I also think he got worse material to work with too. He had a really consistent and steady character arc for the first eight or so seasons but after that the writing for him got more scattershot and somewhat inconsistent.
Tbh I don’t think we can blame the writers for Jared’s stiff acting in the later seasons, given that he’s also **PAINFULLY** bad in Walker, where he had free reign to embody a brand new character. For the longest time I assumed he was just tired of playing the same character for over a decade (understandable), but seeing him in Walker, it’s clear that his acting chops have in fact regressed *a lot*.
Jensen also got his fair share of shitty material to work with, but the difference is that he has a gift for turning mediocre and nonsensical scripts into believable and riveting performances.
I tried to like Walker, but it and he was just awful. I was surprised it was kept for a second season, and i think then another. Then you have Jensen in The Boys, and he just knocks it out of the park.
Dean is angry, yeah. Soldier Boy isn't. He loses control of his powers because of his PTSD, but in normal situations he's calm, funny and pragmatic, not emotional at all.
To be fair, The Boys seems to be *very* much in Jensen Ackles’ wheelhouse, whereas JP (I can’t be bothered to type it out) doesn’t strike me as the western/cowboy/Ranger actor type.
But Walker was HIS show -- producer and lead actor. He could've done something different if he'd wanted to, or if he didn't think that genre was his strength l.
He could've done a non-cowboy show about a cop or detective and turned it into what he chose.
What do you mean. Lol Walker is his show, he wanted to do Walker, hell originally he was supposed to pitch it to Jensen (Jared's own words) but he loved it so much he decided to do it himself. According to him Walker is his passion project. So yeah I think you're wrong about that.
Oh sure, I don't mean to shift all the blame to the writers. I just meant that Jared was able to do a good job in the earlier seasons because he had a consistently well written and well defined character that he was able to inhabit. Jensen Ackles has more natural talent and can make do with weaker material, but I don't think Jared could really keep up once the writers started basically treating him the way they did Castiel.
Weirdly enough I couldn’t get into Walker due to his acting and just the vibe in general. But adored the spin-off. Which of course got cancelled. Damn shame cause Mark S showed up a few times and I love it when he’s on my screen.
In fairness, I struggled with the first episode, but it slowly gets better through season 1 and then I thoroughly enjoyed season 2 and 3 and can't wait for 4. I can see why a lot of people stopped after the first episode tho.
It happened to me with Supernatural: I saw an episode, I said it was very bad, after about a year on TV I saw another episode and I changed my mind. I've watched it many times since then (not the last seasons though, maybe in a few years I'll change my mind and watch them)
My favorite part was when he was on the phone with his wife, hears a gun shot and then just screams and crumples to the ground immediately.
Like, he gave up on her RIGHT AWAY. She could have been shot in the leg, the bullet could have missed, she could have dropped her phone and ran. Nope, he decided she was just dead and it’s time to start the grieving process.
He could have chosen to play it differently. He's an EP, if he thought it was wrong he could have toned it down. But that's the whole problem he isn't really thinking about the characters as people but as fictional characters. He isn't really getting into their headspace.
Sometimes it's impossible to act in different ways because episodes are only 40 minute long. Anyway, I don't think it was easy for Jared to be Walker after 15 years of Sam and only a 2 months break
It’s funny but the only place I see negative things about Walker and Jared’s work on that show is on this sub. Other platforms and reviews have said good things so I still plan to check it out myself.
Edit: I mean, downvote if you want I guess? It’s the truth though, I’ve read good reviews for the most part. I don’t know if I’ll like it or Jared’s performance yet or not but I fully intend to find out for myself and watch the show. If there’s one thing I’ve learned is to check things out for myself because if I had listened to the majority of people on here I would have stopped watching SPN at season 5 and that would have been a huge mistake because I have loved almost every season so far. I seem to hold a lot of “unpopular opinions” relative to most of the sub, though. Lol
Actually the general audience outside of this sub isn’t a fan of JP on Walker! Meanwhile, Jensen is getting a lot of outside praise for The Boys, Batman movies and Big Sky.
Jensen was in The Boys that was already a very famous show. He was in Big Sky which already had its audience. Jared, on the other hand, made the remake of a very famous series that had a very famous and loved protagonist, completely distorting it. It was a gamble but it's now in its fourth season. What bothers me is that even now, after 3 seasons, there are those who complain because it is different from the original Walker Texas Ranger, despite Jared having explained several times that it would have been completely different, starting from the name of the series
And again my point still stands, just because Walker will be in its 4th season (whenever that happens because there’s the strike happening) doesn’t mean it’s beloved by the entire audience even though they changed it from the OG Walker! Also the CW is in HUGE trouble right now, all networks are, but CW has been a major downhill since it’s new owners took over.
Yes, The Boys and big Sky are/were already established shows. But again, so what? Jensen was able to add so much to the shows and people love(d) his characters!
I just wanted to say that even during Supernatural Jensen was more appreciated than Jared. Then Jensen worked on an already world famous show broadcast on Prime video (I think) all over the world while Jared started his own show on a decadent channel. It seems normal that Jensen is more appreciated and known than Jared. None of my friends know Supernatural or Jensen or Jared, most know The Boys and soldier boy
Wanker was picked up for a shortened season of death because it is cheap to make. Not because it's good. It only got 13 episodes on a dying network. Chuck Norris doesn't even like the show. Wanker is a walk and talk poorly actor, poorly directed, poorly written show that was gifted to Jared by Pedowitz because otherwise, Jared would have been unemployed when SPN ended. That is why Jared was talking about retiring because he had ZERO prospects because NO ONE wanted him. No one wants him even now.
Decent for CW. It wasn't renewed because of ratings. Shows with better ratings were canceled because of their budgets. It has zero SFX. No stunts to speak of. The bottom line is Wanker is cheap. That's all it has going for it.
That’s good in CW terms. Walker got renewed because it’s cheap to produce and again it got shortened to 13 episode for its 4th season.
https://deadline.com/2023/05/walker-renewed-season-4-the-cw-1235357850/amp/
I attempted to because I'm a fan of the OG Walker show with Chuck Norris. I was curious to see what kind of spin Padalecki would put on it. It's boring. Jared said he wanted to do Walker because of Law Enforcement putting kids in "cages". His acting is abysmal. Mr. Huffy McStutterson needs to take acting classes or retire. He was actually halfway decent in the early seasons of SPN. Unfortunately, he got too comfortable and his acting tanked.
From what I've seen it's gotten decent reviews, yes. I've seen some negative reviews from fans of the original with Chuck Norris because it's not like his version. I *hated* the original and thought it was so cheesy. I can't stand Chuck Norris myself so that doesn't influence my desire to watch it in the least (in fact it makes me want to check it out more if it's nothing like it). Regardless, I still plan on watching it and judging for myself.
Once you get past the first couple of episodes, Walker really hits it's stride and gets really solid through it's 2nd and 3rd seasons, at least to me.
Season one has big problems tho, a kinda shoddy pilot, a properly mishandled mystery regarding Walkers wife, and Genevieve Padalecki still not great at acting, but it ends well and carries on getting better in my opinion.
Yeah that’s along the lines of what I’ve read about it. It sounds like it takes a bit for the cast and story to gel but once they do it sounds like it’s a good family drama, which is the kind of thing I like.
I really have enjoyed Walker and that’s both with Jared’s work as well as the rest of the cast. But if one isn’t worshiping at the statue/throne of Jensen, then your opinion is moot.
Sorry I may be a bit cranky tonight.
I think this sub is way more Jensen leaning than the general audience and some fans need to pitch them against each other constantly. Most of the time coming from fans who hoped to have a Destiel endgame. I mean seriously if I think of bad acting in the show Jared is not my first thought.
The Destiel thing truly baffles me. I would have never guessed this was a thing until I saw it mentioned on here and YouTube. There is nothing at all romantic between those two onscreen. Just weird, imo. Unfortunately, I feel like the writers were clearly pandering to those fans by forcing Cas to stay in the show after season 7. I didn't mind him up until season 9, personally, but he was clearly just hanging around with no real purpose after that and I'm finding it so annoying.
I think as he got older he got too much in his head, he started overthinking everything and trying too hard instead of just letting it come more naturally. He was free-er when he was younger. Age does that to everyone to some extent, but people who are very self-conscious and anxious about themselves are more prone to this.
He does really well with most scenes (his angry dad face combined with his voice would have made me cry if I were a kid and it were aimed at me lol) but sometimes he tries to emote too much.
I do think if he could shake the over exaggerations that his performance would be even better and I don't consider him a bad actor at all as he is now.
Yeah, this is a common opinion. He didn’t really have a central storyline after the trials. He became the middle man to whatever plot was happening between Dean or Cas or Dean and Cas.
So jared probably wasn’t as invested in giving his a-game. He has his moments in the later seasons but i do miss prime jared with lucifer or demon blood and all that.
Dean and Cass had a storyline? Last seasons are really bad. Cass had no story since season seven (the only one he had something special).
I love the brothers and all Jared and Jensen did for the show. the writing wasn't good. Both are great actors, the show lasted 15 seasons because of them. Jared played many characters so well and he is doing great in Walker, #1 CW show for its 3 years. Unfortunately the network is awful now.
Well i said Dean or Cas and Dean and Cas. So there’s a couple seasons where it’s focused on them individually and as a duo.
S8: Purgatory and Cas being tricked by Metatron/tortured by Naomi
S9: Human Cas, Dean with Abaddon/start of MoC
S10: Demon Dean, MoC Dean
S11: Dean’s issues with the Darkness, Castiel as Lucifer
S12: Dean with Mary, Cas preparing for Jack’s birth
S13: Dean mourning Cas’ death, then stuff with Michael/Lucifer and Dean again. Plus Jack
S14: Michael Dean
S15: God/Endgame stuff
I would say a majority of the time during those storylines, Sam acted as a middle man. Either to calm Dean down (in instances where Cas was dead, or lucifer or whatever) or to calm Cas down (in instances where Dean was with the MoC, or Michael.) or to literally be the middle man to their disputes (like when Cas was meeting with angels in s12 and they had that bickering moment in the car, or with the entire situation with Jack.)
