Supernatural - Season 9 *Spoilers*

pc7

Crowley was great this season so glad to see he'll be a regular. Thought it was a great ending to the episode and series's, I really enjoyed it. Hard believe it's still good at season 9!!!

BlitzKrieg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDNPWqlg1mE

The Black Oil

Pretty solid finale. I liked how the angel stuff was handled.

With the constant breaks between episodes and the reshuffling of episodes I decided to let series 9 of Supernatural come to an end before I sat down and got caught up. But like many things in life, it's taken a bit longer than I expected so last night I sat down and watched episode 18 Mother's Little Helper.

The most striking aspect of the episode is that it marks Misha Collins first time behind the camera and while he does a good job, there's only a few small touches which mark the episode out from any other. And that's a rather good thing as far too often actors turned director have a habit of attempting to stick their own distinct mark on proceedings. What Collins seems to have done is shoot the fight scenes in a far more fluid manner than the show has done recently. We've seen Sam, Dean and the rest engage in fisty cuffs so often that it does have a habit of felling a little too familiar and as such the kineticism here offers up something of a break from the norm.

The best part of the episode were the flashback to the men of letters which were nicely bookended by ex-nun Julia who is the kind of peripheral character the show really excels at. Her crisis of faith and subsequent shame was a nice element and something that the show has been missing this series, there's been far too much of Sam and Dean and logger ends so it's nice that the focus was on someone a little more ordinary.

Gil McKinney is great as Henry and he's really reminding me of Sam in the earlier days of the show. His chemistry with Josie was nicely handled and the manner in which she spared his soul was the kind of emotional highpoint that the series has been hinting at all year long. The stakes have being rising all year long but the show most often excels when it allows something as small as a selfless sacrifice to take central stage. Sam and Dean sacrificing themselves no longer has the same impact so it's good that the show recognizes that sometimes the mystery of the week is more moving and interesting if someone fallible risks it all.

Have to say that it's also the first episode in quite sometime that was genuinely creepy. I think that's down to the location, there's something about convents and possession that just seems off. There's are a few holes which seem unnecessary, why did Sam not tell Dean that the case involved Abaddon and Crowley seemed somewhat off but all in all, it's the kind of episode that the show needs more off.



Meta Fiction was Supernatural at it's best. There are few other shows which can tackle a number of genres and nail the tone each time. That it can often offer up a half dozen different ideas and genres at once is a credit to it's writing staff but what truly separates it from most others on TV is how self aware it is. Opening with a piss take of Masterpiece Theater and a title as on the nose as Meta Fiction and it was obvious that we were in for 42 minutes of TV that would playfully mock the tropes of genre TV.

Once again Thomas Wright is responsible for a truly fantastic episode of TV, his name popping up as director is at this stage a sign that you're in for a treat. Some of the directorial flourishes such as the fast zoom and the framing recalled genre cinema at it's finest.

The opening of Metatron talking to the viewer and posing questions about what the nature of story is were the perfect way to create a world in which he could be God. It's a nice little touch made all the better when mid way through it turns out to be little more than him lecturing Cass about what drives him. Metatron has thus far been a bit too broadly drawn, we know of him but little of what makes him tick and it would appear that he's little more than a delusion egomaniac with delusion of his own importance. Like all great villains he sees himself as the hero of his story and much of his lecturing feels like the writers themselves speaking directly to the audience and explaining why it is that sometimes they do things we don't like. Their job is to create interesting characters and see where they take them, as such you can forgive many of this series missteps, few and far between that they have been.

Gadreel is really becoming one of the more interesting characters in the show and there's a world weirdness to him that hints at his lack of commitment to the overall plan. I'm starting to think that he may not be the powerful figure we've seen but rather someone who just wants a lie down. I'm hoping that his character will be explored a little more in coming weeks.

It's hard to believe that the show has been airing for 9 series. It's one of the freshest, most playful and energetic shows on TV when it should be a tired, bland shell of what it once was. Meta Fiction perfectly illustrated that there's a lot of life left in the show and Metatron's line about how he knows he'll win but will enjoy watching the Winchesters fail is the kind of knowing, self referential moment that you can't not love.

Skerries

This is one of my favourite shows and as you said a show like this should have staled years ago but is still going and keeps us entertained
The CW must trying to wrap their head around how this has remained so popular without a love interest apart from the bromances on a channel that caters to love lorn tweens

So with little else to do this afternoon I threw on a few more episodes of series 9 and it did hit something of a bump on the road. "Alex Annie Alexis Ann" is the kind of mystery of the week that has a great central premise but doesn't quite know what to do with it. It felt like someone had seen Martha March May Marlene and thought, "wow, that would have been even better if it had been about vampires". The potential in the set up for a truly weird and unsettling episode is unmatched but sadly the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

The biggest issue is Alex who simply isn't an all that interesting character and the episode asks us to be unsure of here but were never shown enough or her or her actions to truly be able to question her. As such much of the dramatic potential of the episode is lost and it does feel like the Winchesters simply going through the motions.

