Monday 12 November 2012

I Blame You, Supernatural

What's that? Cicely talking about a TV show once again? One would thing that this blog would be mostly about books given the title, but what can I say. I'm full of surprises.

I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately. It's not that I'm not reading, I'm just not reading as much as I want to be. I'd like to say it was because I've been in a funny mood, or that I've just not had the time, but I'd be lying to myself and everyone around me. I know exactly why I've not been reading as much lately, and it's all the fault of two brothers, a '67 Chevy Impala and a shit ton of ghosts, demons, vampires, angels ect. 


Even after I'd seen how this show had ruined the lives of my peers on Tumblr (seriously, if any of you follow me on there, I am SO SORRY.) I somehow thought that I would be immune to its charms. I'd watched the first few episodes before and I'd never really gotten into it, but a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it one last shot.

What a mistake this was. I've probably said this before, but I started college, a place in which I actually have to do work on occasion and regardless not the best time to be getting into a tv show that had just started its eighth season. I really couldn't have picked a worse time to start watching it, but what's past is past, along with the three weeks of my life I wasted obsessively trying to catch up with this show (and yes, it took me exactly three weeks, thank you very much. Still not sure whether to be proud or ashamed. *shrugs nonchalantly*)

The reason why I'd never given this show much of a chance before was because I thought it'd be mostly Two Hot Bros Hunting Demons And Being Too Manly To Accept The Fact That They Have Emotions, and it kind of was, and you watch it thinking well, this is pretty good and funny and scary and stuff I guess I'll carry on watching it, but then. Then out of nowhere it's like HA I BET WE TRICKED YOU INTO THINKING THIS SHOW WOULD BE FUN WELL YOU WERE WRONG IT'S ALL PAIN AND TEARS AND DEATH AND WE WILL KILL EVERYONE YOU LOVE AND YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE *WICKED LAUGHTER* (well, this is how it went for me. I'm not really sure about how normal folk with non-obsessive personalities feel about the show.)

And that's just before the Angels come into it. Seasons 4 and 5 have been my personal favourites so far (exact order: 5, 4, 2, 1, 7, 3 all pretty close together and then 6 all the way in that corner over there because apart from about 4 episodes it sucked) mostly because of the introduction of the angel Castiel. Cas is the best. There is no way that you can make it past season 5 of this show and not have Cas be in your top 3 characters. Even when he screws up, you can't help but love him because everything he does, he does because he thinks it's for the best. Even when he's walking down a dark path, you know he's done it because he's misguided and thinks that it'll help when it might just ruin everything. There's just something great about him, and I think that 79% of that is down to Misha Collins being fabulous, but the rest of it is just because he's well written and likeable and extra terrestrial the butt of jokes he doesn't get and simultaneously being one of the funniest and most serious characters and I know this sentence is too long but I don't care I just love Cas.

For the purposes of anyone reading this who do watch the show (if anyone reads this at all (though seriously if you watch the show TALK TO ME PLEASE)) I'm a Dean girl. Since the first ep. It's something about the eyes, they're just so pretty and expressive and I just feel so bad for him because he's not a bad guy and yeah he makes mistakes sometimes but I don't understand why he hates himself so much it makes me so sad. He takes on the guilt for everything and feels like he has this crazy responsibility for his brother, and he tries so hard to help people and do the best for them even if he knows it's stupid. I've never seen a character so prepared and willing to sacrifice himself over and over again, and he just needs therapy so badly it's really not good.

Of course, I like Sam a lot too, and I think he's a really interesting character and he definitely gets the more interesting plots, but I just can't connect to him the same way that I do with Dean. Again, I think it's the eyes. He's had a really interesting emotional journey during the course of the show, though, and he's changed a lot. It's so depressing when I see pictures of them in season one when they were such babies and they used to smile. Man, those were the days.

On the subject of smiling, the show is really good at funny as well. My personal favourites being The Monster at The End of This Book, Changing Channels, The Real Ghostbusters and The French Mistake. Sometimes it goes so meta that you start to wonder whether it should be working as well it does, but Ben Edlund is just a genius when it comes to doing crazy, hilarious episodes. Changing Channels, which is basically just the show mocking a load of other shows (Grey's Anatomy, CSI, Knight Rider ect) still remains one of my favourite episodes ever purely because of how surreal and hilarious it was, as well as how interesting it's contribution was to the plot arc of the season. We got a huge reveal about one of the side characters which I wasn't expecting, and a lot more backstory about why Sam and Dean had been chosen as the vessels.

That, and the meta world they created inside the show with the introduction of Chuck the prophet who'd written a series of books about Sam and Dean's lives from season 1 to season 3 is one of the things that made s4&5 so special to me. They really got to explore fandom in those episodes, and the fans and the books in the show were obviously meant to react the crazy fans they had in real life, but I think that they handled it really well, and even though they mocked us, they did it in a loving and respectful way, not without mocking themselves too. I firmly believe that you don't truly love something unless you can take the piss out of it (well, that's the case for me anything), and the show certainly mocks itself plenty.

I really love all of the other hunters, too, especially Bobby (don't even talk to me about Bobby. I'll probably start crying again.) It's really important both for us as viewers and for Sam and Dean to remember that the world doesn't revolve around them, and that sometimes they just need to get their heads out of their asses and look around them and see how what they're doing is affecting those around them. That's why Garth is one of my favourite characters. I know he's not been that well liked, and he's used as a bit of a gimmick, but I think in the most recent episode he really proved himself to be more than that. He's just so cool about everything and doesn't hold grudges with people and is just trying to do something useful. 

My favourite thing about the show, though (and yes, this will come to and end soon, I promise) is the importance of family. There have been love interests now and again, but the real foundation of the story is the relationship between the Winchester's. Even when they were hunting a Siren, for Dean it didn't turn into a sexy woman, it turned into a younger brother figure who was into the same music and cars as him, and I'm still not sure if that's just creepy or whatever, but it says a lot about Dean when it comes to actually loving a person. Though I promise you, I'm not into Wincest. It may not seem like it, but I have boundaries.

I was hoping that this was going to be a little less fangirly, and a lot shorter than it actually turned out to be, but oh well. I just have a lot of feelings. Though if you do start watching Supernatural, let me just warn you, you're favourite character WILL DIE. MULTIPLE TIMES. That, I can guarantee. I'm pretty sure I cried several times each season. Oh dear, I'm going back into fangirl mood. I should probably get back to books quickly before my brain explodes.

5 comments:

  1. Just one thing, I get Dean because I started watching the show first!

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  2. Don't apologise! I've had my good friends tell me to watch Supernatural and I really think I should... glad you're enjoying it though :)

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  3. "It may not seem like it, but I have boundaries."

    ROFL.

    Honestly, we don't watch this show (and only Kristan is even considering it, and ONLY because of your post) but we really enjoyed reading your post. The WHOLE thing. It sounds really clever and fun -- sort of Joss Whedon-esque, with Buffy, or even similar to Doc Who -- and we love that.

    No worries about "not reading enough." Pssh. Yes, books are great. But they're also not going anywhere. They'll wait till you're ready. ;)

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  4. Love love love Supernatural!! And everything you said pretty much sums up my feelings for it, too.

    I so behind, though - I still haven't even started watching season seven. So much has happened, I'm kind of terrified of what's to come. haha

    But, yeah. This show does many things to us all. ALL THE FEELS!

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