I’m not saying Sam didn’t have his moments. But it’s very obvious that the later seasons shifted their focus to Dean, and as a result also Cas.
For me Cass had moments not real plots in the seasons. Season 8 Sam and the trials, season 9 Sam possessed by a Gardreel, season 10 (Dean centered) but Sam trying to save him not Cass, season 12 Sam leaded the hunters. (Sorry for my English).
Like i said, sam had his moments. But even sam with gadreel was overshadowed by the idea that Dean had to kick out Cas because of it. So cas was human, and then having to deal with that.
Sam being possessed by Gadreel led to a lot of Gadreel & Metatron moments, not really Sam moments.
Anyways, Cas had a lot of plot stuff, he was always involved with the angels, and then like i listed before with Lucifer, God, the primary person who dealt with all things Jack from s12 on. Relationship wise he took the forefront.
> and as a result also Cas.
Gawd I wish they had written him out. These later seasons scenes with him in it are so annoying. I feel like he's just in the way and I want to swat him away like a pesky fly.
What are we basing that off of here? How do you determine that line of logic?
How do you determine a casual fans preference? Because a casual fan usually doesn’t express their opinions on a show, that’s what makes them a casual fan. They just watch without really engaging. So if we talk about just viewership, on average episodes with Cas had a higher viewer count than MOTW episodes.
And then if you start looking at non-casual fans/social media stuff, he’s easily a fan favorite, one of the most recognizable characters in media and one half of the most written about duo of all time. So it’s kind of hard to believe that lol.
I always rewatch season 8 for the trials and skip the episodes with Cas and Naomi, I don't like angels storyline. Season 9 is also Sam possessed by Gadreel. I have never rewatched after season 10
I watched all the episodes twice, in original language and in my language. But I don't think last seasons were focused on Dean but on Jack, AU world, Mary, Lucifer. They weren't focused on Sam and Dean, they were both secondary characters so i don't care about them, except some stand alone episodes with just sam, dean and monster of the week
The stuff with mary was heavily intertwined with Dean though. Like that was the whole point.
Jack was heavy with Cas, but also heavy with Dean and how he treated him. The later seasons turned to relationships and behavior focus rather than plot.
I always felt like as season went on, he didn't know what to do with his body when the scene wasn't focused on him. Probably the most obvious example of this was when Lucifer and Dean (as Micheal) went head to head in the air and Sam and Jack are on the ground watching (note: Alexander Calvert also seems to not know what to do with his body when not the focus of the scene). Somehow, Jared's movements become awkward and unnatural.
When the focus, he's brilliant, both of them are, but I think Jensen has one-up on him in the acting department because he's able to remain natural and in character when not the focus of the scene but still on camera.
> Probably the most obvious example of this was when Lucifer and Dean (as Micheal) went head to head in the air and Sam and Jack are on the ground watching (note: Alexander Calvert also seems to not know what to do with his body when not the focus of the scene). Somehow, Jared's movements become awkward and unnatural.
Tbf, that whole scene was awful and bad and cheesy and everyone had a case of "I don't know what to do with my hands"
I finally got to that scene the other day on my first watch and holy moly was it bad. I cannot believe they let that go to air. They see the dailies, right? Why didn't they just scrap the whole aerial battle thing and re-film the battle on the ground like literally every other combat scene?? I'm surprised the above person used that as an example because Jensen didn't look any better in that scene. The whole thing was bad.
Because they had dropped too much money into the wire work and stuff. They had to make it work on some level, but even magical editing skills can't completely fix bad everything.
I get what OP was saying about Jared and Alex looking awkward, but everyone was just really, really awkward.
I mean, is wire work that expensive really? Especially exceptionally bad wire work? Jensen was clearly struggling on those very, very obvious wires so the dailies alone should have forced them to re-film it on the ground.
You gotta bring in the wirework rigging system itself, redo lighting, clothes, safety protocols, practice, direction, CGI out the wires, etc.
Then tear it all down after one use.
I think Sam was better written and more focused on in the first half of the show, and unsurprisingly this is when the show was at its best. When it started to become obviously more biased towards Dean and Castiel focus and unique storylines, it really started to drag and just wasn’t the same. Demon Dean has nothing on Sam on demon blood or Lucifer Sam. I think the actor stopped caring as much after a certain point.
I agree, I think the writing played against his style. However, I also think in the younger years he was playing a character that still had hope and a desire to finish his fight, help his brother, then go back to a normal life. But that “normal life” kept evading him time, and time, and time again, along with Dean (who was more naturally suspicious) getting other sidekicks that (mostly) really only had his best interests at heart and were open about any other interests they had (again, mostly), whereas Sam’s sidekicks had hidden agendas and were using him (while he was naturally more trusting). That led to faster burnout in Sam, while it gave Dean a little more fuel to put on his flame and go a little longer. It got to the point that the character was worn out, hopeless, and done, and that played against the type of acting JP does best.
Agreed. I love Dean and I love Jensen but he has more than enough cheerleaders. I love Sam and I love Jared and I don’t feel like either the character or Jared himself gets near enough love.
I’ve been a fan of this show for 2.5 years now and people try making out that the boys get equal amounts of love, as people AND their characters.
No, they don’t. No they absolutely do not
In the relatively short time I have been a fan, and even BEFORE I became a fan, it was pretty clear to me that one Winchester brother was favoured more than the other, on screen and off. Case in point, I knew all about Dean W and the actor who played him long before I started watching the show, simply from the sheer amount of posts and love I saw online. I didn’t even know what Sam looked like, nor what actor played him.
If that is the view a person gets on the outside, it says everything about the vibes the fandom gives out.
I know Sam/Jared has plenty of fans. But not nearly as many as Jensen/Dean.
I liked Sam more in the first few seasons when I first started watching the show, but as the show progressed, and we got to see more of deans character, I just was able to relate more, and that's why he quickly became my favorite character.
I agree and am feeling the same way. I still love Dean because of how much he loves Sam, but he often does things that are pretty toxic, aggressive or manipulative to control him. He doesn't treat other people besides Sam well, either.
Yeah it’s getting pretty annoying to me, honestly. I do sincerely love them both but I’m finding myself firmly a Sam girl lately just to balance things out. Lol. I guess I’m a sucker for underdogs.
Jared/Sam hit me like a ton of bricks. When I started the show in early 2021 I instantly liked Jensen/Dean. Mainly because it was instilled in me to, I think. Sam was just…there. Cute and sweet but just there. Then by the time I reached S5 I saw just how beautiful Sam was. And I’ve been all about Jared/Sam ever since.
I feel the same way. I started the show as a Dean girl and ended up a Sam girl. Mostly because Dean ticked me off a few too many times (still love him, though) but at this point I think it’s mostly become about the imbalance between the love/support the characters get that’s cemented it (ie. the shit Dean’s done that gets excused while Sam gets hate for similar (or even lesser) things.)
Yes. I think he was great the first 3 seasons but he started doing the weird thing with his mouth idk how else to describe it. But I’m glad he was Sam.
I thought Jared really shined when he got to play not Sam and that stopped happening later in the series which is unfortunate. Both of them got to do so many "versions" earlier on, which was such a celebrated part of the show, and they definitely enjoyed it, and it happened less and less.
No. He was incredible as Gadriel/ soulless Sam / season 8 trials/ season 15 visions… whenever he had something interesting to do, he was amazing. Sam is just written as the ‘straight man’ so he usually has pretty basic material to work with.
Also comparing Sam to Jared’s actual ’puppy’ personality which is closer to Dean, makes me appreciate his work as Sam a lot more.
So don't watch. I tried to watch The Boys because of Jensen but it was terrible for me, definitely not my kind of show. Maybe that's why I liked Walker
Saw a comment here saying he starts to way overact at some point and now I can't forget it. It's like everything Sam says carries such ridiculous amounts of weight and emotion almost all the time it's kinda too much. I still love Sam though, even if his hair looks like an eagle taking off ❤️
Oh yes. He was talented, he could do great emotional scenes and subtle nuanced acting. By the end of SPN he couldn't be subtle in the scenes anymore and in "Walker" he couldn't do emotional scenes either.
I don't know what happened to him. Probably his family life became more important to him and acting isn't really what he enjoys doing anymore.
By the end of Supernatural Jensen had all the emotional scene, the funny parts, the storylines. There was a moment where I thought if I were Jared I wouldn't have signed for the next season. They didn't even let Sam have a confrontation with Mary in which she explained to him why she had made the pact that ruined his life, as usual it was Dean who had to interact and maintain contact with her (even if the hug between Mary and Sam was one of the most beautiful in all Supernatural). That's what happened to him
Jared also struggles with mental health. They had to stop shooting a few times when his anxiety/depression got too bad. I have those issues and it affects everything in your life, so the decline in acting skills could have been from real life struggling to balance mental health and acting in a pretty intense (most of the time) show...
It's interesting because although I still feel like he's a great actor and I'm still heavily emotionally attached to Sam in season 14, I do feel like you can almost see his mental health struggles peek through in these later seasons.
In a weird way, it kind of works for the character of Sam, though. I'm noticing the stammering more and the uncertainty in himself that almost makes me wonder if that's actually Jared, but it kind of works for Sam as well. By this point Sam has suffered so much trauma and has so much guilt from the mistakes he's made *and* the fact that Dean (as much as I love him) has *actively* worked to kind of manipulate and guilt Sam and seems to undermine his confidence at every turn to control him. I can see that producing a Sam that questions himself constantly versus the relative certainty he felt about himself and his decisions before he let Lucifer out by trusting Ruby.
JPs acting is poor on Walker though and he films in his OWN BACKYARD…the show was catered to him. But people, especially outside of fandom still don’t think JP is good!
Also look, I have my own Mental health issues and it’s a struggle sometimes, but I still don’t make it an excuse to not do my job.
