grumkin_snark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grumkin_snark) wrote2010-09-25 04:37 pm
grumkin_snark) wrote2010-09-25 04:37 pm
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Bravo, Mr. Padalecki. Bravo.
Okay, so since my anticipation for “Exile on Main St.” was so unbearably high, and I’m still so unbearably wired from it, I intend to do an episode review thingy, but as I started writing it, I realized that I ended up with way more than a blurb about Jared’s acting. (Y’all know how verbose I can be.) So I decided to do a post of its own for that. For the record, this doesn’t bash Jensen or Jensen’s acting—I wholeheartedly disapprove of that kind of nonsense—though it may or may not contain sizable amounts of fangirling. Just FYI.
With that, here we go! (Be warned, this is a ridiculously long-ass post. So microwave some popcorn or something.)
Actually, first, let’s start with a nice photograph of Sammy, just in case you forgot what he looks like. (Fine. So I just want to post the pretty. Sue me.)
Now that we’ve got that squared away, I’ll start for real.
I’ve always been a fan of Jared’s acting. Always. I’ve never been one of those crazy fangirls who has their judgment of acting impaired because the respective actor may be mindblowingly gorgeous (despite pictures and HOMGs and gifs I may present). If I were, I’d like seeing, for instance, Robert Pattinson on screen. But I don’t, because I think he’s one of the fugliest dudes around, and a brick wall or soggy piece of alleyway cardboard can act better than he can. Yes, Jared (and Jensen) being beautiful is a plus, but their acting is really what takes the cake.
I was a Samgirl back in season one, then switched to a Deangirl from most of season two till mid-late season four, when I mellowed into more neutral territory, then by season five, I returned to Samgirlism. Granted, part of what drew me in to Sam in season one was his bangs (WOE. I MISS THOSE), but not the largest part. I loved how he was able to switch back and forth between loving boyfriend to badass hunter to ever-suffering brother with flawlessness. And I loved how he was shown to be the brother who did the majority of the research, but was still able to kick some ass. I loved how he was the straight man to Dean’s frenetic personality (not that either, in this case, are bad things). And I loved his ability to make lines hit home, no matter whether said with anger, with frustration, with love, with sarcasm, with playfulness, or any of a host of other things.
Dean was clearly the character people generally preferred, but me? To me, Sam was the more fascinating character, and while Dean was certainly not a person I disliked, I swayed towards Sam.
I’m not entirely sure why I switched to being a Deangirl after season one, I’m really not. I’m not saying that in a “Oh God, ew, how could I have liked Dean?!” way, but rather a “What made me switch?” way. And to this day, I don’t have an answer. Maybe I thought his angstiness and repressed emotions were more interesting than Sam’s being delegated to effectual sidekick, I don’t know. I didn’t hate Sam, God no, but Dean was my bread and butter.
Then season four rolled around. Oh, season four. As I said above, I didn’t really have a side until, like, “After School Special”-ish (though it’s hard to put a specific episode, because it was more of a gradual thing), and I didn’t have a clearcut side until “When the Levee Breaks.” Which I will get to in a second. This was when I got pissed at Dean. For not even trying to understand where Sam was coming from in the whole demon blood department. Was what Sam did wrong? Uh, duh. But the fact that Dean didn’t even try to acknowledge that Sam was going through his own personal Hell while Dean was in the Pit, that he would have drunk himself into a coma if Ruby hadn’t come along, that that was the only way he thought he could subsist while his only brother, his only family was getting tortured day in and day out.
Yes, Dean was dealing with his own issues, that Hell PTSD and whatnot, but I hate how he couldn’t see that Sam was drowning, that all he needed was for Dean to sit him down and say, “Sam, I get it, I do. What you did, what you’re doing, it’s sick and it’s wrong, but I get it. Just please...please, man, just let me help you. We’re in this together. No matter what.” Would that have worked? Eh, I have no idea. But Dean could have at least tried. But no, it was just all angst all the time. Which, while as you all well know, I love, it got a little repetitive. Hell was more awful than anyone can imagine, but really, Dean? You didn’t even have an inkling that Sam was spiraling? Jesus.
Although I suppose I should thank him for transferring me back to Samgirl status. I still like the dude, of course, but Sam is back to being my cup of tea, as it were.
All right, done with the history lesson. On to the original point of this post: Jared’s acting.
