“Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee.” — Ben Jonson

Posted on June 11, 2025 by sheila

“O rare Benn Johnson.” — Jonson’s incorrectly-spelled epitaph in Westminster Abbey

It’s his birthday today.

Ben Jonson did everything. Plays, poems, satires, elegies, epigrams. His talent was wide and flexible. Everything he wrote feels inevitable. However, as Michael Schmidt writes in his wonderful Lives of the Poets: “Jonson suffers one irremediable disability: Shakespeare.”

When people have discussed him, throughout history, more often than not they do so in comparison to Shakespeare. Shakespeare is the context, Jonson is in that context’s shadow. As giant as Ben Jonson was, and he was a GIANT, he is not allowed to stand alone, because Shakespeare hovers over all. One cannot exist without consciousness of the other.

The men are placed in opposition merely because of their closeness in the timeline.

Bing Crosby once said something along these lines in re: Frank Sinatra: “Frank is a singer who comes along once in a lifetime, but why did he have to come along in my lifetime?”

One can imagine Ben Jonson thinking something similar about Shakespeare.

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“What good is a character who’s always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?” –Gene Wilder

Posted on June 11, 2025 by sheila

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It’s his birthday today.

Where does the humor lie? Can this moment be broken down to discover its secret? Is it the eye pan to the right? Is it the delayed eyebrow raise? Is it what’s happening with his mouth? Is it that it’s one of his specialties – the comedic pause?

Trying to describe in words why this moment is so funny is like trying to describe in words how a complicated calculus equation works. At a certain point, you just have to be good enough at calculus to even understand the lingo. Same here. All is really left is to sit back and be awed at someone who is this good at what he does.

Humphrey Bogart said that good acting was “6 feet back” in the eyes. Gene Wilder went that deep. Like … where WAS he? When he was at his most lunatic – he – whoever he was – was gone. All that remained was a devotion to the maniacal moment.

For example this:

Actors watch a moment like that and have the same reaction a young violinist probably has to seeing Ihtzak Perlman. You are in the same field as the genius, but in watching you realize it is in name only. You’re not even in the same hemisphere, really. A moment like Wilder’s turns the actors I know into Salieris. That’s the breaks. Just be grateful there are such artists who come down among us for a short while and grace us with their presence, their generosity, their gifts. We can learn from them and be inspired to be better.

gene-wilder-435

This is a famous story, but worth repeating:

In Gene Wilder’s book Kiss Me Like a Stranger, he describes his first meeting with the director Mel Stuart, before he had decided to do Willy Wonka. Wilder had reservations about the script as is. He had an idea. Listen to him, and learn. This is how specific he was as an actor. This is how much he understood story and character and AUDIENCE, too, let’s not forget. Those who think actors just do what the director tells them … well, they haven’t ever ever been involved in a creative process. Ever.

Although I liked Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play Willy Wonka. The script was good, but there was something that was bothering me. Mel Stuart, the man who was going to direct the movie, came to my home to talk about it.

“What’s bothering you?”

“When I make my first entrance, I’d like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk towards the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees that Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk towards them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I’m walking on and stands straight up, by itself … but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause.”

” … Why do you want to do that?”

“Because from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth.”

Mel Stuart looked a little puzzled. I knew he wanted to please me, but he wasn’t quite sure about this change.

“You mean – if you can’t do what you just said, you won’t do the part?”

“That’s right,” I answered.

Mel mumbled to himself, ” … comes out of the door, has a cane, cane gets stuck in a cobblestone, falls forward, does a somersault, and bounces back up …” He shrugged his shoulders. “Okay!”

Imagine Willy Wonka without that tumble.

Best of all: Mel Stuart filmed it exactly as Gene Wilder told him to. Shot for shot.

Wilder was RIGHT.

He was also right about Willy Wonka’s costume. Mel Stuart sent Wilder some sketches. Wilder looked them over, and wrote Stuart a note back with his thoughts.

Don’t miss Wilder’s letter. “The hat is terrific, but making it 2 inches shorter would make it more special.”

Gene Wilder came and spoke at my grad school. He would say something, or pause to think a bit before saying something, and the moment wasn’t even funny but his TONE and his TIMING had us roaring. He would stop when he heard us laugh, and say, “Y’know, that happens to me all the time.” He wasn’t annoyed. He calmly accepted that when he spoke in a serious way large groups of people began to laugh.

His timing was otherworldly.

My favorite Gene Wilder story (it’s in his book, but he told it to us when he visited my school) was about his first day on Bonnie & Clyde, his debut in film. He had done tons of theatre, but no movies.

He’s in the back of the car for the scene where the criminals take him hostage, and director Arthur Penn yells, “ACTION” and Wilder immediately started the scene. Penn stopped Wilder and said, “Just because I say Action doesn’t mean you have to start. It means that we are ready for when you are ready.” In other words, Penn felt Wilder’s nerves, and wanted him to chill. “Just take your time, and start when you’re ready.” Wilder was grateful. He took a moment after Penn called “Action”, got himself together, and then played the scene brilliantly. Afterwards, someone on the crew said to him, “Don’t get used to that.”

Wilder told that story in praise of Arthur Penn as a director (who was present in the room, this was an Actors Studio event), but also to illustrate that it’s an actor’s job to get himself together, however he has to, in the middle of the chaos of a set, so that you’re ready to go when everyone else is ready. That’s the job. Be ready when the director calls “Action.” And Penn gave him the space to learn that lesson on his first day on a movie set, without being yelled at/shamed/scorned.

He also told the story of seeing Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus when he was a kid, and having an “A-ha” moment in re: comedy. There’s the bit with the little boy and the hotdog.

Wilder watched it, agog, his analytical mind trying to break down WHY it was so hilarious. There was the timing of the bit with the hot dog, and Chaplin making goo-goo faces at the baby and then eating the hot dog, etc. Finally, Wilder realized that why the scene was so funny was that nobody in it – including Chaplin – was “acting funny.” The situation was funny. Chaplin played it for the reality of it. Wilder said that that one moment in The Circus inspired his whole career and he would come back to it if he got stuck. It was a roadmap of what to do, how to solve any given problem. Create a situation that is so funny that nobody needs to “act funny.”

Which brings me back to him saying something serious and all of us bursting into laughter.

His genius was untouchable. It’s like musical genius or a genius for math.

You can get more proficient in those things. But you cannot learn to do what the geniuses do. You’ll never EVER catch up.

 
 
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Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged | 7 Comments

Supernatural re-watch, Season 2

Posted on June 10, 2025 by sheila

If you’re following along:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 12-15

