Sam in general has felt to me to be far more sympathetic and intriguing. Dean had a metric fuckton of grimdark loaded on him in 6.06 that made him very dull and uninteresting. He hasn't been stagnant, I'd argue, at least not since S6 because he spent most of S6 and the first half of S7 just gradually getting worse. I'll give you that he's become stagnant in the later half of S7, though.
Sam's grown and shown progress, but it's been a rather quiet sort and it feels like it's dropped off entirely after 7.17. In general though, I've been much more impressed with Jared's acting than with Jensen's. IDK if it's because Jared had better stuff to work with or what. Sam's stuff seems meatier and more enjoyable but Dean's could have been equally so, if the writers had bothered to develop it at all.
I loved the idea of Lisa and Ben and Dean's interactions with them but S6 did just such a shitty, terrible job at developing their characters and how they impacted Dean. They had wonderful potential but it wasn't lived up to. Sam lucked out in that regard; it feels like they wimped out on his storyline after 7.17 as well, but at least he had almost two full seasons of well thought out, well rationalized, and well developed growth.
Re: Extended TV Guide spoilers
Sam in general has felt to me to be far more sympathetic and intriguing. Dean had a metric fuckton of grimdark loaded on him in 6.06 that made him very dull and uninteresting. He hasn't been stagnant, I'd argue, at least not since S6 because he spent most of S6 and the first half of S7 just gradually getting worse. I'll give you that he's become stagnant in the later half of S7, though.
Sam's grown and shown progress, but it's been a rather quiet sort and it feels like it's dropped off entirely after 7.17. In general though, I've been much more impressed with Jared's acting than with Jensen's. IDK if it's because Jared had better stuff to work with or what. Sam's stuff seems meatier and more enjoyable but Dean's could have been equally so, if the writers had bothered to develop it at all.
I loved the idea of Lisa and Ben and Dean's interactions with them but S6 did just such a shitty, terrible job at developing their characters and how they impacted Dean. They had wonderful potential but it wasn't lived up to. Sam lucked out in that regard; it feels like they wimped out on his storyline after 7.17 as well, but at least he had almost two full seasons of well thought out, well rationalized, and well developed growth.