The 'goddamit I kinda like Supernatural' thread

Dammit, i've been trying to NOT get into this show for years now. I keep reading the praise and the acclaim it gets from people whose opinion i respect. But it looks.. kinda.. gay... dunno... Plus, i hate that i have already 4 years to catch up. Is there a season that's way way way better than the rest?

A newish friend of mine and I are having a 'cultural exchange' and alternating Supernatural with Deadwood on thursday nights. It gets better as it goes, and is fuckloads better than a lot of the shit on network television. coughHeroescough. I mean, it's no Deadwood, but what is (besides Mad Men). I got a review copy of the third season had some really solid Ben Edlund written episodes, and I don't think there's such a thing as bad Ben Edlund.

Speaking of gay, this friend actually writes slashfiction about it.(involving the two leads) ...I could direct you to her blog if you'd like...

I've never actually read it myself.

The show is fucking awesome. Just wait.

Ok, you've done it.
I'll finally start watching this thing. I have the first season here somewhere.
This better be good!

The world doesn't need more Wincest. Thanks.

Sure. I believe you. No really. I do.

Yeah. I'd avoid that if I was you. It gets even funnier due to the "fan" response of Episode 18 from the fourth season. But, I'll let you discover that for yourself.

HA HA HA HA, Wincest!!! That's the best thing I've heard all day!!!

Damn it. Where's Domingo?

I didn't make up that term. Really. I didn't.

I actually believe you. When I got the BR in the mail to review (with no warning) I immediately assumed it was a show about gay people. The cover art alone brought about the assumption. When I found out about all the slashfic I wasn't even a little bit surprised.

I really haven't read the slashfic though, sometimes you want to keep illusions about when hanging with sweet, petite girls.

Gay isn't natural. It's supernatural?

Freakin' CW.

The first season is kinda hit or miss, it gets better in later seasons. But the show does have one of the best soundtracks on TV.

I'd say you should actually skip that one. One or two promising bits, but mostly just stupid, and I don't recall any important continuity in it.

It's probably a lesser Supernatural episode, but I still found it enjoyable. It's filler.

Its the rare show that actually gets better the further you go in as it builds its surprisingly mature mythology.

Monster Movie is re-airing tomorrow. That might be my favorite episode of the series.

I stand by my claim that Supernatural is the best genre show currently on television and is in the top five of stuff being broadcast.

I'm actually in the same position as you Spike. I put off watching it forever because I thought it looked horrible, but I kept on hearing good things from people whose opinion I respected. Then I saw the first season for $20 and had to pick it up. It's pretty good.

Yeah I remember not thinking much of Season 1 at all. Mainly because it's ALL stand alone episodes and it started to get somewhat tiresome. But about 6 episodes from the end (Presumably when they knew they were getting a Season 2) things start picking right up and just get better from there.

I'm in the same boat as you are, Spike. I'd been hearing about it for years, and dealing with some of the fans of the show is like dealing with Browncoats times HELL - so I stayed away (insane fans kept me from Firefly, as well). I found the first season for 14.99 and did a blind buy. I'm seriously in love with this show. Bugs is the weakest episode in terms of creatures and mythos - but it excels in character development and the family dynamic (and if you're not a fan of spiders, you might shitsmear your sofa), so don't skip it. It's a lesser episode of the series, but better than any X-Files anything I've ever seen.

I literally got the first season on the 6th of this month - and I just finished the third. Everything I dislike about Buffy, Angel, Smallville (I like those shows, but unlike far too many acolytes - I can call the flaws and shittyness when I see it) is nonexistent here, and the production never feels hokey or cheap.

There's a great goof on reality TV called "Ghostfacers"...a really awesome and "inside" Hollywood episode (featuring Gary Cole as a douchey studio exec) - the third season has a John Carpenter homage episode that is literally one of my favorite things I've ever seen on television. It's tense and hilarious and comical and tragic and propels the mythos and introduces a villain - how do you juggle all of that stuff? Supernatural does. Really love this show.

And yeah - gory as fuck. Something happens at the end of the third season that's more over the top and unflinchingly gory than many slasher films. Think the first death in Nightmare on Elm Street turned up to 11 with the knob ripped off. I was stunned.

I avoided the first 2 seasons mainly due to its perceived "tweenness" - basically, I thought it was a guy version of CHARMED or something. I started somewhere in the middle of the third, and I was hooked. The fourth is one of the best seasons of episodic television I've ever seen.

The skin shedding scene still amazes me at just how fucked up it is. That and about 7 other scenes across the seasons have convinced me censors/CW just don't watch the show because they get away with some damn awesome gore, violence and general levels of fuckedupedness that wouldn't come close to passing in the neutered PG-13 horror that passes itself off as horror these days.

Also, the show is damn entertaining and has kickass music.

It's sad that Eric Kripke wasn't happy with some of the effects of the first Season, and so we don't get a return to the fucked up stuff like the skin shredding. If I can complain about the other Seasons that would be it really, the MOTW are never quite as 'icky' as that one.

