bending_sickle | I think it's 'cause it's we're so awesome.* (Reply)

Sickle's Abridged Reviews of Supernatural 1x01, 6x01, 6x02:

1x01 - Pilot

A few seonds in and I noticed something I'd never noticed the first time. It was something to do with an audio-cue, which I heard better in this viewing than in my other ones becuase I was using earphones this time. Something niggled at me, so I rewatched the opening few seconds. And promptly freaked out flailing. This is what I wrote once I'd recovered from the flailing:
OMFG! How did I never see that the tree's shadow in the very first few seconds of Pilot moves! It hugs the window! OMFG!
Seeing John with the boys outside his burning house gave me a case of raving plotbunny, although the poor thing will have to go on the shelf and probably die of starvation. What I jotted down was:
What was it like for John just after the fire? He must've gone to a motel, a weekly thing like Sookie (Southern Vampire Mysteries) did, but I'm sure he moved back into the house at some point before finding Missouri and the truth and heading on the road. That only started when he started hunting. Or maybe he never went home. (Like the Woman in White.)
I still hold that the Woman in White's "I can never go home" is central to Supernatural. It's a rather obvious observation, but there you go.
My gods, Jensen and Jared's voices are so high!
Jared's changed waaaay more than Jensen (but then Jared was younger when he started).
When Dean says, "That makes sense. Because when the first one went missing in '82 I was three," I'll admit to being a tad disappointed, becuase that meant he was born in 1979 (January 24, to be exact) and not 1978 as I'd been thinking. This means that while Sam is my age (well, five months older), Dean is older than my brother by a year. I'd so liked the symmetry of our shared ages before...

6x01 - Exile on Main St.

I was a bit thrown by the blue-hue recap - it felt too much like an in-season "Previously, on Supernatural" when Show has never really given that vibe because it's so good at chosing only the clips necessary for the understanding of the episode, avoiding the whole retelling of the story detail by detail.
I was more in love with the Hunter!Dean and Civilian!Dean montage. I love the show's montages to little bits.
Yorkie!
I liked that everything felt a bit off - Dean, Sam, the episode's pacing, the whole look of it. Why? Because things have changed, and what's more, they've changed without us. Of course we're not going to recognize Dean completely, of course he's going to seem strange and off - we've missed out on a whole year (and a very formative year at that) of his life. We don't know anything of Civilian!Dean, who yes, is an entirely different animal. This is why he started feeling "normal" when he clicked back into Hunter!Dean, like slipping on a glove he hadn't worn in a year.
I was so confused over the djinn-poison. I'll buy that their MO wasn't exactly like the previous djinn we'd seen - these are, after all, younger djinn, and with different motivations. Who's to say their powers haven't developed to full-blown blue-hand dimensions, or that they choose to do the casual-touch thing instead. However, I completely missed the injection-of-the-antidote. Even when Sam mentioned Samuel's development of a vaccine later, he made no reference to injecting Dean with it. Which made me doubt that was what had happened, which completely threw me off the loop for the entire episode, because all the time I had this tiny whispering doubt of whether it was still all a hallucination. (And I hate those stories - or at least those endings.)
I was very angry with Dean regarding checking whether Sam was actually Sam. So Sam passed the not-a-ghoul test, the not-a-demon test. What about the not-Lucifer test? Or the completely-fucked-up-and-evil-but-still-Sam test? I'm sorry to say I did not trust Sam at all, or actually accept that he was, in fact, Sam. His later actions didn't help. Especially that "oh fine, I'll let you hug me" lip-twitch. I'm almost hoping for him to be Lucifer gone free, or at least on a time-share with Sam.
Would no one think of Adam? (On a similar thread, won't the angels want to save their brother Michael, or have they decided it's a lost cause and he was never any fun anyway?)
Dear Samuel: I do not, for one second, buy that you were brought down. You were always creepy, and resurrection didn't help.
I didn't care about the Cambells at all. Also, convenient much?
I really don't like this emphasis on the Cambell's being "blood" and thus family and thus accepted into the inner circle of trust. Blood don't make family. And it certainly doesn't get you a "no questions asked" card.
I cannot express how much I love Lisa. Please, please stay and kick ass and actually get Dean.
Will no one mention that what the Djinn said to Dean - "This is for our father, you son of a bitch" - is exactly what Dean said to Azazel, save for the gender? That, taken with apocalypsos' reviews linked below, and I can see a theme!
At least with the Cambell's lying to Sam and their kidnapping of the djinn means I can have a reason to dislike them. My first thought was a collector - like the utter Evil Bastard or leonidaslion's Fetters of Fenrir - but simple research could also work, maybe developing weapons based on the monsters.
Dear Sam: You utter, utter ass. You wanted Dean to try and have an apple-pie life. You did. Don't you dare diss it (yes, golf!) or let your new BFF family diss it, or think that at the drop of a hat - at the drop you your goddamn little hat - you can have Dean back. You didn't want him. You stayed away. You made him promise to have what you wanted for him, regardless of what he wanted at that time and ever since. You do not get to just show up all not-dead and ask Dean to join you hunting again and ditch his new life you threw him into. No love at all for you. Jerk.

