Friday, January 27, 2012
Author Interviews Emily Perkins, Supernatural's Becky
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Kick It In The Ass Guestbook
SUPERNATURAL REWATCH GUESTBOOK
Monday, January 16, 2012
News and Hiatus
There's also an interview with Robert Singer at Digital Spy.
I admit, after last week's awesome episode, I gobbled up details about what's upcoming, and I'm excited. :)
Not so excited, though, about another hiatus. According to a sneak peek note on Dread Central, we're back to reruns until February 3rd. WTH?
(In a related note, the local CBS and CW stations went black in Verizon here in Central PA from late Thursday through Sunday, because Verizon and the station group owner couldn't agree to a new contract. There was much wailing and anger! Luckily for me, I'm on DirecTV. :) )
A Very Special Tribute to Kim Manners
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Review - Supernatual 7.12 "Time After Time"
Shall I just say it? I loved Time After Time. It was pure fun. It had so many things that made me all tingly. From Sam and Dean’s banter, to the time period, to the Back To The Future references, to Eliot Ness, to Alex Krycek – sorry – Nicholas Lea, to Dean in those suits with that hair and that waistcoat and that hat and that gun holster and…quick, someone stop me, to Sam’s epic sideburns that I just want to touch. Hey, maybe that can be my question at the Q&A in LA! “Hey Jared, can I touch your sideburns?” Cut to Amy being bodily evicted from the room. Hmm maybe not…. Anyway, it was one of those episodes that simply popped. It was everything the show does well. When Supernatural gets it right, man, it gets it right.
Okay, I’ll try to restrain the giddy but I’m afraid I have “enthusiasms, enthusiasms, enthusiasms.” The Untouchablesreference….Dean would so get it.
This is about where I heap a great big pile of praise on Robbie Thompson. For a Supernatural rookie writer he’s doing an, dare I say it, AWESOME, job. His previous episode Slash Fiction is one of my favourites of the season and now he’s delivered again with Time After Time. He delivered a tight script, full of sharp, insightful dialogue. It was a well-structured story, complex, but the parallel times gelled perfectly. In amongst the humour, he was able to mix in pathos, never losing site of the recent losses by adding some poignant moments. He writes Sam and Dean beautifully, capturing their relationship and individual personalities and he gave us a couple nicely drawn supporting characters to fill out the Winchester’s Universe. Well done Mr Thompson. Please write more. PS. I may have developed a crush on you.
I do have one very minor complaint though….if you’re going to use a Terminator effect to send Dean Winchester back in time, you could at least use the entire concept of the effect and have him land naked…..just sayin’.
Oh wait….February 3….
Thanks for reading, I’m sorry for not being all that insightful, but it was nice to have an episode that makes you feel good all over instead full of angst and worry for a change don’t you think?
Let me know what you thought! Oh and here's THAT promo...almost feels worth the wait! -Amy
Friday, January 13, 2012
Time After Time After Time
Time After Time After Time already has a Cyndi Lauper song playing in my head. I miss the music from the old days. In fact, I heard Bad Company on the way to dinner and thought of Meg. Remember Meg? I liked her.
ANYWAY, tonight the boys are stalking something that looks like a priest from The Exorcist movie. They split up to follow him, and Dean comes upon the monster sucking the life force out of what looks like a homeless man. As Dean rushes forward, the creature dissolves into a ball of red light, taking Dean with it as Sam arrives, shouting his brother’s name.
TWO DAYS EARLIER
Dean is looking up Dick Roman info on the laptop when Sam’s phone rings. It’s Sheriff Jodi Mills, and she has a case for him, a mummified body in Canton Ohio. (OMG—credits, RAT BOY is going to be in this one!) Apparently the sheriff knows about Bobby because she’s choked up when she speaks his name, talking about all she went through with him and the Winchesters. Sam (who needs a hair cut, he’s about to be a dad , already!) tells Dean she caught a case for them. Dean replies with, “Aw, I feel bad. We didn’t get her anything.” Sam then chides Dean for reading Dick Roman stuff over and over, that he’s just punishing himself.
In the next scene, they pull up in what looks like a new car in front of a dilapidated house (from Ghost Facers?) The brothers do rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets the bedroom. Apparently Dean has moved on from scissors because he chose rock and Sam chose paper. “How does paper beat a rock?”
They show up at some guy’s house. Apparently he witnessed the victim being sucked dry. They go back to the house where they’re squatting, and can’t find anything about turning bodies into cryptkeepers, but Greater Canton is a magnet for weird bodies. Random years, but always in threes. Two bodies have already been found. Dean taps into local surveillance cameras, a trick he learned from Frank, impressing Sam. But they found pictures of the same man on local surveillance and in an old newspaper story about one of the strange bodies. They locate the girl who found the body in 1957 and ask if she recognizes the man. She does, and the boys go stake out the house.