While I definitely noticed him in season one, it was season two that he really came to fruition. Which is a little counterintuitive, since I just said I was more or less a Deangirl then, but episodes like “Born Under a Bad Sign” reminded me just how amazing an actor Jared is. He nearly always gets overshadowed by Jensen, for some stupid reason (note here that I’m not bashing Jensen; I love Jensen’s acting, it’s incredible. It’s the people who bash Jared in order to praise Jensen, which is psychopathic, in my opinion), and episodes like that are ones that are a total “Screw you, haters” along with being phenomenal. There was zero of Sam in his performance of that episode—except, obviously, when he was legitimately Sam—and I think that’s the mark of an amazing actor. That even though he was playing “Sam,” that “Sam” had to convince Dean and Bobby, albeit ultimately unsuccessfully, that he was the real Sam, yet to the audience was very recognizably not, is a feat many, many actors can’t pull off. Not to mention he was only twenty-four at the time. It’s something most actors can’t pull off ever.
Season three had good Sam moments (“A Very Supernatural Christmas,” for instance), but for me it was all about Dean. I was fascinated by him in that season. Then he went to Hell and season four came along. I was still enamored by how he was affected by Hell, how he supposedly didn’t remember it and how it was finally, horrifyingly, heartbreakingly revealed to us about what happened to him Down There.
Everything was going decent, I was pretty “bi-bro,” the acting was still as incredible as usual but nothing that particularly made me spaz, until “When the Levee Breaks.” Contrary to the norm, I loved that episode. And I’m one of the very few people who loved Sam in it and got pissed at Dean. In theory, I get Dean’s motives. He wanted his brother to get sober, to return to being “human.” But he pissed me off. He was going for the easy fix, the fast one, the one that wouldn’t work. And I hated the psycho hardcore Dean fans playing the “Poor Dean! He was totally innocent in this whole thing! Especially the fight scene! It was such an unfair fight!” (I won’t rant about psycho hardcore Dean fans right now, however. That I’ll save for sometime in the future.) But even that wasn’t what stood out to me the most.
Jared. Jared is what stood out to me the most.
In the entire episode, really, but especially in the panic room scenes. The one with Mary legitimately made me cry, I’m not ashamed to admit that. I was glued to the TV, each second making me want to just hug Sam and tell him he could pull through this, he could beat it. He looked all of five years old as he listened to Mom, the woman he’d before only seen in pictures and very briefly her spirit in “Home.” He hadn’t known her, not really, but his subconscious just wanted her to say it’s okay. Wanted him to have as close a facsimile to the mother he never had. Jared completely sold the scene, the withdrawal and emotional wreckage plain on his face and in his actions.
He was genius. In fact, if awards people weren’t such close-minded idiots, and The CW actually acknowledged Supernatural, I have no doubt he would have at the very least been nominated for an Emmy. The look, later, of pure devastation at Dean—real Dean, not hallucination Dean, mind you—calling him a monster was so painful. Yes, he choked Dean, but to be perfectly honest, I can’t hate him for it. Dean’s dickishness had reached new heights, add to that that Sam was high on demon blood, and it’s not exactly surprising, is it?
Bring on season five. Jared’s work just gets better and better. He was wonderful in all of it, but a couple episodes that made me once again be completely wowed were “The End,” “Point of No Return,” and “Swan Song” (though, for the record, every episode was fantastic). All due respect to Mark Pelligrino, who played his version of Lucifer delightfully chillingly, and all my praise and admiration and Holy shit-ness to Jensen in “The End,” but I think Jared’s portrayal of Lucifer was nothing short of perfection and, in my opinion, stole the episode. He played it so delicately that you almost felt sorry for Lucifer, almost sympathized with him, and yet recognized the evil inside. There was, as in “Born Under a Bad Sign,” no glimmer of Sam whatsoever, it was all Lucifer. Lines like “I win, so I win” and “See you in five years, Dean” rival the former episode’s lines like “My daddy shot your daddy in the he-ead” and “I hear things,” which are some of the most chilling bits of dialogue ever written and performed.
