Supernatural: Myths dispelled
I've never done this before, and I'll probably never do it again, but I'm afraid it's time I did a little pimping for Supernatural. I know, I know, a lot of you are just plain not interested, but please hear me out. I honestly believe it's one of the best shows on TV right now, and it's about time it started getting the respect and higher ratings that it deserves.
I was going to do this last week when the new episodes began, but I figured that a reality show spoof would be a bad place for a new viewer to jump in, heh. It looks like this week's ep will be pretty awesome, though (I hope I hope!), and since the ratings for last week's ep were a major disappointment (due to lack of promotion on the CW's part, not a reflection on the quality of the show), I figured now was the time. So, here we go...
Myths Dispelled! My answers to the most popular excuses people give for not watching Supernatural.
Myth #1: "Meh, it's just another CW show. Can't be that great if it's on that crapfest of a network."
Myth Dispelled: Dude, you couldn't be more wrong. Supernatural is intelligent, witty, self-deprecating, well written, beautifully shot, superbly acted, and has one of the most complex-yet-satisfying ongoing storyarcs interwoven through each episode that I've ever seen on TV. Seriously. I don't know why it's buried out of sight on the CW, because they don't deserve a show like this. It's probably why they never promote it - they have no idea what to do with it! I can't believe all that these guys accomplish with their relatively tiny budget, but it seems that they consider their priority to be hiring awesome actors, directors, writers, and cinematographers who will get the job done right. And unlike the majority of shows out there who spend a fortune just getting the rights to play the most popular songs of the day, Supernatural goes against the grain and uses nitty gritty classic rock for their soundtrack. Everything about this show is top-notch.
Myth #2: "A small-time show like this? I bet the acting is terrible."
Myth Dispelled: You would SO lose that bet. ;) The world is finally starting to take notice of our boys, and I couldn't be more proud. Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam Winchester, and Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean Winchester, are two of the most talented young up-and-comers of the day. They're given such a wide range of material to sink their teeth into on this show and are surrounded by so many awesome, experienced actors/directors willing to teach them and broaden their horizons that if you go back to season 1 and compare the little boys they were then to the confident men they are now... it's just mind blowing. They were great to begin with, but they're the kind of actors who are always finding ways to learn and grow, and they're just getting more and more awesome with every episode. Their chemistry on screen is absolutely electric. They're good buddies off screen, and it really comes across in every single scene they share. They suck you into their world for an hour every week (or more, if you've got the DVDs!), and they make everything seem so REAL that you will laugh when they laugh, cry when they cry, love when they love, hate when they hate, hurt when they hurt, etc. Considering the amount of work they put in every week on this show, it astounds me that they still manage to give their all in every scene.
And the guest characters are just as awesome. I can't count the amount of guest stars whose careers have exploded shortly after being on this show, thereby making it impossible for their character to return, haha! It's the show's blessing as well as its curse... they don't skimp on their guest stars, but they can't afford to tempt them back once they hit the big time. ;)
Myth #3: "It's just about a couple of cute guys killing stuff, right? Sorry, but a show that's just eyecandy and gratuitous violence doesn't appeal to me."
Myth Dispelled: This was actually one of the reasons why it took me a full season to start watching this show, heh. Everyone online talked about the "hot guys," while the promos I saw showed cheap scares and gory violence. I thought that's all there was to it. I figured it drew in female viewers by having these young guys walk around shirtless and seduce every girl they came across, and drew in the guys by senselessly blowing stuff up. Boy, was I wrong!
It's a show about two cute guys, yes, but the weird thing (and the thing many fangirls complain about) is, they rarely play that up. What I mean by that is, these guys just come across as NORMAL. They dress normal, they act normal, they do everyday things that we can all relate to. They're not he-men who go around flashing their bare chests everywhere, acting all macho and saving the damsels in distress. These are two regular Joes - working-class men who do heroic things but fly completely under anybody's radar. They have the occasional love interest, yes, but hardly of Captain Kirk proportions, heh. They drive around the country in their gorgeous muscle car with only each other for company, and along the way they save innocent lives and kill anything evil in their path. That's what they were raised to do for as long as they can remember, and they do it without arrogance or expecting a darn thing in return. It's just their JOB. And after a few episodes, when you start getting invested in their family dynamic (and you will), you almost start to believe these two are really brothers, and you're just sitting shotgun, watching them live their lives.