Plus: my season recaps from back in the day:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 1 “In My Time of Dying”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners
Supernatural is intense and it’s sad but you forget HOW intense it is when you are immersed in seasons 12-15. You watch it diminish itself in the final years but then you go back … and it’s almost shocking, how deep it goes, how huge the emotions on display. Jared was a good actor as a teenager, but Supernatural gave him the rare chance to develop as an actor, to grow and come up to another level, an adult level. You can still see him moving into this new territory. I always remember the anecdote, maybe on one of the commentary tracks, that in the moment when Dad sends Sam out for a cup of coffee, Jared’s initial impulse was to really “make a moment” out of it, linger in it, because we know this is the last time he sees his dad alive. But of course Sam doesn’t know that. He has to just leave the room. This was a learning moment for Jared: his impulse to linger was a cliched impulse, and cliche often comes out of not being sure, of relying on the familiar while you are in the unfamiliar. Cliched acting doesn’t necessarily mean lack of talent. But really good acting is tough-minded and unsentimental, even if you’re feeling all OVER the place. Jared needed to be gently guided out of that cliche. This is just my interpretation of a story told, also based on my feeling about him as an actor at this point. He has a wildly sentimental moment in the final episode of this season, he wasn’t in control of it (and it also wasn’t entirely his fault. The framing was bad, it did no one any favors). However: even with bad framing, you have to be able to protect yourself as an actor. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. Compare to what he does a couple seasons later in season 5, and then season 6, where he is totally in charge of his own talent, never making mistakes, everything in proportion. It’s even more noticeable in the later seasons where – unfortunately and unforgivably – Sam isn’t given enough to do. This is where you can really see Jared’s calm sense of his own power and how his talent and/or gift (whatever you want to call it) sometimes saves and/or grounds whole entire episodes, even if he’s just sitting there listening. Jared fills it all in for us. Often the STAKES exist only on his FACE. Here, he’s still a young actor, though. By season 5, he’s a full-grown man and his talent just grew exponentially. I hope none of this sounds condescending. I love watching talented young actors grow into themselves. Compare with Jensen: I consider Jensen to be a little bit of a phenom, and a little bit of an acting freak. A total natural who just needed good material and enough space. He’s only a couple years older than Jared, but he is fully blossomed already here. Totally self-assured and also tough-minded: He doesn’t have the impulse to linger in a moment. That impulse doesn’t seem to exist for him. Maybe it did in his first job, but he learned so fast. To me, it always looks like he wants to move OUT of the moment as quickly as possible, or fight against the moment, because we as humans don’t want to LINGER in our pain or discomfort. We do whatever it takes NOT to feel bad stuff. Dean is a master of deflection and mis-direction. Jensen cuts moments short, he fights the feelings, until he can’t anymore. This is why Dean breaking down is so exposing, because he’s put up such a good fight. This attitude towards emotion, again, requires mental toughness. You go to any acting class and you see people racing towards intense feelings, lingering in it, some would say wallowing. This is a necessary part of a young actor’s process. The society we all grew up in shames you for your vulnerability and it takes a lot of un-learning to express these things. But once the cameras are rolling or you walk onstage, you have to be tougher than that. Jensen pretty much only makes vulnerable choices, he approaches every moment like it’s the first time it’s happening, and he is also very very tough. Tough like John Wayne was tough. Jared got there, he developed really quickly. No one was tougher than Jared in season 6.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 2 “Everybody Loves a Clown”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Ash! The show lost a lot when it went all middle-class and Sam and Dean were suddenly drinking whiskey out of cut-glass decanters. The case here is paper-thin although rich in atmosphere. The point here is to introduce Ellen, Jo and Ash, and to start the process of dealing with Sam and Dean’s grief, which will last most of the season. I also love the LOOK of this: Sam and Dean out in broad daylight, the sun on their skin, the cuts on Sam’s face, the scar on Dean’s forehead, etc. The two of them walking down that lonely country road. Location shoots that place them in the real world, in other words, a huge strength of the show (taking its cues from X-Files, which had a similar fantastical premise but totally real atmosphere). The other thing I love about Season 2 is Dean keeping the secret from Sam, for episodes on end. And Jensen incorporates it into everything he does. He and Sam clash about Dad, Dean still has this protective thing – it’s so messed up, he’s so parentified (such a good portrayal of it) – and he has every right to be angry at not having a childhood and having too much placed on him. But he won’t even allow himself to feel that, let alone express it, until “Dream a Little Dream of Me”. I LOVE the long arcs. Dean is keeping the secret of what John whispered to him but he is also keeping secrets from himself.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 3 “Bloodlust”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Robert Singer
Ty Olsson as vampire Eli! Benny! Sterling K. Brown brings such gravitas to what he’s doing, perfectly cast to showcase Dean’s insecurity about being man enough, clearly instilled in him by his dad, and they’re both thrown off by Sam’s different “brand” of masculinity. It’s such an interesting dynamic and reveals a lot about the central relationship of our lead guys. (As I’ve said a million times: any new cast member that comes in must somehow reveal to us something about the Winchesters: that must be one of their purposes. It helps if they’re also three-dimensional – which Gordon is, although he is already on the road towards one-note monomania). Dean and Gordon male-bonding makes me so uncomfortable, I can’t even tell you. Dean is soooo susceptible to strong men, and you’ll notice he never flirts with Gordon. This is rare for him because he flirts with anything that moves. But Dean takes the submissive role and it hurts to see him do this. Sam, with distance, sees exactly what’s going on. Great scenes. Eli and Lenore are well-drawn too: the vampire episodes are always so good that way. The equivalency is drawn: who’s the real monster here?

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 4 “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”
Written by Raelle Tucker
Directed by Robert Singer
Oh God, visiting Mary’s grave. What’s dead should stay dead, Supernatural. Now this one is a bit of a filler episode but I love the look of it. Real horror shit, color-corrected within an inch of its life, stark shadows, crazy camera angles, and the stench of death. And my God does Kim Manners love their faces. The wallpaper background on my laptop is a close-up of JA from this episode.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 5 “Simon Said”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Tim Iafocano
Psychic Kids arc. This isn’t my favorite arc, and I find it a little bit corny (although the arc has its moments), but it’s instructive to compare it to a similar “arc”, that of the Wayward Sisters. One of the issues with Wayward Sisters was that, first of all, it so clearly was just a setup for a spinoff. Nothing was integrated into the action, and one of them brought Land of the Lost with her, so thanks a lot. Second of all, no thought was given to create real three-dimensional characters. Everyone was so flat and one-note. “Types”. But with Psychic Kids, they clearly had fun thinking up all these different personalities, who would of course eventually come together in the finale. These people are all weirdos, unique, distinct. I mean, Patience? Who was Patience? A good student? Like, that was it. She was a good student. She had no personality. Imagine if Patience had been a geeky outcast, or in a punk rock band, or a daydreamy poetic girl? SOMEthing. ANYthing. Other than “goody goody good student.” Isn’t part of writing a script the fun of creating interesting characters?

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 6 “No Exit”
Written by Matt Witten
Directed by Kim Manners
The set for this episode is phenomenal: those behind the wall spaces and air vents and dungeon, the cobwebs, the lack of visibiilty. The show is still very very dark at this point – not as dark as season 1 – but still: darkness creates a mood, man. No ghosts in broad daylight, I can tell you that. I was outside the fandom when I started watching, and wasn’t aware of any consensus on characters. I didn’t come to it with much prior knowledge or a lot of chatter in my ears. My “way in” was through this one Destiel fan who wrote dissertations on Tumblr: if you’ve been reading me you know the story. I wasn’t really on Twitter reading up on these things or following SPN threads at the time. I also am not automatically biased against any female character coming into the brothers’ world, even if she was floated out there as a potential love interest. I’m not against any of that. If you’re gonna do it, do it, and do it well, make it interesting! So I didn’t bristle at all at the presence of Jo, and honestly – when you look at how a young woman getting into hunting is handled in later seasons (uhm … Chrissy? Claire?) … Jo makes way more sense. She’s not 14, first of all. And look at her parents! Ellen and Jo being woven into the story was really important – and I feel that even more in retrospect. Nobody’s forcing Jo into a love interest role. “Should’ve cleaned the pipes” though … oh my God, Dean.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 7 “The Usual Suspects”
Written by Cathryn Humphris
Directed by Mike Rohl
Pure entertainment. I love this one. I love Linda Blair’s outside perspective, the whole episode from her point of view, as she slowly puts it together. Seeing Sam and Dean from her point of view, what they must (and do) look like to outsiders: lunatics.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 8 “Crossroad Blues”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Steve Boyum
Dean takes the crossroads deals so personally. He’s so angry at these people who made the deals, which, of course, is re-directed anger at his dad and also empathetic connection with the people the deals were made FOR. How would your loved one feel if they knew their health was due to a crossroads deal, and you would DIE so they could live? This is, of course, what Dean is LIVING right now and it’s awful for him, crushing. Which then won’t stop him from doing the same thing to Sam later in the season. Sam has to keep telling Dean to calm down. I am loving season 2 Dean. He’s so out of control, reaching for his own personality as a cover, but he can’t manage it, a lot’s leaking out. I love the sexy crossroads demon girls: they’re all the same type, but they’re all different. Again, so much became generic in later seasons: the bored demons holding clipboards, the angels indistinguishable from one another, the hunters milling around the bunker (kill me now) … Back then, they gave everything its own flavor and style. Great scene between her and Dean.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 9 “Croatoan”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Robert Singer
This season is packed with conversations between the brothers about the morality of what they do, and the thorny implications of hunting monsters, especially when it’s demon possession. It comes up over and over and over again. Gordon asserted his pleasure that the issue is black and white. Dean gravitates that way, as did John. Sam resists. He thinks these things need to be discussed, to not just assume there’s only one way, but to talk it out. This episode opens with one of those conversations. They’re really exploring it, and exploring the different ways the brothers approach it. Also really important establishing, in no uncertain terms, Dean’s exhaustion and sheer over-it-ness. This will lead us into the second half of the season, where Dean’s heartbreak and lingering trauma – which he can barely acknowledge – takes the wheel. It’s been present this season from the jump, but here he actually says it out loud. It’s going to be one small leap to the deal he makes at the end.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 10 “Hunted”
Written by Raelle Tucker
Directed by Rachel Talallay
Gordon is the definition of one-note, but Sterling K. Brown is superb at suggesting the layers of damage-beyond-repair going on, and how that damage has flattened him into what he is. He can’t be reasoned with. I am sorry to keep repeating myself but any new character who is going to come into this world has to bring something significant to the table, they have to have some weight to them, and they have to somehow intersect with the brothers’ journey – not just in a “we are in the same place at the same time” way – but “where I am at is where you are at symbolically” or “You look at me and see everything you fear” or whatEVER it is. Gordon carries so much symbolic weight and of course he would come into the picture immediately following the death of John. Sam and Dean wouldn’t have let him that far in a couple years down the road. My radar was WAY off in the year following my dad’s death. There’s no way I would have gotten “taken” the way I did by the guy who came into my life three months after my dad’s death if it hadn’t been for my absolutely shattered radar system. Season 2 is all about grief. So many of the choices can be chalked up to: “well, their dad just died. they’re not thinking straight.”

