Directed by Chris Long
Written by Trey Callaway
After the grim and tense family drama of “Shadow,” it is definitely time to lighten the mood.
The theme of the day is pranks. Everyone here is pranking someone. Everyone. The whole “Monster of the Week” starts out as a prank. Dean and Sam prank the Ghostfacers guys. Dean and Sam prank each other. Unfortunately, the whole “prank” element of their relationship, which is such nice shading, a nice counterpoint to all of the seriousness – is one of those one-off things never mentioned again. In some alternate universe lives Cassie and Sam and Dean putting frogs in each others’ beds. So it ends up feeling a bit contrived, as is, contained in one episode. It’s not contrived, in and of itself, but having it never come up again doesn’t help. Supernatural is a show with a continuum, and things carry over from episode to episode. Dean is a red-meat-lover and a pie-lover. It’s a character thing, it’s been going on for episodes. They didn’t just add that to the plot of one episode and then never mention it again.
The one-off thing reminds me of one of the earlier episodes of The Sopranos, where Meadow – suddenly – randomly – with no mention of it in any episode up until that point – is on a soccer team, and Tony Soprano is – suddenly – randomly – a huge soccer fan – cheering at his daughter’s games – and Meadow – suddenly – randomly – has a best friend who is very troubled – and then we realize why – and it has to do with the soccer coach, and blah blah, and it all happens in the space of one episode and that is just not the style of the show, and it really stands out. It makes it seem like a Very Special Episode of The Sopranos. There are certainly plot things, even character things, that are introduced and then dropped. You know, you float something out there to gauge the reaction. You see what “sticks”. That’s common practice. For example: the Ghostfacers. They’re introduced here in “Hell House,” and were so popular that they are still returning for episodes 9 seasons later. But if the audiences had hated the Ghostfacers, we never would have seen them again. That’s the breaks. Tough business. It’s a meritocracy ONLY.
I bring up John Stamos as a case in point later in this re-cap. His entire career, enormously successful, is due to audience reaction to what was basically a one-off episode of General Hospital. I mean, obviously, he is very smart and played that card as right as you could possibly play it … he realized the opportunity that was being handed to him (that he earned, for being so memorable in that one episode) … and ran with it.
So to set up the fact that pranking was this huge deal in Sam and Dean’s relationship as kids, and then to never mention it again … It makes it seem too much like a plot contrivance as opposed to an organic character thing. They usually do a better job of connecting the dots. Now, it’s obvious that Sam and Dean tease each other. Their teasing dynamic is part of the reason the show works so well. They find each other funny, they find each other stupid, they love it when the other one is thrown off his game. It’s so perfectly siblings-ish, and was certainly my main “way in” to this story.
Anyway. We’re about to move in to the giant final arc of the Season, which could not be more serious and upsetting. So it really was time to goof off a bit, for the characters, and for the show itself. Like Dean says to Sam, “You need more laughter in your life.”
Don’t we all, Dino.
TEASER
Richardson, Texas
Two months ago
One of Supernatural‘s most classic horror movie openings: Four frightened teens in the darkness with flashlights, seen through the trees, being stalked by a handheld camera, as they squelch down a muddy country lane. They approach a GREAT set of the scariest most derelict house ever. Craig Thurston is the leader, telling them his cousin told him about this house. Oh, Craig. Are you related to the Trickster? Because you are a mischief-maker.
There’s a nice small moment, also out of the horror movie playbook, where a guy says to the girl, “Want me to hold your hand?” She takes his hand. And then he ruins it by saying, “Are there any other parts I can hold?”
This man is an example of what I used to refer in college as “Back Rub Boys”. These were guys who would offer to give you a back rub – “You look tense” – but they were always up to no good. I preferred guys who had the confidence to just freakin’ come on to me. I still prefer that. I reserve the right to turn someone down, but don’t try to TRICK me into letting you TOUCH me by telling me I look tense and do I want a back rub? This guy is a clear Back Rub Boy. And when he says that, she whacks his arm and walks off without him, which is exactly what I used to do in college too. You want to touch me? Invite me out to dinner/drinks. You might get lucky if you play your cards right. The nickname spread through the theatre department. So someone would say to me, “What do you think of so-and-so?” I would reply, “Look out. He’s a total Back Rub Boy.” “Okay. Got it.”
Inside the house, flashlights reveal weird symbols on the stone walls. Thurston leads the way into the cellar.
“They say it lives in the root cellar …”
“They say?”
Who’s “they”? It becomes The Question as the episode goes on.
And of course the loud skeptic is the one who gets sucker-punched by the hanging girl behind him. Skeptics don’t fare well in horror movies.
By the way: “Hell House” is the gold-standard of the “Gross Stuff in Jars” motif.
1st scene
Interstate 35
Present day
Huge sign: TEXAS TOWING & SALVAGE. And voila, we are in Texas. A grey and rainy Texas. The Impala hurtles by.
Blue Oyster Cult’s “Fire of Unknown Origin” is blasting. Speaking of Blue Oyster Cult, please seek out Roadie, starring the wonderful Ron Eldard. He plays a guy recently fired from his roadie job with the Blue Oyster Cult. My review here. And I interviewed Ron Eldard about the film. Blue Oyster Cult are not in the film (although Eldard actually did work as a roadie for one night backstage for one of their shows, and they filmed it, the footage being used in the film) – but they are referenced constantly. Of course, Blue Oyster Cult was used as background for one of the best sequences in Supernatural history.
But here BOC actually play a role in the plot, so the soundtrack is full of them!
Sam is asleep. Dean is bored. Dean puts a plastic spoon in Sam’s drooling mouth, and takes a picture of it. Then turns up the music, starts singing along, and does some rockin’ air drums. I never get enough of Dean doing air drums. Thankfully, we get a lot of it.
The funniest thing about the whole Prank Motif is that both of them are HORRIBLE sports about it; they both are Easy Targets wearing signs saying “MAKE FUN OF ME.” Neither of them laughs anything off when the joke is on them. Both of them are ultra-serious about their own dignity. So to have it compromised, to be pranked, is infuriating. And that’s why the pranks escalate, of course. Because they both are so gettable.
Sam is pissy to the max. “We’re not kids anymore, Dean. We’re not gonna start that crap up again.”
A certain phrase comes to mind.
The pranks in this episode are so LAME. Nothing too elaborate, nothing too huge. So both of them getting so annoyed about them is very entertaining, and makes them seem like “special snowflakes”, a phrase I never associate with Sam and Dean.
Both of them can dish it out, and neither of them can take it. And I’ll just say this: two episodes from now is “Provenance”, where Dean gets laid multiple times with multiple ladies in the space of one night, and expresses concern that Sam needs to be having more fun (in a beautiful scene, actually, a really good relationship scene). Dean and Sam have never talked like that before – ever – and both of them are in brand new waters with it. It’s well-written and well-performed. Sam snaps, annoyed, “Why do you want me to hook up, man?” and Dean says, and it’s almost out of his mouth before he knows what’s happening – “Maybe you wouldn’t be so cranky all the time.” It’s too intimate, it’s about sex in a really grown-up way, it obviously hits a nerve, and they both sort of back off from it. I love that scene. Anyway, the continuity here works, in terms of a larger Season-wide Arc, where you can see patterns of growth and change operating, sometimes in invisible ways. Sam is pretty cranky. An orgasm a day helps keep the doctor … blah blah. So it’s just kind of funny to see how downright ANGRY Sam gets at the pranking. Same with Dean, but Sam’s reactions are way funnier. He is wound up so tight. Sam so could be a humorless prig, and thankfully Padalecki lightens the mood with his line readings, his dry delivery, and all of that … but you can certainly see the danger with the character. He could be a nonstop drip. It’s a danger that is counter-acted by Dean’s sheer force of personality, his absurdity, his Life as Performance Art thing. I’ll be getting into that. But it’s the contrast that is fun to watch, and it’s the contrast that sort of pushes both of these recalcitrant independent characters into new territory, territory they NEVER could have entered if Dad was around.
Sam threatens to get Dean back (oooh, scary, Sam), and Dean says he’s bored, they’re driving through East Texas, no scenery, so could Sam please fill him in on whatever the hell case they’re about to work.
Sam’s using all kinds of language like “legend has it,” which is not like him. That’s amateur language, not hunter language. Sam says they appear to be dealing with a “misogynistic spirit” who strings up girls in an old farmhouse. But by the time the cops arrived after this last one, the corpse was gone. Dean is skeptical. Maybe the kids were just yanking everyone’s chains. Sam isn’t sure, after reading the kids’ “first-hand accounts.” All of this is strange to Dean, where the hell is Sam getting his information?
So there’s the real plot of the episode: Sam is pranked by the Ghostfacers website, who were pranked by Thurston and his cousin. And on it goes. The ramifications of this are not really explored in an in-depth way, although I really like Sam’s final comment in the episode as they watch the house burn: “It makes you wonder how many of the things we hunt exist because people believe in them.” It’s a powerful concept, a powerful thought (thought-form?), and gets into some of the larger thornier issues later, when we start entering into the search for God, and angels, and all of that faith stuff. Taking things on faith goes against the grain for Dean and Sam (Dean, especially). In “Hell House,” you could see how easy it would be to be “punked” by an urban legend. You would have to be very careful about the sources you use. And here, as of yet, they don’t have Bobby to rely on for back-up.
And then, too, in “Hell House,” there is the amateur factor. We have discussed this before in comments sections, and how infuriating it is when amateurs try to move on into the hunter’s world without the proper respect. The Ghostfacers are amateurs. Passionate amateurs, but amateurs. Sam and Dean encounter amateurs from time to time, enthusiasts, and they can’t help but hold these people in contempt. More often than not, Sam and Dean are gonna have to bust in to save the amateur’s ass. They don’t appreciate that. Amateurs make work for them.
It’s kind of another side of one of the elements of the show that I love: how often they meet up with academics who are experts in a certain field, but have no belief in what they teach. So they’re helpful, somewhat, in terms of background, but always fall short when it comes to having to actually HANDLE the djinn or the Nordic god or whatever it may be. Dean and Sam actually believe – no, they KNOW … so come on, people, don’t just read the damn books, open your damn eyes.
I love how Sam and Dean cruise along in an almost-alternate reality, of belief and pure action, and very little of it touches our “real” world. They are grubby superheroes, doing the dirty work behind the scenes to keep us all safe. Meanwhile, tenured professors lecture on djinns and treat it all as a Story. Of course now, with Metatron, maybe the whole damn thing, the earth, the human experiment, the whole thing, is a story. One we write as we go, or one where we just play out our predestined parts. It’s the crux of the matter for Sam and Dean: whose story is this, what role do they play, and can they choose to step OUT of this particular story? Who assigned them these roles in the first place? Fuck THAT. WE get to pick, nobody else. “Hell House” is kind of a spin on that idea: our own participation in the narratives of our lives. Yes, it’s also totally silly, but it’s an idea they return to again and again (seen through different Prisms. I know: the Prism again. But it’s important, especially with 9 damn seasons.)
Sam reluctantly admits that he searched out some local paranormal websites, and Dean’s reaction is a predictable eye-roll. Sam is even more embarrassed to give the website’s name, wincing as he says it: “HellhoundsLair.com.” Poor Dean has zero idea how terrified he will eventually be of the mere mention of the words “hell hounds”.
This appears to be a real driving scene, as opposed to projection, but either way, there are nice blurred-out effects in the back windows, something that Supernatural has down to a science by now. It’s beautiful.
Dean is contemptuous. Sam is laughing. Yes, it’s ridiculous. But maybe there’s something to it. Sam then speaks the subtext, as he sometimes does: “We let Dad take off- which was a mistake, by the way …” In the meantime, they might as well keep working. Find something to hunt. It’s interesting how often it is Sam taking the lead like this. He would prefer to have something to do, to stay busy. Too much time off leads to too much time thinking about that other life he had, that OTHER story he was participating in.
2nd scene
A total American Graffiti type scene, with cars pulling in and out of a parking lot, and a giant lit-up burger joint called Rodeo Drive, a packed teen hangout. Dean and Sam, who sometimes seem quite young (and seem very young in this episode, what with all the pranking), seem like Old freakin’ Guys compared to the Teenagers in the episode. And that Impala, chugging down the drive-thru lane, looks like an emissary from the Black Lagoon of Weird Older Guys Chillin’ at Places Populated by Teenagers.
I love how this next section is cut together. The editing/directorial team don’t use this technique that much. The only other time they’ve used it in this particular way is in the “Clap Your Hands” episode, the clear nod to X-Files, with a “mockumentary” vibe to it, where people talk right into the camera, one after the other. It’s even funnier here because each kid is telling it differently: the girl had red hair, no, brown hair, she was still alive, no, she was dead. Right into the camera, with utter conviction.
“There were … Pentagons on the wall…” says Back Rub Boy.
“Pentecostals …” adds Skeptic.
And of course Back Rub Boy has to say that the dead girl was “kind of hot.” Typical.
We see Sam and Dean taking all this in. They are stunned.
“Who told you about this?” asks Sam.
Quick cut to all three kids sitting together on the same bench, saying in unison: “Craig.”
Nice and elegantly put together scene. Quick, efficient, funny.
3rd scene
Sam and Dean walk into a local record shop. It clearly isn’t a set, it’s clearly a location shoot. The whole thing brings back memories. Member record stores?? The setup of the store is the exact same setup of Tunes in Hoboken, where I shop for vinyl. So here’s Mr. Craig Thurston, in his hip retro-type outfit, greeting Sam and Dean. Dean introduces themselves as reporters with a Dallas paper. Craig, acting all cool and on equal ground, says, “Hey, cool, I write for my school’s lit magazine,” and Dean’s response is so mean and so funny: “Good for you, Morrissey.”
There really is a resemblance.
Sam says that they’re doing an article about “local hauntings”. Because of course, clearly, that is a two-man assignment. Who says newspapers are dead?
Thurston suddenly looks serious and a tiny bit freaked. But he’s acting. The prank is still in operation. He’s been questioned by the cops. He told them the same story.
As Sam listens, Dean pulls an album out of a nearby bin.
Kansas’ Point of Know Return. Funny on so many levels. (Also, I see a little tab for Link Wray, who is one of my favorite singer/songwriters ever.)
1. It’s Kansas. “Carry on my wayward son”, and all that.
2. Dean hails from Kansas.
3. Dean loves the band Kansas. Cracks me up.
4. The title of that album has all kinds of resonance for the Winchester brothers and where we are at in Season 1.
5. Wizard of Oz.
So Craig tells the sad Depression-era story of desperate farmer Mordecai who had 6 daughters. Mordecai ended up killing his daughters because he didn’t want them to starve, blah blah, and now his ghost haunts the property and strings up any girl unfortunate enough to go inside. Sam and Dean listen, impassively. They’re such pros at their job, they know something is just … not quite right. Beautiful shots of both guys listening. Like good homicide detectives, or anyone involved in forensic analysis: they listen on another level. A supersonic level.
Dean’s question is: “Where’d you hear all this?”
That is the question.
On another level, a performance level, Thurston seems like he’s reciting. Like he’s telling a ghost story. It’s “off”, and both Sam and Dean sense it. Well played, on all sides.
“That girl was real and she was dead. This is not a prank,” says Liar Liar Pants on Fire.
4th scene
It opens with a terrific establishing shot of the Hell House.
It’s moody and terrifying-looking. The color scheme is monochromatic, blacks and blues and greys. Dean and Sam approach through the mud. Dean mutters, “So much for Curb Appeal.” Because, of course, he watches Curb Appeal. Just like he watches Oprah, cooking shows, Dr. Sexy and Spanish soap operas. If it’s on, he watches. And not only does he watch, he absorbs. He is the perfect audience member. It is not hard at all to imagine him agog in a movie theatre, chomping popcorn, lost in the story, whatever it is.
Like this.
That is Dean, as audience member.
He’d get lost in Wild Bunch and he’d get lost in Notting Hill.
Dean busts out the EMF but the power lines are screwing up his readings. As Sam and Dean talk on the front “lawn,” they are seen, creepily, from inside the house. Once inside, the camera sort of circles around, around them, and around the walls, in a dizzying effect, revealing all of the symbols painted there. Dean says Mordecai was a “tagger,” but Sam observes about one of them: “The reverse cross has been used by Satanists for centuries, but this sigil of sulfur didn’t show up until San Francisco in the 60s.” Naturally I had to hit Google, and found all kinds of weird shit. That picture of the “Black House” is terrifying.
Good for Padalecki for totally rattling off that nerd-ball information, making it totally seem real to him, real to Sam, something Sam knows a lot about, and isn’t afraid of sharing it. He is good at what he does. And Dean is stopped in his tracks by the monologue. His comment: “I know exactly why you never get laid.”
Sam certainly walked right into that one. Look out, Sammy. That kind of commentary is only going to intensify.
The set is deep, dark and scary-looking. I like the Winchester brothers best when they are framed in darkness and grime. It is their natural milieu. I wrote about Dean never feeling clean in my first post about him. It’s not hard to understand why. His reveling in his room at the Bunker, short-lived though it may have been, had to do with it being his own, of course, but also how CLEAN it was. He has never been fully clean in his life. His showers can never be long enough. And Sam? Well, he’s got a secret in his blood, something he doesn’t know about yet. His dirtiness is not exterior, but interior. There’s one scene in Season 8, where they go track down Metatron, and he reminisces about Dean reading to him when he was a kid, the story of the Knights of the Round Table, and how even back then he knew he could never go on a “quest” because somehow he knew he wasn’t “pure” enough for it. His pain is heart-wrenching. DIRT. Surround them in dirt. A metaphor for how that cleanliness theme operates in their lives. Seeps into them.
Dean sees a symbol on the wall and it stops him in his tracks. He knows that symbol. Sam notices that the paint is still fresh. Dean says he “hates to agree with authority figures of any kind”, which is rich, considering his “Yes, sir” behavior in the last episode, where he eagerly submits to the authority of his father. Just one of those beautiful layers of complexity that Ackles adds to his part. What we SAY is often not the truth, or it’s a half-truth. How we see ourselves is often not accurate. There’s no need to “protect” Dean from those contradictions. Or, I have no interest in that kind of commentary. It’s boring. I love contradictions, and I love characters who can’t quite see themselves clearly. It gives the actor so much room for subtext, and leaves a lot of room for the audience. In many respects, yes, Dean is a rebel. He says he wants to “blow his brains out” thinking of growing up in suburbia, he treats cops with cocky contempt because he obviously is smarter than they are and they just get in his way, and he flashes around fake IDs without blinking. Fuck authority. But on another level that is so deep it is almost cellular, he YEARNS for an authority figure. He YEARNS to be told what to do. From our contradictions, our flaws, arise drama. Conflict.
Their little pow-wow is interrupted by a sound in another “room”. On high alert, they hustle towards the sound, and burst into the room, suddenly blinded by light beams, and two … guys standing there. Holding cameras and lights.
And here they are, the Ghostfacers.
I love the Ghostfacers. I know they are also despised in some quarters. Tee hee! Let’s bring it on! I love them for all kinds of reasons, but the main one is from an actor standpoint: these are young actors, coming on what is essentially a guest-spot, and they own it so completely, knock it so out of the park, that more episodes featuring them are to come, and it’s still going on. This is the DREAM of young actors trying to get on a series. You want your character to “hit”. I mean, hell, it worked for John Stamos. The guy had a glorified walk-on on General Hospital and they were so bombarded with letters saying WHO IS THAT GUY??? (I should know, I wrote one of those letters, I was in junior high) that they made him a regular, and the guy has literally – literally – never been out of a job since. THAT is a success. Both of these Ghostfacer actors understood the humor underlying their roles, understood the pathetic posturing going on, and infused their line-readings with a kind of goofy mixture of deadpan seriousness, and total Fear. They work great together. No wonder they “hit” with audiences. Yes, they are annoying, and they usually mess up whatever Sam and Dean are working on, but Sam and Dean without obstacles would be nothing. Just haircuts and jawlines.
Also, it is awesome and funny (and refreshing) seeing Sam and Dean having to deal with these sheer IDIOTS, who treat THEM like they’re morons. The Ghostfacers consider themselves professionals and sneer at Sam and Dean with puffed-up (and yet somehow anxious) superiority, a vibe that the two brothers almost never experience. Even the most hostile foes they meet don’t treat them like they’re IDIOTS. The Ghostfacers do. It’s very funny.
The Ghostfacers are Ed (A.J. Buckley) and Harry (Travis Wester). And, of course, they are warped mirror images of the Winchesters. Ed is clearly the leader, the Dean guy, and Harry is the bumbling sidekick (Sam). In their first meeting with the Winchesters, Ed and Harry (who probably are made fun of by everyone else in their lives) realize they are in the presence of amateur ghost-hunters, unlike themselves, and so their egos EXPLODE instantaneously. They put on a whole act, a sort of “Yeah, man, this is what we DO, this is who we ARE” thing, and yet they are so clearly lying, and “acting”. It’s like being in the presence of a pompous person who is lording it over you, trying to make you feel bad about yourself, and the behavior is so obvious you can’t believe that so-and-so actually thinks they will get away with it. Like, you HAVE to know how obvious you are being, right??
Quick story: At last year’s Ebertfest, it was my first time going, and I was shy, and also in the first stages of recovery from my super romantic old-fashioned Nervous Breakdown. My mother came with me. So I was doing my best, and actually had a blast, and met up with some old friends, none of whom knew what was going on with me, and that was actually a relief. I got to sit and have lunch and talk about movies and feel normal for a change. They cater lunch to the people with VIP badges (i.e.: special guests, filmmakers, actors, writers) in a nearby community center, so on the first day of the festival I made my way over there. It was packed. I saw my friend Steven Boone. I feel relaxed with him, so I went over and sat with him. He is so nice, so sweet, and he also has shyness, so we feel comfortable with each other. He was sitting with another guy, whom I had never met before. Steven Boone introduced me to him: “This is Sheila O’Malley. She’s a playwright and a film critic.” Apparently this guy is also a film critic and he runs some huge film festival in Bangkok or something – I don’t give a fuck, actually, because he was so rude, and therefore I don’t care what he does or who he is. I operate on a purely quid pro quo basis. He did not smile when he was introduced to me, he did not seem interested in who I was, he did not want me sitting there, his vibe was palpably unfriendly. He had been having a good time schmoozing with Steven Boone, and had no interest in me. He decided, on sight, that I couldn’t offer him anything. And instead of saying anything even halfway polite, I would have taken a “Hi, nice to meet you,” this guy said, staring at me: “So which is it?” I didn’t know what he was talking about. I said, “What?” He said: “He said you’re a playwright and a film critic. So which one is it?” It was so unfriendly that I wasn’t even sure it was occurring, and so I chose to be totally friendly in return, and pretend it wasn’t happening. I laughed and said, “See that’s the thing. I don’t feel I have to choose.” And I don’t. Why should I? Steven and I started talking, and he sat off to the side, eating his lunch in exile, neither of us talking to him. And he did not speak to me for the rest of the film festival. No loss there for me, because he obviously was an asshole. He was so threatened by his status, and the hierarchical structure of the event, that he made the grave mistake of assuming that because he had never heard of me, I wasn’t worth knowing.
Good manners are a way to prop up our social interactions with one another, take the edge off of our latent suspicion of one another. Saying “Nice to meet you” is not just a formality. You actually need to mean it when you say it. That’s what good manners are all about.
So back to the Ghostfacers, and why I love these two actors’ performances. They manage to suggest, in 2 seconds of screen-time, before we even know who they are, that these are guys who are pretty much morons, and are probably treated as such by everyone in their lives, and so when they are in the presence of someone new, they RACE to “show off” to that person: this brand new person doesn’t know we were made fun of all through school, that our parents think we are losers, that girls stay away from us. Yay! Someone new to show off to, someone who doesn’t KNOW about us.