Myth #4: "But there are no girls!"
Myth Dispelled: (Yes, Isa, this one's for you. ;)) I admit, this show was very girl-lite in the first two seasons. There were recurring female characters and awesome one-episode wonders, but nobody you could really get attached to (except Ellen, who rocks, but sadly she hasn't been around for a while). Now, however, we have two leading ladies - Ruby (played by Katie Cassidy) and Bela (played by Lauren Cohan). They're both kickass chicks with a role to play in this ongoing saga, and neither of them is playing love interest for the boys! Yay! And that's about all I can say without spoiling. ;)
Myth #5: "I heard something about it being like a 'horror movie every week.' I can't watch a show that'll just give me nightmares!"
Myth Dispelled: I honestly don't know why Eric Kripke's always saying that, heh. It's classed as a horror show, yes, but I'd say it's more along the lines of creepy than scary. There have been a couple of episodes that freaked me out a little, but more because of my own personal phobias than the show actually being frightening. They add so much humour and drama and intrigue and Winchester family mythology into each episode that while it does tend to make you jump at times, it's not quite dark enough to be full-on horror. You walk away feeling more like you've just watched a mystery or suspense show, or sometimes even a scifi-ish dramedy. Trust me, I'm very easily freaked out, and this show rarely crosses the line for me.
Myth #6: "I've heard it's very disrespectful to [insert religion here]."
Myth Dispelled: Well... this one is kind of true, heh. But if it's at all possible, I believe this show disrespects in a very respectful way. ;) The thing is, these two guys have seen so much evil their whole lives that it's hard for them to believe in anything else. They tend to only see the bad in various religions/cultures because that's what they've been trained to fight. At the same time, there have been elements of various religions introduced to the show in a positive way, most notably Christianity but other religions, too. They certainly don't get all of their facts straight, but it's a show about mythology and legends, and they make it clear that they will pick and choose which ones they declare to be real in the show's canon and which ones false. Even then, there's often room for interpretation when the "facts" are presented - the Winchester boys don't know everything, and have been proven wrong on the show before. If nothing else, the way religions, myths, and legends are presented in this show makes for great discussion afterwards.
Myth #7: "I've been spoiled now by all the serialized shows of the day. A show about two guys roaming the country killing stuff just doesn't sound intriguing enough for me."
Myth Dispelled: As I mentioned earlier, this show has one of the greatest storyarcs I've ever seen on TV, and trust me, I've seen a lot of TV. ;) What Jared Padalecki (who plays Sam Winchester) often says is that Supernatural is much like Lost, except that we actually get answers to the questions as the series progresses, rather than every episode just giving us more questions, heh. Right from the pilot episode, we were given clues that the Winchester family was no ordinary family. Sam and Dean's mother was killed in a very supernatural way in Sam's nursery on the night he turned 6 months old, and over the course of the first couple of seasons, we learned more and more about why that was and what it would mean for Sam in the future. I won't go into detail in case this actually does inspire someone to watch the show from the beginning, but basically, Sam has a "destiny" that he doesn't want, and while the Winchester brothers are spending each episode fighting random monsters-of-the-week, this "destiny" creeps closer and closer to being fulfilled. Now Dean has entered the act with a distasteful destiny of his own, and both brothers have now become ticking time bombs that are set to blow by the end of this season. It's been quite a ride so far, and it sounds as though Eric Kripke has it all planned out over a 5-season arc, so it's just going to get more intense over the last 3 episodes of this season and into the next. Now is definitely the time to jump aboard. ;)
Myth #8: "I'm the opposite to #7... I don't want serialization, I just like to casually watch TV without having to put much thought into it. Guess this show won't be my cup of tea."
Myth Dispelled: You'll probably appreciate the detailed and exciting recaps at the beginning of each episode, heh. There are a lot of stand-alone eps as well as the in-depth mytharc eps, though. Seriously, this show has something for everyone, so don't let one aspect scare you off when you might enjoy everything else about it.
