SPN: Bad Day at Black Rock

[superbadgirl]

Or whatever it was called. I really wish they'd pick better titles.

Which isn't saying much, considering how clearly I stated I didn't enjoy the first two of the season. There were good moments, there were WTF moments, there was bad acting and bad dialogue and then there was cute Sam.

Whu...what? Suddenly John's got weapons and bad things in storage, Bobby knows about it but never bothered to mention it until someone who also mysteriously knew of Secret Storage Room of Doom happened to break in? SBG doesn't know what the fuck. (I particularly hated that they had Dean deliver the "aw, shucks, that sneaky old John" line.)

I really like Gordon, but I hate that they keep playing him as a one trick pony. I think the character could be more, and I think Sterling K. Brown could DO so much more. They've made him a flat villian, when I don't think he's a villian at all. He's misguided and misinformed, yes, but he's not ooooohevil. And if they make him say "Sam Winchester must die" one more time, I will cry and start writing letters. Not only is it an over the top stupid line, it reminds me of that awful movie from a few years back - John Tucker Must Die. I do not want to associate revenge-bent high school girls with Gordon, damnit.

Ben Edlund can usually tell entertaining stories, and this one was for the most part...but his stories, I think, also have the humor tipping the scale just a little too much. Ha ha, look at all the bad things happen to Sam, never mind that all that bad stuff will eventually lead to DEATH and that's not, y'know, funny. I don't know, I guess I prefer dark humor for this particular show. As cute as JP was with all the slapstick, I hope they keep Ben Edlund away from him in the near future.

Yay, brothers together pretty much until minute 37, when it started to kind of suck. However, the dialogue and certain something even between JA and JP is still off. I'll take what I can get at this point, but it's still noticeable to me. My theory is that the long killer hours together is what made the show rock so hard before, and now that that complaint has apparently been addressed, there's less clickage. It's like they did a hard shut down and when they re-booted they did it in safe mode and the screen's all wonky. Except on a people level. Or am I delusional? I can't be the only one feeling it, or rather not feeling it.

Bela. Oy. You know, I don't hate her. Like Ruby, though, I don't get why she's there. Like Ruby, her character feels shoved in and it's all wrong and off. Ill thought out. In fact, I think it's even dumber than the Roadhouse. Bobby's "Oh, yeah, I know this thief, ran into her a few times" just makes me cringe and wish he wasn't involved at all. Plus, she's got a serious underbite and a strange mouth thing when she talks. I know I've got a prejudice, but actors who move their mouths funny really throw me. (See: Vanessa Angel as Anise/Freya on SG-1, the dude who plays Allison's brother on Medium.) I also tend to think it's a bad idea to have people from Pennsylvania try for some kind of British accent*. Maybe that's why she does the weird mouth things? Either way, she's not a good enough actress to pull it off regardless of where she's from, I'm afraid.

*and if she's legitimately British, then my bad, but then it's all bad acting on her part.

Mostly I seriously dislike the whole pairing off each of the brothers with the new hot chicks. Just...ugh. Like there isn't enough weird-ass, unfathomable ship out in fandom?

I think I puked a little when Dean pulled out his "I can read people" schtick more than once.

A Jesus-freak hunter? Come ON. That was really stupid.

"Yeah. You're Batman." LOL. Okay, the way that line was delivered was actually funny.

Comments

[bedelia77.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever laughed so much during an SPN ep.....I loved it! Ya there was much cheesiness, but I thought they did the slapstick parts really well. I figure we're going to get a tonne of angst later in the season, what with Dean being on the fast-track to hell and all, so I'll take the lighter episodes now. I agree with you that Gordon could be a lot more than he is, I really like the actor who plays him, thought he was great in the last one we saw him in (can't remember the ep name, the one where he gets arrested at the end). And I actually had higher hopes for Bela, she looked so cool in the preview image I saw of her. I think it's her acting, you're not wrong about her talking weird. And yes, I don't like that she's specifically been paired off with Dean and Ruby has been paired off with Sam. But as long as it remains an antagonistic pairing, I can deal wtih that. The "I can read people" bit was ok the first time and then ya the second time it was too much, but I think it was supposed to be, I don't know, funny, I guess because we knew that she was gonna throw those words in his face. What's that called, irony? Anyway, it was a tad out of character for Dean. But all in all I had a great time watching that one, gonna see if I can get my hands on it tonight and watch it again. Plus travellingone hasn't seen it yet. ;)

Now, what's this about complaints about long hours??

