(no subject)
Jun. 26th, 2006 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liptonrm_backupThe server here at work spent the whole of last week crashing, for some reason or other. It was a most unproductive week, let me tell you what. Though I did get some writing done on Friday, which was of the good.
I signed a lease for my new apartment. I officially move in this weekend though I'll probably spend much of this week taking boxes over. I'm happy but I'm also stressed. It's money and money is always stressful. But happy, very, very happy. It'll be so good to have my own place again, you would not believe it.
I spent much of the past weekend watching Supernatural. If you haven't figured it out by now, I have a tendency to go strangely OCD about some things. It's a lazy sort of OCD since I don't actually accomplish anything but that's okay, I know I'm a conundrum.
I've been downloading or YouTube'ing some of the early episodes, ones I haven't seen since they first aired (or, in the case of 'Skin', somehow missed completely) and I can tell why it took my so long (ie 9 months, give or take) to fall so hard because the early eps are just, not as good. To go from the emotional strength of 'Devil's Trap' to 'Skin', which was the way I ended up watching them, gave me some sort of television induced whiplash. It's not that the early episodes are unmitigated crap, they're not, it's only that there are storytelling problems that leave me in a nit-picky frame of mind. The writing definitely improved as the season went on and I think that's in large part because the writers (Kripke included) finally started to get a handle on the kinds of stories the show needed to tell. They certainly didn't understand how to accurately portray Dean's motivations and emotions until ... 'Dead Man's Blood' or maybe 'Something Wicked' (an episode I adored the first time thru and was left rather cold on the second viewing, maybe I should go for a third;-). I suppose, in year's to come, the obvious development process will be something I nostalgically love about first season Supernatural. And by 'suppose' I mean to say that the crappiness already gives me a sort of meta/geeky joy so without further ado, here are some reactions:
'Dead in the Water'
The only real problem with this episode is the pacing. It's almost as if the writers were trying to tell too much story and it kind of fell apart on them. Also, what was up with Lucas's whole 'Sixth Sense' thing? It didn't make a lot of sense, though, the photographs of the dead kid did look a whole lot like the little actor playing Lucas so maybe we're supposed to infer that there was some sort of kinship between the two? I don't know, if that were the case they didn't do a very good job of setting it up. Plus, the SPN writers don't do subtle, they prefer the anvil approach to storytelling (I might have startled my dog by making bomb noises every time a script anvil metaphorically fell on screen). The writers also do a not-so-great job of ascribing any sort of motivation to the guest characters.
Things I really enjoy are the SamnDean brotherliness (something the writers always hit out of the park, helped in no small measure by the Ackles and Padalecki chemistry), the direction, the color-saturation (I love what this show does with color when they film daylight scenes), and the Dean-Lucas interactions (mostly). This episode is the first to show that Dean is good with kids. Some of the conversations aren't exactly subtle but Ackles really sells every.single.one of them. There's also a great bit where Dean and Sam have been run out of town and Dean is all worked up because he doesn't think it's done and he wants to make sure the kid and his mom are okay (worked up for Dean is tight clenching of the steering wheel and needing Sam to tell him that the light is green, FYI) and he turns around and goes back. Sam's line, "What have you done with my brother?" always makes me squee, not only for the intense 'brother' tone of it all but also because it illustrates my favorite observation that both brothers are different enough that they have a hard time understanding each other at a fundamental level. The whole first season if really about them learning to understand each other and themselves but that's a meta for a whole different post.
'Skin'
Oh, John Shiban, how you vex me. You have vexed me since The X-Files and you continue to do so now. I do, however, have to thank you for shirtless!Dean and evil, smirking!Dean so there is that, but no amount of nearly naked hottie is going to make me forgive you for all of your many and continued sins. It's not that you're a bad writer, just woefully mediocre and still with the extreme pacing problems.
[For future reference, unless I say differently, let's just assume that every episode I bring up has pacing problems. I would hate to be repetitious and boring.]
Though, you did have Sam and evil!Dean fight and that was one of the greatest things put on a tv screen, ever. And this episode did introduce a great sibling dichotomy about how Dean won't lie to people who matter (though he'll gleefully lie to everybody else) and Sam is willing to disguise who he is, even from people who mean a lot to him (like Jessica). And how much do I love that Dean is so anti-social? I so empathize with that. I have whole days where I wish that the world wasn't so full of people, they're so annoying and hurtful and, bleh. I am right there with you.
