Airing out a Grudge: “Supernatural” – Season 6 and 7

So recently I have gotten into the television show “Supernatural”. For those who don’t know it, “Supernatural” is one of those shows that came on around the same time as others, focusing on writing and drama of a group or duo. In this case, it focused on the Winchesters, a pair of brothers who were hunting demons, ghosts, and legends of both the older and urban variety. The mix of legends, the travels across America and the various little points about the two are interesting to see. The story behind the two boys, as well as their reasons for doing it and how others look at them, makes the whole thing often worth watching, as does the dialogue. Oh, the dialogue is AWESOME.

So as I tend to, I started from the beginning and worked my way to what was supposed to be the end. The writers had planned on a 5-season show, meaning the natural story arc, character development, and general plot of it all was in season 1 to season 5, and when I started watching it, season 6 was just ending.

I enjoyed the story, though I was a bit saddened by the end, mostly as a writer. I didn’t feel the ending given to Dean would be truthful or even helpful to the character. Dean is a family-oriented person, but at the same time has not been ‘normal’ since he was four…relearning that is hard. From my own experience, going from one type of lifestyle or way of living to another can be depressing and a bit hard to deal with, and so going into something that can easily be depressing or hard to change, right after something that had caused him to effectively commit suicide the last time it happened.

And he’s left alone. With a group of people who don’t know anything about the supernatural, or what he’s gone through, or who he can talk to about what he’s feeling, going through, has gone through, or anything else. In fact, if he did tell anyone, including a psychologist, he might be considered a bit insane, or at least mentally unbalanced.

So I started watching season 6, and was a bit…underwhelmed by it. I felt that the storyline was a bit thrown together, with someone randomly pulling ideas from a dart-board. First: Sam is back! So is Skinner – sorry, Samuel – the grandpa! And they’ve been back for a year, Bobby knew, and somehow they were totally sure that Dean was well-adjusted and not about to be attacked by the numerous evils they’ve fought or those that realize Dean is open and ready to kill, AND he has a family to try and protect!

Ok, you can get a whole series, or even half a series, off Dean dealing with his friend’s idiocy, returning to being a Hunter and trying to not instantly become like his dad, and having to learn more about his mother’s side of the family.

But that gets scrapped pretty soon, and now we learn there’s a war in Heaven, and Heaven is pretty messy right now. Another good story, Castiel and his group working to try and save Heaven and not start the Apocalypse while also having others besides Balthazar as Angels that left and are now hedonistic, or vengeful, or something similar. This would work well as Dean has to deal with his–oh, this isn’t even a secondary story but a reason to have Cas not be around that often…

OH, the Alphas!

You see my problem. There was a great deal of ideas, all of them good, but too many of them shoved into the season to really work. It was a bit messy, with good ideas and bad ones, and the final part just felt like something that should’ve been the focus and instead was pushed to be the huge SURPRISE for the ending.

So if season 6 was a bit of a cluster, season 7 was…also clustered.

The storyline went from both dealing with Sam dealing with hallucinations, Dean dealing with Castiel and all of that, and a new big-bad from before even the Angels. Yet only a few of the story-lines dealt with the new Leviathans, and within about two of them, I knew what they were going to do ultimately. I knew EXACTLY what was going on.

Things didn’t get interesting AGAIN until the last few episodes, and even then, some of it wasn’t all that interesting. It was a basic “last chance stand” story.

So I had problems with the last two seasons. The first five were obviously written to be a group, with the rest feeling like they’d been tacked on and, hopefully, season 8 will be better and bring back our guys instead of the angst-buckets we have now.

A Bit Overrun with Symbolism: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Welcome to Tea ‘n History, with your hostess, Felicia Angel

 

Recently out for play is a game by American McGee titled “Alice: The Madness Returns”, a sequel to the original game of “American McGee’s Alice”. The stories in both are based after Alice’s original adventures in Wonderland, where a fire has destroyed Alice’s house and, sadly, her sanity. She is called into Wonderland to save it, and thus save herself. The new one is very much rinse-repeat with new types of levels and, in general, if you want a good look at the two games (along with decent commentary and somewhat annoying lack of sense of direction), find the various Let’s Play by Lotus Prince (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/blogs/latest/blogger/listings/lotus-prince), as he does a wonderful job and many of his games are on the dark side but also very fun to watch.

Granted, I get a bit tired of him looking at all the shiny stuff and things, but he does an alright job and does try to read off some of the stuff about some of the enemies or if something is based of one thing or another.

The original story by Lewis Carroll appears to be cause of a long line of things about Alice to be used in various areas, be it for talking about dreams, imaginary numbers, drugs, or worlds as little children view them.

Originally published in 1865, with many of the characters being caricatures of either the writer or others that he knew (or disliked in politics) the original manuscript was written up after the author, a colleague, and three daughters of another colleague, Henry Liddell (none were over the age of 13, one was named Alice, and your mind needs to get out of the gutter NOW) went on a boat ride and he entertained the children by telling them a story about a bored girl named Alice. Another trip added to the manuscripts, and soon two books were published, one with references to card games (the Queen of Hearts is only in one book – in the other, a similar woman is known as the Red Queen) and the second dealing with chess (which is why there was a Red Queen). Much of the symbolism in the books is based on the college and church nearby (Oxford and Christ, respectively of course) and Carroll’s own background in mathematics. At the time, the idea of imaginary numbers was coming up, and…well, read the books and think of it along the lines of math instead of just a kid’s book or someone taking drugs. Seriously.

In general, whenever movies or games (or references) to Alice are done, they usually have a mix of both the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the second Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. Much of it includes parody and nonsense poems, two of which that remain with us for a good while being The Walrus and the Carpenter and The Jabberwocky. An example is the use of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum (second book), calling the Red Queen and Queen of Hearts the same thing, adding in anything about the Walrus and the Carpenter or the Jabberwocky, and such.

Alice in popular culture is either a curious child or a lot of various things, including mad, imaginative, or having had something she shouldn’t have. A few times when it’s referenced is for the huge cry of SYMBOLISM but in general it also has to do with uncovering secrets or dealing with a dream world, where familiar faces can appear in very different settings. As everyone sees the characters differently, it can easily take on any part that someone wants or can be used to help drive any of the characters, though naming someone Alice and putting them in such a place is a bit cliche (Resident Evil movies).

The long list of those influenced or having some connection to the story is long, and many are worth looking into, just as the original books are. Alice has worked her way into our imaginations and we still are happy to follow her down that rabbit hole, no matter what lies beyond.