Hollywood Babylon

[ivyfic]

Was it just me, or was that Evil Dead? I mean, the reading from the necronomicon, that's a gimme. But the banging of the porch swing against the cabin and the repeated reference to an off-screen character named "Ashley"? Straight up Evil Dead.

I'm slightly annoyed with Supernatural right now. X-Files managed to hold back the urge to do this episode for seven seasons before giving in (and then let Duchovny write the script which led to the holy grail being an LP that played the lord's voice saying the lyrics to "I Am the Walrus" in Aramaic, but that's just Duchovny for you (pretentious Princeton grad *hem*)), Stargate resisted for five seasons. We're in season two. And we've had two goofball episodes in the back half of this season, both of which were rip-offs of X-Files. The plot? Predictable. The satire? Not even remotely original. The characterization? Well, apparently Dean is a horndog and a glutton. We knew that already. And Sam--Sam's just his usual self. I mean--what? Maybe I wouldn't have minded as much that this was a comedy bottle show if they hadn't had Dean flippantly bring up Madison which--no. Maybe I wouldn't have minded if they hadn't rushed right through the angst in "Heart" only to ignore it now. And at least "Tall Tales" had tons of character moments.

When I want goofy crack that pays no attention to character development or plot arcs, I watch SGA.

Sure, I was amused at them ridiculing Route 666, who wouldn't be. I loved the look on Sam's face when he finds out Dean's banging the star. I love that Dean is a horror buff--not just a buff, even, an otaku, if you can be an otaku of horror. But come on Supernatural! I'm getting bored here! You haven't had a truly surprising plot twist since "Houses of the Holy." Throw me a friggin' bone.

*breathe* This is still one of the best seasons of a television show I've ever seen, and I am oh so very much looking forward to next week. I'm just fed up with filler.

Comments

[dotfic.livejournal.com]

There, there. You're just suffering from SPN withdrawal. Yes, it was a rip off of Hollywood A.D. but since when has ripping off TXF been a bad thing for this show?

It was crack.

The faux movie trailer? Was awesome.

[trakkie.livejournal.com]

Whoa, when did he flippantly bring up Madison? Did I miss that?

I'm just annoyed that they can't even take themselves seriously - I mean, do we have to make reference to the fact that Jared was on Gilmore Girls, or that the show is still filmed in Canada? Even though SGA is usually cracktastic and pays no attention to characterization or plot, you've never once had Rodney say, "hm, this planet reminds me of Canada!"

Annoying!

But yeah, it was totally Evil Dead. The one thing I liked was that Dean wasn't even a horror movie buff - he was a B horror movie buff. I wasn't bored, and I thought the black and white ghost was pretty creepy. But I wasn't impressed.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Dean brought it up at the beginning -- clearly you were too distracted by the Canada reference. He says something like, "Well after that whole thing with Madison, I thought we should come to LA and screw movie stars! But you just want to work! What's up with that?"

If you remove that one line from this episode, you could move it anywhere in the continuity and I'd be fine with that. It's just not the right step after "Heart." Though if they're going to give me a crap filler episode, I'd rather this than another "Route 666."

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

I found this one sort of charming, I think I'd have liked it better in a season that didn't have Tall Tales. Like, I get having a fun episode after an angst-o-rama, but there really wasn't any point except selling the damn cameraphones. (Maybe that was the motivation for the whole satire thing, trying to make fun of themselves for having to sell out.)

[trakkie.livejournal.com]

You know, honestly, I think a lot of it is that they're still trying to market this show to boys. I'm sure some higher up somewhere said, "Boys age 18-24 don't want to see Sam deal with his pain over some chick! They want blood, guts, and cleavage! Why don't we bring in a cult figure from B horror movies for good measure! And have Dean bang her! That will get those boys off their Xboxes."

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

We got lazy in our house (I was cross-stitching, feiran was brain-dead on WoW), and I saw this one.

It seemed mostly non-offensive, though I was totally screeching about the Evil Dead rip-off at the center of it. Plenty of times. Also, for a meta-episode, it was kind of...dull? Would it have seemed more wacky and insightful if I knew the show? Because it seemed to lampoon Hollywood more than it was lampooning Hollywood notions of ghosts especially. And it wasn't even doing that a whole lot.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

No, it was dull. There were only a few lame self-referential jokes: the reference to Gilmore Girls (which Jared Padalecki was a recurring character on) and that LA looks a lot like Canada. Everything else was totally generic. It wasn't like episode 200 of SG-1 which was a similar idea, but was packed wall-to-wall with in-jokes, so that the more you knew about the history of the show and the behind-the-scenes stuff, the better the episode. This had its moments (like them making fun of the terrible episode "Route 666", which was all the haunted monster truck stuff), but was mostly just...disappointing. As I said before, if I want crack, I watch SGA. This would be like tuning into BSG and getting a goofball episode. Just--no.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed the excessive prominence of the camera phone. Again.

At least this wasn't as bad as Xena selling out to DeBeers for an episode.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I actually thought the faux movie trailer would have worked better after the act break--like, oh, it's another ad, no...wait a minute.

Now I'm going to have rewatch Hollywood A.D., aren't I? At least that had a hot tub scene.

I did like all the Dean being a part of a team stuff. If I wanted to angstify this, I would say that it's because Dean really needs to feel like he belongs, and loves being a part of a team. If I really wanted to angstify it, I would point out that his on-going obsession with free food probably comes from not always having a steady supply of food. But this episode doesn't justify that level of analysis and it's not where Dean's character should be right now. Sam was really marginalized in this episode and, yes, I'm a Dean girl, but basically ignoring the guy going through major emotional trauma kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hey, sometimes goofball episodes would be good on BSG!

I mean, I'm sure I could imagine an ep where...yeah, I got nothing.

Oh well.

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

DeBeers on Xena? How did that work?

I am willing to put up with the phones to get a season 3. But... oy.

Still, Jared literally fleeing Gilmore Girls was funny.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

It's the season three episode "Fins, Femmes, and Gems." Basically DeBeers said, "we'll give you a lot of money to do an episode about diamonds," and Xena said, "hell yeah!" The ep was supposed to be titled "Fish Shticks," but DeBeers insisted on gems being in the title.

It is a remarkably stupid episode. But then, Xena is known best for its stupid episodes. It was a campy show. Selling out--not that big a deal.

Supernatural, on the other hand...

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

I'd be bitterer about the selling out if the CW hadn't put the show in a Timeslot Of Death and spent far less on marketing it than they do on reality crap.

Oh, Xena. It really was at its best when doing things that made no sense.