And we’re back to the first scene, where Dean attacks and disappears into a ball of energy. He’s grappling with the creature—and finds himself in on a street in…the 1940s? The police see him and demand he drops the gun. He is arrested and learns he’s 68 years in the past. He takes a minute to do the math. “I’m stuck in 1944?”
The cop leaves him and another man in plainclothes comes in. Rat Boy!!! Wow, X-Files was a while back, huh? Dean figures he’s screwed anyway, so tells the truth, and is surprised when Rat Boy (OMG, Elliot Ness!) believes him. He accuses the man of being a hunter, but Ness rolls his shoulders and denies it, then introduces himself. Dean is suitably impressed.
Meanwhile, back in 2011, Sam is on the phone with the sheriff. BTW, those shirts he wears? Hella expensive, because I keep trying to buy them for my husband but don’t trust him in $70 shirts. Okay, now the sheriff wants to help find Dean since she got them into this mess.
Back in the ‘40s, Dean is going fanboy on Elliott Ness. Ness says they’re hunting the same thing in different centuries. Dean gets all excited to be an “untouchable” but Ness doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They go shopping to get Dean new clothes. Ness tells the seamstress Dean is from the future. Dean says, “Gas is $4 a gallon, you can get cheese from a spray can, and the president is a black guy.”
In 2011, the sheriff is bringing Sam paperwork from Bobby’s locker. She’s pretty sure something is alive in three of the boxes.
In the 40s, OMG, Dean looks GOOD. Goooooooooood. He keeps saying “awesome,” which makes the seamstress ask if he’s a religious kook. Then she calls he and Ness “idjits,” which amuses Dean. He tells her she reminds him of someone.
In 2011, Jodi is helping Sam on the internet. They are magically able to enhance a picture to see a ring on their suspect’s finger, which bears the symbol of Kronos, the god of time. He’s an old god, who used to get his power from people feeding him. Now he makes up for lack of power with being “twice as pissed, and a lot more hands on.” Sam decides they have to summon him.
In the 1940s, Dean and Ness go to find the house Sam and Dean had staked out. Dean quotes Sean Connery from The Untouchables, but Ness says, “Who talks like that?” Dean swears he’s never watching one of his favorite movies again. They break into the house and discover Kronos is laying bets on races where he already knows the outcome. So Ness and Dean go look for the bookie who places his bets. Dean plays muscle, loving every minute of it, but doesn’t have to do much to threaten him to get a location.
In 2011, Sam and Jodi find a way to call Kronos, but Dean has to be touching him when they do, or Dean will be stuck in another time forever. They find an old bottle in Bobby’s things and decide to drink it.
In the 1940s Dean and Ness stake out the bar where Kronos is drinking. Dean asks Ness who died in his life that made him become a hunter. Ness calls him morbid, and says he started because vampires were turning people and he caught the bug. Ness asks why Dean is doing it and Dean said because of his family, but they keep dying and he doesn’t know why he does anything anymore. Ness calls him a nancy and wants to know if all hunters are as soft as Dean in the future. Dean is taken aback—certainly Dean has never been soft. “At least you’re making a difference. Hunting’s the only clarity you’re going to find in this life. That makes you luckier than most.”
After Ness makes his speech, a lovely woman walks by the car, and Kronos follows her. Ness leads Dean to the trunk of his car—loaded with all manner of weaponry. “Sweet merciful awesome!” Dean exclaims.
Dean and Ness follow Kronos, weapons at the ready (could that BE any hotter?) only to see Kronos and the girl embrace. They’re stunned.
Ness and Dean split up, Ness going to watch Kronos, I guess, who went home with the girl. Dean goes back to the seamstress. She’s found a way to kill Kronos, with an olive branch carved by vestal virgins and dipped in the blood of you-don’t-wanna-know-what. Dean realizes if he kills Kronos he’s stuck in 1944. The seamstress tells him there’s lots of ways to pass the time and lays a kiss on him. As he’s leaving he remembers Back to the Future 3 (is that the western one?) and decides to write himself a letter—at least I think so.
Okay, I JUST recognized Kronos as Logan from Veronica Mars. Holy smokes, I love Logan. I didn’t recognize him until he spoke, before beating up Ness. He’s interrupted by the girl telling him he forgot to take out the trash, apparently his excuse for going out. Ness disappears. Kronos tells his girl to pack a bag, she’s going with him. When she hesitates, he snaps at her, which surprises her.
Dean pulls up in front the house Sam and Dean were squatting in. He tells the owner he’s the head of homeland termite inspection. He finds the bedroom where Sam made his bed, lays on the floor and looks for the perfect spot to hide his message to Sam.
