Dear Supernatural, I love you
Because I want Season 3 to start, like, now, and I've seen other great posts on this, and I've been rewatching all the shiny DVD eps from S2, I've been thinking about why Supernatural rocks so hard.
1. They let them be emotionally vulnerable. I mean, we know by now that Dean is a big marshmallow and that Sam has none of that male phobia of crying, but I see it even more in moments like the end of "Nightstalker," where it's we're screwed instead of triumphal victory, when Dean calls John in "Home" with that hitch of desperation in his voice, and when Sam gets on Dean in "Provenance" for trying to pimp him out, because he's not that confident in himself, on top of still dealing with Jess's death. And tons of other examples that make me love the show, because it would have been easy and predictable to just let them kick ass at everything, but here we get so much more.
It's actually one of the reasons I like S1 better than S2, in that the threats are more emotional (Dad missing; the implications of Sam's visions; the impact of John's death) then gradually move more to the physical (wanted by the FBI; angry demon horde). Obviously the big emotional threat for S3 is Dean's deal, and I just hope all the demon stuff doesn't get in the way.
2. How they deal with class issues. The class thing is actually what hooked me hard into the show, because Sam going to college is so classic first generation college student, facing up against family pressures and often resentment. I used to teach a summer Bridge course for incoming university freshmen, and most of the students were first-generation and faced tremendous pressures from both their family and the community, not to mention holding down jobs at the same time. It bucks up against the typical middle class line where the kid goes off to college and it's their time, them making it in the world.
What I love about SPN is that they show the other side of this: the importance of family and all the emotional benefits and support one can gain from it, Dean and John admitting how proud they were of Sam, Sam getting past his embarrassment of his father and brother, his judgments about the "job" and its undesirability. I love how the show plays both sides.
3. Related to the above, I also like how it plays with themes of insider/outsider. A lot of genre shows do this, which is why I think fans like genre shows. It shows the desirability of being the outsider, the one not conforming to mainstream standards; living on the road and out of motel rooms, connecting with other outsiders (hunters), Sam's speech to the circus owner in "Everybody Loves a Clown" (Sir, we don't want to go to school. And we don't want regular. We want this.), which was a great episode in that regard. They've shown so much of Sam's conflict, his wanting to retain some vestiges of normality until that speech; Dean doesn't have that confliction, which is why he fits in everywhere.
And I love that this is such an American theme, too (not to take away from how it's a human theme; it's just something that American cultural historians like to talk about a lot). The desire to reject the status quo, the individual against the state, marking off your territory and warding off everyone else with a shotgun and a hunting dog; like everything there's good and bad, and I think in SPN we get to see both.
4. Working off the above, how much Americanness there is in this show. The endless landscape, faith healers, scepticism of faith healers, the carnival, all the darkness hidden in the cracks, not to mention all the more explicit use of urban legend and folklore. One of the most pronounced thing about American cultural history is its conflictedness: promised land vs. materialism and decay; the land of freedom built on the back of slavery; the land of opportunity with tremendous poverty. America loves its extremes while being peculiarly blind to them, and it's the cracks between that for me is what's exploited so well by the show. Just in its use of horror, we get to see all the dark stuff America would rather leave swept under the rug. And that, too, is such a part of American culture, because its paradoxes can't be contained.
5. Its treatment of women and women characters. Yes, there's a lot the show gets wrong in this regard. There's stuff it gets right, too. The sad thing is, I can point to the lack of contempt Dean and Sam show for women as a good, positive thing rather than the unremarkable norm it should be; but I see so much casual contempt for women every fucking day, in both media and culture, that this is a big deal for me. Yes, they're overly protective, but they're polite. They grow in response to their interactions with women -- in respect for Ellen and Jo, Sam waking up to how kickass Sarah was. And how Dean will sleep with anyone and never gives any indication that he thinks less of the women he sleeps with because of it. Maybe I've just known a lot of shitty men, but I love the guys for this.
There's still a lot of room for them to grow -- I want to strangle Sam for his speech to Madison in "Heart," because come on. He's really that surprised to find an independent, self-possessed woman, enough to say he's impressed by it? Bad Sam. Didn't you go to Stanford? You're going to tell me you didn't know any women like that?
But what they do get right isn't a small thing, either, at least not for me. And I hope they continue to grow. For spoilery reasons, it could go in a very bad direction, or it could provide opportunity to get more shit right. I'm hopeful, because I'm idealistic that way.
So there you go, five reasons I love this show, and I didn't even mention the hotness. And go read other great posts on SPN love, like tvm's Dean Winchester: 17 kinds of awesome and Sam Winchester: He's no slouch either, and hesychasm's fabulous post on Sam awesomeness, musesfool's 13 things I'd like to see in Season 3 (casting spoilers), and esorlehcar's giant picspam of love.
I feel like someone else posted a list of why they love SPN, and I can't find it now, so if it was you or you saw one, let me know so I can love you for it.
