I have to say, when it comes to that writing team all is forgiven after tonight's episode (well, most -- maybe not all). That was a great episode. Heartbreaking, but great. Felt like old times there for a minute.

Jensen never gets less attractive, does he? Neither does Dean, of course.

Oh! I heard "Nice grouping" and laughed because I love that movie (and we've quoted it on the board here a million times) but even while I wanted it to mean something, I had no idea it would be ... that! Very cool.

They got the main character beats mostly right (I'm not thrilled by Rowena's lack of fear at having a heavenly watchdog, but Team Free Will all felt right); however, there were logical inconsistencies that drove me nuts. Sam & Dean are terrified that their faux little sister is going to be killed, and they know exactly where this is happening, so they take the time to drive there instead of calling the angel who was blowing up their phones five minutes ago and having him provide instantaneous travel or just go there himself. Charlie staying and fighting rather than jumping out the bathroom window to escape the instant she smashed that laptop. Involving Rowena at all since Castiel can presumably read any language and has millions of years more experience using supernatural forces than she, while presenting far less chance of being vulnerable to the book itself and zero of deciding to use what's in it against the Winchesters.

Also, the captured redneck's pompousness in announcing membership in the Frankenstein family was laughable, both for the melodramatic reveal to the audience and for trying to intimidate one of the Winchester Brothers. (Dude, these guys are personally responsible for wiping out all of Hell's royalty including Caine and Lilith, and managed to derail the Apocalypse by trapping the Devil and the Archangel Michael in the deepest pit of Hell. I think they're up for the challenge of facing down Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman.)

Hah! You made me laugh, Matt. Which may be the only thing I enjoyed about this episode.

It all just felt like retread to me. I hate the sparkle twins writing team. Charlie did somewhat redeem herself from her offhand dismissal of Sam before her departure, though. I guess that's something.

It's just... in addition to being bad writers, they don't seem to be smart enough to figure out plot implications and solutions to problems that are immediately obvious to the viewers. It's fine for least-common-denominator sitcom writers to be dumb if they can tell funny jokes, but it's an unforgivable failing in a genre show writer who has to deal with mysteries and plot twists. I get this mental image of Ross-Lemming waving a script around to get Singer's attention, and then him pinning it to the refrigerator with a magnet and patting her on the head.

Murderous, vengeful, ass-kicking Dean is so hot. I'm not even ashamed.

They've completely forgotten that wimpy non-warrior angel Metatron easily took Dean down despite his being fully under the influence of the Mark of Cain and having the first blade in hand, haven't they?

I think so, Matt. I was quite taken aback that Dean was kicking Castiel's ass. Was Cas deliberately letting him? Even to the point of disarming him? I thought at any moment Cas would just say "Enough!" and fly Dean into a wall.

Pedowitz at the upfronts pretty much confirmed that the network will bankroll the show as long as the Js keep taking the money. That SPN, along with Arrow, is finally hitting the 18-34 male demographic, the higher marketing bracket all tv execs covet. Fans aren't the audience, *marketers* are the audience--show is selling fans *to* the marketers. And because show is hitting the male demo, writing to the female fans wrt feminism, sexism, genderism, racism, or emotionally available and complex scripts, isn't a factor, not so long as simple and brutish are delivering the desired demo. Writers have been careful to step away from Destiel this season b/c it plays to female fans and makes the straight male majority uncomfortable.

I posted this elsewhere, but I kind of want to share the bitter:

What if the cast and staff of SPN really are done, they just don’t care anymore. But the network keeps stuffing twenties into their g-string and hollering, “More! More!” So the writing staff keeps turning out worse and worse scripts–they’ve gone beyond not caring to actively hoping to fail, and the cast keeps dancing, making kissy faces and grinding to the nonexistent beat of an old, tired tune. All of them are just hoping the drunk will finally pass out, and they can all go home.

Except, the new info is that it's the dancers who own the place, and they're dancing all the way to the bank.

Except, the new info is that it's the dancers who own the place, and they're dancing all the way to the bank.

Can you explain what you mean by this? I'm confused.

I mean, I get that the Js are making nice money now, but I think they also feel a lot of responsibility for keeping the show afloat in terms of crew jobs (or that's the story that's being given, anyway). Either way, they are keeping a certain number of people employed, and I like that they've both realized they can raise money for charity, and are.

Somewhere in the last couple weeks, I lost some of the sadness. It's a soap opera now -- a gritty, dark one, with magic and angels and ghosts -- but I've stopped expecting the old show back, I guess. And even though the mentioned flaws in the plot are there, I still love watching Jensen work. Well, both of them, but Jensen especially, when it comes to really emotional work.

Meaning, last night's show might not have made a lot of sense, but I loved seeing JA do dark! and angry!Dean.

What Pedowitz said was, paraphrased, "We'll (the CW) keep doing it as long as Jared and Jensen want to."

Which means to me that there's not a lot of concern about scripts conforming to early canon, or being sensitive to genderist, racist, feminist issues, or telling a story that has any social relevance, as long as 18-34 year old guys are watching for the beer-drinking, black-eyed badasses, the brawls, and the bros. The Js get a nice paycheck, and bonus not-to-sneeze-at money and fan adulation at cons, they keep the SPN cottage industry ticking, keeping the crew employed, maintain the comfortable working environment they like.

But those of us who've been patiently loyal, hoping for a return to storylines that were more than violence for its own sake, beer drinking and soft manporn, are doomed to be disappointed. There's no art there. There's no deeper meaning. It might scare away the target demo.

And this is all very subjective, and I'm personally very disillusioned and bitter, so take it with a whole ring of salt--we gotta clear this canon outta here, make room for some more watered down script retreads.