Unfortunately, his stint as Samifer in that episode was all too short; thankfully, he reprised it in the finale, to, if possible, even better results. Again, there was no trace of Sam, it was all Lucifer. And that scene with the mirrors? Positively haunting. It was reminiscent of the double Deans in “The End,” and while it was more understated and subtle than Jensen’s performance as two Deans, it was flawless. You could completely tell when it was Lucifer and when it was Sam, even though there was nothing to differentiate them from each other besides voice intonations and facial expressions. Jared played Sam’s being trapped inside his own head so well that it made my head hurt, and yet again the evil of Lucifer shone through. Then he mindfucks you again when he’s taking to Michael, bringing forth that younger brother, “Why me?”-esque veneer. Which, naturally, all goes to hell (pardon the pun) when he blows Cas to bits, breaks Bobby’s neck, and beats Dean nearly to death. Then, well, you know what happens. The most intense cliffhanger in the history of cliffhangers.
I’ll just touch upon one scene from that other episode I mentioned. The hundredth. Specifically the scene inside the panic room. When Sam says he trusts Dean, because Dean’s still his big brother, and that’s all he needs to know. When Dean proceeds to bring his douchiness to even greater heights by saying that, after all Sam’s done to try and atone, he still doesn’t have faith in him. The betrayal in Sam’s eyes, the hurt, it was so heartbreaking.
Finally, season six arrives, and brings with it an entirely new side of Sam, one we’ve never really seen before. We’ve seen Sam evil, Sam cold, Sam determined, but never have we seen a Sam quite like the one in “Exile on Main St.” He was so...different. Hardened. Matter-of-fact. Compartmentalized. Ready to do the job and that’s it. He hugged Dean back, but in more of a “I’m glad I finally get my brother back, but we’ve got work to do.” One could say it’s a vague callback to Dean of season one, and yet so entirely not. One bit that made me literally raise my eyebrows was the following exchange:
Dean: Do you remember it?
Sam: ......What?
Dean: The cage.
Sam: Yeah.
Dean: You wanna—
Sam: No.
Dean: Well, if anybody can relate—
Sam: Dean, I don’t wanna talk about it. I’m back. I get to breathe fresh air, have a beer, hunt with my family, see you again. So why exactly would I wanna think about Hell?
This, coming from Sam. The brother who erstwhile was more than willing to talk about things, to get everything out in the open. That brother now would like nothing more than to not talk about it. Which I understand; I mean, he was in Hell. It’s understandable. But where Dean’s reactions were more attuned to his personality, the drinking, the nightmares, everything, Sam’s are so not him. I am so incredibly anxious to see more of this side of Sam, to see more of how perfectly Jared will do it.
Because if there is anyone, anyone, who could portray a role in such a one-eighty from the past five seasons of playing that character, of transitioning that person to a completely new direction, it’s one Jared Padalecki. And even though there are fans who are lukewarm about the sixth season, about Sam, I tell them to fuck off. Because if they can’t see how amazingly fantastic this actor is, then that’s their loss.
With that, here we go! (Be warned, this is a ridiculously long-ass post. So microwave some popcorn or something.)
Actually, first, let’s start with a nice photograph of Sammy, just in case you forgot what he looks like. (Fine. So I just want to post the pretty. Sue me.)
Now that we’ve got that squared away, I’ll start for real.
I’ve always been a fan of Jared’s acting. Always. I’ve never been one of those crazy fangirls who has their judgment of acting impaired because the respective actor may be mindblowingly gorgeous (despite pictures and HOMGs and gifs I may present). If I were, I’d like seeing, for instance, Robert Pattinson on screen. But I don’t, because I think he’s one of the fugliest dudes around, and a brick wall or soggy piece of alleyway cardboard can act better than he can. Yes, Jared (and Jensen) being beautiful is a plus, but their acting is really what takes the cake.
I was a Samgirl back in season one, then switched to a Deangirl from most of season two till mid-late season four, when I mellowed into more neutral territory, then by season five, I returned to Samgirlism. Granted, part of what drew me in to Sam in season one was his bangs (WOE. I MISS THOSE), but not the largest part. I loved how he was able to switch back and forth between loving boyfriend to badass hunter to ever-suffering brother with flawlessness. And I loved how he was shown to be the brother who did the majority of the research, but was still able to kick some ass. I loved how he was the straight man to Dean’s frenetic personality (not that either, in this case, are bad things). And I loved his ability to make lines hit home, no matter whether said with anger, with frustration, with love, with sarcasm, with playfulness, or any of a host of other things.
Dean was clearly the character people generally preferred, but me? To me, Sam was the more fascinating character, and while Dean was certainly not a person I disliked, I swayed towards Sam.