Dean and Sam clock it right away and start having fun at the guys’ expense. They play along, in other words. Leading them on, letting them hang themselves. These four actors have so much fun in this scene. There are cross-glances between Sam and Dean, and neither Harry or Ed notice, because they are far too pompous, being ultra-casual about their EMF. I think the key to why the Ghostfacers really work, as a comedic duo, is that they overlay their sheer bumbling amateurish-ness with a pompous “over it” energy. “Yeah, whatever, here’s my EMF, I’m totally over the EMF …” But you know they are NOT “over” the EMF, they think they are the coolest people ever to know how to work an EMF … and yet they try to SEEM casual.
And then there’s the way Ed whips the Ghostfacers business card out at Dean, all while looking away, in a faux display of humility. You just know that Ed is so stoked that they have real business cards. He is NOT “over” his business card. He thinks it is the coolest thing ever to have a business card. But he knows somehow that he has to play it cool, and so he tries, but fails miserably.
Sam glances at the card, and sees the HellhoundsLair.com URL. “You guys run that website,” says Sam.
Harry explains to Sam and Dean what an EMF is. He can barely contain his sense of his own awesome expertise. Padalecki has a hard time not laughing out loud, and some of his reaction shots make him look absolutely to-die-for gorgeous. Sam can be pretty grim. He’s intense. When he loosens up, when he finds something funny … sparks seem to fly right off him into the camera.
Ed admits he has never seen a ghost, but he did see a vase fall off a table once all on its own. He whispers portentously, “Something like that changes you.”
Sam has this long silent reaction shot to that. He’s “acting,” too. He’s acting like, “Wow. You guys have really been in the shit, haven’t you. I am impressed.” He can barely keep a straight face, but he’s giving it his best shot.
5th scene
No interior library scene in this episode, which makes me sad – although they will MORE than make up for it with the motel room decor we see later. But the library is indeed mentioned, and as a librarian’s daughter, I am always pleased to see the underlying invisible message of “PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE IMPORTANT AND USEFUL.” God bless you Supernatural for that alone! We see Sam emerging from the public library, meeting up with Dean on the sidewalk. And now we are treated to another great “walk and talk” scene, done in one, where the brothers walk down the sidewalk, turn the corner, and come to the Impala. I love the “walk and talks”.
It’s a short scene, exposition, where they both fill each other in on what they learned. Boring, essentially, so the “walk and talk” format gives it some energy, life, spontaneity.
Sam didn’t find any record of a farmer named Mordecai who killed his family. And Dean didn’t find anything else out from the cops. Too bad there wasn’t an Amy to sleep with. Dean is annoyed by the whole thing. Clearly they are being “pranked” by the Ghostfacers, in some way; they probably made up the whole thing on their stupid website. Enough. He’s ready to go out drinking.
Dean gets into the Impala, and Sam hangs back, eager as a little kid, so you know a prank is coming. Dean turns on the car, and the radio blasts some blaring un-Dean-like salsa tune, the windshield wipers flip into action, and Dean hurries to rectify the situation, and he is so pissed off that, again, a certain phrase comes to mind.
Sam is laughing and triumphant, Dean is unamused, calling the prank “weak” (I agree with him there).
6th scene
Listen. If you sing the praises of a haunted house, it will draw teens from the Tri-State Area, that’s just a fact of life. So now we get another scene like the teaser, where three kids approach the Hell House in the dead of night. They had been playing Truth or Dare, and one of the kids (Agam Darshi) picked “Dare”. She has to go into the house and retrieve one of the Gross Jars from the basement. If she fails to come through on her Dare, then she has to make out with the boy. Again, with the sexual harassment, with a guy wanting to TRICK a girl into kissing him. Boys, just learn proper Courtship Techniques, seriously, you’ll have much better luck.
But it is eloquent that the young lady would rather go into Mordecai’s Hell House and look for a Creepy Jar than make out with that boy.
As she walks through the house, we hear her breathing coming high and panicked through the darkness. There’s some kind of slashing sound in another room. Instead of, you know, running for her damn life, she instead calls out, nervously, “Hello?”
Because, of course, this is how people behave in horror films. Like idiots.
Jill goes down into the cellar, with a closeup of dried-up chicken feet hanging from a rafter in the foreground. Charming. Down into the root cellar she goes, with the Gross Stuff in Jars looming in between us and her. It looks like nasty month-old sweet and sour chicken. The scene is dark as hell. Poor dumb Jill goes and picks up a jar and then, startled by a loud sound, drops the jar which shatters at her feet. She’s hyperventilating now, and suddenly, behind her, we see a towering figure. What happens next is very effective, and very chilling. The figure attacks and she starts screaming: and as she continues to scream, she is hoisted up into the air, a rope around her throat, feet dangling. Worse, and I say this as a glasses-wearing chronically-blind human, her glasses fall off, land on the floor, and we see Moredecai’s big-ass foot crush them. It’s Hitchcockian, that shot. It made me think of this famous shot from Strangers On a Train (1951).
Her death is really lingered on, her screams are heart-rending, and it looks absolutely terrible. Yes, she is an idiot, but she didn’t deserve this.
Damn you, Ghostfacers.
Damn you, Thurston Howell III.
7th scene
The following early morning, we are treated to a stunning swooping crane shot outside the Hell House. There are cop cars, EMTs, and mud. Sam and Dean approach into the frame, as a body is being removed from the house on a gurney. The color scheme is brutal, blacks and greys and browns. The Winchester palette. They ask a guy what happened and he says that the cops think the girl hung herself. Nobody understands it. She was just given a full ride to the University of Texas, she was a straight A student. It makes no sense.
I love the following moment, because it shows their professionalism, professionalism being the willingness to admit they don’t know everything. Sam asks Dean (and it is so interesting how often he defers to his brother, looking to him, saying, “What now?”, asking him to weigh in: Yes, they are partners, but the hierarchy is clear, with Dean on the top – at least at this stage). Sam asks Dean, “What do you think?”
Dean looks at Sam, with no annoyance, no ego, nothing but openness. “I think maybe we missed something,” he says.
Nice.
Back to the crane shot of the house, which then blends into the same angle, same scene, only a night-time setting. Time has passed. Mist is rolling in. Crime scene tape is across the rickety porch, a cop car sits in the mud, its lights swirling. But the activity has slowed down. The crane pulls down to reveal Sam and Dean crouched in the bushes nearby, hiding from the meandering patrolman with a flashlight. The way they both are filmed, in total darkness, with light touching off their profiles, shows great confidence. Some of that has been lost in later seasons, when the light brightened, got colorful, cheesier, music video-ish. Now, I’m not interested in complaining, at least not as a default stance. People who only know how to complain are boring. At least to me. I’ll certainly mention things I don’t like, in episodes old and new. The show is good enough to be able to “take” criticism, the thing is not a “house of cards” that will tumble if looked at critically. Even when I’m reading a review of something I LOVE, I want to see that critical faculty to still be in operation. Otherwise I lose trust. Hell, I’m a critic. People sometimes pay me to write what I think about things. I like to analyze, pick apart. I’m not trying to “ruin anyone’s fun” by pointing out when something doesn’t work for me. I also love to celebrate, I love that most of all, but I’ll call it like I see it.
That being said, what I do want to point out is that the darkness of the first season is something else, man, and more striking the more I look for it – it’s so bold, and confident, in terms of tone and mood. It is a Mission Statement, an Artistic Statement, it is letting the audience know “This is who we are and what we are interested in.” Supernatural cast these two incredibly good-looking lead actors, and in these early seasons, they had the total confidence to NOT light them in a flattering way. Or, hell, to not light them at all! Lighting like that helps us focus on the REAL story, and helps to tell us what is REALLY important. It’s also super-artistic, but that’s just gravy.
Yes, these guys are gorgeous. And we’re going to get a big ol’ beefcake shot of Sam’s hot body later in the episode (a rarity, it’s really the only example of its kind) … but the show isn’t ABOUT that. Their looks are downplayed, if anything, treated as a casual given, and they have fun with messing with our expectations and implicating us the audience in what we want to see. But I appreciate a good-looking man filmed in a way that treats him casually, almost like his looks are incidental. It’s very very interesting.
Like this.
Basically, shots like that leave us wanting more. It also plunges us into THEIR world, which is very dark, as opposed to our own. Nothing is ever lit fully. You can’t ever see the full picture in one fell swoop.
Dean’s attention is drawn by a familiar sound off down the lane, the buzzing of an EMF, and suddenly they both see the Ghostfacers, stumbling along in the dark towards the crime scene. The Dilettante Brigade is at it again and are going to mess up their plans of somehow breaking into that crime scene. The Ghostfacers are bickering, holding flashlights and cameras and EMFs.
Dean, acting on instinct, calls out in a booming voice, “WHO YA GONNA CALL?” (Hilarious.) The cops, startled, whirl around and see the Ghostfacers standing there. A chase ensues, which gives Sam and Dean a chance to run across the mud and into the house undetected. Once inside, the brothers are all business, moving quickly, they don’t have much time, pulling shotguns out of the duffel bag. Framed in the dim blue light coming in from outside. It’s beautiful.
Dean takes one look at the mysterious symbol on the wall again, and explodes: “Where have I seen that symbol before. It’s killing me.”
They go down into the cellar. Dean picks up one of the Gross Jars and says, “Hey, Sam. I dare you to take a swig of this.” The maturity level between them is always on the verge of careening into pre-pubescence. This is how it is with siblings. Sam, again, doesn’t laugh it off and says, almost pissed, “What would I do that for?” (As my Dad used to say to us kids when we were getting all pissed off at each other: “DON’T TAKE THE BAIT.”) And Dean’s reply is: “I double dare you.”
I love it when the brothers are not cool, but instead are annoying and immature. It’s also fun because they are in the scariest atmosphere possible, with chicken feet and gross jars and a dead girl was just found here, and their blood is barely racing. They are so used to it that “I double dare you” is a totally normal thing to say in that environment.
Then, of course, their brotherly affection is interrupted by a sound coming from the root cellar, so they both race over and charge in, in that SWAT team way they have, wielding flashlights as well as guns in a way that makes you know that they have been doing this since their hands were so little they barely fit around the flashlight. It’s second nature. Also, again: you can barely see what the hell is going on. Great look and feel.
SPN does a lot of fun stuff with the “reveals” of monsters. Monsters wait off-camera, and the camera swoops around Sam or Dean, going first this way, so you see nothing is behind them, and then THAT way, when suddenly the thing is revealed. So the monster has to step in place in time for the camera to pick up on it. It’s gritty, dirty, low-tech “special effects” and they use it all the time, and I always love it. Repetitive? Yes. But it becomes a style thing, and it’s great. The technique gives the illusion that something is materializing out of nothing, when really all it is is an actor wearing scary makeup hiding off-screen and then stepping onto their mark right before the camera swoops back.
Their eyes are drawn to a little cupboard nearby, and Sam reaches out to open the door. A tiny flood of rats scamper out, freaking and grossing Dean out.
“I hate rats.”
“Would you rather it was a ghost?”
“Yes.”
I just re-read 1984, and Winston Smith’s horror of rats, and how it is used against him in interrogation came to mind. Hide your weaknesses. They make you vulnerable.
And then in a really cool and scary shot, we suddenly sense a figure looming up behind Sam, and we see the gleam of a raised axe over Sam’s head. But it really does seem that Mordecai has come from out of nowhere. The brothers turn, see the dark figure, and blast him repeatedly with rock salt. The cops, chasing down the Ghostbusters outside, are clearly wearing ear-plugs. But Mordecai doesn’t respond the way they expect, he persists, before de-materializing. Freaked, Sam says, “What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt?”
They race for the stairs, in total darkness, and are attacked again. You can’t even see Mordecai. The brothers fall, and the shelf of Gross Jars collapses, glass shattering and gross sweet-and-sour sauce splashing everywhere. The rats will have a field day. Dean finds himself knocked on the floor, all as Sam basically Gladiators it up with Mordecai, who is clearly THERE, has some corporeality, his axe can actually hit things, in other words. Sam, while fighting, shouts at Dean to get out of there (badass). We see Mordecai, he’s wearing overalls, he’s a big lumbering presence.
Meanwhile, outside, the Ghostfacers have returned, having lost the cops. They tiptoe towards the house, like guys playing Paintball, with all their heavy-duty manly gear. Harry wants to go, but Ed convinces him to stay. “Let’s find our center …” suggests Ed. It’s that kind of ridiculous line that makes me love the Ghostfacers.
And they reach the front porch just in time to see Sam and Dean come barreling on out, running for their lives. Ed and Harry stare into the darkness of the door, and they murmur:
“Sweet Lord …”
“… of the Rings …”
And then take off, running, straight into the arms of the cops. I mean, honestly, guys.
8th scene
Motel Room. My favorite yet, although the disco room is yet to come. They’re in Texas. And so of course it is a Western-themed motel. Here is the exterior. Brill.
But it’s the interior that is the masterpiece.
First of all, there’s a statue of an armadillo on the desk where Sam is working. There are long-horns on the walls. The walls look like they’re faux adobe, like it’s an old 19th century mission or something. Dean is on the bed in the background, scribbling the symbol that is driving him crazy onto a notepad emblazoned with the motel’s logo and address. Sam is busy at his laptop.
“I thought the legend says Mordecai only went after chicks,” says Dean.
“It does.”
“Well, that explains why he went after you, but why me,” says Dean.
Dean, don’t ask questions if you might not like the answers.
Sam, again, “takes the bait”, and is openly annoyed at the dumb-bell teasing.
Sam goes over the legend again, reading HellhoundsLair.com. Speaking of which, the web design is awesome.
It was an actual website for a bit.
Sam noticed that Mordecai had slit wrists, which doesn’t make sense to him, because supposedly Mordecai hung himself. Dean noticed the same thing. Glad you guys are on top of it, because during that scene I didn’t notice jack-squat. Sam also doesn’t understand Mordecai swinging an axe around. What does that have to do with the original legend? If Sam knows anything, he knows ghosts. This is a “Lore” scene, essentially, with the brothers thinking/contemplating/throwing-around-theories. I love these scenes, repetitive as they can be, boring as they may be. I love them because it features THOUGHT, and thinking is the most interesting thing you can see an actor do on camera. Supernatural allows for that, allows for confusion/chaos to be built into the process. We see them working shit out. Researching, discussing, Nerd Nerd Nerd, the both of them.
They both are disturbed by the same things. Yes, they are getting on one another’s nerves in this episode. It’s almost like the whole Dad-Chicago thing has destabilized them, once again. They have both regressed. To, essentially, slap-fights in the back seat of the car as Dad drove gloomily up front. “Hell House” is a classic “one-off” episode, but there is continuity, and by that I mean, emotional continuity. Because, look out, the next episode is “Something Wicked”, with our first extended flashback to childhood. It’s almost like in “Hell House” they are already approaching that emotional landscape by bickering and pranking and snarking. Dad isn’t there to say, “Boys, knock it off.” And then, even more interesting, the episode after “Something Wicked” is “Provenance,” and, to my mind, that is the most mature we have seen either of them yet, at least in connection with one another. It features one of my favorite scenes in the first season. So after “Something Wicked,” with its deep and disturbing glimpse of the shit Dean took as a child … we move into “Provenance,” where he steps up to the plate and actually tells Sam that he’s worried about him, and it’s okay, no big deal, but maybe you should have some fun. It’s okay to have fun. It’s extremely grown-up. So maybe we need to get the regression out of the way before we can even GET to that point in “Provenance”. I like that small Arc.
Sam discovers a new post on the Hellhounds site, where someone has added new information, saying that Mordecai was actually a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Dean is listening but he’s also staring at the symbol on the notepad, as though by his sheer force of thought he can figure out what that damn symbol is. Suddenly he sits up. The light has dawned.
9th scene
Back to the record store. Thurston Howell III is now slumped over his counter, drinking coffee, an eloquent change in poster/demeanor from the first scene in the store, where he insouciantly and casually tried to dominate the intimidating “journalists” who were asking him questions. Now he looks like shit. Sam and Dean enter, and we see them in the background, looming black silhouettes, doom for anyone who encounters them. Dean pulls an album out of the rack, moving towards Thurston. Sam is looking at Dean, which makes me think that Dean did not enlighten Sam on what he was thinking during the drive over. Dean just needed to check the album first, to make sure before he went in for the kill.
Dean says, “Craig, I realized the symbol didn’t mean anything. It’s the logo for Blue Oyster Cult.” Thurston’s back is to Dean, his head down.
I love how Ackles plays this next bit. He knows he’s in the presence of the guy who caused all of this: Dean isn’t sure how it works yet, he’s not sure how it happened, but he knows that the Morrissey punk is the author of it. Instead of being threatening or serious, he plays it very softly, with a smile. It makes him seem terrifying.
“You into BOC, Craig? Or just scaring the hell out of people?”
Gentle smile. “So why don’t you tell us about that house. Without lying through your ass this time.” Another small smile, a little shrug.
Scary.
Padalecki and Ackles are tall. Directors have talked about how difficult it is to frame them, especially with co-stars who, usually, are over a FOOT shorter than these guys. Most actors are short. The tall ones are rare, the Vince Vaughns, the Leo DiCaprios. Most actors are in the 5’8″, 5’9″ range. In comparison, Padalecki and Ackles are towering monsters. In a shot like this, the height discrepancy is used to great effect.
So Thurston finally comes clean, and tells the story of how he and his cousin Dana, on break from college, thought it would be funny to trick out that abandoned house as though it was some kind of Satanist weird place. As he speaks, we get a fragmented flashback section, an effect Supernatural doesn’t use often. It’s very well done. We see glimpses of Thurston and his cousin nailing up the chickens feet, and spray-painting symbols on the walls and floors, symbols from her theology textbooks and, oh yeah, albums as well.
It was just a joke. But then “those two guys” (Harry and Ed) put it on their website and “it took on a life of its own.”
Now that “that girl” is actually dead, Thurston is freaked out and upset, pleading his case: “We made the whole thing up, I swear!”
Sam and Dean don’t belabor the point, and don’t punish him any more than he is punishing himself. They turn to walk out, and Dean whispers to Sam, “If none of it was real, then how do you explain Mordecai?”
10th scene
The sound of the shower going in the Adobe-Western-Long-Horn-Cattle-Bullshit Motel, and Dean enters the room, calling out, “I’M BACK.”
Armadillo? Check.
God bless you, set dressers. Look at that detail.
Dean goes over to Sam’s bag and takes out a packet of itching powder, a wicked grin on his face. Meanwhile, Sam calls out from the shower that he now has a theory about what is going on. He thinks they’re maybe dealing with a Tulpa. And, well, this is really interesting! So then I Googled “thought forms” and all kinds of stuff came up, and I like this painting especially, by Mario Martinez.
We’ve heard of “thought forms” before, in “Skin,”, in that weird moment at the Impala when Dean-shifter corrects Sam’s memory of something. “It was a thought-form, a psychic projection, remember?” I like the thought of thought forms, and like the thought of some collective concentration actually having the ability to change reality. It’s a nice concept anyway, and there’s a lot of interesting art out there trying to capture what that actually means or would look like.
Naked Sam babbles from the shower about “Tulpas” and “thought forms”, all as Dean, giggling to himself, sprinkles itching powder into Sam’s Underoos. Suddenly, Sam emerges from the shower, surprising Dean, and surprising us, due to his sheer Mr. America Naked Splendor. Sam’s talking about a “thought form” but all I can think about is his ACTUAL form, and how the hell Sam would have a body like that, living on French Fries and never working out. BUT NO MATTER.
The Sam-in-Towel moment stands out in the Supernatural lexicon. It’s actually funny, in that way: it’s a bone (so to speak, a big fat BONE) thrown to the howling masses who want to see more skin. They gave us Dean’s “skin” in “Skin,” although that was gross and disturbing, and we also saw his sculpted pewter-armor breast-plates in “Route 666”, but in general, both of these guys wear T-shirts, flannel shirts, and jackets. Buried in layers. We’ve discussed the vulnerability before, their sense of their own vulnerability. You don’t really relax if you do this kind of work. It would be like living in combat conditions. Like Jeremy Renner in Hurt Locker, sitting on his bunk wearing his Bomb-Defusing Helmet, even when he’s off-duty and wasted. Best to be ready at all times. High alert.
Sam’s body is not almost over-the-top. It is totally over-the-top.
It reminds me of the hilarious moment Emma Stone has when Ryan Gosling first takes off his shirt in Crazy Stupid Love. She stares at him and exclaims, “Fuck! Seriously? It’s like you’re photoshopped!”
It also reminds me of a funny joint interview the two actors gave in the early days of the show. They both were talking about how they were afraid of getting fat one day, and that that was the main reason they worked out, and Ackles joked to Padalecki, “Yeah, but how many fat 7 foot tall people do YOU know?” Meaning: I have more to worry about than you.
Anyway, it is a hell of a body, and this is the first time we’ve seen it.
Think about the difference, though, in how Sam’s nakedness is handled as opposed to Dean’s. It feels deliberate. It is an obvious response to what both actors are bringing to their respective roles. It’s specific, in other words. Like I said before, it can’t be denied that the guys are both hotties. (My preferred male body-type, though, the one that makes my personal knees go weak is the barrel-chested beefy body of Benny the Vampire. Rowr!) HOWEVER. The show treats Sam and Dean’s bodies casually as well as subtextually, using their looks to make comments on all kinds of things, character, motivation, psychology, masculinity and how it operates/is responded to by others, how it is internalized, etc. This isn’t Bay Watch, in other words. Nothing against Bay Watch. Reveling in the human form is one of the main engines of Art, from the very beginning. And I’ve spoken before about the absolute BULL SHIT LIE of “women aren’t visual,” a lie perpetuated by men, horrified at the thought of being objectified the way they objectify women: God forbid I should be judged on my appearance, therefore: women aren’t visually stimulated, yeah, that’s it. Supernatural, which is mainly run by men, created by men, directed mainly by men, knows that that is bull shit, and I very much appreciate that. And the women (except for one or two glitches which are glaring ERRORS and totally stand out) are treated in an even-handed way. We aren’t in a world where male status is propped up by the objectification of women. That’s not what’s going on here, at all.
But it is interesting, very interesting, that Sam is the one presented in an extremely beefcake way in this shot. Dean is NEVER presented this way. EVER. He’s presented in a more stereotypically feminine way, cheesecake as opposed to beefcake. (If you want to hear a discussion about this distinction, check out this conversation I had with my friend Mitchell about Burt Reynolds – scroll down). When we see Dean’s naked form, we are confronted with vulnerability, rather than strength. But here, Sam in a towel, all we get is how big and strong the guy is. Formidable. Male. Impenetrable. That is never what we’re getting with Dean, as beautiful as he is. My response to Dean’s semi-nakedness is usually, “Okay, you’re too vulnerable right now. Put a shirt on.”
This gets into thorny issues of biology, and our reactions to biology. Sometimes I think the whole damn sexism issue comes down to the simplest possible biological answer, deeper even than the fact that women are the life-bearers, and somehow in our fucked-up universe that becomes a reason to shame womankind. But I think that the fact that women’s sex organs are hidden, and you can’t see them … is the main crux. People fear what they can’t see. They are drawn to what they can’t see. They hate it, they love it, they want more of it. Who the hell do women think they are, hiding stuff like that? I’m speaking simply and crudely because I honestly believe that a lot of this really is that simple and crude. Women already have “ownership” over their own bodies, merely because what they’ve got going on can’t be seen, while men’s stuff is just out there, there’s no mystery to it. (I don’t agree with that, by the way, I just think that’s the attitude. I love men’s bodies and I love that they’re different from mine, and I love how we fit together, when it works out, and Vive la difference!)
In the immortal words of Mr. Rogers, “Everybody’s fancy, everybody’s fine.”
On another biological level, and again, I’m just gonna speak frankly, because that’s how I roll: Having an entryway into your body is vulnerable. Having nothing “sticking out” makes you seem … vulnerable, open to attack. So, taken to its logical conclusion, Cave Man thinks: “If I can ‘get in there,’ then ANYONE can ‘get in there’ and me don’t like that.” So, over millennia, the thought develops that it is BETTER to have something “sticking out”, fully visible, than having something “inside” that you can’t see. I mean, it’s ridiculous and stupid, but you can see why that mindset would develop to such a toxic degree. And so in the most misogynistic minds: the fact that you can’t see inside a woman is ENRAGING. Woman must not be allowed to think she has ownership of that interior landscape. It’s OURS, even though … we can’t see it, goldurn her.
