Supernatural: S08E08 - Hunteri Heroici.

Ah, we missed you Midweek TV Clusterfuck and it's great to have you back!

Hunteri Heroici is really a much more simple episode of Supernatural than usual, designed more for fun than anything else. Cas has decided to officially shut himself off from Heaven and become a hunter and hijinks ensue as he leads the brothers into a case involving a psychokinetic and way too many classic cartoons. Oh and Cas decides he doesn't want to be a hunter any more by the end, Jesus show, stop writing him in and out every episode! Sam gets more flashbacks too and they are still as pointless as ever. Oh no Amelia's Dad doesn't like me and her old husband is still alive, damn! Although the police chief from Continuum is here (yes, he already played another character in this show too, confusion!). And you can have a nice cringe at how awkward Sam feels in these flashbacks and how little chemistry he and Amelia have.

Oh what, prophets, demon sealing tablet? Yeah that is mentioned at the beginning, then dropped with a gag. Honestly, I'd complain that the show doesn't seem to care about its own story but I much prefer the monster of the week episodes anyway, so if they flat out dropped the whole demon thing, I'd be irked, sure but at the same time I'd be more than happy if what we get for dropping the whole demon crap is more great monster of the week episodes.

One thing the episode really tries to do is give a sense of the past, but this only makes the plot inconsistencies more obvious. Sure it's nice to bring John back into the story, in some sense, but the fact they raised the past, without the characters raising some more of the more major moments in their run on the show, just really bothered me. Dean's already been to hell, forced to torture people by a powerful demon, was purgatory really that bad? Sam had his soul tortured beyond what our nightmares could imagine, is his brother vanishing really that big of a deal? And that is without me mentioning all the times the brothers have died, when Dean turned into a vampire and everything else. By this point in the series, there is nothing really left to do with the characters, they've basically done everything they could with them - done everything they can to them. They kind of have to just kick certain past experiences under the carpet or both characters would be completely unphased by everything and it'd make for extremely boring characters to follow, I get that. But I just wish they could just do it more believably than just acting like it never happened.

You know, for all my complaints about the muddled mythology in this show, I can see why they'd want to cling to Misha Collins. His almost childlike portrayal of Castiel is probably the only good thing to come from the last three seasons, no matter how shit an episode may or may not be, you can always guarantee Castiel'll turn that frown upside down. It's amazing too, in an otherwise tired and poorly written series, that they have such a deep and multi layered character like Castiel. It's like they put all their effort into this one character, and Collins nails every layer. They use him for great effect here too, as he and the brothers basically have one long dick waving contest to see what makes a better hunter, experience or powers. However, I did have major problems with Cas saving someone's life. With the way Supernatural's mythology works in relation to death and fate and so on, I'm pretty sure the guy who took the shell to the gut wasn't meant to live, so Cas saving him would cause major issues...if he was a main character, as he is a side character, fuck our mythology, when have we ever cared any way? I also like how they save this guy, but then unnecessarily murder the doctor at the end. Whatever.

Actionwise, this episode is highly enjoyable. It's basically Cas and the brothers in a live action Looney Tunes cartoon and it is just as awesome as it sounds, just a shame there wasn't more of it. The episode, despite all the craziness and opportunities it had, ends with less of a battle and more with Sam giving a corny as all hell speech. And that is boring!

I was even impressed with the special effects for once this week. I think they really did a great job blending a thread of reality into some of the most classic cartoon moments, it was goofy sure but surprisingly believable.

Although not the best 'of the week' episode of the season, I think that title so far goes to Bitten, it is just such a consistently laugh out loud hilarious romp, it's easy to ignore all the episodes flaws. Although yes, there are many flaws, it ends largely on an anti-climax, the pacing is awful and it's rather weakly written, even for this show but as said, when something is this fun, it's hard to notice or care when it's also this bad.

Pros;

• This episode was hilarious, great fun.
• Live action Looney Tunes violence? I'm down.
• Honestly, I'm not really complaining that they keep dropping the plot for more of these kind of episodes.
• Castiel is probably the best character in the series and really is in his element in this episode.
• Good special effects.

Cons;

• The case wasn't exactly well paced probably, largely, due to all the time the episode wastes on Sam's shitty flashbacks. 
• This show is just such a mess!
• Anti-climax. 

Think About It!

-Locke