ashkiryn | Entries tagged with supernatural

Such a glorious episode, isn't it, and fraught with Winchester brother angst. It's also, I think, the first episode since "Wendigo" that puts emphasis on all that rage that is at times central to Sam's character. And unless if you count "Bloody Mary", it's also the first time that we're shown a...shall we say, darker Sam, or at least a Sam that is lacking his empathy filter, which is also something we'll see rear its head again, particularly in season 6.

This episode, I'll state for the record, was written by Richard Hatem, and this is the last episode that he'll write for Supernatural. He also wrote "Phantom Traveler", and it's interesting to me that both of his episodes carried themes of possession in them. Hmm.

( "Let me know if you see any dead people, Haley Joel." )

Chapter One:

It Began with a Hook Man, with a Brief Stop Over Into Playthings, and References to Something Wicked (and the lovely parenting skills of one John Winchester).

Spoiler Warning: The following meta assumes the reader has knowledge of Supernatural canon up to the current season (8), with specific attention paid to the episodes "Hook Man", "Playthings", and "Something Wicked".

(Look at me, being all professional and shit.)

( "Could you be any more gay? ...Don't answer that." )

Alrighty then, that's a wrap for now. I may post more "chapters" of these as I come across them in my re-watch, who knows. *shrugs*

So, here we come to the episode that really kicks off the MythArc; aka, Epic Plot Shenanigans are afoot in this episode. If one is like me, and pays attention, this should be exceedingly obvious, as this episode was written by Eric Kripke himself (who had a hand in the majority of the big Mytharc episodes of this season; except for "Heaven and Hell" and "The Real Ghostbusters", for the rest of the seasons that he was Showrunner, he stuck to the first and last episodes of the seasons. And then I guess he stepped in as some kind of guest writer for the last episode of season 6, "The Man Who Knew Too Much").

( how could I have burned paradise? )

Current Music: "Call Me When You're Sober" -Evanescence

Man, I hate this episode so much. Like.

Really, Supernatural. Pitting the brothers against swarms of killer insects?

Really. I'm terrified and phobic enough of insects, thank you very much.

Also, land cursed by Native Americans?

Really, Supernatural? Really.

The insects are bad enough, but the plot of this episode is just so weak. And the sun does not come up that fast, I'm sorry to say, not to mention that it would have been so much smarter for everyone to fight their way into the car and drive away from the swarm of insects. I mean, they would have had plenty of time to get away, especially if they did without all the dramatic posing and staring at the oncoming swarm like a bunch of dumbfucks.

Ugh. This episode was written by Rachel Nave and Bill Coakley, who I notice didn't write another Supernatural episode after this one. Imagine that.

( "'Make him listen.' The hell were you thinking." )

Alright, so I flaked off doing this last week.....but hopefully I'll be doing two of these things today to compensate?

Anyway, this episode isn't my favorite, but so far, Supernatural wins out and can make me become interested in any episode once I actually sit down to watch it. And I still found things to talk about. Like "Skin", this episode was written by John Shiban (who apparently stopped writing for this show after season 2, his last episode being a personal favorite of mine, "Folsom Prison Blues").

( "That doesn't make it any less real." )

Ooh, another one of these things! XD Spoilers, so on and so forth. :)

So, of the four shapeshifter-centric episodes in Supernatural, this one is my least favorite---but only because the other three deliver me some of my all-time favorite side characters (Ronald and Victor in "Nightshifter", Jamie in "Monster Movie", and Bobby John in "Two and a Half Men"). In other words, this episode rocks my socks away, because holy fuck, but I think my favorite 'monsters' in Supernatural may in fact be the shapeshifters.

Can we talk about how much I love what Supernatural has done with shapeshifters? Because I really, really, really love this show's spin on them. Excluding the one in "Nightshifter", most of them actually have personalities and, you know, are characters, with (heartbreaking) backstories and feelings and motivations and fuck, but I adore them. And as they go, this shifter in "Skin" can't compete with the likes of Bobby John (who I swear is like the biggest thing on my Want list) or the Dracula shifter in "Monster Movie" when it comes to my love, but it's still one of my favorite monsters in season 1, and even when the whole series is taken into consideration, it probably doesn't slide too far down the list.

