spnanonhaven | #91

Entry tags:

show & fandom

#91 - honc

This post is for show discussion and fandom gossip only. NO ACTOR GOSSIP, NO ACTOR BASHING!!
THIS JOURNAL LOGS IPS.
Backup location:

spnanonhaven

RULES:
1. No posting f-locked content.
2. No linking between RL and online identities.
3. Keep the actor gossip to these posts or take it to

spn_gossip.
4. Keep spoilery information out of thread titles.
5. No embedding music.
6. Embedded images must be SFW.

ACRONYM KEY:

AYRT = "I am the anon you're replying to." | DA = "I am a different anon from the one you're replying to, and already commented somewhere else on this thread." | NA = "I'm a new anon who has not commented on this thread before." | SA = "I'm the same anon, replying to my own comment to edit/elaborate." | AIRT = "The anon I replied to." | ITT = "In this thread." | OP = "Original post / original poster."

Off-Topic | Fanworks Discussion | Reference | Flatview

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So I didn't watch the episode yet, but it seems everyone except Pollyannas on Tumblr hated it. Even spn-party couldn't come up with many positive reactions, and they're usually all about squeeing and ignoring problems.

Time for science! Is it on your list of five worst episodes ever, or did you enjoy it enough for a rewatch? Both? Neither? Give me your feelings!

NA

I didn't finish, I closed the window after 20 minutes and played Farmville instead

I couldn't find anyone who disliked the episode on tumblr, Sam!girls and Wincest shippers included.

tumblr Wincesters are the type to be appeased by office romance omfg squee.

I haven't watched yet and am not too enthused (honestly, throwing Sam mostly back to s1 characterization AND making him be the one more hardline about monsters seems like a terrible idea to me; I know they are setting up Benny, but having Sam be hardened rather than humanized by his year of civilian life just makes him more unsympathetic and less interesting -- shades of grey Sam actually had a different perspective on the job instead of just not liking it), but my flist is actually mixed, from bored to death hating it to meh to fairly positive to squee.

na

I didn't particularly like the episode. It felt like a homage to teenage horror movies, a genre I never cared for. But I disagree about Sam seeming hardened. Actually that last scene was my favourite part of the episode because Sam seemed very Sam and Dean's stance was very interesting and indicating how Purgatory changed him.

I really don't get where people get Sam wanting to hunt Kate. After they watched the movie Sam said she had half a day jump on them. He didn't look eager to hunt her, he looked like he dreaded it. Dean hmmed and then Sam said she hadn't killed anyone human yet. Dean agreed and said "she didn't chose this, let's giver her a chance." Sam seem relieved and immediately agreed and said they'd take her down in the future if she started killing.

Agreed. And I don't get how some upthread think this scene showed Dean forcing his will on Sam? He absolutely didn't. They both discussed it and agreed.

And I agree that Purgatory has changed Dean. And now that he's back on earth, where there are monsters as well (yet not all of the monsters are after him or want to harm humans), Dean is going to have to make some tough choices.

Also, Dean has deferred to Sam's opinion before of allowing certain monsters the benefit of the doubt. So it seems he's building on what he's learned from Sam, from Purgatory, and from past mistakes.

na

Totally agree on how Sam came across. I'm so glad someone else made this comment, so I didn't have to figure out how to phrase it. Sam was tentatively anticipating what Dean would want to do, and was surprised and pleased when Dean didn't want to kill Kate.

I enjoyed the episode fine while I was watching. The new werewolf mythology was quite contrived, but I liked the characters and the progression of the plot. I don't know whether my feelings are settling down more in the direction of "yeah ok, but it's really not interesting enough to rewatch", or bristling at the hyperbolic descriptions of its utter awfulness. All I'm sure about is I loved Kate a great deal.

It ranks low for me (don't care for teenagers, don't care for love triangles, those kids were no Ghostfacers, not enough cute/meaningful third-party looks at S&D, dull writing [but that's kind of become characteristic on this show these days]...), but I didn't find it actively offensive enough to join the ranks of Hammer of the Gods, Time for a Wedding, Swap Meat, etc. at the bottom. I doubt I'll ever rewatch it, though.

For science, I enjoyed the first three eps this season. I'm not a S8-hater. YES, this episode is worsethan "Swap Meat" and "Time for a Wedding" combined.

Awful writing, which has mostly been elucidated already in this thread. But also awful casting (three very bland and at best, averagely talented actors who could not rise above the suckiness of the characters they were playing) and awful direction or whoever is to blame for the utter lack of any sense behind when scenes were filmed from the camera's POV and when they weren't. (Seriously, it would jump back and forth in the middle of people's lines even. And people were filming their own faces all the time for no reason.) I feel like I was supposed to think it was all tragic and sad those guys died, but I was GLAD. I couldn't stand them in the first five minutes of the show already, and then the ep went on and on and on. About the only two things, it has going for it was that it lacked outright offensiveness that wasn't a deliberate character choice, and if you like the "two queens or one king" kind of lines, there were a couple of refs to Dean & Sam's office romance.

da

Your thoughts are mostly my thoughts. I really enjoyed the first two episodes - the third one I was bored during (but I'm not a MOTW fan in general, so that was to be expected). But this one had me checking the clock every two minutes. I did not care about anyone or anything, thought everyone was generally unlikable, couldn't understand why they all kept filming their faces...And I have no idea why the girl who survived took the time to carefully edit the movie after she'd just been through some serious trauma and also knew that she had hunters after her.

Also for science - I had a casual viewing friend over to watch the episode, and she loved it.

AYRT

Word to the characters' unlikeability. The main male characters had a very strong whiff of Nice Guy. If you're going to build a MOTW around one-offs, you need to make them either sympathetic or interesting, and those two were neither.

da

and awful direction or whoever is to blame for the utter lack of any sense behind when scenes were filmed from the camera's POV and when they weren't. (Seriously, it would jump back and forth in the middle of people's lines even. And people were filming their own faces all the time for no reason.)

?

All of the shots in the video the Winchesters watch are from a diegetic camera. More camerawork-y shots are from cameras that are sitting on tables, or the Nice Guy's hidden cameras.

na

I agree with ayrt, though, that there was an awful lot of splicing and editing going on there. Seriously, how long did Kate sit there putting that together before she packed her backpack and split?

ayrt

An absolute fuckload. And unless I'm mistaken, this was her first video editing project. The real tragedy is that the film industry lost the virtuoso she could have become if she kept at it.

AYRT

I'm not in the least bit interested in downloading the ep to prove you wrong. But not all of the footage was from camera POV, and no, I'm not getting confused because of the hidden cameras or the cameras sitting down on tables.

In addition, as the other nonny said, there was a ton of splicing between the different "camerawork-y" cameras that was silly, and I've already raised my objection to how much random time people spent shooting their own faces.

ayrt

I'm not in the least bit interested in downloading the ep to prove you wrong. But not all of the footage was from camera POV, and no, I'm not getting confused because of the hidden cameras or the cameras sitting down on tables.

Okay, well. I have the episode right here on my hard drive, and you are mistaken.

The rest I don't dispute.

DA

Are you including the webcam on the computer? Because a lot of the direct shots in the apartment came from that one, too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

#91 - honc

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread

Re: S8 Ep4 Discussion Thread