Back in 2011, Jodi sends Sam to bed, and he sees the message from Dean—his name carved into the baseboard and Dean’s note behind it. He runs down to show Jodi the letter which has the name of the woman, Lila, and the exact date Dean had contact with him. Sam and Jodi find Lila at a rest home and ask her about Ethan. She hadn’t seen him since 1944, the night the clocks stopped at 11:34, when he said awful things, and strangled that poor man. Sam shows her a picture of Dean and she said Ethan choked the life out of him.
In 1944, Dean goes back to the house looking for Ness and breaks in. He and Kronos fight. Ness holds Lila hostage with a gun pointed at her belly. Kronos said he does his sacrifices so he can get back to Lila because he loves her. He used to wander but now he has her. When she calls him a monster, you can feel his heart breaking.
Meanwhile, Sam and Jodi call Kronos, who slides back to 2011. Ness tosses the olive branch to Dean just as he and Kronos disappears in a ball of light. Once back in the house, Sam stabs Kronos, who dies after telling the brothers their future is covered in a thick black ooze. They’re everywhere. And then Kronos dies. The end.
Now, I’m not a fan of the drawn-out ending but THAT was a little abrupt. But awesome.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
People's Choice
Laura Prudom at Huffpost TV has a really good article about the injustice of the Favorite Network TV Drama being left out of the live telecast.
Jim Beaver's New Bullet Phobia
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Jim-Beaver-Supernatural-1041550.aspx
Maybe we won't see Bobby again for a while on SPN, but looks like fans can catch Jim on Justified sometime in the future!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Guest Star Bingo
Okay, here are some places I recently saw Supernatural guest stars:
An episode of Entourage from the last season, the one where Vince buys the dinosaur head. The actress who played Sarah in "Provenance" was in a similar role in the auction house.
Last week's episode of Leverage (two Sundays ago) had Todd Stashwick and the actress who played Casey in "Sin City."
I know there were others but I failed to write them down and my brain is starting to malfunction from hunger. I'm going to go make dinner--you tell me more in the comments!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Review - Supernatural 7.11 "Adventures in Babysitting"
I always think there’s a lot of pressure on the mid-season premiere. Supernatural generally gives us a rip-snorted of an episode as the mid-season finale, often with a cliff-hanger, usually with something that rips our heart out and makes us scream no, or makes us gasp out loud, or cry buckets of tears. We are then left to our own devices for 4-6 weeks to ponder the outcomes and feed each others frenzy. As we get closer to S-day we start counting down and I mean that literally. We rewatch the last episode. We hungrily keep an eye out for clips, spoilers, anything that will give us a tiny hint of what to expect. We discuss and theorise possible outcomes, motivations, arc directions. By the time the episode actually airs, the excitement is palatable; as well it should be, because we love this show and every moment without it is a nightmare. But I think this level of anticipation, this build up, often leaves us feeling a bit flat.
I’ll be honest and say, traditionally, the mid-season premieres have not been the strongest episodes of the season. But what they do, particularly in the later seasons, is bridge the gap between the first half and the second half of the season and show us where our characters are and how they are dealing, or more specifically, not dealing with what ever tragedy just befell them. They give us a sense of where we go next and set up questions that will take us through the next 10 or so episodes. If we look at them from this angle, they do their job well. All this sounds like maybe I didn’t enjoy Adventures In Babysitting….but, I did. For me, Adventures In Babysitting acted as a character piece, allowing us to, once again, witness the diverse nature of grief experienced by Sam and Dean. It also acted as a preamble for the remainder of the season by setting up some intriguing mystery and it stayed purposefully obtuse about the loss of Bobby and what his final decision was, stay or go, allowing for the possibility of something powerful to be revealed at a later date. It may have been a bit of a weak MOTW episode, but if you think for a minute Adventures In Babysitting was all about the Vetala, then you weren’t paying attention.
As devastating as the loss of Bobby is to me, somewhere inside I feel like it’s a loss we had to have, because the nature of death in Supernatural was starting to lose meaning. It had almost become a gag. You die, so what, they’ll bring you back later. Death was beginning to no longer have the impact that it had when the boys lost John. I feel like we're being shaken out of our complacency, that we're being given a wake-up call. Real death still happens on this show and it still has a significant impact and a death this large is going to reverberate through the boy’s lives and somehow change them. It’s for this reason alone, that I have sort of come to a place of peace with the loss of Bobby (also because I’m still in denial), because if his death has an importance to the season arc or is imperative to the development of Sam and Dean, individually or collectively, then, as dead Ash said when he came back, I’m cool with it. Having said that, in my heart of hearts of course I hope it’s not forever, but I no longer feel cocky about that assumption.
