#jensen ackles critical

[dimplecki]

jensen did jared so dirty by not including him in the spinoff :(

not even talking about their fallout or whatever

but the money is SAM AND DEAN 

and jared holds the show so deep in his heart and to be left out of the winchesters must have shattered him man. 

he said in interviews all the time he doens’t want the spn final to be a goodbye to Sam. he looked so hopeful for a reboot or a movie and jensen went and produced a whole spinoff without even telling his co-star pfffff

why did jensen do it im sorry i just don’t understand is jared really so awful to work with? that he must be excluded from his own shows spin off? 

[themanwhowouldbefruit]

fake dean fans will literally never understand 🙄

[winchesterish]

yeah i came back just to drag the prequel and jensen. what else is new

[laf-outloud]

I'm guessing that Kripke helped get Jensen and Danneel the in with Amazon.

I hope Amazon does a little homework on their new acquisition before they hand CM any money.

This also confirms that Jensen won't be playing batman in any new projects. His fans seem certain he is about to be named for the part.

That seems very likely that Kripke helped. Certainly, as just a guest actor on The Boys, Jensen wouldn't have had interactions with Amazon executives.

With all the networks tightening their purse strings, I'm guessing any project is going to have to look like a winner right out of the gate (likely a spin-off or reboot of an existing franchise - not SPN).

LOL! I suppose the deal wouldn't preclude Jensen from taking other acting roles, but it certainly seems to diminish the possibility (even though we know it was never going to happen.)

[strawlessandbraless]

Dean and Cas should have gotten to poke fun at Sam’s career choice more often. When Cas is annoyed, his response is always ‘ok law boy’ with an eye roll. Anytime Sam utters ‘so get this’, Dean and Cas rush to be the first to object. Dean threatens to sue Sam anytime he interrupts his alone time with Cas. The party city wig was actually one of those white British judge wigs.

[warpedwings]

How have I never noticed this before?

Misha at the Television Critics Tour in 2013, and Jensen in Mint Condition in 2018.

More Jensen in Mint Condition, and Misha at AHBL in 2013.

[supernaturalconvert]

Could not have been put better....please put all of us out of our misery and cancel this monstrosity already.

Why The Wincesters is such a disaster and what can we learn from it.

As The Winchesters limps to its season (and possibly series) finale, I wanted to do something of a deep dive as to what went so colossally wrong. How was it that the first viable spinoff, and helmed by one of the leads of the original series, went so badly off the rails and is now one of the poorest viewed shows currently running on any network? There are lots of elements that played into this folly so let’s dive in.

1) The premise. This was an issue that many had pointed to from the very start but it’s important to understand why the very premise of TW was such a problem. A good spinoff will be able to stand on its own from the original series, even if there are elements linking them together. You should be able to watch the spinoff and be able to understand it without having seen the original series. Watching both would deepen the storyline and give elements that new viewers might miss, so it builds interest for both shows. A well-done spinoff can get viewers who never bothered to watch the original series interested. What happened instead was that viewers who never watched SPN would be hard pressed to understand who these characters were and why they are so important. It didn’t help that John and Mary are pretty polarizing figures in the SPN fandom which could have tempered excitement over the series with the fandom. Many, myself included, had argued that it would have been better to do a storyline that either focused on the distant ancestors of Sam and Dean, or to focus on completely original characters following the end of the SPN series. Revisiting the well-documented story of John and Mary wasn’t going to excite anyone.

2) Poor casting choices. This is not a slam on any of the actors who are clearly trying their best, but casting has been an issue from the start. Especially with the leads. I’m sure that Meg and Drake are lovely people, but they were poor choices to play younger versions of such well established characters. As an audience that already knows John and Mary very well and have clear images of their characters from how Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith played them, it makes the casting of Meg and Drake even more perplexing. Meg especially, as physically it’s impossible to see her maturing into the Mary that we know from SPN. Even if we were to completely divorce TW from SPN, the actors just don’t fit the characters they are supposed to play. Meg is too small and frail looking to be believable as someone raised in the hunter life from childhood, while Drake is too innocent looking to be convincing as a former Marine and Vietnam veteran. It didn’t help that Meg and Drake had little real chemistry between them, making it difficult to buy that they were supposed to an epic love story. Rather than seeing sparks even when their characters were not romantically linked, we often had to wonder why they were in the same room together.

3) Poor production values and writing. I get that TW was being produced by a novice production company on a shoestring budget, but it shows. The early seasons of SPN also were filmed on very tight budgets, but they were able to make the most of what they had and used well staged practical effects to create an atmosphere of danger and tension and then used limited special effects for the big moments. In contrast, the effects on TW look worse than effects on a show from 15 years ago. It also doesn’t help that TW is something of a period piece and very little about the show really gives a feeling of the early 1970. Period clothing looks like costumes rather than lived-in garments and hair and makeup were anachronistic much of the time. Meg’s eyebrows were especially distracting, as even counterculture women would have had thin, highly arched eyebrows.

