Hollywood Babylon - A Review
Hollywood Babylon
Supernatural Season 2, episode #18.
Airdate: Thursday, April 19, 2007.
Written by Ben Edlund.
Directed by Phil Sgriccia.
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Synopsis: Click here to read the episode summary
The brothers go to Hollywood and onto the set of the film, "Hell Hazers II" where the unusual death of a crewman turns out to be faked. When a studio exec and a producer really do get killed, Sam and a starstruck Dean, stay on, disguised as "PA's", to investigate. The script writer is angry about the edits to his work and is using black magic to summon ghosts to kill those responsible. When Walter foolishly breaks his talisman to stop Sam from taking it, the released ghosts turn on him and tear him apart. The movie returns to production with some additional edits to include ghost hunting techniques used by Sam and Dean. And the brothers walk off into the fake sunset, but not before Dean personally demonstrated how good a "PA" he is to the lead actress. -
Praises: This a light hearted followup to the mostly angst-filled "Heart". I liked how this episode poked fun at the whole horror genre of which Supernatural itself is a part. The fake ad for "Hell Hazers II" was a nice touch. It had me wondering whether the subsequent commercial was actually for a real movie or fake as well. Watching Dean transform from his reluctant PA disguise into an enthusiastic, t-shirt wearing movie crew member with all the paraphernalia and the trailer upgrade, was quite amusing. It was good to have the old fun-loving, tomcatting Dean from season one back again. I also enjoyed seeing what a complete horror movie buff Dean is. While Sam can recognize the latin vocalizations of a necromantic summoning ritual, Dean can recognize the face of a minor actor who played a bloody victim in a B-movie. Dean quoted no less than 8 movies. One of them, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, I had to look up to find out if it was real. The special effects were the usual Supernatural fare, but there was one that really stood out and is worth a mention. The way the ghost of the 30’s actress vaporized then solidified to tap on the shoulder of the studio exec was realistic and so inhuman-like that it was incredibly creepy. The high point of this episode for me, though, was seeing Sam’s reaction when Dean exited Tara’s trailer. The way he kept looking back at Tara like he couldn’t believe that she would fall for his brother was hysterically funny. Aw Sam, it's not just waitresses and barflies who can appreciate Dean’s appeal. Don’t you know that 90% of the female population would love to have Dean in their trailer? You too, for that matter.
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Nags: This episode was fairly good, but it didn’t deliver the intensity or emotion that we were expecting after waiting almost a month for a new episode to air. It was just not the right episode to show after such a long haitus. Angsty Sam was completely absent. Considering what Sam went through in the previous episode, Heart, and his history of prolonged angst, I was disappointed by the lack. In fact, there was just not enough Sam, personality-wise, in this whole episode. His role was more like a prop for Dean than anything else. It would have worked better if we saw more of nerdy Sam to complement fun-loving Dean. Another glaring absence was the impala. That was just plain wrong and unSupernatural-like, and probably what finally dug the grave for this episode.
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My Rating: Good episode. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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