Supernatural: Pilot
Mar. 28th, 2011 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gryfndor_godessSuperficially Supernatural seems like a show I would love, given that it's about, well, supernatural stuff, and I've heard good things about it over the years. However, the Wincest fandom made me very leery of watching it, and the twenty minutes of a werewolf episode I watched on TNT after Angel was on sophomore year did not impress me. However, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snickfic 's recent episode recaps have intrigued me, and since I've run out of Castles to watch (sob), I'm going to give it a try.
Notes I took while watching:
-I like Jess in the Halloween party scene. I'm not sold on the chemistry with Sam, but I like her.
-The only reason I know that 174 is a good LSATs score is because of Legally Blonde, LOL.
-Hokey silhouette Dean-and-Sam fight is hokey.
-Wow, Dean is...douchey. I did not expect that. His reaction to meeting Jess is somewhat amusing, as is hers, but huh, jerk. I like Sam's instinctive reaction that Dean can say anything in front of Jess, but it is kind of dumb of him...I mean, really, what would he expect Dean to need to talk to him about?
-The exposition here is about as subtle as the anvil on Wile. E. Coyote's head.
-Am I going to be a Sam girl??? I really like his ambition to be a lawyer and reluctance to go on seemingly pointless hunts. I was expecting to be a Dean girl.
-Dean is 26? And Sam's probably 22ish. Kid!Dean in the beginning looked older than four.
-Cool ghost handprint on car.
-Fake FBI badges? Sweet!
-I like how Sam compliments the necklace. He seems like an actual nice guy.
-I like how the brothers simultaneously ask "What do they talk about?" Sam is instinctively into this stuff even if he doesn't want to be.
-If this is a well-known local legend, why hadn't Troy heard about it and known better than to pick up a hitchhiker?
-Aw, pic in the motel of John with kids is a nice touch.
-Creepy ass children, gross special effects.
-Don't malign Casper!
-I like that Dean doesn't give Sam crap about not coming.
-Well something awful is about to happen. Jess is dead, isn't she. Sigh.
-Oh, lovely, fridged the girlfriend.
-I like the parallelism of Dean carrying Sam out of the burning house again.
-"We've got work to do." Nice ending. Cheesy but nice. Although no variation of that line will ever match the greatness of "Let's get to work" in NFA.
Moments that made me giggle inside:
-"For one, they are cassette tapes."
-"Don't step on my foot like that!" "Don't talk to the police like that!" Yay Sam for not needlessly being a jerk to law enforcement.
-"You smell like a toilet."
-"No chick flick moments." "Jerk." "Bitch."
Moments that made me actually LOL:
-"Well that's healthy." (about Sam planning to never tell Jess certain things)
Questions:
-So is Jess's killer the same one that killed the mom or just the same species of evil? DON'T ANSWER.
-Is the killer targeting the Winchesters or was Jess's death a coincidence? DON'T ANSWER.
-Did the killer want something to do with baby!Sam? DON'T ANSWER.
-Does Jeffrey Dean Morgan play present-day John as well? FEEL FREE TO ANSWER.
Overall Thoughts:
It was okay. I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would. The acting seemed wooden in the beginning (although that could be due to the cliche dialogue), but I could see myself warming up to the boys. I liked how by the end they were instinctively acting as a team, and they obviously care for each other. I love a good sibling relationship, although the lack of romance will probably upset me after a while. I can understand the necessity of the mother's death, and I can overlook (with much annoyance) Jess's death, but making the villain an evil, remorseless woman in an episode where two women are already fridged is very bad form. The Woman in White could have been handled much better. It devolved into needless horror, and the logic seemed iffy (why did she let Troy drive away from the house and kill him on the bridge? Why did she attack the boys in the house instead of fleeing? Why is her forcing herself on Sam allowed to be considered cheating? That's cheating). It's frustrating that she was just Plain Ole Evil, b/c there are so many better, more haunting (haha) ghost tropes out there. What about a ghost who is forced to repeat the cycle but wants to end it? And why were the poor children evil ghosts? They were innocent; they should have gone straight to Heaven (assuming that's how theology works in this show; I don't actually know). In addition, is this urban legend even right? A quick Wikipedia search says that the Woman in White, better known as "La Llorona" in Mexico, wants to find her children and steals others. That would have been a cooler story than Evil-Slutty-Ghost-Viciously-Stabs-Manwhores, IMO.
