I know the show has been difficult for you to watch for a long time. (You still have joy left to kill when you watch?) I hope you haven't already decided to hate these eps and that you can look for good stuff, but otoh, if this gives you some sort of release--if these eps release the show's hold on you--that would be good, too.

What I find ironic is that as much as you hate that they're whitewashing Sam or whatever, there are Sam fans who hate that the show has become (according to them) All About Dean, and that Dean gets the lion's share of screen time and Sam has (according to them) been made a secondary character.

Between those two camps, the writers just can't win.