This episode is very nice,after having read the spoilers and seen the promo, i really thought this episode was gonna be a pain in the ass for two simply reasons, Sam and Dean weren't hunting and because of the ghostfacers. Happily the episode was well written and directed and i think supernatural isn't running out of ideas, and i am pretty sure that this TV series is going forward. The episode is different from the others because the Winchester brothers don't know each other,but Sam or both of them had dreams about their hunting trips and stuff and after their colleagues start committing suicides for no reason , they start a friendship and join a hunting trip looking for an old employee who is behind these deaths. As they have forgotten how to defeat a ghost, they go for the ghostfacers,who give them some advice which the Winchesters had given them before.
8 Reviews
Funny and offbeat
CubsandCulture9 March 2020
There is one of the most topical episodes the show has done. As much as the show's format and the restraints of network TV allowed this episode is a rebuke late capitalism. On that front it is a nice social satire piece and it puts to use Sam and Dean's class status to good use. It's not revolutionary or anything but this is one of the more politically overt episodes.
Setting that aspect to the side this is a really funny episode of Jensen and Jared playing against their characters. The show every now and then does stuff like this and it nearly always the highlight of the season. The mythical stuff mostly works and Zachariah is a good heavy.
Setting that aspect to the side this is a really funny episode of Jensen and Jared playing against their characters. The show every now and then does stuff like this and it nearly always the highlight of the season. The mythical stuff mostly works and Zachariah is a good heavy.
Disteny
zombiehigh1829 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
"It's a terrible life" is not probably the high light of the season but still fun to watch. After the very intense "On the head of a Pin" we deserve a break and the brothers too. Last episode, Dean told Castiel "the angels should find some one else to save the day since he is not strong enough", in a very heart breaking scene. Dean is showing a gradual resent of the job and the whole hunting life, he is tired of burying friends and of the weight on his shoulders. The show introduces Zachariah, an Angel superior to Castiel, Who decides to teach Dean a lesson that being a hunter is in his bones, no matter which life he lead. He has to stop whining and focus on the job.
Dean and Sam wake up in an alternate world as Dean Smith and Sam Wesson, with no recollection of their real lives.
It was massively funny to see Dean looking neat in a blue shirt, red tie, drinking milk, working on a desk in a corporate, eating salad and resenting his usual type of music. While Sam happens to work in the same building in Tech support wearing a yellow T-shirt and having a Dean like friend.
After a few creepy suicides (Talk a bout a guy who puts his head in microwave and another who sticks a pencil in his neck), the two team up and hunt a ghost. Sam and Dean enjoy the hunt and Sam tempts Dean to leave their jobs and go hunting but Dean is reluctant and worried about Health Insurance!!!!!!!!!!!
The introduction of Zachariah was good, he appears to be another version of Uriel. Both have low opinions about humans, But I'm not yet sure if they are on the same side.
I really liked the idea of changing the lights to the usual darker one when Zachariah touched Dean's forehead to restore his memory. And though I'm not a fan of the Ghostfacers, bringing them back fit in place and didn't seem forced.
I want to point to two interesting points:
1- Dean told Sam that he has a father named Bobby a mother Ellen and a sister Jo. I guess that's Deans true feelings about them, He only sees them as family, that's why he never had a relationship with Jo.
2- Sam's nightmares were very intriguing. Was it because of his psychic powers? Was it because of the daemon blood? Or did the Angels leave this part of his memory to use him to motivate Dean?
Dean and Sam wake up in an alternate world as Dean Smith and Sam Wesson, with no recollection of their real lives.
It was massively funny to see Dean looking neat in a blue shirt, red tie, drinking milk, working on a desk in a corporate, eating salad and resenting his usual type of music. While Sam happens to work in the same building in Tech support wearing a yellow T-shirt and having a Dean like friend.
After a few creepy suicides (Talk a bout a guy who puts his head in microwave and another who sticks a pencil in his neck), the two team up and hunt a ghost. Sam and Dean enjoy the hunt and Sam tempts Dean to leave their jobs and go hunting but Dean is reluctant and worried about Health Insurance!!!!!!!!!!!
The introduction of Zachariah was good, he appears to be another version of Uriel. Both have low opinions about humans, But I'm not yet sure if they are on the same side.
I really liked the idea of changing the lights to the usual darker one when Zachariah touched Dean's forehead to restore his memory. And though I'm not a fan of the Ghostfacers, bringing them back fit in place and didn't seem forced.
I want to point to two interesting points:
1- Dean told Sam that he has a father named Bobby a mother Ellen and a sister Jo. I guess that's Deans true feelings about them, He only sees them as family, that's why he never had a relationship with Jo.
2- Sam's nightmares were very intriguing. Was it because of his psychic powers? Was it because of the daemon blood? Or did the Angels leave this part of his memory to use him to motivate Dean?
It's A Terrible Life (2009)
nebohr25 September 2022
This episode will definitely require the viewing audience to dial up the "suspension of disbelief" knob. Just watch it. Don't think too much about it.
This is a rather laid -back episode where the two Winchester brothers, Sammy and Dean, find themselves working for a rather large steel -oriented construction corporation. Oh, and minus their memories of what they have been doing, apparently, for their entire lives.