Speaking of horror, if anything ends my interest in this show that will probably be it. I don't do horror. I don't watch horror movies. I could tell you the plots of most major horror movies b/c I have a bizarre fixation with reading about them on themoviespoiler.com, but I don't actually watch them (I couldn't make it through Drew Barrymore's death in Scream, and I really, really want to watch Scream). Most of it is that I can't watch graphic special effects. I also get scared really easily. Want to know how I watched BtVS the first time five years ago? For at least the first three seasons I read a detailed synopsis of almost every single episode before I watched it b/c I didn't want to be startled (and BtVS isn't even horror!). I broke the habit eventually (though I still knew the spoilers for all the major character arcs through S7), but I still resorted to the synopses when I needed to. I have a vivid memory of sitting on my bedroom floor and pausing "Where the Wild Things Are" so I could go online and read about the poltergeists b/c I was so freaked out. I don't particularly want to read synopses of every single Supernatural episode. I don't care that much about the characters or expect a big payoff like I did with BtVS, so if the horror gets too gratuitous, I will quit.
But I'll give it at least a few more episodes. Perhaps I'll find a payoff worth waiting for. I have high hopes for Castiel. :D
Purely Subjective Rating:
3/5
snickfic 's recent episode recaps have intrigued me, and since I've run out of Castles to watch (sob), I'm going to give it a try.Notes I took while watching:
-I like Jess in the Halloween party scene. I'm not sold on the chemistry with Sam, but I like her.
-The only reason I know that 174 is a good LSATs score is because of Legally Blonde, LOL.
-Hokey silhouette Dean-and-Sam fight is hokey.
-Wow, Dean is...douchey. I did not expect that. His reaction to meeting Jess is somewhat amusing, as is hers, but huh, jerk. I like Sam's instinctive reaction that Dean can say anything in front of Jess, but it is kind of dumb of him...I mean, really, what would he expect Dean to need to talk to him about?
-The exposition here is about as subtle as the anvil on Wile. E. Coyote's head.
-Am I going to be a Sam girl??? I really like his ambition to be a lawyer and reluctance to go on seemingly pointless hunts. I was expecting to be a Dean girl.
-Dean is 26? And Sam's probably 22ish. Kid!Dean in the beginning looked older than four.
-Cool ghost handprint on car.
-Fake FBI badges? Sweet!
-I like how Sam compliments the necklace. He seems like an actual nice guy.
-I like how the brothers simultaneously ask "What do they talk about?" Sam is instinctively into this stuff even if he doesn't want to be.
-If this is a well-known local legend, why hadn't Troy heard about it and known better than to pick up a hitchhiker?
-Aw, pic in the motel of John with kids is a nice touch.
-Creepy ass children, gross special effects.
-Don't malign Casper!
-I like that Dean doesn't give Sam crap about not coming.
-Well something awful is about to happen. Jess is dead, isn't she. Sigh.
-Oh, lovely, fridged the girlfriend.
-I like the parallelism of Dean carrying Sam out of the burning house again.
-"We've got work to do." Nice ending. Cheesy but nice. Although no variation of that line will ever match the greatness of "Let's get to work" in NFA.
Moments that made me giggle inside:
-"For one, they are cassette tapes."
-"Don't step on my foot like that!" "Don't talk to the police like that!" Yay Sam for not needlessly being a jerk to law enforcement.
-"You smell like a toilet."
-"No chick flick moments." "Jerk." "Bitch."
Moments that made me actually LOL:
-"Well that's healthy." (about Sam planning to never tell Jess certain things)
Questions:
-So is Jess's killer the same one that killed the mom or just the same species of evil? DON'T ANSWER.
-Is the killer targeting the Winchesters or was Jess's death a coincidence? DON'T ANSWER.
-Did the killer want something to do with baby!Sam? DON'T ANSWER.
-Does Jeffrey Dean Morgan play present-day John as well? FEEL FREE TO ANSWER.
Overall Thoughts:
It was okay. I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would. The acting seemed wooden in the beginning (although that could be due to the cliche dialogue), but I could see myself warming up to the boys. I liked how by the end they were instinctively acting as a team, and they obviously care for each other. I love a good sibling relationship, although the lack of romance will probably upset me after a while. I can understand the necessity of the mother's death, and I can overlook (with much annoyance) Jess's death, but making the villain an evil, remorseless woman in an episode where two women are already fridged is very bad form. The Woman in White could have been handled much better. It devolved into needless horror, and the logic seemed iffy (why did she let Troy drive away from the house and kill him on the bridge? Why did she attack the boys in the house instead of fleeing? Why is her forcing herself on Sam allowed to be considered cheating? That's cheating). It's frustrating that she was just Plain Ole Evil, b/c there are so many better, more haunting (haha) ghost tropes out there. What about a ghost who is forced to repeat the cycle but wants to end it? And why were the poor children evil ghosts? They were innocent; they should have gone straight to Heaven (assuming that's how theology works in this show; I don't actually know). In addition, is this urban legend even right? A quick Wikipedia search says that the Woman in White, better known as "La Llorona" in Mexico, wants to find her children and steals others. That would have been a cooler story than Evil-Slutty-Ghost-Viciously-Stabs-Manwhores, IMO.