Myth #9: "I've got one word for you - Wincest. *shudder*"
Myth Dispelled: Yeah, that was one of my main reasons to avoid this fandom, too. There are a lot of Supernatural fans who don't do the Wincest thing, though, so don't let that scare you away. The thing is, this is a show about the bond between two brothers, and some people automatically interpret any bond between any two people as something sexual. It's something they poke fun of on the show (the occasional guest character will assume for a moment that the boys are a gay couple, something like that... never anything overt or icky), but other than that, they really are just portrayed as two brothers with a realistic brotherly relationship. They argue, they fight, they stand up for each other, bug the heck out of each other, play pranks on each other, occasionally bare their souls to each other... and ultimately they would (and do) sacrifice everything for each other. It's one of the most satisfying dynamics on TV, in my opinion, and you don't have to be a slash fan to enjoy it.
Myth #10: "Two brothers. That's it? If there aren't any other regular characters, it just won't hold my interest."
Myth Dispelled: Supernatural has some of the most awesome guest characters ever. I've never met anyone who didn't love good ole Bobby Singer (played by Jim Beaver), the boys' surrogate dad and occasional hunting partner. Their father, John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was in a lot of episodes up until the second season, when JDM's movie career took off. Their mother, Mary Winchester (played by Samantha Smith), makes the occasional appearance even though she's been dead since the opening scene of the pilot, heh. Then there's Ruby and Bela, the new leading ladies on the show; Ellen Harvelle and her daughter Jo, who played a big part in season 2; various hunters, friends, and nemeses that come and go, including rogue hunter Gordon Walker, FBI agent Victor Henricksen, their arch nemesis the "Yellow-eyed Demon" (aka YED) and his daughter Meg... the boys are far from being alone in their little universe, and you'll come to love the guest characters just as much as the boys themselves.
If I've missed anybody's reason for avoiding this show, please let me know so I can dispel that myth for you, too. ;)
I just really want the world to give this great show a fair chance. That's not too much to ask, is it? Pretty please? (And yes, I can point you to a site where you can *ahem* the episodes if you'd like to catch up on the earlier eps. All you have to do is ask!)
ROCK ON, THURSDAYS!! Catch Supernatural at 9pm on the CW in the US, CityTV in Canada. :)
I was going to do this last week when the new episodes began, but I figured that a reality show spoof would be a bad place for a new viewer to jump in, heh. It looks like this week's ep will be pretty awesome, though (I hope I hope!), and since the ratings for last week's ep were a major disappointment (due to lack of promotion on the CW's part, not a reflection on the quality of the show), I figured now was the time. So, here we go...
Myths Dispelled! My answers to the most popular excuses people give for not watching Supernatural.
Myth #1: "Meh, it's just another CW show. Can't be that great if it's on that crapfest of a network."
Myth Dispelled: Dude, you couldn't be more wrong. Supernatural is intelligent, witty, self-deprecating, well written, beautifully shot, superbly acted, and has one of the most complex-yet-satisfying ongoing storyarcs interwoven through each episode that I've ever seen on TV. Seriously. I don't know why it's buried out of sight on the CW, because they don't deserve a show like this. It's probably why they never promote it - they have no idea what to do with it! I can't believe all that these guys accomplish with their relatively tiny budget, but it seems that they consider their priority to be hiring awesome actors, directors, writers, and cinematographers who will get the job done right. And unlike the majority of shows out there who spend a fortune just getting the rights to play the most popular songs of the day, Supernatural goes against the grain and uses nitty gritty classic rock for their soundtrack. Everything about this show is top-notch.
Myth #2: "A small-time show like this? I bet the acting is terrible."
Myth Dispelled: You would SO lose that bet. ;) The world is finally starting to take notice of our boys, and I couldn't be more proud. Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam Winchester, and Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean Winchester, are two of the most talented young up-and-comers of the day. They're given such a wide range of material to sink their teeth into on this show and are surrounded by so many awesome, experienced actors/directors willing to teach them and broaden their horizons that if you go back to season 1 and compare the little boys they were then to the confident men they are now... it's just mind blowing. They were great to begin with, but they're the kind of actors who are always finding ways to learn and grow, and they're just getting more and more awesome with every episode. Their chemistry on screen is absolutely electric. They're good buddies off screen, and it really comes across in every single scene they share. They suck you into their world for an hour every week (or more, if you've got the DVDs!), and they make everything seem so REAL that you will laugh when they laugh, cry when they cry, love when they love, hate when they hate, hurt when they hurt, etc. Considering the amount of work they put in every week on this show, it astounds me that they still manage to give their all in every scene.
