Sometimes, I think that all of the nerd homework I’ve done in the past few years was leading to this very moment. (Even before I called it that.)
Rewatching Buffy and Angel, pushing through Sailor Moon and The X-Files and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Trying Supernatural in the past, never making it past episode 12, I knew this weekend as I passed that point, that this would be my breaking point on the project. If I got through Season 1, I would commit, and I would watch the thirteen seasons that followed.
I’m just that kind of nerd.
So I snuggled under my electric blanket, I put my Gilmore Girls mandated distaste for Jared Padelecki aside, and I pushed straight through season 1. I was rewarded by an excellent twist on a formula I already liked quite a bit. (The X-Files, aside from being the original is still the best execution of it, at least in it’s early days.) A monster of the week show with an overarching story that drips out slowly is going to rise and fall on it’s cast. And luckily, this is a very good cast. (Again, not as good as The X-Files.)
So, I’ll be checking in each week on Supernatural, as I move through it. Frankly, it shouldn’t take too long. I can get through something like seven episodes a day. Seven divided by 300 is 42. By next month, I will have watched this show, barring disaster.
(Well, it will be shorter, because, ya know, Season 14 isn’t on Netflix yet, I’ll watch that this summer.)
So, here we go. I like the show, some episodes are better than others. I appreciate that there’s no puberty metaphor. (The WB versions of these shows were addicted to puberty metaphors.) I really really like Jensen Ackles, who I also really really liked on Smallville. (Even if it was totally weird that he was both Clark’s football coach and dating Lana…) I hope that everyone enjoys this ride with me. (Check out my twitter, where I’ll likely be freaking out as I move through things.)
Season 1 has a good arc. And as much as I like the boys, (Well Jensen, and I no longer scowl reflexively when Jared comes on screen. I mean, Sam kinda sucks in the same way that Dean from GG sucked. But with less adultery and Rory ruining.) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, (Here’s a weird thought, while Morgan was playing John Winchester, the dad on a show about adult men, his future wife, Hilarie Burton was playing Peyton Sawyer, a fifteen year old girl on the same network, often on the same night. That’s kinda weird.) (It should be noted though that most of the cast of One Tree Hill, barring James Lafferty, were pushing 30 in season 1) I’m wondering when the sarcastic angel in a trench coat that girls always cosplay is going to show up. (I know his name is Castiel, I have been attending Comic Con for eight years.) (Castiel is not the Tenth Doctor is not Constantine, and a cosplayer will get on your shit for misidentify which one they’re dressed as.)
Then Season 2 hit. Season 2 turns the volume up to 11, it sets the boys on the run from The FBI, trying to avenge their fathers death and puts Sam’s dark destiny as a champion of The Yellow Eyed Demon in place. And it’s just a really really strong season of TV with several episodes that genuinely terrified me, others that made me laugh, the show lands into it’s own space, and stops being, “The X-Files but with cute boys and little bit of Buffy thrown in.” I also watched Season 2 in two days, because it’s that good.
This is the show that I’ve heard about all these years, with the classic rock soundtrack, and the snappy wise cracks and everyone selling their souls to demons right and left. I’ve got no problem with a show taking it’s time to find it’s feet, and this one found it beautifully. AND IT HAS A WHOLE EPISODE ABOUT CROSSROADS DEMONS THAT IS FRAMED AROUND ROBERT JOHNSON. I have trouble keeping my cool when anything involving Johnson comes up, because “Crossroads,” is one of my favorite songs ever, and “Before You Accuse Me,” is not far behind.
Anyway, next week we’ll likely talk about Seasons 3 & 4, and then probably slow down, although who knows, ya know?
The Fangirl's Dilemma 