‘Supernatural’ season 9, episode 20 review: Did ‘Bloodlines’ take itself too seriously?
From the moment that we first heard that “Supernatural” was going to be getting a spin-off show, we were intrigued. However, there is a difference between being intrigued and excited, and we held firm to our trepidation going into this episode airing.
After watching “Bloodlines,” our opinion is pretty firm that despite it having Nathaniel Buzolic, we won’t bee too sad if this is not picked up to series. Maybe this is the cup of tea for some people, but to us it just wasn’t very good. The story was plucked out of The CW handbook of predictability, and it didn’t feel at all like “Supernatural.” Save for the brief moments of Sam and Dean, the only thing that it had in common with the original was the fact that there were monsters around.
“Bloodlines” suffered most of all from one very simple flaw: It took itself much too seriously. The forbidden love was a part of it, and then it felt too much like a paint-by-numbers “Godfather.” Wasn’t Ennis Roth the lead of the show? It didn’t feel like it at times, given what we saw from the confused David, who struggled with his identity as a shape-shifter before finally decided to come home at the very end. Even when we did see Ennis, he was a predictable character with (of course) a seemingly-dead parent and one who was out of the picture.
Sam and Dean found a way to get out of Chicago thanks to their mission taking down Metatron, and they left it to Ennis to try to figure out. Lucky for them that they can escape and go back to the show we love. This wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t inventive or imaginative in the way that “Supernatural” is. Instead, it had zero comedy, brooding music, and lost the magic and essence of the original. We never like to root against a show or people who can get jobs on it, but in this case we hope that most of these people get a chance with a different project soon rather than one that was derivative and really just getting viewers off of the “Supernatural” name. Grade: D+.
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Photo: The CW
Martin Anders
April 30, 2014 @ 11:20 pm
There
has been a lot of hype about the spinoff and believe it or not, I was
excited about this episode. Whether or not it was good enough for a
spinoff, I had expected they would end up making a great Supernatural
episode – after all, in order to get people interested in the spin-off,
you should pull out all the stops. Bring in some great humor and drama
and tension, draw from the parent-show’s mythology and make us care
about these new characters. There have been characters who’ve endeared
themselves to the audience in their first appearance (Bobby, Rufus and
Charlie come to mind), so its not impossible.
Sadly,
I found this episode to be lacking in all departments. More than that,
when I read about the theme of the spinoff, I was worried on four counts
– I was hoping that it would avoid these four scenarios, but judging by
this episode, the spinoff would not only not avoid it, but employ it to
full measure:
1.
“I just want to be human”-monster – Most frequently seen with vampires –
the tragic hero who wants to go against his nature and live a “normal
human life”, but keeps getting pulled back into the mess due to destiny
or moral obligations. Here, we have a resident shape-shifter filling
that role.
2.
The antagonist is the “real” monster – For the simple reason that he is
against the “protagonists” and to hell with whether or not he has a real
grievance. Here we have a hunter who wants revenge for his dead son,
whose killing of the human girl was accidental (who dies from bumping
their head?) and who wants to kill the mafia-monsters involved with
crimes like organ-trafficking – but he is the real monster? In any other
episode the Winchesters would be giving him tips and some of their
arsenal, not watching him get shot without blinking.
3.
Ignoring the canon – Supernatural has built up a diverse and
interesting monster-world over the seasons and in its own way, it is
pretty realistic. Shapeshifters have to go through the messy process of
shedding their skin and can download memories. Werewolves are rarely
aware of their own nature – they can shift voluntarily only if they are
close to the Alpha and have difficulty controlling their desire to eat
human hearts. The other monsters all have their unique powers and needs
and ways of being killed. None of that was in this episode. The monsters we
were your generic claws-and-fangs type and the more interesting aspects
of monster lore were completely ignored. The whole, switching-on-a-dime
used to be a sign of a different level of creature – like the
Alpha-shifter or Eve or Leviathans or Angels – but now, apparently any
shape-shifter can do it.
4. Low-stakes affair – In Supernatural, first we had
old demons trying to release an ancient evil. Then we had Lucifer
bringing about the apocalypse. Then we had a primordial monster trying
to turn the entire human race. Then we had a new god. Then there was
another race who wanted to turn humans into farm animals. And now we are
dealing with a new “god”, armies of angels and war in hell. Those are
the seasonal stakes in Supernatural. So, its going to be a little hard
getting to care about “which family controls which sector in the city”
when we know that elsewhere in the same world, the Winchesters are
dealing with much bigger issues.
Apart from all this, I just felt that the potential spinoff had too much wasted potential. The writers made a lot of other mistakes which made the episode worse.
1.
Info-dumps don’t make us care about the characters – We didn’t get
Bobby or Charlie’s backstory the first time they came along and we liked
them just fine. This episode kept going back to “who’s in love with
whom” and “family histories” and “character connections” instead of
developing characters as individuals and making them likeable on their
own.
2.
Ennis’ motivation – I didn’t feel like he had much of it. Why did he
think that a monster killed his fiancee when all he had to go on was a
hooded face and knife-claws? And why is he so hellbent on being a hunter
when a human killed her? And is he supposed to be a cop? I didn’t see
much evidence of that. With a lot of other hunters we have a lot more
emotional depth regarding their very personal reasons to be a hunter –
there was none of that here. It didn’t help that the acting wasn’t all that great. I remember that in the Supernatural pilot, I was instantly taken with both Sam and Dean and it had a lot to do with how J&J played the role.
3.
Super-powered human – So, apparently there is this untrained hunter
looking for revenge who is, as far as we know, just a human and can take
out a club full of monsters with just a set of claws? And then sneak
into a werewolf household without being detected and get away with the
girl? But then he gets pwned by her in two seconds flat? Were they
magical claws or something?
4.
So much wasted potential – Supernatural has already built such a rich
world for them to pick from. Why keep bringing back the regular boring
monsters like werewolves and vampires who just bring out their claws and
fangs to fight? Why not bring a little djinn-action into the mix? Why
not highlight the shape-shifter capabilities to download the thoughts?
Why not throw in a “bigger-threat” about to shake their world – like the
remnants of Leviathans trying to establish a power base? Or bringing in
some of the old Gods? Anything more interesting than one shapeshifter
and a whole lot of claws and fangs.
So,
if the spinoff does get picked up, the only reason I can think of to
watch it would be that instead of focusing on angsty drama and sappy
love stories, they develop more on rich Supernatural lore instead of
throwing canon out of the window – but judging by this episode, I don’t
see it happening.
Marty.
susan
April 30, 2014 @ 2:30 am
This episode was awful. No need to be a Supernatural episode. They could’ve had any actor or actors play hunters that gave the new guy his one minute intro into the world of monsters. The guy didn’t care he was talking to the freakin’ Winchesters. I agree with someone on another site that the potential to blur the lines even more on the rules of monsters is a potential problem for viewers who might watch both series. It won’t be for me though since I won’t be tuning in to this spinoff.
Supernatural has way too much to wrap up before the end of this season and this was a wasted episode.
Lkeke
April 30, 2014 @ 2:20 am
This was just a retread of The Originals, set in Chicago. Even the first episode of Supernatural, though meant to be scary, had moments of comedy. This had none of that. Just a lot of deeply earnest conversations with characters staring into one another’s eyes and explaining their lives to each other. I haven’t deliberately missed an episode of supernatural in five years but I got about 30 minutes in before I had to bail.
Btw: I hate The Originals.
Joe Lagoy
April 30, 2014 @ 5:28 am
I made it 15 minutes in so you did better than I could.