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Oh, SPN
I think this latest episode (well, the combination of this and the previous episode) may have been the final nail in the coffin of my foundering affection for the show.
I quit watching Lost in season three because the episodes and scenes that I was still enjoying had become bright spots in a growing sea of DO NOT WANT, and eventually it just wasn't worth it anymore.
SPN is becoming the same way for me. I felt like I needed to take a shower after watching the latest episode. On top of that, the emotional ins and outs of the Sam-Dean brother relationship have been so thoroughly mined over the last three and a half seasons that I'm just not getting much out of the relationship anymore. Dean in a coma, Sam at his bedside ... and I don't even get a quiver of heart-flippiness, because we've been here so many times before. They've both died, for pete's sake, plus there's an angel running around with magic hand-wavey miracles to make it all better. There's no suspense; there's nothing they can really do with that relationship that they haven't already done, except run the characters so far into darkness that there's nothing really to like about them anymore.
This is not to say that there weren't bits I enjoyed in the episode. But I'm tired of getting attached to supporting characters only to have them die. I'm tired of watching the characters with whom I sympathize perform acts of increasingly difficult-to-justify violence and ugliness. I'm sick to freaking death of the show pushing the "scary black man!" stereotype as hard as it can, sick of female characters who are hypersexualized compared to their male equivalents (see: female angels vs male angels, female demons vs male demons, female corpses vs male corpses), sick of the show wallowing in loving portrayals of nastiness and depravity.
I am not saying that I expect my escapist entertainment to be all sweetness and light. I like darkness in my shows; I like watching characters struggle with their worse nature. I'm actually very glad that SPN is finally starting to push the idea that Sam and Dean's darker actions are bad, rather than condoning or ignoring their darker side, which was something that bothered me in earlier seasons and especially in season three. And I like to see shows grow and change over time.
But none of that changes the fact that this is not the show I started watching in season one; it's lost most of what I used to love and the remainder has been explored so thoroughly that I'm bored with it. It may just be that after four seasons, I'm tired of the show, what with only two main characters and no real incentive to get attached to any of the others -- every time I do, they die; it's not possible to build a lasting network of relationships between the major and minor characters, which is what really keeps me sticking with a show for year after year. And the writing is just not sharp enough to compensate for the emotional impact that I'm not getting anymore, and the levels of ugliness that are making me increasingly uncomfortable with watching it.
Just my opinions, of course. YMMV. But right now, I'm not feeling especially moved to download next week's episode. I almost quit watching at the end of last season -- I was close enough to it that I was unrepentently reading spoilers for the next season, which I almost never do with a show that I plan to keep watching. Right now, I seriously doubt if I'll be back for season five, and I don't known if I'm going to stick it out to the end of season four.
I quit watching Lost in season three because the episodes and scenes that I was still enjoying had become bright spots in a growing sea of DO NOT WANT, and eventually it just wasn't worth it anymore.
SPN is becoming the same way for me. I felt like I needed to take a shower after watching the latest episode. On top of that, the emotional ins and outs of the Sam-Dean brother relationship have been so thoroughly mined over the last three and a half seasons that I'm just not getting much out of the relationship anymore. Dean in a coma, Sam at his bedside ... and I don't even get a quiver of heart-flippiness, because we've been here so many times before. They've both died, for pete's sake, plus there's an angel running around with magic hand-wavey miracles to make it all better. There's no suspense; there's nothing they can really do with that relationship that they haven't already done, except run the characters so far into darkness that there's nothing really to like about them anymore.
This is not to say that there weren't bits I enjoyed in the episode. But I'm tired of getting attached to supporting characters only to have them die. I'm tired of watching the characters with whom I sympathize perform acts of increasingly difficult-to-justify violence and ugliness. I'm sick to freaking death of the show pushing the "scary black man!" stereotype as hard as it can, sick of female characters who are hypersexualized compared to their male equivalents (see: female angels vs male angels, female demons vs male demons, female corpses vs male corpses), sick of the show wallowing in loving portrayals of nastiness and depravity.
I am not saying that I expect my escapist entertainment to be all sweetness and light. I like darkness in my shows; I like watching characters struggle with their worse nature. I'm actually very glad that SPN is finally starting to push the idea that Sam and Dean's darker actions are bad, rather than condoning or ignoring their darker side, which was something that bothered me in earlier seasons and especially in season three. And I like to see shows grow and change over time.
But none of that changes the fact that this is not the show I started watching in season one; it's lost most of what I used to love and the remainder has been explored so thoroughly that I'm bored with it. It may just be that after four seasons, I'm tired of the show, what with only two main characters and no real incentive to get attached to any of the others -- every time I do, they die; it's not possible to build a lasting network of relationships between the major and minor characters, which is what really keeps me sticking with a show for year after year. And the writing is just not sharp enough to compensate for the emotional impact that I'm not getting anymore, and the levels of ugliness that are making me increasingly uncomfortable with watching it.
Just my opinions, of course. YMMV. But right now, I'm not feeling especially moved to download next week's episode. I almost quit watching at the end of last season -- I was close enough to it that I was unrepentently reading spoilers for the next season, which I almost never do with a show that I plan to keep watching. Right now, I seriously doubt if I'll be back for season five, and I don't known if I'm going to stick it out to the end of season four.
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Yeah; I know that I cut SGA a lot of slack, probably quite a bit more than it deserves, but I still get more of a "well-meaning but cluelessly idiotic" feeling from it, while SPN feels -- well, "malicious" might be too cruel, but like you said, I really do feel as if the writers' ids are hanging out all over the place, and it's not at all pretty, and I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THAT.
I do feel that my earlier impression of the season has been justified - that we're not meant to be cheering on Dean & Sam wholeheartedly anymore, that we're supposed to be seeing them in shades of gray that are steadily getting darker - but I *miss* cheering them on!
I think you're right, and in a way it's a relief, because I'd been feeling more and more uncomfortable with what I felt was the narrative's insistence on the "rightness" of two increasingly unlikable characters. But, well ... that's what we've got now, two rather unlikable (albeit easy on the eyes. :D) anti-heroes, killing and torturing and generally creeping me the fuck out! I am totally on board with a narrative that explores the darker side of the anti-hero myth-arc and whatnot, but that's something which is really best in small and finite doses. As far as coming back to a weekly show for each installment ... um, no. It's why I've always had trouble psyching myself up to watch BSG, because even though I've heard fantastic things about it, it just looks so dark and depressing ...! I could handle it just fine for the length of a movie or a novel, but I'd really rather not for 20 or 40 hours of TV.