Spoilery reaction to 4X16

[fangirl_says]

A couple of thoughts on 4X16 -- not much squee here, I'm afraid.

So, Show, did you really need to (once again!) make the black character evil and then kill him off? Really? It's at the point that it just makes me tired. I'm past outraged, past angry, and just tired. I'm tired of expecting the show to do better, having faith that it'll do better, on issues of race and gender...and then having it fail over and over again.

TPTB must know that many fans object to this kind of crap. I mean, does anyone doubt by now that Kripke et al are keeping track of what fans think? They must have gotten some inkling by now that, hey, people have a problem with this. And apparently, they just don't care.

And isn't this supposed to be the show where No One Is What They Seem? Demons can be good guys, Angels can be badass, Bullies Are People Too? Except for scary, scary black men, apparently. They really are just as threatening and mean as we (clearly) suspected them to be all along.

Tired.

Racefail 2.0 aside, I just...wasn't feeling the Show love this week. While I adore Dean, and as pretty as Jensen is when he angsts, I'd be thrilled if we could go awhile without seeing Dean cry again. Addicted!bloodsucker!Sam was an interesting turn. The one thing about the ep that I found truly fascinating was the notion that God may not be in charge upstairs anymore, that someone else is ordering angels around.

Randomly, since when does Dean getting beaten up land him in the hospital on a ventilator (though still, oddly enough, sitting upright)? I like the idea that Dean being a righteous man who was broken in hell was the first broken seal (though as has been pointed out on my flist this morning, is he really the first righteous man in all of time to be broken in hell?)

I did love Misha's deadpan delivery of "Uriel's got the best sense of humor...ask anyone." *snarf*

Comments

[blackjedii.livejournal.com]

No silly, that wasn't a Supernatural episode last night.
Eric Kripke got the okay on his pilot/spinoff, titled Angels in America. It follows the relationship between Uriel (the angry black guy), Castiel (the clueless geek), and Anna (the token hot chick).

Sam and Dean were featured just long enough to tie it in to SPN. Normal viewing will resume next week.

in short... i hated it. I hate Dean tears. I hate Castiel. And I hate five minutes of screentime!Sam.
mostly though, i hate the fact that i'm seeing squee everywhere about how it's a good thing that Dean and Castiel got 'bonding time.'

[deej1957.livejournal.com]

And unfortunately, the forums that Kripke and Co read are the ones that do all the squeeing. The unhappy ones either don't post or commiserate privately with each other.

There is a fantastic post over on Limp!Sam about last night's episode and Sam. It really opened up my eyes a lot.

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/limpsam/show_single_post?pid=32639847&postcount=54

Part of it says:
**Sam has been forced to step to the fore as the strong one. He is not the straightforward hero like Dean in Season 1, because nothing is straight forward about his power or the path that brought him to where he is. He is mysterious, and ambiguous, and to me, exciting. He seems cold because he has built walls around himself that a tank couldn’t get through. He cannot allow himself to be vulnerable. Sammy in season 1 had that luxury, Sam in season 4 doesn’t. He especially cannot allow any vulnerability around his brother. 1) he can't be so weak that if he loses his brother again it will destroy him. 2) Dean has the ability to hurt him if he lets his guard down, and has done so. Implying Sam was something to be hunted? Throwing Madison in his face? 3) If he gets distracted by his brother’s pain it will weaken him. The way things are now, God forbid Sam goes weak. If he does the world can kiss its butt goodbye.**

[blackjedii.livejournal.com]

I think the writers are aware of some of the problems this season (Sera Gamble has been asked a few times now where the hell Sam went to and her answer usually is "He's there and I think he's grown a lot and you'll see it! Promise!" but she was saying that about 4.09 so...), I just don't think they care.
The nastier side of me though would point out that this entire season has been nothing but fanservice to the loud and vitriolic side of fandom that spent all of last season swearing up and down that they were DONE if they didn't get rid of those two bitches and give Dean some respect already. And I know that's entirely untrue and probably not what the writers were going but... so far Kripke has not said all that much about one brother while the other has been praised pretty openly. And that's where I start getting a little too fed up with the whole thing. Bad plot and melodrama aside, I'm just getting too much Dean and Dean's new blue-eyed fanboy and it sucks because I liked Dean fine before this season. Now I've learned to just do other things while he and his shiny angel are onscreen.

Thanks for the link though, I'll have to read it tonight after dogwalk. Mmm dogwalk. <3 <3

[deej1957.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to say all that, but since you did: WORD!!!!

Yes, do read the link, it helped me a lot in how I was looking at things. Didn't change my mind, just eased it a bit.