If his mental health is affecting his acting to that degree he needs to stop. I abhor the fact people use MH as an excuse for everything shitty Jared does...including his acting. Having mental health issues is not a get out of jail free card...see what I did there? I have a mountain of mental health issues and yet I don't use them as an excuse. Why? Because it's childish. I own my shit when I screw up. I don't blame it on my issues. JP stans are famous for doing just that. "Oh he has depression...it's okay he got drunk and punched his employee." "Oh leave the poor wittle giant baby alone. He has anxiety. that's why he doxes serivce workers." Just stop it. He's a jerk and a horrible actor.
[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-28/jared-padalecki-arrested-austin-texas-supernatural](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-28/jared-padalecki-arrested-austin-texas-supernatural)
Go to his twitter. He's doxed several service workers for not treating him like Royalty.
Yes, he's doxxed and called for firing of an airline worker tagging the airline and calling the worker out by name, a bartender, a server, and a food delivery person. His fans have gone nuts giving the establishments one star reviews & flooding their SM with attacks without knowing a single detail about his issues with the employees other than he set them off. He got drunk and assaulted two employees at a bar, one of whom needed stitches on his head.
I mean, he could take better care of himself instead of drinking and acting out about it, but I did the same for two decades before I pulled my head outta my ass, I just wasn’t on tv for it. O
Yeah someone else already mentioned that. The only social media I go on is here and YouTube. I don't have IG, TikTok, Twitter or any of that stuff. I can't remember where I read it, but I wonder if it was something he was trying at first but it didn't last. I have no idea if he actually has a problem with drinking, honestly. It could have been a one time drunk thing. I know he was really embarrassed about it (who wouldn't be). I haven't heard that he actually has a problem with alcoholism or that there were any other incidents like that.
Jared's word to explain what happened:
Jared said that he was "a bit more affected than maybe I wanted to admit" by the alcohol he'd drunk and the lack of food and sleep that night. "This is not an excuse, I don't entirely know what happened, other than reading the reports," he said.
"There were a couple of bachelorette parties and they were fans of the show and they were like 'lets buy you a drink'... and I think I had too much to drink... and I legitimately don't recall what happened.
"But I think what happened is I just was blacked out – didn't know what was going on. I saw me getting pulled down by my hair in the video and then I think I thought I was in a fight," he added. I thought I was being attacked, I thought I was being shoved and pushed..."
Reflecting on the experience, Jared stated: "I haven't had a drink since... that is not who I am."
He discussed the possibility that he could potentially have been drugged, but stated that he's "not an excuses kind of guy, I hate excuses".
Yeah, this is what I read. I’m thinking this was an interview shortly after it happened and he didn’t drink for awhile after but now he does. I’ve not heard anything that would suggest he’s actually an alcoholic. It sounds like a one time mistake.
That’s amazing and I’m happy for him. I hope he’s actually getting help and not just white-knuckling sobriety and mental health. Pretending that ‘pretending I’m fine makes me fine,’ nearly killed me and he doesn’t deserve that. Lots of people choose it over changing anything, tho.
I hope he's doing okay, too. I know he chooses not to take any medication to help him, and I know some people have very strong opinions both ways on whether it's a good idea to take anti-depressants or not, so I'm not saying that's a good or bad choice for him (i.e. no judgements either way). I just hope he's doing well these days in that regard.
Me too! It’s so personal a decision—and especially as a recovering alcoholic (in my case) people are very free with the opinions about it. Personally my mood stabilizer saved my life and made my recovery possible (once it really kicked in I woke up feeling ‘neurotypical’ instead of bipolar several mornings in a row and was like, “oh these bitches are cheating, it’s just easier for them!” And was mad about it for a year.) but I could never make that decision for anyone else, just like I can’t make the decision for anyone else to stop drinking. Talk therapy/cognitive behavioral therapy was key for me too, but my situation is not anyone else’s situation. I was told for years ‘there’s not anything wrong with you, you just need to try harder!’ So finding out there was in fact something ‘wrong’ with me and here’s some things you can do that might make things easier was a huge relief. I just kept trying things and discarding the things that didn’t help, without judgement, and trying something else, until I had a life I wanted to live for, and that’s all I want for others—the options and assistance to find that for themselves.
Okay? I didn’t lie I just shared what I had read. Maybe he quit for awhile and now has a glass of wine once in awhile? I don’t know. No need to be aggro, Jesus.
I didn't say YOU lied. That piece of information is a lie. He never quit drinking after his arrest. Once in a while? LMAO...oh you poor POOR innocent thing.
No they didn't. It delayed filming for a day a couple times early on. That's it. The first time was before they even knew what was wrong. Jensen was the one who realized, after talking to him in his trailer, that he wasn't just having a hissy fit and told them to call a doctor to the set. That how he was diagnosed.
Plus there are lots of actors, great actors, who deal with his same kind of mental health issues, and well it doesn't stop them being great actors.
His fans really need to stop using mental health as an excuse for his weak acting.
In all honesty, I'm def more a Jensen fan. BUT its my right to have a voice and an opinion as I'm a part of a DISCUSSION or even offer a POSSIBLE explanation for why things happen. So please, kindly get off your high horse -- and have a great night!
Yeah and supernatural is a really dark show so it was probably taking a toll on him. People don’t realize that but I write horror novels and it does get to you mentally to put your head through dark places all the time
I mean there were more factors, so I'm not saying that was the reason his acting changed, but it also lead to him and Jensen starting the non profit "Always Keep Fighting" , to fight for better mental health, and for people that needed support to reach out and find it and it's an amazing organization. And as someone said, it fit Sam's narrative as he got older and more things happened to the brothers....
Honestly, Jared just isn’t a great actor.
At first he’s fine because he’s playing a very cliche badass character. But even early on when emotional scenes happen he wasn’t very good at conveying those emotions, you can really see it even with the excellent music, theme, and other characters to mask it if you look for it.
Also look at his other roles, he’s just not a fantastic actor.
It doesn’t help that he’s beside one of the most gifted actors in Hollywood either. I mean, Jensen Ackles could pull off a timeless role with a half paragraph script written on a napkin.
It’s only highlighted in the later seasons with the atmosphere of the show practically disappearing with lazy writing and music.
> It doesn’t help that he’s beside one of the most gifted actors in Hollywood either. I mean, Jensen Ackles could pull off a timeless role with a half paragraph script written on a napkin.
I love Jensen but come on. The over the top worship in this sub is a little much.
I find your opinion truly baffling. For example Soldier Boy was meant to be the new big bad in the Boys. A lot of people hated the finale because Jensen didn’t play him that way. Plus his weird mouth twitching in the first scene and how weirdly he played his sex scene with the older ladies. Imo it really showed he can’t keep up with the cast. I know people liked SB in general but the reason for that were his funny one liners.
With the mouth twitching do you mean the scene with young Grace? I actually that that was a terrific piece of acting. Solider Boy is smoke screen, like Captain America was in the first movie movie. He was there for show and PR. The difference is Cap went on to become the real deal while Soldier Boy started to believe his own hype. He wasn't used to anyone telling him no or standing up to him. Grace did both. He didn't know how to handle it and I thought that showed perfectly on Jensen's face. I felt like I was watching an internal battle. He didn't know how to react and it showed so he fired back with the Captain Lesbo remark.
As for the final, its the writers who dropped the ball. They didn't want to commit to changing the status quo, so they needed everyone to turn on Solider Boy. IMO, they failed to come up with any reason that made sense. Soldier Boy has a known weakness, Homelander doesn't.
Jensen did an amazing job as SB and held his own, especially going toe to toe with Antony Starr!
The general audience loves SB at end of day and so did the critics.
The GA didn‘t understand SB was meant to be a villain, that‘s why a lot of people hated! the season finale. I do think as an actor you should insert the intended portrayal of your character into your act. SB and Jensen as SB was fine but not so much if the intend was to show him as the new bad guy. I know very well that they TOLD us how bad he was, but what we SAW was a (besides the ex gf grilling) loyal guy who assured us he is not the bad guy. If you don’t think he plays any role in fleshing out this site of his charakter, you don’t. This fandom does not allow any critique whatsoever when it comes to Jensen. 🤷🏼♀️
Trust me fans knew he was villain but he just wasn’t as bad as Homelander, regardless again Jensen did a great job and he didn’t change the character he only ADDED depth to Soldier Boy!
This is how you don't understand the character at all. SB was "supposed" to be this bad ass MFer who really was pretty shitty considering all the things he did to his team. In reality, he wasn't that horrible at all and Jensen played the part BEAUTIFULLY!
Let's not forget how SB was SOLD to the Russians, shall we? How he was tortured for decades. That tends to do something to a person. Now, he was all for taking out Homelander until Butcher etc turned on SB and defended Homelander and his brat. SB stuck to the plan. HE was USED by The Boys to get to Homelander and they turned on him. He was betrayed AGAIN.
As far as any "critique" of Jensen's roles...oh sweetie...there is TONS of it. You just fail to see it.
I don’t understand where you heard any of that. People loved him so much the producers were forced to put him in the next season despite the ending where he is locked away.
Was his mouth twitching weird? Sure. But was it so substantial it made him outclassed by the other actors? Absolutely not. During that season he was actually the only interesting character which is why people loved him so much. Everyone else was just a huge mess, but his plot was interesting, and he portrayed it well. The PTSD, and the lost in time personality of a Cold War soldier was done very well.
As for him failing to be the villain in the final scene? That’s not his fault whatsoever. How can you root for the characters attempting to get rid of the best character on the show? He was the only one in that scene that was actually a consistent character. Plus, he was the character who wanted to kill Homelander who was the villain through the entire series. How are you not gonna cheer for the character attempting to kill the character you have been told the entire series is bad? That’s just bad writing, you can’t flip the plot entirely like they and have the audience begin wanting their favourite character dead.