And the guest characters are just as awesome. I can't count the amount of guest stars whose careers have exploded shortly after being on this show, thereby making it impossible for their character to return, haha! It's the show's blessing as well as its curse... they don't skimp on their guest stars, but they can't afford to tempt them back once they hit the big time. ;)
Myth #3: "It's just about a couple of cute guys killing stuff, right? Sorry, but a show that's just eyecandy and gratuitous violence doesn't appeal to me."
Myth Dispelled: This was actually one of the reasons why it took me a full season to start watching this show, heh. Everyone online talked about the "hot guys," while the promos I saw showed cheap scares and gory violence. I thought that's all there was to it. I figured it drew in female viewers by having these young guys walk around shirtless and seduce every girl they came across, and drew in the guys by senselessly blowing stuff up. Boy, was I wrong!
It's a show about two cute guys, yes, but the weird thing (and the thing many fangirls complain about) is, they rarely play that up. What I mean by that is, these guys just come across as NORMAL. They dress normal, they act normal, they do everyday things that we can all relate to. They're not he-men who go around flashing their bare chests everywhere, acting all macho and saving the damsels in distress. These are two regular Joes - working-class men who do heroic things but fly completely under anybody's radar. They have the occasional love interest, yes, but hardly of Captain Kirk proportions, heh. They drive around the country in their gorgeous muscle car with only each other for company, and along the way they save innocent lives and kill anything evil in their path. That's what they were raised to do for as long as they can remember, and they do it without arrogance or expecting a darn thing in return. It's just their JOB. And after a few episodes, when you start getting invested in their family dynamic (and you will), you almost start to believe these two are really brothers, and you're just sitting shotgun, watching them live their lives.
Myth #4: "But there are no girls!"
Myth Dispelled: (Yes, Isa, this one's for you. ;)) I admit, this show was very girl-lite in the first two seasons. There were recurring female characters and awesome one-episode wonders, but nobody you could really get attached to (except Ellen, who rocks, but sadly she hasn't been around for a while). Now, however, we have two leading ladies - Ruby (played by Katie Cassidy) and Bela (played by Lauren Cohan). They're both kickass chicks with a role to play in this ongoing saga, and neither of them is playing love interest for the boys! Yay! And that's about all I can say without spoiling. ;)
Myth #5: "I heard something about it being like a 'horror movie every week.' I can't watch a show that'll just give me nightmares!"
Myth Dispelled: I honestly don't know why Eric Kripke's always saying that, heh. It's classed as a horror show, yes, but I'd say it's more along the lines of creepy than scary. There have been a couple of episodes that freaked me out a little, but more because of my own personal phobias than the show actually being frightening. They add so much humour and drama and intrigue and Winchester family mythology into each episode that while it does tend to make you jump at times, it's not quite dark enough to be full-on horror. You walk away feeling more like you've just watched a mystery or suspense show, or sometimes even a scifi-ish dramedy. Trust me, I'm very easily freaked out, and this show rarely crosses the line for me.
Myth #6: "I've heard it's very disrespectful to [insert religion here]."
Myth Dispelled: Well... this one is kind of true, heh. But if it's at all possible, I believe this show disrespects in a very respectful way. ;) The thing is, these two guys have seen so much evil their whole lives that it's hard for them to believe in anything else. They tend to only see the bad in various religions/cultures because that's what they've been trained to fight. At the same time, there have been elements of various religions introduced to the show in a positive way, most notably Christianity but other religions, too. They certainly don't get all of their facts straight, but it's a show about mythology and legends, and they make it clear that they will pick and choose which ones they declare to be real in the show's canon and which ones false. Even then, there's often room for interpretation when the "facts" are presented - the Winchester boys don't know everything, and have been proven wrong on the show before. If nothing else, the way religions, myths, and legends are presented in this show makes for great discussion afterwards.
