SPN S1: Episodes I liked, didn't like, and those in between.

[rsadelle]

Well, I wasn't planning on making a post about this, but then norwich36 asked me which episodes I liked and didn't like, and my email started getting really long, and maybe you're interested in my thoughts on the matter too.

There are spoilers here, some of this will not make any sense if you haven't seen the episodes, and it's not particularly in order. I will also say that I'm still not completely sure I'm sold on SPN for its own merits, but, as I told fuseji yesterday, the fannish connection is a pretty strong pull for me. Also, as I told many people yesterday, I'm kind of in love with Jensen since I watched a video of him on stage singing "Crazy Love" with Jason Manns (I'd link you, but half of them, including the one I watched yesterday, which seems to have had the best camera work, seem to be no longer available today). (And I spent an hour yesterday watching Jared and Jensen interview/con appearance clips on YouTube, and then today I watched "Day in the Life of Jared and Jensen" and the season 1 gag reel, and now I'm all for the J2.)

It turns out I love the mytharc stuff (I've been thinking about it, and part of what I like about The Sarah Connor Chronicles is that there are no side stories; it's all mytharc), plus their family issues, so I really liked the Pilot, "Home," "Salvation," and "Devil's Trap" (but not the stupid suddenly hit by a truck ending - that only works once, and it's already been taken by The Forgotten). I also liked Sam discovering his abilities in "Nightmare," and the fact that he finally (after fourteen freakin episodes!) figures out that maybe the thing that killed Mom and Jess was coming to his bed. (Which makes it sound succubus-like, but it's really more of a non-sexual coming to his bed.)

I also really liked "Dead in the Water" (Amy Acker! Dean getting along with a kid!), "Bloody Mary" (breaking mirrors and Sam having a secret, and you know Dean has secrets too, because she was coming after them, not just Sam, at the end), and "Scarecrow." "Phantom Traveler" owes a lot to The X-Files (although it's not quite the rip-off "The Benders" [a fairly eh episode] is), but I really liked Dean using James Hetfield as his alias and then being afraid to fly.

"Faith": Poor Julie Benz; things always end badly for her, don't they? I think she gets typecast because of the voice. I don't know about the episode. I was kind of bothered by the opening - maybe because it breaks the formula, even though I've been bitching in my head about what a formula show it is.

"Something Wicked": When Dean comes back from playing video games, and sees the light behind the door where Sam is, I had this flash of, "oh, this could be quite the sexual abuse allegory." I can certainly see how it would spark a lot of debate and fic about them as kids. I kept thinking of Tomie De Paola's Strega Nona, which I may have to go read now because I don't remember it at all.

"Bugs": I was so irked the whole episode because here's this kid who's a bug geek and he keeps saying "insects" even as he's talking about worms and spiders. Worms and spiders are not insects! He should know better! Do your homework, writers! I did like everyone thinking Sam and Dean were a couple. Hee!

I liked the end of "Hook Man" with Sam and the girl saying goodbye and not kissing. I don't know how I feel about "Provenance." I don't think I want to read Sarah/Sam (which Nora offered up, for those of you wondering what thin air I pulled that one out of) - I don't believe he'd choose her over Dean (um, in a non-sexual choosing Dean way, even). I liked Cassie ("Route 666"), but I had to laugh about shows that always have guest stars because it was like, hey, now Dean gets to have sex with Isabelle from The 4400. I did like the way Sam pushes Dean at her.

"Wendigo" was okay. I was annoyed by their stupidity in "Skin" (you don't split up when there's a shape-shifter around; that's just dumb). "Asylum" has some nice Sam and Dean conflict/issues stuff, but is otherwise fairly unmemorable. "Shadow": eh. "Hell House" had some good moments with the geeks, but I thought it was a pretty run of the mill episode, and I literally couldn't watch Sam with itchy pants (I kept my eyes firmly on the fic on my computer screen and not on the episode on TV). "Dead Man's Blood": Did anyone not know they were vampires as soon as they came into the bar? The vampire consort (or whatever you want to call her) was hot, but, you know, vampires. Been there, done that.