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 11 “Playthings”
Written by Matt Witten
Directed by Charles Beeson
An homage which goes beyond the homage into its own thing. You don’t just feel like they’re copying The Shining, although there are so many recognizable nods. “Playthings” wears its influence lightly and yet deliberately: you literally cannot miss it. But they feel free enough to go off on their own way. The mood and atmosphere of this one is really rich and deep. Drunken Sam, and the flailing-brotherly-begging that goes on is super vulnerable – in fact, they both seem really vulnerable this episode, albeit for different reasons. Sam knows why he’s vulnerable. Dean thinks he knows why he’s vulnerable, but he’s wrong. Or he’s not dealing with something. There’s a giant DRESS on your wall, Dean. I’m not sure WHAT it’s trying to tell you but you need to drop down into some other level of awareness.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 12 “Night Shifter”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
I adore this one. Again, I love the unexpectedness of it, which they felt free enough to explore back then. You’d think Dean would be the one super annoyed about mandroid-laser-eyes Ronald. You’d think he’d treat Ronald like the ghost facers. Or any other enthusiastic amateur who wanders his way. But Dean likes him. He appreciates him. And is haunted by him later – and rightly so, I think. Agent Henriksen, bestill my heart. He brings real world consequences with him, something even Rowena couldn’t combat. Or, who knows, she might have some spell to erase all the Wanted posters and VOILA, all the tension is lost in the show, thanks Rowena. Sam and Dean look truly freaked out in that last shot in the Impala. They knew they couldn’t wiggle out of this one supernaturally.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 13 “Houses of the Holy”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Kim Manners
Rhode Island episode! The Croatoan episode and this episode both are premonitions of where the show will go – not for two, three more seasons though. They’re just floating some things out there. Kripke always knew angels would arrive. I feel like the knowledge of Castiel – and what he would be and bring (at his best, that is) – is HERE in this episode: it’s one of those things where you can’t help but think of Castiel – and Michael – and how all of that is already in operation for the Winchesters only they don’t even kinow it. In other words, the later information expands the episode. Unlike, for example, the reveal that Chuck is God. The “angel” here is not an angel, but the mystery of the angels is everywhere in the episode, as well as the hope that angels bring. It’s quite moving, especially in the stunning final scene. Dean is tapping out, you can tell. He’s losing strength. The idea that there may be heavenly beings watching over them … this connects to Mary telling Dean angels were watching over him … all of these things feel creepy-spooky prophetic, at least the way they chose to unfold the angel part of the story.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 14 “Born Under a Bad Sign”
Written by Cathryn Humphris
Directed by J. Miller Tobin
I still wish we got to see Sam smoking and drinking and carrying on in the gas station. The look on Dean’s face … I have to shout out Jared, yet again, for the work he does in the scene with Jo. We all know him as Sam, we love him as Sam, he’s so endearing in interviews and at cons, we have this close association with him. But LOOK at what he does in that scene, and how convincing he is. It’s different than soulless Sam, or Satan, or any of the other transformations poor Sam has to go through. Meg-Sam is … nastier and pettier and earthier. He’s just a guy. But he’s different. Another good thing about the scene with Jo is: yes, she becomes a damsel-in-distress but through no fault of her own. She plays it cool behind the bar because she immediately knows something is not right. She just KNOWS it’s not Sam. This is Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear in action. You feel that way? Trust it. (You know who else does this? Lisa in The Kids Are Alright. Notice how even though she is, of course, freaked out when she sees her son in the mirror – but she absorbs the information at lightning speed and declares, “You’re not Ben.” She is ABLE to take that leap, unlike the other mother who goes all Susan Smith. There’s a reason Lisa could “deal with” Dean as a – potential – boyfriend. She’s got good instincts – and she had those instincts already, withOUT his influence.) Like I said, I came into Supernatural pretty late so I wasn’t steeped in fan chatter. I caught up with all of it later. I was all in with Jo. I also liked her because yes, she was a pretty little blonde, but she was believably from a frontier-type existence, but she was from a Howard Hawks Western, not a John Ford Western.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 15 “Tall Tales”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Bradford May
Top 5 for me. “Lady in Red” knocked me OUT the first time I watched. But this past watch, I cackled watching Dean getting beaten up by those two hotties in lingerie. It’s “too precious for this world”. A clear nod to the vampire episode “Bad Blood” in X-Files – with Luke Wilson in a very funny guest spot! – where Mulder and Scully have two very different versions of what happened, both of which we see, and it’s all entertaining (“Hey, Scully, move your little legs!”), but it’s also revealing about their relationship. Plus, I think Supernatural took the Magic Fingers motif from “Bad Blood”.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 16 “Roadkill”
Written by Raelle Tucker
Directed by Charles Beeson
I LOVE the structure of this one and I love its monochromatic palette. I wonder if they really were just out in the woods all night filming. It does look and seem so real: the dripping wet, the snow, the wet on their faces. The sound design is really cool too. I also think it’s so cool that we are basically in her confused perspective throughout. What is going ON? Of course if you think about her car vanishing, it’s pretty obvious, but I will say the first time I saw the ep I didn’t catch it, or I just assumed the ghost somehow de-materialized her car. I don’t know. What is pleasing is seeing Sam and Dean from the perspective of a confused traumatized outsider: we’ve had a bunch of that this season. And so we see their competence, the way they communicate without words, the quick glances … Another “tell” is the way Dean treats her. Calling her “sister”, being openly impatient with her, rough even. It’s off-putting and not usually how he treats victims. It all makes sense when you know what she is. The whole episode is so mournful, so full of grief.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 17 “Heart”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Kim Manners
Sera Gamble is IN LOVE with Sam and Dean and Kim Manners is IN LOVE with their faces. This is two episodes in a row now where Sam has taken the lead, insisting to Dean they consider other options, or at least explain what is happening. Sam as compassionate ghost-whisperer is what led us, unfortunately, to the flattening of Sam literally ten years later, where he’s oh so philosophical all the time. But here, it comes from a deep need to believe in redemption arcs, to have hope he doesn’t have to become a monster – or if he DOES become one, he could control it. Jared is so good in these take-charge episodes: he takes charge with gentleness but he is still very firm. It’s so different from Dean. It’s so important to have a three-dimensional Sam, and sometimes he seems even MORE three-dimensional, mainly because Dean’s publilc persona tends towards the Burlesque, and he tends to avoid the things he doesn’t want to look at. He’s an escape artist. So we have these two brothers, dealing with things in different ways, without their Dad to impose order and consensus. Sam is rising in power. He is able to stand up to Dean, he doesn’t cave. It’s exciting to watch and it’s really important. Because one of the things that happens in this episode is you watch both of them change. It’s subtle, but it’s hard to picture the final scene happening even just 5 or 6 episodes ago. Things are coming out in the open, Sam is clearly at risk, Dean is breaking down and getting tired, Sam isn’t just going to do things Dean’s way, and Dean is starting to adjust, to listen. I think Gordon has a lot to do with this too. A glimpse of what it’s like to be alone, of what this life could do to you if you didn’t have a partner. Dean needs Sam, more than Sam needs Dean, and we’ve always known this, but here it comes out in really beautiful tender complicated ways.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 18 “Hollywood Babylon”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
And so begins an awesome three-episode cluster. Sam’s been the main focus of the season, really, although secret-carrying Dean has been important. But now … Dean. It’s alll about Dean. We’ve seen his fatalism, his lack of giving-a-shit, his irritation with Sam’s dedication, everything. Then suddenly we see him in two wholly different environments – a Hollywood movie set and a prison – where he seamlessly adapts himself to the environment, places where he flourishes, actually, where his burlesque has room to express itself. It’s SO interesting and unexpected: a less imaginative team would see Dean as the Responsible Big Brother always, he’s the hard-ass, he’s the tough guy … Jensen set about dismantling that in episode 2 of Season 1, but still, the cliche could have stuck. Hollywood Babylon and Folsom Prison Blues are extremely illuminating: any picture of Dean is not complete without it. We haven’t seen this before. We’ve seen him come into new situations, and gleam and glitter and flirt his way into morgues and town squares … he’s an attention-getter, he can’t help it, so he rolls with it. In episode 18 and 19 though, this “thing” of his shows up in very different ways. You’d think it’d be the opposite, that Dean couldn’t blend in if he tried. And, to be fair, he doesn’t really “blend”. He still stands out, but he loves the camaraderie, and he also maybe loves a regulated world with a firm set of rules. Dean can be very submissive, he’s got a lot of GIVE to him, in a way Sam doesn’t. John used this part of Dean, as well as probably shaming him out of it. But it’s still there. He submits to the rules of the game. Sam is a rebel, he refuses to submit. Dean hates the rules but he needs them. And he seems truly happy, for the first time in … EVER … in “Hollywood Babylon” and “Folsom Prison”. He’s in his element (even though he’s never been a PA before, and he’s never done hard time before). He figures out the “scene” immediately, morphs himself to it to fit, and then becomes the Best PA ever, and the Top Dog prisoner in a matter of 24 hours. All of this is so entertaining! But then comes the final part of our trilogy: “What Is and What Should Never Be”, which rips away the Burlesque, rips away everything, leaving him exposed. It’s heart-breaking.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 19 “Folsom Prison Blues”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Poor big Tiny. Dean’s on a roll. Sam finds it worrying. Dean is liberated. Having “Hollywood Babylon” and “Folsom Prison Blues” back to back is illuminating. I like, too, how Sam can’t stop this side of Dean, not exactly, but you also get the sense – and it’s not in the language – that Sam has never seen Dean this way before, he’s never really noticed just how susceptible Dean is to different systems. He probably wouldn’t have had a chance to see this when they were kids. But it’s been four years since Sam hung out with Dean so much and a lot has changed. I have no conclusions. I just like thinking about this. Especially since these two episodes lead into the following episode, making it one of my favorite triptychs in the entire series.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 20 “What Is and What Should Never Be”
Written by Raelle Tucker
Directed by Eric Kripke
I adore this episode. Everyone pushes it to the nth degree and they’re all so in the zone it feels like they can’t do anything wrong. But of course this energy is only the result of careful meticulous planning, and having such a clear objective. When you have as strong an objective as this episode has, and when everyone buys in to it as hard as they do – down to the sound design (that low persistent hum … so interesting) … then you could throw anything into the mix and it feels like this team could incorporate it and make it work. This is definitely the Dean Show, for sure … but we needed to crack that egg, we needed to not just guess how he felt about his mother and his home, but to actually see him BE there again and then also tear himself away. It was necessary. Jensen does truly heartbreaking work here. Painful. I’m glad someone made this moment into a gif though. Their little conversation afterwards is so poignant, and Sam’s reaction is really interesting (in the language, but more so because of how Jared plays it). Imagine Sam hearing Dean tell the story of what had happened to him while trapped in his own brain. The story is SO revealing. It’s like Sam seeing Lisa sitting on a picnic blanket in “Dream a Little Dream”. You almost don’t want to see what someone wishes for. It’s too intimate. They’re brothers, but it’s only season 2. They don’t really know each other as grown men, not really (a lot of that is because Dean is stuck in their childhood dynamic – but so is Sam. And now they don’t have John to bond them together). There’s still a lot of unspoken stuff between them, and the bridge cannot be crossed totally, because they essentially had different childhoods. Dean remembers home/family and Sam does not. If the djinn attacked Sam, what la-la land would he have gone to in his mind? I don’t mean to be mean but would Dean have even factored into it? Is Sam’s la-la land elsewhere, entirely? Full escape? I don’t think I’m reading too much into it to say that the ambivalence I see in Jared in this little scene comes from all of that. There’s a micro-expression that flashes across Jared’s face … when he asks, “So we didn’t get along, huh?” He looks almost shy when he says it. There’s so much going on.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 21 “All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 1”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Robert Singer
The High Noon episode, with Sam as Gary Cooper. Yellow-eyes shows up with a fill-in-the-blanks info-dump, and it somehow feels eerie as opposed to over-determined backstory with a capital B. The psychic kids arc was kind of where all this was going all along, and it needed to end – unless we wanted to get into a Wonder Twins Activate vibe, but I did like how it all was handled. A sort of ghostly grim Breakfast Club.