[superbadgirl]

Oh, I did laugh at bits. I don't know, I guess it's still just off for me for some reason and some things really didn't make sense to me. Like if Bela's this super thief of supernatural artifacts (which, for the record I think is an absolutely stupid premise - even worse than the Roadhouse), why did she only take the rabbit's foot, and how did she know which protected box to grab? Never mind how did she know about the storage box in the first place. And shouldn't prisoners' conversations be monitored? What with Gordo spouting off about "Sam Winchester must DIE!" you'd think someone might notice.

The long hours thing is that JA and JP were formerly in practically every single scene together, which apparently takes lots and lots of time and they don't get to rest. Which I totally get...but I think at this point I could have lived with ONE woman being added (I'd vote for Ruby if my choices were only her and Bela), and have the stories be about both of them rather than splitting them completely up.

[bedelia77.livejournal.com]

I can overlook little plot holes like the ones surrounding Bela, I figure she's a pro, she's got her sources, if she's working one job at a time then she probably wouldn't mess around with the other boxes that she may not have researched...that sort of thing. I know that Kripke was planning one of the female characters before he was told to add two, I don't know which one it was though. At first I thought I'd like Bela more than Ruby (and I use the word 'like' very loosely) but now I think I prefer Ruby, she's got more going on that's more interesting.

And yes Gordon's lines were pathetic, I don't know if the writers had a massive brain fart towards the end and couldn't think of anything else or what...that bit was irritating. Hopefully next time we see him he'll have more to work with. Hopefully.

As for the long hours, well, we don't want JA and JP to work themselves into an early grave, so if it means fewer scenes together (but not too few) then I'm ok with that, as long as I get my weekly dose ;)

[khek.livejournal.com]

I liked a lot of this episode; I think Jared had a lot of fun filming it, and Jensen did really well with both the humor and the angsty bits. They were together more in this episode, and they were talking to each other. All good.

On further reflection though, there were still some issues. It still had too many other characters shoved in there, detracting from Sam and Dean. There were a lot of "eh?" moments that contradicted themselves. In that first conversation with Sam, Bobby was yelling at him that losing the rabbit's foot would lead to his *death*, and worrying about that. Later, talking on the phone to Dean, he's calling him an "idjit" for falling? And kind of snickering at the idea of his pratfalls? What happened to the concern? Did they forget they'd said that the situation would lead to Sam's DEATH? Not happy with that.

Gordon is kind of boring and repetitive, the new hunters were scary, but not really in a "wow, I want to see them again" way. More like the "ew, see the gross full tick I pulled off my dog" way. The scary you want to throw away and forget about.

Bela was irritating--she did talk funny, both the accent and the mouth thing were weird. I also don't see how they can possibly redeem her after her having SHOT Sam. Deliberately. Maliciously. Not the kind of thing you can really get over. I honestly expected Dean to just shoot her where she stood for doing that. He still had the rabbit's foot, he should have succeeded. I wish he had.

I really didn't like the "humor" take on Bela. If someone deliberately tries to kill you (because Bela implied that she knew right from the start that stealing the rabbit's foot would cause the person losing its death) then steals something (the foot) from you, then tries to kill you again (I guess Dean's luck could have protected Sam at that point, but it's just as likely that his bad luck would cancel Dean's good luck--especially with a curse involved) then steals (the lottery tickets) from you again? Not someone I want to see allying with the boys. Kind of like trying to trust a shark not to bite or like making a deal with a demon...Oh.

Never mind. They are that stupid. (tptb, not the Winchesters.)

I don't have much confidence in their bringing these elements together later in the season with any degree of logic, continuity or really, success.

My theory is that the long killer hours together is what made the show rock so hard before, and now that that complaint has apparently been addressed, there's less clickage. It's like did a hard shut down and when they re-booted they did it in safe mode and the screen's all wonky. Except on a people level. Or am I delusional? I can't be the only one feeling it, or rather not feeling it.

You're not delusional, this is pretty much how I feel too. (Thanks for putting it into words!) It does feel like the intensity is gone. Long hours and lots of time together may have translated onscreen to that "us against the world" attitude that existed for the first two seasons. I think maybe they traded in intensity and originality for lowest-common -denominator appeal.

