TV and its apparently inevitable downfall

[tea_and_ink]

So according to the grapevine any show that I fall for seems to be doomed from that point on. ARG!

With the few exceptions of the Simpsons and The X-Files, any TV show I become enamored with, suffers a biblical collapse and it either gets cancelled or shuts plot and philosophy straight down to Hell. Very sad indeed.

The shows that caused this post are two very dearly beloved programs (that incidentally have some of the greatest fandoms, mind you) are SPN and Firefly.

Starting with Firefly, just because its chronologically fair. I adored this show to religious levels. I still haven’t been able to figure out just why that was, but the point remains that it was. Not a single ep can be found that I didn’t enjoy like a little child enjoys birthday cake. Granted I only have one season to judge, but there have been cases when a really good show screws up somewhat magnificently and as a result we have a “Route 666” in our hands.  

Just yesterday I was going through some quotes of the show and God!, the snark, Wash, River, I even loved Jayne, and I particularly fancied Shepherd Book, he was a good character, may his fictional soul rest in peace.

They had this great ensemble of characters and situations that dealt with ethics, which  I think were the main subject, ethics and survival, and how did those two meshed together to form a ethereal entity of dubious intentions. And I was all kinds of fine with that. Maybe it was their aggressive approach on the sci-fi subject that actually gave life to this ‘verse from the get go, or perhaps it was the humanity and the imperfections and ambiguity each and every character exhibited at every step of the journey, whatever it was, it made me a very happy person. So of course my world went all sharp-edged and painfully dark when I found out they were canceling it. Typical Fox by the way.

Still to this date Firefly (and by extension Serenity) make me smile like an idiot, and I cherish that. Although I do have some things to hold against the movie, their basically cinematographic issues and so will not be addressed in this post.

 

On to SPN now, and just because this show is so good; in fact is the only show that I religiously watch and at every available chance too. Its not like I don’t watch TV, its just that I don’t care much for a whole lot of things out there right now.

Anyhow, I fell really hard for this one. If Firefly took me to adoration levels, SPN has me willing to sacrifice virgins to it. And that’s what got me all worked up about it.

See? This show started kinda flat for me, I mean the pilot and “Wendigo” Good God. But then a few eps later it really kicked off and it was simply superb. Still had its flaws, but so does everything else, the trick is to balance the flaws with what I actually enjoyed and see what weighted more, usually the enjoyableness won. Now on the other hand… what the hell is going on?   

They’re butchering Dean and I keep on getting this empty shell vibe from him. If the guy really is supposed to be all broken like that, then at least give him some reason to be. I understand that he’s learning to be without John, the man who led him through hell and back, but I really had hoped they were eroding his faith in the man, kinda showing him through Sam all the things John did that made him less than perfect, and please do not get me wrong I’m one to jump to John’s defense against the tidal wave of angry fangirls, its just that he remains so idolized in Dean’s world its almost painful, and keeps reminding me of a four-years-old Dean with six-months-old Sammy running down the stairs. In a way I think Dean is still very much that four-years-old, and that would explain certain traits of his, but at the same time, he was forced into adulthood in the same and exact moment that the four-years-old took permanent residence in him. Having thought this, I kinda expected this season would take him to be a little more of a full adult, a person with his own mind, his own person shall we say, and instead all I get is this emotional porn parade that’s really starting to get annoying. Like, really annoying.

 I expected John’s death to be a break-point for the boys, John was gone, that protective figure (at least for Dean) was no longer available and thus there were shoes to be filed now. So imagine my happiness when Gordon says those exact words, and what does Dean do? He teams up with Gordon and trades a possible personal vision for somebody else’s, somebody that, granted, seemed to be the one holding the knowledge that up until then only John had held. And unlike John, Gordon did disappoint Dean, I was rubbing my hands together, imagining all the possible outcomes of this fall from grace of a Dean’s hero. But all I got was more Emo-Dean. Christ!

Sam is not to be saved from my ranting; he too has had his moments of the purest WTF?

From the beginning Sam was my boy. He’s a thinker, he questions orders, he questions himself, and I greatly admire that. So seeing him choosing to stay and hunt with Dean because he really cherish this moments with his brother, because he really feels this is where he’s supposed to be at the moment, even if he wishes he were somewhere else, makes perfect sense. But hearing him say he’s doing it because he thinks this is what his dad would have wanted him to do? Yeah, it ain’t right. Whatever happened to making your own choices and all that S1 Sam stood for?

