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More coherent thoughts on a second viewing of 2.01...
- I love the cinematography in this episode. The camera angles, the cuts. ESPECIALLY the tracking shots. Like, really really clever shots with Dean-out-of-his-body. The Ouija board scene was wonderful with that - the constant tracking shot around and around Sam, with Dean occassionally there. Like, not tricking out on the unreality of it with the editing cuts, but making it more realistic with the tracking shots that he was or wasn't in. Same thing goes for when there were two Deans - only doing the body double thing a couple of times, but otherwise being really clever with the tracking shots.
- I LOVE THE WINCHESTERS. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
- The writing - the writing was awesome, so much smoother than it used to be. Remember 1.01? yeah, SO clunky. Compare the "we were raised as warriors!" speech to the "if there's one working part left..." speech. Yeah, both aren't exactly subtle, but the writing in this episode shows how much the show has come into its own in this sense - it's got a very blunt aesthetic in terms of the allegory and metaphor it uses over and over, it's really worked out how to do it smoothly, now. The speech about the car was just perfect.
- And the car!!! Oh god, this episode was SO full of fan service. For the first time, someone IN THE SHOW actually says, "the Impala". HEART. Also, THE LAPTOP! OMG NO!
- The performances - Paddywhack especially. Oh, SAM. No giant shouty-jaw of Dead Man's Blood, but god, HIS LITTLE SAMFACE. Just... so many times in this. Again, the show has really refined its aesthetic. GOD I LOVE THEM/IT.
- Like I said above, I love the repetition of the show, I love it SO HARD. Like they've got this collection of refrains they come back and back to, both within each episode and within the overall SHOW. In this one? (GOD, LOVE!) It's the "telling-people-the-most-important-things-when-they-can't-actually-hear-you" thing. Dean calls John on his bad parenting. Sam tells Dean how much he needs him. John's deathbed speech, yeah, comes close; but still - no. His actions stand in place for Sam and Dean's speeches; doing it for them but not telling them. You know what I mean.
eta: and
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marythefan has mentioned this point and called them on only being able to say it when the other can't hear it, but I don't know - Sam's saying it because he thinks Dean *can* hear him. Dean's saying it, SHOUTING it, because he wants John to hear it. Not sure if I can say the same for John in this case.- OH GOD. JOHN. JOHN. NO FUCKING WAY. I just... I'm not giving up hope, okay? The way they shot things, like, cutting before the Demon can *say* what he wants more; not actually showing WHO John is handing the gun to at the end, and, and... JUST NO, OKAY? Though, the second viewing slayed me a whole lot more... *knowing* that John was saying these things to them because they would be the last things he said to them. And. And. OMG NO.
- Dean looked SO WEIRD without his Dean-costume on. This whole episode was kind of unnerving in the visuals. The Winchesters were in such fine form, but it was so strange watching Dean walk around in his PJs, like... like watching Jensen Ackles walk around in his PJs. Not that they weren't mighty fine PJs. But, you know? Same with the setting - the hospital. It was so weird to have the whole thing set in there, they never left it... I'm so used to them being in more atmospheric places, and to them travelling around (CAR OMG!). This episode was really brightly lit.
- Speaking of being brightly lit, the boiler room scene. I'm amused by the variety of accents Celine Demon has. When he's in John it's kinda Southern, when he's in the Jewish(? his accent was different when he was pretending to be not-possessed, for a moment there) janitor, it's posh American. Almost English. Hah!
- Neil Gaiman. "Am I dead?" hee. YEP.
- I love the wounded makeup this time. Sam's black eye in Devil's Trap still makes me cringe, but this time it was done really well. Like, it didn't look horrific (though it did look real) - and it was good to finally actually see them bearing the marks of their injuries (yes, yes, we know - no scars after Shadow, blah blah).
- Paging Dr Kripke!! HEART!
- Oh. Oh. Oh show.'
ETA:
- AND OH. OH. MY HEART. Second-time viewing again, John's "I just don't want to fight anymore." like, NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT WITH YOU, SAMMY. Oh, JOHN!
- And, speaking of that; Tessa's speech about the people who "Can't let go" - i.e. ESSENTIALLY DESCRIBING JOHN being unwilling to let go/accept Mary's death, instead hanging around performing vigilantism, essentially angry!spirit-style. OH JOHN, NO! DON'T WALK INTO THE LIGHT! NO! YOU CAN HANG AROUND AND BE ANGRY!! I DON'T MIND!
- And, god. Again with the allegory thing: essentially the whole episode is about Dean being invisible, as in, the people he love ignore him, act like he's not even there. Love. LOVE this show, the way it's so blunt with its metaphors, but so subtly perfect - all those shots of Sam or John when they're behaving as if Dean's not even there, so powerful and simple and you don't even really think about it until you THINK about it. DEEEEEEEAN! The permissibility of this text, that it allows those allegorical scenarios to occur... oh. SO great. And to end the "no one thinks/cares about Dean" saga with John saying thank you, etc. OH. OH MY HEART.
- SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMYYYYYY!
Also, warning: I've just uploaded an icon using a screencap from 2.01. So if you're avoiding spoilers, avoid my userpics page. I'll only use it for commenting until, like, next week.
Probably I'll edit this post as I think of more things.
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well, not immediate. I had to recover a bit and eat nachos after the first time.
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Ahem.
Today I think I'll go through and transcribe some of those scenes that are worth saving.