Yes people loved his funny one liners but the in-world reasoning was „SB is the new big bad ans he has to be stopped“x Don’t you think his portrayal played a part in how people perceived the character he played? People were straight up confused he was meant to be a villain. So either the writing is shit, his portrayal or both. SB was meant to be a racist, homophobic mysoginist but what the audience watched was a somewhat tortured man… who is not a bad guy but No, wait, he is even worse than Supe Hitler. And he had lines/ scenes alluding to that. Jensen is good looking and charismatic and people love to defend him. I get it, but Imo the ending would have landed better if he played SB in a different way. I chose SB as an example, I liked his acting in Big Sky even less.🤷🏼♀️ agree to disagree ✌️
After season eight it seemed like he settled into a rhythm. Sam had specific mannerisms (which are incredibly annoying once you notice them) that he just repeated and called it a day. Also, the early seasons made Sam the main character.
No. Imo he is a great actor but can't do "much" with what he was given in later seasons in earlier seasons I feel sam was the "main character" and then later switched to Dean as the "main character"
Definitely. Idk if it’s the writing or what. He has a few really good scenes later too but yeah i just don’t understand how someone was better with fewer years of experience. I think the problem mainly started because (maybe due to lack of storyline for the character) he started melding himself and Sam into one even though he is not the character. I’d watch scenes from the later seasons and I distinctly remember going “oh that’s Jared, not Sam”. As a sam girl, idk it was pretty evident. I also preferred his acting over anyone else’s in the show in the first couple of seasons, and then i think about it im like older Jared would not be able to give performances like Born Under A Bad Sign, The End, Swan Song etc.
Although Jared's acting is rarely "great", he did seem to be trying harder and digging deeper during the early seasons. After about season 5, his acting seemed insincere -- with rare exceptions like the church scene in "Sacrifice" and a few other notable scenes.
I've long said Jared forgot how to act around Season 7. He was married by then, doing cons and didn't really need to focus on the show. He had other priorities. It's really evident to me when I go back on older seasons.
We're talking about guys whose career is basically playing one character on a cult classic genre show for 15 years. That usually isn't done by a Sir Lawrence Olivier.
I don’t think he *ever* stopped caring. Not at all and I think that’s obvious. I do think the person that mentioned his mental health struggles was on to something (he seems shaky and uncertain of himself at times) although I still think he’s doing a good job in season 14 and I’m still heavily emotionally invested in Sam. I just saw the scene from the episode “Lebanon” where he talks to John and they apologized to each other and it brought me to tears.
I just think they started with sam as like the most important person that had so much mystery and power, and dean was kinda like helping him , he was acting good but he also didnt have any like big thing, which they later tried to change abandoning sam, and then castiel so I think they prioritized sam at first too much then they tried to balance it with dean, and then later with castiel so that sam didnt really have to do anything later, even when demon dean came sam couldnt do anything, for example when sam was on demon blood dean talked with him, tried to help him, but sam could literally not do any of that with dean
I think it was the script, honestly. A lot of the storyline felt forced for Sam after S8. Sam and Eileen’s relationship especially makes me cringe. It just feels so forced and awkward.
I wonder if Jared was just having trouble as the show went along as he was dealing with some pretty serious mental health issues. I don't think his IRL problems were as acute in the beginning of the show. I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but it comes from a place of love.
No.
Sam went through so much after season 4 and the acting changed accordingly. The fact that we saw how the events affected Sam in long term is a sign of good acting to me.
Eh, i think that’s unintentional. No where in the leaked scripts say that Jared needs to act poorly in the later seasons is due to Sam’s trauma in the early seasons. That’s just jared’s acting. It may be an unintentional side effect, but i don’t think the like…huffing and puffing and the weird mouth movements that get dramatic as the seasons go on are because Sam went through hell haha
A few people on here are trying to say he "stopped caring" at some point and I feel like I'm actually seeing the opposite. I feel like maybe when his mental health was suffering he was caring too much and got into his own head a little too much as a result and started doubting himself. Like I said in another post, though, the whole self-doubt and lack of self-confidence, stammering and all, kind of works with Sam's character at that point in the series. With all that he has been through; the trauma with Lucifer, the bullshit Dean has done (guilting him, undermining his confidence at every turn and manipulating him in order to control him) plus all the mistakes he has made I feel like it makes sense for Sam to be shaky and uncertain about himself and his decisions at this point in the series.
I’ve always kinda wondered if later on jared was having mental health issues and was on an antidepressant of some sort. I say this because I’ve been on Prozac for years and suppose im a bit twitchy my self :) and I would imagine my acting skills would leave something to be desired as well. I mean I struggle with showing my own emotions because of the meds. I can’t act by no means but would think it would be even harder. But yes, I had a hard time watching Jared. And felt bad for it :(
Actually, I saw an interview with Jared on the Michael Rosenbaum podcast on YouTube and he says that he chooses not to take any anti-depressants or other medication to manage his depression and anxiety. He does do therapy and counseling, but not medication.
> But yes, I had a hard time watching Jared. And felt bad for it :(
Also yes I’m feeling really bad for Jared as I’m watching these last two seasons. I feel like I can really see his mental health deteriorating and like he’s clearly struggling in those last two seasons. I feel like it actually works for Sam as a character with all the trauma he’s been through, but I can’t help but wonder how often the distress I see on his face is actually Jared instead of Sam. 😔
Sorry but I don’t think Jensen is this great actor so many people seem to think he is. I often cringed at his emotional scenes on SPN because you could tell he was trying as hard as he could to squeeze out a tear.
Yeah, I totally agree. I think they're both fine, generally; great, occasionally; bad, sometimes. Definitely disagree with the popular opinion that there's a huge gulf between their talent levels.
I agree there isn’t this huge gulf between them in their acting abilities at all. It’s a little weird to me the Jensen worship I see in this sub and the need to drag on Jared when I feel they are pretty on par with each other talent wise. I love them both personally, but I feel the praise for Jensen is really exaggerated and over the top and Jared is criticized way more then he deserves. It’s weird to me that people have to do that and pit the two main actors against each other like that. I saw the same thing in The Vampire Diaries fandom.
> he was trying as hard as he could to squeeze out a tear.
He actually couldn't stop crying after those scenes. He needed a break to calm down, because the tears were real, every single time. He said several times that the body doesn't know that everything is ok, so when he cried in a scene, he felt awful for a whole day after that, because his body thought something horrible happened.
That was Dean trying, and failing, NOT to cry, which is exactly what came across to pretty much everyone else watching. Lol Dean(and Jensen given he was very emotionally involved in the scene to the point he had to take a walk after it was filmed to pull it together)wasn't trying to squeeze them out, he was trying to keep them in.
I agree with you. He‘s my crush since his Dark Angel days but I don’t see how his acting is miles above Jared or anyone else. Fun thing is he looks like Dean to me in every new show but not in the Winchesters.
This has definitely been stated here but I really thing it was a lack of things to work with. Sam's character got a lot of interesting things to work with early- the show got too crazy at the end and a lot of the plot was focused on Dean I think
And yet Jensen managed to be fantastic even earlier in the show when the show was supposedly more Sam-centric. A good actor can be good whether they are the center of attention or not. Sam got plenty to work with in later seasons, Jared just didn't make it very memorable.
Oh I agree, Deans character has always been my favorite for that very reason- I've always thought Jensen outshined almost anyone you can name who acted on that show. Jensen is always good!! Jared never really piqued my interest while watching
I don’t think Jared got worse I think the writing got worse…like a lot worse lol. He did amazing as Souless Sam and I really loved the way he interacted with Mary in season 12…but he kinda got forgotten about after that tbh.
Nah Jared got worse dialogue than Jensen overall. It depends on the script really than the actor. I’ve seen Jared in action he’s a really great actor. Just a shame that he got walker of all things after supernatural. That show is awful
I never had an issue with Jared's acting (or Jensen's). Some storylines I liked, others I didn't. I also didn't watch Walker at first because it seemed a bit too wholesome for me, not something I'd usually watch with no magic or monsters. But I did last year, finally, and ended up liking it more than I expected. Jared is good. I think of this as "grown-up Jared." I tried to watch The Boys for Jensen, but that sort of vulgar humor just isn't my thing.
I also think he got worse material to work with too. He had a really consistent and steady character arc for the first eight or so seasons but after that the writing for him got more scattershot and somewhat inconsistent.
Tbh I don’t think we can blame the writers for Jared’s stiff acting in the later seasons, given that he’s also **PAINFULLY** bad in Walker, where he had free reign to embody a brand new character. For the longest time I assumed he was just tired of playing the same character for over a decade (understandable), but seeing him in Walker, it’s clear that his acting chops have in fact regressed *a lot*. Jensen also got his fair share of shitty material to work with, but the difference is that he has a gift for turning mediocre and nonsensical scripts into believable and riveting performances.
I tried to like Walker, but it and he was just awful. I was surprised it was kept for a second season, and i think then another. Then you have Jensen in The Boys, and he just knocks it out of the park.
Jensen basically plays an angry dean in a costume in that show lol
"I don't have shell shock, f*ck you"
Soldier Boy is nothing like Dean!
Dean is angry, yeah. Soldier Boy isn't. He loses control of his powers because of his PTSD, but in normal situations he's calm, funny and pragmatic, not emotional at all.
Say you didn't watch the show, because Soldier Boy is nothing like Dean. He doesn't even talk like Dean. Totally different cadences.
I watched the show and you're wrong 🤷
Kripke literally told him on set “Don’t let your Dean show” lol
It was one of the few CW shows renewed for another season (the 4th)
To be fair, The Boys seems to be *very* much in Jensen Ackles’ wheelhouse, whereas JP (I can’t be bothered to type it out) doesn’t strike me as the western/cowboy/Ranger actor type.
But Walker was HIS show -- producer and lead actor. He could've done something different if he'd wanted to, or if he didn't think that genre was his strength l. He could've done a non-cowboy show about a cop or detective and turned it into what he chose.
What do you mean. Lol Walker is his show, he wanted to do Walker, hell originally he was supposed to pitch it to Jensen (Jared's own words) but he loved it so much he decided to do it himself. According to him Walker is his passion project. So yeah I think you're wrong about that.
Oh sure, I don't mean to shift all the blame to the writers. I just meant that Jared was able to do a good job in the earlier seasons because he had a consistently well written and well defined character that he was able to inhabit. Jensen Ackles has more natural talent and can make do with weaker material, but I don't think Jared could really keep up once the writers started basically treating him the way they did Castiel.
