural power”, it’S HIM showing how he doesn’t understand the show he’d been writing for years. //
Exactly. He literally doesn’t understand the concept. They’re human. They get cavities. They get headaches. They get drunk. They even have bad luck. They’re human. It was so frustrating.
and yeah b-word. stop it. I look back longingly at the ghost facers episode where it becomes totally clear just how much they swear. I love it so much.
Re: “b-word” etc. I can’t stop thinking about it. The guys have stopped living on the road, they don’t swear, they don’t have sex, no more allusion to drugs, no more credit card scam – Charlie sets them up with a magical never ending credit card). They’ve basically removed anything that I think, for dumdums, is “toxic masculinity.”
It is the DUMBEST take on masculinity: that to be acceptable, women want neutered men? At the same time, their relationships with women have become much less nuanced: it’s either completely sexless (Dona, Rowena) OR it’s explicitly romantic (Eileen). No more ambiguity, whether it’s with friends or foes. But these relationships were so interesting, often beautiful: with Anna (last night on earth!), with Jo, with Ruby. With the girl from Provenance.
It is SUCH a misunderstanding of what problematic behaviour actually is. It’s also stupid because it is not who these guys are, especially Dean. Or if you wanted him to fuck Castiel, my god, just have some balls and do THAT. Instead, they only made cowardly choices.
I can’t remember the episode – and so far in my re-watch I haven’t seen it, which makes me think it’s coming up in S12 – where Dean has a dalliance with a waitress at a diner. It’s a little flirty flirty etc. Near the end of the ep, there’s another scene in the diner – and there’s no interaction with the waitress, who presumably is still there.
and there’s a moment where they kiss goodbye – still rumpled – and Dean murmurs AT her “i’ll see you later” – like you know he will. I KNOW that Jensen added that line because the episode didn’t make a “moment” out of it – and there was no dialogue for them to say goodbye. I’m just guessing. But I just can FEEL since I know JA’s work that he just threw that in there – because it’s so Dean. He’s intimate, he’s cozy and cuddly and sexy. he’s NOT “love em and leave em” – didn’t he and Dean have a whole conversation about this seasons ago? where Dean is a little surprised Sam is going to leave without saying goodbye to his hookup?
It’s the subtleties like that – not writing in the script any diaglogue for their post hookup goodbye – AND having a scene in the same location and NOT “using” the waitress in some capacity – like Dean would ever go back to the same spot and IGNORE the woman he banged the night before. No way! anyway – it’s these subtleties, even more than all the spellwork and the BMOL – that makes it feel like NOT the show I knew.
//like Dean would ever go back to the same spot and IGNORE the woman he banged the night before.//
He would never!
Oh yeah, I know which episode you’re talking about – it’s in the meat plant, with Dean calling “hey goat dude?” lol I actually kinda like that one, it’s one of the not-so-terrible in a bad season, an actual monster of the week.
And yeah, it felt like maybe something got cut in editing, or something, but even if it was that, it says they prioritized the plot rather than the characters. Those details were everywhere in the early seasons. The girl who notices the Impala in Wendigo and the whole silent schtick between the brothers. Hitting on the mother in Dead in the Water, etc.
I remember nothing else about that episode – I’m assuming it’s in the final half of Season 12. Goat dude?? lol I don’t know what that is but I am looking forward to it.
// but even if it was that, it says they prioritized the plot rather than the characters. //
Yes exactly. the RHYTHM of the early seasons is just not present at all.
I’m thinking of a long running obsessive show like X Files – which definitely had some bold breaks in structure – no Mulder!! – and I’m sure fans had strong reactions to it. But the quality of the show remained amazingly intact through everything, even the reboots in recent years.
like if SPN did a 6 part “return” – like X Files did – what show would they return to? the back to basics seasons 1 through 9 or 10? or … Rownea-centric spell-heavy later seasons? LIke, what IS the show?
X Files came back – or like Twin Peaks just came back – and there it was, again, the SHOW as we remembered it. different feeling, older characters, older filmmakers – but the SHOW was there.
Zee-zohp
Angry vulvas.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 10, “The Heroes Journey”
Now that I’ve finished the episode, I read your post and I see you said pretty much the exact same thing. They have to be saved by Garth? Come on, now. Just say you hate the show.
