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Despanan 05-02-2010 03:32 PM

Supernatural
 
I've referenced this show quite a few times on here. I'm wondering if anyone else has been following it.

Basically it's the story of two brothers who road-trip around the country in a 1968 Impala hunting and killing supernatural monsters (Ghosts, Demons, Shapeshifters, Pagan Gods etc.) and listening to classic rock.

I was pretty skeptical when my G/F first told me about it - But it's a damn good show with surprisingly rigorous attention to mythology. The acting varies from episode to episode, but the core cast is solid. Unfortunately, thanks to their network, the plot tends to shy away from moral ambiguity (I so wish this was on HBO and not the CW) but all in all this is a great series and it's alot of fun to watch.

Has anyone else caught it?

gothicusmaximus 05-02-2010 04:46 PM

I hate this show and I get vaguely angry when you reference it.

Despanan 05-02-2010 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus (Post 615314)
I hate this show and I get vaguely angry when you reference it.

Really? What do you hate about it?

Saya 05-02-2010 06:43 PM

I watch it now and again, my roommate is a big fan but it seems I'm always busy when she's watching it. So I get a little lost but I still enjoy it. And I haven't decided if I'm Team Castiel or Team Dean.

That said, while I like the show, I completely understand why anyone who isn't watching for the mythology, the lolz or Dean's abs wouldn't like it, they can get really whiny and over dramatic.

Oh, and another thing I do like about Supernatural is the fan love.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...is_by_Mwar.jpg

Despanan 05-02-2010 07:17 PM

What I both like, and what bugs me about the show, is that it's almost exactly the kind of show I would want to write (Minus some of the angst and the WC-ness of it).

The creator/head writer mentioned that it was heavily inspired by Neil Gaiman's American Gods, as well as The Sandman, and the Hellblazer comics (which is why Castiel dresses like John Constantine), and those are some of my favorite bits of fiction. You can really see their influence on the show when it's at it's best. (The most recent episode involved a Motel filled with the old Pagan Gods - It wasn't American Gods: The Miniseries but it came close to what I imagine the feel of that might be. I also love that the show doesn't take itself too seriously, the bits where Sam and Dean meet a real live Supernatural fangirl/Discover that people on the internet are writing slash fiction about them are downright inspired and hilarious.

I will admit that from time to time, the characters can get (more than) a little whiny, particularly Sam. I chalk this up to the CW's "lets get the grown-up Dawson's Creek crowd" influence, and the sheer level of fanservice is staggering. I am also annoyed by the child invincibility and how the non-monster (human) villains always wind up having a karmic death.

All in all , I would vastly prefer it if this series had been produced by HBO, and thus was not so aimed for the 20-something ex-teenybopper "Let's get home from our midwestern, white collar jobs and watch something that doesn't challenge our perceptions of the world and ties up all loose ends" crowd, but despite this I feel like it's one of the better things on TV today.

Ben Lahnger 05-02-2010 09:26 PM

I looked the series up on Netflix and it's not available for streaming, and I make it a point not to do tv series DVD's in the mail. But what stunned me was finding they have listings for 6 seasons. How the hell does this show survive that long but shows that I enjoy like Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles or Dollhouse can't stay on the air? I don't get it. For that matter, I always wished the original Night Stalker series had lasted longer too.

To your point about Hellblazer, the Constantine movie actually wasn't that bad to me. I would like it if they made a Hellblazer series. I actually want to start reading the comics but when I started shopping for the trade paperbacks on Amazon I couldn't quite figure out where to start.

Solumina 05-02-2010 09:48 PM

My old roommate was totally hooked and kind of got me into it, but I'm not crazy about it. This last season is kind of missing a lot of the fun that the first couple had and is just really heavy. It is pretty much doing what every show does when it get renewed for far more seasons that anyone ever planned for and it is just dragging along. Seriously how long can two guys from Kansas fend off an army demons led by Lucifer and an army of angels led my Michael?

Despanan 05-02-2010 10:15 PM

Ben: The CW and TNT stream episodes (though not all of them, and out of order )

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solumina (Post 615337)
My old roommate was totally hooked and kind of got me into it, but I'm not crazy about it. This last season is kind of missing a lot of the fun that the first couple had and is just really heavy. It is pretty much doing what every show does when it get renewed for far more seasons that anyone ever planned for and it is just dragging along. Seriously how long can two guys from Kansas fend off an army demons led by Lucifer and an army of angels led my Michael?

Well, as both armies want them alive, it's not too unlikely that they'd stay alive.

The God-Motel episode was pretty funny (and also serious, which is the kind of feel I really like in fiction).

I am wondering what's going to happen in season 6, as the creator specifically intended the show to only run for five seasons.

Raptor 05-03-2010 06:15 AM

I haven't seen it but one of my housemates loves it and the things he tells me sound awful.

The following text is what he managed to convey to me, feel free to tell me if it's wrong (in black because it's probably a big spoiler):

This gun will kill anything it hits with one bullet!