Supernatural, Season 2, episode 21 “All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 2”
Written by Eric Kripke and Michael T. Moore
Directed by Robert Singer
Dean makes the choice here that ends up being repeated over and over again … only here, since it’s the first time (okay, second, once you count John), it has a lot of stakes and import. You know somehow it isn’t right, or a line is being crossed. Some of the special effects here are cheesy to a point you just wish they wouldn’t … it’s almost Roger-Corman-y and no shade against Roger Corman but I’m not sure that’s the effect they were going for here. Ghost-John bear-hugging some demon, etc. Dean is thrown through the sky and basically hits his head on a tombstone: he would be so dead! Jared has the sentimental moment I mentioned before – but honestly the moment is already over the top, in how it’s framed: Dean and John in the foreground, looking at each other, with Sam in between. Something’s not right in the framing: it makes sense but it’s wayyyyy too much. And since Jared is a little bit further back, he’s not the same SIZE as Dean and John, and he’s looking back and forth between them like a Dickensian orphan being adopted. There’s dry ice! I love when Ellen yells something like “The damn devil’s gate is opened!” And it’s a Roger Corman movie! But the PURPOSE of all of this is pure and has a lot of meaning beyond its plot: John clawing his way out to ghostly-hug a demon, Sam shooting Jake repeatedly (those flecks of blood on his face!), the scene between Bobby and Dean in the opening sequence, the sense that all of this is somehow not right, etc. etc. The Western vibe from part 1 carries over into part 2.

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“I couldn’t do no yodelin’, so I turned to howlin’ and it’s done me just fine.”– Howlin’ Wolf

Posted on June 10, 2025 by sheila

Chester Burnett, who would eventually become the legendary Howlin’ Wolf, was born on this day in 1901.

He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the “early influences” category. He is in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (He recorded at Sun Records in the early years – pre-Elvis, in other words). He is in the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame. He is in the Blues Hall of Fame. I could go on.

Sam Phillips at Sun Records talked about him with the reverence usually reserved for spiritual experiences or out-of-body close encounters with extra-terrestrials. Everyone felt that way about him. The Rolling Stones sure did. He was one of their major influences. When the Stones appeared on Shindig, they handed over the stage to Howlin’ Wolf, with a great blues band, including the great James Burton (who would eventually play for Elvis all through the 70s). It’s astonishing, and the young Rolling Stones sit on the stairs behind him, looking up at him, agog. Poor quality clip visually, but all you need are the vocals.

Howlin’ Wolf was born in Mississippi, recorded in Memphis, but eventually would become associated with the Chicago blues. His voice is unmistakable. So powerful it’s impossible to listen to him casually. He demands full attention. His strength of persona was titanic. He had major gravitas – as though he was emerging FROM the earth – but also explosive lift-off, creating an excitement so huge it must have been absolutely overwhelming to see him life. Most artists have one or the other – gravitas or lift-off. He had both.

