Supernatural: S08E19 - Taxi Driver.

I despise spoilers with all my heart, it ruins the surprise and thrill that comes with that in the episode. Sadly however I lost track of days and forgetting that it was Supernatural tonight I foolishly went out into the internet and within a matter of moments some key aspects had been spoiled for me. I'll try my hardest to review this objectively however this review is likely to turn out less positive because cunts who can't keep their mouths shut decided to ruin it for everyone else.

Tonight Sam is on the second trial and that involves a trip through Purgatory and into Hell so he can grab an innocent soul and take it to Heaven. He achieves this by eliciting the help of a Reaper who basically moonlights as a soul trafficker and he largely manages the trip without a hitch but as he goes to leave with Bobby, he finds there is no exit door, as the Reaper has been killed. Luckily both Benny and ultimately Naomi are there to jump in and save the day.

And although all of that sounds absolutely wonderful on paper the way they actually translate it to the screen leaves a lot to be desired or well basically everything to be desired. I know Sam needed to travel through the veil intact so he could carry Bobby's soul out with him but the show plays this in a such a nonchalant fashion when this should be played as a fucking big deal. Angels and Demons need vessels to walk the Earth, they can't be in their true forms in our plane of existence but apparently Reapers...and in turn Humans are not bound by these rules as they are able to just walk between the different dimensions completely intact with no consequences. This is also ignoring basically every aspect of season 6 and all the times before it where they had to send in whole Angel squadrons into Hell to get one person out. But oh well I guess that isn't important despite this being the central aspect to your fucking series you fucking hacks for fucks sake.

Even ignoring that, once again Purgatory is just a forest with a shitty filter where apparently only vampires go. And even ignoring that fact, Sam gets attacked by more random demon goons in a standard episode than he does in the afterlife for monsters. But you know I guess if the huge fucking deal I mentioned before isn't important then I guess this isn't either. Moving on.

Not being a sarcastic prick for a second, it frustrates me because this is such a wasted concept. The monsters are the central part to the series and over the course of the show Sam and Dean have fought a lot of interesting monsters and I just thought Purgatory could have been a great device to bring back some old favourites for a round two. But of course this is Supernatural, why do something good with your concepts?

And before someone tells me that the production values don't matter, it's about the stories and characters, I'll raise the fact that well...you're wrong. The whole point of Purgatory is it is well...hell, if you excuse the expression. Dean spent a year there in an endless chase of survival and in this episode Sam had to relive Dean's experiences there. Or so we are told. We have yet to actually be shown this. Visually Purgatory doesn't live up to the dialogue from the characters and as this is a TV show, a visual medium, the visuals are the most important aspect. If this was a book you can tell us as much as you like and show us as little as possible but for a TV show you must show us as much as you physically can, tell as much as much of your story as possible through the visuals and have as little dialogue as physically possible that dumps exposition. A second trip to Purgatory and I'm still not convinced that it is any worse a place to be than the random demon warehouses Sam and Dean steam roll through every few episodes.

At least Hell has had another makeover, the whole green screen and chains thing looked rubbish and the whole Hell is one big queue thing was a funny gag but also really shit. The new hell however looked awesome, it was dark, twisted, scary and actually looked like well...Hell. Now that we've had a brief break to say something positive, let's go back to everything wrong with the episode.

We know for a fact that the black smoke isn't the true form of the demons and so in Hell they would be in their true forms however as this is Supernatural they just ignore this and instead have the demons wandering around in vessels. It's amazing that Supernatural goes out of its way to look both cheap and crappy and contradict everything it sets up. I mean how did they get so many physical human bodies into Hell? Fuck it, this episode clearly fucking cares about nothing, so why the fuck should I?

Of course that also in turn largely ignores the fact that Hell was as ridiculously easy as Purgatory was. Sam walks past four random people and then finds Bobby almost immediately. Despite Bobby confessing that the demons use Sam and Dean to torture him daily, Sam convinces Bobby about five seconds later that he is the real deal, the two have a ten second fight sequence and that is the end of that. "Thrilling".

Then of course is the Reaper himself who seems to basically ignore everything that makes a reaper...a reaper by being basically a human taxi driver who just happens to have the power to travel through the veil. Fuck it.

Aside from being mind achingly frustrating Taxi Driver also served as an important episode for characters. Firstly was Kevin who has basically gone completely insane by this point with the show leaving us on a cliffhanger at the end in a sort of 'was it or wasn't it real' kind of thing. Bobby returned and although he was a character I adored his return was ultimately a rather weak one. It was also the beginning of Naomi getting involved directly and finally the return of Benny as well.

However as wonderfully acted (Ackles has been acting his socks off this season, let's give credit where credit is due) and written these scenes were, my biggest problem is well...what was the point of Benny again? I know he helped Dean in Purgatory but Dean's time there was predictably dropped as quickly as it was introduced. And although Benny had an episode centred on him and a few scenes here and there he hasn't actually really done anything important in the entire season until this episode, so did they really introduce this character for the sake of this episode specifically? What a waste.

Taxi Driver is another episode of Supernatural with great ideas let down by their execution. Supernatural's student film, no budget at all style doesn't suit any of the stories in the last three or so seasons. I've also never seen a show that cares less for its own continuity and rules. And as a film student I can't get past just how shit and cheap Supernatural looks. It's a TV show that uses its visuals to absolutely no purpose or effect at all, I honestly think it's one of the worst looking things I've ever watched and without pretty visuals to distract me all I can see is the gaping plotholes and my enjoyment just vanishes.

Pros;

• Well at least on paper it sounds good...yeah...
• Hell looked pretty good.
• There are some important and pretty damn great character moments this week, especially the scene between Dean and Benny, where Ackles is just fantastic.
• Benny is back!
• Bobby is back!

Cons;

• It looks like shit. 
• Doesn't even slightly live up to its premise.
• Or really convince us of...anything.
• Continuity errors and plotholes everywhere you turn, hell this is like my very own personal hell.
• It was all way too easy. 
• As glad as I was to see Benny and Bobby back, this episode did little justice for either of them.
• Purgatory.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Taxi Driver'?