That does sort of change. For a while it's just references to Women etc, but later on they both get some booty.

Hell if you like the show now your head is going to explode from Season 2 onwards Spike.

Great show.

I've never had any contact with rabid fans of the show (thankfully!) though I have been to the TWoP forums. Yeahh... I don't go in there anymore. I avoided the show during it's first season mainly because I hated that the network cancelled Angel and I also thought it would be some bullshit like Charmed. Watching the first season during a summer when I was out of school was pretty great. I enjoyed it even though it never really gelled till the end of the season (and HOLY SHIT, how about that final scene in the season 1 finale!!!). From there on they keep upping the ante by deepening the mythology and the show gets better and better. I'm glad a lot more people are getting into the show. The Season 5 thread should be great!

I've bought the first 2 seasons out of the sheer praise Mattioli and couple others gave it along the years. Did not regret, as it's not only highly entertaining, but really good. I'm waiting for season 4 to come out on DVD so I can snag it along season 3, but it's well worth my money.

Welcome to the party, Spike. Don't forget to drink the Kool Aid.

No, no it's not.

For anyone interested, here are the threads I could Darkmite. Enjoy Season 4, it's a doozy:
Season One
Season Two
Season Three
Season Four

Oh, and "Bugs" is probably the worst episode of the series. After that, it's more or less clear sailing.

So alot of people haven't watched it because it looks too "gay"? That's fucking sad.

Hey Spike, I'm just glad you finally checked it out for yourself. Strap in, because it's going to be a hell of a ride. Oh and those wonderful gory moments you've mentioned? They do NOT let up. Even into last season they were still pulling off better and more gory kills than any PG-13 film as referred to earlier.

I expected much much worse. It still wasn't as bad as Battlestar's Sine Qua Non or Black Market.

You're insane. Supernatural is a fine diversion but its best episodes aren't even as good as Battlestar's worst. Bugs was one of the worst episodes of television I have ever seen. It made me drop the show for two years. I recently picked it back up, and I'm enjoying it just fine, but it's disposable entertainment even on its best day. The fact that some of you guys are putting it in the same league as some of this decade's best shows is nuts.

He does tend to talk the show up as the Second Coming.

Glad to see so many folks jumping on the train. I loved the concept for the show when I heard it, watched the pilot/premiere with my now-wife, and we've been hooked ever since. Kripke's description of it as 'a different horror movie every week' is perfectly apt, especially in the first season. If you're enjoying the season one episodes you're going to love the other seasons. It gets much, much better.

This show introduced me to Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever, which sounds like it should be a bad thing, but is in fact pure awesome. The blue-collar, classic rock backdrop is potentially my favorite aspect of the show's design.

And just wait til you meet Bobby..

We'll agree to disagree then. Battlestar bored me to tears, so much so that I could not finish the first season. I'm sure that makes me some sort of frakin moron in your eyes but it could just be that we like different things. Maybe.

First off, I'm as big a Battlestar fan you'll ever find here, and Supernatural, while great, ain't on the same quality platform as Battlestar.

But fuck off if you think Sine Qua Non was not a horrible piece of shit episode. It was so poorly written Moore never bothered explaining them, let alone defend them. These were shitty shitty episodes, and your argument doesn't hold up because I don't expect the same quality from Supernatural.

My wife and I are about six episodes into Season 3, so we also started late. It's been pretty damn excellent so far though, and certainly the best genre show on TV now that BSG is gone.

My only real complaint are the few WBish episodes like the werewolf one in Season 2, and the fact that they simply cannot write likable female characters. Maybe Ruby and Bela get better later on, but they're shite now.

I laugh out loud at genuinely funny stuff in Supernatural more than I do at 90% of the comedies on TV, too.

Relax dudes, not saying anyone is a moron and I use the terms "insane" and "nuts" in the most affectionate possible ways.

I am an insanely huge horror fan and there is nothing I want more than for Supernatural to be a great show. As it stands, I feel it's a good show, but it's way to formulaic (every episode has pretty much the exact same dramatic beats) to be one of the greats. I'm only on season 2 though so maybe it'll get there, I dunno.

And I say again, wait till you hit Season 4 (I'd say Season 3, as well, but it suffers a little from the truncated writer's strike syndrome).

Yeah, but when Supernatural drops the ball it's one thing. When BSG had the episode where everybody was acting out of character, near the end of the st half of season 4, then it's a bigger WTF than one bad standalone episode about (shitty) bugs.

I love this show like I love Chuck (but not as much, but close). A bit flawed, but so much fun.

Jesus, this show has an episode actually titled "Criss Angel Is a Douchebag"? That is fucking -fantastic-.

I don't recall that ep of BSG so you may have a point there, but as a general rule I'll take Moore trying something and failing over Supernatural's paint-by-numbers scripts any day.

Do you want me to bring James Cameron and Aliens into this thread to really fuck it up, Marshall?

Considering that what happened to Sam's girlfriend is still pretty recent and that they're hunting for their missing father, why would anybody expect them to go chase tail so quick?

They have bigger concerns at the present moment than sex.