6x02 - Two and a Half Men

I'm glad that Lisa finally told Dean that at some point she'd have to work. However, what does she do?!? Because when Dean met her, she was a yoga instructor. Also, doesn't Ben have to go to school?
And more generally, what is it with these houses? Did Lisa own her first house? Are they renting these new houses? They certainly can't be buying on such short notice. And hell, even finding them for rent would take time. Not to mention the actual packing and moving. Are they even in the same town? And how long did Dean have to scrub the floors before the spray-painted devil's trap came off the linoleum? ETA: Who's to say Dean hasn't given up on his old credit card tricks? There's some easy money right there. Because otherwise, I'm damned if I know how a yoga instructor and a construction worker with a young child can afford a house - any house - and not be knee-deep in mortages and debt.
I'll buy Sam needing Dean's help on a hunt. I will. However, I will not buy it for this hunt, because a) Sam's been hunting on his own for a year, and b) when Sam hasn't been hunting on his own, he's been with his new squishable "family". Couldn't Sam have them help? In fact, why weren't they helping already? My guess? Sam really was just trying to get Dean into the mix. Why, I have no idea. Maybe the Mr Monster Collector wants Dean, too.
Remember when shapeshifters were creepy and personal and took on identities and were pretty much up there in my top monsters ever? (Oh, Skin-shifter, how I loved you and your Deanskin.) Yeah, now, not so much. The Alpha left me pretty unfazed. Oh wow, a super powerful monster impervious to whatever is supposed to kill shifters. About as interesting a big bad as a Tyranosaurous without all the awesome paleontology. I like it when they're scary in the "completely evil, will mess you up" way, not "pretty strong" way.
That's the second reference this season to "our father". My brain goes instantly to Our Father, who art in heaven... And of course, the wonderful parallels of last episode's vengeance of the Father!Djinn's and Mary's deaths, and this episode's "That child should be with his father. [...] I'm not talking about me, I'm taling about our father" where for one brief moment I took the first statement to apply to Dean as well. Yes, a child should be with his father. (Oh, what is that, Dean? Servant of God? Vow to the angels? Vessel?) Note again the talk of our father. Curiously, too, in the first episode it was revenge for a killed father, in this one it's an absent father trying to get his children back... Jeffrey Dean Morgan, if you do not get your ass in Vancouver I will personally kick it there.
Of course Dean is great with the baby. Dean hardly knew children back in Season 1 (Dead in the Water) but he was absoltely wonderful with them from the very start. Not to mention having raised Sam and now raising Ben. I love Mother Hen Dean and his lullaby (which was a lovely call back to Phantom Traveler and his humming of Metallica ("It calms me down.")
Lisa. I love you even more now, which I didn't think possible. You gave Dean a home! Unconditionally! No ultimatums like John to Sam! The only way you could be more perfect is if you had pie waiting for him when he got back from a full day of hunting. It's like that Fandomsecret I saw last year or so, about a fan not wanting to sex Dean up but rather give him a home he can come to and be fed pie. Lisa, you win.