For all of the many ways this episode failed to hook me there apparently was a whole lot there to love. Huh
'Home'
This has the advantage of being better then 'Shadow', so that's good. Sam has the weirdes psychic powers in the world. I think I'm going to start buying into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trollprincess's theory about Sam being more of a psychic sponge (he picks up the powers of other people) because in this episode he's all in tune with the house and can kind of sense the spirits which is a skill he never manifests ever again and it would be damn useful in a life like the one he leads.
Why does Mary say, "I'm sorry?" OMG
With this and 'Dead in the Water' I am never, ever sticking my hand down a drain, ever. That was traumatizing.
I think I finally have a grasp on Missouri and her interactions with Dean. I think he rubs her the wrong way. She likes Sam because he's very 'little boy lost' with his big ball of angst but Dean, isn't. Obviously she isn't powerful enough to uncover his inner woobie *giggle* and if she were I don't think it would matter, she just doesn't like him very much. She's a prickly sort of person who puts on a maternal attitude as part of her job but doesn't feel the need to keep it on for people she's not working, and that's okay.
I can handwave the fact that John is angry and surprised in 'Salvation' about Sammy's psychic powers but I don't really like it. Missouri clearly comments on them in the epilogue scene and that's sloppy, but I can handwave, sort of.
'Nightmares'
For some reason this episode was a hundred times better on second viewing, I don't know why. It works, it completely works, not a pacing problem in sight. My only nitpicks are that MI state police cars don't look like that (get it right, Vancouver!) and Sammy looks vaguely constipated every time a vision comes on but besides that I dig this ep. Of all of the myth-arc episodes of the season I think this one worked best, save 'Devil's Trap', of course. Good job, guys.
'The Benders'
I love Officer Kathleen. I might have been heard to tell Dean to marry that one and I stand by my opinion. I would love to see her come back, maybe become a sort of recurring character. The show needs more women, anyway, and she kicked ass.
There is nothing wrong with Sammy in a cage.
I spent half an hour last night thinking about how annoyed I was by the bit where Dean got hit in the head with the frying pan. Up until then things had been great, he fought off the two thugs and was well on his way to beating their asses when they had him stand in front of an open doorway to catch his breath. I'm sorry, but I'm freakish about knowing where the wall is and when at restaurants I always want the seat with the best view of the door or room or what have you. If I'm that crazy it would stand to reason that a man trained since childhood by a Marine would be even more cognizant of what he was doing. I know they had to take Dean down and they couldn't let him lose to those two chuckleheads but it felt sloppy and I didn't like it. I'm blaming Shiban, for the record. ;-)
I <3 detective!Dean. I really do.
Sam is forever placed in the 'younger brother' slot in my brain so I usually don't have many lust moments but, I gotta say, Sam is all kinds of hot in this episode.
The great thing about Supernatural is the fandom. The fic and the meta and the excitement of the LJ fans make every episode at least 10% more enjoyable. I've never been in a fandom where a bunch of the gen fic is more coherent and engaging then parts of canon. I enjoy John Winchester a whole lot more in fanon then I do in canon, mostly because in fanon he has a life of his own and in canon his life and decisions can be a little too plot-driven. After a week spent reading about epic wank in HP and remembering the horrible hobbit!wank of days of yore it's refreshing to spend time in a fandom where people might disagree on character and motivation but everyone can find common ground in their love of the Impala. It's a good place to be.
It's funny too, before I dove head-first into the SPN fandom I spent time wandering around the edges of the BSG fandom and for a show that is uniformally great it has one of the more boring fandoms I've ever come across. It's one or two pairing dominated with very little intelligent meta floating around (that I found) and not a lot of exuberance. I'm sure something intelligent and thinky could be said about that divide but I'm not the one to say it, right now. It's just a fascinating observation.
Wow, that's a lot longer then I thought it would be. *boggles* Oh you irresistible Winchesters, you.
They're doing utility work in the alley right outside of my window. Sometimes the jackhammer is so loud that the entire building shakes. WTF, you guys?