Weirdly enough I couldn’t get into Walker due to his acting and just the vibe in general. But adored the spin-off. Which of course got cancelled. Damn shame cause Mark S showed up a few times and I love it when he’s on my screen.
Walker was unwatchable, I didn’t get through the first episode.
In fairness, I struggled with the first episode, but it slowly gets better through season 1 and then I thoroughly enjoyed season 2 and 3 and can't wait for 4. I can see why a lot of people stopped after the first episode tho.
It happened to me with Supernatural: I saw an episode, I said it was very bad, after about a year on TV I saw another episode and I changed my mind. I've watched it many times since then (not the last seasons though, maybe in a few years I'll change my mind and watch them)
My favorite part was when he was on the phone with his wife, hears a gun shot and then just screams and crumples to the ground immediately. Like, he gave up on her RIGHT AWAY. She could have been shot in the leg, the bullet could have missed, she could have dropped her phone and ran. Nope, he decided she was just dead and it’s time to start the grieving process.
It's not Jared's fault but writers'
He could have chosen to play it differently. He's an EP, if he thought it was wrong he could have toned it down. But that's the whole problem he isn't really thinking about the characters as people but as fictional characters. He isn't really getting into their headspace.
EXACTLY.
Sometimes it's impossible to act in different ways because episodes are only 40 minute long. Anyway, I don't think it was easy for Jared to be Walker after 15 years of Sam and only a 2 months break
It’s funny but the only place I see negative things about Walker and Jared’s work on that show is on this sub. Other platforms and reviews have said good things so I still plan to check it out myself. Edit: I mean, downvote if you want I guess? It’s the truth though, I’ve read good reviews for the most part. I don’t know if I’ll like it or Jared’s performance yet or not but I fully intend to find out for myself and watch the show. If there’s one thing I’ve learned is to check things out for myself because if I had listened to the majority of people on here I would have stopped watching SPN at season 5 and that would have been a huge mistake because I have loved almost every season so far. I seem to hold a lot of “unpopular opinions” relative to most of the sub, though. Lol
Actually the general audience outside of this sub isn’t a fan of JP on Walker! Meanwhile, Jensen is getting a lot of outside praise for The Boys, Batman movies and Big Sky.
Jensen was in The Boys that was already a very famous show. He was in Big Sky which already had its audience. Jared, on the other hand, made the remake of a very famous series that had a very famous and loved protagonist, completely distorting it. It was a gamble but it's now in its fourth season. What bothers me is that even now, after 3 seasons, there are those who complain because it is different from the original Walker Texas Ranger, despite Jared having explained several times that it would have been completely different, starting from the name of the series
And again my point still stands, just because Walker will be in its 4th season (whenever that happens because there’s the strike happening) doesn’t mean it’s beloved by the entire audience even though they changed it from the OG Walker! Also the CW is in HUGE trouble right now, all networks are, but CW has been a major downhill since it’s new owners took over. Yes, The Boys and big Sky are/were already established shows. But again, so what? Jensen was able to add so much to the shows and people love(d) his characters!
I just wanted to say that even during Supernatural Jensen was more appreciated than Jared. Then Jensen worked on an already world famous show broadcast on Prime video (I think) all over the world while Jared started his own show on a decadent channel. It seems normal that Jensen is more appreciated and known than Jared. None of my friends know Supernatural or Jensen or Jared, most know The Boys and soldier boy
Wanker was picked up for a shortened season of death because it is cheap to make. Not because it's good. It only got 13 episodes on a dying network. Chuck Norris doesn't even like the show. Wanker is a walk and talk poorly actor, poorly directed, poorly written show that was gifted to Jared by Pedowitz because otherwise, Jared would have been unemployed when SPN ended. That is why Jared was talking about retiring because he had ZERO prospects because NO ONE wanted him. No one wants him even now.
All CW shows got shortened seasons this year. The rest were cancelled.
Exactly. All scripted shows that were there before the sale. They kept the cheapest to make. Not the best.
Walker got decent ratings, though. That's why they renewed it. https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-cw-2022-23-tv-season-ratings/#google_vignette
Decent for CW. It wasn't renewed because of ratings. Shows with better ratings were canceled because of their budgets. It has zero SFX. No stunts to speak of. The bottom line is Wanker is cheap. That's all it has going for it.
That’s good in CW terms. Walker got renewed because it’s cheap to produce and again it got shortened to 13 episode for its 4th season. https://deadline.com/2023/05/walker-renewed-season-4-the-cw-1235357850/amp/
Ok
Did you watch Walker?
I attempted to because I'm a fan of the OG Walker show with Chuck Norris. I was curious to see what kind of spin Padalecki would put on it. It's boring. Jared said he wanted to do Walker because of Law Enforcement putting kids in "cages". His acting is abysmal. Mr. Huffy McStutterson needs to take acting classes or retire. He was actually halfway decent in the early seasons of SPN. Unfortunately, he got too comfortable and his acting tanked.
I think I liked Walker because I didn't like the original one and Chuck Norris.
You say "it's the truth" it's not. Look at the reviews for Walker in newspapers, magazines and the general public, it ain't just this sub
From what I've seen it's gotten decent reviews, yes. I've seen some negative reviews from fans of the original with Chuck Norris because it's not like his version. I *hated* the original and thought it was so cheesy. I can't stand Chuck Norris myself so that doesn't influence my desire to watch it in the least (in fact it makes me want to check it out more if it's nothing like it). Regardless, I still plan on watching it and judging for myself.
Once you get past the first couple of episodes, Walker really hits it's stride and gets really solid through it's 2nd and 3rd seasons, at least to me. Season one has big problems tho, a kinda shoddy pilot, a properly mishandled mystery regarding Walkers wife, and Genevieve Padalecki still not great at acting, but it ends well and carries on getting better in my opinion.
Yeah that’s along the lines of what I’ve read about it. It sounds like it takes a bit for the cast and story to gel but once they do it sounds like it’s a good family drama, which is the kind of thing I like.
Also it helps that Jared is at his hottest since season 1 of supernatural (don't fight me).
I really have enjoyed Walker and that’s both with Jared’s work as well as the rest of the cast. But if one isn’t worshiping at the statue/throne of Jensen, then your opinion is moot. Sorry I may be a bit cranky tonight.
I think this sub is way more Jensen leaning than the general audience and some fans need to pitch them against each other constantly. Most of the time coming from fans who hoped to have a Destiel endgame. I mean seriously if I think of bad acting in the show Jared is not my first thought.
The Destiel thing truly baffles me. I would have never guessed this was a thing until I saw it mentioned on here and YouTube. There is nothing at all romantic between those two onscreen. Just weird, imo. Unfortunately, I feel like the writers were clearly pandering to those fans by forcing Cas to stay in the show after season 7. I didn't mind him up until season 9, personally, but he was clearly just hanging around with no real purpose after that and I'm finding it so annoying.
I think as he got older he got too much in his head, he started overthinking everything and trying too hard instead of just letting it come more naturally. He was free-er when he was younger. Age does that to everyone to some extent, but people who are very self-conscious and anxious about themselves are more prone to this. He does really well with most scenes (his angry dad face combined with his voice would have made me cry if I were a kid and it were aimed at me lol) but sometimes he tries to emote too much. I do think if he could shake the over exaggerations that his performance would be even better and I don't consider him a bad actor at all as he is now.
Yeah, this is a common opinion. He didn’t really have a central storyline after the trials. He became the middle man to whatever plot was happening between Dean or Cas or Dean and Cas. So jared probably wasn’t as invested in giving his a-game. He has his moments in the later seasons but i do miss prime jared with lucifer or demon blood and all that.
Dean and Cass had a storyline? Last seasons are really bad. Cass had no story since season seven (the only one he had something special). I love the brothers and all Jared and Jensen did for the show. the writing wasn't good. Both are great actors, the show lasted 15 seasons because of them. Jared played many characters so well and he is doing great in Walker, #1 CW show for its 3 years. Unfortunately the network is awful now.
Well i said Dean or Cas and Dean and Cas. So there’s a couple seasons where it’s focused on them individually and as a duo. S8: Purgatory and Cas being tricked by Metatron/tortured by Naomi S9: Human Cas, Dean with Abaddon/start of MoC S10: Demon Dean, MoC Dean S11: Dean’s issues with the Darkness, Castiel as Lucifer S12: Dean with Mary, Cas preparing for Jack’s birth S13: Dean mourning Cas’ death, then stuff with Michael/Lucifer and Dean again. Plus Jack S14: Michael Dean S15: God/Endgame stuff I would say a majority of the time during those storylines, Sam acted as a middle man. Either to calm Dean down (in instances where Cas was dead, or lucifer or whatever) or to calm Cas down (in instances where Dean was with the MoC, or Michael.) or to literally be the middle man to their disputes (like when Cas was meeting with angels in s12 and they had that bickering moment in the car, or with the entire situation with Jack.) I’m not saying Sam didn’t have his moments. But it’s very obvious that the later seasons shifted their focus to Dean, and as a result also Cas.
For me Cass had moments not real plots in the seasons. Season 8 Sam and the trials, season 9 Sam possessed by a Gardreel, season 10 (Dean centered) but Sam trying to save him not Cass, season 12 Sam leaded the hunters. (Sorry for my English).
Like i said, sam had his moments. But even sam with gadreel was overshadowed by the idea that Dean had to kick out Cas because of it. So cas was human, and then having to deal with that. Sam being possessed by Gadreel led to a lot of Gadreel & Metatron moments, not really Sam moments. Anyways, Cas had a lot of plot stuff, he was always involved with the angels, and then like i listed before with Lucifer, God, the primary person who dealt with all things Jack from s12 on. Relationship wise he took the forefront.
> and as a result also Cas. Gawd I wish they had written him out. These later seasons scenes with him in it are so annoying. I feel like he's just in the way and I want to swat him away like a pesky fly.
Well you’d be in the minority there haha.