We’re lucky he lived long enough (he died in 1976) so there is a lot of footage of him performing live.

One final thing, a funny thing I just discovered while trying to find the photo of him at the top of this post (it’s my favorite photo of him because he’s IN ACTION, he’s coming right at you). If you Google “Howlin Wolf” he is the first thing that comes up – of course – but one of the alternate searches showing in the search bar was “Howling wolf animal.” So what this means is: the determined wolf lovers out there who just want to see pictures of their favorite animal out in the wild howling at the moon, have to add “animal” to their search, to clarify what it is they are actually looking for – otherwise all they’d see would be pictures of this legendary bluesman.

The landscape is still saturated with his name.

 
 
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.

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“If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.” — Judy Garland

Posted on June 10, 2025 by sheila

It’s the great, the irreplaceable, Judy Garland’s birthday.

The screengrab above is from John Cassavetes’ 1963 film A Child is Waiting. This film is not really well-known, except among Cassavetes/Garland completists – but some serious Cassavetes fans don’t know about it either. This was a “job” for him, it wasn’t a self-generated project, and so … to these purists … maybe it doesn’t “count” as much. Or something. I don’t know. He himself disowned it, saying the end result was not what he was going for, that there was a conflict between himself and producer Stanley Kramer about how to tell the story. All of this may be true, but that’s no reason for us to not watch the film and make up our own minds. It’s definitely filmed in a more “conventional” way than his other more personal films like Faces, Woman Under the Influence, Husbands and etc., all of which came later. But it’s interesting to watch because it shows what Cassavetes is like as a “director for hire” … and you can FEEL his sensibility in every frame, I don’t care what the purists say. A Child is Waiting is about a woman (Garland) who joins the staff of a mental hospital for disabled kids and immediately disagrees with the treatment of the patients, as decreed by the head doc (Burt Lancaster). She bonds with the kids – one in particular – whose mother, a chilly blonde played by Gena Rowlands, cannot deal with the fact that her son is not “normal” – she’s put him into the institution and basically never comes to visit, breaking the son’s heart and spirit. Garland fights for better treatment of the kids. The children in the movie were not trained actors. They were all mentally-challenged and disabled kids from a nearby state hospital. It gives the film a palpable and almost dangerous sense of reality that it certainly would not otherwise have. Cassavetes didn’t try to control the kids, or manipulate them, in either what they did, or who they were. This is where “he” is most felt in the film. He doesn’t film the kids with pathos, or pity, or sadness. He captures them in the fullness of their lives, mischievous, angry, sullen, pleased, whatever. And: He just thrust Garland among them. And the whole film, as far as I’m concerned, is about watching her take it all in. The screengrab at the top is what she is like through the whole thing: She takes them in – listens to them – intuitively cares about where they are at and what they are going through. Because it’s Cassavetes and his eye was always so tender and human – this does not feel exploitive. A Child is Waiting was produced by Stanley Kramer – who wanted to expose the plight of such children – (he was a very socially conscious guy as I’m sure you know). Other big actresses were considered for this part – offers were made, they all turned it down. Kramer had just worked with Garland in Judgment at Nuremberg so he got her to take the role.

If you want to see pure distilled empathy – felt in every thought/word/deed/gesture/expression … it’s in A Child is Waiting in Judy Garland’s performance.

Because that’s the thing with Judy Garland. She couldn’t do it any other way. It ALL was real for her. It’s how she was built, it’s how she received the world. It’s why she was a great actress, and it’s why she suffered so mightily. She paid the price for the easy accessibility to her own depths, of course, but it came from a place not of neurosis – as is so facile-ly claimed – but of generosity, fearlessness, and, above all else, reality. And actors must always “find a way” to make their fictional circumstances real. That’s the gig. Garland couldn’t do it any other way and so actors have much to learn from her.

If the pain was real for her, and it was, then so too was the joy, the love, the humor. It ALL was real. She had access to ALL of it.

This is a PHENOM in emotional availability and performance, in actors AND in regular people, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

She was DIFFERENT. This is why she is who she is and why she was who she was. It’s why she’s so wondrous to watch.

For me, one of the greatest single pieces of acting in the 20th century – and one that predicts Brando by over a decade – is the scene in Wizard of Oz when she sees Aunty Em in the big globe. This scene is one of my Talismans of Great Acting.

She’s not controlling the emotion, or even expressing it. She is IN it. And remember: Aunty Em is NOT in the glass globe. Judy is looking at nothing. Nobody’s there. She’s looking at a prop. Everything she does she does from her imagination. It’s astonishing.

Another high-water-mark: Judy Garland’s one-of-the-greatest-performances-of-all-time rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, sung on her TV show a couple of weeks after President Kennedy – a friend of hers – was killed.

Like I said: one of the greatest performances of all time.

Another high-water-mark: the scene in the dressing room in Star is Born. Again, for me, it’s another Talisman of Great Acting. Judy has a ton of those.)

It’s long. But that’s why it’s so masterful. Because I must point out: she does it with no cuts. She has to speak a huge wall of text – the scene is 5 minutes long – and she must “go” someplace during the course of the monologue. She doesn’t start out where she ends up. She can’t play the end of the monologue before she gets there … so she actually has to go THROUGH this. In front of us. No cuts, to give her time to prepare, or jump-start the final emotional state. The camera is placed on her and we watch her … she starts out sad but relatively calm, and at the end she is completely BROKEN. (The following scene is the huge number “Born in a Trunk” – which she is forced to perform with all of THIS churning around underneath it. And so that scene ALSO is a wonder, because in it she has to suppress all of THIS that we see here.)

No fakery. Never. She literally COULDN’T fake it.

Nobody like her. Happy birthday Judy.

 
 
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.

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Mike Doughty, if you’re out there …

Posted on June 10, 2025 by sheila

It’s singer-songwriter Mike Doughty’s birthday today. My brother Brendan introduced me to Doughty’s music back in the day – specifically the album Skittish, which I still own – because I still believe in owning my music, not renting it from some corporate overlord.

I spent about a year and a half re-posting all my brother’s music writing – from off his blog – because I felt this stuff shouldn’t be lost or forgotten. Brendan is such a good writer. So I resurrect pieces when I can. Mike Doughty’s Skittish was # on Bren’s loosely organized “50 Best Albums” list, and I think it’s such a beautiful piece of writing I wanted to share it again: The title to this post here is from Bren’s piece.

50 Best Albums, #3. Mike Doughty, Skittish

 
 
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.

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Happy Birthday to “Mr. Excitement”, Jackie Wilson

Posted on June 9, 2025 by sheila

Jackie Wilson’s voice is otherworldly. He had a four-octave range. You listen and there are times where you can’t even believe what you’re hearing.

Wilson started out in Detroit talent contests, where he had a tendency to win. Big fish small pond, although even in the 40s it was hard to stand out in music hub Detroit. Eventually, Wilson auditioned for and was accepted into the successful R&B group Billy Ward and His Dominoes, a staple in Las Vegas entertainment. (Elvis, famously, saw them perform in Las Vegas in 1956 and was so blown away by Wilson, whose name he didn’t know, that he went on and on … and ON about it, during the rap-riff session in 1956 now known as the “Million Dollar Quartet”. Wilson performed Elvis’ recent hit “Don’t Be Cruel” and you can hear Elvis’ awe: he didn’t know the song had THAT in it. 1956 was the year Elvis went national/global. “Don’t Be Cruel” was huge for him. But he performed it without exploring the depths. Wilson showed him the depths. Listen to Elvis regale Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins with the story. There’s no jealousy. It’s sheer personal and professional respect.)


Billy Ward and his Dominoes

Wilson and Elvis eventually became friends. Wilson always had nice things to say about Elvis and, of course, the reverse was true, as we have immortalized on tape.

You can get a great sense of Wilson’s style in “Rags to Riches”, where his lead voice launches out of the group in an undeniable way. He doesn’t obliterate the group, but he does seem to single-handedly justify its existence. It was 1953. He was plucked from obscurity into this position.

