I admitted it last week when I watched The Vampire Diaries, and I’ll do so again. Whether I liked the show or not, it was fun to dive into a series so disparate from my tastes, with no frame-of-reference or anchor. Sure, if this was the middle of the ocean I might feel differently about it, but as it was just an hour with what IMDb categorizes as a drama/fantasy/horror/mystery/thriller (I’m on-board with 3 out of 5 of those genres), I was okay with it.
For those of you just joining us now — where were you last time? — this is where I review an episode of a show that I don’t normally watch, an experiment in rectifying the injustice of people sometimes passing on series because they don’t look good to them (the horror!). I’ll try to leave the visceral sarcasm at the door.
Episode Summary – I was way lost on this one, and to be honest, it seemed like a whole lot of nonsense at times. Now, I didn’t expect to be able to jump in at the end of season five and get it, but if a show is so completely inaccessible for someone new…. Do the creators fear growing their audience above three million viewers? Because if it’s impossible for someone to catch up, the audience will never expand. Whether the series is ending tomorrow, or in five years, isn’t that counterproductive?
Anyway, I did slowly start to get a clue as things continued. I wasn’t ever as lost as I was when the old guy was with that sick woman and she threw up green slime all over him. Apparently he was Pestilence, of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I’ve got to tell you, that in itself is assuming a whole hell of a lot from the audience … familiarity with that theological chestnut demands a certain amount of acquaintance with the New Testament. Is this show steeped in Christian lore to begin with?
There was a whole lot of “supernatural” that blew right by me — are the brothers human? Were some of those characters demons? Are we to believe that taking out a Horseman is as easy as the show makes it look? Where was his horse? And as far as the mythology of the show goes, if I’m remembering the pilot correctly, the brothers went in search of their missing father who either hunted things with special powers, or who had powers himself. Yet now they themselves are some sort of vessels? Was that whole angel/angel dust thing relevant to them?
I don’t know. It wasn’t for me, and surprisingly least of all because I was lost. Jim Sterling (Mark Sheppard) from Leverage stuck out like a sore thumb, because my association with him is so totally different. And did I see that Jacob on Lost (Mark Pellegrino) is Lucifer? Very weird for any crossover viewers. But my biggest complaint was with short-haired brother, who I later discovered was the fabled Dean (Jensen Ackles). First of all, his voice is about three octaves lower than I’d expect.
That inanity aside, he’s the weakest link. I won’t go so far as to say he sucks, because that’s a stupid conclusion to draw based on only one episode. But from what I did see, he failed to make me believe anything he said or did. Whether the show or the writing was good or bad, everyone else fit; Dean just didn’t come across to this newbie as if he had any business being on the same show as everyone else. I found him to be exceedingly underwhelming after everything I’ve heard.
Conclusions – In all honesty, I can totally understand why people love this show. And not in a creepy, fanatical, “Let’s kill all the non-viewers out there so that our tiny demo share goes up” sort of way (I just made you guys look a whole lot better). My take stems from the fact that never in a million years would I watch a show like this. I’m not a fan of things that go bump in the night, or ones that do so because they have magical powers and thought your window was open so they tried to fly through it only to discover that it was closed — and just really clean — when they hit it face-first.
I enjoyed the battle to overthrow the Devil on Reaper, but that was an entirely different show, with a completely different sensibility. It certainly wasn’t my usual bag, but it was light and silly, and the characters were so much fun to spend time with. For me, it was the exception to the rule that Supernatural firmly lives by. I’m glad so many people derive pleasure from the Winchesters, but they’re not for me.
Have something in mind that might be? Let me know which of your favorites you want me to experience. I promise I’ll try to play nice!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on May 10, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
Yeah, this was not a good Dean episode, especially if you don’t know the history. I’m a huge SPN fan, and he was still so-so in this. And I totally hear you on the mythology, that’s why I don’t really try to explain the show to people anymore. It’s hard to explain the show’s little twists on some typical Judeo-Christian stuff.
I know you’re not going to start watching the whole thing, so I’ll throw out two recommendations (both Season 3): “Bad Day at Black Rock” and “Mystery Spot.” Both show off the comedic side of things, and the mythology doesn’t get too deep in either.
“Mystery Spot” is one of my all-time favorite episodes. I agree that this was a very hard episode to jump in to, so close to the end of the season and so reliant on the mytharc. It didn’t show off the awesomeness with Dean, but Aryeh, you’d better watch out when the Dean fangirls catch wind of this post! ;-)
*POST AUTHOR*
Why do I get the feeling that you set me up for a beating with this column idea? ;)
Yeah Aryeh you should watch out for the Dean Fan-girls because I am one of them. I disagree with you and your review because even though someone saw this show for the first time it let them catch on pretty quickly. And I don’t see how you don’t like a guy with a deep voice? But I guess every one has their own opinions.