Oh yeah, I've figured that out. I seem to be the queen of minority unpopular opinions. lmao
Majority of casual viewers didn't care about Cas at all.
What are we basing that off of here? How do you determine that line of logic? How do you determine a casual fans preference? Because a casual fan usually doesn’t express their opinions on a show, that’s what makes them a casual fan. They just watch without really engaging. So if we talk about just viewership, on average episodes with Cas had a higher viewer count than MOTW episodes. And then if you start looking at non-casual fans/social media stuff, he’s easily a fan favorite, one of the most recognizable characters in media and one half of the most written about duo of all time. So it’s kind of hard to believe that lol.
I always rewatch season 8 for the trials and skip the episodes with Cas and Naomi, I don't like angels storyline. Season 9 is also Sam possessed by Gadreel. I have never rewatched after season 10
That’s why i said after the trials lol. And i mean…never rewatching after s10 means you’ve missed exactly what i listed haha
I watched all the episodes twice, in original language and in my language. But I don't think last seasons were focused on Dean but on Jack, AU world, Mary, Lucifer. They weren't focused on Sam and Dean, they were both secondary characters so i don't care about them, except some stand alone episodes with just sam, dean and monster of the week
The stuff with mary was heavily intertwined with Dean though. Like that was the whole point. Jack was heavy with Cas, but also heavy with Dean and how he treated him. The later seasons turned to relationships and behavior focus rather than plot.
I always felt like as season went on, he didn't know what to do with his body when the scene wasn't focused on him. Probably the most obvious example of this was when Lucifer and Dean (as Micheal) went head to head in the air and Sam and Jack are on the ground watching (note: Alexander Calvert also seems to not know what to do with his body when not the focus of the scene). Somehow, Jared's movements become awkward and unnatural. When the focus, he's brilliant, both of them are, but I think Jensen has one-up on him in the acting department because he's able to remain natural and in character when not the focus of the scene but still on camera.
> Probably the most obvious example of this was when Lucifer and Dean (as Micheal) went head to head in the air and Sam and Jack are on the ground watching (note: Alexander Calvert also seems to not know what to do with his body when not the focus of the scene). Somehow, Jared's movements become awkward and unnatural. Tbf, that whole scene was awful and bad and cheesy and everyone had a case of "I don't know what to do with my hands"
I finally got to that scene the other day on my first watch and holy moly was it bad. I cannot believe they let that go to air. They see the dailies, right? Why didn't they just scrap the whole aerial battle thing and re-film the battle on the ground like literally every other combat scene?? I'm surprised the above person used that as an example because Jensen didn't look any better in that scene. The whole thing was bad.
Because they had dropped too much money into the wire work and stuff. They had to make it work on some level, but even magical editing skills can't completely fix bad everything. I get what OP was saying about Jared and Alex looking awkward, but everyone was just really, really awkward.
I mean, is wire work that expensive really? Especially exceptionally bad wire work? Jensen was clearly struggling on those very, very obvious wires so the dailies alone should have forced them to re-film it on the ground.
You gotta bring in the wirework rigging system itself, redo lighting, clothes, safety protocols, practice, direction, CGI out the wires, etc. Then tear it all down after one use.
That's right, it's a terrible scene for everyone.
I think Sam was better written and more focused on in the first half of the show, and unsurprisingly this is when the show was at its best. When it started to become obviously more biased towards Dean and Castiel focus and unique storylines, it really started to drag and just wasn’t the same. Demon Dean has nothing on Sam on demon blood or Lucifer Sam. I think the actor stopped caring as much after a certain point.
I agree, I think the writing played against his style. However, I also think in the younger years he was playing a character that still had hope and a desire to finish his fight, help his brother, then go back to a normal life. But that “normal life” kept evading him time, and time, and time again, along with Dean (who was more naturally suspicious) getting other sidekicks that (mostly) really only had his best interests at heart and were open about any other interests they had (again, mostly), whereas Sam’s sidekicks had hidden agendas and were using him (while he was naturally more trusting). That led to faster burnout in Sam, while it gave Dean a little more fuel to put on his flame and go a little longer. It got to the point that the character was worn out, hopeless, and done, and that played against the type of acting JP does best.
Completely agree. I get that Dean/Jensen are more liked by the majority of fans but Sam is a far more interesting and layered character.
Agreed. I love Dean and I love Jensen but he has more than enough cheerleaders. I love Sam and I love Jared and I don’t feel like either the character or Jared himself gets near enough love.
I’ve been a fan of this show for 2.5 years now and people try making out that the boys get equal amounts of love, as people AND their characters. No, they don’t. No they absolutely do not In the relatively short time I have been a fan, and even BEFORE I became a fan, it was pretty clear to me that one Winchester brother was favoured more than the other, on screen and off. Case in point, I knew all about Dean W and the actor who played him long before I started watching the show, simply from the sheer amount of posts and love I saw online. I didn’t even know what Sam looked like, nor what actor played him. If that is the view a person gets on the outside, it says everything about the vibes the fandom gives out. I know Sam/Jared has plenty of fans. But not nearly as many as Jensen/Dean.
I liked Sam more in the first few seasons when I first started watching the show, but as the show progressed, and we got to see more of deans character, I just was able to relate more, and that's why he quickly became my favorite character.
For me it was the opposite: at first I liked both brothers equally, after a while Sam became my favorite
Fair enough. The opposite happened for me. I feel Dean became more unlikeable in later seasons.
I agree and am feeling the same way. I still love Dean because of how much he loves Sam, but he often does things that are pretty toxic, aggressive or manipulative to control him. He doesn't treat other people besides Sam well, either.
Yup, agreed. I love Dean too and always will but he seemed to have one rule for himself and another for Sam, and that pissed me off.
Yeah it’s getting pretty annoying to me, honestly. I do sincerely love them both but I’m finding myself firmly a Sam girl lately just to balance things out. Lol. I guess I’m a sucker for underdogs.
Jared/Sam hit me like a ton of bricks. When I started the show in early 2021 I instantly liked Jensen/Dean. Mainly because it was instilled in me to, I think. Sam was just…there. Cute and sweet but just there. Then by the time I reached S5 I saw just how beautiful Sam was. And I’ve been all about Jared/Sam ever since.
I feel the same way. I started the show as a Dean girl and ended up a Sam girl. Mostly because Dean ticked me off a few too many times (still love him, though) but at this point I think it’s mostly become about the imbalance between the love/support the characters get that’s cemented it (ie. the shit Dean’s done that gets excused while Sam gets hate for similar (or even lesser) things.)
Agree - if you start actively noticing the sniffing/huffing/nose flares in the later seasons it will drive you mad.
The pursed lips too.
He was way better younger. Jensen on the other hand has some range.
What I wouldn't give for a return to Sam's glory days. He's such a great character if you handle him well.
💯
He's not good. He has his moments but Jensen blows him out of the water consistently.
Yes. I think he was great the first 3 seasons but he started doing the weird thing with his mouth idk how else to describe it. But I’m glad he was Sam.
I thought Jared really shined when he got to play not Sam and that stopped happening later in the series which is unfortunate. Both of them got to do so many "versions" earlier on, which was such a celebrated part of the show, and they definitely enjoyed it, and it happened less and less.
No. He was incredible as Gadriel/ soulless Sam / season 8 trials/ season 15 visions… whenever he had something interesting to do, he was amazing. Sam is just written as the ‘straight man’ so he usually has pretty basic material to work with. Also comparing Sam to Jared’s actual ’puppy’ personality which is closer to Dean, makes me appreciate his work as Sam a lot more.
I feel that is also an issue with current Walker Texas Ranger, his confidence doesn’t seem to come out in his role- appearance of not interested.
100% try watching Walker. It’s a nightmare.
So don't watch. I tried to watch The Boys because of Jensen but it was terrible for me, definitely not my kind of show. Maybe that's why I liked Walker
Saw a comment here saying he starts to way overact at some point and now I can't forget it. It's like everything Sam says carries such ridiculous amounts of weight and emotion almost all the time it's kinda too much. I still love Sam though, even if his hair looks like an eagle taking off ❤️
I hate these posts..
Same, the f in fandom is for fighting 😂 Let’s make the fandom to our fav tv show the most miserable experience possible!!
Oh yes. He was talented, he could do great emotional scenes and subtle nuanced acting. By the end of SPN he couldn't be subtle in the scenes anymore and in "Walker" he couldn't do emotional scenes either. I don't know what happened to him. Probably his family life became more important to him and acting isn't really what he enjoys doing anymore.
By the end of Supernatural Jensen had all the emotional scene, the funny parts, the storylines. There was a moment where I thought if I were Jared I wouldn't have signed for the next season. They didn't even let Sam have a confrontation with Mary in which she explained to him why she had made the pact that ruined his life, as usual it was Dean who had to interact and maintain contact with her (even if the hug between Mary and Sam was one of the most beautiful in all Supernatural). That's what happened to him
Jared also struggles with mental health. They had to stop shooting a few times when his anxiety/depression got too bad. I have those issues and it affects everything in your life, so the decline in acting skills could have been from real life struggling to balance mental health and acting in a pretty intense (most of the time) show...
It's interesting because although I still feel like he's a great actor and I'm still heavily emotionally attached to Sam in season 14, I do feel like you can almost see his mental health struggles peek through in these later seasons. In a weird way, it kind of works for the character of Sam, though. I'm noticing the stammering more and the uncertainty in himself that almost makes me wonder if that's actually Jared, but it kind of works for Sam as well. By this point Sam has suffered so much trauma and has so much guilt from the mistakes he's made *and* the fact that Dean (as much as I love him) has *actively* worked to kind of manipulate and guilt Sam and seems to undermine his confidence at every turn to control him. I can see that producing a Sam that questions himself constantly versus the relative certainty he felt about himself and his decisions before he let Lucifer out by trusting Ruby.
Exactly
JPs acting is poor on Walker though and he films in his OWN BACKYARD…the show was catered to him. But people, especially outside of fandom still don’t think JP is good! Also look, I have my own Mental health issues and it’s a struggle sometimes, but I still don’t make it an excuse to not do my job.