Honestly, this is my second most hated episode – nothing can dethrone Man’s Best Friend With Benefits, written by the duo, where a Black woman is a literal horny bitch wearing a leather collar and calling a white man her master. Wow, nothing can top that level of cluelessness. I’d take all the teenage girl spin offs and Chicago soap opera spin offs if it could erase that shit from existence, especially in a season I otherwise love (post Purgatory PTSD Dean, and of course, Benny).
But right after We’re So Racist We Can’t See It, this episode comes second, for how it betrays the show. The music is bad – they misuse the family theme, then there’s the goofy music telegraphing “i swear this is funny” when the guys all of sudden can’t fight. Honestly, even the dance bit annoys me – of course Jensen is great but in that season they try to cram their show bucket list “he sings on stage!” “clap dancing!” and in other hands, it would be great, but here it just feels gratuitous and tacky.
Sorry.
and usually dream sequences somehow loop into the theme – which this one didn’t.
I’ve already blocked out much of the episode but I do remember them suddenly being unable to pick locks. as though their competence was somehow “granted” to them by divine intervention which was then removed.
everything’s so LITERAL.
and then of course the endless refrain of “we save the world” “this is what we do” – like, every episode.
“We’re the guys who save the world” but they can’t pick a fucking lock means that every time they saved anything, is because Chuck made them, or let them.
It’s the show kicking itself in the balls.
Every time I hear “it’s what we do” ==> Jessie.
“Remember that time we almost ended the world? And that other time? And that other time? And that other time? And that other time?”
And oh, I laugh.
right, like having them say “it’s what we do” episode kinda turns them into jagoffs. like, okay fine, you don’t have to keep telling us.
It’s like they (i.e. the show) have the WRONG idea about what is “toughness”. You really saw it with the Asa Fox abomination.
I’ve been on a Lynch jag, too. Mulholland, Lost Highway, just finished Twin Peaks Seasons 1-2. I started out wanting to just re-watch The Return but decided to do the whole smorgasbord. Glad I did. Lynch’s Zen, no-rush sensibility is quite calming. The show really does slow your metabolism down.
Larry – it really is so calming. even when they’re unnerving. You just don’t feel that his stuff – or he – feel any pressure to just get on with it.
I was thinking about the scene in Season 1 where Andy gets bonked in the head by a board – his gyrating body language goes on forever. It’s not particularly hilarious – maybe mildly funny? – and everyone just stands around watching him wiggle woggle. Nobody feels the need to rush – nobody does anything but say “are you okay?” as Andy wiggles about. It’s like moment out of Looney Tunes moment – or Laurel & Hardy – or whatever. Except less frenetic. It’s so interesting! I feel the same way about the “sweeping” moment in The Return – which can try your patience – but I just relax into it. I find it soothing. There are so many examples like this!
It reminds me sometimes of Andy Kaufman reading The Great Gatsby live on television – although I don’t get the sense that David Lynch is TRYING to irritate the audience and see how much he can just make people sit there and take it.
Watching DL’s stuff as a whole is really something. It’s its own thing.
Witch killing bullets (cause we’re just killing people now)
Witch killing Sam Witch
Dude killing pool cue (because, again, we just kill people willy-nilly)
vampire killing bullets
werewolf killing bullets
angel killing bullets
bullets killing bullets
boner killer bullets
Eileen infused herbal tea, please put one my my head bullet
She comes back from the dead naked but with a full face of makeup, thank god.
and poor Jared looks mortified in the naked-eileen-spa-day scene. I am one of those people who thought their chemistry was genuine in Into the Mystic – and I liked the idea of the guys trying to have relationships (not necessarily romantic) outside their fucked up belljar.
It seemed cool – and also different. the show hadn’t really done that before – or, not in a long long while.
But the way he smiled at her when she was standing by the scented bath – had this tight quality – he just wasn’t into it – he couldn’t even fake it as an actor – and I was like cringing into a ball like “nooooooooo stahhhhhhp it”
I’m not an actor, so I don’t want to overinterpret what I’m seeing but I remember somewhere in one of the seasons with Mary, a scene in the Impala and Sam talking to her with a deep annoyance that seemed slightly unjustified for the character, and thinking “oh Jared is fed UP”
oh yeah. He had a lot of those moments with Mary. Because she was played by an actress who couldn’t DO anything – it left THEM nothing to play off of – which is a capital crime as far as I’m concerned – and yeah, that tight little smile was a giveaway! He couldn’t “pretend”, lol.
So cringe
lololol lyrie never 4get never 4give. righteous!
