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Supernatural: The French Mistake

Dean: "I feel like this whole place is bad-touching me."

This episode wasn't just out of the box; it carried itself out to the UPS truck. I'll be the first to admit that it didn't advance the core story a whole heckuva lot, but sometimes funny and clever are enough.

And I mean exceptionally funny and clever. Like the aquarium, fireplace and helicopter in Jensen's dressing room, with a clip of the boys in the background winking at the camera. Jared's over the top mansion with the Warhol prints, tanning bed and suits of armor, complete with an alpaca in the back yard and the International Otter Adoption Charity Dinner. During the scene where Dean and Sam were playing Jensen and Jared playing Dean and Sam, I was laughing so hard I had tears coming out of my eyes.

Misha Collins was a treat, too. Alt-Misha's interpretation of screen Castiel included a much deeper voice and just the right amount of cheese. The tweets were a fun shout-out to the fans who follow him. And a snowflake sweater and Elvis hairdo? Actually, even though it was impossible to take seriously, it upset me watching Misha die. But that was before Virgil the heavenly hit man killed nearly everyone else on the set, too.

There wasn't a ton of serious, but it was interesting serious. The idea that Supernatural is set in another universe is sort of "duh" because all fiction is set in another universe. But even though there were no angels, demons, heaven or hell, evil did follow the boys, like it always does. I also thought it was interesting that "Jensen" and "Jared" weren't speaking. It felt like a reference to the recent separation between Dean and Sam, and the fact that they're back together now. And I liked that Sam was willing to give up a world without monsters because he wasn't Dean's brother there.

Balthazar was a lot more fun this time. "Raffy and Cassie." I finally like him. And Raphael has recovered from being turned into a pillar of salt and now he's a chick? Are we finally getting to the war in heaven? I've been waiting. *tap tap tap*

Bits and pieces:

— "The French Mistake" is the title of a production number in the classic Mel Brooks comedy, Blazing Saddles. Dom DeLuise is directing male dancers in top hats and tails, the western characters from the rest of the movie burst in, and the fourth wall literally comes down. It's pretty much the perfect title for this episode. (And here it is on Youtube.)

— Genevieve Cortese was listed as Genevieve Padalecki. She hasn't officially changed her name, has she?

— I follow Misha Collins on Twitter, and he's wonderfully weird and imaginative. Obviously, he doesn't do the sort of tweeting we saw in the episode. http://twitter.com/mishacollins

— KM Motion Picture Studios. Kim Manners? That was nice.

— Bobby has the blood of a lamb and the wristbone of a lesser saint in his house. Of course he does. Wouldn't it have been fun if Jim Beaver had played "Bob Singer"?

— Personally, I loved that the Supernatural Powers That Be were willing to satirize themselves so completely, and with so much loving detail. I loved how "Bob Singer" kept saying "season six" as if he was in pain, "Sera" on speakerphone with everyone ignoring her, and "Eric Kripke" in a fatal shootout. Was that from a specific movie?

— The gun shop scene was right out of Terminator.

— Loved the maple leafs everywhere. They were even on the crime scene tape.

— I'm enough of a Star Trek geek that I remember a published Star Trek short story (actually, there were two) with the same plot as this episode, where the actors exchange with their fictional counterparts: "Visit to a Weird Planet" and "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited."

Quotes:

Dean: "Why would anybody want to watch our lives?"
Sam: "According to the interviewer, not very many people do."

Dean: "So what now, you're Polish?"

Misha: (tweeting) "Hola, Mishamigos. J-Squared got me good."

Dean: "I just want to dig my finger into my brain and scratch until we're back in Kansas." Later on, he called Sam "Toto."

Sam: "Hey. 'J. Ackles'."
Dean: "That's fake me. This must be fake mine."

Dean: "You married fake Ruby?"

Dean: (acting) "Dean, grimly, and somehow you've got no problem with it?"

Sam: "Who wrote this? Nobody says 'penultimate'."
Dean: "Gun. Mouth. Now."

Sera: "Eric's off in some cabin somewhere writing his next pilot."
Bob: "He sold OctoCobra?"
Sera: "Yes."
Bob: "Mother of God. They'll buy anything."

Bum: "The scary man killed the attractive crying man, and then he started to pray."

It's the "I can't believe they actually did an episode like this" creativity that has made me such a die hard fan of this show. It wasn't quite as wonderful as my other two meta favorites, "The Monster at the End of this Book" and "Changing Channels," but I still loved it a lot. Four out of four wristbones of lesser saints,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

22 comments:

  1. I loved this episode, another Ben Edlund classic. Reminded me a lot of the Hercules episode where they had entire supporting cast playing the real life production team going crazy because 'Kevin Sorbo' has gone missing.