What all of this has to do with Supernatural, a show with two leads who are both men, is fascinating, subversive, and sometimes disturbing. It actually asks us to question some of these things, because these hottie McHotties are being treated as women are normally treated, first of all, but it’s also commenting on that treatment. In ways that are sometimes invisible, but that doesn’t mean they are not conscious.
My sense is that Dean is filmed, subtly, as though he is a woman (or, he is filmed in the way that women are normally filmed), as though whatever he’s “got going on” can’t really be seen or known … and so it’s mysterious, in some way … Mystery may be enraging, on some level, but it is also power. The person who is mysterious is powerful, as well as vulnerable. How we maneuver that is what brings us interesting behavior. Even a woman standing there stark naked is still mysterious because of all that biological stuff I just talked about. She’s still withholding. She can’t help herself. It’s how her body is made. I’ve talked about the power in withholding, especially when it comes to Dean. (I think I mainly covered it in the Route 666 re-cap, but it comes up again and again.) He is not being coy or manipulative with his withholding. He ACTUALLY is protecting himself, he ACTUALLY feels the threat out there, and withholds in order to maintain some control over his own narrative. So he takes off his clothes and you feel somewhat protective of him. This is definitely all because of Ackles’ sensitivity to this character and who Dean is, both publicly and privately. This very subtle hard-to-explain thing is not written into the script, not explicitly. This is the writers picking up on his own personal vibe, which is distinct from Padalecki’s. Not all bodies are the same, not all beautiful bodies carry the same weight/meaning. That’s what makes this different from Bay Watch. Even when Dean is in the shower, we never see him presented like this. Besides, Dean can wear as many layers as he wants: his sexuality is still so apparent, so “out there”, that everyone reacts to it. He could wear a freakin’ head-to-toe puffy snowsuit and people would still be all up in his grill, trying to get in there. Same with the joke about how Marilyn Monroe could literally wear a potato sack, and would still be desirable. It’s not about the clothes she wore. It’s about her strong sexual persona, her Erotic Muse-like qualities. She had fun with that idea in one notorious and playful photo shoot.
So Dean, no matter what he is wearing, naked or clothed, seems vulnerable.
But Sam? He’s powerful, he’s strong, he’s got a hell of a body, and it costs him nothing to show it to us like this. His nakedness actually reinforces his status, his strength.
But it costs Dean something to reveal himself like that.
And maybe that’s the ultimate difference.
I mean, honestly, the moment of Sam in the towel lasts 2 seconds and I just wrote 5 paragraphs about it. Also, look at the horse’s ass on the wall behind Sam. I love this show.
Sam, completely unaware of his own Beefcake status, still babbling on about Tibetan thought-forms and Tulpas, stands there, and Dean, nearly busted on the itching-powder prank, says, “Yeah, I know what a thought-form is … come on, get dressed, let’s go eat.”
11th scene
Sam and Dean pick up their food at the window at Rodeo Drive, the teen hangout in the town. Sam, properly covering up his Awesome Beefcake self, is now dealing with another problem. His ass and balls are itching like crazy. Padalecki is so funny in this scene, which is strictly a “Lore” scene (and you know I love them), where Sam fills Dean in on what a Tulpa is and the history of the Tibetan monks and how 20 monks concentrating made a Golem manifest, so maybe the Hellhounds site, with its thousands of viewers, is making Mordecai manifest.
But all along, Sam is dealing with his itching ass-crack, and Dean is watching his brother’s discomfort intensify and it is delighting him to no end. There are moments when true moments of sheer anxiety flood over Sam’s face – it’s like he wants to rip off his clothes and start clawing at his own balls, and he doesn’t understand what’s happening to him.
Dean says, “Wait a minute, are you telling me that just because people believe in Mordecai, he’s real?”
Which, again, is a very interesting concept to introduce, especially on a fantastical show like this one. It’s treated pretty off-handedly in “Hell House,” and is really the first time it’s come up, although it will appear again and again. Sam, still fidgeting, shows Dean one of the pictures taken from the wall of Mordecai’s house, and says that he figured out it is a “Tibetan spirit sigil.”
I adore sigils.
Sam’s wallpaper looks like it might be the Death Star.
In between Sam’s explanations about Tulpa, we get sudden involuntary twinges from him like this one.
The twitches undercut the fascinating nature of the conversation: that Tulpas take on a life of their own, once they are manifested. They are responding to the concentrated belief of whatever is focusing on them, so just taking down the website would not do any good. Dean has an idea, and gets up to go – they have to go find a copy store. Sam, hurrying to put his laptop in his bag, suddenly can’t contain himself anymore and says, “Man, I think I’m allergic to our soap,” and Dean bursts into laughter.
(In the gag reel, Padalecki improvises a line during one take, saying: “I think that midget stripper gave me Herpes.” And Ackles, of course, completely loses it. Ah, good times, good times.)
Sam suddenly realizes he’s been pranked, and his freakin’ UNDERWEAR has been messed with, and he is ENRAGED, so much so that he calls out after Dean, “You’re a friggin’ JERK,” which may very well be my favorite line in the entire episode.
12th scene
The Ghostfacers cramped headquarters, in a trailer park. The two sit in their trailer, website pulled up, and they are bickering. Sam and Dean all over again. Harry is refusing to go back into the Hell House, it’s too scary, it’s too dangerous, and Ed is convincing him that they MUST, because it is what they DO.
The buttons and pins. So tragic. So cute.
These actors RUN with their roles. It feels somewhat improvised in a beautiful way.
“Ed, I’ve never seen a real ghost before, like an actual ghost, an apparition …” He’s panicking. Ed assures him that this, right here, Mordecai, is their ticket to fame and “sex ……. with girls.” Very important to clarify that last point. Harry reminds Ed, in that pompous way that manages to be both annoying and hilarious, that their motto is “WWBD.” Ed nods, right, right. “What would Buffy do?”
Awesome, considering how influenced by Buffy creator Eric Kripke was in creating Supernatural. But Harry collapses in insecurity, murmuring, “Ed, she’s stronger than me …” and Ed leans in saying soothingly, “It’s okay …”
This is so Sam and Dean, through the biggest Goofball Fun-House mirror imaginable.
At that moment, a banging knock comes on the door, scaring the two Ghostfacers out of their minds. We hear Dean say, “We hear you in there, guys. Come on out.” I love Ed’s comment: “It’s them.” So those two random giants with the gorgeous hair and faces are now “them”, they loom large as competitors … they have something Ed and Harry don’t … confidence in themselves? At least in comparison.
We get a quick glimpse of all of the stickers on the trailer door. The level of detail in this show is a “thing of beauty” and “a joy forever.”
Ed takes the lead, saying, “We’re a little bit busy right now,” but his words are undercut by the camera angle highlighting the pink plastic flamingo.
Ed and Harry spent the night in jail, because of Sam and Dean is their attitude, and they have no intention of shutting down their website. No way. Sam is a little bit more patient with the Ghostfacers than Dean is, which is putting it mildly. Sam at least is granting the Ghostfacers human dignity, at least TRYING to talk to them like they are equals. Dean is having none of that. “Losers. Nerds. Shut down your damn website, you’re fucking up our shit,” is the basic subtext. Ed pontificates, in that droning pompous voice he takes on when he is feeling most nervous, “We have an obligation to our fans,” and Dean helpfully says, “Well, I have an obligation to kick both of your asses.” Sam intervenes.
“We could tell them that thing about Mordecai,” says Sam, “but they’re still not gonna help us.” So Sam and Dean, having planted the seed like the Smarty-Itching-Powder pants that they are, start off to the Impala, with Ed and Harry now trailing behind them begging for more information. “What? What is it about Mordecai? What new thing? Guys, wait …”
So everyone is lying here. Ed and Harry promise to shut down the website if they get this “new information”. And Sam and Dean are lying about the new information in the first place. They went to that damn copy store (Sam probably ducking into the restroom to take off his itchy drawers and splash water on his inflamed nut-sack) and created a 1930s death certificate which clearly states that Mordecai shot himself and, to this day, is still terrified of shotguns and if you shoot him with a such-and-such with such-and-such bullets, you can actually kill the ghost.
Dean, you get an A+ on your plan.
Harry can barely take in this new information. He is so excited. He turns and RACES back to the trailer, without even saying goodbye, and Ed follows, trying to keep his pace slow, muttering to himself, “Harry. Slow your roll.”
13th scene
Mission accomplished, Sam and Dean go to a local cafe for lunch. Hanging over their table is a little wooden-wall hanging of a fisherman holding a giant fish, and if you pull the cord, his mouth opens and he cackles repeatedly. It’s a terrible sound, and Dean can’t stop pulling the cord. Sam is busy on the laptop, and Dean just keeps pulling the cord to hear the laugh again and again.
Again. This is Dean when he encounters things he finds entertaining:
Of course, how annoying would it be to be in that cafe at that moment? It’s like Dean is a toddler who hasn’t been trained on how to behave in public. The fisherman’s laugh dies down, and boom, Dean pulls the cord again. To him, the 20th time hearing it is just as awesome as the first. Finally, Sam reaches out, and grabs the cord, saying in a murderous tone, “If you pull that string one more time, I’m gonna kill you.”
Sam lets go of the string. They sit there for a second, and then, of course, Dean, deadpan, reaches out and pulls the string again. It makes me roar with laughter. Maybe because I don’t blame him. I would have pulled the string again too, no matter how sternly I was admonished. As a matter of fact, the sterner the admonishment, the higher the likelihood that I would reach out and pull that string again.
Because … it bears repeating …
Dean says, still laughing, “You need more laughter in your life … You’re way too tense.”
Of course this line is the set-up for the following moment, which is Prank #4, where Sam gets Dean back for assaulting his ass-crack. But it goes out further than that. It goes into “Provenance”, and Dean’s whole advice-scene in that episode. Sam is already a serious guy. Nothing could make him less serious. But having a little fun is okay. It won’t make you any less smart or serious. It won’t be a betrayal to Jess’ memory. And maybe you can be serious without being cranky. This is something I really really relate to. It’s practically biological as a matter of fact, it’s how I’m built and how I’ve developed: I need to be HELPED to relax. And relaxing is as important to me as Hard Work. Even more so, because the hard work comes naturally, I will drive myself into the ground with no prompting, I don’t need to be pushed or reminded to work hard. But relaxation … Hmmm. Not so much. The Tough Guy I dated whom I mention often, the Dean Winchester type, down to traumatic past-event and sincerely macho behavior (old-timers on my site know him as Window Boy, because he used to break into my apartment at 3 o’clock in the morning – story at that link) – anyway, he would say stuff to me all the time like, “Okay, sister, you need to settle down. Like, right now. And relax. Jesus Christ.” He would call me “sister” in this tough-guy voice and it was never insulting. He just saw that I was rattling away, totally tense, and Planet of the Apes was on, so why don’t you just shut up and enjoy the movie, and “by the way, gimme some sugar”, holding out his cheek for me to kiss. Taking the potential sting out of his words. I never felt stung by it. I came to rely on it. Oh. Okay. I’m supposed to relax. Oh. Okay. Sorry. “Sorry. I’m relaxing now,” I would inform him. “Shut up,” he would reply. Best boyfriend ever. His whole THING was…
Sam’s humorlessness, when it starts to take over, drains the joy out of life for him. It is almost as though, at this point, he can’t let joy back in anyway. You can see why it goes that way for him. He’s lost a lot. He’s been forced to choose a life that he doesn’t want. He was forced to give up on the life he wanted. He’s only 23 years old. He’s already heavy with burdens, with “have to’s”, with a sense of obligation. It can make him hunker down, bury himself in research. Avoiding the possibility of joy is bad news. How on earth can anyone manage the hunter job? No wonder they’re all wrecks. In a way, and this will change, but in a way, Dean is the healthiest of all of them, of any of them we have ever met.
Dean is also serious about what he does. But he plays as hard as he works. Whether play looks like taking home the waitress, or repeatedly pulling the string to hear a fisherman’s maniacal laugh … Dean finds things funny, awesome, enjoyable, weird, cool, and embraces these things, eats them up whole. (That has since changed for him, and it’s a huge loss. He wouldn’t pull the string on the little statue now in Season 9. He might not even notice it and its fun-making capabilities. This is character development, growth, change.)
Dean’s observation that Sam is way too tense is ignored by Sam, and it’s treading towards dangerous waters, intimate waters, so Dean visibly backs off of that line of thought. Ed and Harry, like the good dupes they are, posted the “new information” about Mordecai on the website. So the story is now spreading. Sam thinks by “nightfall” they’ll be able to kill the damn thing. They clink beer bottles, and suddenly Dean can’t let go of the beer bottle. Sam has Super-glued his hand to the bottle. Dean is not amused. Sam practically does a spit-take.
The whole prank is pretty prophetic, considering where Dean’s drinking ends up going in later seasons. But still. It’s dumb. Winchester brothers being stupid.
14th scene
My sense of humor is, admittedly, juvenile, but the next scene which opens in the dead of night in the woods outside the Hell House, starts with the dimly heard sound of that cackling fisherman, and it makes me laugh every time I hear it. Because I can just see how it went down. Dean freakin’ lifted the thing off the wall, because he couldn’t bear to be apart from it. Dean already knows he needs “laughter in his life” and the cackling fisherman will give him hours of entertainment and will ride on Sam’s last ever-loving nerve. So the image of Dean shop-lifting that huge thing all as Sam paid the bill makes me so happy. I don’t think they stole it to use as a distraction at the Hell House. I think that idea came on them spontaneously, when they realized they needed to get the cops off patrol. I think Dean stole it originally because he loved it and needed to own it. And that makes me LAUGH.
Two cops patrolling the dark woods come across that cackling statue, sitting all by its lonesome, the sound has led them away from the Hell House. It gives Sam and Dean enough time to break into the house, skulking into the shadows like assassins.
The two make their way through the main room, both of them holding guns and flashlights, and Dean mutters, still pissed, “I barely have any skin left on my palm,” and Sam says, “I’m not touching that line with a 10 foot pole.” Dean walked right into that one. You honestly cannot see a damn thing except what the flashlight beams reveal. It’s incredibly eerie. Dean and Sam swoop through the rooms, tag-teaming one another like a well-oiled SWAT team, backing each other up, taking the lead, it’s hot and efficient.
Then, suddenly, from right behind them, come stupid Ed and Harry, blaring spotlights into their faces. They’re lucky Sam and Dean didn’t full-out blow them away. Everyone is scared by each other, shouting and huffing and puffing.
From down in the cellar comes some noises, metal on metal, bumps. The four guys cluster together, Sam and Dean in front, the Ghostfacers huddling between them. The camera slowly zooms in on that closed door, an ominous directorial choice. You can practically feel Mordecai approaching up those stairs. Suddenly, the door flies open and there he is, a screaming specter, and Sam and Dean shoot at him again and again (thank goodness for local cops wearing ear plugs!) but still, he doesn’t seem to “die”. He dematerializes in a puff of black smoke, but it’s not what Sam and Dean expect. Whatever they were hoping for has not happened. Meanwhile, Ed and Harry are more concerned about whether or not they “got it” on camera. This is how dangerous Dilettantes are. They get themselves killed AND they make work for the professionals. As Ed and Harry huddle over their stupid camera, Mordecai appears off to the side, and smashes the camera to the ground, before vanishing again.
Dean says, “Didn’t you guys post that BS story we gave you?” Ed is so freaked that the term “BS” doesn’t register and he says, “Of course we did but our server crashed.”
Ed and Harry make a break for it and are cornered at the front door by Mordecai. Ed starts screaming at Mordecai “THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU” which absolutely cracks me up. Sam appears and draws away Mordecai’s attention, offering himself up in return. It’s worth it to notice what that looks like when Sam does it, and compare it to when Dean does it (and Dean does it more). Sam is saying the same kinds of words, “Here I am, you sonofabitch,” etc., but it doesn’t look as blatantly sexual from Sam as it does when Dean “presents” himself to the monsters they hunt. Just an “interesting observation in an observationally interesting sort of way.”
Now comes a pretty funny and pretty horrible climax. Mordecai traps Sam up against the wall, his axe up against his chin. Ed and Harry run for their lives, not even staying to help. And Dean, who has no idea what else to do, douses the floor with gasoline and blasts your basic fire-ball at Mordecai, who lets go of Sam. Ad Dean and Sam hustle out of the house, Dean sets the whole damn place on fire.
Nice shot, with the Blue Oyster Cult symbol that started it all in the background.
Moredecai comes stalking through the flames, and he does this awesomely menacing axe twirl. Sam and Dean flee into the woods, Sam shouting, “That’s your solution??” I love Dean’s reply: “Mordecai can’t haunt a house if there’s no house to haunt.” I can’t fault your logic there, dude. But I just love how after all THAT, after the entire episode devoted to figuring out what they are dealing with, all the research, and the Blue Oyster Cult, and the Tibetan monks, and the sigils, after all THAT … when push comes to shove, Dean just burns the house to the ground.
15th scene
Back at the trailer park, Sam and Dean lie in wait for Ed and Harry, who are heard before they are seen, Harry saying, “I’m thinking Mordecai has a high attack bonus …” That feels like an improvised line to me, a lead-in type of line. Either way, it’s super-funny. And Ed’s response is, “God, I have the munchies.” (They are both a little bit stoned, or a lot stoned, at all times.) When they see Sam and Dean, their private energy with one another, which is chatty and stoned and Geek-Ridden, changes again, as self-protection, and they basically swagger past, filled with a sense of their own awesomeness. Ed drawls, “Heyyy, guys …” but barely looks at Sam and Dean as they pass. Meanwhile, you know he is intimidated by them like CRAZY, but damned if he’ll show it to them. So he play-acts, being all, “Yeahhhh, dudebros, what’s up …” It’s so transparent.
Ed and Harry are in the process of moving out of the trailer park and headed to Hollywood, because they got a call from a producer that morning who wants to turn Hell House into a movie. Ed says something about “the trades,” which, God. I hang out with people who sometimes talk about the “trades” and it makes me want to punch someone in the gums. Just say “the paper”, okay? Stop.
Pretending to be a producer from Hollywood is the Ultimate Prank, the Ultimate Payback for what Ed and Harry put them through by getting them into this stupid case in the first place. And it was Sam’s doing. Well done, Sam.
“It’s a little lingo for ya … Anyhoo…” coos Ed, cementing my love for his character.
They drive off, in an enormous swirl of both insecurity and self-importance. Happening at the exact same moment in time. And I love the detail that the pink flamingo is actually owned by them, and they appear to be taking it with them.
Or, who knows, maybe it was part of the trailer park and kidnapping it is the Ghostfacers version of Dean lifting the cackling fisherman out of the diner.
Everyone needs a little laughter in their lives.
Dean and Sam call a truce over the harmless pranks they’ve been pulling (a truce that will last for the next 9 seasons apparently), and then get in the Impala, turn on the radio, Blue Oyster Cult’s “Burnin’ for You” blasting from the speakers, and drive off, in a beautiful slow crane-shot, showing the detailed set dressing and production design of that trailer park.
God is in the details, people, God is in the details. It’s moments like that that helps land Supernatural, an extremely far-fetched show, in a very real and recognizable world.
I noticed that Trey Callaway only wrote this one episode of SPN (just as the Bugs guys only wrote one) – though he’s written many other things. Hats off to him for introducing The Ghostfacers, but this is one of my least-favorite episodes outside of the Ghostfacers interactions. The pranking seems contrived, and a difficult thing to manage without it becoming something that Must Be Done every episode, like an NCIS character needing to drink scotch from a jelly jar or have some odd kind of tea. So they dropped it (into the Multiverse with Cassie and Neil deGrasse Tyson).
There weren’t any times it happened in this episode, but when Dean gets that Nasty Come On from some demon, I flash to Dabney Coleman’s scene in 9 to 5 where Dolly Parton is fantasizing about turning the tables on him and coming on to him – and how confused Dabney looks by the attention. Why me? I just want to come to work, make ends meet, get treated with some dignity. Dean draws the attention in a Dolly-esque way but also has the vibe “I just want to live my life, have some fun (which is made easier by my looks), and stay under the radar.”
Yeah, this is the only one for this writer. I agree: having the pranking contained in one episode is really just revealing too much of the skeleton of the script, if you know what I mean. The whole Monster is a prank, therefore let’s have Sam and Dean prank each other. There are a couple of times the scripts go that way … and thankfully it’s rare, but because of that rarity it also just really stands out when it happens.
And of course, if it had become a “schtick”, something they were obliged to do every episode, it would also stink. It would be too cutesy.
Yeah, Dean is on a low-boil here, not too much sex-stuff going on. No flirting. Maybe the thing with Dad threw him off. He’ll be back in style in Provenance! :)
I love 9 to 5. And that’s a good point. Dean just wants to be able to somehow control what comes at him, and what he gets to share. But then, of course, he bristles when he’s ignored. He’s not used to that either. And he knows he can get what he wants if he flirts. It’s a fascinating dynamic.
And, all things considered: I prefer their normal dynamic without anything added to it, like pranks. The teasing, the humor, the fights, the inside-jokes, the glances – all of that feels very very real. You don’t need to add anything to it to “show” that they are brothers.
Speaking of inside jokes (sorta)… I am completely stymied in terms of an explanation for “Sweet and Low Down” in The Benders. Maybe the song title is just a bad pun on how the Benders view their victims.
I did find out that one of the real Bender’s victims was a neighbor of Charles Ingalls, and that Laura said her dad was one of the vigilantes who searched for them.
I may need to turn in my Alpha Nerd badge.
Mutecypher – Oh, yes, I remember reading some article about the serial killer connection to the Ingalls family (I mean, what???) – but I didn’t know it was the Benders, or didn’t make that connection. No wonder the Benders sounded familiar to me – I wish I could remember where I read the article.
What makes me laugh the most in this ep is the, “Here ya go, Jensen,” in the Rodeo Drive when the guys are getting their morning coffee.
I actually loved the prank war. I thought it all seemed pretty true to their characters, and how they played it was seriously laugh-out-loud funny. I have had interactions with my siblings like the ones in this episode. (Most of the time, I must admit, I’m the Sam to my brother’s Dean, despite the fact that I’m the oldest by ten years. Or maybe because of that fact. Sam and Dean don’t exactly fit typical birth order profiles.) And I can see why it would seem contrived and revealing about the episode plot, especially since it only came up in one episode, but I kind of saw that more in that they were still navigating how to relate to each other as adults, and hadn’t gotten there yet in season 1.
Also, your line about how men and women fit together actually reminded me of a line from Buffy when Anya was propositioning Xander: “It’s ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not . . . interlock.”
Sigh. I still miss Anya.
Natalie – Yeah, I definitely see it as the two guys reverting to childhood – not used to being grown-ups together. Especially after the last episode, where Dad sort of wiped away their adulthood. So here they are, gluing each other’s hands to beer bottles and acting out. They certainly both play it well and have fun with it.
Yeah I agree: there was so much FUN in the first couple of seasons (there was still a little bit of fun like with Doctor BadAsh) and I do miss it. I remember they had fun with Charlie in her episodes too. (Dean’s Braveheart speech interrupted by the Frisbee guy, priceless.)
I enjoy your explanation HOW things are filmed. I thought Jensen Ackles was sort of telegraphing Dean’s vulnerability but now I see, it’s not just HIM it’s the way he is photographed. No matter how Bad ASS he is, he is always vulnerable, like when we get to Devil’s Trap and possessed John is monologuing Sam and Dean gets the demon’s attention back on HIM. They are both held to the walls, Dean is being told his life is crap, he’s vulnerable BUT he comes out swinging and reminds YED that HE killed his two kids (all to protect Sammy).
Of course the Ghostfacers are sad shades of themselves TOO eight seasons later.
I think Dean got angry when John died (telling him he might have to kill Sam; and I have never thought John would sell the Colt, his life, his soul for Sam – that would’ve just been a problem out of the way) and he was crushed when Sam was murdered. He was so crushed. He didn’t get squelched until he came back from the Hell in Season 4.