Bringing back Sheriff Mills is a nice touch, though do we really need to see her twice in a series? It's a wonder that she's still alive given the expatriation date on female cast members of the show is always on the short side but her she manages to be stoic and pained though it's not like the script asks much of her apart from looking either pained or maternal.

Even the vampires were a little long in the tooth, they did nothing to separate themselves from the dozens we've seen before and they never feel like much of a threat. That they don't bother to kill Mills or the deputy just screams of poor planning. Surely if you're looking to clean up a mess you make sure that there are no loose end. Perhaps this episode would have worked a lot better mid way through the series, it has that kind of old fashioned feel to the early years of Supernatural where the question of "should we kill a good monster" was integral to the character development. Here it just feels a little boring and Sam pointing out to Dean that he enjoyed killing a little too much just fell flat. I do get the impression that this episode was intended to play earlier in the running order but the reshuffle of episode left it a little lost.


Bloodlines, well it's the long awaited backdoor pilot and as expected it's far from classic Winchester fare. I think the biggest issue with Bloodlines is on which affects all backdoor pilots, it gets bogged down in delivering a tonne of exposition which makes it almost impossible to warm to the characters or get to know them. Throw in a mystery of the week which is poorly fleshed out and a tone that never sits quite right and you've a losing battle.

The episode gives the impression that there is a lot going on but because it's all exposition you soon realise that there's nothing of note in play here. All the talk of the 5 families sounds great and as Dean states it's "The Godfather with fangs" which is one hell of a set up. Sadly we never see this come to life and the whole thing feels like a rather drab episode of some generic show which just so happens to feature cameos by Sam and Dean.

Perhaps the biggest issue with the show is our lead Ross who simply never rigs through. He should be a time bomb waiting to go off but there's no sense of danger to him. When you look at what he has lost you instantly draw comparisons to Sam in series 1 but whereas Sam had an intensity and anger to him, Ross has all the impact of a plastic bag caught in a grate during a mild summer afternoon. He's also a strangely unlikeable character and putting him onscreen alongside Sam and Dean was a huge mistake. I can happily watch Sam and Dean going through the motions but found myself bored by Ross.

The hinted at war never feels all that realised and there simply isn't enough of the 5 families to create much tension. All we see are glimpses of them before the story turns into Dylan Dog by ways of Romeo and Juliet, and that's nowhere near as interesting as it sounds. By setting a spin off in one city the show has a chance to do something that Supernatural has never managed. Supernatural has always been about Sam and Dead, sure we've had Bobby and Rufus and a half dozen others but at heart it's content to explore the relationship between the brothers and as such the potential to explore a diverse group of characters could be interesting. There was real potential for a show that could take on a number of conflicting characters and explore the dynamic that exists between them and do so week in, week out. At best Supernatural can do something akin to that every now and again as Cass, Crowley, etc are really just bit players.

One thing that struck me was the lack of any ethical core upon which to create likable characters. Ross pretty much murders a man in cold blood and no one bats an eyelid, sure he had killed someone Ross loved but he was just some guy looking for revenge. The dynamic that created seemed lost on Ross and so much more could have been mined by the writers. When you have a hero who has no qualms with spilling blood then you have to ask yourself who the monsters really are, it's something the show has been exploring in recent years and Bloodlines seemed to be a nice way to examine it in a new light only they did so with a lead whom simply is unlikeable and that twist at the end was just a pointless attempt at creating some mystery.

So with little else to do I threw on episode 21 "King of the Damned and boy was it a doozy. The last two episodes were something of a lull, the ongoing story took a back seat for a bit of R&R and with just 3 episodes to go, one expected things to kick up a gear and King of the Damned didn't disappoint.

There's a hell of a lot going on this episode, with a half dozen differnt plot strands at work and there's so much double dealing, back stabbing, allegiances and killings taking place that the "Then" on segment took up a whole two minutes, and even then it only glossed over what was happening. It's always nice to see a show confident enough in the ground work that it can kill off one of the main threats in such a matter of fact way. Abaddon's death was expected but not in such an anticlimactic manner. That's not to say it was disappointing, in fact that they killed her off so eaily and quickly was a nice change of pace and bodes well for where the show is going. It's obvious that the mark and blade are corrupting Dean so he's becoming something of a wild card which should be interesting to see considering that there's one hell of a battle to come. The moment post murder where Dean is kneeling beside the corpse, dazed, confused and covered in blood was a nice touch. Rather than revel in it or try and paint him as something as a bad ass the show made from something a little different.

What was most surprising about the episode was just how down right funny it was. Crowley was on fine form and the threat to his board members, “You betrayed me? No one in the history of torture’s been tortured with torture like the torture you’ll be tortured with” was simply brilliant. It's always the small touches that help a show like this stand out, things like Crowley's phone number being 666 or the look of absolute disgust on Sam's face as he rooted around in a dead body.