Wilson was always getting into big trouble. He was stabbed by a sex worker, for example.The women, the kids, the assaults, the chaos … The Dominoes were good for Wilson at first. It gave his life a structure to his talent a pltform. He stayed with the group for 4 or 5 years, but finally left, tired of the endless “residency” in Vegas. He was meant to be a solo artist. A headliner.

From his earliest days in Detroit, he was already doing the songs which would soon be regular staples of his act for years to come. Like his version of “Danny Boy”. I don’t even know what to SAY about his “Danny Boy”.

WORDS ARE INADEQUATE.

You have to go to YouTube to watch this clip of him performing “Danny Boy” live. They won’t let me embed it. It’s outrageous. So beautiful.

Here’s the recorded version but you have to see him do it live, because it drives home the point that Wilson didn’t need the studio to shine. He was, if anything, better live.

Wilson returned to Detroit at the same time a guy named Berry Gordy was starting to be make a name for himself in the local scene. One of Wilson’s first songs as a solo artist, “Reet Petite”, was written by Gordy. Wilson knew what his voice was capable of. He’d choose a key for a given song and producers/other musicians thought it would too high. Wilson knew he could hit those notes. It’s WHY he started songs up the scale. If you have four octaves in your pocket, you want to show it off.

An early hit for him was “Lonely Teardrops”, a staple of his act which went to #1 on the R&B charts. Here he is performing it on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962:

Wilson’s heyday, like his life, was brief. The British Invasion was a game-changer for singers like Wilson. The landscape changed overnight, leaving a lot of singers behind, no matter how talented. If you didn’t write your own stuff, you were stranded. Motown exploded, but Gordy cultivated other singers for superstardom. I’m not sure why. Wilson had fallings-out with pretty much everybody (except his audience, who went batshit every time they saw him live. People fainted. People tore their hair out. People stormed the stage. He was one of the most exciting performers ever).

He’s probably most known for “Higher and Higher”, an analogy for his voice.

In 1975, he collapsed onstage while singing “Lonely Teardrops”, and went into a coma. His life stretched on for another eight years, but he never “woke up”. He was in an institution. It’s tragic. There’s a rumor Elvis donated money anonymously to pay for Wilson’s medical bills, which sounds like something Elvis would do. There were others. Benefit concerts were held. A lot of Motown artists donated money. Was Jackie Wilson conscious in there? It’s horrible to think about.

When he died in 1984, there wasn’t enough money for a headstone. Friends raised the money. He was buried with his mother in a mausoleum in a Detroit ceremony, and the plaque reads “No More Lonely Teardrops”.

Wilson’s voice was one of those eerie miracles of humanity, but he wasn’t just a voice. He was a full body performer (part of Elvis’ monologue in the Million Dollar Quartet details how Wilson moved while singing “Don’t Be Cruel”).

I found this wild clip where Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Linda Gail Lewis and Wilson come together to sing “This Land Is Your Land”. God bless the person who recorded this – who saved it – and God bless the person who uploaded it to YouTube. I love all of them but when Jackie Wilson comes on – and then grabs the microphone to do his verse – and you hear that voice – it makes me want to cry.

 
 
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.

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Supernatural re-watch, Season 3

Posted on June 8, 2025 by sheila

If you’re following along:
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 12-15

Plus: my season recaps from back in the day:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

A truncated season but maybe even stronger for it because they have to get shit done, but they also don’t sacrifice what makes the show the show.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 1 “The Magnificent Seven”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners

It starts in Oak Park. Where Window-Boy grew up. Just FYI. Because it’s all about me. I love the switch-up from the end of Season 2: all those grim feelings and bleak compromises … to Dean having a threesome while Sam sits literally right outside the window? Dude, can you at least park the car in another spot? And then him sweet-talking the coroner’s tech in the cheesiest way but … it works. I love the idea of Dean being devil-may-care, wine/women/song, who cares about it all – which connects to Demon Dean so many seasons later – but will also be one of the main through-lines of season 3: Dean not caring whether he dies, and – deeper – not thinking he’s worth saving. (Cue Jessie Reyez). In my memory it literally takes half the (shortened) season for Dean to even admit to Sam that he’d like some help, that maybe it would be okay if he wanted to live. It’s so messed up and sad! This connects gorgeously with Season 4, episode 1, where he is saved in an even bigger way, and he’s been “marked” by a celestial being who thinks he’s worth something. Season 3 is really good for Dean pathos, and Dean being in trouble is a change-up to what was going on in season 2, where Sam was “at risk”. Enter Ruby and enter the demon-killing knife. Anyway, looking forward to this. Season 3 is a fave.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 2 “The Kids Are Alright”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Enter Lisa. This is going to be a long road, and it doesn’t quite add up – Lisa was a one-night hookup and then a season later Sam’s like “Go find Lisa”. I hate to bring this up because I know it is a sore point and the show wishes I didn’t remember: but there was a woman named Cassie. I know I’m supposed to erase Cassie but I’m sorry, it’s not MY fault you put her in the show.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 3 “Bad Day at Black Rock”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer
Bela! I love her arc and it doesn’t get much play in the fandom but I think it’s really well-constructed, and goes along with something I wrote about in re: Bela and Dean. “Takes one to know one” she says to him later. They are on the same journey. Their timeline is the same! Bela’s behavior is completely justified when you know what happened to her. This is an example of how a late reveal opens up the whole storyline for re-examination. Once you know what drives Bela – that it’s not solely greed – you can see exactly what she’s playing. It’s very satisfying. Even more satisfying though is this whole entire episode. The “photo” of Sam accepting the check at the restaurant, his frozen worried smile, makes me HOWL. Jared, in general, in this episode, just makes me so happy. Because he’s not just clumsy: it’s like his whole personality and sense of agency has drained from him, leaving him helpless. He can’t combat what’s happening and doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to even know he should. Which is so funny. Also funny: so many Jensen eyerolls.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 4 “Sin City”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Charles Beeson

There’s an odd un-Supernatural-ish vibe to this at times – Richie is not from this show at all, God love ‘im – but I so dig the Dean-Casey conversation – I went into it at unforgivable length in my re-cap. She’s an intense actress, and can actually meet him where he’s at. I also like how it’s not black and white: she’s not just a sneering evil entity: she’s got some backstory, and she’s also willing to play around with her tactics. Dean breaking down a little bit – or, more like, his resistance to her dissolving bit by bit – it’s more so like he’s slowly melting – is interesting to watch. Dean is processing what’s ahead for him – but he can’t do it with Sam (as much as we all want to see it, but it will be EPISODES before Dean allows Sam anywhere CLOSE to what he expresses here in that weird sex dungeon.)

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 5 “Bedtime Stories”
Written by Cathryn Humphris
Directed by Mike Rohl

I sure don’t miss lines like “Could you be any more gay?”

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 6 “Red Sky at Morning”
Written by Laurence Andries
Directed by Cliff Bole

I know the show itself disowned this episode but I don’t have to do what the show tells me to do. I get to make up my own mind. Red Sky at Morning is absolutely ridiculous and isn’t meant to be taken any other way. I don’t care about the ship, but I love the screwball comedy vibe, everywhere in the plot: there’s a rich old dowager, it’s the world of country clubs, at one point a man and a woman, sparking with sexual chemistry but also mutual contempt, pretend to be married, there are tuxedos and champagne … this is all the stuff of The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, and etc. This is true even in some of the camera choices, like the isolated shot of the plaque outside the country club. It’s such a 1930s choice. So basically many people hate it for the very reasons I love it. Not to mention “Don’t objectify me” which launched me writing about this damn show in the first place. I will always stick up for Red Sky at Morning.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 7 “Fresh Blood”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Kim Manners

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Lucy. Vampire episode means sexual sickness and human trafficking, and it also means explicit (or subtextual) connections with Sam and Dean, their backgrounds. Vampires are “families”. And it’s harder to be like “they are MONSTERS, they’re not like us” when you’re dealing with vampires, and a “father” who is creating a new “family”. It’s really disturbing. Equally disturbing is Gordon’s return. Bela’s treachery is unforgivable and yet … let’s pretend the whole entire show is from her point of view. Let’s just follow her. Let’s prioritize her horrific backstory with her horrific family and what was done to her. It makes sense. The show, at any rate, is making that connection. Fans may not agree with it, but I think it’s more fun to consider that maybe, possibly, Bela has her reasons. The last scene of this episode is overwhelming.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 8 “A Very Supernatural Christmas”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by J. Miller Tobin