I do want Sam to be a little more pragmatic and start judging by the circumstances and the actions and what he sees and not just by the basic principled idea of goodness; right and wrong are ambiguous terms, complex ideas that when applied to reality usually are not exactly what we thought them to be. And I want Sam to see that. I want him to swallow his words in “Simon Said”, because Andy saved his life, and Dean’s and Tracy’s, and there is no way that what’s-his-name twin guy would have been reformed because that apple was already too rot, prison was really not an option since Elijah Wood II had no qualms in killing and oh yeah, he could control minds! I want Sam to see the ethical different between murdering someone in cold blood and killing as the right thing to do under certain circumstances. Of course everybody is capable of killing Sam! Its part of what we are, the difference is in the reason for that killing, the execution of that killing. I want him to see that.

I want a slightly more pragmatic Sam. There. But only slightly because then he’d become into some kind of Dean, and two Deans might be a little too much for me to handle. And then there would be even less chance of the writers exploring philosophical set ups because, well, we have a repeated personality case and… that does have its twisted charm, but NOT in this show…

Also I miss that Dean so damn much! I miss the Dean whose worldview I could relate with and sometimes even support, I miss that guy who judged on actions, on what he saw, on the hard evidence of reality, and not in a possibility, an event that might happen, even when all the evidence he has points to the other direction. Yes I mean his conviction that Sam will turn evil and he will have to kill him. I can totally understand how unsettling it can be to walk around knowing that such a death would weight on your shoulders, adding to the fact that your own father sacrificed himself for you, and so that death also has a burden quality, and all this is kinda hard to cope with; but dude!, its like he forgot what he said to Sam in “Nightmare”, when he so kindly reminded tortured Sammy that unlike Max, Sam had a big brother. And no, I do not approve of Dean protecting Sam to the last consequences because, really, Sam can take care of himself just fine and like I said before, Dean needs to get himself a mind. But what I’m saying is that Dean is there to help if need be, Sammy is not alone. Also Sam has all this knowledge about the supernatural world that the other poor things didn’t have and that is a huge advantage. Why can’t Dean see that? Why has he chosen to believe John’s version? In which, btw, the word might was mentioned twice, at least. Why does he assume the worst? That I don’t get. He has known his brother his entire life, is that not enough time to be able to tell whether or not somebody will chose to become a murderer? And even then, again I push the circumstances into it all, since Dean himself has killed people, has being completely aware of what that meant, of what he was doing as he did it, but he was also very aware of why he was doing it, of the consequences of those actions, he wasn’t doing it for fun, he did out of need. Has he forgotten all that? Or maybe that has to do with his self-destructive ways ::shakes head::

Whichever way SPN still has me hooked, Jensen Ackles awesomeness aside, because I still have hopes for it to get back on its feet and return to the part were they were two brothers on a road trip, only now they’re not trying to find their dad, they’re trying to find themselves (cheesiest line ever to come out of me, and after this I shall vehemently deny I ever wrote it, but whatever), and adjust to this new life where dad is not an option, and where right and wrong are drawn in shades of grey.

So possibly I’m way off target here, but this is the main feeling I’m getting from our show nowadays. Still, hope shines bright and strong for me, and I refuse to give up on it, because really, I think that is possible the writers are just easing us into a new level of relationship where all this emo-Dean and black-and-white-principled Sam thing was necessary and it makes sense. One can only hope. ::sights::

Of course will dedicate another post to revel on the many wonderful things SPN has brought to the world, because now I feel kinda guilty and dirty for having written all this.  But said post will have to wait until I can recover from all this thinking stuff.
Also will crap a little on Firefly, just to even the balance, although I did not love that show as much as I love SPN.

 

So fandom people, please help me get over this curse of doomed TV shows, ‘cuz really, SPN deserves to keep going. There has been some seriously good writing in that show. Like, honest to God good. And is it wrong to want more of that? ‘Cause apparently, I’m greedy like that.

What do you think? Am I reading too much or am I not reading enough?

Comments

[laivine.livejournal.com]

I think it's completely valid. I don't think you're reading too much into it and I don't think you should have to feel guilty for noticing a trend you don't like and commenting on it.

That said, while I am a fan of short-run things that aren't given the chance to veer from their original mission statement, kind of visual short stories that develop their world, their characters, make their statement and disappear - while I love that kind of compounded intensity - Dark Angel, for one, had moments that I don't think I'd love as much if the seasons continued and diluted their impact.

All that said, I think that I'm invested in SPN sufficiently that I want more. And I think in a roundabout way, they're giving it to us with the grief arc. I love, LOVE, LOVE the grief arc because I think it's one of the ways that SPN binds itself to reality, how it maintains its impact. I honestly believe that Sam and Dean have been blown apart and changed and broken by their father's death. And they aren't acting right because I think everything before the scene in Devil's Trap is almost unrecognizable in the face of their loss.