This is also the first episode since "Dead in the Water" where we get to really peel back a few more layers of the onion that is Dean Winchester, and, well, Lord knows that I'm always up for that. ^^

This episode was written by John Shiban.

( "Maybe you know him about as well as he knows you." )

Oh man, oh fucking man. Guys, there is just so much going on in this episode, it's actually pretty damn amazing. The subtext is so incredibly rich in this episode that it's actually moving up in my esteem, as well.

Spoilers abound, especially for the future episodes of "In the Beginning", "A Little Slice of Kevin", "Fallen Idols", and "Scarecrow". The story of this episode is by Eric Kripke, and the teleplay by Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes Burton.

( "Do I look like Paris Hilton?" )

This fourth episode of Supernatural is...interesting, and weird, for me. It's written by Richard Hatem, and I'll note (since I'm going to talk about this below the cut) that this is the first episode directed by Robert Singer (and the only other episode he'll direct this season is "Salvation").

( "Um...he had acid reflux, if that's what you mean." )

Oh man, this episode kills and punches me with the feels nowadays. Probably because it's such a Dean-centric episode, which....let's be honest, I'm a sucker for those. Especially ones like this episode, because it introduces what's basically my favorite thing EVER in a long list of favorite things about Dean Winchester.

Yep. It's time for me to get thrown down the Good Daddy Fangirl Slope. This episode is written by Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker.

( "That's what this is about? Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?" )

You know, it's kind of funny, but lately, I feel that I've been reading/watching stories that are especially focused on breaking out of your pre-destined roles, breaking the "rules" and doing your own thing. Princess Tutu, The Claidi Journals, Supernatural....I don't know, I just find it interesting that, as a society, we're so....contrary. We want and encourage people to become part of a community and help a collective whole, and pushed into certain roles, and yet, so many people focus their energies on writing narratives about people who defy societal expectations. Who break out of their molds and make their own places in the world....only to often fall into the patterns of behavior they hated so much in the first place, except that they just inflict it on other people. And I guess that's the thing about human nature. We don't always necessarily want to make things better for everyone----we just want to be on top. Even people like, say, Roy Mustang, from FMA; he wants to become a better Fuhrer to the people of Amestris. And maybe he does genuinely want to improve people's lives, but again, there's the obsession with being on top.

I....don't really have a point with this. At least, not yet. It's just been something that's stewing in my brain, especially when noting the similarites between these three stories that I'm currently partaking in.

Anyway, now I need to get myself into a more Supernatural-focused mindset. Spoilers below the cut for all aired episodes of the show, obviously. This episode's story was by Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes Burton, and the teleplay by Eric Kripke. (I really have no idea what a teleplay is, for the record.) (And for the former two, they've only worked on this episode and "Bloody Mary". Hmm.)

( "Dude. Check out the size of this freaking bear." )

So, last week when I was writing up my personal Tumblr post, I felt like I was being consumed in Supernatural feels, and it was interfering with my earlier commitment to myself to keep fandom stuff out of what I wrote for Tumblr. And so, I thought a bit on a way to channel said Supernatural feels, and to make them also into a thing that held some sort of personal reflection about myself.

Now, there are very few ways in which I believe that I am qualified to look and evaluate critically about Supernatural. And since I'm still recovering from writer's block, and good readers make the best writers, I've decided that my attention on this watch-through of Supernatural will be geared and focused towards the writing and why it garners certain reactions and feels out of me.

So, this isn't really going to be a review, per se, of Supernatural. Yes, obviously I'll be talking about the story and characters and plot and so on and so forth, but this isn't a post for me to simply flail about and keysmash and cry into my pillows on how Dean Winchester breaks my heart. This is me peeling back the veil to look into and behind the visceral reactions, and about locating the source, and thus a discussion of the tropes and elements of story invovled.

Currently, my opinions as they pertain specifically to the writing of the show is that I love this show, and I adore Robbie Thompson, who is a writer who hopped on board in season 7, and has also currently written three episodes of season 8.