Myth #7: "I've been spoiled now by all the serialized shows of the day. A show about two guys roaming the country killing stuff just doesn't sound intriguing enough for me."
Myth Dispelled: As I mentioned earlier, this show has one of the greatest storyarcs I've ever seen on TV, and trust me, I've seen a lot of TV. ;) What Jared Padalecki (who plays Sam Winchester) often says is that Supernatural is much like Lost, except that we actually get answers to the questions as the series progresses, rather than every episode just giving us more questions, heh. Right from the pilot episode, we were given clues that the Winchester family was no ordinary family. Sam and Dean's mother was killed in a very supernatural way in Sam's nursery on the night he turned 6 months old, and over the course of the first couple of seasons, we learned more and more about why that was and what it would mean for Sam in the future. I won't go into detail in case this actually does inspire someone to watch the show from the beginning, but basically, Sam has a "destiny" that he doesn't want, and while the Winchester brothers are spending each episode fighting random monsters-of-the-week, this "destiny" creeps closer and closer to being fulfilled. Now Dean has entered the act with a distasteful destiny of his own, and both brothers have now become ticking time bombs that are set to blow by the end of this season. It's been quite a ride so far, and it sounds as though Eric Kripke has it all planned out over a 5-season arc, so it's just going to get more intense over the last 3 episodes of this season and into the next. Now is definitely the time to jump aboard. ;)
Myth #8: "I'm the opposite to #7... I don't want serialization, I just like to casually watch TV without having to put much thought into it. Guess this show won't be my cup of tea."
Myth Dispelled: You'll probably appreciate the detailed and exciting recaps at the beginning of each episode, heh. There are a lot of stand-alone eps as well as the in-depth mytharc eps, though. Seriously, this show has something for everyone, so don't let one aspect scare you off when you might enjoy everything else about it.
Myth #9: "I've got one word for you - Wincest. *shudder*"
Myth Dispelled: Yeah, that was one of my main reasons to avoid this fandom, too. There are a lot of Supernatural fans who don't do the Wincest thing, though, so don't let that scare you away. The thing is, this is a show about the bond between two brothers, and some people automatically interpret any bond between any two people as something sexual. It's something they poke fun of on the show (the occasional guest character will assume for a moment that the boys are a gay couple, something like that... never anything overt or icky), but other than that, they really are just portrayed as two brothers with a realistic brotherly relationship. They argue, they fight, they stand up for each other, bug the heck out of each other, play pranks on each other, occasionally bare their souls to each other... and ultimately they would (and do) sacrifice everything for each other. It's one of the most satisfying dynamics on TV, in my opinion, and you don't have to be a slash fan to enjoy it.
Myth #10: "Two brothers. That's it? If there aren't any other regular characters, it just won't hold my interest."
Myth Dispelled: Supernatural has some of the most awesome guest characters ever. I've never met anyone who didn't love good ole Bobby Singer (played by Jim Beaver), the boys' surrogate dad and occasional hunting partner. Their father, John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was in a lot of episodes up until the second season, when JDM's movie career took off. Their mother, Mary Winchester (played by Samantha Smith), makes the occasional appearance even though she's been dead since the opening scene of the pilot, heh. Then there's Ruby and Bela, the new leading ladies on the show; Ellen Harvelle and her daughter Jo, who played a big part in season 2; various hunters, friends, and nemeses that come and go, including rogue hunter Gordon Walker, FBI agent Victor Henricksen, their arch nemesis the "Yellow-eyed Demon" (aka YED) and his daughter Meg... the boys are far from being alone in their little universe, and you'll come to love the guest characters just as much as the boys themselves.
If I've missed anybody's reason for avoiding this show, please let me know so I can dispel that myth for you, too. ;)
I just really want the world to give this great show a fair chance. That's not too much to ask, is it? Pretty please? (And yes, I can point you to a site where you can *ahem* the episodes if you'd like to catch up on the earlier eps. All you have to do is ask!)
ROCK ON, THURSDAYS!! Catch Supernatural at 9pm on the CW in the US, CityTV in Canada. :)