Speaking of horror, if anything ends my interest in this show that will probably be it. I don't do horror. I don't watch horror movies. I could tell you the plots of most major horror movies b/c I have a bizarre fixation with reading about them on themoviespoiler.com, but I don't actually watch them (I couldn't make it through Drew Barrymore's death in Scream, and I really, really want to watch Scream). Most of it is that I can't watch graphic special effects. I also get scared really easily. Want to know how I watched BtVS the first time five years ago? For at least the first three seasons I read a detailed synopsis of almost every single episode before I watched it b/c I didn't want to be startled (and BtVS isn't even horror!). I broke the habit eventually (though I still knew the spoilers for all the major character arcs through S7), but I still resorted to the synopses when I needed to. I have a vivid memory of sitting on my bedroom floor and pausing "Where the Wild Things Are" so I could go online and read about the poltergeists b/c I was so freaked out. I don't particularly want to read synopses of every single Supernatural episode. I don't care that much about the characters or expect a big payoff like I did with BtVS, so if the horror gets too gratuitous, I will quit.
But I'll give it at least a few more episodes. Perhaps I'll find a payoff worth waiting for. I have high hopes for Castiel. :D
Purely Subjective Rating:
3/5
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-28 10:48 pm (UTC)-Does Jeffrey Dean Morgan play present-day John as well? FEEL FREE TO ANSWER.
Yes.
Yeah, the exposition early on is atrocious. Even where I am in S2 it is still not the most subtle stuff ever, but it gets better about halfway through S1. Yes, the whole Woman in White plot was by-the-numbers and boring and offensive and... yeah. Highly irritating. What really got me the most was that all her evil was traced back to a man making her a victim. Men victimize women and then the women turn evil and kill people. Yep. Honestly, the pilot treats female characters worse than any ep I've seen since (so far).
The horror eases off as the season progresses, and I'm told by S3 or so it's almost entirely gone. However, early on the show is still convinced that it's primarily a horror show, so tons of jump moments and so forth. (If these get to be too much for me, I usually deal by listening to the sound effects while knitting or looking at something else. *g*)
The acting vastly improves within a few episodes. The writing vastly improves by mid-season, at least sporadically; I'm in the beginning of S2 and there are still clunkers.
I like that the actors were roughly the same age as their characters when they started the show, and that there's a four-year age gap between the actors. I'm always a fan of that.
Sibling relationship! You ain't seen nothing yet. This show is all about the sibling relationship.
Castiel doesn't show up for ages, though - S4, I think? Or maybe S5. It'll be quite a while, though.
-Fake FBI badges? Sweet!
Heh. And did you catch - Agent Ford and Agent Hamill? Yanno, like Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill. I loved that.
Sam is not needlessly a jerk. It's one of his qualities. As I said somewhere else, Dean's the one I want to watch on TV, but I suspect Sam's the one I'd rather have lunch with. He has, yanno, actual people skills.
I AM SO EXCITED. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 08:18 am (UTC)Yup, and ugh. I'm relieved that the pilot is the worst so far- also that the horror eases off. I'm quite interested in the series arc since I've read that Kripke had the first five seasons plotted in advance and knew his end-game from the get-go (which probably helped with the world-building you talked about a few weeks ago).
Hee, I didn't. I missed some of the dialogue partly b/c Dean was talking very fast and partly b/c in trying to ignore the horror scenes I'd miss the beginning of important scenes. I'll have to pay better attention.
I am excited that you're excited! Motivation for continuing! :)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 06:06 am (UTC)The show really does improve with time, and it has a killer series arc. However, the treatment of women is not a plus. It is a dealbreaker for some, so head's up.
Also, it is very much a horror show, so... It actually might be an idea to skip the MotW episodes and just watch the myth arc episodes. That is the method my other horror-fearing friend took.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 08:23 am (UTC)I can appreciate that trope if done right. I have a feeling I'll warm up to him. I already really like his protectiveness of Sam.
Thanks for the advice! I've heard great things about the series arc, which is one of the reasons I wanted to give it a try.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 12:45 am (UTC)*waves*
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 09:30 pm (UTC)