I hesitate to re-watch this one because it’s so perfect and almost delicate, in how it works. The sentimentality is off the charts, but by this point I feel it’s earned. Sam’s awkwardness about Christmas … the disconnect between them … Dean’s vulnerability in insisting they had some good Christmas memories … Sam being openly NOT into it … Some very real character information is being imparted in the midst of this television-Chritmas-movie. Dean seems so child-like in this episode. It’s almost too much to even watch. And finally: If Dean knows who Ozzie and Harriet are, then he would definitely know who Dick van Dyke is.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 9 “Malleus Maleficarum”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer

The introduction of witches to the series is shocking, when you consider where witches would end up going and what they would end up being, thanks to Rowena. The witches here are just bored housewives weaving bitchy spells during their book club. They are just humans. Or, most of them are. One is possessed by a demon. Later, though, witches are more like supernatural monsters, with otherworldly powers, literally screaming “abracadabra” as they shoot purple lightning bolts out of their hands. The transformation of witches from the gross human women doing gross things with their bodily fluids to immortal beings who live for centuries is … basically the sign of so much that went wrong. The swerve in genre from horror to fantasy. Don’t even get me started on “witch killing bullets”. When did they come into play? I reject them from my world view.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 10 “Dream a Little Dream of Me”
Teleplay by Cathryn Humphris
Story by Sera Gamble and Cathryn Humphris
Directed by Steve Boyum

Top tier motel room. The whole storyline here works beautifully – on all the levels – going way deeper than you expect, until expanding out into something truly shocking in the final dream scene (especially when you consider what happens to Dean in season 10). By this point, Jensen’s acting chops are well-established, but even I sat up and took notice – in an even more pointed way – at the Dean-talking-to-himself scene. This is a harbinger of “The End” and has the same eeriness to it: you can tell, looking at each Dean, which one is which. And he doesn’t overdo it. My friend Dan Callahan said that so much of really good acting – what makes it good – is proportion. Bad acting often means that something is way out of proportion. (I’m thinking of Misha’s Cockney empty person, an unfair example perhaps, but it’s so obvious it helps make the point. All you are aware of in that character is the accent and how weird it is: you can barely hear what he’s saying. It’s TOTALLY out of proportion.) With Jensen, the proportions are always – ALWAYS – perfect. He’s very unusual.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 11 “Mystery Spot”
Written by Jeremy Carver and Emily McLaughlin
Directed by Kim Manners

Dean’s refusal to deal with what’s coming for him has a way of sucking up all the oxygen leaving Sam flailing in the wind. This is often the way the show tilts. Season 4 things are going to get messier, because Sam starts hiding things from Dean. But season 3 has been pretty much the Dean Show, since it’s Dean’s deal dominating. Here, though, in such an inventive episode, we see the cost of all of this on Sam. We see Dean almost totally from the outside – the Dean Burlesque is off the charts, especially since we see it on repeat – and Sam descends, Groundhog-Day-like, into an existential crisis. Jared has so much fun with this concept and the episode really tracks the disintegration through nearly identical takes, where Sam finds himself trapped. Dean gargling. Sam staring at him. Etc. The final section – where Sam goes off on his own, post-Dean’s death – doing God knows what to God knows who – is a deep pool of possibility. It shows the potential in Sam to go “off”. And this is coming, too. It’s like Sam somewhere knows. He knows more than Dean knows. It’s like soulless Sam, but this Sam has a soul, which is even more disturbing! This is probably one of the best episodes in the whole entire series.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 12 “Jus In Bello”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Phil Sgriccia

Agent Henrikksen! Nooooo! Such a hero. Such a great character. I love Nancy. “It’s a choice!” She deserved better.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 13 “Ghostfacers”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Phil Sgriccia

One of the most gratifying parts of this episode is the confirmation we receive of how much Sam and Dean actually swear “in real life”. Enough of this “rhymes with itch” nonsense from the show’s puritanical post-social-media era.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 14 “Long Distance Call”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Robert Singer

Jensen is so open. This is still early on in Dean’s grieving process, where he’s still really in thrall to his father. There’s this “breakthrough” in “Dream a Little Dream” where Dean finally expresses his hurt and rage at being treated that way as a child, but there’s no real catharsis because it ends with black eyes. Here, Dean comes when calls (literally). He’s still so susceptible. You’re always susceptible, to some degree. If you’ve been hurt, then you are forever marked by that hurt. (Which is why Dean carries around more damage than Sam does, even though Sam has the dark side, the demon blood, the blah blah. There are ways, though, that Sam is healthy in a way Dean will never be. And you can really feel that in this season, with Dean’s blatant denial that he even cares if he lives or dies, his refusal of help, his anger when people try to help him … etc. That’s damage, not pride or toughness. That’s the little boy screaming at his dad at the end of “Dream a Little Dream”. Anyway, it’s all very twisted. I don’t really get scared by the monsters on this show but I make an exception for this one. This one – and the Shtriga – freaks me out.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 15 “Time Is On My Side”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Charles Beeson
Rufus arrives! I wasn’t around on the first run of the show, I came to it way late, so I was unaware of fan “consensus” around Bela (or if there even was one). I LOVE Bela. My top 3 character entrances: Death, Benny and Bela. Bela is from another world entirely, but the overlap is interesting (and it makes sense: there really IS an active black market for occult objects. Parasites like Bela would definitely be ALL OVER this). But a lot of thought was given to Bela and her purpose in the story. A new character is only as good as their purpose in the story and how they reflect the main characters’ arcs. Here, a clear connection is made between Dean and Bela from early on. “Takes one to know one”. etc. They are from two totally different worlds but the background and the effect is the same. They maneuver similarly. He’s got his Burlesque, she’s got Hers. Not everybody sashays through life relying on a Burlesque Act. But they both do. He tries to shame her by saying “Daddy didn’t hug you enough?” She throws it right back at him. You’re no one to talk, Dean. Meanwhile, though, as revealed here, her “daddy issues” are so so much worse, and I think if she hadn’t been so treacherous towards Dean he might have guessed. He would have realized earlier what was going on. In Season 3, there is really only one person who truly understands what Dean is going through. And that’s Bela. Once you get the reveal, you look back over every interaction with her, and you can SEE it. He’s trying to save himself, so is she. Their countdowns are identical. And, just in terms of story, I love that Bela takes her ultimate secret to the grave with her. It’s tragic. I understand Bela. I would have loved to see her come back, although I really think her arc is perfect in its completion.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 16 “No Rest for the Wicked”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners
This is when death really meant something. Also, look how desperate they were allowed to get in these early seasons. They had no one. It was Sam, Dean and Bobby trying to figure out how to keep Dean alive. And that’s it. Episodes go on with no movement forward. Half the season is spent trying to find Bela. There’s so much ROOM when their backs are against the wall (room in terms of story development). In later seasons, with Rowena, every problem could be solved with some spell. Boring as fuck. Here, they literally cannot figure out a way to stop Dean’s dying. They have no bargaining chips. There’s no Crowley. There’s no Castiel. Ruby is their only contact and her “help” is inconsistent and suspicious (even more so when you think of Season 4. Ruby’s con is LONG.) So nothing really HAPPENS in Season 3, except that Dean marches towards his death, and Bobby and Sam try to stave it off. It’s so cool, when they only have themselves to rely on, and it’s not enough. There are limits to human intervention. They’ve reached theirs. How much the show lost when all the limits were removed.

Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

“I was smart enough to go through any door that opened.” — Joan Rivers

Posted on June 8, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today.

A couple of days before Joan Rivers died, when there was still some hope she would pull through, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about this legend with someone who loves her, and who has a lot of smart things to say about her. We had been talking about the tone of all of the Tweets in support of her, and how unique they were, and what they said about Joan Rivers (especially the comments from her fellow comics – which, as far as I’m concerned, were the only comments that mattered). So I put Mitchell on speaker and turned on the tape recorder.