P.S the Vampire Diaries Sucked! I just got bored and stopped watching over just 3 episodes. Supernatural is so much better.
*POST AUTHOR*
I won’t promise anything, but I’ll make a note of the episodes and keep an eye out for them. Thanks!
I think that any season before this one would be immensely easier to just jump in the middle of and “get it.” This one is far deeper into an overall arc than any previous seasons. I think Stan’s suggestions would be great episodes to try out.
Funny thing about this show is I’m not a horror or supernatural/fantasy fan AT ALL, but I checked out the pilot just because I had nothing better to do and it actually scared me a bit. I hadn’t been creeped out by a show since X-Files so I stayed with it and now it’s one of my favorites. And Dean has some of the best lines of any show anywhere, he does fit, but you just got a taste at the wrong time I think.
Even if you didn’t like it, kudos for trying new things! An open mind is always a good thing.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m the same as you. I watched the pilot like I do for most shows, but I’m not a science fiction person … the horror and fantasy of the show made me run in the other direction. It wasn’t a comment on the quality of the show, just the nature, so it was worth another look five years later to discover whether or not I was missing something.
That, and Debbie made me. :)
HA! I’m not trying to set you up, but you have so much to say about shows you choose to watch, I was dying to hear what you’d have to say about shows you deliberately don’t watch … I wasn’t wrong! ;-)
Sadly, Supernatural pretty much blows these days. You should go back and check out one of the first four seasons, all of which were far superior.
I myself only came across Supernatural mid season of four. I couldn’t follow everything that was going on. What with the Angels and such. I had heard I would like it mostly because of the brother’s bond. Well, I thought Dean was a ____. And felt sorry for Sam. But I was still a little interested because of the name. So I decided to rent the first season to watch from the beginning. I’ve been a rabid fan ever since!!
?? to what you say about JA. Really ????
And you complain about his voice??? What kind of argument is that???
Heh.. This cannot be taken seriously.
*POST AUTHOR*
It wasn’t really an argument (about his voice) so much as an observation by a first-time viewer. I heard him speak for the first time ever, thought his voice was deeper than would make sense, and made a note of it. But I also recognized that that was a nonsense comment when I went on with my real take on him.
War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death might not be familiar to the average channel surfer, but they’re staples (practically clichés) in supernatural/Apocalyptic fiction/television/movies. I encountered them many, many times before I ever read the Book of Revelation. The various demons and angels are not quite as well known, but the same names do pop up again and again.
And you’re coming in at the end of this show’s five-year narrative arc, which rewards the loyal fans, but can’t really spoon-feed the plot to newbies. Wouldn’t I be similarly lost if I tried to watch LOST the same week?
*POST AUTHOR*
I guess that leaves me in the dark too … I don’t watch any of those shows.
Even so … even if this is your payoff … every episode should be compelling enough in some way to intrigue a new viewer to go back to the beginning and find out what everyone else was watching in the fifth season. It could very well be that Lost would do just as poor a job at it as Supernatural. That doesn’t mean that they both shouldn’t do better.
Not just shows, but the genre literature of the past fifty or so years as well. :) Long before I was born.
It’s not my payoff, as I don’t watch either show. My friends all gush about the brothers on Supernatural, but it’s a little too scary for me. But from what I’ve heard and read, I think it is compelling for someone who has at least a basic idea of what’s going on. That’s the reaction I had when watching this season’s premiere, the first episode I’d seen since the pilot. You seem to be completely lost above, even about simple matters that I only know about from reading Brett’s reviews. As I said above, I don’t think it’s possible in 44 minutes to explain things down to that level to utter neophytes while still advancing the plot with any acceptable speed.
Heh, I actually agree with you on Jensen Ackles. I knew him from his continuing character on Smallville, so to see him pop up on this show with a much deeper voice definitely threw me for a while.
*POST AUTHOR*
Thank you! It was nothing disparaging about Ackles … just an observation! :)
I disagree with you there, Aryeh. Those shows that make it super easy for anyone to jump in at any point, which often are very long lasting and popular shows, are called “procedurals” and while I watch a few of them myself, I don’t think it makes a case for the quality of the show. They just happen to be wrapped up neatly from week to week without a lot of overlapping plot. It comes down to what you want in a TV show. I can tell you that everyone I know who likes long-running story arcs and heavy mythology in their tv shows, and has given Supernatural a shot, has fallen in love with it after just a few episodes. Even my mom got a kick out of the episode “The Monster at the End of This Book” :D
Also wanted to throw in there that not only does Mark Pellegrino play Lucifer, but Titus Welliver (the Man in Black) had a role as War, the first of the four horsemen we saw on Supernatural this year.