And what's with the uppage on the gore? I knew exactly where that fork was going as soon as the guy took it out of the sink, and...ick. I thought they believed in "less is more", "what happens offscreen is scarier than showing lots of blood and guts"? Not anymore, apparently.

I should just write up a review in my own journal rather than hijacking yours! Sorry about that!

[superbadgirl]

There were a lot of "eh?" moments that contradicted themselves. In that first conversation with Sam, Bobby was yelling at him that losing the rabbit's foot would lead to his *death*, and worrying about that. Later, talking on the phone to Dean, he's calling him an "idjit" for falling? And kind of snickering at the idea of his pratfalls? What happened to the concern? Did they forget they'd said that the situation would lead to Sam's DEATH? Not happy with that.

I went WTF? at that "idjit" bit myself. They didn't know what would happen, and it's certainly not Dean who's the idiot at that moment. Sam's the one who grabbed the thing.

I can appreciate absurd humor - I mean, I wrote a story in which both Sam and Dean spend most of the time crying at insane thing - but there has to be balance, some sort of tangible link that they still understand the gravity of the situation. Even when Sam got shot at the end, I didn't feel the angst. Dean was pissed, but he didn't even move toward Sam.

Gordon is kind of boring and repetitive, the new hunters were scary, but not really in a "wow, I want to see them again" way. More like the "ew, see the gross full tick I pulled off my dog" way. The scary you want to throw away and forget about.

It makes me bad. And it bothers me that the two people doggedly after them are black male characters (Hendrickson, if he ever shows up this year) who haven't been fleshed out as anything but villains to our heroes. Neither of them ARE that cut and dried, and I wish that angle would be presented more effectively. I also think both actors deserve more.

I didn't like the Jesus freak hunters because they're giving all other Jesus freaks a bad name. Like the die-hard evangelicals mucking it up for the normal Christians. ;)

Bela was irritating--she did talk funny, both the accent and the mouth thing were weird. I also don't see how they can possibly redeem her after her having SHOT Sam. Deliberately. Maliciously. Not the kind of thing you can really get over. I honestly expected Dean to just shoot her where she stood for doing that. He still had the rabbit's foot, he should have succeeded. I wish he had.

Me too! Seriously, if I ever see D/B ship, I'll become nauseated. She shot Sam! No ship. There's always, too, that they had no chemistry.

She looked like a human piraha with her underbite. *meow*

Long hours and lots of time together may have translated onscreen to that "us against the world" attitude that existed for the first two seasons. I think maybe they traded in intensity and originality for lowest-common -denominator appeal.

Which is a damned shame. The CW has a plethora of other programs that fulfill the LCD appeal, it would have been nice of them to leave this show alone.

I knew the second the dude cleared out the sink what was going to happen. Actually, I knew the second the beer bottle rolled. Did NOT need to see it. Gross.

[superbadgirl]

It makes me bad.

LOL, mad, not bad. I mean, I am bad, but that's got nothing to do with SPN. ;)

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

here were good moments, there were WTF moments, there was bad acting and bad dialogue and then there was cute Sam.

Hee! That is my reaction in a nutshell. *g*

Whu...what? Suddenly John's got weapons and bad things in storage, Bobby knows about it but never bothered to mention it until someone who also mysteriously knew of Secret Storage Room of Doom happened to break in? SBG doesn't know what the fuck. (I particularly hated that they had Dean deliver the "aw, shucks, that sneaky old John" line.)

Me too, me too, me too. I really dislike that they're trying to somehow change John's character now. It's the main reason I greatly disliked the comics.

I agree with you about Gordon. I liked him in the first episode we saw him, and I didn't even hate him in the Ava episode, but they did sort of paint him as a cardboard cut-out villain there and even moreso here.

Ha ha, look at all the bad things happen to Sam, never mind that all that bad stuff will eventually lead to DEATH and that's not, y'know, funny. I don't know, I guess I prefer dark humor for this particular show. As cute as JP was with all the slapstick, I hope they keep Ben Edlund away from him in the near future.

I also agree with all of this. It was all just a bit too lighthearted, even though Sam was adorably cute.

However, the dialogue and certain something even between JA and JP is still off. I'll take what I can get at this point, but it's still noticeable to me. My theory is that the long killer hours together is what made the show rock so hard before, and now that that complaint has apparently been addressed, there's less clickage. It's like they did a hard shut down and when they re-booted they did it in safe mode and the screen's all wonky. Except on a people level. Or am I delusional? I can't be the only one feeling it, or rather not feeling it.