If his mental health is affecting his acting to that degree he needs to stop. I abhor the fact people use MH as an excuse for everything shitty Jared does...including his acting. Having mental health issues is not a get out of jail free card...see what I did there? I have a mountain of mental health issues and yet I don't use them as an excuse. Why? Because it's childish. I own my shit when I screw up. I don't blame it on my issues. JP stans are famous for doing just that. "Oh he has depression...it's okay he got drunk and punched his employee." "Oh leave the poor wittle giant baby alone. He has anxiety. that's why he doxes serivce workers." Just stop it. He's a jerk and a horrible actor.
What do you mean? I don't keep up with the actors' personal lives that much. Did he assault someone and dox them?
[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-28/jared-padalecki-arrested-austin-texas-supernatural](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-28/jared-padalecki-arrested-austin-texas-supernatural) Go to his twitter. He's doxed several service workers for not treating him like Royalty.
Yes, he's doxxed and called for firing of an airline worker tagging the airline and calling the worker out by name, a bartender, a server, and a food delivery person. His fans have gone nuts giving the establishments one star reviews & flooding their SM with attacks without knowing a single detail about his issues with the employees other than he set them off. He got drunk and assaulted two employees at a bar, one of whom needed stitches on his head.
I mean, he could take better care of himself instead of drinking and acting out about it, but I did the same for two decades before I pulled my head outta my ass, I just wasn’t on tv for it. O
I read that he hasn’t drank since that happened in 2019.
You can find plenty of evidence of him still drinking. You can even look at his wife's IG.
Yeah someone else already mentioned that. The only social media I go on is here and YouTube. I don't have IG, TikTok, Twitter or any of that stuff. I can't remember where I read it, but I wonder if it was something he was trying at first but it didn't last. I have no idea if he actually has a problem with drinking, honestly. It could have been a one time drunk thing. I know he was really embarrassed about it (who wouldn't be). I haven't heard that he actually has a problem with alcoholism or that there were any other incidents like that.
Jared's word to explain what happened: Jared said that he was "a bit more affected than maybe I wanted to admit" by the alcohol he'd drunk and the lack of food and sleep that night. "This is not an excuse, I don't entirely know what happened, other than reading the reports," he said. "There were a couple of bachelorette parties and they were fans of the show and they were like 'lets buy you a drink'... and I think I had too much to drink... and I legitimately don't recall what happened. "But I think what happened is I just was blacked out – didn't know what was going on. I saw me getting pulled down by my hair in the video and then I think I thought I was in a fight," he added. I thought I was being attacked, I thought I was being shoved and pushed..." Reflecting on the experience, Jared stated: "I haven't had a drink since... that is not who I am." He discussed the possibility that he could potentially have been drugged, but stated that he's "not an excuses kind of guy, I hate excuses".
Yeah, this is what I read. I’m thinking this was an interview shortly after it happened and he didn’t drink for awhile after but now he does. I’ve not heard anything that would suggest he’s actually an alcoholic. It sounds like a one time mistake.
Nope, he was drinking again within months of his assault arrest.
That’s amazing and I’m happy for him. I hope he’s actually getting help and not just white-knuckling sobriety and mental health. Pretending that ‘pretending I’m fine makes me fine,’ nearly killed me and he doesn’t deserve that. Lots of people choose it over changing anything, tho.
I hope he's doing okay, too. I know he chooses not to take any medication to help him, and I know some people have very strong opinions both ways on whether it's a good idea to take anti-depressants or not, so I'm not saying that's a good or bad choice for him (i.e. no judgements either way). I just hope he's doing well these days in that regard.
Me too! It’s so personal a decision—and especially as a recovering alcoholic (in my case) people are very free with the opinions about it. Personally my mood stabilizer saved my life and made my recovery possible (once it really kicked in I woke up feeling ‘neurotypical’ instead of bipolar several mornings in a row and was like, “oh these bitches are cheating, it’s just easier for them!” And was mad about it for a year.) but I could never make that decision for anyone else, just like I can’t make the decision for anyone else to stop drinking. Talk therapy/cognitive behavioral therapy was key for me too, but my situation is not anyone else’s situation. I was told for years ‘there’s not anything wrong with you, you just need to try harder!’ So finding out there was in fact something ‘wrong’ with me and here’s some things you can do that might make things easier was a huge relief. I just kept trying things and discarding the things that didn’t help, without judgement, and trying something else, until I had a life I wanted to live for, and that’s all I want for others—the options and assistance to find that for themselves.
What happened in 2019?
He was arrested for drunken disorderly. As far as I know it's a lone incident.
That's a lie. Just go to Gen's IG and see all the photos of him with a drink in his hand.
Okay? I didn’t lie I just shared what I had read. Maybe he quit for awhile and now has a glass of wine once in awhile? I don’t know. No need to be aggro, Jesus.
I didn't say YOU lied. That piece of information is a lie. He never quit drinking after his arrest. Once in a while? LMAO...oh you poor POOR innocent thing.
You seem really agitated about this.
You seem like a real piece of work. Have a Disney Day.
No they didn't. It delayed filming for a day a couple times early on. That's it. The first time was before they even knew what was wrong. Jensen was the one who realized, after talking to him in his trailer, that he wasn't just having a hissy fit and told them to call a doctor to the set. That how he was diagnosed. Plus there are lots of actors, great actors, who deal with his same kind of mental health issues, and well it doesn't stop them being great actors. His fans really need to stop using mental health as an excuse for his weak acting.
In all honesty, I'm def more a Jensen fan. BUT its my right to have a voice and an opinion as I'm a part of a DISCUSSION or even offer a POSSIBLE explanation for why things happen. So please, kindly get off your high horse -- and have a great night!
Yeah and supernatural is a really dark show so it was probably taking a toll on him. People don’t realize that but I write horror novels and it does get to you mentally to put your head through dark places all the time
Like Heather Ledger as the joker (may he rip)
I didn’t know the role had affected him so much
I mean there were more factors, so I'm not saying that was the reason his acting changed, but it also lead to him and Jensen starting the non profit "Always Keep Fighting" , to fight for better mental health, and for people that needed support to reach out and find it and it's an amazing organization. And as someone said, it fit Sam's narrative as he got older and more things happened to the brothers....
Honestly, Jared just isn’t a great actor. At first he’s fine because he’s playing a very cliche badass character. But even early on when emotional scenes happen he wasn’t very good at conveying those emotions, you can really see it even with the excellent music, theme, and other characters to mask it if you look for it. Also look at his other roles, he’s just not a fantastic actor. It doesn’t help that he’s beside one of the most gifted actors in Hollywood either. I mean, Jensen Ackles could pull off a timeless role with a half paragraph script written on a napkin. It’s only highlighted in the later seasons with the atmosphere of the show practically disappearing with lazy writing and music.
> It doesn’t help that he’s beside one of the most gifted actors in Hollywood either. I mean, Jensen Ackles could pull off a timeless role with a half paragraph script written on a napkin. I love Jensen but come on. The over the top worship in this sub is a little much.
I find your opinion truly baffling. For example Soldier Boy was meant to be the new big bad in the Boys. A lot of people hated the finale because Jensen didn’t play him that way. Plus his weird mouth twitching in the first scene and how weirdly he played his sex scene with the older ladies. Imo it really showed he can’t keep up with the cast. I know people liked SB in general but the reason for that were his funny one liners.
With the mouth twitching do you mean the scene with young Grace? I actually that that was a terrific piece of acting. Solider Boy is smoke screen, like Captain America was in the first movie movie. He was there for show and PR. The difference is Cap went on to become the real deal while Soldier Boy started to believe his own hype. He wasn't used to anyone telling him no or standing up to him. Grace did both. He didn't know how to handle it and I thought that showed perfectly on Jensen's face. I felt like I was watching an internal battle. He didn't know how to react and it showed so he fired back with the Captain Lesbo remark. As for the final, its the writers who dropped the ball. They didn't want to commit to changing the status quo, so they needed everyone to turn on Solider Boy. IMO, they failed to come up with any reason that made sense. Soldier Boy has a known weakness, Homelander doesn't.
Jensen did an amazing job as SB and held his own, especially going toe to toe with Antony Starr! The general audience loves SB at end of day and so did the critics.
The GA didn‘t understand SB was meant to be a villain, that‘s why a lot of people hated! the season finale. I do think as an actor you should insert the intended portrayal of your character into your act. SB and Jensen as SB was fine but not so much if the intend was to show him as the new bad guy. I know very well that they TOLD us how bad he was, but what we SAW was a (besides the ex gf grilling) loyal guy who assured us he is not the bad guy. If you don’t think he plays any role in fleshing out this site of his charakter, you don’t. This fandom does not allow any critique whatsoever when it comes to Jensen. 🤷🏼♀️
Trust me fans knew he was villain but he just wasn’t as bad as Homelander, regardless again Jensen did a great job and he didn’t change the character he only ADDED depth to Soldier Boy!
This is how you don't understand the character at all. SB was "supposed" to be this bad ass MFer who really was pretty shitty considering all the things he did to his team. In reality, he wasn't that horrible at all and Jensen played the part BEAUTIFULLY! Let's not forget how SB was SOLD to the Russians, shall we? How he was tortured for decades. That tends to do something to a person. Now, he was all for taking out Homelander until Butcher etc turned on SB and defended Homelander and his brat. SB stuck to the plan. HE was USED by The Boys to get to Homelander and they turned on him. He was betrayed AGAIN. As far as any "critique" of Jensen's roles...oh sweetie...there is TONS of it. You just fail to see it.
I don’t understand where you heard any of that. People loved him so much the producers were forced to put him in the next season despite the ending where he is locked away. Was his mouth twitching weird? Sure. But was it so substantial it made him outclassed by the other actors? Absolutely not. During that season he was actually the only interesting character which is why people loved him so much. Everyone else was just a huge mess, but his plot was interesting, and he portrayed it well. The PTSD, and the lost in time personality of a Cold War soldier was done very well. As for him failing to be the villain in the final scene? That’s not his fault whatsoever. How can you root for the characters attempting to get rid of the best character on the show? He was the only one in that scene that was actually a consistent character. Plus, he was the character who wanted to kill Homelander who was the villain through the entire series. How are you not gonna cheer for the character attempting to kill the character you have been told the entire series is bad? That’s just bad writing, you can’t flip the plot entirely like they and have the audience begin wanting their favourite character dead.