ETA: And that would be cofax7's 10 Things I love about Supernatural, which you guys need to read because she's dead on. And my researching skills suck.
1. They let them be emotionally vulnerable. I mean, we know by now that Dean is a big marshmallow and that Sam has none of that male phobia of crying, but I see it even more in moments like the end of "Nightstalker," where it's we're screwed instead of triumphal victory, when Dean calls John in "Home" with that hitch of desperation in his voice, and when Sam gets on Dean in "Provenance" for trying to pimp him out, because he's not that confident in himself, on top of still dealing with Jess's death. And tons of other examples that make me love the show, because it would have been easy and predictable to just let them kick ass at everything, but here we get so much more.
It's actually one of the reasons I like S1 better than S2, in that the threats are more emotional (Dad missing; the implications of Sam's visions; the impact of John's death) then gradually move more to the physical (wanted by the FBI; angry demon horde). Obviously the big emotional threat for S3 is Dean's deal, and I just hope all the demon stuff doesn't get in the way.
2. How they deal with class issues. The class thing is actually what hooked me hard into the show, because Sam going to college is so classic first generation college student, facing up against family pressures and often resentment. I used to teach a summer Bridge course for incoming university freshmen, and most of the students were first-generation and faced tremendous pressures from both their family and the community, not to mention holding down jobs at the same time. It bucks up against the typical middle class line where the kid goes off to college and it's their time, them making it in the world.
What I love about SPN is that they show the other side of this: the importance of family and all the emotional benefits and support one can gain from it, Dean and John admitting how proud they were of Sam, Sam getting past his embarrassment of his father and brother, his judgments about the "job" and its undesirability. I love how the show plays both sides.
3. Related to the above, I also like how it plays with themes of insider/outsider. A lot of genre shows do this, which is why I think fans like genre shows. It shows the desirability of being the outsider, the one not conforming to mainstream standards; living on the road and out of motel rooms, connecting with other outsiders (hunters), Sam's speech to the circus owner in "Everybody Loves a Clown" (Sir, we don't want to go to school. And we don't want regular. We want this.), which was a great episode in that regard. They've shown so much of Sam's conflict, his wanting to retain some vestiges of normality until that speech; Dean doesn't have that confliction, which is why he fits in everywhere.
And I love that this is such an American theme, too (not to take away from how it's a human theme; it's just something that American cultural historians like to talk about a lot). The desire to reject the status quo, the individual against the state, marking off your territory and warding off everyone else with a shotgun and a hunting dog; like everything there's good and bad, and I think in SPN we get to see both.
4. Working off the above, how much Americanness there is in this show. The endless landscape, faith healers, scepticism of faith healers, the carnival, all the darkness hidden in the cracks, not to mention all the more explicit use of urban legend and folklore. One of the most pronounced thing about American cultural history is its conflictedness: promised land vs. materialism and decay; the land of freedom built on the back of slavery; the land of opportunity with tremendous poverty. America loves its extremes while being peculiarly blind to them, and it's the cracks between that for me is what's exploited so well by the show. Just in its use of horror, we get to see all the dark stuff America would rather leave swept under the rug. And that, too, is such a part of American culture, because its paradoxes can't be contained.
5. Its treatment of women and women characters. Yes, there's a lot the show gets wrong in this regard. There's stuff it gets right, too. The sad thing is, I can point to the lack of contempt Dean and Sam show for women as a good, positive thing rather than the unremarkable norm it should be; but I see so much casual contempt for women every fucking day, in both media and culture, that this is a big deal for me. Yes, they're overly protective, but they're polite. They grow in response to their interactions with women -- in respect for Ellen and Jo, Sam waking up to how kickass Sarah was. And how Dean will sleep with anyone and never gives any indication that he thinks less of the women he sleeps with because of it. Maybe I've just known a lot of shitty men, but I love the guys for this.
There's still a lot of room for them to grow -- I want to strangle Sam for his speech to Madison in "Heart," because come on. He's really that surprised to find an independent, self-possessed woman, enough to say he's impressed by it? Bad Sam. Didn't you go to Stanford? You're going to tell me you didn't know any women like that?
But what they do get right isn't a small thing, either, at least not for me. And I hope they continue to grow. For spoilery reasons, it could go in a very bad direction, or it could provide opportunity to get more shit right. I'm hopeful, because I'm idealistic that way.
So there you go, five reasons I love this show, and I didn't even mention the hotness. And go read other great posts on SPN love, like tvm's Dean Winchester: 17 kinds of awesome and Sam Winchester: He's no slouch either, and hesychasm's fabulous post on Sam awesomeness, musesfool's 13 things I'd like to see in Season 3 (casting spoilers), and esorlehcar's giant picspam of love.
I feel like someone else posted a list of why they love SPN, and I can't find it now, so if it was you or you saw one, let me know so I can love you for it.
ETA: And that would be cofax7's 10 Things I love about Supernatural, which you guys need to read because she's dead on. And my researching skills suck.