No, you're not the only one noticing this. It may be just you and me, though. *g* I love your description of it here, which is why I have to quote the whole thing.

I think I puked a little when Dean pulled out his "I can read people" schtick more than once.

Me too... Well, except for the puking part. I didn't like it. That moment was played in all seriousness with the stupid thief guy and I liked that moment, and then it was ruined by Dean trying to pull the same line on someone else. In the first scene, it was played for sincerity.

I thought the Jesus thingee was going to turn out to be an Evil Object. I forgot all about it by the end of the episode, though.

"Yeah. You're Batman." LOL. Okay, the way that line was delivered was actually funny.

*g* Yes, it was good. It was one of the few great moments, even though I hate how it implies that Dean is someone to be humored and not to be taken seriously. I actually really hate how this season they're making Dean out to be nothing but a pain in the ass to Sam, but poor, martyred Sam cares so much about his brother.

I didn't like the episode title either. I think it was supposed to sound like the title of a Nancy Drew book or something, but it made the episode sound as lightweight as it ended up being.

[superbadgirl]

Me too, me too, me too. I really dislike that they're trying to somehow change John's character now. It's the main reason I greatly disliked the comics.

I mean, John was an asshole sometimes, but that isn't ALL that he was. They're making it seem that way, though. :(

That moment was played in all seriousness with the stupid thief guy and I liked that moment, and then it was ruined by Dean trying to pull the same line on someone else. In the first scene, it was played for sincerity.

Yep, what looked to be a genuine connection was stripped of that genuineness.

It was one of the few great moments, even though I hate how it implies that Dean is someone to be humored and not to be taken seriously. I actually really hate how this season they're making Dean out to be nothing but a pain in the ass to Sam, but poor, martyred Sam cares so much about his brother.

Good point. :( It didn't help that Dean didn't move at all when Sam was shot (or, you know, any of the times bad things happened to him). It was just so off for me. While I like that Sam's finally been given the chance to actually demonstrate how much he loves and needs Dean, I don't see why Dean has to lose himself for it.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I mean, John was an asshole sometimes, but that isn't ALL that he was. They're making it seem that way, though. :(

Yeah, John was a stubborn bastard, but he was not an "obsessed psycho." (Kripke actually said that in a recent interview--called John an "obsessed psycho." That's not the way he was written in season 1, and I don't believe it.) I think John genuinely loved the boys and did the best he could.

[deej1957.livejournal.com]

*** However, the dialogue and certain something even between JA and JP is still off. I'll take what I can get at this point, but it's still noticeable to me. My theory is that the long killer hours together is what made the show rock so hard before, and now that that complaint has apparently been addressed, there's less clickage. It's like they did a hard shut down and when they re-booted they did it in safe mode and the screen's all wonky. Except on a people level. Or am I delusional? I can't be the only one feeling it, or rather not feeling it.***

No, you're not the only one. There's just something... off... this season and it makes me sad.

And I don't like either Ruby or Bela, although Ruby at least makes more sense. For some reason I'm thinking that Ruby was the one Kripke was planning on adding until Ostroff said-- add another one. Didn't the writer of this episode create Bela? I seem to remember him saying that at Comic Con this past summer.

As much as I don't like her, Ruby at least moves the plot/arc along. Bela... there's no reason for her to be there at all, and there's nothing in the past two seasons that would even hint at a character like her.

However... I thought Jared did a wonderful job with this, Sam was too cute... I lost my shoe....

[superbadgirl]

And I don't like either Ruby or Bela, although Ruby at least makes more sense. For some reason I'm thinking that Ruby was the one Kripke was planning on adding until Ostroff said-- add another one. Didn't the writer of this episode create Bela? I seem to remember him saying that at Comic Con this past summer.

I've no idea. I steer as clear away from spoilers as I can. I knew of these women's existence, but that was about it. It would make sense, though. She's all flash and no substance. SPN isn't the deepest show around anyway, but when you can call a character out for being shallow and flat...you know it's not good.

I agree. I'm not overly fond of Ruby simply for the fact she splits up the guys, but I do think it would be preferable to have just her, and to have her interact with both guys. Y'know, together. Because her particular role does span both Dean and Sam.