The storyline and motivation for the characters was all over the place at times and the dialogue was pretty laughable. John was supposed to be only 19 or 20, yet the audience was supposed to buy that he not only served multiple tours in Vietnam but had also been a POW. Nothing about his character arc made any sense. Nor did Mary’s. For someone who supposedly wanted out of the hunting life before she ever met John, she wasn’t exactly trying too hard to step away from it. The backgrounds for the supporting players in this cut-rate Scooby gang were unconvincing and uninteresting and the storyline as a while was a jumbled mess. There was a lot more tell than show and rather that streamlining the story so that it could be told naturally within the 13 episode season, we just had a lot of unnecessary baggage that prevented it from flowing in an organic manner.

4) The inability of TW to stand on its own. As I stated earlier, a good spinoff can be enjoyed in conjunction with the original series but it needs to be able to be viewed on its own. It’s one thing to have a few easter eggs sprinkled about those longtime fans might catch and enjoy (but don't distract or impact on the overall story), but it’s another to have the constant parade of supporting characters from SPN showing up as exposition fairies. Granted, these are supernatural beings so it would make sense for one of two to pop up as a surprise, but the show treated the appearance of characters like Loki/Gabriel, Rowena and Dean as major events for viewers to tune in for. They were announced and advertised in advance with the goal of trying to convince SPN fans who haven’t show interest in watching TW to give it a chance. Given the poor ratings thus far, the shoehorning of original SPN characters has not helped.

And Dean, acting as both narrator and McGuffin for the show has been problematic on multiple levels. Again, you have to be at least somewhat familiar with SPN to get why Dean is in any way important. And with him at the center of the myth arc for the season/series, you have a tie with SPN that cannot be broken. This crippled TW’s ability to hold its own as a series and it would always be the weaker spin off from SPN. There was no chance of it being able to survive on its own. This wasn’t a bug, but a feature that was built into the show from its very inception.

5) The retconning. For all the protestations that TW would honor SPN lore, it’s very clear that they have been playing fast and loose with the facts established in the series. John’s character especially suffered, as SPN established that he only began to learn about the supernatural world after his wife’s death (though he did have him memory wiped when Sam and Dean did some time traveling). But despite hiring the people behind SPNWiki to help with the lore, many contractions were made that only confused and annoyed the few longtime SPN fans that were watching. It showed a carelessness with the storytelling that they never got a handle on. While SPN often had issues with their own lore and continuity, the issues with TW were particularly glaring.

6) Jensen, Dannell and Prequal-Gate. It cannot be understated just how badly Jensen and Dannell handled the roll out of TW, or their planning of the show in general. Part of it can be chalked up to inexperience, as they had never produced a show before. But Jensen knew the SPN fanbase as well as anyone else and had to be aware that shutting out Jared and all but completely erasing any mention of Sam from the storyline was going to alienate a significant portion of the fandom. We can argue whether or not Jared’s initial response when the news broke was a good one, but it doesn’t change the fact that Jensen designed the show to showcase himself and Dean’s importance in the SPN lore (something never really disputed) and did so by erasing Sam. By apparently shutting Jared out of the show completely, he ensured that Jared’s fans would not give TW a fair shot. And that showed in the ratings. Even the premiere, which was the high point of TW viewership was markedly down from SPN’s low points in the last seasons. 1.23 million viewers watched the premiere of SPN’s final season and nearly half of them didn’t bother to watch TW. That hamstrung TW from the very start, and it was all downhill from there.

When we look at the promotion of TW from the start, it was about Jensen and Dean. He got the primary focus and not the young leads that he should have been featuring. Jensen and Dannell took most of the focus at NYCC, while Meg and Drake were almost afterthoughts. They did little to guide their inexperienced cast and it became obvious very quickly that the premise of the show as less about the John and Mary epic love story and more about how Dean plays into things. For newcomers who didn’t know who Dean was, this was confusing and for Jared’s fans, it was confirmation of their worst suspicions about Jensen’s motives. It hasn't been helped when so many of the remaining fans are all but admitting that the only reason that they are watching is for Jensen/Dean.

In the end, TW was doomed from the very start. There were so many mistakes and missteps and with a short, 13 episode season, the show never found its footing. With the bottom of the barrel viewership that it is receiving, the odds are that it never will. At best, TW was forgettable. At worse, an exercise in hubris that no one is coming out of looking better than when they entered and very possibly killed whatever chances their were of further storytelling in the SPN universe.

Feel free to add anything you think I might have missed here.

[chaoticace22]

guys calm down January not even over yet...

[justjensenanddean]

The HCA Astra TV Awards will be taking place on Monday, January 8, 2024 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Jensen Ackles is nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Streaming Drama Series.