Adventures In Babysitting was in absolutely no way the best episode of the season, I think we’re all honest enough to say that, but it offered us a lot to think about and I feel like that was it’s job. It set up the mystery of what the Leviathan were doing in the field. It made us question what was the fate of Bobby, by keeping that information hidden and having that beer strangely disappear. And it proliferated the scenes with engaging characters such as crazy Frank and fiesty Krissy, which helped us see how the brothers are doing both individually and as a pair. Through conversations and actions, tragic and heroic, we saw Sam and Dean’s inner struggles as they process their grief. Sam always seems to be doing better, but his eyes and their sadness reveal his struggle with in. Dean is in a deep pit of anger and despair, but he's going to try harder to hide it. I want nothing more in this world than for Sam to be whole again. I want nothing more in this world than for Dean to find his spark. I want them to come through this and be better for it. And that's what I hope will happen, because though I feel like the worst is yet to come, I felt like some small progress may have been made here and this is why Adventures In Babysitting worked for me.
There’s been a lot of talk about the show no longer having hope, but I don’t see that, because I choose to see the Winchester brothers as the hope. As long as they keep getting up and fighting the good fight. As long as they keep battling evil and not letting the supernatural S.O.B.s push them around. As long as they stick together through everything, even when they're mad with each other, then as I see it, there’s hope. Because they do keep getting up and fighting the good fight. They do keep choosing their own paths. They do stick together. Maybe they sometimes forget why, maybe they sometimes can’t stand the pain of it, but they do keep doing it and in a way, that shows they still have hope. It shows that somewhere inside them, they still believe that they can win. They still believe that good can triumph over evil. They still believe that what they’re doing means something. They still believe in each other. And this gives me hope. They give me hope. And that’s all I need.
Well, there you have it....I'm nothing if not optimistic, though some may say delusional...feel free to tell me in the comments.
But one thing you should know, I'm on this journey with the Winchester brothers until the end, thick and thin, good and bad, I joined this ride a long time ago and I'm sticking with them.
I'm pretty excited about next week's episode. It looks interesting....and hot! Here's a preview!
See you next week...and thanks for reading! -Amy
Friday, January 6, 2012
Adventures in Babysitting
When we launch into this episode, we see a guy in a diner watching out the window. Seriously, this dude (the actor, Ian Tracey) has been on everything I watch lately. Since he played bad guys on Sanctuary and Hell on Wheels, it was nice to see him play one of the good guys. He follows a woman out of the diner/truck stop, but she disappears between two semi trucks. When he turns back around, the waitress he'd just been talking to turns out to be a little more than a waitress. She's got herself some sharp-ass teeth and she bites him. When he crumples to the ground, she says, "That's for the crappy tip." Moral of the story: always tip your waitress well.
Next we see the words "Week One" and Sam and Dean just sitting in a room staring at nothing. We know they're still in shock over Bobby's death (I hate typing those words, btw). Then it's Week Two, and they're look at the mysterious numbers and trying to figure out what they can be. Week Three, Dean has constructed a clue board and Sam comes in and asks if they should call "Bobby's people" to let them know about his passing. But neither wants to be the one to do it. Sam answers a call from a young girl who sounds scared. Her dad told her to call Bobby if anything happened to him, so when Sam can't produce Bobby she hangs up on him. But Sam tracks Chrissy down and soon realizes that her father is a hunter and he's gone missing. Sam says he'll find her father and leaves.
Meanwhile, Dean has gone to find super computer nerd Frank to see why it's taking him so long to get back to him about the numbers. Frank's cleaned out his house, but he shows up pointing a gun at Dean in case he's a leviathan. Dean says he's not, but Frank says that, sure, he's not. Neither is Dick Roman or Gwyneth Paltrow. To end the standoff, they each cut themselves to prove they blood red blood instead of black goo. Frank takes Dean to a stashed RV where he's set up his computers. He says that the five numbers Bobby wrote down are a dead end, but he figured since Bobby was dying he didn't have time to write down all the numbers. He created a probability program and figured out that it was actually six numbers and that they were coordinates to a field in Wisconsin owned by Dick Roman's company.
When Sam calls to check in, Dean tells him what is going on. When Sam expresses concern about Dean and Frank heading there, Dean says, "Relax. It's a field, not the Death Star." :) Dean and Frank (by the way, I think Frank is hilarious and a necessary comedic edition in the absence of Bobby and Cass) pretend to be line workers to stake out the field, and the sight of Dean trying to operate a cherry picker was funny. As soon as he gets the picker up though, Frank tells him to get back down because there are cameras all over the place on the Roman property. Instead of setting up their own surveillance, Frank hacks into Roman's cameras and sees a woman who works for Roman and a surveying crew. They're going to build something on the property, but what we don't know. Goofy Frank also goes serious long enough to tell Dean that he wasn't always like he is now, but that he has to find a way to get through each day since he was 27 and came home to find his wife and kids gutted on the floor. Damn, everyone on this show has lost someone in a horrible way. Even Chrissy saw her mother killed.
