I don't understand it either. It's as if they are plotting-by-numbers, with a checklist of plot requirements they feel they have to hit, whether they fit the characters or flow naturally or not. That's the formula and it must be stuck to.
I saw a comment somewhere - I think it might have been Tumblr - that ran along the lines of, whether you see it in a slash way or not, Sam and Dean are being treated by the showrunners in the same way that the endgame romantic couple are usually treated in a long running show: i.e. the writers come to believe that the success of the show relies on those two characters being kept apart, no matter how contrived the reason, because they are so locked into writing the will-they-won't-they, knowing that the audience feeds off it, that they can't move past it, can't envision writing for that couple actually together, and feel that doing so would kill the tension of the show. It's not a perfect analogy, but there's a lot of truth to it and it does resonate with the way the brothers keep falling out, for increasingly contrived reasons, rather than being allowed to move forward with their lives and relationship. The show has got into a very formulaic rut - new showrunner coming in and saying 'okay, this is a formula that's worked before and will maintain a strong audience' rather than looking at the characters and coming up with ideas to take them forward from the point where we left them.
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Date: 2013-01-23 08:04 pm (UTC)I saw a comment somewhere - I think it might have been Tumblr - that ran along the lines of, whether you see it in a slash way or not, Sam and Dean are being treated by the showrunners in the same way that the endgame romantic couple are usually treated in a long running show: i.e. the writers come to believe that the success of the show relies on those two characters being kept apart, no matter how contrived the reason, because they are so locked into writing the will-they-won't-they, knowing that the audience feeds off it, that they can't move past it, can't envision writing for that couple actually together, and feel that doing so would kill the tension of the show. It's not a perfect analogy, but there's a lot of truth to it and it does resonate with the way the brothers keep falling out, for increasingly contrived reasons, rather than being allowed to move forward with their lives and relationship. The show has got into a very formulaic rut - new showrunner coming in and saying 'okay, this is a formula that's worked before and will maintain a strong audience' rather than looking at the characters and coming up with ideas to take them forward from the point where we left them.
Very disappointing.