Following Roger’s Comments About ‘Match For Africa 6’ At His Wimbledon 3rd Round Press Conference,

I want to believe this, and it’s the most plausible scenario. But there’s a part of me that thinks Jeremy Carver wants to destroy the brother bond for good, and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Keep reading

I’ve honestly come to the end of my patience with this show. No more.

Supernatural 11.10

When it was first suggested that Lucifer may be making a return to Supernatural, I was among the first to express some skepticism. Not only did it strike me as lazy writing, to resurrect a villain defeated five seasons before, I also had no confidence that this writing team could do the character justice. Experience is instructive, and I fully expected that Carver’s version of Lucifer would be as shallow and spiritless as many of his other villains have been. If it seemed that I was more upset by that thought, than I have been by the treatment of other villains, that is because I believe that the Lucifer of Classic Supernatural, and the story told around him, is such a powerful and complete piece of writing. A piece of writing that I did not want to see subjected to Carver’s usual vandalism.

Unexpectedly, however, I was given cause to doubt my gut instinct on the subject. The first half of season 11 aired, and I was pleasantly surprised. Suddenly it wasn’t the plastic, tawdry junk I had been subjected to for the preceding three seasons. There were episodes that I enjoyed; there was compelling writing, and engaging characters, and Sam and Dean looked a little bit more like Sam and Dean than they had in a long time. For a moment, that ridiculously little flame of hope burning deep in my fannish heart, leapt. Perhaps Carver had clued in to just what a disaster he had made of the show, had recovered his soul and had become again the writer that had given us AVSC and Mystery Spot.

Of course, I should have listened to my gut. Whatever goodwill was earned by episodes 1-9 of season 11, it was disintegrated by the contrived garbage I watched last night.

The only redeeming feature of “The Devil in the Details”, was the acting. With one notable exception, everyone was on their A-game. Pelegrino and Padaelcki were mesmerizing together, and Jensen Ackles was as much Dean as I have ever seen. Even the ridiculous Pantomime Dames of Supernatural, Crowley and his mother, earn a mention for their solid performance (the nonsensical pre-credit sequence notwithstanding). And, I suppose, I should also credit the “broments”. Dean’s “have you met me” line was perfect, and Sam’s strong statement of faith in his brother was a particularly satisfying moment, following as it did four seasons where one might have been forgiven for thinking the brothers really didn’t like each other. If I hesitate to laud those gems of fraternal devotion, it’s because the totality of the episode had the effect of making those moments feel like obligations. They were added because that’s the “Supernatural formula”, and it’s what the fans’ expect. In other words, poor currency that didn’t purchase nearly enough goodwill to endure the remainder of the episode.

I’m not even sure where to begin with my substantive criticism, because there was so much that disappointed, or straight-out offended me. I suppose Lucifer is the obvious jumping point. My principal concern when I heard the Devil was returning for a major part in season 11, was a conviction (not disproved) that Carver would not be able to do that character justice, but worse would completely negate everything that had gone before. The Winchester’s war with the Morningstar was a complete, and powerful story; “Swan Song” the perfect denouement to the drama and pathos of season 5. That fight needed no further elaboration, it needed no further examination. It was perfect: Sam and Dean defeated the Devil, and they did it with brotherly love. Perfection doesn’t require elaboration. Resurrecting the Devil after that would be like Sauron climbing out of the rubble of Mount Doom, or the Emperor clawing his way back up the Death Star’s reactor shaft, or Voldemort appearing on the back of Lucius Malfoy’s head; in other words, a piece of poor quality fanfic, that rendered the trauma and sacrifice of the heroes completely nugatory.

That is, of course, exactly what I think happened last night. In one episode, Jeremy Carver and his team have succeeded in completely invalidating everything that Sam and Dean fought and died for. And for what benefit? The totality of the dialogue in 11.10 was a redux of themes in season 5; almost verbatim in some places. That doesn’t even deserve the title of elaboration; it’s naked, lazy plagiarism. Even more offensive than that, was the opportunity the writers took to make their voices heard through the dialogue. The whole sequence of Lucifer’s play, to the backdrop of Sam and Amelia, was overwhelmingly redolent of Jeremy Carver’s known, and particular, opinion on the brothers and their relationship. I didn’t hear Lucifer speaking in that sequence, I heard Jeremy Carver via Andrew Dabb. Writing 101 teaches that the writer’s voice should never be heard, not even in the narrative; it’s for your characters to communicate your argument, if you have one to make, and communicate it subtly. Not as a piece of anvil-dropping that amounted to nothing so much as a rebuttal to criticism. This is what I heard in that dialogue; not an expression of Lucifer’s character, but an argument directed at the fandom, or at best, a piece of very thin apologia for the character’s resurrection.

Invalidating Sam’s 140 years in hell, and enduring Carver’s lecture, are of course, not the only reasons why resurrecting Lucifer is a bad idea. The other obvious problem is the appalling creative laziness it implies. Apparently, this writing team is completely bereft of ideas for antagonists, themes and characterization. It is an appalling thing to acknowledge, that since Carver took over, the only original villain of the Supernatural universe, is its most irritating, Metatron. Almost all of the female villains – Eve, Abaddon, Rowena, Amara – are near carbon copies of each other, because again apparently the writing team can’t contemplate any female roles that aren’t a version of “sassy hot bad ass, usually with a thing for Dean”. Not a single one of those villains, comes even remotely close to the delicious menace of Meg, or Yellow Eyes, or Lilith or Alistair. Devoid of the skills, or the inclination, to give us an original, powerful antagonists, the season 11 writing team resurrects Lucifer, and rehashes season 5 for us. I’m not inclined to be grateful. If they were going to bring an old villain back, they could at least have given us Alistair or Meg. Certainly, we need another female character now that they’ve killed off Rowena. I was no fan of the Pantomime Witch, but again her death served no purpose other than to show how awful the Devil was (we know, he’s the Devil, we saw him a lot in season 5, remember?), and has successfully reduced female representation on Supernatural to a bit-part reaper, and the cameos of Sheriff Mills and Donna.