    It is amazing how, for a horror show, Supernatural is often funnier than most sitcoms. However, was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a single mention of Gilmore Girls. Major missed opportunity there, Ben.

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  2. "Obviously, he doesn't do the sort of tweeting we saw in the episode."

    Except he does. The tweets he sent on the show went out in real time too. Hilarious! One of my favourite stand-alones of any show. Supernatural really knows how to take the piss out of itself. I loved the crack about ratings.

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  3. This episode was effing fantastic. This episode alone justifies the whole series.

    However, I also missed a Gilmore Girls reference. That would have made this episode perfect, and probably the best episode from any TV show ever.

    Yeah, I liked it XD.

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  4. I'm sure it is just wishful thinking, but the guy in black who casually dodged the bullet and ducked out just as Sam and Dean come to the rescue reminded me a LOT of angel Gabriel. I would love to have that character back - maybe the trickster in him dodged Lucifer?

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  5. Glad I'm not the only one who remembers that Star Trek story! I've always loved stories like that and other alternate universe tales that do a bit of fourth wall breakage. :D

    LOVED alt!Misha, he completely stole the show. Was so unhappy to see him killed off. D:

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  6. I went into this one with some trepidation, but it ended up making me laugh and smile a lot.

    Favorite bits: the clip from Jensen's stint on Days of Our Lives; the shots of Sam sitting at "Jared's" desk with the knights and the picture of him riding a horse in the background; the fake acting scene. Dean's horror that "Jared" had married "fake Ruby" was pretty darn funny, too.

    Definitely an enjoyable hour.

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  7. Finally all caught up on Supernatural. Like everyone else, I thought this one was a riot. My favourite throwaway gag, I think, is the freeze frame just before the act break as Dean and Sam crash through the window back to their world.

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  8. Great episode, if all standalone episodes were this good I would be a happy man.

    On a side note, did we know about the Supernatural Animation. I just stumbled upon it and I'm quite flabbergasted.

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  9. Hi, Felipe: Yes, we've heard about Supernatural Anime. I thought I'd posted a newsflash about it but now I can't find it. I saw a trailer awhile back, too. Mostly I find the idea of Sam and Dean in cartoon form speaking Japanese a bit disturbing and I don't have any desire to watch it, but anything that brings Supernatural to the attention of more people is okay by me.

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  10. Hi Billie,

    I was all set to post a comment about the episode when I was blindsided by your new cast picture. Air is now returning to my lungs. I guess you changed it to Jensen in celebration of his birthday? Very nice. I never commented on the other one, but Jared's was very nice too. I can't remember what I was going to say about the ep. now. Um, it was great! One of my faves. SL

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  11. Hey, SL: I didn't know it was Jensen's birthday. I just change all of the side cast photos every month and this month, I actually did it on time. :)

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  12. Ah! I must have missed that post. I'm rather tempted to watch it, I do love a good Anime. Any chance you might review it Billie.

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  13. Felipe asked: "Any chance you might review it Billie." Probably not. I'm not a fan of Anime. And Jensen Ackles won't be in it. Anything's possible, though.

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  14. Awesome, just awesome! This episode kept me smiling and laughing all the way through.

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  15. This episode was soooo funny, one of my favourite episodes of Supernatural!

    I haven't been convinced that season 6 was "necessary" after the conclusion of Season 5, but this episode alone convinced me it was the right move :)

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  16. I laughed and laughed. Anything that makes me laugh that hard is easily a 4 out of 4.

    I loved how Sera Gamble got a klingon promotion by killing Kripke during her run. :)

    One thing that bothers me is that Jared could use some tips on how his name is really prononced from someone back here in Poland. ;) The same goes for Johnny Galecki from TBBT.

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  17. Obviously, I am in the minority, but I did not like this one. A tad too self-congratulatory and self-reverential for my taste. Too many plot holes and why the huge shoot out at the end? A subtle (or not so subtle) message from the producers to the crew? Interestingly, although the actors, crew and producers were all skewered, I could only find one joke about the writing. If you can't take it...

    I actually watched it again after reading this review and the comments. Disliked it more the second time through. Oh well -- moving on.

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  18. Okay I haven't read your review yet and I'm only in the first 7 minutes but I love it so much already that I can hardly contain myself. "They put makeup on us, those bastards." Okay, back to watching.

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  19. Meesh, I am loving your comments. This one made me lol.

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  20. Favorite part of this episode is, hands down, Misha. The best of the best? When Misha and Sam are sitting on the side of the scene and Misha asks what's in the box they had (the bone of a saint) and Sam calmly states that it's part of a dead person. Misha's face when he says "Oh. Neat." is just... one of my favorite things. And I don't just mean in the show. I mean favorite things *ever*. Haha.

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  21. Love how this episode crashes through the fourth wall by having the actors, you know, crash through a wall.

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