Some demon thing is attacking! There's no way to kill it.

Wait, we have the ultimate gun.

Oh yeah, now we can kill it.

*shoot demon*

Hahahaha, I was one of only three creatures in the universe that cannot be killed by that gun


Occasionally, he tells me "funny" bits from Supernatural too. Either he's picking bad bits or his delivery sucks because it all sounded shit to me.

Despanan 05-03-2010 07:33 AM

Raptor:

The way you said that, it sounds like you overheard one of the recaps they do before the show. They play a bunch of out of context clips before each show in case you're just catching the show for the first time, so that you can follow the story.

Anyway:

The Colt is actually one of my favorite bits of the show, it's an antique gun built by Samuel Colt in the 1800's and yeah, it's widely held that it can "kill anything". (Samuel Colt seems to have had a hard-on for monster hunting, as he also used a railroad system to construct a giant demon-trap over a gate to hell)

For instance, you shoot a vampire in the head with it, the vampire dies, even though regularly they can only be killed by decapitation. It was only made with thirteen bullets (six of which were used by the hunter it was constructed for).

Mainly in the show, it's used for killing Demons. As demons have no physical form (they seem to only be black smoke) they posses human bodies. You can kill the human body, but that won't kill the Demon (or make much of a difference, as the Demons can control dead bodies) or you can trap the demon in a devil's trap and perform an exorcism (which will send them back to hell). The problem is, exorcised demons can come back though it usually takes them a while.

In the fifth season, due to the actions of the brothers and a plot by a particular demon, Lucifer breaks out of his cage and begins the apocalypse . He possesses a dude's body (except the body begins to decay because he's so powerful) and at the time was digging up the Angel of Death (freeing the Four Horsemen). Dean ended up capping him in the head with The Colt while he was monologing to Sam, and Lucifer dropped like a stone...then a couple of seconds later got back up and delivered the "three things that gun can't kill" line (I assume the other two are Archangel Michael and God) It was actually a pretty damn good WTF moment.

Raptor 05-03-2010 09:43 AM

Maybe he was actually repeating a recap, I have no idea. It wouldn't surprise me if he was selling it short. I might give it a chance when I have more time to spare.

Saya 05-03-2010 12:08 PM

The Changing Channels episode was from this season, that was more hilarious than most sitcoms.

Despanan 05-03-2010 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saya (Post 615460)
The Changing Channels episode was from this season, that was more hilarious than most sitcoms.

the "Ghost facer" episodes are also hilarious, and I'm enjoying their spin-off webisodes.

Ben Lahnger 05-03-2010 02:17 PM

Dammit! I looked up the series summary at IMDB, and it does look interesting. I really didn't need another series to follow. Anyway, watching them a few at a time and out of order on CW and TNT isn't going to work for me, so I guess I'm adding season 1 disk 1 to my Netflix queue.

Seriously, anyone have any thoughts on what trade paperback(s) to start with if I wanted to get into Hellblazer?

Rylee 05-03-2010 05:20 PM

I've followed it up to the 3rd season.

gothicusmaximus 05-03-2010 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Despanan (Post 615315)
Really? What do you hate about it?

I just find it hackneyed, shallow, and seeped in the CW's unique brand of network cheese. It's entertainment without real nuance, and thus rather dull in spite of its convoluted, increasingly silly mythology. Shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men make this shit seem downright archaic, especially since they're on basic cable-- if I'm clearing an hour to tune in each week, it'll be to a show that won't air an episode called "A Very _______ Christmas" or feature a guest appearance by Paris Hilton.

vindicatedxjin 05-03-2010 09:43 PM

Dude, this show has been out for a long while now... but anywhoo...I like it.

CptSternn 05-03-2010 11:55 PM

Brilliant show. I have watched it from the first episode and never missed a single episode. I will say the first three seasons were in my opinion the best, because every episode was its own thing, like a little movie all wrapped up in an hour like the X-Files used to do.

Now, like the X-Files, they have a big story going on it has changed the series a bit, but it is still enjoyable.

Despanan 05-06-2010 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus (Post 615512)
I just find it hackneyed, shallow, and seeped in the CW's unique brand of network cheese. It's entertainment without real nuance, and thus rather dull in spite of its convoluted, increasingly silly mythology. Shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men make this shit seem downright archaic, especially since they're on basic cable-- if I'm clearing an hour to tune in each week, it'll be to a show that won't air an episode called "A Very _______ Christmas" or feature a guest appearance by Paris Hilton.

How much of it have you actually watched? The CW definitely tries to promote it like their usual network cheese (insisting upon catch-ups to every episode, and playing up the fanservice and down on the actual mythology) and I admit, they can be a little heavy handed with their themes from time to time, but how can you call it un-nuanced? There's an episode where a blind faith healer is saving the terminally ill by killing gay rights activists and it turned out that the healer himself, was just a charlatan, and was tricked by his wife into thinking he actually had power.