I signed a lease for my new apartment. I officially move in this weekend though I'll probably spend much of this week taking boxes over. I'm happy but I'm also stressed. It's money and money is always stressful. But happy, very, very happy. It'll be so good to have my own place again, you would not believe it.
I spent much of the past weekend watching Supernatural. If you haven't figured it out by now, I have a tendency to go strangely OCD about some things. It's a lazy sort of OCD since I don't actually accomplish anything but that's okay, I know I'm a conundrum.
I've been downloading or YouTube'ing some of the early episodes, ones I haven't seen since they first aired (or, in the case of 'Skin', somehow missed completely) and I can tell why it took my so long (ie 9 months, give or take) to fall so hard because the early eps are just, not as good. To go from the emotional strength of 'Devil's Trap' to 'Skin', which was the way I ended up watching them, gave me some sort of television induced whiplash. It's not that the early episodes are unmitigated crap, they're not, it's only that there are storytelling problems that leave me in a nit-picky frame of mind. The writing definitely improved as the season went on and I think that's in large part because the writers (Kripke included) finally started to get a handle on the kinds of stories the show needed to tell. They certainly didn't understand how to accurately portray Dean's motivations and emotions until ... 'Dead Man's Blood' or maybe 'Something Wicked' (an episode I adored the first time thru and was left rather cold on the second viewing, maybe I should go for a third;-). I suppose, in year's to come, the obvious development process will be something I nostalgically love about first season Supernatural. And by 'suppose' I mean to say that the crappiness already gives me a sort of meta/geeky joy so without further ado, here are some reactions:
'Dead in the Water'
The only real problem with this episode is the pacing. It's almost as if the writers were trying to tell too much story and it kind of fell apart on them. Also, what was up with Lucas's whole 'Sixth Sense' thing? It didn't make a lot of sense, though, the photographs of the dead kid did look a whole lot like the little actor playing Lucas so maybe we're supposed to infer that there was some sort of kinship between the two? I don't know, if that were the case they didn't do a very good job of setting it up. Plus, the SPN writers don't do subtle, they prefer the anvil approach to storytelling (I might have startled my dog by making bomb noises every time a script anvil metaphorically fell on screen). The writers also do a not-so-great job of ascribing any sort of motivation to the guest characters.
Things I really enjoy are the SamnDean brotherliness (something the writers always hit out of the park, helped in no small measure by the Ackles and Padalecki chemistry), the direction, the color-saturation (I love what this show does with color when they film daylight scenes), and the Dean-Lucas interactions (mostly). This episode is the first to show that Dean is good with kids. Some of the conversations aren't exactly subtle but Ackles really sells every.single.one of them. There's also a great bit where Dean and Sam have been run out of town and Dean is all worked up because he doesn't think it's done and he wants to make sure the kid and his mom are okay (worked up for Dean is tight clenching of the steering wheel and needing Sam to tell him that the light is green, FYI) and he turns around and goes back. Sam's line, "What have you done with my brother?" always makes me squee, not only for the intense 'brother' tone of it all but also because it illustrates my favorite observation that both brothers are different enough that they have a hard time understanding each other at a fundamental level. The whole first season if really about them learning to understand each other and themselves but that's a meta for a whole different post.
'Skin'
Oh, John Shiban, how you vex me. You have vexed me since The X-Files and you continue to do so now. I do, however, have to thank you for shirtless!Dean and evil, smirking!Dean so there is that, but no amount of nearly naked hottie is going to make me forgive you for all of your many and continued sins. It's not that you're a bad writer, just woefully mediocre and still with the extreme pacing problems.
[For future reference, unless I say differently, let's just assume that every episode I bring up has pacing problems. I would hate to be repetitious and boring.]
Though, you did have Sam and evil!Dean fight and that was one of the greatest things put on a tv screen, ever. And this episode did introduce a great sibling dichotomy about how Dean won't lie to people who matter (though he'll gleefully lie to everybody else) and Sam is willing to disguise who he is, even from people who mean a lot to him (like Jessica). And how much do I love that Dean is so anti-social? I so empathize with that. I have whole days where I wish that the world wasn't so full of people, they're so annoying and hurtful and, bleh. I am right there with you.