I found myself talking back to them an awful lot (and not just the aforementioned talking back to Papa Winchester), and in the last couple of episodes, I kept saying things like, "Oh, babies." I kept calling Sam "baby" (or sometimes "Sammy baby") all season, and in my head it's the same "baby" as in "It rains because you're sad, baby," at the end of Men In Black II.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Apparently the hit-by-a-truck thing had a lot more resonance with people watching S1 live because the show hadn't been renewed yet, and its ratings sucked, and there was a very good chance it would just end there. But I agree with you about the derivative nature of a lot of the episodes.

The sexual abuse allegory for "Something Wicked"--I never thought about that, and now that you mention it I can't believe I missed that. Hmmm.

Trust me when I say that the Salvation-verse (http://assignations.org/spn/fa_index.html) (that Sam/Sarah thing I mentioned) does not in any way involve Sam choosing Sarah over Dean--in fact a major premise of the series is that Sarah is kind of married to both of them (without actual polyamory, though she does sleep with both of them together in a prequel to the series and also after a traumatic event in the series). The main draw of this series, though, is Sam and Dean with kids. Sam has three daughters, and Dean has a daughter, while they're not technically raising all the kids together collectively they may as well be. It's by far the best Sam-as-dad and Dean-as-dad series out there, and watching them have to teach their kids about the supernatural when they thought they could escape it, but they can't--because among other things all of their kids have powers--is really fantastic.

[rsadelle]

Yeah, I could see that it would be a whole thing for the viewers at the time, but I question the artistic choice. (If you can talk about artistic choice for a formula show on the CW.)

It was just the way he hesitantly comes back into the room and approaches the door. I knew it was going to be the strega, but, still, my first impulse was that he was going to walk in on a person sexually abusing Sam. (And now I keep thinking that this would work for someone to write angsty, uh, non-supernatural [it's all-human in other fandoms, but I don't know the SPN logo] Wincest about. Or even gen fic.)

Hmmm. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe.

I meant to post this as a reply

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

It might have gone to your message center. Gmail was throwing fits at me tonight.

I really love that Jensen-as-vet story, btw. I forgot to mention that in the email.

I have seen some stories that posit Sam (or usually Dean) being molested, but not in reference to that specific episode. (There's one where Dean and John realize they were so busy worrying about supernatural threats they forgot to warn Sam about ordinary threats like soccer coaches who like to take naked pictures of little boys; it
seems like I just read another one where I forget whether it was Dean or Sam who was abused as a kid and only mentions it to the other one in the context of some fight they're having as adults. And that's not even mentioning the 13-year-old-Dean-has-to-whore-himself-out-because-Dad-didn't-leave- enough-money-for-food genre.

(Jensen actually fed the Dean-as-boywhore genre by hinting in some interview, when asked how Dean got his money, that Dean wouldn't have problems charging for sex.)

Re: I meant to post this as a reply

[rsadelle]

Jensen-as-vet totally rocked! (I mentioned it in passing to someone else, and she said, "VET! *grabby hands*" Hee!) I've been reading through your tags. The weird artifact Eric picked up Jeff/girl!Jensen was just about the hottest thing ever. (Also, hilarious because it's so similar to my unfinished Viggo/girl!Orlando story, complete with clothes shopping. Oh, fangirls. We're all alike.) I really wanted to read the Jensen as a messed up rich kid with Jeff, but I can't take second person narratives.

Ohhhhh. Those two sound like good plots, especially John and Dean not teaching Sammy about ordinary threats. And, oh, yeah, I sure thought there must be teen Dean whoring himself out for food things. (Or, hmm, other things, like toys or sports fees or science project supplies, all for Sammy because he wants Sammy to have whatever he wants.)

One of the things I liked in "Devil's Trap" (I think; maybe one of the other last few episodes) is that Papa Winchester (or maybe the demon) gets that Sam wants normal and Dean wants a home. They're not quite the same thing, and maybe it's an interesting take on how they were raised - Dean remembers what it's like to have a home, while Sammy only ever saw normal from the outside.