*POST AUTHOR*
Maybe I’m thinking of a perfect world. But if you can’t find an “in” to a show, how do you pick it up? I started watching both The Sopranos and The Wire a few seasons in, and then went back. So maybe it’s not a mythology thing … maybe I just didn’t find Supernatural to be very good.
I think it’s pretty unfair to judge a show as serialized as this one is by the penultimate chapter of the fifth season. These latest episodes are paying off things that have been five years in the making. And I disagree with you about every episode needing to hook in new viewers. Sometimes the integrity of the story does not allow for that, and I would rather the writers tell their story, whether it’s accessible or not.
While this episode was certainly not perfect (in many ways it was set up to fail by the pacing of the season; your criticism that the horsemen were too easily dispatched, particularly Pestilence, would be legitimate whether you were a long-time viewer or not), I believe it did the best it could with all it had to cram in and created breathing room for the finale. Still, the fact that the episode’s story was rushed couldn’t have helped your viewing experience.
Another area where I understand where you’re coming from is with Ackles. I wasn’t too impressed with him when I first started watching either–and when I say that, I mean almost the whole first season. Now I enjoy him immensely and I think he’s quite talented; I’ve come to the conclusion that his acting style is just a little off-beat and you have to get used to him to appreciate him.
I agree with your assessment that Supernatural is not exactly friendly to newcomers, because that assessment is pretty hard to refute. Supernatural has a tendency to fill even its stand-alone episodes with character arc and inside jokes (and yes, for a horror show Supernatural can be very, very funny).
What I disagree with is what you’re saying here, in this comment. To say that you had your curiosity piqued by The Wire and The Sopranos from a mid-way point but not Supernatural, and that such is a reflection of Supernatural‘s overall quality is a comment that has bull excrement smeared all over it. If this was the first episode of Supernatural I had ever seen, even though I wouldn’t be able to tell what the heck was going on, I would be interested enough to take another look. But that’s because I have a natural inclination toward sci-fi/fantasy/horror. By your own admission, the very genre is not your cup of tea. From your comment on your Vampire Diaries review it’s plain to see why you were more intrigued by The Sopranos and The Wire: they’re the type of show you’re naturally inclined to seek and enjoy. Please don’t try to make the case that your personal tastes reflect the relative quality of these shows.
And after reading this and your review of Vampire Diaries, I would like to suggest that, the interests of this experiment aside, you may want to avoid this genre as much as possible in the future. Obviously sci-fi/fantasy/horror turns your stomach just a little too much to give these shows a truly fair shake. And since you seem to like episodic stuff more than serialized stuff, I’ll recommend some of my favorite light, fun fare: Burn Notice and White Collar.
P.S. Pestilence’s steed was in another episode.
P.P.S. I loved Reaper, too.
P.P.S.S. (And please don’t take this as anything more than gentle ribbing but) anyone who watches NCIS has serious cojones calling anyone else’s show crap.
*POST AUTHOR*
Whether or not I can or can’t judge the show based on one episode that comes at the very end of a long tale, what I’m trying to do with this column is check out shows where I’ve always wondered, “What’s the hype all about?” I don’t think I’m looking to find something new to watch (although it would be cool if I did), but I think the column does provide an interesting perspective on how shows look to an outside observer. Should it have to be able to hook me in five seasons along? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean I can’t wonder why it couldn’t give me something to pique my interest. The Wire, for instance, got me to come back a few times before I made up my mind, because there was something there that made me keep on coming back. You’re right this is not my genre, so therein lies much of the difference, but I still say that it’s fair for me to call out the show for giving me nothing to hang onto. That’s just the nature of TV watching.
As for the quality of the show, I think I actually made it a point not to put it into question at all during my column, or any of my other columns on other shows. That comment was merely the result of a thread of conversation — in the body of my review, I don’t think I take that sort of position at all.
As for this and The Vampire Diaries specifically, they both fell into the “What’s the hype all about?” column, but I was also watching them in response to someone wondering what I’d think of them. Other than maybe True Blood, I think you can rest assured that I don’t plan to go there again. :)
Thanks for the recommendations! I cover White Collar for the site, and love Burn Notice. But you read me right!
Re NCIS — yes I do! ;)
Maybe not – but I still contend that had you watched one of the stand-alone episodes you’d have enjoyed it quite a bit more!
*POST AUTHOR*
I did see the pilot when it premiered … not my cup of tea.
totally get that’s it not your thing… but i have to argue your Dean point…. he makes the show. if you know nothing else about Supernatural – know that!