There's another episode reminiscent of Groundhog's day, except every day Dean dies in a different horrible way. There's even a musical montage of deaths.

There's another featuring aging magicians, performing impossible death-defying tricks with the aid of real magic. It deals with themes of deep friendship, aging, immortality, and in the end the magician who did the right thing is left a broken old man with no family or friends.

Similarly in the most recent episode, when Loki Archangel Gabriel confronts Lucifer, not only is there a friggin awesome monologue out of Loki but when Lucifer kills him, you first see a hardened villain doing what villains do, and then a second later the guy ever so slightly crumbles for an instant, and then swallows the pain of killing his brother and moves on. It's a brilliant, subtle performance which blurs the line between good and evil and extends the shows main theme of family. Certainly better than anything to be found on The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, or 90210.

As to "A Very Supernatural Christmas" all the episodes have names like that. There's also one called "It's the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester" and once again, that ties back into how the show, despite it's heavy themes and subject matter, refrains from taking itself too seriously. Also: that episode was awesome. It featured two pagan gods living in suburbia who took human sacrifices in trade for mild winters.

I have nothing to say about the Paris Hilton episode, as I have not seen it. From what I understand she plays a wax figure of herself which comes to life. I'll have to watch it, As I rule I hate her and everything she does, and she's a terrible actress, but who knows, maybe they managed to use her in a way which makes it work.

Ben Lahnger 05-11-2010 05:17 PM

I learned that TNT runs back to back episodes every weekday at 9:00 and 10:00am CST. So I've got the DVR set to record them all and I'll try watching them a bit to see what I think.

I'm looking forward to the one that's airing Thursday at 9:00 ... "Bedtime Stories" - The Winchester brothers investigate a small town that has been plagued by murders that imitate famous fairy tales such as "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Snow White" ... could be very interesting OR very cheesy.

Solumina 05-11-2010 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Despanan (Post 615968)
I have nothing to say about the Paris Hilton episode, as I have not seen it. From what I understand she plays a wax figure of herself which comes to life. I'll have to watch it, As I rule I hate her and everything she does, and she's a terrible actress, but who knows, maybe they managed to use her in a way which makes it work.

They actually did manage to use her fairly well and she didn't get much screen time, more of it was people saying that they saw Paris Hilton. Turns out it is a Pagan forest got or some such thing that can imitate people. She even goes on a little rant about how pathetic people are for worshiping celebrities and such. Not the best episode but still good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger (Post 616577)
I'm looking forward to the one that's airing Thursday at 9:00 ... "Bedtime Stories" - The Winchester brothers investigate a small town that has been plagued by murders that imitate famous fairy tales such as "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Snow White" ... could be very interesting OR very cheesy.

That one was actually quite good, and more than a bit sad.

gothicusmaximus 05-11-2010 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Despanan (Post 615968)
How much of it have you actually watched? The CW definitely tries to promote it like their usual network cheese (insisting upon catch-ups to every episode, and playing up the fanservice and down on the actual mythology) and I admit, they can be a little heavy handed with their themes from time to time, but how can you call it un-nuanced?... episode summaries...

Granted, I've probably seen fewer than a season's worth of Supernatural episodes. Some friends of mine are fans, so sometime's they'll have popped in a netflix'd DVD when I roll by to shoot the shit.
Honestly, each of the episodes you described can be paired with a similar episode of the X-Files, which show, during its decline, is what Supernatural recalls for me more than anything else. I'm not saying it's completely retarded and never features any remotely competent writing, it's just roundly mediocre.

Quote:

Certainly better than anything to be found on The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, or 90210.
Well, sure, but those shows are pretty fucking bad. I'm not watching them instead. Have you seen AMC's dramas? Those are just on basic cable.

Ben Lahnger 05-19-2010 09:36 PM

Okay, saw the "Bad Day at Black Rock" episode (written by one of my favorite television writers and creator of The Tick, Ben Edlund) where they get the lucky rabbit foot but then lose it, which meant that Sam was doomed to die unless they got it back and uncursed it. That was some pretty good fun.

Just finished "Sin City" and "Bedtime Stories". It's not great TV, but it is a decent guilty pleasure. I can see the weaknesses and the CW influence, and largely can ignore them. There's a lot to like here and I think I'm hooked. I just wish I was starting from the beginning.

alchemie 05-28-2010 05:50 PM

Yep. I've been watching it since the 2nd season started. At first, I didn't like it but then it grew on me. I caught this season's finale. I'm now re-watching the entire series.

Ben Lahnger 05-28-2010 08:24 PM

Recording 2 episodes a day, I've now built up a backlog of 23 episodes while I got caught up on the final episodes of my regular TV shows. So it's time for a Supernatural marathon this weekend.

Another reason to like this show ... they have an episode titled "Criss Angel is a Douche Bag". Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!


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