sweetondean

sweetondean’s wrap-up and review of the Supernatural season 8 finale: 8.23 “Sacrifice”

Oh Sam and Dean, how you can rip my heart out and in the same moment fill me with hope. I felt like I’d been waiting 4 seasons for that conversation. Through all the mistrust, the walking away, the fights, the angry words, I never once doubted that a powerful love was always there, but I still longed to hear them tell each other just how much they mean to each other…because they both needed to hear it…as did we.

But I’ve jumped ahead. You know, I think “Sacrifice” may be my favourite finale ever. I can’t remember ever being so completely surprised with where a finale took us. Not only that, the emotional ruin I was left in was a good one, one that filled me with optimism…Read more

sweetondean’s wrap-up and review of Supernatural 8.22 “Clip Show”

To make this season’s quest personal to the brothers was smart. I think that’s one of the things the last 2 seasons lacked; that personal connection to the issue at hand. But this is about as personal as it gets. Locking up Hell, a place both brothers have spent time and locking up demons, beings that have caused the brothers pain ever since they were children. Let’s throw the possibility of locking Heaven into the picture, because the angels have been pretty bothersome since they entered the Winchesters lives! Then making it physically devastating for Sam, which becomes devastating for Dean. It’s all such good stuff.

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sweetondean’s Review and Wrap-up of Supernatural 8.21 “The Great Escapist”

“When you create stories, you become gods of tiny, intricate dimensions unto themselves.” I love this line to pieces and I kind of imagined Ben Edlund laughing maniacally after he wrote it, with lightning flashing across his face, accompanied by the sound of thunder! Then… he’d giggle.

“The Great Escapist” was peppered with that kind of dialogue. Lines that made my ears ring with joy and my heart bleed for the characters I love so much. The dimensions that Edlund creates truly are intricate. Here we have, not simply an experienced writer of the show “Supernatural”, but an experience writer, an experienced, gifted writer. A writer whose talent for story telling allows an episode like “The Great Escapist” to exist and beyond that, to make sense, be cohesive, emotionally powerful, edifying and profoundly satisfying. We had 3 concurrent stories, all which managed to intersect, informing each other, connecting and ending in a flurry of wings and screeching tyres. In thinking of this episode, I thought back to the last two seasons and Ben wrote the 3^rd last episode both times. “The Man Who Would Be King” and “Reading is Fundamental” were both complex stories whose job seemed to be to get all the season’s ducks in a row for the final two episodes. Actually, throw in “The Devil You Know” from season 5! I can just see the writer’s meeting…”Don’t worry about it, Ben will pull it all together!” I’m being sarcastic of course, but it really looks like that! He’s the guy who can get all the threads, pull them together and weave a doozey of a story out of them….

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sweetondean’s wrap-up and review of Supernatural 8.20 “Pac-Man Fever”

One of the things that surprised me the most about this episode was that Sam was not “benched” as the synopsis indicated. Far from it actually and I was pleasatly surprised and mighty thankful for that. The brothers have been rocking it of late; bromantically speaking and I didn’t want that put on the back burner no matter how much I like the recurring character. But that’s not what happened, Sam and Dean and their relationship was front and centre and having Charlie in the mix, allowed us and them to see their relationship through her eyes…which essentially have become our eyes. Charlie has become a Winchester fangirl!

This is one of the big reasons I think Charlie has hit a chord with the fandom. She’s like us. She’s geeky and loves genre, she’s a gamer who digs novelty t-shirts. She’s a fan. It was so brilliant of Robbie Thompson to bring this character into our world. Charlie’s a fan but a fan we can openly relate to without any feelings of weirdness or awkwardness.
 
Fandom has been depicted in “Supernatural” before, mostly with a cheeky smirk from the writers. We “get” the convention folk in “The Real Ghostbusters”. We understand the passion of the cosplaying Hookman and his questioning of plot inconsistencies, character motivation and bungees on weapons. Most of us have read fanfiction, some of us write it, so we understand the enthusiasm of Becky Rosen. We understand her shear delight when she meets her heroes in person. Who doesn’t want to never stop touching the Js when put into close proximity with them! But though these fans were mostly written tongue in cheek and with a good dollop of wink filled humour, they accentuated the aspects of fandom that wig non-fan-type-people out and maybe the things we prefer to keep under wraps. While I think they were written from a place of (mostly) love, they kinda still managed to make fun of us, because they highlighted the aspects of fandom that outsiders make fun of and in doing so, they made us a little squirmy.

But Charlie is written in a way that makes us proud to be a fan. She’s smart and funny. She isn’t secretly enjoying her fanness in the dark, bathed only in the glow of her laptop (not that there’s anything wrong with that)! She’s not closeted about her fanness. It permeates ever aspect of her life and she lives it loud and proud. She’s not all giggly and wide-eyed; she’s all “Whatsup, bitches”. Charlie is cool. Just like we are! Right?! She represents how diverse and interesting we are, not how peculiar. Not only that, now she’s read Chuck Shurley’s books she knows the brother’s story, just like we do and she’s become their cheerleader, just like we are and she thinks they’re awesome heroes and loves them…just…like…us…. Read more

(via The Winchester Family Business)

sweetondean’s spoiler-lite preview of Supernatural 8.20 “Pac-Man Fever”

winfambusiness:

Whoa. 4 episodes left in the season. That seems pretty crazy. The Js have already wrapped and as I was writing this, Russ Hamilton tweeted that it was the last day of shooting for the crew. Season 8 is nearly over. It’s kinda hard to believe!
 