[themoodyestj]

I read somewhere that everyone in Austin knows they were faking it, So they moved to CT where they can live separately without anyone notice it.

Ooooo, this is juicy.

That being true... Jesus, why does he still endure that? God. I'm gonna try to find the article/post/thread because I need to see it for myself. If anyone finds it first, would you please share? Merci beaucoup.

[themeraldee]

I started watching the show because a lot of the spn fandom was into it because of Jensen and while Jensen has never been my fave I gave it a shot. And I found his character to be so flat that surely the hype is purely about Jensen being attractive. The only thing I'm looking forward to is what his dynamic is gonna be like with Homelander in the coming season. But like if you want a grouchy Jensen Ackles just watch like the last third of Supernatural.

I really don't get the hype for Soldier Boy in the Boys. I get it everyone loves Jensen but beyond that I really didn't find his character to be that revolutionary?? Not to the degree of him having his own spin-off that's for sure.

[kvitka97]

So, so many people need to read this. Very true.

[inthenameofallthingsholy]

Speedy’s Supernatural Watch-through

hey can we all just pretend season 15 doesn’t exist?

I’m on Season 15, Episode 17.

The drop in quality from 14 to 15 is drastic and horrific. Whoever was in charge of the music completely changed the instrumentation of the background music, and instead of classic rock every song used is either like underground indie or country music.

I don’t want to critique the acting because that is unfair, the actors were working with a god awful script, but at times it feels like the actors are genuinely giving up. It gets better later in the season, but Jared in early season 15 is…struggling. Again, mainly the script’s fault.

Also just grave mischaracterizations. Since when does Dean not consider Jack family? They spend most of the last 2 seasons showing Dean getting closer to Jack and seeing him as more than just Lucifer’s son, yet when Jack has to sacrifice himself, suddenly “Jack’s not family.”?

There are things about this season I appreciate, mainly Jensen’s acting choices when interacting with Castiel, as well as…everything Alexander Calavert does cause he’s great.

I’m also deeply upset by the way they treat Dean, especially people outside of TFW interacting with him. Dean is still an attractive guy, Jensen looks incredible now at 46, and he did in 2020 too. And yet whenever Dean’s on a job, people treat him like he’s super freaking old and unattractive. Just feels like a giant fucking insult to one of the most attractive men in hollywood.

All in all, this feels like a grave misrepresentation of a show I’ve adored for months now, and I hope that if they do a season 16, they will fix some of the glaring issues with the plot.

[strawlessandbraless]

i swear to god if misha also makes a secret guest appearance in season 5

I know. I think Misha’s supe name should be Astro Glide and he plays Soldier Boys secret Russian lover from back in the day. But I’m just spit balling here.

[borgialucrezia]

david oakes' takes and anecdotes on juan are always so delicious to read because he talks about him enthusiastically and understands the character so well and he makes sure to try to make people understand what led juan to behave the way he did without diminishing any of his wrongdoings. i can't lie i always giggle every time a borgia fan gets bothered under my gifsets that he isn't the b&w "villain" some of them wished him to be lmao

[lightofraye]

An excellent article and one particular section jumps out to me. Can we send what he said to other actors? One in particular? (Hint: It's to Jensen Ackles.)

--excerpt--

I first became aware of you, as an actor, with Passions. When you think about the trajectory your career has taken since then, how has it compared to what the goal was or what you might have envisioned it to be? You’ve definitely spent time on a number of memorable TV series and you had that successful run on This Is Us. Was this a goal? Had you always wanted to lead a TV series? What did you envision for yourself?

HARTLEY: I don’t know if I had a particular vision in mind where I manifested something like being the lead of a show, or anything like that. I think I was just enraptured with the art and the craft and the idea that you can go to “work” and make believe, and meet all these really interesting people and artists, and get ideas from them, and just work really hard on making something look effortless. I guess that was the goal. Most of these actors that you watch and admire, when you look at what they’re doing, it looks like they’re not doing much, but it’s so captivating. When you watch Jon Hamm, if you didn’t know any better, the guy is just such a natural. He’s just sitting there staring and listening to this guy, but I can’t stop looking at him because he’s doing a million things all at once and he makes it look effortless. That’s an artist. That is dialed in. When you watch Tom Hanks do a scene, you could watch that guy read a phone book. So, I guess that was the goal. It still is my goal to just be the best I can possibly be, and I haven’t reached it yet. I’m not done learning yet. But I don’t know if I ever had a vision of where I would be at this age. I’m just lucky to be in this business and able to afford a life in this business. I love the process of learning new things and I love the idea that, if I had a chance to redo a scene from two years ago, I bet you I could do it better. If the day comes along where I’m like, “Yeah, I’m getting worse,” then I’ll probably retire.