I’m not entirely sure why I switched to being a Deangirl after season one, I’m really not. I’m not saying that in a “Oh God, ew, how could I have liked Dean?!” way, but rather a “What made me switch?” way. And to this day, I don’t have an answer. Maybe I thought his angstiness and repressed emotions were more interesting than Sam’s being delegated to effectual sidekick, I don’t know. I didn’t hate Sam, God no, but Dean was my bread and butter.
Then season four rolled around. Oh, season four. As I said above, I didn’t really have a side until, like, “After School Special”-ish (though it’s hard to put a specific episode, because it was more of a gradual thing), and I didn’t have a clearcut side until “When the Levee Breaks.” Which I will get to in a second. This was when I got pissed at Dean. For not even trying to understand where Sam was coming from in the whole demon blood department. Was what Sam did wrong? Uh, duh. But the fact that Dean didn’t even try to acknowledge that Sam was going through his own personal Hell while Dean was in the Pit, that he would have drunk himself into a coma if Ruby hadn’t come along, that that was the only way he thought he could subsist while his only brother, his only family was getting tortured day in and day out.
Yes, Dean was dealing with his own issues, that Hell PTSD and whatnot, but I hate how he couldn’t see that Sam was drowning, that all he needed was for Dean to sit him down and say, “Sam, I get it, I do. What you did, what you’re doing, it’s sick and it’s wrong, but I get it. Just please...please, man, just let me help you. We’re in this together. No matter what.” Would that have worked? Eh, I have no idea. But Dean could have at least tried. But no, it was just all angst all the time. Which, while as you all well know, I love, it got a little repetitive. Hell was more awful than anyone can imagine, but really, Dean? You didn’t even have an inkling that Sam was spiraling? Jesus.
Although I suppose I should thank him for transferring me back to Samgirl status. I still like the dude, of course, but Sam is back to being my cup of tea, as it were.
All right, done with the history lesson. On to the original point of this post: Jared’s acting.
While I definitely noticed him in season one, it was season two that he really came to fruition. Which is a little counterintuitive, since I just said I was more or less a Deangirl then, but episodes like “Born Under a Bad Sign” reminded me just how amazing an actor Jared is. He nearly always gets overshadowed by Jensen, for some stupid reason (note here that I’m not bashing Jensen; I love Jensen’s acting, it’s incredible. It’s the people who bash Jared in order to praise Jensen, which is psychopathic, in my opinion), and episodes like that are ones that are a total “Screw you, haters” along with being phenomenal. There was zero of Sam in his performance of that episode—except, obviously, when he was legitimately Sam—and I think that’s the mark of an amazing actor. That even though he was playing “Sam,” that “Sam” had to convince Dean and Bobby, albeit ultimately unsuccessfully, that he was the real Sam, yet to the audience was very recognizably not, is a feat many, many actors can’t pull off. Not to mention he was only twenty-four at the time. It’s something most actors can’t pull off ever.
Season three had good Sam moments (“A Very Supernatural Christmas,” for instance), but for me it was all about Dean. I was fascinated by him in that season. Then he went to Hell and season four came along. I was still enamored by how he was affected by Hell, how he supposedly didn’t remember it and how it was finally, horrifyingly, heartbreakingly revealed to us about what happened to him Down There.
Everything was going decent, I was pretty “bi-bro,” the acting was still as incredible as usual but nothing that particularly made me spaz, until “When the Levee Breaks.” Contrary to the norm, I loved that episode. And I’m one of the very few people who loved Sam in it and got pissed at Dean. In theory, I get Dean’s motives. He wanted his brother to get sober, to return to being “human.” But he pissed me off. He was going for the easy fix, the fast one, the one that wouldn’t work. And I hated the psycho hardcore Dean fans playing the “Poor Dean! He was totally innocent in this whole thing! Especially the fight scene! It was such an unfair fight!” (I won’t rant about psycho hardcore Dean fans right now, however. That I’ll save for sometime in the future.) But even that wasn’t what stood out to me the most.
Jared. Jared is what stood out to me the most.
In the entire episode, really, but especially in the panic room scenes. The one with Mary legitimately made me cry, I’m not ashamed to admit that. I was glued to the TV, each second making me want to just hug Sam and tell him he could pull through this, he could beat it. He looked all of five years old as he listened to Mom, the woman he’d before only seen in pictures and very briefly her spirit in “Home.” He hadn’t known her, not really, but his subconscious just wanted her to say it’s okay. Wanted him to have as close a facsimile to the mother he never had. Jared completely sold the scene, the withdrawal and emotional wreckage plain on his face and in his actions.