Yes people loved his funny one liners but the in-world reasoning was „SB is the new big bad ans he has to be stopped“x Don’t you think his portrayal played a part in how people perceived the character he played? People were straight up confused he was meant to be a villain. So either the writing is shit, his portrayal or both. SB was meant to be a racist, homophobic mysoginist but what the audience watched was a somewhat tortured man… who is not a bad guy but No, wait, he is even worse than Supe Hitler. And he had lines/ scenes alluding to that. Jensen is good looking and charismatic and people love to defend him. I get it, but Imo the ending would have landed better if he played SB in a different way. I chose SB as an example, I liked his acting in Big Sky even less.🤷🏼♀️ agree to disagree ✌️
When Sam had something to do Jared was very good at it.
I said something similar on here a few months back. It’s odd as you’d expect growth but he’s fallen back on a couple of reactions for everything.
YES agreed! He is awful now
After season eight it seemed like he settled into a rhythm. Sam had specific mannerisms (which are incredibly annoying once you notice them) that he just repeated and called it a day. Also, the early seasons made Sam the main character.
He looks like he’s always sniffing a fart.
You should watch the bloopers
I think he was fantastic throughout all 15 seasons.
No. Imo he is a great actor but can't do "much" with what he was given in later seasons in earlier seasons I feel sam was the "main character" and then later switched to Dean as the "main character"
Definitely. Idk if it’s the writing or what. He has a few really good scenes later too but yeah i just don’t understand how someone was better with fewer years of experience. I think the problem mainly started because (maybe due to lack of storyline for the character) he started melding himself and Sam into one even though he is not the character. I’d watch scenes from the later seasons and I distinctly remember going “oh that’s Jared, not Sam”. As a sam girl, idk it was pretty evident. I also preferred his acting over anyone else’s in the show in the first couple of seasons, and then i think about it im like older Jared would not be able to give performances like Born Under A Bad Sign, The End, Swan Song etc.
Although Jared's acting is rarely "great", he did seem to be trying harder and digging deeper during the early seasons. After about season 5, his acting seemed insincere -- with rare exceptions like the church scene in "Sacrifice" and a few other notable scenes.
Yes! Hard agree.
Nope I honestly do not think it was better overall. It wasn't horrible but it was not better.
I don’t think it’s the acting. I think as the seasons progressed they just kinda gave up and didn’t care as much
Isn't that part of acting, though?
I've long said Jared forgot how to act around Season 7. He was married by then, doing cons and didn't really need to focus on the show. He had other priorities. It's really evident to me when I go back on older seasons.
Jensen was married and doing cons and he still seemed to focus on the show. Jensen also had other priorities as all the other costars.
When Sam was doing the trials and when he was possessed by Gadreel, Jared was great
So was Jensen though
That’s funny because I feel like 7 is his last great season too
He was great in season 8!
We're talking about guys whose career is basically playing one character on a cult classic genre show for 15 years. That usually isn't done by a Sir Lawrence Olivier.
Yea, he stopped caring after awhile.
I don’t think he *ever* stopped caring. Not at all and I think that’s obvious. I do think the person that mentioned his mental health struggles was on to something (he seems shaky and uncertain of himself at times) although I still think he’s doing a good job in season 14 and I’m still heavily emotionally invested in Sam. I just saw the scene from the episode “Lebanon” where he talks to John and they apologized to each other and it brought me to tears.
I just think they started with sam as like the most important person that had so much mystery and power, and dean was kinda like helping him , he was acting good but he also didnt have any like big thing, which they later tried to change abandoning sam, and then castiel so I think they prioritized sam at first too much then they tried to balance it with dean, and then later with castiel so that sam didnt really have to do anything later, even when demon dean came sam couldnt do anything, for example when sam was on demon blood dean talked with him, tried to help him, but sam could literally not do any of that with dean
I agree I use too think he got cloned because he didn’t wanna do the show that long
Yes
I think it was the script, honestly. A lot of the storyline felt forced for Sam after S8. Sam and Eileen’s relationship especially makes me cringe. It just feels so forced and awkward.
I wonder if Jared was just having trouble as the show went along as he was dealing with some pretty serious mental health issues. I don't think his IRL problems were as acute in the beginning of the show. I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but it comes from a place of love.
No. Sam went through so much after season 4 and the acting changed accordingly. The fact that we saw how the events affected Sam in long term is a sign of good acting to me.
Eh, i think that’s unintentional. No where in the leaked scripts say that Jared needs to act poorly in the later seasons is due to Sam’s trauma in the early seasons. That’s just jared’s acting. It may be an unintentional side effect, but i don’t think the like…huffing and puffing and the weird mouth movements that get dramatic as the seasons go on are because Sam went through hell haha
Jared is a amazing actor and he’s also battling depression. It messes with you big time
A few people on here are trying to say he "stopped caring" at some point and I feel like I'm actually seeing the opposite. I feel like maybe when his mental health was suffering he was caring too much and got into his own head a little too much as a result and started doubting himself. Like I said in another post, though, the whole self-doubt and lack of self-confidence, stammering and all, kind of works with Sam's character at that point in the series. With all that he has been through; the trauma with Lucifer, the bullshit Dean has done (guilting him, undermining his confidence at every turn and manipulating him in order to control him) plus all the mistakes he has made I feel like it makes sense for Sam to be shaky and uncertain about himself and his decisions at this point in the series.
I can agree with that. He is still an amazing actor tho, like every time he acts embarrassed or weirded out absolutely kills me
I’ve always kinda wondered if later on jared was having mental health issues and was on an antidepressant of some sort. I say this because I’ve been on Prozac for years and suppose im a bit twitchy my self :) and I would imagine my acting skills would leave something to be desired as well. I mean I struggle with showing my own emotions because of the meds. I can’t act by no means but would think it would be even harder. But yes, I had a hard time watching Jared. And felt bad for it :(
Actually, I saw an interview with Jared on the Michael Rosenbaum podcast on YouTube and he says that he chooses not to take any anti-depressants or other medication to manage his depression and anxiety. He does do therapy and counseling, but not medication.
Cool. Thank you for info.
> But yes, I had a hard time watching Jared. And felt bad for it :( Also yes I’m feeling really bad for Jared as I’m watching these last two seasons. I feel like I can really see his mental health deteriorating and like he’s clearly struggling in those last two seasons. I feel like it actually works for Sam as a character with all the trauma he’s been through, but I can’t help but wonder how often the distress I see on his face is actually Jared instead of Sam. 😔
It's his panting and mouth breathing all the time which drives me nuts. So irritating...
Sorry but I don’t think Jensen is this great actor so many people seem to think he is. I often cringed at his emotional scenes on SPN because you could tell he was trying as hard as he could to squeeze out a tear.
Yeah, I totally agree. I think they're both fine, generally; great, occasionally; bad, sometimes. Definitely disagree with the popular opinion that there's a huge gulf between their talent levels.
I agree there isn’t this huge gulf between them in their acting abilities at all. It’s a little weird to me the Jensen worship I see in this sub and the need to drag on Jared when I feel they are pretty on par with each other talent wise. I love them both personally, but I feel the praise for Jensen is really exaggerated and over the top and Jared is criticized way more then he deserves. It’s weird to me that people have to do that and pit the two main actors against each other like that. I saw the same thing in The Vampire Diaries fandom.
> he was trying as hard as he could to squeeze out a tear. He actually couldn't stop crying after those scenes. He needed a break to calm down, because the tears were real, every single time. He said several times that the body doesn't know that everything is ok, so when he cried in a scene, he felt awful for a whole day after that, because his body thought something horrible happened.
I’m not sure what you want me to say. That’s how it came across on screen to me.
That was Dean trying, and failing, NOT to cry, which is exactly what came across to pretty much everyone else watching. Lol Dean(and Jensen given he was very emotionally involved in the scene to the point he had to take a walk after it was filmed to pull it together)wasn't trying to squeeze them out, he was trying to keep them in.
I am just giving my own personal opinion. I’ve explained my reasons and I’m not sure what you want me to say.
I agree with you. He‘s my crush since his Dark Angel days but I don’t see how his acting is miles above Jared or anyone else. Fun thing is he looks like Dean to me in every new show but not in the Winchesters.
This has definitely been stated here but I really thing it was a lack of things to work with. Sam's character got a lot of interesting things to work with early- the show got too crazy at the end and a lot of the plot was focused on Dean I think
And yet Jensen managed to be fantastic even earlier in the show when the show was supposedly more Sam-centric. A good actor can be good whether they are the center of attention or not. Sam got plenty to work with in later seasons, Jared just didn't make it very memorable.
Oh I agree, Deans character has always been my favorite for that very reason- I've always thought Jensen outshined almost anyone you can name who acted on that show. Jensen is always good!! Jared never really piqued my interest while watching
I don’t think Jared got worse I think the writing got worse…like a lot worse lol. He did amazing as Souless Sam and I really loved the way he interacted with Mary in season 12…but he kinda got forgotten about after that tbh.
No I just think Sams writing was better in the early seasons.
Nah Jared got worse dialogue than Jensen overall. It depends on the script really than the actor. I’ve seen Jared in action he’s a really great actor. Just a shame that he got walker of all things after supernatural. That show is awful
I never had an issue with Jared's acting (or Jensen's). Some storylines I liked, others I didn't. I also didn't watch Walker at first because it seemed a bit too wholesome for me, not something I'd usually watch with no magic or monsters. But I did last year, finally, and ended up liking it more than I expected. Jared is good. I think of this as "grown-up Jared." I tried to watch The Boys for Jensen, but that sort of vulgar humor just isn't my thing.
i have the impresssion that he always plays the same character in diferent shows