Crowley and his son was a nice touch though it does open up something of a plot hole. If demons have access to time travel, so then must the angels so why has neither side attempted to use it to their advantage. But it's only a small niggling issue and one that's quickly forgotten and forgiven considering just how good the episode was. With close to 200 episodes under it's belt you'd expect something a little hackneyed and overly familiar but honestly, if anything Supernatural is actually getting better.

Had plans tonight but not up for anything too taxing so opted to stay in and watch the last two episodes of this past series. Just after finishing up "Stairway to Heaven" and after the awesomeness that was "King of the Damned", this was a little less so. From the title it's clear that this is one of those episodes that's going to be laden with references and sadly most of them don't hit the spot. The episode actually feels more meta than this series "Meta Fiction" episode, the nods to The Last Crusade, The Lord of the Rings and so on all felt a little to forced. And, the Aguilera and Spears gag felt like a relic from when Cas first popped up.

Still there was some that really hit the mark. The low-fi angel approach to hiding messages, glow in the dark paint and the whole bowling alley scene were bloody good. In particular the bowling scene had more than it's fair share of good lines, especially the "There’s nothing like this in Heaven," followed by Gadreel pointing out that's because it's a bowling alley with that quizzical look Cas used to favor. Sadly most of the rest of the episode felt a little too forced, the suicide bomber Angels was a nice touch but let's be honest we were all thinking back a decade to a certain sci-fi show which did it much better and the scene where Cas is forced to choose didn't ring true. It was a little too convenient and felt like a plot device to get Cas back with the boys. I get that the angels are a little pissed off but surely they don't advocate the use of violence to settle a petty grudge.

One thing that really did annoy me was the whole stole grace thing. When it was first mentioned a few episodes back it felt like a cheap plot contrivance and now it's back simply so as to ramp up the tension. Had it been something that was there all the way through the series then it would have worked far better.

More successful were the quieter moments, Dean and Cas had a number of great exchanges and their heart to heart at the end left me eager to see what the two do next. There really is a lot of potential in a Dean and Cas hunting across the States, with Crowley popping up every other week to lend a hand.

Casting Metatron as something of a juvenile is a nice little change of pace. Far too often the big baddie is just evil for the sake of it but the buffoonish nature of Metatron makes him strangely likable and there's a real sense that he just wants to be liked. Something which is driven home when Tyrus states how he's "a nerd trying to be one of the popular kids."

It's clear going into the finale that rather than settle a few outstanding scores, the show is going to throw a few more in and up the stakes even more. I'm assuming that a Winchester won't be walking away from this and if he does, he's going to be something of a handful come next series.

If anything, this past series has been something of an odd mix of epic and bargain basement and has, for the most part, been done brilliantly. "Do You Believe in Miracles" is at once satisfy but also strangely unsatisfying. Closing of the Metatron storyline was a mistake, after such a build up it all came together a little too quickly and really should have been allowed to play out a little bit longer.

Metatron on Earth was a lot of fun though it does beg the question as to why no other angel did something similar in a bit to become the new God. Like a lot of this episode, the whole new messiah angle is one which should have been introduced a few episodes ago so as to let it grow into something a little more impressive. Had he been able to muster up the support of humanity then it could have provided a nice dynamic off which the writers could have played Sam and Dean versus the world.

The biggest problem with the story also hampers the shows look and feel. While striving to be epic the shows meager production budget can't quite muster the spectacle that it promises. Dean and Metatrons' final battle takes place in a desolate industrial complex that would feel right at home in a early 90s Van Damme film. Considering that the show has been running for 9 years and is the most successful CW show, you'd think that they'd allow the production a little more so as to make the show as visually spectacular as it has hinted at.

The final scene reveal, while unexpected was also somewhat predictable. Each season seems to have a Winchester having issues and it generally lasts a couple of episodes before the status quo is reset but hopefully the writers will run with demon Dean. There's huge potential in having Sam and Cas hunt Dean though I can't see Crowley being too evil as the manner in which this series has humanized him has been the shows standout aspect. The way in which Crowley has been written and played has been nothing short of sheer brilliance and bodes well for series 10.

It's going to be interesting to see where the show goes, with the wars in heaven and hell over there's no real danger to speak off so perhaps we could have a return to the more care free days of early Supernatural. It's obvious that the writers are keen to tweak the formula, Crowley's monologue at the end hints at a bit of a shake up aswell as being a nice way of bringing some closure. I'm not sure where the road is going to take us but I'll happily take the ride as long as Supernatural lasts and if that's another 10 series half as good as what we've seen, well then I'll happily watch it and continue to analyse it a little more than is necessary.

mafaa

‘Supernatural’ Producers Talk Season 10, 200th Episode & Series Finale

Been thinking back over the past series and it struck me how few great moments were scored to some good old fashioned classic rock. In other series you'd have trouble making a top 10 of great uses of rock over a series but it seemed that series 9 was light on the balls to the wall kick ass guitar riffs and devil horn raising moments.

Marje

Does anyone know if any station is going to show season 9 onwards since Sky Living have decided to drop it.

JP Liz V1

Marje wrote: »

Does anyone know if any station is going to show season 9 onwards since Sky Living have decided to drop it.

It started on E4 last night