Now that is what's known as "working your way up the corporate ladder". Ha ha.
We get some clarifications as far as just what the pecking order is up in Heaven, and how much is owed to the Winchester family.
This is a rather laid -back episode where the two Winchester brothers, Sammy and Dean, find themselves working for a rather large steel -oriented construction corporation. Oh, and minus their memories of what they have been doing, apparently, for their entire lives.
Now that is what's known as "working your way up the corporate ladder". Ha ha.
We get some clarifications as far as just what the pecking order is up in Heaven, and how much is owed to the Winchester family.
Greatest filler episode so far.
m-4782630 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
It's no denying Supernatural is a wildly entertaining series. It may have stolen plots from other supernatural dramas, before it. But always in a way that suits the show perfectly. This is also one of those rare series, where most fillers have something going for it. It's a Terrible Life, is yet another « what if » episode, only it is so good, you would think the series was off to offer a fresh start to the brothers. Until the ending proved it wasn't the case. Which is maybe the only disappointing thing about it. I'm not too keen on the biblical stuffs, the series struggled throughout half of its run. So this last minute twist, took me back to a plot I would have rather forgotten...
Different lives
shwetafabm13 June 2020
Once Hunter, Always Hunter
claudio_carvalho15 June 2010
Dean is the Sales & Marketing Director and Sam works in a cubicle of the Technical Support of a Corporation. Sam has glimpses of Dean and himself vanquishing ghosts and supernatural creatures. When the Human Resources sends an e-mail to Sam's colleague Paul Dubar, he returns stressed and commits suicide after a mistake. Then another colleague, Ian, also receives an e-mail of the HR and goes to room 1444. On the next day, he changes his behavior and also commits suicide. Sam and Dean team up to investigate the mysterious room and finds that the ghost of the founder of the company is haunting the flawed employees. In the end, Dean realizes that once hunter, always hunter.
"It's a Terrible Life" is a diversion in the mainstream of the Fourth Season, maybe to stretch the intriguing plot along the standard of 22 episodes per season to send DVD boxes for collectors like me. The unnecessary story is not bad and has a reasonable resolution. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Que Vida Terrível" ("What a Terrible Life")
"It's a Terrible Life" is a diversion in the mainstream of the Fourth Season, maybe to stretch the intriguing plot along the standard of 22 episodes per season to send DVD boxes for collectors like me. The unnecessary story is not bad and has a reasonable resolution. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Que Vida Terrível" ("What a Terrible Life")
Defender
ttapola2 August 2011
How do you follow up the best episode of the season so far? By attempting to top it? Sure, that works if the best episode was "only" good or great, but when it happens to be one of best in the series *ever*, you have an almost insurmountable problem. The show-runners made a wise choice by deciding to do a Format Breaker. At first this may seem like a Weird One, such as "Monster Movie" (#4.5), but it really only breaks the series' format of "weird things happen, Sam and Dean arrive to investigate".
At three minutes, the pre-credits sequence is slightly too long, especially as the premise could have been presented in a more compact way. Well, at least there are even longer ones on TV (*nine* minutes is the longest I've ever seen). Interweaving two different central ideas into one episode - even when that's the whole point of the episode - isn't easy, and when one of them could have been just about any Monster-of-the-Week, it's not *that* impressive an achievement when the interweaving succeeds.
The good news is, there is some nice action and plenty of laughs, especially one spectacular gross-out moment with black humor. There are also some subtle self-ironic moments regarding the series format. Also, almost always when Kurt Fuller is in anything, you can safely bet he delivers one of his trademark, deliciously arrogant, crooked, untrustworthy characters. His inclusion in the recurring cast is a definite plus. And Castiel's previous revelation that not only did Dean make the breaking of the seals possible in the first place but he also has to stop Lucifer finally made the writers break Dean out of his uncharacteristic "I'm not demanding answers to why I was broken out of Hell" state, which was a really good thing. Castiel did not know the details, so now Dean has to seek the answers.
However, an episode where the cleverest thing is a couple of unexpected familiar comic relief characters, doesn't really achieve greatness. A solid 7/10 it is.
At three minutes, the pre-credits sequence is slightly too long, especially as the premise could have been presented in a more compact way. Well, at least there are even longer ones on TV (*nine* minutes is the longest I've ever seen). Interweaving two different central ideas into one episode - even when that's the whole point of the episode - isn't easy, and when one of them could have been just about any Monster-of-the-Week, it's not *that* impressive an achievement when the interweaving succeeds.
The good news is, there is some nice action and plenty of laughs, especially one spectacular gross-out moment with black humor. There are also some subtle self-ironic moments regarding the series format. Also, almost always when Kurt Fuller is in anything, you can safely bet he delivers one of his trademark, deliciously arrogant, crooked, untrustworthy characters. His inclusion in the recurring cast is a definite plus. And Castiel's previous revelation that not only did Dean make the breaking of the seals possible in the first place but he also has to stop Lucifer finally made the writers break Dean out of his uncharacteristic "I'm not demanding answers to why I was broken out of Hell" state, which was a really good thing. Castiel did not know the details, so now Dean has to seek the answers.
However, an episode where the cleverest thing is a couple of unexpected familiar comic relief characters, doesn't really achieve greatness. A solid 7/10 it is.
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