Jessie, I know I’m being dramatic for no reason, but it’s so painful to watch.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 5 “Proverbs 17:3”
Re-watching the season backwards, it’s so obvious what a let down the season is. This episode promises us the main tension would be Abel and Cain type of brother thing – seen so many times in this show, but hey, if they could have found a new, bold way to wrap the show up by going big on this, why not!
But because I’ve watched all the episodes that come after, I know that nothing even remotely in this area will happen. They will TALK about it, once, in episode 19, when Dean tells god, okay, we’ll do it, we’ll kill each other.” and that’s IT.
It’s just so bizarre.
The rest of the season is Castiel and Jack, and Jack, and Kaila for some reason.
It’s really interesting to watch backwards, when it’s a season that doesn’t deserve to be watched in order.
// They will TALK about it, once, in episode 19, when Dean tells god, okay, we’ll do it, we’ll kill each other.” and that’s IT.
It’s just so bizarre. //
Yes it’s so weird. It’s like they vaguely remember that they need to up the tension between the brothers, that there needs to be some conflict, but then they get more interested in …. Rowena. Like they couldn’t help themselves somehow. I just don’t understand. THEY couldn’t have been more interested in this??
Think about how OBSESSED the writers were in earlier seasons – really up to Season 10 – with the brothers. The secondary characters were all there in service to the brothers – although Castiel sometimes went rogue due to : fans.
I just went through Season 11 – and there’s this GREAT scene between Sam and Dean at the end of “Love Hurts” when Dean comes clean about not being able to kill Amara. and Sam’s response … Jared’s acting of it – is SO interesting. it shows growth – again. You don’t just to keep repeating yourself. Sam is not at all surprised by what Dean says – and Dean can’t BELIEVE Sam isn’t surprised. Dean is so geared up – so defensive and filled with shame (God I love him) that being shown grace is just so foreign to him.
and they really kept that up until … they enter the warehouse and all just stand around – ALL of them (except Kaia, thank God) – listening to God talk.
I’m with jessie – I’d be so interested in a “whistle blower” to come forward (lol) and tell us exactly what went down in that writer’s room.
// I just went through Season 11 – and there’s this GREAT scene between Sam and Dean at the end of “Love Hurts” //
I remember it! I loved that moment, exactly for the reason you mention: this new dynamic between them. Dean admitting it, and Sam saying, yeah, I noticed, I see and I’ll be there for you. Seasons 10 and 11 were so good for that. We get to see them as middle aged men having all that history between them, but having also made peace with a lot of it, and finding new ways to react. It feels true to life, and it allows us to revisit similar stories but with new emotions, because they have changed.
We lost all of that later on, when there is no subtext anymore and we’re constantly going back and forth between behaviours having lost their layers (all the food jokes with Dean (and then fucking Mary) don’t hit the same) and them talking like self help books, and nothing in between.
// I’m with jessie – I’d be so interested in a “whistle blower”//
For real
I can’t remember which season it was – 13, 14 – where Sam has to drive somewhere and there’s this huge confrontation that’s supposed to be funny where Dean is like “don’t hurt Baby” “Sam, I’m serious. If anything happens …” “I swear to God …”
and … it’s just out of place. It’s like they had bullet points on a white board and just plugged them in.
Dean: loves food. loves his car.
Sam: reads a lot. vegetarian.
Meanwhile NEITHER of them have sex. I love in Baby when they both blow off steam – maybe Dean in the bar bathroom with someone – and Sam in the car with freakin Piper – and Piper is this little conversation point for the rest of the episode (not to mention her hair pin saving the day).
It’s refreshing. It doesn’t have to turn into some love story but again it makes them seem like normal guys. Normal middle-aged guys.
I mean, not normal – lol – but at least normal in terms of human urges. the show used to indulge in that all the time.
It also gives an opportunity for HUMOR which my God the show needed in those last seasons.
Yes, bullet points, no context, no nothing. It’s so lazy, trying to cash in on the work of others. Dean and food was funny, initially, because the way Jensen acted was inappropriate – he was supposed to be investigating a case, as a false priest, and he gets distracted by the mini sausages or whatever. That’s funny!
“Dean loves food” isn’t funny. Dean loves sex isn’t funny. Dean describes an orgasm in detail to a group of people who took a vow of abstinence, looking like, well, himself, now THAT’S funny. You can’t just count on the actor, you have to give him something to work with.
// It’s refreshing. It doesn’t have to turn into some love story//
No but that’s the thing, with those later seasons, it has to – Eileen – or it can’t be, because in their minds hookups are BAD. Everything is so black and white, there is no ambiguity anywhere, which is where the show thrived!