Back in Sam-land, he thinks he's tracking one vetala. But since he doesn't know they work in pairs, he gets attacked and dragged back to their lair too. When he wakes up, there are lots of dead guys lying around but Chrissy's dad, Lee, is still hanging on. When Dean figures out what has likely happened, he goes to Chrissy's to find out where Sam might have gone. But Chrissy has destroyed the map and notes so that Dean has to take her with him. Enter some smack talk between Dean and a 14-year-old girl, LOL. When they finally find and follow the vetala back to their lair, Dean cuffs Chrissy to the steering wheel of the car and goes in. Luckily for him, she had not one but two lock picks and rushes in as he's getting his butt kicked. She pretends to get captured by one of the vetala, but then she stabs and kills her then cuts Sam's bonds. This gives Sam and and Dean the chance to kill the other vetala.
When we see Lee recovering in a hospital, the boys urge him to quit hunting so Chrissy can have a normal life. Lee asks if they've ever known anyone to quit the hunting life. Dean says no, that they all end up dead first. When Chrissy runs out of the hospital after Dean, she says they're giving up hunting. She also tells Dean he's "kind of amusing for an old guy." LOL.
What did you think of the episode? What about Frank? What do you think Dick and his leviathans are going to build in that field?
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Supernatural Season 1 Awards - Part 2
AMY: When Dean finally stands up to John. He does it twice. The first time in Dead Man’s Blood when he tells John, “That’s a bunch of crap” when John says he’s trying to keep the boys safe by not allowing them to fight alongside him and the second time is when his dad takes him to task for not calling him when Sam started to have nightmares. I loved seeing Dean do this. I think being with Sam, Sam’s influence and being a big brother again, finally gave him the chutzpah he needed to do it. I love that Sam and his relationship with Sam had, by this stage, become more important to him that bowing down to his father.
AMY: Wow, can I say the whole of the season? There’s definitely a different vibe to season one, but that goes without saying. It was the beginning and for a lot of us, it’s where we fell in love with Supernatural and fell in love with Sam and Dean Winchester. The whole of the Pilot and Wendigo make me nostalgic, so many great lines, so many wonderful brother moments. Then there’s Dean allowing Sam time with the girls in Hookmanand Provenance. Looking out for his little brother. Then there’s Sam telling Dean in Something Wicked that Dean was just a kid and that he should forgive himself. Looking out for his big brother. There’s an innocence to Sam and Dean’s relationship in season one, in the way they banter and take care of each other. It’s not that they don’t love and look out for each other now, it’s just now they do it so vehemently and with such intensity it has sort of transcended love! Back in season one, it seemed all so simple; their relationship was simple, or at least as simple as the Winchester’s relationship can ever be. So I guess for me, it’s Sam and Dean’s relationship that smacks of nostalgia. As much as I love and adore the later seasons with the rich mythology, as much as I love and adore how deep and complex the brothers have become, I often find myself pining for just a little of who Sam and Dean were to each other back in season one, before God, the Devil, the Demons and the Angels screwed it all up for them.
TINY: Home -- This will always be the one episode I talk about when referring to the core theme, season one and Supernatural as a series. This is one of my ALL-TIME favourite episodes. Home is the reason I became a superfan and the reason I am in love with Supernatural.
So that's it! Part 2 of the Supernatural Season 1 Awards. If you missed part 1 it's here. I really hope you enjoyed it, that it made you think about how wonderful this show is, how wonderful the writing is, how wonderful the brothers are and all the characters that proliferate their Universe. Maybe it even made you want to go back and rewatch the series from the beginning. I'd love to hear what you thought!
Thanks to my buddies Tiny and Kara. You ladies are AWE-SOME!
And special thanks to Supernatural Wiki for being the amazing reference source it is.
I'll see you next time for my review of "Adventures In Babysitting."
Thanks for reading! -Amy
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Supernatural Season 1 Awards
KARA: Eric Kripke -- Supernatural was his creation and really its all his fault. He wrote the most pivotal episodes of season one -- The Pilot, Home, Shadow, Devils Trap. All awesome episodes, all embodied the feel for the rest of the series.