For all of the many ways this episode failed to hook me there apparently was a whole lot there to love. Huh
'Home'
This has the advantage of being better then 'Shadow', so that's good. Sam has the weirdes psychic powers in the world. I think I'm going to start buying into
trollprincess's theory about Sam being more of a psychic sponge (he picks up the powers of other people) because in this episode he's all in tune with the house and can kind of sense the spirits which is a skill he never manifests ever again and it would be damn useful in a life like the one he leads.Why does Mary say, "I'm sorry?" OMG
With this and 'Dead in the Water' I am never, ever sticking my hand down a drain, ever. That was traumatizing.
I think I finally have a grasp on Missouri and her interactions with Dean. I think he rubs her the wrong way. She likes Sam because he's very 'little boy lost' with his big ball of angst but Dean, isn't. Obviously she isn't powerful enough to uncover his inner woobie *giggle* and if she were I don't think it would matter, she just doesn't like him very much. She's a prickly sort of person who puts on a maternal attitude as part of her job but doesn't feel the need to keep it on for people she's not working, and that's okay.
I can handwave the fact that John is angry and surprised in 'Salvation' about Sammy's psychic powers but I don't really like it. Missouri clearly comments on them in the epilogue scene and that's sloppy, but I can handwave, sort of.
'Nightmares'
For some reason this episode was a hundred times better on second viewing, I don't know why. It works, it completely works, not a pacing problem in sight. My only nitpicks are that MI state police cars don't look like that (get it right, Vancouver!) and Sammy looks vaguely constipated every time a vision comes on but besides that I dig this ep. Of all of the myth-arc episodes of the season I think this one worked best, save 'Devil's Trap', of course. Good job, guys.
'The Benders'
I love Officer Kathleen. I might have been heard to tell Dean to marry that one and I stand by my opinion. I would love to see her come back, maybe become a sort of recurring character. The show needs more women, anyway, and she kicked ass.
There is nothing wrong with Sammy in a cage.
I spent half an hour last night thinking about how annoyed I was by the bit where Dean got hit in the head with the frying pan. Up until then things had been great, he fought off the two thugs and was well on his way to beating their asses when they had him stand in front of an open doorway to catch his breath. I'm sorry, but I'm freakish about knowing where the wall is and when at restaurants I always want the seat with the best view of the door or room or what have you. If I'm that crazy it would stand to reason that a man trained since childhood by a Marine would be even more cognizant of what he was doing. I know they had to take Dean down and they couldn't let him lose to those two chuckleheads but it felt sloppy and I didn't like it. I'm blaming Shiban, for the record. ;-)
I <3 detective!Dean. I really do.
Sam is forever placed in the 'younger brother' slot in my brain so I usually don't have many lust moments but, I gotta say, Sam is all kinds of hot in this episode.
The great thing about Supernatural is the fandom. The fic and the meta and the excitement of the LJ fans make every episode at least 10% more enjoyable. I've never been in a fandom where a bunch of the gen fic is more coherent and engaging then parts of canon. I enjoy John Winchester a whole lot more in fanon then I do in canon, mostly because in fanon he has a life of his own and in canon his life and decisions can be a little too plot-driven. After a week spent reading about epic wank in HP and remembering the horrible hobbit!wank of days of yore it's refreshing to spend time in a fandom where people might disagree on character and motivation but everyone can find common ground in their love of the Impala. It's a good place to be.
It's funny too, before I dove head-first into the SPN fandom I spent time wandering around the edges of the BSG fandom and for a show that is uniformally great it has one of the more boring fandoms I've ever come across. It's one or two pairing dominated with very little intelligent meta floating around (that I found) and not a lot of exuberance. I'm sure something intelligent and thinky could be said about that divide but I'm not the one to say it, right now. It's just a fascinating observation.
Wow, that's a lot longer then I thought it would be. *boggles* Oh you irresistible Winchesters, you.