But now, I'm going to take many steps back, and start at the beginning. I'm going to be rewatching this episode, and pausing it as I see things that I see fit to write commentary on. Also, forgive me if I start to wax endless praises about the actors, or some such thing. Part of what makes it difficult for me personally to be critical about TV shows is that I'm not always certain on who is to blame for the good and problematic things, as TV shows and movies and the like of visual media have a creative process that pulls multiple artistic things together to make one greater whole.

Also, below the cut, you may find spoilers for all aired episodes of Supernatural. :) And this episode was written by Eric Kripke.

( "Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days." )

LOVED:

-In My Time of Dying   (Eric Kripke)
-The Usual Suspects   (Cathryn Humphris)
-What Is and What Should Never Be [2]    (Raelle Tucker)
-Bad Day at Black Rock [3]     (Ben Edlund)
-Lazarus Rising     (Eric Kripke)
-The Rapture       (Jeremy Carver)
-Lucifer Rising [4]      (Eric Kripke)
-Sympathy for the Devil    (Eric Kripke)
-The Real Ghostbusters   (Nancy Weiner / Eric Kripke)
-The Song Remains the Same   (Sera Gamble & Nancy Weiner)
-My Bloody Valentine    (Ben Edlund)
-Dark Side of the Moon   (Andrew Dabb & Daniel Lofflin)
-Point of No Return   (Jeremy Carver)
-Swan Song [5]   (Eric Gewitz / Eric Kripke)
-Hello, Cruel World (Ben Edlund)
-Death's Door   (Sera Gamble)
-Repo Man   (Ben Edlund)
-The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo (Robbie Thompson)
-Reading is Fundamental [7]   (Ben Edlund)
-What's Up, Tiger Mommy? (Andrew Dabb & Daniel Lofflin)
-A Little Slice of Kevin    (Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner)
-LARP and the Real Girl (Robbie Thompson)
-Trial and Error (Andrew Dabb)
-Pac Man Fever (Robbie Thompson)

Really Good:

-Pilot
-Wendigo
-Dead in the Water
-Asylum
-Scarecrow
-Faith
-The Benders
-Provenance
-Salvation
-Devil's Trap
-Everybody Loves a Clown
-Simon Said
-Hunted
-Playthings
-Nightshifter
-Houses of the Holy
-Hollywood Babylon
-Folsom Prison Blues
-All Hell Breaks Loose (1&2)
-Mystery Spot
-Jus in Bello
-Ghostfacers
-Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
-In the Beginning
-Monster Movie
-Yellow Fever
-Heaven and Hell
-On the Head of a Pin
-It's a Terrible Life
-The Monster at the End of This Book
-Free to Be You and Me
-The End
-Changing Channels
-Abandon All Hope
-Two Minutes to Midnight
-Two and a Half Men
-Weekend at Bobby's
-Live Free or TwiHard
-You Can't Handle the Truth
-Appointment in Samarra
-My Heart Will Go On
-Mommy Dearest
-The Man Who Would Be King
-Meet the New Boss
-Defending Your Life
-Slash Fiction
-Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie
-Out with the Old
-The Born-Again Identity
-There Will Be Blood
-Survival of the Fittest
-We Need to Talk About Kevin
-Bitten
-Blood Brother
-Hunteri Heroici
-Everybody Hates Hitler
-Freaks and Geeks

Decent:

-Phantom Traveler
-Bloody Mary
-Skin
-Home
-Route 666
-Hell House
-Something Wicked This Way Comes
-Dead Man's Blood
-Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
-No Exit
-Crossroad Blues
-Croatoan
-Roadkill
-The Kids Are Alright
-Sin City
-Bedtime Stories
-Red Sky at Morning
-A Very Supernatural Christmas
-Dream a Little Dream of Me
-It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
-Wishful Thinking
-Death Takes a Holiday
-Jump the Shark
-I Believe the Children Are Our Future
-The Curious Case of Dean Winchester
-Sam, Interrupted
-Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
-99 Problems
-Hammer of the Gods
-The Devil You Know
-The Third Man
-All Dogs Go to Heaven
-Clap Your Hands If You Believe
-Like a Virgin
-The French Mistake
-...And Then There Were None
-Frontierland
-Let it Bleed
-The Man Who Knew Too Much
-Shut Up, Dr. Phil
-The Mentalists
-How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters
-Party On, Garth
-Heartache
-Southern Comfort
-Citizen Fang
-Torn and Frayed
-As Time Goes By
-Remember the Titans
-Goodbye Stranger
-Taxi Driver