AMY:I’m going to say Eric Kripke for this one. I mean, he created this show and it all started here so he has to been seen as the most influential writing force during the first season. He imagined and created these wonderful characters, wrote in their voices, which, even into season seven, we can still hear. Though the boys have changed substantially, a lot of what was established in the Pilot, of their individual personalities and their relationship remains true today; they were written that well from the get go. Also, some of the lines Kripke created in season one have become staples in the fan vernacular. “Driver picks the music, shot-gun shuts his cakehole”; “No chick flick moments”; “Bitch/Jerk”; “Saving people, hunting things, the family business”; “There’s a storm’s coming, and you boys, your Daddy, you are smack in the middle of it.” He wrote the Pilot, Wendigo, Home, Shadow and Devil’s Trap. Five of the strongest episodes of the season. Homeis one of my all time favourites. There’s so much wonderfulness in Home. From Dean telling Sam he carried him from the burning house, to his plaintive call to his dad asking for help, the first time we really see Dean’s tears, to Mary’s foreshadowing when she says “I'm sorry” to Sam. We didn’t find out why she was sorry until In The Beginning in season four! Kripke always says he had a five-year arc planned; just that one word alone, “Sorry”, makes me believe his vision for the series was pretty much locked and loaded by this ninth episode. So, yeah….favourite writer for season one has to be Kripke.
TINY: Eric Kripke -- Supernatural has such as solid first season. Kripke is the genius who drove the mytho, the tone, the characterisation of the Winchester brothers, the writing (including the use of urban legends, music and the writing of the dialogues)... THE LOT! I wasn’t not really into genre shows back then but the thing I love about Supernatural is that it isn't just another show in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy category (which can well be another post as I am totally opposed to the press classifying Supernatural as ‘sci-fi’). Supernaturalis a solid character driven drama, above all evil hunting/ horror stories and it's about the main characters fighting for something that's worth dying for, Eric Kripke showed me the one element other horror shows failed to project and perfect -- family.
The family theme can be found in other character relationships in later seasons -- the Harvelles, the Campbells, the Singers, the angels and even monsters have families. Eric Kripke created an unique quality for Supernatural and created a theme the show is still sticking with -- two brothers on the road, saving people, hunting things, family business. Without his vision, especially in season one, Supernatural would've gone Heroes.
Favourite Director
KARA: Kim Manners -- Why? Because he continually ‘Kicked it in the ass’.
AMY: Kim Manners -- No contest. Kim Manners was not only a wonderful director he was a mentor to many of the cast and crew on Supernatural. He was already rich with TV directing experience when brought onboard in season one. He directed five episodes in the first season and left a permanent mark on the cast and crew before his death during season four, and though he passed away three years ago this January 25, he remains a strong presence and influence on the show. Jensen says he felt Kim guiding his hand during Jensen’s directorial debut and both boys and the crew still talk about him often and with much love. We all know the bee story from Bugs, where Kim insisted on sitting in the bee filled room in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt, because Jensen and Jared had no protective clothing either. This story is still a vigorously told at conventions, all these years later. In 2011, the Supernatural studios were renamed in his honour and each and every one of us knows his mantra “Kick it in the ass”. And for me, well he was also responsible for so much of what The X Files was and he directed my favourite episode Home. I will never hear 'Sunshine and Lollipops’ without thinking of that particularly distasteful family! Kim Manners will forever be in the hearts of everyone who loves Supernatural.
TINY: Kim Manners -- He was a major contributor in setting the tone of the show. His direction helped us to understand the story and the brothers. Episodes such as Dead in the Water, Scarcrow and Devil's Trap consisted of the perfect combination that made an episode a classic Supernatural episode, setting up the benchmarks for others episodes. His vision continues to inspire the crew and new directors such as Jensen Ackles.
Best Use of Song
KARA: Back in Black -- Seriously when I hear Back in Black, in my day to day life, I can’t help think of Supernatural. It was the perfect song (and theme song for the impala).
AMY: Season one set the scene for the use of music in Supernatural. Kripke is famously quoted as saying, to ensure his taste in music was used in the show, he actually put in the Pilotscript “CUE MUSIC - and you can take your anaemic alternative pop and shove it up your ass. Dean plays bass thumping, pile driving Zeppelin, and he plays it loud”. Actually, he played AC/DC’s Back In Black! The music in season one was almost a character. The songs were intrinsically tied to the action, much more so than in the later seasons, where the small budget is now spent on special effects and not on music licensing. So what’s my favourite use of a song? Well, I narrowed it down to three…best I could do, sorry. Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter, which plays in Skin and will always make me think of evil, hot, shapeshifting Dean; (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult, which plays in Faith and which I think is one of the best music cues ever and Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival, with plays at the end of Devil’s Trap and the beginning of In My Time Of Dying, which probably is the best music cue ever! And you all thought I was going to say, “Highway To Hell”, didn’t you! Or did you think I’d say Carry On Wayward Son? Seeeeee! Awesome music!
