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<\/a><\/p>\nInitial thoughts: <\/p>\n
“Not bad, old man.”
\n“You too, sunshine.”
\nBeer bottle clink.<\/p>\n
I haaaaaated that. <\/p>\n
Ackles, as usual, is doing very interesting work. It’s depth-ful, as everything he does is. Dean isn’t even “in his eyes,” not a little bit, and whatever he is doing doesn’t look like “acting”. He’s inhabiting something, or something is inhabiting him. I enjoyed watching him. It’s pretty intricate what he’s doing: voice, physicality, the look in his eyes, the intonation. I also enjoyed his watch chain. <\/p>\n
The AU has just messed everything up. I hate the AU. So now we have the bunker (ARGH THE BUNKER I HATE IT) filled with people, one of whom is Bobby – yay, familiar face – and yet there isn’t the old relationship between Bobby and Sam. So we get Bobby, but we don’t get everything ELSE. I mean, this just seems like a dumb and pandering choice. <\/p>\n
Mary continues to be a huge problem for me. Mary is a symbol for me of every single thing that has gone wrong in this series since those disastrous final three episodes of Season 11. <\/p>\n
The huge fight scene was awful<\/em>. The music underneath, the sudden slo-mo. One of the high points of the series was the fight scenes: beautifully choreographed, and so well acted that it actually felt like it was going on. Visceral. What happens when you break the action down, when you slow it down, when you chop it up into little edited pieces – you lose a layer of reality. And the experience becomes … empty. Went into that here. <\/a><\/p>\n I don’t mind Sam and Dean being apart. I don’t mind the prospect of Dean being gone for a while. I think it could be very very interesting. At least it’s a break in what has become some pretty tiresome action. It also gives me a chance to watch Ackles take on another role, something we haven’t seen from this actor in 14 years. It’s exciting. <\/p>\n Padalecki did wonderful work. He was the center of the episode. I liked the scene with Mary in the car, mainly because he was resisting her pep talk. I realize that Mary is a huge blind spot for the team in charge currently. I think they’re really really proud of making Mary a “badass,” of having her not be “just” a mother – and they don’t realize what a huge betrayal of the pilot this choice is. It’s different than the time-travel episodes when we learned Mary’s backstory. In those episodes, Mary got to be a hunter, but she also got to be a loving mother and wife. She was hugely vulnerable. She was funny. All of that is gone. And my sense is that they’re PROUD of this, they think what they’re doing is “feminist.” Will get brownie points from us. But without Mary as an emotional galvanizing force (whether she’s onscreen or not), the series loses SO MUCH. Padalecki’s resistance to her “everything’s going to be okay” felt really really strong – and I so wished for some kind of explosion, or at least acknowledgement – “You don’t get to give me advice, you died, you came back and then left us again – I’ll work with you but I’m pissed off at you and blah blah blah” … I FELT it in his reaction. But I have no trust that the team in charge are even aware of those possibilities, so proud are they of turning Mary into some dumb action hero, bursting through the door with her gun. <\/p>\n The true possibilities of Mary – what she represents – do not seem to be apparent to those writing her. <\/p>\n It’s hard for me to get past it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Initial thoughts: “Not bad, old man.” “You too, sunshine.” Beer bottle clink. I haaaaaated that. Ackles, as usual, is doing very interesting work. It’s depth-ful, as everything he does is. Dean isn’t even “in his eyes,” not a little bit, … Continue reading