Supernatural: this is not me jumping on the bandwagon
--just trudging grumbling and limping behind it (hee).
These days, I feel like my to-watch list is a mile long. Game of Thrones is on it, as is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow, and Matt Smith's reign as The Doctor. And that's actually somewhat amazing, because there are serious scifi and fantasy shows on TV! That I want to watch! Except that somewhat hilariously, I'm not watching any of them because I've been marathoning (well, "marathoning" at the rate of around an episode per night) Supernatural, a show I'd given up on after 2 seasons back in 2010.
The wonderful sargraf was the reason for my curiosity in Supernatural, and I am both in awe and envious of her ability to fall totally in love with something and yet be so intelligently critical of it at the same time. I didn't fall in love with Supernatural, obviously. To me, the "partners investigating paranormal phenomena" theme had already been done perfectly by The X-Files, and Supernatural felt like a retread. I didn't care whether or not Sam and Dean found their father--someone who, in my book, was borderline abusive towards his kids. I didn't care about demons roaming the earth. At the end of the day, I didn't care about Sam and Dean, because they're the protagonists of the show, which meant that all the big drama surrounding them was smoke and mirrors--they would never die, never become unforgivably evil--only become bleaker, perhaps. That was not a show I wanted to follow. And that was it for four years.
Then, a couple of months back, I picked it up again for the sole reason of having something mindless to watch to give me a break from coding. I started from Season 3, though I remembered nothing from Seasons 1 and 2--which in retrospect was a good thing, since I would probably have given up all over again if I had started from the beginning. Season 3 was...meh, and I was glad it was short. And then came Season 4, and boy was that a game-changer. The Supernatural fans on my flist are probably smirking right now, because yes--Castiel!
I have big problems with the Christian mythology on this show, but I have to laugh at that because it's hard to think of a group of any religious affiliation who wouldn't be at least a little insulted by the way religion is used in the show. The way Lucifer offed the gods of--what, five? more?--religions without breaking a sweat. Um...yeah. I keep thinking of the scene in the Chinese epic Journey to the West where the Monkey King flies 10K li and thinks he reaches the end of the world, and yet is still held in the palm of the Buddha's hand. Whiny!Lucifer with his brother/father complex seriously needed some of that treatment.
But that's just a symptom of the way Christian mythology breaks Supernatural. The show is now hemmed in by all the formulaic illogic that follows along behind that decision, and the answer to every big question ends up being "Because God and His angels are dicks." Witness the point of Seasons 4 and 5: "Why is the Apocalypse happening?" "Because God and His angels are dicks." "Why did Lucifer fall?" "Because he loved his Father more than his Father's creation, and God got pissy about it, because he's a dick." (I wonder if that's also the answer to "What happens to the atheists when they die?"--"They go to Hell, because God is a dick?") I am much saddened by the depiction of Lucifer as a petty little teenager throwing a temper tantrum for attention; where is Milton's Lucifer, who "Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood / With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear / The weight of mightiest Monarchies; his look / Drew audience and attention still as Night / Or Summers Noon-tide air, while thus he spake..."
That is not to say that I am not amused by the comparison of God to an deadbeat dad, of course. So yeah, I'm conflicted. Christian mythology makes the show so small, and yet without it I wouldn't have my emotional involvement in it in the form of Castiel. The first episode I really felt like I needed to rewatch to catch the little details was the one featuring Jimmy, and by the time Castiel lifted his face to the ceiling and said, "You son of a--" I had to admit it: I care about what happens to the guy. And then, by extension of him caring, what happens to Dean and Sam and Bobby and Ellen and Jo and their world.
Which is why I'm now going back and re-watching seasons 1 and 2. How's that for illogic? I still stand by my first assessment of those two seasons, though--with caveat: Agent Henrickson is awesome. Also: is there any show out there that is more of a sausage-fest? Seriously, people.
In any case, those other shows on the list will have to wait until I finish going through my boxset. And you'll probably see more Supernatural-related rambling in the future.
P.S. Sam, I wouldn't really expect Dean to care much, being a more here-and-now guy, but you're buddies with an angel. Ever thought about asking him for a list of inhabited planets in the galaxy? Clues to cures for cancer, maybe? (I mean, he did rebuilt your brother cell by cell--presumably he knows something about biology, even if he's clueless about pop culture.)