So as we hurtle towards the end of the season, equal parts trepidation and excitment, what’s up next for us and our favourite ghost hunting bros?
 
THEN
 
Trial number 2 completed – TICK
Bobby sent to Heaven – TICK
Dean cut off Benny’s head – TICK (come on, we always knew that would happen one way or another *wibble*).
Sam’s not feeling so great after the latest arm flashy thing - TICK
Naomi reinforced the fact that she’s a manipulative cow.
Crowley reinforced the fact that he’s a total dick.
Prophet Boy is either…1. Crazy, 2.Taken by Crowley, 3.Taken by Naomi, 4. None of the above.
The demon tablet is gone and gone.
TICK TICK TICK and TICK!
 
A lot happened in the last episode.
 
Oh…and…there was an EPIC hug.

NOW
 
Where is Kevin?
How are the trials affecting Sam?
Why is Charlie in the bunker?
Did she read the racist truck book? Dean’s full-frontal in there, man.
What about “Heart”? I think she may have read “Heart”!
And did she find the fanfiction………. DID SHE READ THE FANFICTION?

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“SUPERNATURAL” CONVENTION REPORT: VIVA LAS VEGASCON – PART THREE – AND IT’S A WRAP! – BY SWEETONDEAN

Anyway…where were we? Oh yes, J day was over, I’d had my Js photos, J2s, J2Ms and Jensen’s meet and greet and after a very loooooong day, was ready to crash. BUT…our photos would be available to pick up around midnight, so after our Misha op, Hazel and I went and grabbed some much needed food with a few of friends and waited until the mighty Chris, had printed up the Js and J2 ops.
 
We wandered back to the photo room at around 11.30pm to find the photos all laid out and waiting. One of the really fun things about looking through hundreds of photos to find your own photos is looking through hundreds of photos! Some of them are adorable, some of them are hilarious, some of them you think….ooo, good pose, might have to plagiarise that one!
 
Anyway, we all grabbed our photos, giggled, gushed, grimaced as appropriate. I always find I pretty much dislike all my ops until maybe a week or so later, when I look at them with fresh eyes and love them! It was well after midnight when we headed back to our rooms. Hazel and I sat up oooing and ahhing over the Js for a bit, I uploaded some photos to twitter and then….THE CLOCKS WENT FORWARD! D’oh! Yes, daylight savings kicked in and all of a sudden it was 3.30 in the morning. I did mention that conventions are super exhausting right?
 
Sunday came around awful quick and kicked off pretty early at 10am. We didn’t want to miss the start of the last day, so we mustered ourselves and made our way down to the auditorium. Richard came out on the stage, bouncing…literally bouncing all over the place. The man’s energy is daunting. There was a little Elastic Waste Band magic, a bit of Richard and Rob re-enacting the lift from Dirty Dancing (Rob playing the chick part) and then we were on with our first guests…. Read more

(Source: winfambusiness)

sweetondean’s wrap-up and review of Supernatural 8.19 “Taxi Driver”

With Naomi coming to Dean to tell him about Purgatory, Dean discovers Ajay dead and realises his little brother is now trapped with no way out. It must have taken a lot to ring Benny, but then again, it probably didn’t. When it comes to Sam, Dean will do whatever it takes to keep his brother safe, including asking a friend one hell of a favour.

This scene between Benny and Dean is the scene Jensen told us about in his meet and greet at VegasCon. While discussing a question regarding directing actors, he spoke of how sometimes, if an actor makes themselves emotionally available for a scene, it can go an unexpected direction. This is what happened with this scene between Benny and Dean. It wasn’t written with so much emotion, but something in the two actors took it to that place. Both were surprised. Neither of them saw it coming. They had a bit of a laugh about it afterwards, but once they’d identified it, it went to that place every take. Guy Bee was as surprised as Jensen and Ty; he hadn’t seen the scene like that on the page. Jensen said it was because it wasn’t on the page; it was just one of those magical moments that sometimes happens.

What we got as viewers was a performance so raw that, I don’t know about you, but it stopped my breathing. Dean’s need for Benny to say “Yes” was etched into every line on his beautiful face. He was in a state of desperate despair.

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sweetondean’s wrap-up and review of Supernatural 8.18 “Freaks and Geeks”

Off the back of what was a cracker of a mythology episode, this week’s “Supernatural” was a filler (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But that didn’t stop the script giving plenty of nods to the past. 

It’s something that’s been so very enjoyable in season 8, an acknowledgment of and continuity with the history of the show. We kicked off the “Then” with John Winchester’s voiceover, explaining vampire lore, way back from the season 1 episode “Dead Man’s Blood” and then got a flashback to “Supernatural’s” greatest vampire hits. We got a nod to the Campbell family recipe cure. We got a nod to the Leviathan of last season. We revisited the themes of whether vengeance constitutes justice, what really makes a monster – is it being an actual monster or just being monstrous in your actions and of course, that old chestnut, can a hunter really have a normal life.
  
These things took what could have been a bit of an average filler, to something a little more interesting. Weaving a thread of this show’s history and themes through an episode always makes me happy….

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