In the twentieth episode of the ninth season of Supernatural<\/i>, what. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of misogyny (specifically fridging of women), race.<\/b><\/p>\n
That was weird, and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really like it.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m all for Supernatural<\/i> experimenting with the kind of stories they can tell, and I mean that sincerely. Most of my favorite episodes of this show are fucking weird<\/i>, and I definitely like the concept<\/i> of focusing a story on the lives of a bunch of people who are affected by a mafia-like monster underbelly in Chicago. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a bad idea! But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thrown together so awkwardly that it made it hard to watch \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bloodlines,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as if I had suddenly tuned in to a different show. Right off the bat, the tone of this episode is more melodramatic than usual, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay. I realize saying that something on Supernatural<\/i> is too melodramatic is horribly hilarious. This show is built on that. But aside from Ennis and his story, this honestly felt like I was watching a soap opera? Ugh, even that<\/i> is a loaded statement because Supernatural<\/i> is basically a soap opera anyway.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to parse my thoughts on this is because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bloodlines\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is another example of the show using exposition heavily instead of telling stories. In just twenty minutes, we have to understand that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a group of monster families in a war with one another for territory. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likened to the mafia a few times within the script, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bad<\/i> idea. But how am I supposed to like or care for any<\/i> of these characters? Aside from Ennis and Violet, none of these people are sympathetic and likable. In fact, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all pretty gross if you ask me. I mean, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cop to being biased against a cast of characters where all of them but one are upper class white people. (Possibly. I think Freddie Costa might be played by a Latinx actor.) That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me, and the show relies on that interest to keep me going. Most of this episode is full of rich people snarking at one another about family and loyalty and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so boring<\/i>.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re introduced to villain who is motivated by revenge that might actually be justified, only to never get any closure on whether or not he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right. The episode opens with a woman being fridged (SURPRISE, just kidding, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supernatural<\/i>, this show is an expert at that). Sam and Dean are onscreen for maybe ten minutes. Violet is literally objectified by other characters every time she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the screen and isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t given much characterization beyond that. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re expected to understand a decades-long feud in very little time. This episode asks a lot of us, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? And with so little closure at the end of it, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left wanting more, but not because this was such a thrilling experience. I want more because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bloodlines\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gave me like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 10% of a story.<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise here, sure. Most of that is in Ennis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, though I have to admit that Tamara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death is so egregiously annoying because surely this show could have found any<\/i> other way of bringing Ennis into this world that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rely on a trope like this. I get that this is how most hunters end up in this role, but come on. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a preponderance of black women on this show, you know? At least the show did<\/i> give us a black character who lives in a city that has a very high concentration of black Americans, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give them that. I liked the idea of Ennis, a kid who lives in the shadow of his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work. I enjoyed that his anger was right on the surface and that the writers didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t invalidate that. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allowed to be furious about the loss he suffered and all the attempts the Winchesters make to keep him out of the action. They even give him the shot that kills Irv, which was satisfying for his character.<\/p>\n
But even his story is cut short. Why? Is there more of this coming? Why do I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing a huge piece of the puzzle? Actually, that metaphor doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing LIKE THREE-FOURTHS OF THE PUZZLE. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it! Is the war in Chicago going to matter? Was this a one-off? I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell!<\/p>\n
This was too weird for my tastes, basically. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay stating that.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bloodlines\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a> In the twentieth episode of the ninth season of Supernatural, what. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[591],"class_list":["post-4649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supernatural","tag-mark-watches-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running,\u00c2\u00a0I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"