Icon!
*pets the damaged little SamDean hands*
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I've heard people saying a lot of the dialogue was clunky--and if you're stacking it up against the BEST DIALOGUE EVAR then I'd agree, but like you said: compared to 1.01, this stuff is gold.
I totally expected John dying, so of course I sobbed like a baby when it actually happened.
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Yeah, that's pretty much it!! Like, I know for me and with a LOT of other people, too - when I first started watching SPN i was like "WTF THIS SHOW IS SO CRAP AND B-GRADE AND BADLY WRITTEN!" but dude, it's not an HBO show we're watching here. it's the style of the show that it is blunt with its metaphors, has expository dialogue, allegorical characters and behaviours and dynamics. And yeah, like I said - that was present in the pilot/early first season. It's totally refined and OWNZ itself, now. *happyhappy*
I totally expected John dying, so of course I sobbed like a baby when it actually happened.
Fuck, I totally didn't. I was completely unspoiled, had heard things about JDM cast in S2, and also - tend to get really wound up in the characters while I'm watching and thus blind to a lot of the REALLY OBVIOUS progressions. So, ow. Not as shocked as the truck in 1.22, but still.
I was stalwart and did not shed a tear (as we have guests, and do not weep well with others), but will probably be CRYING MYSELF TO SLEEP TONIGHT.
Thanks for stopping by :)
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I just posted my initial review, which is basically just a screencap of Sam and me making incoherent remarks about it. Very few real words were used, I'm afraid, because OMG HIS FACE.
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yes. incoherent, yes. I don't think my utterances during the SAMFACE bits could be considered coherent in any way, shape or form.
OMG.
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*incoherent*
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I am hoping that they can continue with the momentum of this episode because they're off to a damn good start.
PS - Love your icon!
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I really hope it keeps this up, too.
Thank you!
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AIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE.
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I tried to squee about that ALL NIGHT and noe one online had read Sandman. I remember squeeing while watching the DVDs when Kripke named Gaiman as an influence.
And then last night? DUDE. She was Death. DEATH Death! *Flails*
The John icons are SO never being taken down.
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Oh, HEART. When Kripke made the connection in the extras, I immediately thought of American Gods, so totally wasn't expecting the Sandman x-over! yay!
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Besides; it's main characters are a family even more fucked up than the Winchesters.
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Man, I really want to write a good, meaty Endless crossover. Or just read one.
I tend to think a lot of the 'verse of American Gods when I am considering the SPN 'verse; what things are and where things came from.
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Because I'm obvious and unsubtle.
But you're right -- the metaphors are bold, but not so in your face that you feel condescended to. I like.
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YES, very much about not being condescended to. I heart my show.
That icon is fabulous.
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I think the scrubs should *be* Dean's regular outfit, because that? Was hot. He looked so lean!
I'm interested that you thought it was brightly lit; it was in comparison to most eps, certainly, but it was much dimmer than I expect a hospital to be, which all added to the claustrophobic feeling.
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*nod* the hospital mis en scene was definitely sinister, but in comparison to, say, the asylum in Asylum, or the antique store in Bloody Mary, or the cellar in Hell House... in general, it was a different kind of set, one that was unheimlich in its own right!
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It was especially important to me that the writers UNDERSTAND the role that Dean has played in the family, as funny as that sounds. But it was like "Yeah, it isn't just us fans seeing this!" The scene where John and Sam are arguing over him and he is trying to intervene but they don't hear him...so true, so perfect. This is what I love about formulas, what I loved about Buffy. It' s the ability to seize on something totally familiar and even tired and marshall it towards an incredibly powerful moment of drama, something you couldn't do without using those conventions.
I was trying to explain the plot to a friend today and when I heard myself describing it, it just sounded so ordinary and hackneyed...because it IS, it is hackneyed, except it is the HOW not the WHAT that counts. They got the HOW so right and I hopehopehope that they will continue in this vein. This show could be big for me.
And I must admit that I want John to be gone, because it opens up so many dramatic possiblities. First of all, it means that this is one kind of show and not another...NOT the kind that would throw in a cheap cliffhanger for effect and then refuse to follow through, that would back off from killing a fairly major character. Plus, with Dad there they're stuck with that constant format of "I called Dad...what's Dad up to, why isn't he talking to us? Still looking for that demon." If he's really dead it opens up so many possiblities in terms of character growth and plot.
And hey, this is Supernatural. Just because he's dead doesn't mean he won't be in the show anymore.
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It was especially important to me that the writers UNDERSTAND the role that Dean has played in the family, as funny as that sounds. But it was like "Yeah, it isn't just us fans seeing this!"
YES. the fact that there *is* a plan behind it, that the characters are wonderfully real and fleshed-out, that they are not just a surface-level interaction - you CAN dip below the surface and draw on the huge iceberg of characterisation, and the show does that too. It makes me love it even harder.
the ability to seize on something totally familiar and even tired and marshall it towards an incredibly powerful moment of drama, something you couldn't do without using those conventions.
Oh hell, yeah. YAY PRO-POMO!
I admit that John dying opens up more exciting possibilities, BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE ME LESS SAD!! I heart John a great deal.
Oh, SHOW.
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omg YAY time to go rewatch it!
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I love this show and the Winchesters so much, I can't even. *flails*
Oh, John!
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JOHN! JOHNJOHNJOHN!!!111