As background noise with occasional peaks, Supernatural is just fine. This episode, on the other hand, was one of its weakest. But why? After all, contact from an evil entity pretending to be deceased loved ones of the living has real potential. That potential is never realized, though, or even explored to a significant degree. What the story needed was a few examples of contact by way of set up, then a central example providing focus and real feeling. Instead, we have scattered calls and characters, none of whom hit home.
The fight scenes are perfunctory. The dirty tech support kid is a pointless red herring, gross rather than grotesque. The end villain is some random actor incapable of projecting real menace. The fx are cursory.
In short, the whole episode feels rattled off, as if the series just needed to crank out one more episode to reach the required number. It's too bad---the idea of Dean and Sam's dead father contacting them as the year comes to a close could have been powerful. Instead it's just folded into one of the weakest episodes of the entire run of Supernatural, given just a few short phone calls late in the run time, none of which feel central or effective.
The fight scenes are perfunctory. The dirty tech support kid is a pointless red herring, gross rather than grotesque. The end villain is some random actor incapable of projecting real menace. The fx are cursory.
In short, the whole episode feels rattled off, as if the series just needed to crank out one more episode to reach the required number. It's too bad---the idea of Dean and Sam's dead father contacting them as the year comes to a close could have been powerful. Instead it's just folded into one of the weakest episodes of the entire run of Supernatural, given just a few short phone calls late in the run time, none of which feel central or effective.