These days, I feel like my to-watch list is a mile long. Game of Thrones is on it, as is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow, and Matt Smith's reign as The Doctor. And that's actually somewhat amazing, because there are serious scifi and fantasy shows on TV! That I want to watch! Except that somewhat hilariously, I'm not watching any of them because I've been marathoning (well, "marathoning" at the rate of around an episode per night) Supernatural, a show I'd given up on after 2 seasons back in 2010.
The wonderful sargraf was the reason for my curiosity in Supernatural, and I am both in awe and envious of her ability to fall totally in love with something and yet be so intelligently critical of it at the same time. I didn't fall in love with Supernatural, obviously. To me, the "partners investigating paranormal phenomena" theme had already been done perfectly by The X-Files, and Supernatural felt like a retread. I didn't care whether or not Sam and Dean found their father--someone who, in my book, was borderline abusive towards his kids. I didn't care about demons roaming the earth. At the end of the day, I didn't care about Sam and Dean, because they're the protagonists of the show, which meant that all the big drama surrounding them was smoke and mirrors--they would never die, never become unforgivably evil--only become bleaker, perhaps. That was not a show I wanted to follow. And that was it for four years.
Then, a couple of months back, I picked it up again for the sole reason of having something mindless to watch to give me a break from coding. I started from Season 3, though I remembered nothing from Seasons 1 and 2--which in retrospect was a good thing, since I would probably have given up all over again if I had started from the beginning. Season 3 was...meh, and I was glad it was short. And then came Season 4, and boy was that a game-changer. The Supernatural fans on my flist are probably smirking right now, because yes--Castiel!
I have big problems with the Christian mythology on this show, but I have to laugh at that because it's hard to think of a group of any religious affiliation who wouldn't be at least a little insulted by the way religion is used in the show. The way Lucifer offed the gods of--what, five? more?--religions without breaking a sweat. Um...yeah. I keep thinking of the scene in the Chinese epic Journey to the West where the Monkey King flies 10K li and thinks he reaches the end of the world, and yet is still held in the palm of the Buddha's hand. Whiny!Lucifer with his brother/father complex seriously needed some of that treatment.
But that's just a symptom of the way Christian mythology breaks Supernatural. The show is now hemmed in by all the formulaic illogic that follows along behind that decision, and the answer to every big question ends up being "Because God and His angels are dicks." Witness the point of Seasons 4 and 5: "Why is the Apocalypse happening?" "Because God and His angels are dicks." "Why did Lucifer fall?" "Because he loved his Father more than his Father's creation, and God got pissy about it, because he's a dick." (I wonder if that's also the answer to "What happens to the atheists when they die?"--"They go to Hell, because God is a dick?") I am much saddened by the depiction of Lucifer as a petty little teenager throwing a temper tantrum for attention; where is Milton's Lucifer, who "Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood / With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear / The weight of mightiest Monarchies; his look / Drew audience and attention still as Night / Or Summers Noon-tide air, while thus he spake..."
That is not to say that I am not amused by the comparison of God to an deadbeat dad, of course. So yeah, I'm conflicted. Christian mythology makes the show so small, and yet without it I wouldn't have my emotional involvement in it in the form of Castiel. The first episode I really felt like I needed to rewatch to catch the little details was the one featuring Jimmy, and by the time Castiel lifted his face to the ceiling and said, "You son of a--" I had to admit it: I care about what happens to the guy. And then, by extension of him caring, what happens to Dean and Sam and Bobby and Ellen and Jo and their world.
Which is why I'm now going back and re-watching seasons 1 and 2. How's that for illogic? I still stand by my first assessment of those two seasons, though--with caveat: Agent Henrickson is awesome. Also: is there any show out there that is more of a sausage-fest? Seriously, people.
In any case, those other shows on the list will have to wait until I finish going through my boxset. And you'll probably see more Supernatural-related rambling in the future.
P.S. Sam, I wouldn't really expect Dean to care much, being a more here-and-now guy, but you're buddies with an angel. Ever thought about asking him for a list of inhabited planets in the galaxy? Clues to cures for cancer, maybe? (I mean, he did rebuilt your brother cell by cell--presumably he knows something about biology, even if he's clueless about pop culture.)