Supernatural Reviews - 6:01 'Exile on Main Street'

[sammii]

Hmm. I don't quite know what to make of that. I didn't hate it, but I'm not sure I really liked it either. I think it left me with too many questions (yeah, I know it's the first ep of the season, but we really didn't learn anything, did we?

First, let me state that this is the first one I've seen live, and I often find it very hard to make the switch from DVD (without commercials) to TV (with commercials). The commercials destroy the emotional continuity for me, and I don't get the same feeling from it that I get from watching a DVD. So part of my opinion on the show is almost definitely me, and my adjustment to a different way of watching it.

Now the first ten minutes or so were really good. I liked seeing Dean's life, I liked seeing him automatically get back into the hunting at the slightest provocation. I loved the juxtaposition of snippets from his old life with snippets from his new. That was very well done, and had me almost in tears (yes, I'm emotional, deal with it).

Sam's initial appearance was good. Dean's reaction was good. I'm glad Dean was angry when he found out that Sam was back all that time and hadn't told him. That seemed right. I'm glad he was mad at Bobby. I know I would have been upset if I'd been grieving my brother for a year and suddenly I find out he's alive and all my friends had been keeping it from me. No matter what their motivations were, I still lost a year with my brother. And wasted a year grieving.

I don't trust Samuel. At all. He just doesn't feel right to me. There's something off about him. And I find it interesting he came back at the same time Sam did. (Ok, this is going to get confusing. From now on "Samuel" refers to the grandfather and "Sam" refers to our sexy hero).

Sam is also off. I can't put my finger on it, but there's subtle things wrong with him. The way he pounded that djinn, for one thing. That was more than necessary. Of course, being in Hell can do that to a person, but I think it's something more.

The story was lame. But I kind of expected that. 45 minutes isn't enough to introduce the season, make some startling revelations about what's been happening, and then have a kick ass story. Especially with all that happened at the end of Season 5.

And strangely, I really missed Cas. I guess I got used to him at the end of Season 5, even though he's not really one of my favorite characters.

And the end...what was that? Dean's not coming with them? Why? I didn't think that was explained well. I mean, yeah, sure, he wants to make sure that Lisa and Ben are safe, but aren't they going to be safer at Bobby's, with Bobby's supernatural panic room, than with only Dean to protect them from whatever's happening? And what's with Dean wavering back and forth and trying to give up the Impala? And where on earth did Sam get the money to afford a car like he was driving, holy crap.

Yeah, I just feel like I didn't get enough from this episode. How is Sam back? Why aren't more people disturbed by that? When Dean got out of hell, we spent a whole ep trying to figure out how the heck that happened, and now it's "Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you, Sam is somehow out of the supernatural Lucifer-holding lock box but you know, that's not really something to concentrate on, now is it?" WTF?

So I'm reserving judgement about this season until I see a few more. Need to get settled into watching it on TV, and see if the next episode is better at answering some of my questions and making a little more sense.

Rating: B-

Oh. And Sam is not a dick, a douche, or anything else negative. :p