He was genius. In fact, if awards people weren’t such close-minded idiots, and The CW actually acknowledged Supernatural, I have no doubt he would have at the very least been nominated for an Emmy. The look, later, of pure devastation at Dean—real Dean, not hallucination Dean, mind you—calling him a monster was so painful. Yes, he choked Dean, but to be perfectly honest, I can’t hate him for it. Dean’s dickishness had reached new heights, add to that that Sam was high on demon blood, and it’s not exactly surprising, is it?
Bring on season five. Jared’s work just gets better and better. He was wonderful in all of it, but a couple episodes that made me once again be completely wowed were “The End,” “Point of No Return,” and “Swan Song” (though, for the record, every episode was fantastic). All due respect to Mark Pelligrino, who played his version of Lucifer delightfully chillingly, and all my praise and admiration and Holy shit-ness to Jensen in “The End,” but I think Jared’s portrayal of Lucifer was nothing short of perfection and, in my opinion, stole the episode. He played it so delicately that you almost felt sorry for Lucifer, almost sympathized with him, and yet recognized the evil inside. There was, as in “Born Under a Bad Sign,” no glimmer of Sam whatsoever, it was all Lucifer. Lines like “I win, so I win” and “See you in five years, Dean” rival the former episode’s lines like “My daddy shot your daddy in the he-ead” and “I hear things,” which are some of the most chilling bits of dialogue ever written and performed.
Unfortunately, his stint as Samifer in that episode was all too short; thankfully, he reprised it in the finale, to, if possible, even better results. Again, there was no trace of Sam, it was all Lucifer. And that scene with the mirrors? Positively haunting. It was reminiscent of the double Deans in “The End,” and while it was more understated and subtle than Jensen’s performance as two Deans, it was flawless. You could completely tell when it was Lucifer and when it was Sam, even though there was nothing to differentiate them from each other besides voice intonations and facial expressions. Jared played Sam’s being trapped inside his own head so well that it made my head hurt, and yet again the evil of Lucifer shone through. Then he mindfucks you again when he’s taking to Michael, bringing forth that younger brother, “Why me?”-esque veneer. Which, naturally, all goes to hell (pardon the pun) when he blows Cas to bits, breaks Bobby’s neck, and beats Dean nearly to death. Then, well, you know what happens. The most intense cliffhanger in the history of cliffhangers.
I’ll just touch upon one scene from that other episode I mentioned. The hundredth. Specifically the scene inside the panic room. When Sam says he trusts Dean, because Dean’s still his big brother, and that’s all he needs to know. When Dean proceeds to bring his douchiness to even greater heights by saying that, after all Sam’s done to try and atone, he still doesn’t have faith in him. The betrayal in Sam’s eyes, the hurt, it was so heartbreaking.
Finally, season six arrives, and brings with it an entirely new side of Sam, one we’ve never really seen before. We’ve seen Sam evil, Sam cold, Sam determined, but never have we seen a Sam quite like the one in “Exile on Main St.” He was so...different. Hardened. Matter-of-fact. Compartmentalized. Ready to do the job and that’s it. He hugged Dean back, but in more of a “I’m glad I finally get my brother back, but we’ve got work to do.” One could say it’s a vague callback to Dean of season one, and yet so entirely not. One bit that made me literally raise my eyebrows was the following exchange:
Dean: Do you remember it?
Sam: ......What?
Dean: The cage.
Sam: Yeah.
Dean: You wanna—
Sam: No.
Dean: Well, if anybody can relate—
Sam: Dean, I don’t wanna talk about it. I’m back. I get to breathe fresh air, have a beer, hunt with my family, see you again. So why exactly would I wanna think about Hell?
This, coming from Sam. The brother who erstwhile was more than willing to talk about things, to get everything out in the open. That brother now would like nothing more than to not talk about it. Which I understand; I mean, he was in Hell. It’s understandable. But where Dean’s reactions were more attuned to his personality, the drinking, the nightmares, everything, Sam’s are so not him. I am so incredibly anxious to see more of this side of Sam, to see more of how perfectly Jared will do it.