Or at least remembered about Hell in Season 4; that guy is like at 1/3 in the tank.
I don’t know, I don’t see “fun” as being relegated to the early seasons at all.
and yes – as Eric Kripke observed: Ackles is always coming from a place of vulnerability. Even in fight scenes. It’s why his work looks the way it does. You can’t “fake” vulnerability. If you try, you look like a douche. What we’re seeing there with him is the real deal. And vulnerability can also mean anger, and rage, of course. It’s basically just accessibility to one’s own inner life. Of course, that is the actor’s stock in trade. If you’re gorgeous as hell and can’t access your inner life … you will have a certain kind of career. JA was swinging for the fences … EARLY. He knew he could do that, that that was what he could bring to the role. It’s extremely fully developed, the character, and you didn’t need 5 seasons to get there. For him, it was Now or Never.
Loved this recap, Sheila, made me laugh like a drain all the way through.
This used to be one of the episodes I hated. Hated it so much on first watch that I never rewatched. Particularly hated how the girl dies in the basement and the Ghostfacer bumptious amateurs. However, I braved it a week or so ago and kind of loved it.
Thoughts on rewatching:
I love that the mystery is solved by investigating Lore and a deep knowledge of prog rock album covers.
Best motel room ever, I think – even 9 seasons in, this gets the cup, even over the disco motel. That first glimpse of those wonky-eyed bull heads on the motel door made me laugh helplessly for about 5 minutes. Ditto the horns above the bed as Dean scribbles in the notepad. In fact, everything about that motel room – down to the upholstery on the seat and bed covers is perfect. It should be in a museum, like Julia Child’s kitchen. I hate that this place doesn’t really exist.
The Ghostfacers themselves – I’ve learned to love them. The two actors do insecure douchebags down to a t. ‘Sex …. with girls.’ Keep noticing little things they do – Harry’s final hand gesture by the car cracked me up this time. The sheer amount of crap they cart around in that trailer. And of course they don’t even say thank you for being rescued. Good luck in La-la Land, living the dream.
I don’t mind that the pranking is a one-off, Very Special Episode kind of thing. And you’re so right – the pranks are nothing special, it’s the reactions that are hilarious – JP in particular, when he’s the butt of the joke or getting his revenge. Almost the first line Sam says about it – ‘it always escalates’ – I find so funny, such a parental, prissy tone, such a lot of brotherly history to it. That little hand gesture – ‘I so win’ – after the prank with the car radio, the writhing around in itchy pants … JP doesn’t get to do as much physical humour/clowning as JA, but he’s aces at it.
Sam is Tarzan. Or the top half of a centaur. I think the horse’s ass painting next to him invites you to make the connection.
And is it just me, but we really see the brothers towering over people in this episode – Craig and the GFs barely come up to their shoulders. And, Sheila, what’s your theory about the average height of actors being around 5′ 8″-9″?
Oh my gosh, you are so right – CENTAUR, horse’s ass – you’re amazing. I missed that!!
The contrast between Sam and Dean and how light they travel – all their shit in one bag – and the Ghostfacers – with stuff literally plastered to the front of the trailer – it’s hysterical. Guys, if you’re gonna be “on the road” hunting “ghosts”, then you really should pare down.
“It always escalates.”
hahahaha To WHAT, Sam? You guys are amateurs!
I love his sort of gangly awkward walk in the restaurant where he is trying to get his underwear out of his ass crack. hahahaha Yes, it’s really fun to see JP getting to do physical comedy stuff. He’s just so enormous and imposing – it’s great to lighten that mood a bit and he’s very funny. Thank God. Because Sam could get to be a drip real fast.
And yes, on the Motel Room. I mean, it’s so casually filmed – they don’t make a big deal out of it the way they did with the disco room – It’s just like, BOOM, here we are, with an armadillo in the foreground and giant HORNS on the wall. So so funny, and the brothers don’t even notice it.
// I love that the mystery is solved by investigating Lore and a deep knowledge of prog rock album covers. //
hahahahaha I know. And then, when shit gets hairy, what the hell, screw the Lore, let’s burn the damn house down. Such a funny denouement to me.
I don’t know why most actors are on the short end of the spectrum. It’s not like it’s included in Union rules! It’s certainly easier to film everyone if people are of similar heights, and women are usually petite. It’s just a strange thing. Like Michael Fassbender. I always assumed he was HUGE. Just because of how he was filmed – he seems gigantic in Jane Eyre. But he’s this relatively small lithe guy – I met him at the New York Film Festival and at first glance, I thought, “Who is that 16 year old guy in hi-top sneakers over there?” Not even kidding. He looked almost adolescent.
I should click around and see what theories are out there about this.
I remember our discussion about the Ghostfacers in an earlier post. I am glad you re-visited this episode and found it amusing. The guys are totally annoying but I love how they treat Sam and Dean – and the insecurity they exude but then try to hide with all that pomposity. It is so ridiculous.
and you’re right: that girl’s death in the basement is particularly grisly.
//and you’re right: that girl’s death in the basement is particularly grisly.//
I found it really upsetting and I think that upset leaked out into other aspects of the episode. Either I’ve made my peace with them, or just become hardened to random deaths in grisly basements. I think the latter.
I loved the Ghostfacers episode in Series 9. The actors navigated a difficult role combining douchebaggery and real emotional depth really well. Hats off to them (albeit a hat with superglue that they will never get off their heads without cutting off all their hair.)
// just become hardened to random deaths in grisly basements. //
hahaha I know.
It really is an upsetting death. The glasses on the floor was particularly awful. The vulnerability of that.
I really liked that Season 9 episode too. It was an obvious opportunity to really state, in no uncertain terms, what the problem was with Sam and Dean – but it was also just so good to see them again. “treasure trail” … I am still laughing about that mean line from Dean.
Some ancillary characters just bring out really cool unique things in our lead characters – and the Ghostfacers are like that.
Oh, and in re: the Motel Room:
When my boyfriend and I drove across the country – taking Route 66, by the way, as far as we could take it – we stayed in an old hotel in … God, I can’t remember. Texas, I think. It looked like that Andrew Wyeth painting – wheat fields and a big building in the middle of it with nothing else around. And it had been some pioneer outpost in the Wild West days (and the decor hadn’t changed since) – and apparently someone had been shot in cold blood at the bar, and you could sit in the dead guy’s bar stool.
We were the only occupants of the hotel for the night we stayed there. Very Shining-esque. And the decor was very much like that one in the episode – all Western-themed, with old guns on the walls, and cattle horns.
I have no idea how that place kept running – I mean, it was in the middle of nowhere. Route 66 is awesome.
//apparently someone had been shot in cold blood at the bar, and you could sit in the dead guy’s bar stool.//
Wow, that motel sounds brilliant, in an utterly creepy sort of way.
And re the Ghostfacers Season 9 – I love the unspoken acknowledgement between the GFs and the Winchesters that they are going through the same thing. Harry asking for a lift at the end says it all. The GF partnership truly broken.
As you can probably tell, I’ve done a 180 degree turn on this episode. I love doppelganger episodes now, from brutal Benders to Ghostfacers. It says a lot about the strength of Season 1 that they can do this kind of comedic, almost meta episode and not derail the whole train, but actually let the characters fool about AND set up these long running antagonists who keep popping up in unexpected places. Who knows if the spin-off will turn out to be this robust?
I had the same turn-around with The Benders!
I agree, that the doppelgänger episodes are awesome – great ways to explore Sam and Dean in new ways. I mean, honestly, the whole thing would get soooo repetitive if we weren’t forced to see everything from new angles.
AND we need these comedic episodes! It’s like the Prophet Chuck. I still miss him. He is from such a different universe than Sam and Dean – and yet they are all thrown together. Watching Sam and Dean have to deal with his neurotic muttering to himself and all that … It’s great when these side characters are NOT generic, or just plot-driven – but actually, you know, seem like three-dimensional people. Sam and Dean aren’t the ONLY well-drawn characters in the world of Supernatural. Thank God.
And very true: even in Season 1, when they were still finding their sea-legs, they allowed for comedy. They weren’t so ultra-serious about themselves as a show that they couldn’t “go there”. It’s another kind of Mission Statement, a sort of announcement of intentions: We are going to go to all SORTS of places, not just grim and emotional and pretty-boys-crying places.
More of that whole “confidence” thing I mentioned – Season 1 is slightly up-and-down sometimes, but it feels so confident in itself!
Of course JP’s Herpes ad-lib makes me think of this glorious-ness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy17dtyskyU
“Did I try ….” says the old guy.
I thought that too! But now I think it might just be “Gents”. Then there’s bit when the Ghostfacers are fiddling with their EMF and Travis says “whoa, that’s 2.8 mG” but I always hear it as “A.J.”
erm, that was in response to Terri.
Sure you’re not remembering a different movie Helena?
Erm, that’s the one!
Getting mixed up between reality and porn again.
yeah poor Violet Beauregarde’s brother had to get through college the hard way.
hahahaha
Since I upgraded my WordPress, the threads are all wonky. Sorry! I’m not sure how to fix it.
Great and funny write-up Sheila! Who would have thought that the comic tone they step towards with this episode could be so greatly explored in years to come? We get another glimpse of it in Simon Said and then in Tall Tales — BAM! It’s nowhere near fully-formed (I agree Helena that girl dying is really distressing and glasses nooooooooooooo) but it’s definitely something different.
This episode is so repetitively gorgeous. All the location shooting with the dramatic Texan fog and mist. All that driving in the twilight and talking in dusky and dim light on their amazing faces. Dean’s eyelashes caught my attention a lot this episode. We’re getting towards Season 2 here. I’d love for Chris Long to come back.
Watching their dynamic is so heartbreaking in light of the recent season. Sam pulling the string and with his high-pitched laugh….he looks so young and beautiful.
Since you are being frank Sheila I will admit that Sam with his shirt off is sepctacular doesn’t do much for me here in comparison to Sam of more recent seasons. Sam hit peak hotness in season 7 and has just Not Backed Down.
I love that squelching (there’s your mud Helena!) as they walk up to the gorgeous house. I miss this texture. I was so happy when they were hanging out at midnight in the park with Crowley a couple of episodes I don’t know if they made the hell house exterior from scratch — certainly looks like they set it on fire for real — but it’s incredible. Those utility poles are definitely single-use. What a job.
I was recently trying to think of movies Dean wouldn’t watch. Like, I bet you he would love Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility. I bet he would even like The Fountain.
Harry’s torch is HILARIOUS. That thing could illuminate the Mariana Trench. And Sam’s little “wow” breath of air at the story of the vase falling over kills me. He really does try to give them a little dignity while mocking them. So does the episode: the great risk here is that the two hot jocks make fun of the little slightly effeminate guys but it luckily breaks down along lines of professionalism instead of masculinity and Buckley and Wester find some sincerity in their ridiculousness.
Jessie –
// Sam hit peak hotness in season 7 and has just Not Backed Down. //
Yup. The baby-face is gone and woah, boy, slow down with your forehead and your tall-ness and your overall confidence with yourself. It’s an assault!
// Sam’s little “wow” breath of air at the story of the vase falling over kills me. //
Yes! I love his reactions, in particular, in that scene. So funny.
I like your point about how it doesn’t become Hot Guys making fun of Not-Hot Guys – would not be attractive or funny at all. These Ghostfacer guys are wearing night goggles – which (actually) isn’t a bad idea, considering the work – but yeah, Sam and Dean treat them as unprofessional amateurs – not lording over them their own clear sex appeal. The show does a good job with sort of down-playing the obvious Star Quality of the lead guys – it really NEEDS that. It would be insufferable otherwise.
And then how the Ghostfacers just keep … and keep … appearing. I’m not a big found footage fan but I love the next Ghostfacers episode so much – one of the main reasons being that it flat out admits that Sam and Dean, on another network, would swear like sailors. Every other word has to be bleeped out – I love when they are both standing in the pitch-black, you can’t see them – and yet the little skulls pop up in what would be their mouth-areas, bleeping out the swears. Hilarious.
And the “gay love” bit is handled actually humorously, soft-pedaling it, reminding me of that sobbing father in Heathers, wailing at the pulpit, “I love my dead gay son!”
So ridiculous, but somehow also not mean-spirited. That poor intern.
I know what you mean about comparing the dynamic here to what is going on now. It’s just incredible, the transformation – and tragic. They both seem so innocent here.
Jessie – and yeah, it definitely looks like they built at least a shell of a house and then actually burned it down. The interior was probably a set of some kind, or one of those old actual abandoned houses they filmed in.
But yeah: great atmosphere, great look and feel. That sky over the house. The glorious mud!
it’s breaking so weirdly too, allowing threading some times and not others.
I don’t understand it.
//I was recently trying to think of movies Dean wouldn’t watch. //
OK. This is a good game. Let me think.
Off the top of my head, Bela Tarr’s later works might just defeat him.
Watched Paths of Glory last night on the big screen – wow. And Dean would be totally into that.
Dean watching Bela Tarr … hahahahahahaha
I think he loves romantic comedies. And definitely something like Sense and Sensibility would be right up his alley!
He probably would not want to watch movies about old people. You’d have to force him. Trip to Bountiful would not be on his Must-See list. He would be so freaked out by Amour that he wouldnt be able to get through the whole thing. The elderly are scarier than any horror movie.
What about Nymphomaniac – a yes or a no? (not seen it, btw)
Uhmm … Let’s see.
I think he would find it totally upsetting. It might even piss him off.
… which is obviously a valid reaction.
I personally didn’t find it upsetting, I thought it was kind of goofy and funny, in many parts.
And the final moment (which I won’t reveal) … is a brutal moment showing the confusion surrounding consent.
Now THAT pissed me off (as I think it was meant to).
OF COURSE I noticed the mud. Fantastic. ;-)
ha ha, yes – Bela Tarr is a definite no. What I think he really couldn’t handle are those grim naturalist family dramas about abuse — The War Zone, Once Were Warriors, etc. And maybe movies about kids running away to go to college.
Right, those movies wouldn’t provide escape. Too close to home.
The swearing, YES! Bless them for that confirmation. Ghostfacers has some great moments. Corbett’s death is horrific, one of the most brutal things the show’s done. I loved Corbett. The guy who has a crush on Dean in Yellow Fever always reminds me of him.
That whole upper-body situation Jared has going on these days is transportive.
Corbett was wonderful, that open and yet shy face, his enthusiasm. Yes, like the blushing guy in the sheriff’s office!
It was horrible what happened to him. And the show validated that crush – undercutting it then by that ridiculous line about “gay love piercing the veil of death” or whatever (“I love my dead gay son!!”) – but that’s obviously just the way Ed would talk, because he’s pompous when he’s nervous.
It was so sad.
My thoughts, too – without having seen it.
And to return to a bit of a hobby horse, he would find In the mood for Love baffling – why in god’s name doesn’t Tony Leung make a move on Maggie? What’s wrong with a bit of fun?
Right. Stop mooning about. You want her? Go get her.
Helena, RE the spinoff – I was having the same thoughts – Sam and Dean were such robust, well formed characters right out of the gate, whereas I thought the characters in Blood lines were rather one dimensional. I was thinking the problem was not so much with the writing but in the acting. Juxtaposing season 1 with Bloodlines does Bloodlines no favors. You can’t say that it’s an age and inexperience issue because look how young JA & JP are in season 1. I IMDB’d most of the Bloodlines cast, most of them having been working fairly regularly. It’s a talent issue.
It’s also a script issue. There was no “subtext” in that spinoff show – it was all “text”. All plot. Everyone speaking their subtext in the lines: “Here is where I am coming from, exactly, and here is what I want, exactly.” Whereas from the get-go, Supernatural was far more about its subtext than its text – prioritizing what WASN’T being said as opposed to what WAS – and good actors always do better with that kind of material.
There’s a reason why when John Wayne got a new script, he promptly sat down and attempted to cut 75% of his lines. He was no dummy.
In the closed captioning they spell it “gents” . I started turning on closed captioning back when I began watching Prime Suspect and other British shows. I used to have difficulty discerning some of the words. My ear is much better tuned now that I watch more British programs but it is still my default viewing mode.
Sheila, Great point about the script you articulated my feelings much better than I could. I’m learning a lot from your discussion, I’m getting quite an education here and I find myself watching TV very differently. I would get a feeling of wrongness before, didn’t know why, just that it was bad. I’ve worked at a community arts center for the last 7 years, you’d a thunk I would’ve picked something up ;). We have a community theatre program and a children’s theatre program. I should have learned more than the difference between theatre and theater.
Kim – hey, thanks!!
A lot of this stuff is pretty esoteric and much of it only comes from first-hand experience. There really is nothing worse than trying to make a script work that has zero sub-text. Sometimes you just can’t. So you throw up your hands and go, “Oh well, I’m in a stinker this time.”
If you can say something with a look, a gesture, a pause … as opposed to language … always much much better. There are no exceptions.
Supernatural, from the get-go, really gave these guys so much room – between the lines – and so the characters seem so real!
Of course if they had gotten sucky actors, none of it would have mattered – but obviously JA and JP just raced to fill in all that subtext. You can feel it in the pilot. I was hooked immediately – know what I mean? I didn’t have to warm up to the show, or “hang in there” until it found its sea legs – it felt pretty rich immediately.
I never would have been hooked in merely on the plot-line. I don’t care about monsters. Ha.
I think the shows that really “hit” often have fascinating plots, of course – like Breaking Bad, an obvious example – but underneath, there’s all that unspoken stuff, the way people CAN’T talk to each other – subtext … I think that’s one of the main reasons it landed so damn hard.
I agree completely re: Sam and Dean swearing. I was so excited when I saw the found footage Ghostfacers episode, because I kept thinking “This is how these guys ACTUALLY talk.” It makes me wish the CW would just let them bleep out the swear words in regular episodes – although the creative scene cuts on the “sh” and “fu” sounds are fun, too. It reminds me of when the first X-Files movie came out, and William B. Davis said something in an interview about hoping the movie would get an R rating, because CSM was not a man who would go around saying “dammit.” I have found myself thinking the exact same thing about Sam and Dean (especially Dean). I’ve taken to mentally substituting “motherfucker” anytime Dean calls someone a douche.
Also, re: movies, much like his tutu action justification for seeing Black Swan twice, I was DYING in the Titanic episode when Dean said the movie wasn’t that bad because, hey, Kate Winslet’s rack. Titanic was well over 3 hours long, and Kate’s girls are featured for, what, maybe 5 minutes, total? Sure, Dean. THAT’S why you liked the movie.
I think Dean would actually be a great person to go to the movies with, though. Whatever he’s watching, he’s going to be INTO it, and he definitely wouldn’t be one of those annoying people going, “What just happened? Why did he say that? What are they going to do now?”
// Titanic was well over 3 hours long, and Kate’s girls are featured for, what, maybe 5 minutes, total? Sure, Dean. THAT’S why you liked the movie. //
hahahahaha
Yeah, I wrote about that somewhere else, I think. He was totally caught up in every second of Titanic and deep down he knows it.
I also love Dean holding the ballet slippers, looking at them longingly. Dying….
Jensen’s improvisation in the Looney Tunes episode:
“Best wife ever.”
“What killed her husband.”
“Who gives a –”
They were talking on the commentary track about how close they had to edit that sequence because it comes so quickly. So real, though. Hilarious.
Heavens, I realised I’ve never watched the Corbett/Ghostfacers episode. So I just have. It must be Christmas!
Yay!!
Poor Corbett!
Swearing Sam and Dean – it’s the moment when you can’t even see them it’s so dark and yet they’re still inserting little skulls where their mouths would be – it makes me laugh every time.
I am actually watching the Looney Toons episode right now! Had no idea that was an improvisation!
I need to get my hands on the DVDs somehow. Sometimes it doesn’t bother me to be a starving grad student, but this is not one of those times. I need money to get my bonus features!
Yes, he improvised that line, and Misha and Jared BURST into laughter in the take, obviously – so they had to really shave it off so that none of the swear word was included, because the roaring laughter came so quickly afterwards. So funny.
My favorite line, in perhaps the entire damn series, is Sam’s “Do you have bigger cups?” from Clap Your Hands. It’s not just the line, and the visual (although that is funny too) but HOW he says it: totally flat, totally curious, no snark behind it. He is sincerely asking: “Do you have bigger cups?” I literally almost fell off my chair laughing when I first saw that moment.
And that was improvised by Padalecki in a rehearsal and they kept it. KUDOS, JP.
Both these guys are great improvisers.
And yay to the swearing. Wish there was more of it. Just bleeping something makes it seem obscene by default. There’s a game show on the radio here where they bleep the lyrics to a perfectly innocuous song and turn it into a torrent of utter filth. I love it.
Ha! Right, the bleeps just call attention to themselves. You’re like, “Wow. So every other word is a swear, then. Got it.”
Swearing & pranks- when in the Army I was outnumbered about 20 to 1 by guys, the favorite adjective/adverb/noun/verb was Fu** and all it’s variations. It took me many years to clean up my act, I still drop f-bombs on occasion. SPN is a very masculine world, of course they swear, a lot! The pranks are pretty believable to me as well, they probably could’ve included pranking in some of the later episodes and it wouldn’t have been outside the box to me. I’ve seen grown men, serious men, in the middle of war, screw around and engage in some of the most outrageous & juvenile locker room behavior (ex.: fart contests.) It’s amazing what guys will do during down time to cut the tension. I’m just amazed the pranks were so tame. I’ve heard the cast and crew tend to prank on the set – wonder if this episode inspired them? It’s hard to make me laugh out loud, but that whole itching powder scene was just genius, Sam squirming but trying to remain serious and Dean playing straight faced through the entire conversation. Genius performance. You have to wonder how many takes that scene required.
//I’ve seen grown men, serious men, in the middle of war, screw around and engage in some of the most outrageous & juvenile locker room behavior (ex.: fart contests.) //
Ha. Exactly! And I’m with you: the pranks are so tame! And both guys are so TOUCHY about it, which is so funny.
Speaking of what men do when they’re together: Julia Roberts has some very funny stories about what it was like to be the only woman, really, on the set of Ocean’s 11. The pranks were so out of control that every time she came home to her hotel room at night, she would do a check of all the closets and look under her bed, etc., because the guys (i.e. Brad Pitt and Clooney and all the rest) were repeatedly breaking into her room and booby-trapping her closet, and putting fake snakes in her bed, and all the rest. They would Superglue the phone, so she would try to pick it up to order Room Service and be like, “umm … guys?”
The image of Julia Roberts walking into her own hotel room, terrified of being attacked by something in her own closet – and the image of Pitt and Clooney tiptoeing around in there wreaking havoc – is so funny to me.
Oh the mud, love the mud! I miss the mud, and the blues and greys- so beautiful. And loved the swearing, so perfectly jarring. I remember thinking, “of course they would need to be bleeped out of the ‘real’ world they are INAPPROPRIATE. Being appropriate always seemed like something important to Sam, he wanted to be able to be at a proper Thanksgiving meal…to pass as it were. Now that seems much less important and I can’t tell if that is in a sad “I give up, this world is not for me” kind of way or just a dimension of his grown up splendour.
Movies Dean would love: All About My Mother (too on the nose?) Tie Me Up Tie Me Down… or is that just where my mind goes…. speaking of which. I really love the doppelgänger episodes. Particularly Benders, the whole bondage motif, Dean cuffed to the car, Sam in the cage, the idea of being bound to your family for so many reasons. Such lovely work.
And I love the Ghostfacers because they force us to see Sam and Dean in the context of our desensitized, sterile reality t.v. world. The scene in the house where Sam and Dean
are listening to the Ghostfacers blather on and Dean is standing just behind them, with his eyes on the exists and I just get this sense of how large and intimidating they are. They are choosing not to do damage to these amateurs. And I love that perspective. Seeing their ‘otherness’ or ‘outlawness’.
By the way, Jessie, your graphic additions are impressive.
All About My Mother. Ha! Yeah, he might be like, “This is BULL SHIT” because it’s too close to home.