40 Days of Supernatural Meme: Day 32 - Favorite death/body explosion (bad guy/zombie/demon)?

Does the exploding water ghost count? Because dude, awesome.

If not, because technically there was no body, then angel deaths are pretty high up there, and Hookman (ghost on fire!) as well as Asylum for much the same reason. A Very Supernatural Christmas made lovely use of the "quick creepy face distortion" in a death scene, which was awesome.

And, to be contrary, I loved Lucifer's utter not death at the Colt :D

Coming Up:
Day 33 - Favorite Dean eating moment?
Day 34 - Favorite hug?
Day 35 - Favorite Castiel scene? Favorite Bobby scene?
Day 36 - Favorite con?
Day 37 - Favorite Jared movie/other show?
Day 38 - Favorite Jensen movie/other show?
Day 39 - If you were a director who you would like to direct (Jared or Jensen) and what kind of movie?
Day 40 - What kind of movie/tv show would you like to see Jared and Jensen star in after SPN ends?

Quote of the Day: Book Covers For Book Lovers

There is an unfair stigma attached to loneliness, I think. It makes people feel bad for you, but at the same time admitting to those feelings makes you look needy, like you’re asking to be saved from yourself. Admitting to being lonely seems like a surefire way to stay that way.

Song of the Day: "Kiss Me Again", Jessica Lea Mayfield

Links of the Day:
Supernatural:

apocalypsos' Review Exile on Main St. (reaction) and Exile on Main St. (review) - "(Oh, and about that ... Adam who?)" THANK YOU, finally someone mentions Adam ; Two and a Half Men - "It's tempting once you recognize that we're being shown the tight family connections of the monsters we've seen in the past [...]. In the first episode, we see the djinn's children coming to avenge their father against the "monsters" who killed him. In the second episode, we see the shifters attempting to rescue their siblings. It's like flashing back to the Winchesters' past exploits, the things that they're done in the name of family that we love them for, except now we get to see it from the other side." ; Meta Yes, I'm still dwelling on the premiere - "Sam is the sort of unmitigated Winchester dipshit who thinks he sent Lisa and Ben a Dean-version of Stanford era!Sam. [...] Except he didn't send Lisa and Ben a Dean-version of "Stanford era"!Sam, he sent them a version of thirty-minutes-into-"Mystery Spot"!Sam" ; Fic Vacation Slides

amber3444's Review Two and a Half Men ; Review Exile on Main St.

dying_sacrifice's Icons

leonidaslion's Fic Fumbling in the Dark: Gloat (Roadkill)

ash48's Fanvid Set Me Free (Dean/Impala)

suchaprince's Fanmix The Devil Likes to Make My Heart a Double Bed (Ruby)

lavendergaia's Fanmix The Devil Put Aside For Me (Bela)

dean_sam's flocked 6x05 Spoiler Discussion
Blogzap2it's 'Supernatural' star Misha Collins welcomes his first son - ♥ Misha looks like a mix of panic and joy!
Scribd's Earliest pilot of SPN 1x01 - Everything's changed!

True Blood:

trueblood_lj's Discussion 1x06, Cold Ground - OMG epiphany!

Sherlock:
Movieline's Holmes Meets His Match: Stephen Fry Cast As Mycroft Holmes In Sherlock Sequel

Other Fandom:

tennant_love's embeds Single Father clips
British Theatre Guide's John Simm's Hamlet Review

Multifandom:

extemporanea's On

ursulav's Dragonbreath, finishing their Twilight essay, and more!

violateraindrop's Icons - Muse, Harry Potter, Pushing Daisies, True Blood, Supernatural

Random:

extermporanea's Drabble Settler's Way

queenanthai's spreading Spirit Day, October 20 - "It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes at at their schools." I feel incredibly horrible and insensitive at even the thought of wanting to smirk at the unfortunate mix of words-in-parentheses and context. Stupid brain!