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

[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?