I know what you mean about Sam wanting to “pass” as normal – how important that is to him (or was). (“So …. playing footsie with Brace-Face is a trophy moment for you?” Dean. So mean. So hilarious.) I’ve said it before that as far as Dean comes over the seasons, as much as he changes – Sam’s transformation is really the more radical one. Sam REALLY has to “let go” of more things than Dean does – because Sam was the one who could see a “way out” and had actually experienced it. In a way, though, who Sam is now … I just find him to be so complete, so himself … maybe the experience with Amelia helped with that. I’m in the minority in that I really liked Amelia – flaws and all. And by “like” I don’t mean she was a “nice” character, or I “approved” of her for Sam – because I just don’t relate to the characters that way. I “liked” her because of how she fit into the “Story of Sam” and what it revealed about how far he had come. Amelia was rude, a mess, all over the place, conflicted … and he loved her just like that. That’s very grown-up. It also shows how much of a mess HE was at that point. Perfection is an illusion anyway. I loved that the writers made Sam fall in love with such a blatantly UN-perfect person (just as all of us are not perfect). I certainly don’t think that that was a relationship built to last – but his commitment to it rang really really true for me. Sam is at the point now where the “white picket fence” thing is vanished into the past. He couldn’t fit into that if he tried, and he doesn’t really want to. But someone who is flailing about, trying to make sense of life, drinking too much, hanging out in a grubby motel room, hiding from her past? He gets THAT.
Anyway, that’s a side issue.
// I really love the doppelgänger episodes. Particularly Benders, the whole bondage motif, Dean cuffed to the car, Sam in the cage, the idea of being bound to your family for so many reasons. Such lovely work. //
Yes!! A really powerful extended metaphor.
// they force us to see Sam and Dean in the context of our desensitized, sterile reality t.v. world. //
I like that observation a lot. Very good.
// They are choosing not to do damage to these amateurs. //
Yes! They certainly will prank the hell out of them – but they recognize that the Ghostfacers are relatively harmless.
The wonderful motel room- I had thought maybe it was a TEXAS room in tribute for the two stars of the show both from that state. Was this the first time they were in Texas?
As a Brit, I really relish Crowley’s accent as it’s unusual to come across British accents in US tv which aren’t artificially tweaked, or downright strange (Daphne in cheers, case in point). You can hear actual Crowleys in London, a voice hovering between the mid-Atlantic, posh estuarine and soupcon of Bob Hoskins.
Helena – Would you say that most British accents in American television are of the posh variety? (Reminds me of Eddie Izzard’s funny bit about how American cast British as the bad guys “because of the Revolutionary war.” So the Death Star is filled with Brits saying, “It’s the rebels, sir … they-ah he-ah.”
Oh man, that comment was in response to Kim’s comment about close captioning – way upthread.
Helena, I’ve always wondered if British actors tweak their accents for American TV since I never have any trouble decipering what they say. It was only in shows where they are speaking to other British actors that I had any difficulty.
I’m just guessing but I would guess that a huge part of actor training in England is getting rid of your regional accent – or at least being able to do a variety of accents.
The same is true in America – it’s good to be able to do a Southern accent, a Kansas accent, a New York accent – but it’s good also to be able to come from a neutral place (what they used to call the “mid Atlantic” accent – which is what everyone was doing in movies in the 30s, 40s). My friend Farran, the Self-Styled Siren, did a great post about the mid-Atlantic accent – let me see if I can find it.
Rhode Island has a very very strong accent. Akin to a New York accent. Much of what we did in vocal classes in college was learning to get rid of it, or at least go in and out of it – to be able to choose when to do it.
Like JP and JA who consciously got rid of their Texas twangs. They both say that it comes out when they’re exhausted.
Here’s Farran’s piece – really interesting! http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com/2011/08/drowning-in-mid-atlantic.html
On armadillos – this is just an aside – when I was in jr. high school one of my friends had a purse made out of an armadillo. The hide was tanned, it was basically shaped liked an American football and even had the damn head on it. It smelled awful.
The armadillo in the motel room just cracked me up. I hadn’t thought about that purse in years.
I’m so sorry – the threading is all screwed up. I don’t know what to do. I realize I am in charge here, but I don’t know what to do. I’ll ask around.
//So the Death Star is filled with Brits saying, “It’s the rebels, sir … they-ah he-ah.”//
Eddie Izzard actually talks with a posh public school drawl – so he should know what he’s talking about. And nothing speaks of colonial oppression like a Brit sipping tea, little finger waving in the air, as the mob bays outside. Or maybe it’s all Alan Rickman’s fault. You have to understand, that kind of posh accent evokes BLIND FURY in most Brits, never mind red blooded Americans.
In reality, I don’t watch enough current American TV to know if there are more posh Brits than formerly. Plus, accent and class is a very slippery concept in the UK . Crowley definitely isn’t a ‘posh’ character – like the angel Balthasar, who does talk with a very posh accent (softened with a tiny bit of mid-Atlantic so the Americans can understand him.) I’d say Crowley affects the classlessness of the successful Londoner who wishes to hide his true origins, talks ‘posh Estuarine,’ veering between suave mid Atlantic, RP and snarling Sarf London as the mood takes him.
I think his character is meant to be from Scotland? Many people who designate themselves Scottish nonetheless talk with incredibly ‘posh’ English accents – they’ll have been to school in England, have parents with English accents, etc. But god forbid you call them English.
Awesome information. Love it.
I remember when Trainspotting came out in the US and there were some scenes that had to be subtitled.
And certainly, there are some places on the west of Ireland where, yes, everyone is speaking English – but I’d be like, “I’m so sorry, could you repeat what you just said?” because I just couldn’t hear it, the accent was so strong.
// You have to understand, that kind of posh accent evokes BLIND FURY in most Brits //
Oh, I bet!
And if they work in America, then more often than not, they’ll have to affect it. Kind of like all of the German Jews who fled Germany in the 30s, came to Hollywood, and ended up playing Nazis.
//Like JP and JA who consciously got rid of their Texas twangs.//
Ha, that was my question – is the Winchesters accent really Kansas – is there a Kansas accent, or a Lawrence accent or what?
Kim, I think I’ve answered some of your question below. And I agree with Sheila – much drama training is about training the voice to speak in an accent other than your own. And the emphasis used to be entirely on ridding yourself of your regional accent and learning to ‘talk properly.’ – like the Queen, or at least like Lawrence Olivier. Around the sixties, regional accents became ‘fashionable’ – it wasn’t deemed a social embarassment to talk with your own accent, quite the opposite. What is a British accent now? Only the Queen talks like the Queen, and even she doesn’t talk like she did 50 years ago. There is RP – received pronunciation – but hardly anyone at the BBC speaks in that voice any longer. There is a ‘British’ accent that hovers around the South East, but it’s a Protean thing, forever changing and composed of different, often theoretically irreconcilable elements. If anything, its preferred mode is downwardly mobile. A truly posh accent? Only a handful of people talk like that and they only talk to themselves, not the likes of me.
However, to answer your question, I do think that many actors in American TV talk with a British accent that has been subtly, or not so subtly modified for American ears. It can take on either a bit of a mid-Atlantic twang or an exaggerated Dick van Dyck quality. And God forbid someone tries to speak with a non London region accent – again, I cite poor Daphne as a case in point. As I said, Crowley’s voice hits a nice point between authenticity, as in not made up for American ears, and the kind of character he is, a shifty, lying, conniving, amoral, charming bastard.
In re: Kansas:
A Kansas accent is very specific. It is not a Southern drawl – it has a hard “r” to it – unmistakable and hard kind of sound (I love it). I have been in a couple of William Inge plays, and so you really need to get the Kansas sound down for those plays. Even “Southern accent” isn’t accurate – because there are so many different versions of it, depending on the region. I know we’ve discussed this before, in comparison to England’s plethora of regional accents.
Neither Sam nor Dean speak with a Kansas accent, of course – but that would make sense since they didn’t really grow up there. They grew up all over, like “military brats”.
But Texas? Now that’s a strong accent too. You’d really have to work to get rid of it!
// Only the Queen talks like the Queen, and even she doesn’t talk like she did 50 years ago. //
Hugh Grant came and spoke at my school and covered the whole accent thing, in terms of actor-training. He was very funny about it. He talked about how Renee Zellweger developed her accent for “Bridget Jones” – he said it ended up “bang on” but at the first read-through “she sounded like the Queen Mum, or like she had a stroke.”
hahaha
//He talked about how Renee Zellweger developed her accent for “Bridget Jones”//
It really was good, very tight, and incredibly posh – the kind of posh a middle class girl gets when Daddy sends her to an expensive school.
Hugh Grant came to your school! Btw, have you ever heard Hugh Grant talk in an accent other than the one he uses in Four Weddings and A Funeral – so much for versatility. Or if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Yes! He was hilarious and so self-deprecating that he could barely tolerate being interviewed about his work. But he was lovely with us students – treated us like peers. Almost afraid of us. But he was great!
He said some very interesting things about accents – aware of how “posh” his accent was, and he never felt the need to change it or try to be versatile, since he kept getting cast in the same kinds of roles, so why bother. I wanted to cheer, “GO, YOU!” He has never played an American, and that’s deliberate on his part. He said something so fascinating: “My context is so entirely British. I wouldn’t know how to improvise as an American.”
So interesting, I thought!
There’s a feeling out there that British people (or Australians, or New Zealanders, or basically ANYONE) are better at accents than Americans – and I actually find that to be incorrect. Although sometimes, yes, you listen to an American try to be British (or, worse, Irish) and you WINCE.
But Russell Crowe’s American accent has always been terrible – except in LA Confidential – but even there, it was more “I’ve watched a lot of Al Pacino movies” than “this is what a cop in LA in the 40s would sound like.” Now I like Russell Crowe but I think he gets a pass on his accents from credulous inferiority-complex-minded Americans. Same with Ewan McGregor. His American accents are always AWFUL. All he does is make the “r”s hard, and then hope we buy it. He is an actor I adore – I am not talking about how talented he is or whatever. I get why everyone wants to come and work in America and go for the brass ring of Hollywood. But come on. At least TRY to get the accents right.
Cate Blanchett can “pass” as an American – and I thought her best work, actually, was in that movie where she played a deep Southerner – from Alabama maybe? Or Louisiana? – who was a psychic – the title escapes me. I had no idea she was not American when I saw that film. Never would have guessed.
You can often catch JA and JP out on the word again when it becomes agin. It happens this episode iirc, it’s super cute.
Everyone: so sorry about the thread issue!! Just do the best you can, I’ll see if I can figure out why they were changed … without my consent. :)
Carry on! (said in my best “posh” British accent)
//Neither Sam nor Dean speak with a Kansas accent, of course //
D’oh. Of course, makes sense. So what kind of accent do they have? How would an actor decide what kind of voice/accent to give someone who’s travelled all over?
You go with your basic un-accented voice. It’s the “neutral” voice. The 21st century version of “mid-Atlantic”. Which is basically what JA and JP sound like. In off-the-cuff interviews, you can often hear the Texas come out – the “y’all”s, etc., and it’s like, “Holy shit, you boys really did get rid of that sound for real!”
Someone like Jim Beaver as Bobby has an accent with some residue of hard-ness of that Mid-West regionalism – because his character stayed put in one place mostly. (Another way I love SPN – is that everyone has different voices.)
I always thought John Winchester and Mary in those flashbacks should have had Kansas twangs, but again, you can get too precious about these things. You don’t want accents to call attention to themselves.
That was one of the reasons I loved Benny too. That New Orleans drawl – so specific!
Elvis’ Tennessee accent was so strong and chewy in his early years that he sounds like he’s rolling marbles coated in tobacco around in his mouth. I love it. Within a year of him becoming famous, much of it had disappeared – with just a wisp of it remaining, an echo – He was never mid-Atlantic, there was always a whisper of the South about him – but definitely not what you hear on the tapes from 1954/1955, when boy, it’s strong. But even later, in the 60s, 70s, in private, with his friends, his wife, whatever – he’d record sing-alongs around the piano, and conversations with his friends, and there it is again, the strong chewy Tennessee accent. He was able to control it, go in and out of it.
JP and JA probably hang out in Texas with their families and fall right back into drawling.
//That was one of the reasons I loved Benny too. That New Orleans drawl – so specific!//
Ah, the lovely Benny. You know, with that voice he should have got himself a job as a night time dj – that voice rolling out of your radio through the small hours … perfect. Might have saved him from post-Purgatory despair.
Yeah, it’s a really good voice – so unique and like nobody else on the show. He should totally be a late-night radio show host. His voice had such a gentle feel to it, which was great, in contrast to … you know. Vampire.
And his beefy barrel-chested body from another era. A Robert Mitchum body!
Crazily unintelligible accent award goes to Brad Pitt in Snatch. I can’t watch that movie without giggling.
That one’s deliberately unintelligible, though!
And yes – very funny!!
Thank you for clearing up the misheard line. I will now associate the line with JP’s “Gents-In-Shackles” tweet.
//JP and JA probably hang out in Texas with their families and fall right back into drawling// Probably right after the the 1st beer. It certainly happens to me!
Thanks Sheila, I loved that article, I book marked it. I’m glad she mentioned one of my all time favorite stars – Cary Grant – One of my favorite movies, “Arsenic and Old Lace” the accents in that movie. Few actors today could carry off the snap and pace of the dialog in that movie and be totally in character. I think something has been lost in modern film making. I love how some of these conversations digress. And thanks Helena – I too love the smarmy, dastardly dude that is Crowely. Cheers.
The Cate Blanchett movie was “The Gift.” I enjoyed the movie, though there were a couple of times that I thought Keanu Reeves was going to grow a Snidely Whiplash mustache and start twirling it.
Jeeze, the comments trail really is f’ed up.
And Mickey Rourke. Oh yeah!
Mutecypher – this thread thing is annoying. I know. Sorry.
Yes! The Gift! Thanks! I’m not a big Cate Blanchett fan, but I really liked her in that.
Kim – my pleasure in re: Farran’s link! She’s awesome! Cary Grant is the best there is, the best there ever will be!
Like my friend Mitchell said once, “If 80 years later, you’re still saying, ‘He’s the next Cary Grant,’ then guess what – there is no next Cary Grant. There’s only him.”
Speaking of doppelgängers: the new film “The Double”, with Jesse Eisenberg, is pretty damn great. An adaptation of Dostoevsky’s story. It really does capture the true horror of the Dostoevsky original. Of what it would be like to have another you, and a more successful you at that, circulating around.
Highly recommended!
Loving the accent discussion. Very interesting! I don’t have the best ear for accents (my hearing isn’t 100%) and often can’t tell if they are bad unless they are VERY bad. I’ve often read complaints about the fake-Southern accents in The Walking Dead, but they don’t sound that jarring to me. Of course, I’m Canadian, so I have a different reference point.
And I have to ask, are the Canadian accents that noticeable on the Canadian actors in SPN and other Vancouver filmed shows? I’ve read recaps/reviews by a few different critics and commenters who point them out. These same sources also complained about Benny’s accent (a Canadian trying to do a New Orleans accent! How terrible!). I wouldn’t be surprised if they stand out to non-Canadians—our “neutral accent” is similar enough to the American “neutral” that I would guess most Canadian actors don’t make the effort to change it.
(I’ve been out of town for a few days and am trying to catch up on the discussion. My cat is crawling all over me while I type this–how dare I leave her?!–so I apologize in advance for my typos!)
Hi, May!
The only time I clock a “Canadian” accent is with that very specific American-North-Midwest sound – which I also recognize from my friends who hail from Winnipeg. I am not sure what you would call that accent. We down here in the States call it “they talk like they talk in Fargo.” :)
The “o” sound in particular, and the intonation. It’s very specific.
But I’m not familiar with the variations of Canadian accents!
Knowing some folks from “N’awlins”, I thought Benny’s accent was very good.
It’s not necessary for an accent to be perfect! I would say it is way more important to get the rhythm of it right, than the actual sounds. If you have the precise sounds but miss the rhythm, then you got nothing! Benny had a great Louisiana rhythm!
//But I’m not familiar with the variations of Canadian accents! //
First a disclaimer: I am not an expert on Canadiana or Canadian accents! I can only speak from personal experience.
I don’t think Canada has nearly as many variations as in America. It’s a big country, but we have a small population. I’m aware of the obvious ones: The East Coast, Newfoundland, Quebec, Native. That “Fargo” accent is certainly more pronounced in the Prairie provinces (in the middle of the country)—I never believed Canadians sounded like the stereotype until I heard people from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba (Winnipeg) talk!
I have noticed the big difference is that “o”—to a Canadian, Americans have more of an “a” sound (sorry sounds like “sari” sort of thing). At least, Americans in the North.
//It’s not necessary for an accent to be perfect! I would say it is way more important to get the rhythm of it right, than the actual sounds. If you have the precise sounds but miss the rhythm, then you got nothing! //
Agreed! People forget that not everyone living in the same area has the exact same accent. People move. Or have family & friends from outside that affect their accent. Or they just don’t sound like everyone else. It happens in real life all the time.
I sometimes think that, like the SPN “bad writing” criticism, it becomes a talking point, rather than an actual reflection of what is going on in any given film/episode.
RE: the Death Star = British accents. Everyone know that Space Nazis are British! Just like the ancient Romans. (I really noticed this when all the Romans in The Eagle had American accents—which I’m assuming was done purposefully.)
and clearly all Irish people sound like Frosted Lucky Charms!
One of the hardest accents on the planet – rarely attempted – is the Boston accent. My entire family hails from there, my Dad had a Boston accent, I grew up surrounded by it. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who hail from there, did it awesomely in Good Will Hunting – like, that’s actually what it sounds like – but when people try to imitate it – I usually wince. Perhaps to those who didn’t grow up with it it’s not as bad.
Also, like your observations about the prairie accent: people tend to think the Boston accent itself is an exaggeration – but no, people actually talk like that!!
Holly Hunter actually did an okay one in Once Around – and she is one of those odd birds who actually did not get rid of her regional accent when she became an actress. So I didn’t mind her Boston accent in Once Around – it wasn’t perfect, but she got the feel of it.
and Mickey Rourke did a pretty good Northern Irish accent in that movie with Bob Hoskins – the name escapes me. People who didn’t know what they were talking about said it was a bad accent – but that’s only because they think all Irish people sound like Frosted Lucky Charms. The Belfast accent is its own thing – with a totally different rhythm – it goes DOWN at the end of sentences – where if you listen to people from Dublin, the inflection goes UP at the end of sentences – and I thought he did a fine job.
Speaking of Mickey Rourke … I changed my wallpaper on my blog recently, so he just popped into my head.
Prayer for the Dying! That’s the one!
//Everyone know that Space Nazis are British! //
Which is rather odd when you consider the Brits were on the opposite side to the actual, you know, real Nazis.
I know. It makes no sense. Except that we do have an inferiority complex about you guys. :)
//Except that we do have an inferiority complex about you guys. :)//
It’s the funny way we talk, you know. Has that effect ;-)
Sheila, I could watch Cary Grant all day.
Me too! My favorite actor ever.
//Which is rather odd when you consider the Brits were on the opposite side to the actual, you know, real Nazis.//
What do facts have to to with anything ;P
George Lucas must have had Revolutionary War stuff in mind when making Star Wars. Off the top of my head, the only heroic character with a British accent I can think of Obi-Wan. Lucas filmed in England, so he dubbed American voices over many of the actors playing Rebel forces.
(Look at Wedge, who was played by Denis Lawson—Ewan McGregor’s uncle—but doesn’t use his natural Scottish accent. Hell, I think he was dubbed over in A New Hope.)
//and clearly all Irish people sound like Frosted Lucky Charms!//
You mean they don’t? Simpsons lied to me!
Oh my God, that Simpsons episode.
//One of the hardest accents on the planet – rarely attempted – is the Boston accent.// Ha, I lived west of Boston for 5 1/2 years and I could never do it! It’s all that dropping of r’s in the middle and adding them to the end. But I can tell when people are doing it badly.
It is just the weirdest most unattractive (and yet awesome) accent ever. I hear it and immediately am warmed to my very cockles, because that’s my family’s voice!
“Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd …”
The best was when we recently had Jon Papelbon on the Sox – and the way his name is said in Boston accent was just too awesome – and there was one local commercial during his reign on the Sox where a fan said, in full Boston accent:
“With Jawnathin Pawpelbawn, we’ll be unstawpable!”
My siblings and I still say that to one another whenever we get excited about anything.
“So I got offered a new position at work and a huge raise comes along with it!”
“Congratualations!! With Jawnathin Pawpelbawn, we’ll be unstawpable!”
I just happened to pop over here because I just read that Supernatural Bloodlines wasn’t picked up to series. I guess Sam & Dean will just have to clean up Chicago in season 11 or 12.
I’m sad for the actors involved. That’s a lot of work to not get picked up. A lot of hopes and dreams. :(
So yeah, methinks though they will drop the whole Chicago is Overrun with Monsters thing and we’ll all just move on as though it never happened!
//Also, like your observations about the prairie accent: people tend to think the Boston accent itself is an exaggeration – but no, people actually talk like that!!//
Yes. Many of my friends/family and I have always protested the “aboot” stereotype (“We don’t say ‘aboot’!”), but after hearing people from the Prairies, I could see where that idea would come from. Also, people who mock or point out accents tend to exaggerate them, so to native speakers they sound ridiculous.
I’ve probably heard more people mocking or putting on a Boston accent than those who genuinely have one…very confusing!
Oh. And Lucas also dubbed male voices over, or cut out entirely, the female rebel fighter pilots!
Well, THAT makes perfect sense – because George Lucas himself did not want any “jiggling in the Empire”.
Oh, George.
That’s too bad :(
It didn’t seem very promising. But, I’ve seen a few terrible pilots (or first seasons) on otherwise great shows.
They probably will forget the whole monsters run Chicago thing. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a character or two maybe popped up later. We will be 10 seasons in and they’ve killed off almost everyone else!
HA! Yeah. I love Star Wars. I really do. But man, sometimes…*sigh*
I’m intrigued by your comment about not being a big Cate Blanchett fan – especially in light of your comment about not being a big Kevin Spacey fan in your “Now: In the Wings on A World Stage” review. I knew you weren’t a Kevin fan based upon your disappointment with his casting in “The Shipping News.”
I’m trying to find common elements in their acting and not coming up with anything.
I’ve really liked Cate in just about everything she does – though her Galadriel in LOTR seems like she’s trying to swallow whole every word of her dialogue. She usually takes me out of the movie, which is especially disappointing when Galadriel’s one of my favorite characters. She really wowed me in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” with her debutante-y character, and in”Queen Elizabeth” and “Blue Jasmine.”
With Kevin Spacey, I think he’s very good when he’s playing a character that is in some ways false. His Verbal Kint and his Jim Williams in “Midnight in The Garden Of Good and Evil” and his Lester Burnham, I thought were very good. And his Jack Vincennes in “LA Confidential” I really liked. But when he’s playing “a good guy” I get a bit of a sense of preening – “look at me acting.”
I’m kinda fishing here, is there something in common about the two that makes you an u-fan – or are you lukewarm on each for different reasons?
Hey there! Hmm, no nothing really in common. I think Cate Blanchett is clearly talented – and I liked Blue Jasmine – but sorry, my bar for “crazy lady” is Gena Rowlands, and Blanchett comes nowhere NEAR that. Gena in that part would have been so scary you would never forget it. Blanchett? I don’t know, it was on the surface. The only scene where I felt she really came to life was the panic attack scene with Alec Bladwin when her pills go flying – and that was because it was all filmed in one take. She really had to freakin’ be in a scene with someone ELSE in that scene.
Her work is meticulous, and clearly FELT – but it still remains somewhat surface-level (for me). I am clearly in the minority. I don’t think she’s a big fat phony or anything like that – I actually really like her career, I like how much stage she does – although, funnily enough – when she did Uncle Vanya in NYC – my acting teacher said, “Nobody informed Cate Blanchett that the play is called Uncle Vanya and not ‘Helena'” (the name of her character) Ha.