They're doing utility work in the alley right outside of my window. Sometimes the jackhammer is so loud that the entire building shakes. WTF, you guys?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 06:57 pm (UTC)Which is to say, my SPN and Lost fangirling will die down, eventually. I tend to get a little ... exuberantly squeeful in the throes of a new fandom. =D
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 12:28 am (UTC)Things I really enjoy are the SamnDean brotherliness (something the writers always hit out of the park, helped in no small measure by the Ackles and Padalecki chemistry), the direction, the color-saturation
I'm never going to get over any of those things. Ever. (and hey, we've got Kim Manners directing a lot of these things so no wonder). There's a "Supernatural" look now, like there was an X-Files look. The X-Files lighting was actually very different than SPN. SPN has a much grainier, faded look to it while TXF was often very crisp, very "big" with their endless aisles of filing cabinets.
And of course, it's all about the Sam and Dean.
Oh, John Shiban, how you vex me. You have vexed me since The X-Files and you continue to do so now.
I remember people not liking his work during the first run of TXF. I've been rewatching TXF a lot lately (which, actually, is all Supernatural's fault!) and noticed Shiban does write a lot of the Mulder family angst stuff. So in a way I think he's more comfortable on SPN than he was on TXF; he's an okay writer not a brilliant one, but he really seems to handle male familial conflict well, even if he's wobbly as a writer overall and kind of bland.
Home promised to be a big emotional payoff kind of episode, much grander than it turned out to be. While Shadow was everything I hoped. I loved Shadow and felt Home could have been more.
Wordity-word on SPN fandom and the exhuberance. I've pondered that too. Sure, the show makes me love it, but then the fandom just increases the love more. It kind of feeds itself.
(Oh, and um, I've been rewatching SPN a lot too. I'm transfixed! *g*)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 02:34 pm (UTC)Yeah, part of my Shiban issues are old XF baggage. He is a much better fit on SPN and he does have a good touch when it comes to the brothers. It's the blandness that gets to me, really, my One True Authorial Nitpick, if you will. I think fanfic has spoiled me. ;-)
Home definitely could have been more. There were a lot of dramatic possibiblities that they didn't even bother trying to explore (and I really don't like the John and Missouri coda, ugh). I have a weird disconnect with Shadow, though. Maybe it's the awkwardness of the 'Dean bearing his soul' scene that I can't get past. There's just something about the plotline that bugs the crap out of me and I can't quite put my finger on it. That's it, I'll have to take one for the team and rewatch the episode, again. Cause that'll be such a struggle. *snort*
OMG, Supernatural, why are you so awesome? You'd think that someone would have to sell his soul to come up with a show this addictive and then have an even crazier, more addictive fandom spring up around it to make it that.much.better.
Yeah, this is a great summer.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 05:18 pm (UTC)I have a weird disconnect with Shadow, though. Maybe it's the awkwardness of the 'Dean bearing his soul' scene that I can't get past.
Totally with you there. I could just hear the anvils going ker-thud. Fairly out of character for both of them. Dean just doesn't open up that easiliy; and honestly, Sam isn't a selfish twat, he would have more regard for Dean's feelings than that.
It could be the John factor that makes Home and Shadow work so well for me, although I think Shadow was entertaining overall, except for the one iffy OOC scene.
OMG, Supernatural, why are you so awesome? You'd think that someone would have to sell his soul to come up with a show this addictive and then have an even crazier, more addictive fandom spring up around it to make it that.much.better.
It's mind-boggling! I'm still trying to figure out what happened. First there was no Supernatural...and then there was, and my fannish brain hasn't been the same since ;b
In part, the show attracts so much creativity and fan interaction because it leaves a lot unsaid and unaddressed, yet puts enough material on screen to be deeply intriguing. It's also a sort of infinite universe, with the glimpses of their childhood, the hunter Samuel Colt made the gun for, mentions of jobs and hunts we'll never see canonically.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 07:49 pm (UTC)What I really need to do is get out of the nitpicky frame of mind because every time I do I think about all of the things I love about all of the episodes (except, maybe, Bugs, I never did finish that one;-) and I am once again filled with glee.
In part, the show attracts so much creativity and fan interaction because it leaves a lot unsaid and unaddressed, yet puts enough material on screen to be deeply intriguing.
Yes! Exactly. Thank you. There's a whole lot going on underneath and around what we see on the screen and hints and subtext like that is enough to make an fannish type salivate. I love, love, love it all.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 02:34 am (UTC)Really? REALLY?
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 02:35 pm (UTC)Just you wait, you'll see. dundunduuuuuuun