Meh:

-Hookman
-Bugs
-Bloodlust
-Born Under a Bad Sign
-Tall Tales
-Malleus Maleficarum
-No Rest for the Wicked
-I Know What You Did Last Summer
-Family Remains
-Criss Angel is a Douchebag
-Fallen Idols
-Exile on Main Street
-Family Matters
-Season 7, Time for a Wedding!
-Adventures in Babysitting
-Time After Time
-The Slice Girls
-Of Grave Importance
-Man's Best Friend with Benefits

Disliked:

-Nightmare
-Shadow
-The Magnificent Seven
-Fresh Blood
-Long Distance Call
-Time is On My Side
-After School Special
-Sex and Violence
-When the Levee Breaks (because it hurts my heart too much)
-Good God, Y'all!
-Swap Meat
-Unforgiven
-Mannequin 3: The Reckoning
-The Girl Next Door

Hated:

-Heart
-Metamorphosis
-Caged Heat

So, apparently, my brain futzed on me, and season 8 of Supernatural actually starts at the beginning of October, and not the end like I had thought. Somehow, my brain translated "October 3rd" as the 23rd instead, and as a result, various parts of the internet having minor explosions over the start completely caught me off guard. This is now serving as the impetus to make me stop holding off on the angst fest that is season 7, and start watching it on Netflix, so that I can attempt to get caught up as quickly as possible and start watching in real time, because otherwise...I'll be waiting for, like, a year to get the new season on Netflix, and no. My babies are in danger, and there's someone named Kevin, and what the fuck, I understand nothing anymore, AND I DON'T LIKE THIS FEELING.

So yeah. This isn't going to be very coherent...it's just going to be me, typing down some thoughts and whatnot so as to help my brain absorb new details. Onwards! And obviously, spoilers below.

*Edit: I've now seen all of season 7.

( "This is me, being supportive. It's, uh, a waffle iron." )

I'm posting this because I feel bad about how I'm seemingly always dumping my Supernatural raving onto poor R-girl when she probably wants to know nothing about it. *sweatdrop* (I'm truly sorry, and if I'm making you uncomfortable, please tell me to shut up. ^^)

I'm thinking of making some sort of post to chronicle a bit of me and my friends' Supernatural marathon, but I'm still debating that. So for now, as we're done with season 1, and that was the first time I'd rewatched it, you get my Top Five Favorite Episodes of Season 1, along with my Top Three Least Favorites (because I want to be more positive than negative at the moment). After that, I'll probably muse a bit about season 2, what are my current favorite episodes, and then later after we're done see how much my opinions change.

Spoilers will be beneath this cut, obviously, and possibly up through season 6.

( "I hope your apple pie is freaking worth it!" )

Come on. Look at that face. He really is adorable, isn't he? And, for the record, I highly enjoyed picking out that picture. :)

Anyway. Sooooo, the TV show Supernatural has been eating my brain. For the curious and those who don't know, this TV series is centered on Dean and Sam Winchester, brothers who travel around the United States in a '67 Chevy Impala carrying on their "family business" of hunting the...well, supernatural, and saving lives. As the series goes on, they're still always willing to make a stop to settle some recalcitrant ghost, ghoul, vampire, werewolf, wendigo, or any other myth, but the brothers are pushed ever deeper into a war between Heaven and Hell, and eventually taking on the denizens of Purgatory as well.

As of right now, I am updating this because I'm now actually watching the show in real time, and so I've completely watched through season 7, and am following along with season 8.

Therefore, spoilers up through season 7.

Alrighty then! Let's kick this baby off! ^^

( "You're either laughing because you're scared or you're laughing because you're stupid. I'll see you soon, Dick." )