Deary me, I got so excited about wendigos that I forgot the counts for our last episode. Allow me to remedy that:
Blood and Gore: 3
Death by Monstrosity: 3
Counts for the two campers and Roy who got slaughtered by the wendigo; blood and gore counts because the wendigo is a very messy kidnapper and eater.
Daddy Issues: 2 Continue reading “SPN Season 1 Episode 1 “Wendigo” Counts, plus Bonus Snarkage!”
Supernatural’s second episode, “Wendigo,” introduces the monster-of-the-week theme that defined much of the first season. It also introduces us to the show’s blithe cultural appropriation. One thing you definitely don’t turn to SPN for is their enlightened take on social justice issues. But seeing what they get wrong can show us how to get it right, and tell better stories in the process.
My excellent companion Zeroth has the episode summary and description of the things they got right here. If you haven’t read it, you might want to start there. All up to speed? Awesome. Let’s talk wendigos. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E2: The Wendigo Spirit”
Zeroth’s half of our Supernatural Season 1 Episode 2 analysis is up! Find out what goes right in “Wendigo.” Suprisingly… it’s a lot.
I really liked this episode. I really appreciate when creators face challenges and get clever, and that’s what we get here. There’s zero budget for special effects here, so they use clever camera work and cheap physical effects to create tension.
We start off in the cold open with something I call “Predator Cam” – its whenever the camera is from the viewpoint of a lurking predator at night. What this does is we become complicit to a degree in the violence that will happen shortly. Its also a clever way to not show the Monster of the Week.
And you know something? The first two episodes of Supernatural avoid putting comely young underdressed damsels in danger in the cold openings. They’re deliberately subverting expectations! We live in a world where ostensibly progressive shows bombard us with pictures of violence on women, where the woman is a corpse after the commercials. [*cough* Buffy, Angel, police procedurals galore]
(See part 1 here.)
We cut to the next morning, and a run-down gas station with antique pumps. Here we get our first glimpse of Baby, Dean’s iconic black 1967 Chevy Impala.
Dean comes out of the station with some junk for breakfast. We find out Dean and his father have been surviving on fraudulent credit cards. We also find out Dean’s music collection is pretty much nothing but classic rock cassettes.
Zeroth
What a jerk
16:44 – Dana Hunter
Ah, the arguments over music and names begin.
I love how he’s always trying to get Dean to treat him like an adult, but it never really works.
Dean and Sam argue about music, with Sam calling Dean’s slim music collection, “The Greatest Hits of Mullet Rock”. Continue reading “Supernatural S1E1(Part2): BM – Boy Melodrama”
Zeroth has added some insightful notes on the use of light and shadow in Supernatural’s pilot episode. I’ve updated our inaugural post to include his remarks, but for those who already read it through and just want to get straight to the new stuff, here you go:
****Update: Additional insight from Zeroth inside!****
Welcome to our first Supernatural analysis! How many daddy issue can two brothers have? How badly will Dean fuck up Sam’s life? How many women can one pilot episode stuff in a fridge? We’re about to find out!
Zeroth and I will be doing a full recap for this inaugural episode. After that, we’ll only be doing a summary and then pulling out the juicy bits so that most of us will still be too young for a nursing home when we finish this series. Let’s get started then, shall we?
****CAUTION: HERE BE SPOILERS. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK**** Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E1 (Part 1): When Your Brother Breaks Into Your House and Ruins Your Life”
So. Last week, I mentioned a fun new project I’d be unveiling this week. My friend Zeroth and I will be analyzing Supernatural episode by episode. We’ll be presenting the pilot episode for your enjoyment tomorrow. Today, I’ll introduce you to our methods and aims so you can spend more time enjoying our analysis and less time trying to figure out what the fuck we’re talking about.
So, first, Supernatural: for those who haven’t watched the show, it’s basically about two brothers who travel the country tracking and fighting all sorts of supernatural entities. You’ll encounter everything from ghosts to terribly mauled Native American legends to angels and demons. It’s very strongly influenced by the horror movie genre, although it’s not afraid to play around in other genres, and has a healthy propensity for laughing at itself. It’s gone on for eleven seasons and been renewed for a twelfth, so yeah, it’s been a pretty successful formula.
Why Supernatural? Continue reading “Analyzing SPN: Introduction”
How could some of the world’s worst fiction lead me down very rewarding paths? I didn’t think it possible. When Fifty Shades of Gray first impinged itself upon my awareness, I thought it had no redeeming value whatsoever. How shocked was I to discover it does? And how did it lead me toward Supernatural, which has become one of my favorite problematic shows of all time? Continue reading “How Fifty Shades of Gray Sporkings Sparked My Supernatural Obsession and Enriched My Life”