I do think Dean has been trying, lightened after telling Sam the secret, to come back to center in the past few episodes. But I think Dean has been confronted with a jarring and powerful loss of self-identity and his wheels are spinning and now, what he's been keeping from Sam has been shared and Sam is coming to him while he's still in a haze and asking the worst. I believe he doesn't trust anything that's happening to them, he doesn't buy into the fate, the destiny, but he doesn't have any way to push back. And Sam's terror, and the psychics they've been confonted with is just making it harder.

And I don't think Sam's fears, bases on this whole fate/destiny thing are so out of left field. I think is part of his grief, part of that sense that their father who knew everything (even if he wouldn't tell it) is gone and they're just kids. They can't be trusted to hunt alone. I think a lot of that analysis and pragmatism got lost in the mess with the information that he is going to lose control and need to be put down. He's tried to be strong for Dean and now I think Dean will have the emotional lattice - as Sam breaks down - to find his way again. I kinda love that.

I don't want it to go on forever, but I think that honoring the full mire here and now, will make Dean's return to form much more nuanced, full and well, interesting! If this is a five season show, for example, I would much prefer that this loss happen now and give the rest of the show over to Sam and Dean maturing as hunters and hunting because they WANT to hunt - because they've lost, learned, and grown and they finally get to the lean place, the sharp edge of the knife where they have the advantage of having dealt with all of this together.


, because I still have hopes for it to get back on its feet and return to the part were they were two brothers on a road trip, only now they’re not trying to find their dad, they’re trying to find themselves

I seriously think that this is the road they're on, it's just taken a sharp curve.

[penandnotebook]

Yeah, they are in this emotional limbo, where they have nothing to hold on to. So I guess that would come to explain part of Dean’s irrationality when it comes to Sam’s possible future. Because I think it is somewhat irrational, and yet oddly consistent with Dean’s character.
It may be just a way to stress out this new status of their lives. This place where they are right now, no John, no clue to where the demon is (the demon that caused all of this, and who’s hunting had been the major goal for the Winchesters), and adding the Sam-might-be-evil situation, I think is a lot to cope with for both boys, and then we get the goodness of Dean trying to get them to take a vacation or some such, because it is consistent with what Dean would do, he would want to regroup and strategize before getting back in the field, and Sam refusing because Sam likes to solve his own problems when they present themselves, it also has symmetry with what we know about him from S1.

Having seen things under that light, I’m reminded of how much I just LOVE SPN. Yet I’m still annoyed by the fact that the plots are kinda forcing this feelings out, and not in a good way, like we had with Bloodlust, and CSPWDT (Man, is that a title!), and Simon Said, instead we see Sam getting drunk? That is not the way he’d handle a chik-flick moment need. But then again, kid’s adjusting, I guess.
And yes, Sam did have his grieving period after Jessica’s death, and then it was anger and urgency to find Dad and fix things, but back then he wasn’t left so empty-handed, then he had a purpose and what we may call a plan, but now, he doesn’t even know how to track the demon anymore, he has no idea how to identify possible fellow psychics, and also he could be the next addition in Dean’s and a whole lot of hunters to kill list. So I would agree that in the light of these events, his grieving process might take a turn to desperation. And then there’s Dean; when Jessica died, Dean was a strong pillar Sam leaned on, now on the other hand, Dean is as broken as him, maybe even more considering John’s significance in Dean’s life, and the fact that the reason why John is gone is because Dean is alive. And all these tidbits I like, I enjoy immensely the humanity of these characters and I think I commented that to you before, its one of the main reasons I became a hardcore fan, what I don’t like is the way that emotional evolution is being written, like a said earlier I feel it forced and that bugs the hell out of me.

"But I think Dean has been confronted with a jarring and powerful loss of self-identity and his wheels are spinning and now, what he's been keeping from Sam has been shared and Sam is coming to him while he's still in a haze and asking the worst. I believe he doesn't trust anything that's happening to them, he doesn't buy into the fate, the destiny, but he doesn't have any way to push back. And Sam's terror, and the psychics they've been confonted with is just making it harder."

That right there? Purest Dean. Hopefully writing will improve some, and we’ll get eps that rise to the emotional weather front coming forth. S’all I’m saying.

It does feel good to share all this stuff, get it out of my chest. I think I lost three pounds just because of that.

And also about the intensity loss a lot of shows suffer, product of plot extension, I agree completely, I’d rather have a fast fire, short lived but devastating, instead of an explosion evolving into a slow combustion that is not a half of what it was when it started. I’m just sad, because then we get stories that I don’t even know what are about, and can’t help but to miss greatly the ones I actually got. Another reason SPN is cult for me. Also SPN continues to rock because of all the meta I’m allowed, it’s a fest!