how to make the first season of supernatural better
I'm working my way through season one of Supernatural - I've said it before and I'll say it again, I fucking love my little small-town library's dvd collection - and I'm mostly satisfied. However, I'll admit it: while some episodes are really cool, others are not so great. Not that bad writing is uncommon for television shows, but for some reason, it's really getting to me here. Maybe because almost all of the bad episodes - "Route 666", "The Benders", that one with the shapeshifter - had the potential to be really cool with only a few slight adjustments. The potential for those connections was there. For example, "Route 666". As it stands, it was sort of about Dean's thwarted love life, and some really awkward commentary on racism - apparently that while it existed in the past, it's all gone now, or something? - and featured a sort-of-interesting-but-not-really Cassie, who was supposed to be tough and shit and instead was - not. The plot didn't really hook up, the reveal was forced, the end was unsatisfying, etc. But it could have been a tragedy, guys. It could have been about keeping secrets - the town's past, Dean's hunting, Dean's relationship with Cassie, Cassie's parents' relationship, Cyrus' activities and death - and how they never stay buried, how they get forced under and then become something huge and dark and terrifying. The invisible monster truck in the middle of the room*. They could have drawn parallels between Cassie and Dean's romance, and the romance between Cassie's parents. Both were couples with the odds pretty much all against them, after all, and when Cassie and Dean separated at the end, sure that it would never work, it would have been all the more poignant - and uncertain - for the reminder that, despite it all, Cassie's parents did make it. Like, Dean's comment about how he's seen "stranger things"? I think a better comeback would have been, "well, your parents did it." And that's only the tip of the iceberg, guys. That episode could have been the emotional high point of the season.
Or "The Benders", which is really all about family, but not quite the way I think it should be. When I first saw that creepy little girl - Missy - I thought, wow, this is a kid who's been raised in a seriously weird environment, to a very twisted definition of "normal". And yet, this is what she's been taught is right, this is normal for her, and her brothers. Which is exactly like Sam and Dean with hunting. They're all working with operative definitions of "normal"; they're all doing what they do, essentially, because their parents told them to. And that "hunt" thing, man. If they had paralleled that somehow - maybe cut between the Winchesters' and the Benders' pre-hunt rituals, had them repeat some of the language (that "you hurt my brother, I'll kill you"; "you hurt my family, I'll bleed you" thing, though it would have been much eerier if they had said the same thing). Not to mention, this season is all about John Winchester's absence.
So, my ideal "Benders"? John Winchester is missing and Pa Bender is dead. The Benders are hunting the Winchesters, thinking that they're typical prey, and the Winchesters are hunting the Benders, thinking that they're on a monster hunt. The awesome female cop** would have been there as a foil to the Winchesters - to emphasize what they do is not "normal", constantly checking them, providing the much-needed, "What?" - but in the end she wouldn't have been so normal after all, because she's much more obsessive about her missing brother. Maybe there's a bulletin board behind her desk similar to John's hotel room collages, or at her apartment. (Dean sees it, lifts an eyebrow, and she says, "Well. You know.") They cut between the Winchester pre-hunting rituals, and the Benders' (gun loading / knife sharpening, putting on jackets / putting on camo, etc.). All three groups of siblings use the same phrases. Maybe the Bender brothers tease each other a little bit, and they protect their little sister. There are two empty father-sized spaces. And when the Winchesters ask the Benders why they do this, they say, "Because Pa told us to."
Don't you think that would be an improvement? I think that would be an improvement.
*Comparable to the elephant.
**Who, by the way, would retain her rigid cop bun - but have hanks of it pulled out as her emotional / physical state roughens - and would not wear a skintight white t-shirt. Or, you know, have to have Sam save her. And she would totally say at the end, "Good luck, Dean", or something, because there's no way she hasn't figured who he really is out by the end of the episode.
Or "The Benders", which is really all about family, but not quite the way I think it should be. When I first saw that creepy little girl - Missy - I thought, wow, this is a kid who's been raised in a seriously weird environment, to a very twisted definition of "normal". And yet, this is what she's been taught is right, this is normal for her, and her brothers. Which is exactly like Sam and Dean with hunting. They're all working with operative definitions of "normal"; they're all doing what they do, essentially, because their parents told them to. And that "hunt" thing, man. If they had paralleled that somehow - maybe cut between the Winchesters' and the Benders' pre-hunt rituals, had them repeat some of the language (that "you hurt my brother, I'll kill you"; "you hurt my family, I'll bleed you" thing, though it would have been much eerier if they had said the same thing). Not to mention, this season is all about John Winchester's absence.
So, my ideal "Benders"? John Winchester is missing and Pa Bender is dead. The Benders are hunting the Winchesters, thinking that they're typical prey, and the Winchesters are hunting the Benders, thinking that they're on a monster hunt. The awesome female cop** would have been there as a foil to the Winchesters - to emphasize what they do is not "normal", constantly checking them, providing the much-needed, "What?" - but in the end she wouldn't have been so normal after all, because she's much more obsessive about her missing brother. Maybe there's a bulletin board behind her desk similar to John's hotel room collages, or at her apartment. (Dean sees it, lifts an eyebrow, and she says, "Well. You know.") They cut between the Winchester pre-hunting rituals, and the Benders' (gun loading / knife sharpening, putting on jackets / putting on camo, etc.). All three groups of siblings use the same phrases. Maybe the Bender brothers tease each other a little bit, and they protect their little sister. There are two empty father-sized spaces. And when the Winchesters ask the Benders why they do this, they say, "Because Pa told us to."
Don't you think that would be an improvement? I think that would be an improvement.
*Comparable to the elephant.
**Who, by the way, would retain her rigid cop bun - but have hanks of it pulled out as her emotional / physical state roughens - and would not wear a skintight white t-shirt. Or, you know, have to have Sam save her. And she would totally say at the end, "Good luck, Dean", or something, because there's no way she hasn't figured who he really is out by the end of the episode.