I think she works too much – and so the overall effect of her career (on me) is to make her seem facile and shallow. Look at this accent and this new hairdo … and I can be this, I can be that … and I’m not as impressed by her “versatility” as others are. I think it remains quite surface-level.
However, I do like some of her stuff – The Gift was amazing,as I said, she worked very simply and really seemed to inhabit that character.
Kevin Spacey is another story. I think he is incredibly over-praised – I really liked him in LA Confidential, but that’s really his only range, that’s the only zone where he can “show up”. I just do not get the whole “He is one of our greatest actors” thing – What?? I am not on board with that at ALL. He is extremely limited, he can do one thing fairly well (snarky douchebags – and whatever, it got old almost immediately) – and so I am just baffled at how much he is praised.
On the other hand, he came to our school (broken record) and he is such a hilarious and entertaining mimic – like, brilliant – I know you’ve seen his Christopher Walken Han Solo audition – that I fell in love with that aspect of him. He couldn’t stop doing imitations of people and they were so eerily spot-on that I saw this whole other side of him.
But as an actor I find him extremely shallow – and because he has been so over-praised – he hasn’t had to work as hard to get better. Again, I realize I am totally in the minority on this.
I think you’re right – when he has to play good, or heart-warming – he is AWFUL. But “one of our greatest actors”? What the hell? I’m just way out of step with the zeitgeist on that one. But then again, I didn’t like American Beauty at all. It was of those moments when I realized, Boy, when I’m off the mark with everyone else, I am WAY off.
The tiny bit I saw of his Richard III in “Now” was his typical schtick – which is actually perfect for that character, especially in the early scenes. It seemed like a good performance and he clearly cares extremely deeply about the Bridge Project. It’s an ambitious project and I think it’s a great idea.
There’s also one anecdote that infuriates me – about his time doing Long Days Journey on Broadway – someone’s cell phone went off in the audience, and he fucking broke character, broke out of the play, and said to the audience member, “Tell them you’re busy.”
People thought that was such an awesome thing, but I thought it was appallingly unprofessional. What, your concentration is so shallow you can’t ignore the phone? How would you have fared in Shakespeares time, in that rowdy atmosphere?
To me, it revealed him as an amateur. I felt so sorry for the other people who were onstage with him in that moment. Fuck him for that. EGO.
I could watch his Al Pacino imitation all day long, but other than that, I really have no use for him as an actor.
I also liked her Queen Elizabeth. I guess I like early Blanchett best.
Now it all just feels like party-trick costuming to me.
Or, sorry – I think it was Spacey in Iceman Cometh.
I can state things pretty strongly! And I know I sound righteous. But I totally admit it’s all subjective. :)
//just read that Supernatural Bloodlines wasn’t picked up to series.//
Well, shame for the actors, but I’m looking forward to the spin-off ‘Charles Ingalls, Vampire Killer’, starring a man with a very large beard.
Dammit I need that to happen.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a Sunbonnet.
//Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a Sunbonnet.//
Little House in the Big Woods full of Vampires
Little House in a Devil’s Trap
The Long Winter of Beheading Vampires
These Happy Golden Vampire Exterminating Years
Little House in a Devil’s Trap … hahahahahahaha
EVERYTHING is about Supernatural once you see the show. For example – I went to a press screening of Godzilla yesterday afternoon. I loved it – it’s totally awesome.
But they cast it out of British Columbia and so it became a running game to clock the actors who also appeared on SPN. I only clocked two – the guy who played the airline owner in Phantom Traveler (who also played Amelia’s suspicious dad in Season 8) – as well, as randomly, the hottie blasé coroner in the Looney Tunes episode. I am sure there were more.
//EVERYTHING is about Supernatural once you see the show. //
Indeed. Six degrees of Supernatural.
//I went to a press screening of Godzilla yesterday afternoon. //
Also, not to mention Godzilla’s starring role in The Benders – so that makes 3.
Totally! And I won’t presume to pronounce what a fictional character would think of the film … but I still think Dean Winchester would very much like this version. And so would his little doppelgänger.
Ha.
Some really cool creatures, some awesome destruction of cities (Las Vegas. San Francisco), and totally hot troops in camo chaperoning a nuclear warhead across the country on a creepy isolated train. I mean, what’s not to like?
It seems like we have the same view of Kevin Spacey as having a specific wheelhouse. Richard III does seem like that kind of character he could really nail. Now, I viewed “American Beauty” as just an insanely dark comedy, darker even than “Prizzi’s Honor.” And so I got a kick out of his character. I know that’s not the common reaction to the movie – don’t know where you came down on it. But I agree, not “One Of Our Best Actors.”
I know it’s a common comparison, but I’ll go along with the Cate/Meryl Streep one. The facility with accents, the clear talent. I also felt that Meryl did a lot of work also in what one might call her early-mid career. I do agree that as time has gone on, my motivation to see a movie because Cate’s in it has diminished – so yeah to the earlier Cate and less yeah to the more recent. She hasn’t created a Sophie or a Karen (Blixen or Silkwood) at a similar stage of career. I assume that actresses really have a fear of an expiration date on their looks, so I can understand her working as much a possible. But she does seem like someone who will work for as long as she wants to.
Thanks for responding to the off-topic query.
As for the cray-cray, I don’t see her rolling around on the floor in spilled tequila and cheetos for David Lynch . Unless she really wants another Oscar.
The more I think about Kevin Spacey, the more I come up with the comparison to John Wayne (well, the cliche). “He only played himself.” No, he only played people who seemed real, inhabited. Versus KS playing outside his wheelhouse and not seeming like a real person.
The obnoxious version of me (the true one) wants to suggest that KS is the one who can only play himself – but that doesn’t seem correct from the story you told about him coming to your school.
He really is a totally uncanny mimic. I’d watch a 2-hour long video of him just doing imitations. And he improvises while he’s mimicking – and it’s BEYOND hilarious. He’s got a great eye and ear, obviously.
And yeah – there’s something empty about Spacey, and when he does “fill up” in any way that seems real, it is always with a kind of cold contemptuous superior anger. The Glengarry Glen Ross vibe. That’s really all he can do. I mean, it’s a look, I guess – but it’s so limited, so one-note.
It’s funny – in “Now” about his Richard III – there’s a moment where he’s driving around a younger cast member in a convertible, and everyone seems totally in awe of him so he does try to buddy-buddy with them, create an ensemble – and this younger guy asks him “so what made you start the Bridge Project?” and Spacey was saying that it had always been a dream, blah blah – but that “My career in movies went so much fucking better than I ever expected …”
He sounded amazed at what had happened to him – like even he was blind-sided by it. It was really honest. He was laughing as he said it. It was a likable and self-aware moment. So instead of doing more movies, he basically has devoted 10 years of his life to the Bridge Project. Admirable. I didn’t like the movie “Now” but it did make me wish I had seen the Richard III production.
<> – Sheila O’Malley
“I know I’m a prima donna. Hell, I admit it.” General George Patton
Separated at birth?
[ And I know I sound righteous. But I totally admit it’s all subjective. :) ]
Don’t know why that got dropped from my comment
Patton’s quote – ha!
I have strong opinions! But I don’t want to be a bulldozer. I hate bulldozers.
“This is what I think” isn’t bulldozing. “Here’s what you should think” is.
I know there are people who can’t handle “This is what I think” when it differs from their thinking. Squishy critters.
Oh I can just hear that! My 1st exposure to Mass was discouraging, we arrived in Dec, from Monterey Ca, I was so excited that there might be snow, but everything looked like it had been washed dirty gray, my daughter was little and I didn’t have the right clothes, never lived that far north before. But I thought the accent was delightful. We ate at a Pizza Hut our 1st night there – our waitress introduced herself as Liser, and she was bringing us our pizzer. Those extra r’s, I know you know exactly what I’m talking about.
// Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who hail from there, did it awesomely in Good Will Hunting // I have a friend who’s from Montreal tell me he thought they were exagerating the accent. He didn’t believe me when I told him those 2 were using authentic accents. He could be wicked obtuse sometimes.
“wicked obtuse” Ha!
Oh, fan fiction. TV host Graham Norton likes to dig up fan creation from fan fiction sites. about some of his famous guests. In this clip X-Men Michael Fassbender and James Macavoy are confronted with some of their fans’ baking fantasies – some of which are read out by Hugh Jackman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrwnzT8vK0w
aagh, what happened to my punctuation?
Oh my God, I am roaring. “Why am I in dungarees?”
I had seen the clip of all of them dancing to Blurred Lines – which – help me with the hotness – but had not seen this.
This is awesome.
//“Why am I in dungarees?”//
Why indeed? Or baking, for that matter, or knitting?
I don’t watch the show, but Graham Norton seems to occasionally confront actors with fanfic, and even encourages them to submit their own ideas online – it’s always hilarious.
One of the themes seems to be putting these big strapping alpha guys into stereotypically girlie or soft contexts – baking, knitting, crying, cuddling. It’s fascinating to me.
I wonder if, back in the day, a million years ago, people were doing artwork of John Wayne in an apron, baking cookies. They HAD to be, right? This can’t be a NEW phenomenon.
//I had seen the clip of all of them dancing to Blurred Lines //
I’m sorry, but they can keep all their superhero movies – I’d like a 2 hour version of this.
Or Godzilla dancing. He can groove.
I know – I wanted it to go on for 15 more minutes. It was over way too soon.
Really interesting conversation about the accents. As someone who is completely unbiased (living in Sweden) I can say that the cockney accent and the boston accent are the sexiest by far for me. It’s all about those working class heros. It’s gritty and raw and SEXY as hell. And it’s very easy to hear when they’ve brought in a local in SPN. The “aboots” really give it away. Unforunately my own accent is always a part of a joke :)
I like how you keep dissing “versatility”, because it really is a nauseating accessory for actors today. Like you say it’s shallow. It’s like they’re collecting points for different accents, different noses, different handicaps. Cate Blanchett is definitely guilty of this. I’ve never “felt” for her characters. But it’s not dissing technique or “obvious” acting. I think Jensen Ackles really works hard, you can see it and it’s very rewarding. I can’t remember the exact quote but Jake Mclaughlin said something about “all you need too act is having lived life” or something and it was so infuriating. So disrespectful of the craft. Like no it’s not. I know plenty of people with plenty of mileage and they can’t do that. I’ve crammed a lot of living into 26 years and I could never do that. You need to work on it and you need instinct and that doesn’t come from experience either. It’s something in your personality. Instinct, being clever and quick in a given situation.
Glad to hear they didn’t pick up the spin-off. Don’t want to be disloyal or anything but it was just wrong. It would have urked me had it been picked up. But now they have to do a major CLEAN-UP in Chicago! THAT would be a great episode!
Max – Hi! Yes, the accent conversation has been so interesting!
// You need to work on it and you need instinct and that doesn’t come from experience either. It’s something in your personality. Instinct, being clever and quick in a given situation. //
Yes, there is definitely a mystery to it sometimes – it’s interesting to listen to photographers and cinematographers talk about this. How certain people just “pop” out of the camera – One photographer who worked with Marilyn Monroe a lot said that it wasn’t her beauty that really was the most striking about her – “What she had was the ability to project.”
And that (to my taste) is a star.
I don’t mean to say that versatility is totally bogus. I love it when actors show up in things and I’m blown away by a whole other side of them. But it is definitely over-valued right now in the industry – it’s just a phase, a trend in acting. Those come and go. What I don’t like is that those who don’t know better (critics, some fans) – think that versatility is the ONLY arbiter of talent – this brings us to my least favorite comment about actors: “He just played himself over and over.” I think I have beaten that dead horse enough, how much I despise that phrase – because it is used to dismiss, oh, John Wayne or Spencer Tracy – and it’s just so mistaken, so WRONG. It’s actually HARD to “play yourself”, in front of a camera, with scripted lines.
Like you say: if just life-experience were enough, then everyone could pick up a script and be riveting and awesome – and that is obviously not the case.
Blanchett is clearly talented – I do think she works too much which dilutes the overall effect she might have. Someone like Julia Roberts – or Angelina Jolie – now these are mega-watt movie stars in the old-school vein – and they don’t work all that much, all things considered. They pick and choose very carefully. Their stars shine that much the brighter.
Just my opinion – your mileage may vary!
What I love about what JA is doing is that he is clearly – no doubt about it – a Leading Man Type – and yet what he is doing as Dean Winchester is almost how a “character actor” would approach it. His walk, his talk, his voice, his gestures – they’re all so character-based. This is not just JA showing up and doing the easiest thing and hoping his charm/good looks will carry him. You actually have to WORK. Even if you’re pretty. ESPECIALLY if you’re pretty.
speaking of, seen this article? No prizes for guessing who I was thinking of the whole way through.
Yes. It’s amazing to me that he is not on people’s Great Actor radar … the show just doesn’t have a wide enough audience I guess. That’s almost the coolest thing about what he’s doing.
I did think Mickey Rourke should be front and center – if anyone came along who got the most “the next Brando” press, and actually seemed to deserve it – it was him – AND he had a similar public flame-out, similar contempt for the acting profession (it wasn’t manly enough, let’s become a boxer) – and then similar comebacks where he re-asserted his power.
I’ve got Rourke on the brain these days, as my site wallpaper attests.
I found the Fassbender comparison interesting, especially in terms of that whole objectification thing.
Brando’s first entrance in the movie of Streetcar is one of the most sexual erotic moments in film, and he knows he’s being ogled, that that is the POINT of the whole thing … and he kind of revels in it like a burlesque star. Amazing, ahead of his time, totally!
re Godzilla
//it became a running game to clock the actors who also appeared on SPN//
Finally caught Godzilla and really enjoyed it. Also spotted Benny the Vampire, the Japanese gameshow host, the little girl with the possessed ballet shoes and the first guy to get reaped in the epi where Dean is Death. Even the school bus driver was also in SPN though couldn’t place him.
Loved the parachute scene – really Miltonic and so reminded me of the end of Season 8.
Saw it on a huge screen in 3D. It’s really odd how 3D makes things, especially humans, flat as well as three dimensional. That’s not a comment about the acting, though there was a bit of that, too.
Giant mating mutant insectoids with glowing gonads, though … that took me by surprise.
Nice SPN work from you – I missed some of those.
I agree: the parachute scene was incredible.
I was quite afraid that the little-boy-lost on the subway was going to have a bigger part – He was adorable, but I felt the film tipping towards sentimentality. “Ooh, let’s have Hot Soldier have to protect a little boy …” No. Please stop. Thankfully it didn’t go that way.
I agree about the flattening-out that sometimes happens with 3D. It’s strange. All in all, the effects were awesome, I thought – and looked as real as they could look.
I love it when Godzilla swims.
Yeah the glowing gonads were pretty gross. And the sort of “upskirt” shot of the female … Ewww.
Thought Brian Cranston was great. A perfect obsessed madman.
// the parachute scene was incredible.//
Really was, it’s the one thing I’d watch the film again for. Like a film in its own right – stunningly imagined, beautiful to watch, incredible journey through the clouds down to the monsters below, sort of heaven and hell thing going on.
//Thought Brian Cranston was great.//
He was. Look forward to him in more films as obsessed scientist working for Good, not Evil.
// sort of “upskirt”//
Yes! I walked out thinking ‘is it just me? And what exactly were those mating monsters doing with that nuclear bomb? Did she just put it where I think she did?’ I’m afraid the post film conversation focused mainly on that.
He was.
So much Special Ops action that I was happy. I loved the abandoned railway tracks – a la Stand By Me – heading towards this unknown terror, with the explosions over the treetops. Moody and scary.
and yeah. Mating Mutos, glowing larvae, glowing sperm-sacs, like Get a room, guys, seriously.
Godzilla – I was glad there was nothing MORE explicit about the mating. For a moment I was afraid it was going to get too Nature Channel.
The parachuting was awesome, the sound effects were perfect, and Godzilla was just the Mutos-buster (He came, he saw, he kicked some…). And what a kisser.
I’ve been annoyed at some of the reviews of Bryan Cranston’s performance, talking about spewing and chewing. Who wouldn’t have dug and dug and dug to find out what happened that caused the death of a spouse? On the job you shared?
Also, it felt like a total nod to Jack Lemmon in The China Syndrome – and that great last scene where he is in the control room losing his SHIT – and to the people who don’t believe him, he looks totally insane – and to the people who DO believe him – he looks appropriately urgent about it.
I thought Cranston made that totally real for himself!!
Agree in re: sound effects. The silence of that woods/railway track section … proof that silence/darkness/no-monsters in sight can be just as scary as the visuals. Loved that whole sequence.
//Who wouldn’t have dug and dug and dug to find out what happened that caused the death of a spouse? //
People do this, and get labelled as obsessed/difficult – and so often their suspicions are proved right.
And, hello, John Winchester!
Indeed.
//I thought Cranston made that totally real for himself!!//
Exactly. He wasn’t ranting to convince *us* of something, he was in the moment.
//People do this, and get labelled as obsessed/difficult – and so often their suspicions are proved right.//
Yes. Otherwise we would have been de-selected, evolution-wise.
//Yes. It’s amazing to me that he is not on people’s Great Actor radar//
So I am retyping this post because somehow I closed out my browser before finishing. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what might happen to these guys once SPN ends. It has been my observation that not many actors from genre shows get taken seriously and get good movie or tv roles. There are exceptions, Amy Acker (love her as Root on POI), Allison Hannigan, David Boreanaz, Nathan Fillion but look at James Marsters as an example. Who didn’t love Spike in Buffy? (well probably a lot of people) They seem to trot him out in various genre shows in guest roles for the geek effect/ratings bump. I’m not saying that Spike had a huge range, he’s kind of an obvious actor, he just happens to be the first to come to mind. I read an article not long after Aaron Paul’s movie came out about the difficulty some of the best tv character actors have getting meaningful roles on the bigscreen (thought it was on huffpost but can’t find it) the author of the piece did conclude that maybe the movies don’t deserve these actors. I also read this article on Salon the other night: http://www.salon.com/2014/05/16/why_the_golden_age_of_tv_isnt_producing_more_movie_stars/ I hope our guys get decent roles after SPN ends, and don’t have to wait until they’re old to get good work (thinking of Shatner in Boston Legal) BTW – haven’t been to see Godzilla yet – I took my grandson to a play so his parents could see it, but I’m looking forward to it, I hope the role is worthy of Bryan Cranston. And I can’t wait to start discussing Provenance and the last few eps of season 1
To be honest: JA honestly doesn’t have much “brand-name recognition” outside of the very small SPN fandom. I know casting directors who haven’t ever even heard of him. That’s not a good sign. JP has more of a brand-name recognition because of Gilmore Girls – which was much more of a mainstream hit than anything JA has ever been in.
So there’s that.
I admire their loyalty to the show. The fact that it is filmed in Vancouver keeps them very much “out of the running” for other things – AND the fact that they have a long season. You know, it’s not 12 episodes, it’s twice that. So they are “out of town” for 8, 9 months of the year. They’re not doing movies on their summers off. They’re traveling around to SPN conventions. All told, they have about 3 weeks off a year.
All of this is to say: neither of these guys are appearing in huge movies on their summers off. They are not “building a brand” outside of SPN. I admire their loyalty, as I said. And I think (honestly) that both of them could conceivably be quite lost on other ensemble shows, even ones that are more high-profile and better received critically.
What other show would allow these two guys to show such range? It flat out doesn’t exist.
But post-SPN, it honestly will be like they’re starting over. The fan base is there for them as actors, but it’s a very small group of people (comparatively). When casting directors are like, “Wait – who’s Jensen Ackles?” – you know you’re in a very very niche market.
I like the example of Kyle Chandler – who is doing small parts in extremely high-profile prestige pictures – like Zero Dark Thirty and Wolf of Wall Street – where he essentially played the same exact charcter – but in both pictures, he had one VERY good scene where he got to show his stuff. Very memorable scenes. He’s not a “star” but he’s getting good roles, and he is clearly on the radar of major directors.
JA and JP? Not so much.
So far neither guy has ever been out of a job since he first auditioned – and they clearly both have great work ethics and don’t care about “stardom” (If they did, they both would have left SPN long ago.)
But we honestly should live it up and enjoy this while it lasts. It won’t come again. Not like this anyway. What is going on on SPN is unique – and I think both JA and JP know it too. SO love that they’re riding this thing out to the end. It speaks so well of them – of their smarts as actors – to recognize that reaching for some elusive “brass ring” of Emmy awards or whatever – would be totally foolish. SPN IS the “brass ring”, the “jackpot”.
David Caruso thought something better was out there, something better than NYPD Blue, and he is still being made the butt of jokes for that. JA and JP did not make the same mistake.
Anyway, that’s my long-ass two cents.
Also, I think it works in JA’s favor that he’s “showing his age” a little bit. Of course he’s still handsome, but the bloom is off the rose – and it makes him less easy to dismiss. It’s not about youthful prettyboy stuff anymore – he’s got some miles on him. That is very good news. It wouldn’t be if he was a woman, unfortunately, but for him in particular I think it will work in his favor.
//Also, I think it works in JA’s favor that he’s “showing his age”// I agree, and I also find his face with all it’s “character” much more compelling. BTW, why are you not enjoying the beach instead of engaging with us here? Hope it’s warm!
re Godzilla
Here’s a little film about the making of the parachute drop scene.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-gareth-edwards-explains-the-halo-jump-in-anatomy-of-a-scene-from-godzilla-20140520
Don’t watch it if this kind of thing destroys the ‘magic of cinema’ for you, though.
Look, I have to have some way of taking my mind off the g*dd*m SPN season 9 finale.
Haven’t seen the finale yet. Avoiding the Internet, in general.
Thanks for the link – will read right now!
Wow, fascinating. Dante’s Inferno. There’s that really long shot of the city skyline and the clouds – with the parachutists coming down, the red trails behind them … like the angels falling. Beautiful!!
I remember in Perfect Storm there was a huge section about Halo jumpers – it’s part of the aquatic/rescue training of these phenomenal “rescue swimmers” – who are dropped out of planes into huge stormy seas and swim to rescue people – amazing individuals. But the training required for these Halo guys (and probably girls, at this point – but still: this is a mostly-male pursuit) – is nuts. Sometimes they are at such a high altitude that they have oxygen masks strapped to their backs.
Beautiful sequence – I love the clouds sort of illuminated by lightning as the guys descend towards them. Amazing!
Yep. Like I said, would rewatch for this sequence alone. Just imagine imaginingthis sequence. I mean, I can be almost blase about monsters fighting onscreen – it’s been there since the earliest days of cinema. But this kind of journey? Hello, Dante, Milton, Turner, John Martin. (Or maybe I don’t watch enough (any) blockbusters and this kind of stuff happens all the time?)
And Halo jumpers sound just awesome – WHAT a job.
//Look, I have to have some way of taking my mind off the g*dd*m SPN season 9 finale.// Helena, I kind of expected something like that to happen because of the whole Mark of Cain thing – but I still felt kind of crushed at the end. Just glad he didn’t kill Crowley and become the King of Hell which was what I was half afraid of.
And I think (honestly) that both of them could conceivably be quite lost on other ensemble shows, even ones that are more high-profile and better received critically.
I think that’s a possibility for sure. I am so curious about the future and of course over-invested. Then again JA has stood out in ensembles before — Ten Inch Hero, Smallville. In Dark Angel he came in for one episode and they brought him back as a regular the next season as a completely different character who gradually warped the rest of the show around himself. Not selfishly, but it sure happened.
Which is totally awesome and not surprising. And now, with that grizzled look, and the miles on him – he’s a man, not a boy – he’ll have opportunities for even more interesting parts. He’s such a meticulous actor, so thoughtful, so specific. SPN is not a “fluke” – some actors are good in one thing and it’s kind of a fluke and they can’t repeat their good-ness in other material. He is clearly not like that. SPN has been on too long – it’s a hell of a run, and so much of its success is BECAUSE he is so good. But in the larger industry, his name isn’t “out there” in the way it would if he had four Emmys to his name. Sad, but true.
I’m over-invested too. He’s one of the best things going on right now, period.