Of course, Lucifer wasn’t the only angel to suffer at the hands of the writer’s lack of inspiration. There was Castiel, too. Castiel. What on Earth, is the fucking point? If Castiel is so boring, so irrelevant, that the only way you can make him interesting, is by making him into Lucifer, then you have to start wondering whether it’s worth keeping him. Does he contribute anything, anything at all, to the story, now? Because, it seems that the only time Castiel is relevant, is when he’s not Castiel. Is that meant to be irony? Perhaps his motivation is meant to be ironic; after all he’s making the exact same mistake he made in season 6. More redux from the inspired creative team at Supernatural. It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

What wasn’t funny was the pre-credit sequence I mentioned earlier. Other than a brief piece of exposition, that could have been disposed of in a line, this added nothing. All I got from it was an excruciating feeling of second hand embarrassment, and an inclination of how the rest of the episode was going to go.

In summary, then, and speaking plainly, the episode was awful. I hesitate to describe it as contrived garbage, because I seem to use that phrase often in relation to this show, and I don’t want to be guilty of a lack of imagination. But contrived it was, and I think that’s Supernatural’s enduring and apparently insurmountable problem. It absolutely is a flaw in the writing, but more specifically a flaw in how the writing is approached. Episodes of Supernatural are no longer flowing, organic pieces of storytelling. They’re Lego Kit writing: a preconceived piece of shallow spectacle, built from little perfectly formed bricks of wow. The ambition here is not to tell a story; it’s to amaze, it’s to impress with the next piece of Dramatic Dialogue, to scintillate with the next piece of awesome SFX; to show how cool-awesome the next Big Bad is. The same gaudy pieces stuck together repeatedly, following a check-list, and packaged to impress us with its style.

The problem is, there is no story beyond the formula it’s built from. The Emperor really does have no clothes.

It was mindless drivel without a single redeeming quality.

The ratings for last night FLOPPED so I guess all those "omg everyone watches for Destiel!!!" people can go fuck themselves now lol

Because bad is bad.

I just said this to ahillmadeof42dogs , but I decided to also make a post. Honestly sometimes it really does feel like the writers are ruining the show on purpose. I think it’s more likely that they just don’t care at all, and are doing whatever will bring in the most viewers in their opinion. Which duh, it’s a business, but the lack of deference to the integrity of the story and characters that were set up for 6+ is still insulting and sad. Supernatural has lasted so long because of it’s loyal fanbase, overhauling the show is a big “fuck you” to that fan base.

Losing the blue collar Americana vibe, brightening the show, subtly changing up the wardrobe, giving them apparent endless funds, as we never see them hustle or scam. Ripping the boys apart, having Dean nod along to a song about Mary’s death, taunting us with the fake samulet and then immediately getting rid of that too, the boys staying separate even when they leave the bunker, Dean doing “Bitch” “Jerk” with everybody except Sam, now someone random dude being allowed to call Sam “Sammy”? Switching out urban legends for fairy-tales and straight up fiction (Oz). All this shit on top of the lack of scary villains and general OOC-ness? What’s left of the original show?!

Looks to me like Jensen is leaning backwards to address Singer, and is not having a “private conversation” with Misha. Angles can be misleading. 

Jensen & Misha “private conversation” vs J2 private conversation. Just sayin’. ;)

[x][x]

Really, really gutted, but health comes first. He'll stick around for cheerleading duties. Hindsight is 20/20, but four matches in a row (which it would have been, had he decided to play today) may not have been the wisest decision either.

words cannot express my sorrow.

please let him be on the bench.

pray that he knows how much we appreciate him.

appreciate that beautiful match we got in Prague.

and always always remember.

fedal will be forever.

The RNA intern who actively stans Fedal every chance they get deserves more mention. 👍Not all heroes wear capes.

Okay folks today has been a mess, let's put it all together in one place

Roger tweeted about suggesting ATP/WTA merger around noon bst

Rafael replied this (because they're married and they think as one)

Rafa's museum obviously ships Rafa and Roger and supports whatever pursuits they have

Apparently these merger talks have been happening since January, when Rafa Roger power couple brought it to ATP. The new chairman Gaudenzi seems to support the idea (as per Stan/Chris Evert insta coctails)

It's all been secret and should have stayed secret but Roger's incorrigible

So basically we're in the middle of a tennis revolution, god bless comandante Federer!

Meanwhile its been announced that Björn Borg's son Leo will start training in Rafa's academy

On the unrelated news the newly outed anti vaxxer Novaxx D. will have a chat on insta with some pink crystals/vegan guru, so there's that.

Also comandante Federer tweeted me again, we're basically besties at this point.

What a trip

Same. Absolutely gutted. Horrible, hollow feeling. I'll just take an extended break from tennis after this.

Could not believe what happened. I will need a lot of time to recover from this.

The preliminary finale rating is 1.78, according to Spoiler TV. Even after adjustment it’ll be the lowest rated finale since s7 (second lowest overall) and no higher than the season average. 

Episode Reaction - Spn 10.23

Thank Chuck another suckass season is done with and we can hope for better things in season 11. 

After getting something off my chest, I can type this up with a calmer head. :p

Keep reading

God, I’m getting flashbacks to the discussions about John’s stag party in the BBC Sherlock fandom.

Not saying a word

(x)