SPN does best with personal family relations, not the mysterious threat of an offscreen Apocalypse methinks.
I agree totally :-)
Keeping the more apocalyptic stuff off-screen was an interesting decision. I think it could have worked, but for it to work the audience needs to see the fallout. And we're not seeing it. They started out on the right track: that speech Castiel gave at the end of...oh, gods I can't remember the ep name offhand. The one with the Witnesses, where we first learned about the seals. Dean asks why Castiel wasn't around to help and Castiel implies that there was a major battle going on elsewhere. That works, because we could see how it had affected Castiel, even if we didn't know the details of what happened.
But since then, all we've got is Ruby being cryptic, Uriel being an ass, and business as usual for the Winchesters. It doesn't exactly do a good job of racheting up the tension. And at the same time, the stuff they're not saying is getting irritating. If it were Joss or JMS, I'd be happy to wait, knowing the climax will be worth is...but Kripke isn't in that league; he just thinks he is.
Instead of blank stares and cryptic comments there might be full on angel smitings and no more rock salt in sight.
It would be useful to see some of that, actually. I mean, there's a hell of a difference between Uriel saying they've come to blow the town off the map in the Samhain ep, and actually seeing it happen. Imagine if, instead of Sam's death, Dean making his deal, killing the YED and the Devil's Gate opening in All Hell Breaks Loose the final episode of Season 2 had been Sam, Dean, Bobby and Ellen explaining what happened over a beer. That's the equivalent of what we've been getting this season. It's really crappy storytelling.
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I agree totally :-)
Keeping the more apocalyptic stuff off-screen was an interesting decision. I think it could have worked, but for it to work the audience needs to see the fallout. And we're not seeing it. They started out on the right track: that speech Castiel gave at the end of...oh, gods I can't remember the ep name offhand. The one with the Witnesses, where we first learned about the seals. Dean asks why Castiel wasn't around to help and Castiel implies that there was a major battle going on elsewhere. That works, because we could see how it had affected Castiel, even if we didn't know the details of what happened.
But since then, all we've got is Ruby being cryptic, Uriel being an ass, and business as usual for the Winchesters. It doesn't exactly do a good job of racheting up the tension. And at the same time, the stuff they're not saying is getting irritating. If it were Joss or JMS, I'd be happy to wait, knowing the climax will be worth is...but Kripke isn't in that league; he just thinks he is.
Instead of blank stares and cryptic comments there might be full on angel smitings and no more rock salt in sight.
It would be useful to see some of that, actually. I mean, there's a hell of a difference between Uriel saying they've come to blow the town off the map in the Samhain ep, and actually seeing it happen. Imagine if, instead of Sam's death, Dean making his deal, killing the YED and the Devil's Gate opening in All Hell Breaks Loose the final episode of Season 2 had been Sam, Dean, Bobby and Ellen explaining what happened over a beer. That's the equivalent of what we've been getting this season. It's really crappy storytelling.