Friday, January 7, 2011

...Set: Supernaturally Six-y

Chirp, chirp.

Crickets?! There are crickets in here right now? Oh wait, yes. That's because I've been rather absent. Apologies, dear internet friends. I was back up in the great NW, freezing my tuckus off for a little over a week during the holidays, only to come back and have my apartment be just as freezing cold. The perils of being afraid of the scary gas wall heater and only using a small space heater.

But enough of that! I've come here today to discuss a very important topic. So important that you just better sit down and get ready. What is so important that I'm asking you to sit down, when in fact you are likely already sitting down?

Supernatural season six.

HA! Gotcha! So it's not that important, per se. But we are in the midst of what many fans call the winter Hellatus, and bam in the middle of season six, so I figure, it's time to get to brass tacks and discuss just how we're feeling about this somewhat divisive season. Divisive in that there seems to be a dividing party line - hate/love. I confess I am somewhere in the middle. I live in the grey area. The gray area. The greeaaay area.

Season five, in many respects, was a capper to the show. Where do you go after the apocalypse? How can you possibly top it? The entire show had been ramping up and up and up to that point, and then here it was. Bing bang boom. Season six has been striving to answer the follow-up question: how do you live after you've survived the apocalypse?

 We may be post-apocalypse, but our blatant promo imagery would 
have you believe that we're still in season five.

Being that this show is about saving people and hunting things, though (and since Jared Padalecki/Sam is the other half of this dynamic duo), obviously we can't just sit back and watch Dean try to deal with living in suburbia without his little brother. And thus, I'm sure, began the quandary of season six in the writers room. Dean can't just stay with Lisa and Ben, but how do you get him back on the road? How is Sam back from Hell, and what has it done to him? And what is going to be the overall story now that we're done with Lucifer and the apocalypse? Lots of tough questions.

I'm not going to just regurgitate everything that's happened so far, if you're behind, just go and read my recaps. My question is: are you satisfied with the direction the show has been taking? On the positive side, I thought it was very interesting that they completely changed Sam. He came back without a soul, and was not the same person in pretty much any way. Now that he has been re-souled, the question is: what will he remember, and how long can the wall that Death put in his mind keep the Hellish memories at bay?

Of course, with Sam being all robo-y, Dean got to be all emo and argumentative with him. While we certainly got some rather humorous moments thanks to Sam developing a demented sense of humor without his soul, he was also without moral compass, something that Dean, of course, could not handle. Which led to more brother fighting, the likes of which has become so common place that I'm glad we did not have to endure a whole season of robo-Sam.

 Sam: Why are you pulling a knife on me? Haven't we done this at least 100 times?

In terms of overall arc, we've got these lingering questions: what is with the hunt for the alphas of each monster species? What is with the search for purgatory, and why is it suddenly so important when it was heretofore never mentioned? Now that Crowley has bitten the big one, who will take over to run Hell? Castiel has been having his own problems up in Heaven - a civil war abrewin' - how much of that will we see, or will we continue to not see it?

Overall, while I have found this season satisfying and have enjoyed it for the most part, I will say that I've felt something a little lacking. Maybe it's the lack of brotherly love and all will be resolved now that Sam has his soul back, but I don't know. I have felt little urge to re-watch any of the episodes, which is usually a good indicator of how much I am liking something. Or not liking, as the case may be.

But now, for the peanut gallery - what are your thoughts on this season? 

How do you like season six so far?

Hit up the comments!

5 comments:

  1. It's funny-- I was feeling a little "meh" about this season until I read your post. When it comes to all of the unanswered questions, my ears perk up. I actually want to know the answers to those questions, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they answer them, so I'd have to say that while I think they dragged robo-Sam out a little, the writers are doing their thang and hooking me.

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  2. It's true, I want to find out the answers to the questions as well. And while some people have been proclaiming that the show stinks now and yada yada, I say pish posh. Things have to keep evolving and going in different directions, or else what is the point?

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  3. Don't know if you've seen this write up of the upcoming episode this Friday. No spoilers, just teasers that have me VERY excited.

    http://www.buddytv.com/articles/supernatural/7-reasons-to-get-excited-for-t-39189.aspx

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  4. I did see that list - time to get pumped! Only a couple days left!

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  5. so... how much does it suck that they pushed our loooooong wait off for yet another week? A LOT. boo.

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