TINY: Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas -- Never have I imagine myself screaming a classic rock song at kareoke! The song was first introduced to me in 1.21 Salvation. If it wasn't Supernatural, I would've missed out all the classic rock goodies and… Kenny Rogers. Carry On Wayward Son was the first of many classic rock songs I added to my playlist, the song was also the most played song on my iTune.
Best Quote
KARA: You have to stick with the classic here, “Saving people, hunting things, the family business” no one quote had been able to sum up the entire series. Also... “Bitch” “Jerk”.
AMY:Gah! I think this might be the toughest category. Season one was full of pithy retorts! I could go for just about any of Dean’s quotes here. Or any of the brother’s come backs to each other. The bitch/jerk, the shotgun shuts his cakehole, the fabric softener teddy bear. I was trying like crazy to think of a quote that wasn’t just a throw away line, one that represented the brother’s relationship. I thought about when Dean tells Sam how he wants them to be a family again in Shadow, I thought about when Dean tells Sam that the three of them, that’s all they’ve got, that’s all he’s got in Salvation, I thought about “Take your brother outside as fast as you can and don't look back! Now, Dean, go!” from the Pilot, because really, that’s where Sam and Dean started, but I settled on, “I hope your apple pie is freakin’ worth it!” from Scarecrow, just because it’s Dean and pie.
TINY: What else but "Dad wants us to pick us where he left off, saving people, hunting things, family business." This is the "May the force be with you" to Star Wars.
Favourite Good Guy
KARA: This is a bit of a hard one for me. I had to decide how I wanted to approach this. Do I want to have for the stand alone season, or would I let the other seasons dictate my feelings. My favourite Good Guy for season one has to be, without a doubt John Winchester. He was built up to be this God among men.
AMY: Ummm Dean? Am I allowed to pick Dean? Right from the beginning it’s obvious Dean is the archetypal hero. Deeply flawed and conflicted, as all great heroes are. Loyal, almost to a fault. Selfless and brave and deeper than he’d like anyone to know. He’s compassionate and caring, but he hides it behind a shield of flippant remarks and a tough guy demeanour. Not that he’s not a tough guy, he’s totally badass, but just under the surface is a soft centre. He’ll stand in front of a stranger to save their life without even hesitating and he loves his brother more than any other person on the face of the Earth. Personally, I think Dean Winchester is one of the most beautifully realised, written and performed characters on TV, and that’s as a TV fan, not just a Supernaturalfan. To me, the ultimate Good Guy will forever be, Dean Winchester.
Do I need to pick someone other than a Winchester? Probably. So, in that case, Deputy Kathleen Hudak from The Benders. I liked her character a lot. She was smart and sympathetic and I thought the actress that played her did an awesome job.
TINY: It’ll be too easy for me to name any Winchester boys.. so how about Favourite Good Woman? Missouri in Home was my Favourite Good Woman. She was very enjoyable to watch and I wish to see her again. Dean and Sam need more 'family friends' especially NOW. Missouri was one of a few friends mentioned in John Winchester's diary. The character definitely has a lot of potentials. She needs to return to the show!
Favourite Villain
KARA: Yellow Eyed -- I know he isn’t seen all that much in this season, and to be fair he is more present in the second season, but the way the Supernatural writers were able to build up a character that wasn’t even seen is just remarkable. And then when this big evil, so evil that it scared their family home, possessed John. Wow. Awesome stuff.
AMY:Oh that would have to be the Yellow Eyed Demon, later revealed to be Azazel. As much as I loved Fred Lehne’s version of the YED in season two and six, the YED was never scarier or more threatening than when he was inside John Winchester, taking his anger out on Dean. That whole scene in Devil’s Trap; you just can’t look away. I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a great job with the YED and seeing as that’s the evil son of a bitch that started it all, he has to be my favourite villain.
Honourable Mention: Meg. I love Meg too, whichever meatsuit she’s in…even when she’s in Sam.
TINY: Yellow Eyed Demon -- Supernatural's first big bad! I think YED was like Crowley, he is so badass but he is so fantastic to watch and there is something likeable about him. Is it bad that we all love our demons in Supernatural more than angels? YED and the demons are likeable villains, unlike the Leviathans who are just dicks.
Favourite Guest Star
KARA: I am totally, without a doubt, going to cheat in this category. My favourite guest star of season one is... Jim Beaver. Oh yeah, that is cheating. There is a reason why the character of ‘Bobby Singer’ went from just a one episode appearance to a major character for the rest of the series, Jim Beaver.
