Reception
Critical reception to Jo has been mixed. Diana Steenbergen of IGN favored Jo from the beginning, deeming her "tough and direct, and also female, something the boys don't have a lot of in their lives right now". She also believed that Jo and Dean had a "natural chemistry" between them, which continues even with her reappearance in the fifth season. However, Steenbergen was confused by Jo's anger at Sam and Dean over John Winchester's involvement in her father's death, feeling that the show's producers may have added it to the story as an excuse for Jo's removal from the series. While Tina Charles of TV Guide was at first unsure about the character, she felt that by the episode "No Exit", "Tal did step things up and kinda won me over". She believed that while Jo did not make a good love interest for Dean, she was good in a "sisterly or friendly fellow-ghostbuster way", deeming her as "someone they can count on in a pinch". Overall, Charles felt that Jo "fit into that world, whether she was a little overzealous or not". Commenting on the character's final appearance and her dying farewells, Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune noted that Tal "brought A-game to 'Abandon All Hope…'". Ryan added that " perfectly into the 'Supernatural' world because that on this show, restraint is everything. It's not necessarily just about what the characters say or do, it's about what they don't say—what they can't find the words for". However, Sean Elliott of IFMagazine disliked the "Scrappy-Doo qualities of the character", and compared Jo to Dawn Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, feeling that she "is always trying to help and always gets in the way".
Fan reaction to the character was generally negative. Jensen Ackles, who portrays Dean, summed up the response as, "No, no, we just want this to be about the boys." Though Kripke found Tal to be a "terrific actress" that "did valiantly and beautifully with the part gave her", he feels that the mistake was introducing her as a love interest, and came to believe that women should only be introduced into the series as antagonists.
Read more about this topic: Jo Harvelle
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
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“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
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