Obviously I don't think it was either of those things intentionally
One of my longest-running complaints about this show is that I think the writers themselves don't know their own intentions. Or they think they do and then they change course midstream when whatever they did plan on doing turns out to be too challenging or just runs out of steam. I've been watching this show for a long time and I've so often been led astray by what I think the writers are trying to do, only to have my hopes just go out with a whimper. Then on top of it, I'll read some ridiculous interview where the writers talk so confidently about what their intentions were even though none of that ever made its way onscreen in any coherent way. We wind up with the writers sitting on panels TELLING us what they should have SHOWN us, but never did. It's that trust issue I'm always talking about. I don't trust these writers, and of all of them I trust Sera Gamble the least...and this year we don't even have Jeremy Carver around to kick out a few decent standalones.
Dean's the newbie who isn't respected by anyone else in that team because he lived in a house with InStyle Magazine.
The mockery of Dean's new life seemed especially ridiculous considering that the whole point of lying to Dean all year was supposedly to preserve that new life. I can appreciate that hunters who haven't "gotten out" (to use Bobby's words) might feel compelled to display a certain false bravado and scorn towards something they secretly envied (i.e., a normal life), but that seems awfully childish. I think this wasn't so much a slam at Dean's domestic situation as a lame bit of humor from the writers -- just as it was oh-so-funny to see Dean wearing a suit and eating healthy food in "It's a Terrible Life" (another Gamble episode), it's oh-so-funny to see Dean living in a nice house with golf clubs in the closet and women's magazines on the coffee table. Side splitting!
He was lied to so that he couldn't make an informed decision about his life because people decided that was best to make him happy. When called on it they were defensive, feeling that Dean should be grateful.
This is a very interesting point...it's like the whole "caged bird" philosophy that existed about women, especially in Victorian times. The ideal woman was supposed to be nearly childlike in her innocence (or rather, her ignorance), but that very virtue was also used to demean women as not being as smart or as strong as men. Which was very much the way the Campbells were all treating Dean throughout the episode. Not like someone who'd been hunting his whole life (and survived 40 years in hell and was party to averting the apocalypse) but like some sheltered little suburbanite who was too delicate to handle reality.
I couldn't help but wish it was Mary that had been brought back.
I talked to a friend after the episode and we both said, if any Campbell was going to come back from the great beyond it should've been Mary. But once again the show has gone into overkill mode -- Mitch Pileggi was great in that ONE episode so hey, let's bring back Mitch Pileggi!! Urgh.
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Date: 2010-09-25 09:29 pm (UTC)One of my longest-running complaints about this show is that I think the writers themselves don't know their own intentions. Or they think they do and then they change course midstream when whatever they did plan on doing turns out to be too challenging or just runs out of steam. I've been watching this show for a long time and I've so often been led astray by what I think the writers are trying to do, only to have my hopes just go out with a whimper. Then on top of it, I'll read some ridiculous interview where the writers talk so confidently about what their intentions were even though none of that ever made its way onscreen in any coherent way. We wind up with the writers sitting on panels TELLING us what they should have SHOWN us, but never did. It's that trust issue I'm always talking about. I don't trust these writers, and of all of them I trust Sera Gamble the least...and this year we don't even have Jeremy Carver around to kick out a few decent standalones.
Dean's the newbie who isn't respected by anyone else in that team because he lived in a house with InStyle Magazine.
The mockery of Dean's new life seemed especially ridiculous considering that the whole point of lying to Dean all year was supposedly to preserve that new life. I can appreciate that hunters who haven't "gotten out" (to use Bobby's words) might feel compelled to display a certain false bravado and scorn towards something they secretly envied (i.e., a normal life), but that seems awfully childish. I think this wasn't so much a slam at Dean's domestic situation as a lame bit of humor from the writers -- just as it was oh-so-funny to see Dean wearing a suit and eating healthy food in "It's a Terrible Life" (another Gamble episode), it's oh-so-funny to see Dean living in a nice house with golf clubs in the closet and women's magazines on the coffee table. Side splitting!
He was lied to so that he couldn't make an informed decision about his life because people decided that was best to make him happy. When called on it they were defensive, feeling that Dean should be grateful.
This is a very interesting point...it's like the whole "caged bird" philosophy that existed about women, especially in Victorian times. The ideal woman was supposed to be nearly childlike in her innocence (or rather, her ignorance), but that very virtue was also used to demean women as not being as smart or as strong as men. Which was very much the way the Campbells were all treating Dean throughout the episode. Not like someone who'd been hunting his whole life (and survived 40 years in hell and was party to averting the apocalypse) but like some sheltered little suburbanite who was too delicate to handle reality.
I couldn't help but wish it was Mary that had been brought back.
I talked to a friend after the episode and we both said, if any Campbell was going to come back from the great beyond it should've been Mary. But once again the show has gone into overkill mode -- Mitch Pileggi was great in that ONE episode so hey, let's bring back Mitch Pileggi!! Urgh.