AMY: I’m going with Julie Benz in Faith. I’m a big fan of Julie, so from that respect I was excited that she was in the show. But beyond that, I liked the character of Layla Rourke a lot. She had a great outlook for someone in her position and her chemistry with Dean was undeniable. I was glad that it didn’t go anywhere, that it just ended with her gently touching Dean’s face and walking away leaving him pondering the nature of faith.
TINY: Jeffrey Dean Morgan -- This was the episode that made me a superfan of the show and John Winchester was a major factor. The appearance of John Winchester at the end of Home injected that family element that I love so much. I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I think he is the perfect actor for the role.
Best Monster
KARA: Bloody Mary -- Freaking hell that eyeless chick. Supernatural had managed to not only build up a common urban legend but they were able to ‘Supernatural-lise’ it by making it their own. But not only was Bloody Mary visually awesome but also the whole story on how she chooses her victims.
AMY: The Reaper from Faith. I love the Reapers in Supernatural. The whole concept that they are there, lingering behind you, just waiting to tick you off their list and whisk you off this mortal coil is fantastic. This was our first introduction to a Reaper and consequential our first introduction to a supernatural creature that wasn’t some form spirit or monster. I gotta say, he was pretty ugly though. I don’t think I’d want to go with that Reaper!
TINY: Demons -- I think it's because the demons were so connected to the mytho of the story, and I've always been a fan of the mytho heavy episodes. Demons in Supernatural weren't just portrayed with heavy make-up or costumes or over the top dialogues, they could be your friendly neighbour or maths teacher. The show's interpretation of demons as characters is so real, it's creepy! Demons are seen in popular culture all the time but there is something unique about those in Supernatural.
Best Special Effect
KARA: Mary burning on the ceiling. That effect still gets me now, and is one of the special effects that hadn’t changed, why change it, it was awesome to begin with.
AMY: I think this might be more a visual effect than a special effect, but the truck hitting the Impala at the end of Devil’s Trap never ceases to take my breath away. Every time I see it, I’m gobbed smacked! It’s just Sam going…”Look, we’ve still got the Colt. We still have the one bullet left. We just have to start over, alright? I mean, we already found the demon.....” KABLAMO! Out of no-where an 18 wheeler smacks into them! I remember watching this when it originally went to air and jumping out of my skin! Then I just sat there, mouth agape, for like five minutes! And I know it was a fortuitous piece of fate, but how the truck pushes the Impala into the camera just tops off the perfection. One of the best special effect/visual effect/stunt or whatever it is shots ever. Gets me every damn time.
TINY: I've always been a fan of the death scene of Mary Winchester -- Mary in her sleeping gown, pinned to the ceiling and then burst into flames. It was the most iconic scene of the entire series.
Worst Special Effect
KARA: Ok, lets just say it, the demon smoke. I am so glad they changed it to actual smoke instead of what looked like a spilt bag of black seeds.
AMY: I hate, hate, hate the special effect at the end of the Pilot, when the Woman in White and her kids turn into a black blob and splat into the floor boards in a puddle of water. It’s just terrible. I cringe every single time I see it.
TINY: Humm… I actually don’t have one for this category. Cassie?
Best Confrontation
KARA: Sam verses John in Dead Man’s Blood. That whole ‘You were just pissed off you couldn’t control me anymore.’ We had a whole season of hearing about how Sam and John butted heads, we had a whole season of Dean being like ‘yeah lets find Dad, but Sam don’t be a jerk when we do.’ And then bam!
Honourable mention: Dean snapping it at John in Salvation. The whole ‘I was dying, a monster was at our childhood home and no you didn’t call back, and that is why we didn’t tell you about Sam’s freaky shiz’. The reason why I have put this one as a honourable mention even though I probably enjoyed it just as much and thought it was just as pivotal to the characters we had seen. However this scene seems to be a little bit more important throughout the series.
AMY: John/YED and Dean in Devil’s Trap. I find this scene gripping. The fact that the Yellow Eyed Demon is inside Dean’s dad, who he worships and has been searching for all season, just adds to the intensity of the confrontation. The way Dean just perseveres with his cocky attitude, throws it in the demon’s face that he wasted his children, tells him to stop monologuing. He won’t give the YED the satisfaction of seeing his fear. It’s incredibly stupid really but very Dean! Of course it all goes pear-shaped when the YED decides he’s had enough and just goes ahead and tries to kill Dean. Still, it’s a brilliant confrontation.
TINY: When Sam confronted John in Dead Man's Blood. For a moment, I thought Sam was going to transform into the Incredible Hulk. Sam's rebellion has always been a recurring theme. That scene was almost like bridge connection his past and the shape of things to come. The whole "you can't control me anymore"/ "if you can't save him, you have to kill him"/ "you think I'll go dark side" theme pretty much started to explode from here.