Supernatural: Hell House
May. 13th, 2011 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gryfndor_godessNotes I took while watching the episode:
-Why is Dean being an obnoxious ten-year-old? Sigh.
-Having Sam say that letting John leave was a mistake does not make up for the lazy writing last episode, writers. This lampshade does not fit.
-This Craig kid seems sincere. I hope he’s not evil.
-“Sweet Lord of the Rings?” Nice.
-Oh, Sam is ripped.
-I dislike these lame stereotypes of sex-starved nerds using “What would Buffy Do?”
-I expected Dean to have played some final trick, like a whoopee cushion on Sam’s seat.
Moments that made me giggle inside:
-“And kinda hot…you know, in a dead sort of way.”
-“I hate rats.” “You’d rather it was a ghost?” “Yes.”
-“If you pull that string one more time, I’m gonna kill you.”
Moments that made me actually LOL:
-Sam supergluing Dean’s hand to the bottle.
Overall Thoughts:
With a title like “Hell House,” I thought this would be one of those episodes where I was constantly cringing away, but I actually didn’t have to close my eyes once. Yay for non-gory special effects.
Overall I found it kind of…well, boring. Which is weird since this is the episode where the brothers play so many tricks on each other, but that plotline felt kind of contrived, like the writers thought, ‘we’ve run out of steam on the emotional arc and we just got rid of John so we can’t start angsting about him just yet soooo, okay, we’ll have them act like five-year-olds.’ The only prank that actually amused me was the super-glue one. Otherwise I was just impatient with the immaturity. OTOH, maybe this is supposed to signify character-arc development in terms of 'we settled things with Dad together, so now we don't have to fight about him anymore and can be relaxed, normal brothers.' If Dean and Sam are more lighthearted overall from now on, then I can buy it as understandable development, but if not, this felt like an attempt to garner cheap laughs.
I did not like the portrayal of the ghost-hunters. They were cheap stereotypes, and some of the clichés were offensive (such as all geeks wanting sex; why can’t they want emotional attachment too?). Also, I don’t know if the Buffy reference was supposed to be an homage, but having two characters who are mocked the entire episode say it did not endear me to the SPN writers.
I liked the originality of the villain in this, how it was created by rumors, and I really liked how the boys were clever enough to try to change the website so the spirit could be destroyed. It reminded me a lot of Buffy in “Helpless” when she has to rely on her wits instead of her usual strength (or weapons, in the boys’ case) to defeat Kralik. I also liked Dean’s arson. His resourcefulness and willingness to pull ridiculous stunts like that are endearing.
Can’t say this was an episode that made me go “OMG MORE, why did I wait a month?”, but it wasn’t bad.
Purely Subjective Rating:
3/5
Favorite Boy:
Sam
-Why is Dean being an obnoxious ten-year-old? Sigh.
-Having Sam say that letting John leave was a mistake does not make up for the lazy writing last episode, writers. This lampshade does not fit.
-This Craig kid seems sincere. I hope he’s not evil.
-“Sweet Lord of the Rings?” Nice.
-Oh, Sam is ripped.
-I dislike these lame stereotypes of sex-starved nerds using “What would Buffy Do?”
-I expected Dean to have played some final trick, like a whoopee cushion on Sam’s seat.
Moments that made me giggle inside:
-“And kinda hot…you know, in a dead sort of way.”
-“I hate rats.” “You’d rather it was a ghost?” “Yes.”
-“If you pull that string one more time, I’m gonna kill you.”
Moments that made me actually LOL:
-Sam supergluing Dean’s hand to the bottle.
Overall Thoughts:
With a title like “Hell House,” I thought this would be one of those episodes where I was constantly cringing away, but I actually didn’t have to close my eyes once. Yay for non-gory special effects.
Overall I found it kind of…well, boring. Which is weird since this is the episode where the brothers play so many tricks on each other, but that plotline felt kind of contrived, like the writers thought, ‘we’ve run out of steam on the emotional arc and we just got rid of John so we can’t start angsting about him just yet soooo, okay, we’ll have them act like five-year-olds.’ The only prank that actually amused me was the super-glue one. Otherwise I was just impatient with the immaturity. OTOH, maybe this is supposed to signify character-arc development in terms of 'we settled things with Dad together, so now we don't have to fight about him anymore and can be relaxed, normal brothers.' If Dean and Sam are more lighthearted overall from now on, then I can buy it as understandable development, but if not, this felt like an attempt to garner cheap laughs.
I did not like the portrayal of the ghost-hunters. They were cheap stereotypes, and some of the clichés were offensive (such as all geeks wanting sex; why can’t they want emotional attachment too?). Also, I don’t know if the Buffy reference was supposed to be an homage, but having two characters who are mocked the entire episode say it did not endear me to the SPN writers.
I liked the originality of the villain in this, how it was created by rumors, and I really liked how the boys were clever enough to try to change the website so the spirit could be destroyed. It reminded me a lot of Buffy in “Helpless” when she has to rely on her wits instead of her usual strength (or weapons, in the boys’ case) to defeat Kralik. I also liked Dean’s arson. His resourcefulness and willingness to pull ridiculous stunts like that are endearing.
Can’t say this was an episode that made me go “OMG MORE, why did I wait a month?”, but it wasn’t bad.
Purely Subjective Rating:
3/5
Favorite Boy:
Sam
no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 11:35 pm (UTC)I confess, I liked this much better than you. I noticed most of the same things, but they apparently just didn't bother me. (In particular, I wasn't too bothered by the geeks because they appeared to be all geeks rolled into just two: BtVS fans, LotR fans, collectors of action figures, sex-crazed, pedantic and socially obtuse. Which ought to have annoyed me in its own right, I guess, but didn't.)
And this episode felt to me like the first genuinely humorous one we'd had. I enjoyed Dean and Sam playing the nerds, and I loved 'ghost' (which was also humorous in concept, even though it did kill that one girl).
Different strokes, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 06:18 am (UTC)Yeah, after I wrote it, I thought I had probably been unnecessarily harsh. In all technical aspects, it was a great episode, and I do really like the originality of the villain and cleverness the boys show. I guess I'm also a bit hypocritical b/c stereotypes of, say, rednecks don't bother me, but the geek ones do. *shrugs*
It is nice that the show is moving toward more humor, though. I hope that keeps up!