It’s so stupid.
Meanwhile, they’re just killing people, and no one bats an eye – as if THAT’S not fucking bad. They just stick pool cues in dudes and point guns at teenage girls like it’s no big deal. They used to argue about whether it was morally okay to kill VAMPIRES, when they didn’t hurt anyone.
// Dean describes an orgasm in detail to a group of people who took a vow of abstinence, //
even just thinking about it makes me laugh. and Sam being like “oh my God, dean, chill”
then there’s Dean’s reaction – in some episode I’m not remembering – to Sam getting a salad in a cup and shaking the dressing in it – and Dean watches for a second and then says “you SHAKE that smoothie, Sam”
The quirks of sibling-hood. Roasting each other a little bit. But yeah – Dean getting protective of Baby – stopping a whole scene to be all freaked out about Baby – isn’t funny.
I got into Ted Lasso during the pandemic – and stopped watching eventually because – I feel like they were over-praised – it was the pandemic, things got weird – and so they leaned into things too much. They leaned into the “quirks” until they became empty schtick. There was one scene early on in Season 3, where one character informs Coach Lasso and Coach Beard that he broke up with his girlfriend – and Coach Beard – a taciturn stone-faced guy, a fan favorite – fainted. FAINTED.
Like, what?
You’ve lost perspective. There is such a thing as being TOO loved. You still have to WORK. and yeah, don’t think you’re doing the show if you boil down the characters into things we already love them for. It’s also pandering. I almost can feel the writers being like “let’s throw in some Dean food business – the fans will love it!”
No. We don’t.
Killing humans is just so so bad, so against the whole show – and the twistiness of these two murderers having a moral code, and arguing about the line. Him pulling a gun on Kaia was appalling but yeah, the whole thing. Making the BMOL the Big Bad of a seaon was a massive mistake. There were some semi-interesting (not really) moments where it’s clear that the BMOL were too ruthless – that Sam and Dean didn’t like the tactics – but I was too annoyed by the BMOL’s presence I couldn’t really care about it.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 4 “Atomic Monsters”
The monster of the week isn’t incredible, but at least it FEELS like Supernatural. Not accountant angels and shit.
But the Chuck bullshit? My GOD it’s weak.
“We do it for [..] Rowena.” FOR ROWENA?? what the fuck
I just watched the first episode where Rowena appears. at least, watching backwards, I think it’s the first. If I knew she would last the next five seasons – becoming a regular – I would have been like … are you kidding me?
I can’t remember when it is, but I think I remember her first appearance? There’s some dead guy (on the ceiling? Or am I confusing ceiling stuff? Oh, Supernatural), and the reveal of Rowena.
It’s so bizarre, Ruth is a good actress, but her character feels like a cartoon character to me – like she’d belong in the Scooby Doo episode, but not in the rest of the show, which was, for a long time, at least, so grounded. I mean, think back to the pilot, and the guest actor who plays the widower of the Women in White. Grimy, leather faced, in the sun but with low saturation. Rowena, with her diction and her purple glow and her theatre style of acting… it just doesn’t FIT.
I’m starting season 14 – backwards. Mary is back. Ugh. I just watched the episode after Jack has killed Mary, and all the scenes between Ruth Connell and Alexander Calvert are so, so good. It’s sensitive, more realistic (as much as possible given the new genre they’re in), it’s like she dialed it down to focus more on the inner reactions than playing for the stage. I mean, I don’t know, I’m not an actor, but in those scenes I could SEE clearly that Ruth’s performance is coming from a different place. As if Calvert’s energy somehow lessened the need for a Big Show, compared to the large guys. I don’t know. Help me, because I don’t have the tools to unpack all this like someone with great knowledge of acting, but, do you see what I’m talking about?
Yes, there are guys on the ceiling and shes in some palatial hotel room.
// and the guest actor who plays the widower of the Women in White //
Yes. I just watched The Critters and there’s a similar old grizzled guy who is so heartbreaking in his own scene I was in tears. But then in the same episode there was the sheriff who looked like she was on Americas’s Top Model. she was fine in her performance (“Spanish Fly?”) but … think of the great sheriff in The Benders.
Supernatural is supposed to take place in the real world. That is the appeal. It’s not Hogwarts. It’s a gas ‘n sip on a lonely American highway.
I have already forgotten Rowena/Jack dynamic. lol I also like her energy in Regarding Dean – although I resented her being there since it deprived Sam of having to save his own brother. Ugh.