SW Dad

I think this whole thread is just confirmation that there's a toolishly vocal few who like to speak for the majority and define the "popular" opinion for the rest of us. I'm midway through S4 of my second run-through, and I wholeheartedly agree with the majority of the OP's points. First and foremost, Yellow Fever gave me some hearty belly laughs on rewatch. Especially Dean screaming his ass off. I hate all the Rubys, I was eh about Meg 2.0, and Charlie had me at the Leia "Rebel" t-shirt. S3 does suck slightly less than S4. I think Dean is a far more interesting and complex character than Sam, who tends to bore me. Jensen Ackles just pulls off some brilliant performances with amazing subtext in his body language, which is why I agree S3 is so awesome, because you can see how terrified he is behind the bravado, and it's heartbreaking. I think my biggest issue with the meta episodes is when they reference the fandom rather that self-reflecting on the show. It all plays to a section of fandom I can't relate to. All the Wincest and Destiel jokes fall completely flat (except for the very first one, where Sam describes what Wincest is). To that end, I enjoyed Fan Fiction because it was much more about the show than the fandom. And such a great, great cover of Carry On Wayward Son (which I've enjoyed every time they play it). In rewatching the series, I've realized this show was very much on a bell curve, and it peaked very early. This latest season...well, it feels so directionless. It had such great Dean-as-a-demon potential, but then they quickly aborted that storyline when they realized they didn't know where to go with it. And Sam's becoming a douchey psychopath again. Which is always annoying.