SPN mini-commentary

[xparrot]

Regarding SPN 5x12 and 5x13:

5x12: a criminal waste of a good body swap. Phooey.

5x13: DANGIT SHOW, why'd you have to go and do that? I liked Anna, quite a lot - rebellious angels of all stripes are a major draw for me. Having her go evil (and stupidly evil no less - she actually achieved her objective, she killed Sam, and then rather than go and immediately scatter his atoms across the cosmos - back in time, no less, it probably would've taken some effort to straighten that out - she continued to go for the brutal murder. ARGH.) and then get killed is just annoying.

I also believe this means that every single female character who appeared in more than two episodes is now dead. Seriously, show, the hell? Even Castiel h/c can't make up for that.

(not to say that I didn't enjoy those bits. But I would've enjoyed them a lot more in a different context.)



Also finished s4 Buffy/s1 Angel. Yay friendship! Yay h/c! Yay Spike in tweed on a swingset! (Joss Whedon is a Twin Peaks/David Lynch fan, y/y?)

Comments

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

It is annoying that they do kill all the interesting side characters, then again they kill everyone off. I don't keep up with the meta of the show, but is it 'picking on female character or characters of race' when in fact they do kill everyone?

I know I'll get hammered for saying this, but there are only two characters the show cares about and that are Sam and Dean. The end. If all the side characters were white men, then the show would get hassled for not having diversity...when they do cast characters other than white men, they get hassled for killing them.

I guess the main problem is that everyone on she show ends up dead or evil, which they are consistent in doing. Lol I do think they could keep a side cast without bumping them off at every turn though, you’ll hear an amen on that :D

As far as filler eppys vs. myth arc, no one seems to be happy.

It seems half my f-list is sick and tired of the apocalypse and wants more 'monster of the week' eppys, while they other half wants more myth arc eppys vs. filler ones. And that's a problem the show has had since they made a major turn at the end of season.

But to be honest I only watch the NCIS(s) and SPN, so I do watch for entrainment purposes only and I still enjoy watching the heck out of all of them.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

But there are multiple white male chars besides Sam & Dean who have been in more than 2 eps and are still alive - Bobby, Castiel, Lucifer, Chuck, the Trickster/Gabriel. Okay, they too might be all killed off in the end - but they haven't been yet. And Bobby and Castiel, while I love them both, have gotten more screentime than any female char or char of color. I don't know exactly what the problem on SPN is, but it is problematic.

As for apocalypse vs MotW - I'd prefer they picked one or the other, but either way I don't care that much. I've never watched SPN for the plot!

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

And Bobby and Castiel, while I love them both, have gotten more screentime than any female char or char of color.

I think the problem lies within a very vocal fan base that I think for once, TPTB paid too much attention to. Everyone in their mother has hated every female character on the show or has b*tched about them in the places that the producers read (hence why I skip most SPN posts elsewhere). I recall when Jo and Ellen were first introduced how much the fans screamed. Same goes for Ruby. Of course it's because they don't want anyone 'touching their boys', but I've seen on many occasions where Kripe said he wrote off a character based on fan response and I guess when you are dependent on 3 million or less he's way to sensitive to that. And that can be a bit scary.

I loved Jo and Ellen they just were not on the show enough and when they brought them back to only kill them, yeah that hurt. But, I used to analyze the shows I loved a lot and ended up getting caught up in the negative aspects and running the fun out of them. But as you said, I don’t watch the show too much for plot and I still love it a lot despite some of its issues.

And the funny thing is that SPN has more female writers than on any show I've ever watched. Now that doesn’t make you scratch your head :-P

Thanks for ‘discussing’ it with me. I’m normally very scared to talk about this show except with a few select few :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, SPN's TPTB are a little too aware of fandom. And negative fan reaction does explain the handling of the female characters (to an extent, anyway, though I still think how they're written is part of why fans react badly to them. And also why bring Jo & Ellen back just to kill them; were fans really wanting that??) What's going on with the black chars can't be explained by fan reactions and is just bizarre...even if it's a series of coincidences, you'd think it'd be a coincidence they'd want to specifically avoid.

And yeah, while I think female writers/showrunners are important - most of the shows I know with awesome female chars have women in high places - they're not the only factor, as SPN shows!

Ahh, I can totally understand not wanting to analyze your shows too much for fear of losing the fun of them. Lately I've been mostly avoiding the meta-fandom discussions that have been going around because I've found they take a lot of the enjoyment out of fandom itself for me. At least at the moment, I'm happier sticking to my smaller circles, quietly discussing things with people like yourself without getting into huge and often unintentionally hurtful debates...

At least I have NCIS - that show's my happy place, and since it's laid off the politics I got no complaints ^^