Because if there is anyone, anyone, who could portray a role in such a one-eighty from the past five seasons of playing that character, of transitioning that person to a completely new direction, it’s one Jared Padalecki. And even though there are fans who are lukewarm about the sixth season, about Sam, I tell them to fuck off. Because if they can’t see how amazingly fantastic this actor is, then that’s their loss.
Givin it up for Jared!
One of the reasons I lovelovelove Samifer is the marked difference between Sam and Lucifer. Sam is nowhere to be found in Lucifer, and Lucifer is nowhere to be found in Sam. Plus, his features and expressions soften as Lucifer.
People are so quick to tear Jared down to build Jensen up, and I am sick of it. Jensen is amazing, but so is Jared.
Great post, and I agree completely.
Re: Givin it up for Jared!
Oh, definitely! That was some of Jared's best work, I think. Arguably the best. I remember watching The End and being so astounded at the completely different persona he adopted for Lucifer. It looked like Sam, but within one moment of him speaking, you could tell it so wasn't.
Ugh, I know. I'll never comprehend why people feel the need to insult one actor in order to elevate the other. Why can't people just say they're BOTH good? You're welcome to prefer one of them, but is it really necessary to bash the other? No.
Thanks! :D
Spreading the Padalecki Love
Jared and Jensen always amaze me with the way they slip so easily into their *other* roles such as 2014!Dean, and MegSam, and Samifer. But I always hated how Jared gets overlooked and his acting ignored in favor of Jensen. Don't get me wrong, both are amazing, but I always find Jared's sublte shifts more captivating.
I don't understand why fandom feels the need to rip apart one to make the other seem more appealing. I sometimes feel the writers are guilty of this as well. I just wish fans could give love to both and see that both are talented.
And dude Exile Sam was chilling. His first intial conversation with Dean had me twisted.
Re: Spreading the Padalecki Love
And I think this imbalance of subtlety and grandeur works to Jared's detriment sometimes. I love Sam, but it's episodes like the ones I mentioned above, wherein the character differences are shown in Jared's expression instead of his gestures, that his talent really shines through. I'm really hoping that the new subdued, methodical version of Sam we're supposed to get will allow Jared to work more in the face, in the subtlety he doesn't often get to do.
Very true. There are many an episode where I end up feeling as though the writer had a clear, heavy bias towards one of the brothers which showed up as a slight towards the other. Or the amount of dialogue/screen time was heavily leaned towards one, even if the storyline didn't call for that dichotomy.
So much word. If I hadn't known that Sam was Sam in that scene, I would've sworn he was possessed, or under a spell, or something. Should make things very interesting...
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Though I have a question, is it me, or does Jared look younger, leaner in the season six opener?
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He definitely did. I think he trimmed down a lot from season four and five, and got a haircut on top of it. Not that he didn't look it before, but I think he looks absolutely fantastic. Married life definitely agrees with him!
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And even though there are fans who are lukewarm about the sixth season, about Sam, I tell them to fuck off. Because if they can’t see how amazingly fantastic this actor is, then that’s their loss.
i hope you don't mind me saying, but i think for a lot of people there's a separation between the actor/actor's acting and a character. they can dislike what a character is doing/ dislike the character and totally respect the actor's abilities.
like a commenter said, the episode felt a bit like the writers saw the negative things some fans said about Sam and decided to make it part of the characterization. as a person who always loved Sam's character, regardless of what he did i really thought there was an emotional dissonance there. there's a difference between repression and indifference. considering the fact that Sam isn't a sociopath i would have expected the former.
Jared's a great actor, i don't think anyone can argue with that. it's the writing that fell short here, imo.
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Jared himself has spoken about thinking Sam is almost unrecognizable this season, which he didn't seem too happy about, but i suppose SPN isn't known for being nuanced. it's natural that the changes would seem stark, OOC and unsubtle before the actors and the audience could feel comfortable with them.
i don't think anybody can argue that the actors don't do the best they can with the writing they are given. the writers themselves have spoken about how the writing may not be up to par with other shows, but the acting certainly is.
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which he didn't seem too happy about
Really? In every interview I've seen, he's PSYCHED for the change in Sam. Jensen said once that he's iffy on Dean's new characterization, but I've never heard Jared say he's unhappy with Sam's change. I, personally, don't feel like Sam and Dean are OOC, given everything that happened to them. No way would Sam be unaffected after Hell, and no way would Dean be unaffected by spending a year in suburbia and away from hunting.
Agreed a hundred percent.