Also, they used the same song at the end of the finale that they used in the final scene at the end of “Route 666.” I love that song, and I am not getting all conspiracy-theorist about it – hahaha – I don’t think it’s a “clue” or anything, my dream of Cassie is dead – but it’s a beautiful and sad song about “finding your way back home” – which was just devastating. The prophecy has come true, his dream come true – from SEASONS ago – “this is what you will become” – I always had a feeling that that horrifying image would “pay off” eventually.
I haven’t had to write yet about JA’s “death” scenes and how good he is at them. That’s obviously coming. How he makes the life drain out of his OPEN eyes. That is HARD. Try it yourself, right now, try to do it. It’s HARD. Because in your eyes is LIFE. Your soul, everything. To let that drain out, while keeping your eyes open … amazing. He does it again and again. And the profile of his face on the bed … I mean, he looked fucking DEAD. Like a corpse. It’s not just that he was still, it’s that he was lifeless.
He never disappoints. He works HARD, that one. And you don’t see ANY of the work – you just see the end result.
Hats off.
//I haven’t had to write yet about JA’s “death” scenes and how good he is at them. That’s obviously coming. How he makes the life drain out of his OPEN eyes. That is HARD.//
Yeah, it is pretty remarkable what he can communicate. I don’t know if that is control, or total release of control, but it is stunning. And so disturbing. Man, his face when he was all beaten up and life is just seeping away was so heartbreaking. We’ve seen him beaten badly before, but this was different. The vulnerability there was at a whole new level. It was practically infantile. It really reminded me of seeing a person after a major physical trauma, when you look at them and it is just so wrong and you need to somehow hold them together. Remarkable and disturbing.
And then “I’m proud of us.” Gulp. Did Dean just forgive himself? It was a glimpse at the Dean we haven’t seen for a while; that shiny being we have seen every now and again, the inside Dean. The one that could have had a very different life. Damn. I’m actually not sure if I feel a little bit too manipulated considering the end.
// I am so curious about the future and of course over-invested.//
//I’m over-invested too. He’s one of the best things going on right now, period.//
I understand completely. And yes, hats off.
Yes: infantile. Pre-verbal. Looking around for help, solace, something.
I have come to believe that the great actors, the mythic ones, are not specific so much as they are archetypes. They tap into something gigantic in the unconscious … and express it. That’s hard to do. It takes great confidence. It’s Barbara Stanwyck, or John Wayne, or Bogart. Not too many people work on that level today. It’s just not the style anymore. Angelina Jolie works on that level. Clooney does too. A couple others. JA has created a very real guy, a very specific guy, but he’s also a classic ARCHETYPE. He’s tapping into all kinds of Mythical Arcs with this guy – and he’s doing so deliberately. The fact that he’s been doing it for 9 seasons shows that it’s deliberate – and not a fluke. You might have one good season, but nine?
Work like this is often under-rated. I mean, look at how people still argue about whether or not John Wayne was a “good actor”. Ridiculous. He is one of the greatest actors who has ever lived, and it is because he expressed an archetype so completely that the American landscape is incomprehensible without it. But still … those arguments persist. “He was just playing himself …” I believe I have made my feelings known about THAT noise.
That’s the trap with this kind of work. It is SO good that, strangely, it is often overlooked. Actors like this don’t “show” that they’re “working” at all.
// It was a glimpse at the Dean we haven’t seen for a while; that shiny being we have seen every now and again, the inside Dean. The one that could have had a very different life. Damn. I’m actually not sure if I feel a little bit too manipulated considering the end. //
I know what you mean.
One of the things I loved about that “proud of us ” moment is that as invested as I am in the show – I had no idea what he was going to say in that final moment. And “I’m proud of us” came as a surprise to me.
Another element of specificity he brought was the look on his face during the confrontation with Metatron. As ferocious as we’ve seen Dean, we’ve never seen THAT look either. It was partly the lighting – it made him look … almost like a “bot”, if you know what I mean. It was hard lighting, orange, and alien – making his good looks seem … almost alien. Like he was created in a lab. But beyond the lighting, his anger/adrenaline in that moment was totally different than anything we’ve seen. I got truly WORRIED for him. It was too much – the rage was too much for him to contain – and it scared him as well, you could see.
That ISN’T Dean. That other Dean – the one you describe so well – the shiny being, the vulnerable soul – THAT’S the real Dean. The willow-tree Dean, not the oak. But, you know, you can’t expect a man to take 30 years of beatings and be unchanged. And that’s what JA has created so well. That arc. It’s a hero’s arc, Homer, the Odyssey, the whole thing. It’s an unbelievable performance.
I recognised the song! It’s lovely. It was a great last ten minutes (down on earth, I have misgivings about Heaven). And the lighting before that fight — those yellow highlights! Wow. Amazing. I said elsewhere it’s like they’ve gone so far from desaturated naturalism into oversaturation they struck this amazing lode of surreal red and yellow colouring. He looked out of this world.
Jessie – we just said almost the same thing about the lighting. Yes!!
I also wasn’t crazy about the Heaven sequence. But then, I’m bored with the angels at this point. I miss the wacky eccentric angels, the funny angels, the Uriels, the Balthazars, the Gabriels … I don’t know. The angels as they are now just aren’t working for me. That’s been true for me the entire season.
Uriel and Anna are high-water marks, definitely. And S4 Cas. I have really come around to Gadreel — although to be honest I don’t know why Sam has past “expediency” — he has been the only angel that has felt like an angel this season. I am happy for there to be angel castes and to play with the concept of what is mundane for an angel, and ideas of free will and being bred for a purpose, which are of course Winchester themes — but they have domesticated them waaaay too much. We could do with a big break from them.
Yeah. It’s too bureaucratic. Not enough mystery and power. I get it, they’ve all “fallen’ and they are all looking to find their way – but angels were SCARY in Season 4. Now? Yawn.
I agree that Gadreel actually felt like an angelic being – very “other”.
And how could I forget Anna?? She was great too.
Can I also raise a hat – pointy, with horns – to Mark Shepherd, who made Crowley’s final scene with Dean so … don’t know the word. Will go with spine-chilling. Thicked one’s blood with cold. Such a mix of cold-blooded calculation, buried excitement and regret, tenderness, almost. Like Dr Frankenstein viewing his newly-minted monster.
‘I’m proud of us.’ Just four words. Trying to give Sammy something to hold on to. ‘Us’ is perhaps the most surprising word in that sentence.
Angels. Maybe God (or Ben Edlund) needs to come back and create some more funny ones. Metatron’s estimation of his own abilities in this department, is, like that of all his other abilities, vastly inflated.
I’m looking forward to Season 10. Season openers have been without exception awesome episodes. In the meantime I’m going to swipe a bottle of Sammy’s hooch and work my way through Season 9 again.
Yes, that scene was phenomenal. Intimate. Almost post-coital, as creepy as that sounds. Dr. Frankenstein is a perfect analogy. Tender. And, again, someone is staring at Dean while he “sleeps” – without his consent – projecting things onto him, things he would balk at if he were conscious and able to fight back.
Sheppard is a great actor – such a wonderful part of the ensemble.
“thicked one’s blood with cold” – God, I love that line.
Yeah, something has to be done about the entertainment value of the angles. Bartholomew was so boringly written and boringly played he barely registered. He wasn’t even a good villain.
But, you know, you have to deal with these sub-plots with SPN. The main plot of this entire season has been “What the hell is going to happen with Dean?” – and it was existential and tragic and psychological (forget the mark of Cain – that was just an outer representation of the internal struggle) – and so I’m totally satisfied with what happened, story-wise.
I shed tears – not in the final scene but in the fight scene with Metatron – because I felt so strongly Dean’s Hamlet-like hesitation, his hedging, his desire to NOT “go there”.
I was gulping heavily in the final scenes. I think you, me and others have talked about the ‘endgame’ and even though we knew it’s not the END end yet, my head was still whirling with ‘ohmygod, crikey, yes, no, whattheF!’ but mainly ‘nonononoNOOOOO’.
I was struck by Dean’s need to do the final deed on his own, as with Abbadon – he didn’t want Sam to witness what he becomes while killing, or his likely death, or to end up on the wrong end of the First Blade. But very lonely. And not a fitting end, really, being killed by a squirt like Metatron.
And the guilt, too, that he brought on so much of this himself. This is HIS to fix. That may be a screwed-up viewpoint, but it is very much Dean Winchester’s MO.
It also was amazing and painful how EASY it was for Metatron to dominate Dean. It just highlighted Dean’s human-ness, his fragility. Which, of course, is the best part of him.
:(
Pass me the bottle o’ hooch when you’re done.
//Pass me the bottle o’ hooch when you’re done.//
Will send a crate.
Maybe the bottle contained Sam’s tears. Strong stuff.
There definitely should have been a George Jones or Merle Haggard song playing as Sam drank his pain away in the bunker.
Like this, for example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM0w6CgRjKc
//Like this, for example.//
I might play this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZIZ6gmE_mo
Love this version.
That’s the tragedy of it that fucking kills. You know we’ve had nine seasons of the guy. You can trace each step back so clearly, back through the season and then accelerating across all the other seasons, right back to when he was four — and you can leap it back even further to Mary’s deal, and beyond. And so much of it is about the object he’s been made — the object he’s seen himself as. He’s made serious mistakes but there is no realm in which this denuding of his magic and life and spontaneity and humour and now this ultimate turn is deserved! It is UNFAAAAIIIIIRRRRRRRR. Unfair!
And then that final shot of Sam drinking in the dark. Took me right back to season 3, Mystery Spot and No Rest for the Wicked. How many times does he have to do this? Man that nearly broke me!
// And so much of it is about the object he’s been made — the object he’s seen himself as. //
YES. And here is the end result. Spongebob weeping. hahahahaha
And yes, hats off to JP too. Heartbreaking. The way he cradled Dean’s head against his chest – was it me, or did he call Dean “honey” during that scene? I thought I heard him call Dean “honey” when he was trying to wake him up. Heartcrack either way. It was so scarily intimate what was going on there, chaotic and frightening – Dean slipping away. SUCH TRUST between these two actors.
He says buddy — I just checked, oh thank you — but yes, it’s a heartbreak from go to whoa.
The trust there is incredible, yes. What a cool thing for them. Very rare that it would ever happen in your working lifetime no matter what your profession. I look forward to many years of trolling and fun in the vein of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny.
And I also look forward to next season — demon Dean is gonna be amazing. I am betting they go with an upbeat and merry demon Dean and I won’t know whether to laugh or despair and the hijinks will taste like my tears.
I really felt for him when he started freaking out in jail. I wish he hadn’t died!
Jessie – in re: Gadreel – I know, I wish he hadn’t died – he was a great and conflicted character – and I loved how he played it. He was very angelic, with that sort of Shakespearean intonation, like English is definitely not his first language.
Also, he figured out the Free Will thing by the end. He had a great Arc as a character!
Agree re Gadreel. The whole Sam/Gadreel wierdness. Seems to be part of the policy to kill off the angel characters just when they start getting really interesting. Same with Naomi. Who’s left? The friggin’ angel PTA.
Here, have another sip of this hooch (hic.)
Having just seen Godzilla I was struck by how many of the shots in the Road So Far or whatever it’s called was just stuff spurting out of mouths like Godzilla’s atomic flames of death – red smoke in ragged coils, blue smoke, grey smoke, white rays, you name it.
OTH, I think this was the first episode where we’ve seen actual puke. So, don’t know if it’s some kind of body fluid Rubicon for SPN, but there’s that.
If I recall correctly Dean puked in the Twihard episode, too – a nice juicy closeup of crap coming out of his mouth. Super sexy. But yeah – for a second, I thought it was Gadreel puking in the corner – somehow knowing it was Dean was even more awful. It’s so human, throwing up. I think Norman Rush, in the book Mating, referred to vomiting as “my least favorite inevitable bodily experience” or something like that. Dean is usually so “together”, physically – he has to be. It was totally destabilizing, seeing him falling apart like that.
And how about his total lack of interest in the cute waitress and how Crowley picks up on that? Like, THAT’S the “tell” for Crowley that Dean is “off” (although, of course, Crowley always knew something would happen with the damn Mark). But I liked that exchange a lot in the restaurant. Dean could charm the pants off of the most recalcitrant cranky waitress – he’d call her “sweetheart” and her whole day would be brightened.
But that waitress not only didn’t exist – except as a reference to the hook-ups he used to participate in – but he was a bit rude to her, cursory. So not his style.
That was a nice little scene.
Jessie – “Upbeat merry demon” will be TERRIBLE as well as awesome. No matter what it is, it’s going to be amazing. And like you said: the tension in the character has been there from the get-go – nine freakin’ seasons – and he’s held himself together – You just knew that when he finally let go it was gonna be hellacious. I’m just glad it went this way. I’m glad Sam didn’t “save” him – you know, we’ve been down that road.
What was Crowley’s line in the last scene? “Predictable….” That’s it exactly.
I mean, I KNEW it would probably go this way – although I also wondered if he would turn the blade on himself – I thought that was a distinct possibility.
I just can’t stop thinking about how EASY it was for Metatron to dominate the poor guy. Pretty nice touch, I thought. After all that, after all the scenes of Dean bulking up, and rage-ing up … to have that blade slip into his chest so easily, like a knife through butter – to have him be whipped around the room like a rag-doll …
It’s kind of awesome – sort of messing with expectations. The showdown was really Kaput, a “nothing” – and yet Dean couldn’t fight it anyway. Good storytelling. Character-based.
//And how about his total lack of interest in the cute waitress and how Crowley picks up on that?//
Yes, making him order more than coffee was a test, wasn’t it. Crowley just hovering around like a short arsed vulture in a smoking jacket, sidling into the moral space left by Sam – it’s like he’s been grooming Dean.
Yes, so right about the Twihard puke – but that was blue, spell-induced, spectacular and a sign of healing. I guess I was thinking this was something so squalid, degrading and frightening for Dean to go through, and the episode was ‘showing’ this explicitly where the show usually does this by suggestion, euphemism or ellipsis. Apart from blood, which seems to stand in for every other body fluid.
// it’s like he’s been grooming Dean. //
Chilling. I need to watch that scene again.
// I guess I was thinking this was something so squalid, degrading and frightening for Dean to go through, and the episode was ‘showing’ this explicitly where the show usually does this by suggestion, euphemism or ellipsis. //
Yes, you’re right. There is a difference! Dean barfed during the Wishing Well episode when he ordered the poisoned subway sandwich (hilarious) – but that was discreetly behind closed doors. You heard him heaving, that’s all. His body – and that whole exhibitionist thing he’s got going on – the burlesque act thing – is such a fragile thing – as strong as he is. That’s what the demons sense in him, his susceptibility. That’s so what JA brings to it – it’s so fascinating. All the things we project onto him, that other characters project onto him, the objectification thing … all of that suddenly stripped away from him. It made me really sad. How he was holding himself up against the wall.
Also, great exchange:
Crowley: ‘Hell is … complicated.’
Dean: ‘Game of Thrones is complicated. Shower sex is complicated. Hell is not complicated.’
Ha. Yeah, that was a great line.
// It made me really sad. How he was holding himself up against the wall.//
Sometimes this season I had the impression the writers were portraying Dean as downright stupid and crude – particularly in some of the ‘lighter episodes’ rather than the Mark of Cain storyline. You know, writers are a bit offbeam or want to make a joke at the expense of the integrity of the character. But as you point out with the waitress in this scene, the whole trajectory of his character has been portrayed through a debasement, dismantling or erasure of Dean’s most endearing, recognisable and ‘human’ traits, drives, tics and whatnots, with the MOC as catalyst. So I’m not just pointing out vomit for the sake of it: this little scene – again witnessed only by Crowley – was almost the final manifestation of this process. Degrading, frightening, lonely and he can only talk to Crowley about it.
// the whole trajectory of his character has been portrayed through a debasement, dismantling or erasure of Dean’s most endearing, recognisable and ‘human’ traits, drives, tics and whatnots, with the MOC as catalyst. //
Yes! And him vomiting was definitely the manifestation of that. With all of his shenanigans, he is always in control. You never see him falling-down-drunk, for example. He’s usually got some level of buzz on – but that’s just alcoholism, basically. You don’t see him out of control. When he’s attacked, it’s so upsetting – because of the whole tension in the character, and his integrity – bodily, spiritually, otherwise – that whole penetrable thing he’s got going on, almost against his will.
I mean, think about the early episodes of the season – pre Mark of Cain. Yes, he was dealing with what he did to Sam, and the guilt of that – but think of him following the Chastity Counselor home, and his goofball “courting” of her – I mean, that Dean VANISHED. I re-watched the whole season last week and the week before, and it was obviously the death of Kevin that was the final blow. Everything about Dean changed after that. The voice, the posture, the bottle of hooch in his bag, the restlessness, the coiled pain – it was a point of no return.
And, interestingly – I’ll have to watch again to try to clock the trajectory of it – but there’s a commentary buried in there about rage. And how rage/revenge brings us to ruination. I mean, it’s been there before – how disturbed he was by Gordon, how he had to counsel the teenage hunters that the job isn’t ONLY about killing – he really kind of kept it all together in a way, much better than his Dad ever did. Dean operates from vulnerability – not rage. Once he started operating from rage, he became susceptible. Which is a pretty elegant and sophisticated point to make, and I’m still figuring it out.
The jokes made at Dean’s expense were a bit sloppy at times this season. Him not recognizing It’s a Wonderful Life – BAD – and there’s one time when Sam says, “I read, Dean. Books that don’t have pictures.” or whatever the line was. It has already been established that Dean is smart – Sam knows Dean is smart – and Dean also references literature all the time. It’s a betrayal of the character, jokes like that. It’s a shorthand, but it’s an incorrect shorthand. I mean, thankfully, there wasn’t too much of that – but there were a couple of glitches that made me go: “Don’t you forget what you have created now over the past 8 seasons. Don’t you go making him a dumb jock after everything.”
// it’s like he’s been grooming Dean.// That bar scene during of Mother’s Little Helper finally made sense. Before the finale the part of that bar scene that stood out the most for me was Dean sitting alone hunched over at the bar as Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” playing on the juke box. But the confrontation with hunter and Crowley’s “Now he’s ready…” that is the ah ha moment.
Oh Dean.
RE: the season finale. I agree with everything above! I figured this was the direction it was heading—Demon!Dean—but it still made me sad. Not sobbing Spongebob sad, but a sort of resigned, depressed sad. God, I need this show to become a bit more upbeat!
RE: angels. Misha set the bar too high. Cas, particularly in S4, was so alien, so OTHER…almost none of the other actors portraying angels have come close to depicting that. I find that difference negatively effects the angel story-lines. They are all too humanly bland to make what is going on interesting.
I’m tired of angels. I’m getting tired of demons, too. I’d actually love to see the show drop the world-in-crisis/brothers-in-crisis plots and spend a season or two just looking at life after. What becomes of these people when the fighting is (mostly) over? I’m suffering from disaster fatigue. The stakes are too high in so much these days. Everyone is fighting an apocalypse of some sort. But almost no one shows what happens after. I want to see that.
Yes to so much of what you have all said. First, I need to agree about the Angelbots, because they are a silly bunch of bureaucrats. You can just see them zipping around, “give me something to do. Your taxes, some cross stitch, your laundry…anything oh Holy One. Are you my Holy One? Task me!” Do you remember when Ruby described angels as cosmic?
Dean’s “I’m proud of us” as a surprise. Yes that is exactly right. Which has happened before and is so wonderful. Knockout.
//Crowley’s final scene with Dean so … don’t know the word. Will go with spine-chilling. Thicked one’s blood with cold. Such a mix of cold-blooded calculation, buried excitement and regret, tenderness, almost. Like Dr Frankenstein viewing his newly-minted monster.//
I totally saw the Frankenstein thing too. But for me, what it really seemed like was the scene where Lestat is waiting for Louis to wake up after he has been turned in Interview with a Vampire. And all of what you described above Helena. A very knowing Crowley thinking this is going to be awesome and horrible at the same time. I sort of felt similarly. Or at least I am trying to be excited about it. The part of me that really relates to the characters is quite hurt by this degradation of Dean. I don’t want to accept the idea that he met his match. I want him to come out swinging and be HIM and punch the MOC in the face! I want him redeemed!
Very rarely in the show has Dean ever really been unable to match his opponent, with sass if nothing else. He might have been in mortal danger, but that never concerned me because Dean was okay with a hero’s death. It is corruption that he feared, being broken in that sense. He was beaten by Alistair/Hell, and that was horrible, John psychologically, until he stood up to him (um, sort of ) Cas (when he keeps beating the snuff out of him and Dean pleads with him). And we all end up loving Cas for not using his power against Dean (so glad they didn’t take that too far when Cas was godlike). But this…damn. Well, now we get to see what the writers really think of Dean. How strong they think he is. Will he be able to match this too. I have a great deal of hope. And trepidation.
//“Don’t you forget what you have created now over the past 8 seasons. Don’t you go making him a dumb jock after everything.”//
Exactly. Those cheap jokes that you folks mentioned that make it seem like they might betray the character make me hella nervous. But who knows, they have written some stunning heroes for us to enjoy so far.
I saw this gif that someone created of a cartoon Cas with this ball of black smoke circling his feet and Castiel’s line is something like “stop it Dean I will not deal with you like this” or whatnot. I wish I could find it and put in a link here but I am lame at that stuff. It made me laugh and hopeful so I wish I could share it. But maybe you got the idea.
Sam drinking alone in the bunker. Great shot. To my heart.
// “stop it Dean I will not deal with you like this” //
Laughing out loud.
There are songs that every time I hear them bring back certain images. I always picture The opening of TheStand when I hear “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Now, I will never hear “Can’t Find My Way Home” the same way again, it’s devastating. I will always remember those final moments, beginning with Sam alone at that table, and ending with Crowley’s final seduction of Dean. Sometimes SPN really nails it with the music. “Beautiful Loser” from Exhile on Main Street. In-a-gadda-da-vida from Skin. There are many more, but it’s late.
The use of “Beautiful Loser” is one of the best Music moments in the whole show.
I just can’t stop thinking about how EASY it was for Metatron to dominate the poor guy.
I know, so awfully anticlimactic! Like you and Helena were saying, the futility of it — the assailability of his body — it’s horrific. And he just got done calling himself “the best chance” team free will had.
“Predictable….”
He said “expected” but the true word is “inevitable” I think — where this season has been a treatise on the similarities between personality and determinism.
I also think it’s worth noting that despite what Crowley said Sam wasn’t summoning him to make deals — he was summoning him to force him to fix it. I’m pleased they didn’t regress Sam there.
Speaking of future roles, I just got done with Jim Thompson’s Pop. 1280 and I would be much obliged if someone would hurry up and film that with JA as Nick Corey.
// I also think it’s worth noting that despite what Crowley said Sam wasn’t summoning him to make deals — he was summoning him to force him to fix it. I’m pleased they didn’t regress Sam there. //
YES. Great detail. Crowley’s assumption – the under-estimation of “Moose” … Perfect. The characters have grown. They did NOT make the same mistakes again.
Such good commentary here from everyone. I did a rewatch last night, and the emotional impact the final scenes had on me started me thinking about what it must’ve been like for the actors to play those scenes. It had to have taken an emotional toll. I remember reading somewhere about how playing the Joker affected Heath Ledger, because Jokers was such a dark character . Filming those last scenes must’ve been brutal for the actors and the crew. Performances like that must require total immersion in the character, especially such a meticulous actor like JA. Even a clueless lay person like myself can see that you can’t “phone in” a performance like that. I imagine that it took quite some time to film those scenes and to repeatedly play those emotions….. The look on Dean’s face as the blade slipped in was gut wrenching and Sam’s panic and desparation at the prospect of losing his brother, awful. It’s too bad this isn’t a show that gets Emmy attention. These guys are as good as anyone on broadcast shows or the prestige cable drama (imho) I wonder if we will see gag reels from that ep, horsing around to break the tension. Now I’m going to read something light and upbeat because I really need it. A little brain candy would be a good antidote. I had to binge on funny stuff after the Breaking Bad finale.