Now I have this allegory idea in my head about how all this time, everything they've been doing has had an ordinary, boring explanation, but the three of them have been so traumatized by Mary's actual death (in a non-supernaturally caused fire, maybe) that they're suffering hallucinations. I really need a place to give away plot bunnies to other people.

(Huh. Interesting Dean backstory he has going on. I wonder if he's thinking Dean's charging older women, guys, or younger women who want him so much they'd even pay for it, as long as they got to fuck him. I do wonder about the money, sometimes. One of the things that bothered me about "Something Wicked" is that when Sam refuses to eat his SpaghettiOs and wants the Lucky Charms, Dean throws them out instead of eating them himself. I get the sense they don't have the money to be wasting food like that.)

Re: I meant to post this as a reply

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, I really like the girl!Jensen story, too, but I wish that author would continue that series. (Did I link to the second story where Jeff finds out Jensen is still a girl and pregnant?)

Some night when it isn't the premiere of both SPN and Smallville I will try and find those abuse stories for you; I doubt I tagged them, because frankly I mostly just tag smut, or else plotty stuff that really blows me away.

I agree with you about Dean throwing away the Lucky Charms in Something Wicked--though that just makes me think that particular writer has never actually lived on that kind of limited income or s/he would know kids Dean's age would know not to waste food like that. (The fannish consensus on how the Winchesters make their money, somewhat canon-supported, is credit card fraud supplemented by hustling pool. But yeah, I wonder who it is Jensen thinks Dean is selling himself to!)

Re: I meant to post this as a reply

[rsadelle]

You didn't, but I followed the tags from her entry and found it. I'd kind of like the things in between, where they're together in the first place.

Hee! No rush. I still have lots to read, plus the work I'm supposed to be doing on my own writing and things for my writing group. (Yikes! I need to do my assignment for Sunday's meeting.)

Yeah, canon certainly supports credit card fraud and hustling pool, and I think Dean talks about winning money playing poker in one episode. Maybe interesting: Sam protests a little (he says something like "we could get real jobs" in one episode), but he does go along with it. I wonder if Dean ever gets in trouble hustling someone who's a better hustler than he is. I also wonder what other kinds of cons they might be running.

[rsadelle]

Oh, it was "Provenance" that had the freaking hilarious hotel room. (I was trying to remember which episode that was, and here it is in the gag reel. I'm doing the thing you do of watching things [again] just before I have to return it.) Now I'm going to have to put in that disc and watch the look on their faces as they go into the hotel room.

[glendaglamazon.livejournal.com]

Isn't it interesting how you can see a million pictures of Jensen and just go, "Eh, pretty. So what?" But then you watch Dean, and you start to watch him in interviews or at cons or singing (there's a real studio recording of him singing Crazy Love with Jason where Jensen gets a whole verse out there--I think you can hear it at Jason's MySpace) and somewhere along the way, you just go, WOW! And his pretty becomes a lot less boring. I love that about him. *g*

It's so interesting to me to see your take on Season 1. I also came into the show late (at about the start of S2), but I watched S1 all out of order, which was an egregious mistake. I'm excited to read the rest of your thoughts.

[rsadelle]

I actually devoured Dark Angel a couple of years ago, but didn't remember Jensen at all. I just rewatched the last couple of episodes this week, and now I kind of remember him. Poor Jensen seems to be typecast as the tough, arrogant guy who has a good heart buried in there somewhere (although Dean's good heart is a little closer to the surface than Alec's). It was really the way he's so shy on stage with his baseball cap and stubble and then he does what I think of as the Justin Timberlake thing (probably more of a singer thing) and tilts his head into singing that made me fall in love with him. Does Jensen have a whole verse on the studio version of "Crazy Love?" I've been listening to it on repeat a lot (along with "The Ballad of Jensen and Jared," which are the only things on my J2 playlist so far), and the problem with trying to hear Jensen singing is that I now know it so well that I end up singing with it instead of listening to it.

I'm fascinated that people find my take on S1 so interesting. Are there things that are drastically different from your take or other people's take on it that stood out to you?