Kim – I re-watched yesterday too. The climax of Dean’s death – and then back at the bunker – how everything goes quiet, so quiet – with Crowley watching Dean sleep – and Sam drinking downstairs … Bah. It was just so sad and exhausted.
I bet there was a ton of horsing around during those death scenes. I love the out-takes of the scene in the crypt, when Cas beats the shit out of Dean – such a painful moment, but of course the two of them were horsing around the entire time. “It doesn’t hurt here … it hurts more here ….” and my favorite: “Can I have a popsicle?” And Misha pushing JA’s head towards his crotch – so ridiculous. You gotta take the edge off! All of the emotion in the scene happens while the cameras are rolling. These guys are such pros.
There are stories of what a fun set it is, and how JA and JP really set the tone. Playing football in between takes, and keeping it light and fun. It makes a huge difference.
These guys also work fast and well. They usually “get” things on the first or second take. Get one out of their system, a rehearsal sort of, and then go for the Gold on the second. I’m just so impressed with how lifeless Dean was, and yet – obviously – he’s not dead, he’s alive – and Sam is clutching his head, speaking right into his face – as Dean collapses. The physical trust too. Sam has to catch Dean. JA knows that when he falls forward, JP will catch him – so he can just really go for it and really fall. They’re both so awesome, physically!
The episode is heart-wrenching. There was something “off” for me about the capturing of Metatron – it was filmed confusingly (for my taste). And how many times have they had Cas say “I’m not a leader” this season? Enough already. We get it. Jeez.
But the power of the episode isn’t lessened by that glitch. Those final five minutes back in the bunker – WOW.
AWESOME! Been away for a few days and finally just watched the finale (could hardly enjoy my vacation) and it was so fucking good! So brilliant to use Can’t find my way home because there’s already so much emotion attached to that. The acting was outstanding. I know we usually gush about JA here but JP was fantastic! Loving the conversation here.
Um, I thought my brain was fucking with me. Showersex IS complicated. I missed the next five minutes on account of major meltdown trying to figure out exactly how complicated it would be for Dean. I’ve been Winchestered.
The scene by the Impala, ” ready to gut this bitch?”. There it was, I was so HAPPY! And then Dean knocked him out. Oh well. I love you for breaking my heart SPN. And then Sam admitting he lied about being ok with Dean dying! You sure fooled me but I’m very happy he’s not.
And yes the angels are BOORING! But I actually liked Gadreel too. But I would be so happy if they just moved on. I loved Cas for season 4 and 5 but he’s overstayed his welcome. For me, obviously not for most people. TBH I feel like he’s kind of fucking up my show. But they’ll never let him go, I should just get over it.
You know that scene in The Last Waltz where they sit on the couch and pick up their instruments and just start improvising. And it’s pretty great, but it also sounds kind of tired and weary and out of tune. And they stop and the melancholy just kind of sits there. And then someone laughs a little and says something like “it ain’t what it used to be”. Well I thought about it the other day and realized that’s how I’ve been feeling about this show. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll cling to this show with the edges of my sanity. I’ll never give up on it. And it’s still the most brilliant thing on tv. But it’s not a fine wine. But NOW? I’m so crazy excited I don’t know what to do with myself!
Jessie: upbeat and merry demon Dean sounds so cool. Think what JA could do with that. They can go hunting with Dean as a cheeky asshole Trickster kind of demon.
I bought patchouli oil today. Dean would mock me but soulless Sam wouldn’t mind terribly. Now I need to go rewatch.
Believe me Max I am thinking about it! They could do a few different ways really depending on how they wanna run with his demonicity. Because he’s not a true demon — didn’t get made the way demons get made; appears to be corporeal or at least possessing his own body. He’s something different again. Who knows what of Dean will carry over. So intriguing! Dean with his joie de unvivre regained — or perhaps only subtly different — or perhaps entirely — or perhaps with self-knowledge that depresses him — will he hang out with Crowley? Sam? These next few months will be torture.
We have to wait until October?? It’s only freakin’ May – this is awful.
What is so exciting is the opportunity this will give JA to show even MORE of his versatility. I am now convinced he is one of the most versatile actors alive – he can do anything – I could see him in a Western, I could see him in a Noel Coward play. He’d be great in Edward Albee, he’d be great in Sam Shepard. Seriously.
So who will he be as a demon?
Cannot WAIT.
Max – // Dean would mock me but soulless Sam wouldn’t mind terribly. //
hahahahaha
// I missed the next five minutes on account of major meltdown trying to figure out exactly how complicated it would be for Dean. //
Ha. Dean needs to have some shower sex pronto. He is far too grim for his own good at this point.
LOVED the “gut this bitch” line – there they are, they brothers again! I love Sam!! His “arc” has not been as strong this season – but in a way what has been happening is subtle – and is really a testament to JP’s acting. In this episode – he was fearful of what Dean was becoming, but he also listened to Cas/Gadreel – and knew Dean was right that “Metatron had to go.” Like, he wasn’t so “worried” that he lost his hunter instincts. The whole Brothers thing this season has been fascinating. I know some people have found it repetitive. I haven’t at all. That’s what it’s all been about – the fucked-up nature of their bond, and Sam growing in strength/coherency – as Dean disintegrates. Total game-changer!
I know how much people love Castiel. I do as well, sometimes – but there’s a “cutesy” quality to some of the writing – the pop culture stuff – which was funny back when he was a weird otherworldly being – I do love his line-reading of “I don’t understand that reference …” way back when … but him now knowing about Wookies and Death Stars … I don’t know. Not into cutesy inside-humor and that feels like that to me. I know how much he is loved by his fans – and I love him, as an actor – he has brought a lot to the show – but there’s a quality in how he is written (lately, not at first) that is a turn-off for me. Also, he’s self-pitying. It gets annoying. ALL the angels are self-pitying. I miss the bad-ass angels, the warriors, the bizarre rogue angels … where they seemed truly out-of-this-world.
Now? Bureaucrats, fanboys, pyramid schemers … Boring as hell. And not scary anymore either.
They’re clearly beefing up the stakes for Castiel too – he will die without replenishing his grace. Okay, fine. I don’t resent his presence on the show, and I like his outsider perspective on the Winchester relationship – I like his dynamic with Sam the best. “This is the part where you hug me back.” That kind of thing. I loved that episode, the Sam-Cas episode.
// Don’t get me wrong, I’ll cling to this show with the edges of my sanity. //
hahahahaha You’re awesome, Max. I’m with you on that.
And bless you, Max, for the Last Waltz reference!
Jessie – Saw yesterday they made Mark Sheppard a regular next year, odds are we’re going to see more Dean & Crowely, maybe as besties? Of course we’re going to drive ourselves crazy speculating all summer :)
I wonder if Crowley will have regrets. If he will go back to human blood, counter-acting Dean’s demonic side. That would be a pretty funny hat-trick.
Charlie’s gonna return from Oz, all gaga-eyed and excited to tell the boys about what she experienced – and she’s gonna be like, “Sam. What the HELL has happened.”
lol I just got done last week lamenting the overuse and stagnancy of Crowley and measuring all the blood he has on his hands that I can’t forgive and how much he needs to die. But I love him and Shepherd! We will have to see. A little concerned they might do to his character what they’ve done with Cas — I feel you re his writing Sheila. Potential and pitfalls, like everything.
Ooh hope Charlie comes back to kick ass and take names!
I’m with you about the Sam-Cas relationship, they’re pretty great together. But forgive me, where is this Dean-Cas “chemistry” everyone’s talking about? I don’t see it at all. But they’re very important to each other absolutely. Yeah maybe I wouldn’t resent it so much if it felt like the writers could actually start to justify his presence. His storylines are bad, and he’s not enough of a badass these days. Can’t he get involved in something besides angel politics?
All the problems comes down to the writing for me. I wonder if they’re gonna keep the same writing staff or change it up a little. Or change it back a little perhaps…? I’ve started rewatching season 9 now and I love I think I’m gonna like it here and Devil may care but I’m no angel and Slumber party still doesn’t do it for me. That seems to reflect how I generally feel about those writers.
I wanna see all those types of demonDeans Jessie! But most of all the first one – Dean with a regained appetite – in everything!
I’ve been thinking about what my favorite line of the whole series is, and I seem to be landing on “he’s the only one who gets to call me that”. It’s perfect. Do you guys have one?
Replying to Max’s question about favorite lines, I know by now how mixed up this can get)
As of Inside Man, my favorite line is now “The Bobbys are surly. I repeat: The Bobbys are surly”. It’s just so hilarious and wonderful, every time I think about it.
Isn’t The Last Waltz one of the best movies ever? It’s 5 on my top 5.
Max – just curious, tangent: What are your top 5 movies? Would love to hear.
Although for me Dean delivers the greatest quantity of funny lines, the one that makes me die laughing is Sam’s ‘I’m NOT working for the MANDROID!!’ in Nightshifter. It’s the tone of utter exasperation that does it for me.
October! Fudge. That’s not good. Sheila, no pressure, but your recaps might end up as needed as that bottle of hooch.
re: Castiel’s cutsie oddness, I am also in agreement with Sheila and Jessie. The pop culture ref stuff comes off as disingenuous to me. I always thought that one of the nicest, and by that I mean kind and generous, things that the show did was making Dean such a fan. He really has that fan enthusiasm and passion and fun. And it always seemed like a nice extended hand to the SPN fandom. So when Dean makes references it is part of who he is, but this new thing with Castiel feels like they are trying to sell t-shirts to Misha’s minions or something. Jarring in a show that has generally been pretty seamless.
I wonder if they are going to extend the whole Dean looking for a father thing with Crowley now. Will there be a new rivalry with Crowley’s son? Otherwise, I don’t really know why he was brought in.
And yes, Charlie. More fan love.
Heather – This last month has been insane for me, work-wise – I’m working on Provenance now. We can all gather here over the summer. Hahaha. I’m excited about it.
I love what you say about the contrast – between Dean, who knows everything about pop culture (high and low) and Cas, who understands nothing. The humor came from that – and it also really humanized Dean, who could seem like a forbidding warrior commando if you didn’t know that he watched Titanic twice and cries while watching Spanish telenovelas. It’s beautiful. It never feels “cutesy” from Dean because it is so much a part of who he is. And Cas being completely clueless – was funny. How could Dean even talk if he didn’t throw in pop culture references every other sentence?
So yes, making Cas make these jokes feels like a “bone” thrown to his fans – definitely a T-shirt idea – and his hardcore fans seem to enjoy the cutesy stuff and find Cas “adorable”. I never found Cas adorable. In the early days I found him frightening, strange, intimidating, odd. That’s the Cas I like best. I do love his participation in the whole Free Will thing – I think it’s very important to show that an angel actually is influenced by human beings, and starts to question/doubt … That was a psychological and philosophical plot-point that I found super interesting. We assume human beings understand free will – but to see how it is a CHOICE – and we saw that through Cas. So I loved that Arc – one of the most important themes (if not the ONLY theme) of the whole show. But that was a long time ago.
//I could see him in a Western, I could see him in a Noel Coward play.//
Shakespeare: Benedick or Dogberry – would be great as either.
Helena – Yes – he’d be awesome in both roles, Benedick or Dogberry – he’d be a hilarious Dogberry, although Nathan Fillion kicked ASS in the recent Whedon film.
JA can do really stylized stuff, he can do straight-up earnest emoting, he can do physical comedy.
He’d be great in Pinter, too, although it would have to be the right role. He couldnt be TOO stuffy. He and JP should do “The Dumb Waiter” somewhere in a tiny theatre.
I know. I’m living in a dream world. It’ll never happen. But still. I would fly to Zimbabwe to see that production.
Dean definitively has most of them. “Nipples?” and “Pudding!”are going on the list. I would like to see him in a movie like Margin Call. He would be great as a corporate douchebag.
He would have been awesome in Wolf of Wall Street. I’d love to see him let his Id out of the bag, the male Id. It’d be scary and great.
Hopefully Demon Dean will be all Id.
Or “it’s dirtier than it looks” when they mock him for having such a clean shirt in Frontierland. There’s no other show with so many fantastic quotes.
“I lost my shoe.”
I swear, I almost fell off my chair with that one.
And – “Do you have bigger cups?”
That line was improvised by Jared Padalecki – and for me it is one of the funniest moments in the entire series. Totally serious.
“It’s dirtier than it looks.” Dying. That whole episode …
//It’ll never happen. But still. I would fly to Zimbabwe to see that production.//
Ha.
More JA/JP two handers … Waiting for Godot (that’s kinda the plot of Season 1 anyway). Um, Jeeves and Wooster. Godzilla vs Mothra …
The Last Waltz is so beautiful that I had to take a two year hiatus from listening to The Band because it made me so nostalgic. And it isn’t even my era. It made me nostalgic on behalf of other people.
//“he’s the only one who gets to call me that”. very apropos. So many great little moments. My favourite line though, and I have no idea why, is from “Children Should Play With Dead Things” when they break into the guys house and Dean calls out “Neil, it’s your grief counsellors. We’ve come to hug.” I don’t know, something about it being a truth wrapped in pretences.
I agree that JA could probably do anything. I keep thinking about switching JA in for other actors. Like if you removed Mark Wahlberg from any of his movies and put in JA instead. Better? I just hope if they remake any of Paul Newman’s movies that they give the role to JA.
Dark Side of the Moon, painful though it is, has some of my favorite lines, and my favorite opening by far. “Go ahead, Roy. Do it. But I gotta warn you, when I come back, I’m gon’ be pissed.”
“Apparently you wuv hugz.”
And the obligatory Damn-You-John line, “I just never realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.”
I love the “apparently” in that line. Makes me laugh every time.
“He’s the only one who gets to call me that” makes my heart go pitter-pat! I’d say my favourite is “I lost my shoe.” Amazing delivery. And then JA does a like 270-degree turn so the camera can catch his eyeroll. Every time I think hey acting might be an interesting job I think of that turn and know I am way to unco.
Probably my favourite lines not delivered by one of the boys is “Why am I here?” “For tea parties!” “Tea parties?! Is that all there is?!”
The Teddy Bear! Yes. So awesome.
When the teddy bear shoots himself in the head and the stuffing hits the wall?
One of the funniest stupidest BEST things I’ve ever seen in my life.
I just watched that ep this week to help get over the finale. When Sam says “are we going to gank the teddy bear?” I crack up every time.
hahahahaha
And just the stunned look on their faces through the doorway as they see the teddy bear for the first time. So so funny.
I’m completely caught up! (And now completely traumatized!) But I wanted to join in on the favorite line thing – I think my favorite Sam line is “You rode a farty donkey.” It’s a funny line even without JP’s delivery, but something about the delivery just cracks me up every time – even just thinking about it I’m having to work at not laughing out loud like a crazy person in the doctor’s office waiting room. I can’t think of a specific line from Dean that is my favorite, but Dean barking at the mailman will never get old.
It’s Dean’s non-verbal reaction to things that make me laugh probably more than the lines. Always being on the losing side in the Scissors, Paper, Rock game. The lawnmower. Eating mom’s toasted sandwich. Turning to Sam and mouthing ‘What the f-‘ as the editor grills them on the facts of their own existence. The whole pantomime with the FBI badge at the bar with Adam in the Golem episode. Almost sitting on Sam’s bed and getting up again in the fairy episode.
JA’s entire performance in the Fairy episode is a high watermark for his comedy. It’s absolutely nuts.
Here’s a question for you guys – Dean calls Sam little brother when he knocks him out during the finale- this seems like only the 2nd time he’s done that, the one other time during an episode that is elluding me at the moment, Dean walks in during a fight and as he’s kicking ass asks “y’alright little brother?” I think this is also line from a western and it is driving me crazy trying to remember which one (for some reason Silverado comes to mind) Any takers on the movie origins of that line? Of course it could go as far back in my memory as Bonanza, Hoss asking Little Jo the same question.
Yes!! – he calls him “little brother” in “Something Wicked” right after killing Emperor Palpatine! We just discussed that in the Something Wicked re-cap a little bit – maybe somebody else with a better memory than me can clock other times Dean has called Sam that. It stands out, most definitely. It’s heart-breaking in a way.
I’ll give the Western some thought. Silverado sounds like a possibility, what with it being about brothers and all.
That’s why it stood out! I knew I heard it fairly recently.
Mystery may be enraging, on some level, but it is also power. The person who is mysterious is powerful, as well as vulnerable. How we maneuver that is what brings us interesting behavior.
I agree with you completely on Dean and how he’s filmed. The fascinating thing to me is that I find Sam to be the far more mysterious character. Dean isn’t really hard to figure out, but for all his “talking about feelings’ and empathy, Sam doesn’t give much away. He’s a tough nut to crack. Dean’s vulnerability is palpable, but Sam who never had a home or mother, whose primary caregiver was another traumatized child, gives the appearance of strength and stability. I don’t buy it for a second, but he covers so well, that we really only get that sense of how deeply fearful and needy Sam is when Dean is in grave danger.
//Dean’s vulnerability is palpable, but Sam who never had a home or mother, whose primary caregiver was another traumatized child, gives the appearance of strength and stability. I don’t buy it for a second, but he covers so well, that we really only get that sense of how deeply fearful and needy Sam is when Dean is in grave danger.//
Yes. I’ve always had the sense that Dean is Sam’s stability.
You can see how, early on, Sam took Dean for granted. The way children take their parents for granted. But when you really think about it from Sam’s experience/perspective, Dean is the only person who has loved him unconditionally. I’m pretty sure that for Sam, Dean represents HOME. And like all kids, Sam wants to leave the nest…but he wants to be able to come back when he wants or needs to. If Dean is gone, where is home?
Oh, so many funny lines and moments! I’ve mentioned before that I fell in love with SPN at the “Lady in Red” moment. It’s the little squeeze the alien gives that frat guy…hee hee! It’s just perfect.
The depressed Teddy Bear and the tea parties dialogue is a close second. That whole episode was amazingly funny….except for the creepy rape implications with the dude with the coin who started the whole wishing thing (I can’t remember his name).
Hey Sheila, sorta dropped off the face of the earth for a week. I’m gonna reply here anyway. Well the list goes:
1. Apocalypse Now (I’ve never had such a physical reaction to watching a film, I was shaking by the time they cut into that buffalo)
2. Laura (I’m so in love with Gene Tierney. And Clifton Webb is so great. “I’m not kind, I’m viscious. It’s the secret of my charm.”)
3. To Have and Have Not (I actually favor this one over Casablanca, not sure why but I think it’s the crazy chemistry between Bogart and Bacall. Plus I always thought she was much cooler than Ingrid Bergman. But I’m pretty sure that’s treason.)
4. The Big Lebowski (Just the funniest movie ever)
5. The Last Waltz
And I feel like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Panic in Needle Park and Vanishing Point should be in there but…I guess they aren’t.
I always get nostalgic about listening to The Band too Heather, but I grew up with that music (not in the 70’s) so I think it’s my own memorys I’m nostalgic about. Not sure though. I always felt like I was born in the wrong decade.
I just have two more lines that I have to add before I move on that I simply love.
In Long-Distance Call in the end when Dean thinks Sam’s response to him pouring his heart out is lame. Sam says “Do you want a poem?” It kills me every time. JP says it in the coolest way possible, and it’s so mean!
And the exchange between Jo and Dean in Simon Said
Dean: REO Speedwagon?
Jo: Damn right REO. Kevin Cronin sings it from the heart.
Dean: He sings it from the hair. There’s a difference.
And I agree that it’s the behaviour that makes a line funny or not. I love Dean’s face in Time Is on My Side when he says “oh what is this? Sid and Nancy?” That’s how I always wanted them to go out. Well not with pills but like together, suicide by monster. I’m horrible. Sometimes it’s disturbing how much I love the tragedy of this show.
Max – To Have and Have Not!!!! One of my favorite movies ever!! Total coincidence – I just posted a link to a fascinating analysis of Lauren Ball and her walk, specifically in her debut in that film.
// Well not with pills but like together, suicide by monster. I’m horrible. Sometimes it’s disturbing how much I love the tragedy of this show. //
That would be a hell of an ending. It wouldn’t surprise me if Kripke had thought of that as a possible ending – considering the Western themes, and how so often those Westerns end with a glorious death. Or a glorious last doomed charge, like in Butch Cassidy.
Fans would flip OUT. But I think it could be fantastic.
I just read it! I couldn’t believe it.
I know right! I know Kripke has a Plan for the ending and I can imagine it’s to go out in a blaze of glory. I just hope the network is going to let him finish it the way he has planned, whatever that might be.
What’s your list Sheila? I wanna guess there is some Cassavetes and Woody Allen. Jim Jarmusch? I’m such a list-girl. But it’s not constant.
Oh Geez now I’m stressed out – only 5??? I’ll give you 5 faves off the top of my head –
Only Angels Have Wings
Running On Empty
Double Life of Veronique
Notorious
Love Streams (of course)
But yes to Apocalypse Now.
And also:
Five Easy Pieces.
The Conversation.
Double Indemnity.
Sunset Boulevard.
Stagecoach.
Zodiac.
Badlands.
To Have and Have Not.
In a Lonely Place.
Citizen Kane.
His Girl Friday
Dogfight
Dr. Strangelove
What’s Up Doc?
And I love Laura, too!! What an amazing movie.
Bah. Gun Crazy should be in my Top 5 probably.
It’s so hard to boil it down. But fun nonetheless!!
I was way off. Only clocked one. In a Lonely Place is great. OMG Dogfight! I haven’t thought about that one in years, that was great. I love everything River Phoenix is in. Even The Thing Called Love. The Conversation – the paranoia!
Haven’t seen Double Life of Veronique, Stagecoach, Love Streams or Gun Crazy (is it the one with Richard Widmark? Cause there’s another one on IMDB with the same name.) And when I think about it I haven’t actually seen all of His Girl Friday either. They’re totally going on my watch list.
Have you seen Deep Red? It’s a new contender for at least my top 10. I’m totally getting into horror and am trying to see what has inspired Supernatural. I just saw Kripke’s Boogeyman and it wasn’t as bad as I had heard. But then again I kind of like bad movies. I mean he drops a reference to a fucking sauna-demon completely randomly and that in itself makes me happy.
Gun Crazy is with John Dahl and Peggy Cummins – a great great film noir – highly recommended. Sexy as hell, and totally influential for those “crime duo on the run” movies. Bonnie & Clyde references it, they all reference it. A real favorite of mine.
I have not seen Deep Red!
I am loving the discussion but have very little to add other than I was utterly gutted by the finale. I kind of knew they were going to go there but seeing it was horrible. I had to go read some nice happy brothers ganking ghosts to recover. Jensen’s performance just blew me away. I felt that angel blade. That infant look, God. Fantastic work.
It was the first time I realized that Metatron really had God powers. Dean didn’t have a chance and he was really a distraction. Or if the angels had done their job better they would have destroyed the tablet just a fraction sooner and I wouldn’t have been left sobbing in front of my television.
Oh favorite movies. There are so many.
My favorite John Wayne movie is “Stagecoach”, I know it is not considered as his best but I loved it. ” Some Like It Hot” makes me laugh out loud. ” It Happened One Night” made me love Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. ” African Queen” just gets better everytime I watch it. The Birds still scares me. ” Alien” freaks me out. So many I can’t give them names.
I just finished your review of the pilot and I have to go over and respond, fabulous.
Grean –
// Dean didn’t have a chance and he was really a distraction. //
That was the most painful part of it for me. After all that, after all that gearing himself up … he wasn’t even a match in any way, shape, or form, for Metatron. It was anti-climactic in the most beautiful (and awful) of ways.
Love all of those movies that you mention!! It Happened One Night is a real favorite – I referenced it in one of my SPN re-caps: http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=80141. The hitch-hiker scene!! :)
Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
Max & Sheila – I guess I have to chime in here as well! Movies:
Princess Bride (watched it over and over with my daughter when she was little)
Bull Durham (will watch it every time it’s on)
The Cowboys (my all-time favorite John Wayne movie)
The Deerhunter (loved Platoon, Apocalypse Now, as well)
Blade Runner
Anything with Maggie Smith
All time favorite classical movie is Arsenic and Old Lace
I see a trend here, sappy sentimentalist, that’s me!