JOAN RIVERS

Joan Rivers Portrait

Mitchell Fain: Joan Rivers is definitely one of the top queer icons. I don’t know a gay person who doesn’t love her.

Sheila O’Malley: And why is that?

MF: It’s twofold so stick with me on this. There’s a lot of criticism lately because of the mean things Joan says. It’s a very PC world right now. My thing is: Nobody gives that criticism to Don Rickles. They only say it to Joan, because of sexism, anti-Semitism, a kind of “keep that mouthy Jewish broad quiet” thing.

But I think what people are missing is: Yes, she says incredibly mean things. A. She’s a comedian. She’s never done anything differently than the boys. And B. if Joan Rivers were a person who said mean things about one particular group of people and not another, if she only singled out one group, it would be a very different thing. But there’s not one group of people who get a pass from her.

She’s one of those people who says things out loud what we’re all thinking, in our worst moments, and she says it with cleverness and speed. And the monster gets smaller. You know when you’re a little kid and you think there’s a monster in your closet, and you have to take the monster out of the closet and realize there is no monster? Joan Rivers makes the monster smaller. Whether it’s Kim Kardashian or menopause, she makes the monster smaller. And everybody is subject to her attention. It could be the Jewish girl sitting there, the skinny white girl, the black guy. Yes, it’s insult comedy, but it’s always felt honest, as opposed to just mean.

There was that thing recently where she was on CNN and she walked out of the interview.

MF: I think a lot of people thought she was faking it for publicity. I don’t think that’s true. Rivers said, “You are not the person to be interviewing a comic.” The woman was taking her to task and saying, “You say really mean things …” and Rivers just walked off. We can talk about it in terms of political correctness, and of course it will be better to be a kinder gentler nation, but I will always take Auntie Joan’s honesty.

One of the big controversies recently was with Lena Dunham, where Rivers said something about Dunham’s thighs or something. Lena Dunham tweeted about Joan Rivers when she heard Rivers was ill, and she could have said any number of things, and she wrote:

We can’t lose Joan. All love and healing wishes to Her Majesty Joan Rivers- being ripped a new one by you is an honor to be treasured.

It makes me want to cry, I don’t know why. Dunham freakin’ gets it. There was an article titled Did Joan Rivers Body-Shame Lena Dunham? Yes, she did. And Lena Dunham said it was an “honor and a treasure.” So fuck you.

All I know is Joan Rivers still makes me guffaw or gasp or shake my head in shock. I am never less than entertained. She’s a loud-mouthed bubbe who tells the truth. We need her.

We can talk about her in terms of her importance to comedy. You can really count on one hand the female comics who broke that ground. What Joan was doing was different and she was doing it on a much larger scale.

Joan Rivers

MF: The one time I saw Joan in concert was back in the 80s. My brother and I went to see her at the Warwick Musical Tent, and it was a big deal because the whole show was David Brenner and Joan Rivers. And at the time, popular conception was that you couldn’t have two comics on a bill. It wasn’t done. You’d have a singer and a comic. And Brenner and Rivers were like, “WHY can’t we do this?”

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MF: It was a juggernaut. It was huge. It changed the game. She challenged people’s ideas, she challenged how the industry saw comedians.

She also changed the way women could speak in public. Let’s not underestimate that. Yes, a lot of what she did was self-deprecating. But the stuff she talked about, her inadequacies as a sexual partner, all of that stuff, was extraordinary.

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MF: Her mom was like “You marry well as a Jewish lady, and make sure your husband makes a lot of money so that you can have a fur coat and rise in a society that hates Jews.” That’s how it worked. Joan’s mom married a doctor and it was the Depression and Joan’s dad would see patients for free, or take eggs as payment, and Joan’s mother was not having it. There was a lot of tension in the household about success and making money which is why Joan Rivers was always good at making money. She marries this guy Edgar, she loves him, he then loses all her money, and kills himself. And remember when that happened: this comedian’s husband kills himself, and the one commodity she has, her humor – nobody wants to see it anymore. Nobody wants to see the widow of a suicide victim tell jokes. Then she proceeds to make her fortune back by doing whatever the fuck it takes. And that is a big thing for me about Joan Rivers and her comedy. She will do whatever the fuck it takes.

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MF: One of the things that is very fun to watch is this In Bed With Joan Rivers web series. My favorite one recently is Bianca Del Rio, who was a contestant on Rupaul’s Drag Race. Bianca is an insult comic but he does it in drag, and is definitely the descendant of Joan Rivers. So here is this drag queen basically doing Joan’s act, really well, on Joan’s show, and you see Joan Rivers sitting back, letting Bianca Del Rio get all the laughs. Joan Rivers certainly gets in her perfectly-timed digs, but that type of generosity is the real Joan Rivers.

MF: Here’s the deal. Everybody I know has stolen from Joan Rivers’ act. We watch Joan Rivers and she said all the things we couldn’t say or felt disempowered to say. It’s like Barbra Streisand’s answer to why the gays love her so much: “I was different and I made it.”

SOM: There was a moment in the documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” where she’s there for the Mark Twain award for George Carlin. And what was so revealing was her saying, “I’m never included when these events come up. I’m just glad I’m included.” It takes a kind of stamina to withstand the Boys Club that still exists.

MF: In her first book, Enter Talking, she talks about Second City being a Boys Club and she tells stories of stepping forward from the back line – where you step into a scene – and seeing other people put their arms out to stop her. Now she talks very lovingly about Second City, in retrospect, but her experience there was not a positive one. It was another place where she wasn’t wanted.

SOM: And then there are these amazing moments like when Johnny Carson says on air, “You’re gonna be a big star” and then eventually hands over a permanent guest-spot to her. That was a game-changer as well.

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MF: There still isn’t a late-night talk show with a female host, except for Chelsea Handler.

SOM: At the Comedy Central roast of Joan Rivers, it was all about trashing her looks and her plastic surgery. Anytime anyone mentions the plastic surgery, I get annoyed. If she didn’t do that to her face, she’d hear about it. “Look at how she let herself go!” You can’t win, as a woman, with aging. Besides, who cares? It’s the most obnoxious concern-trolling. Men aren’t treated this way. She was also one of the first people to talk about, to admit she was getting plastic surgery.

MF: She talked about everything. Periods, menopause, how your body falls when you get older. It was the next step from Phyllis Diller who talked about not being a good housewife.

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SOM: And Diller’s schtick was including women in the conversation of comedy in a very important way. Diller was admitting something really secret, admitting that the happy homemaker thing was shit. She was telling a dirty little secret about women’s lives at that time. Then there was Carol Burnette. Elaine May. You can feel a new ground opening up.

MF: Rivers opened the door for us to talk about stuff that the boys didn’t want us to talk about. And she did it anyway and she’s been doing it for 50 years.

There was a late-night cable show a while back that was a roundtable of different comics. It was almost always boys, with an occasional girl. They would throw out names of comedians and everyone had an opinion. “Let’s talk about Pryor.” And someone threw out Joan Rivers. It was all these young boy comics, and the way that these guys talked about Joan Rivers, they were like, “Let me tell you something. Do not count Joan out. Just because she’s an old lady with plastic surgery and she’s on red carpets and Hollywood Squares – when you’re one on one with Joan Rivers, she’s still the smartest person in the room.”

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MF: And that’s what matters. The reaction from comics to her illness has been so interesting. It’s not “Poor Joan Rivers,” it’s almost selfish. It’s like, “We need more from you, Joan. Get it together.” There’s a selfish thread of “We are not done needing Joan Rivers. We still need Auntie Joan to say shitty things.” The tone is: “No no no, there are way more people to make fun of, we need you, the Kardashians are still around, who’s next, we need you to call it out.” Who’s gonna say that stuff now?

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MF: It also speaks volumes about Joan Rivers’ awareness of pop culture. I mean, Fashion Police, is, for me, appointment TV. She says shit you can’t believe someone is getting away with on TV. It’s amazing. Even the people on the set with her, they can’t believe what she’s saying. Joan Rivers calls out Ariana Grande, or Lena Dunham, she calls out the most brand-new and/or obscure or utterly of-the-moment pop culture person, and Joan Rivers wants to find out who the fuck they are. It seems like she’s off-the-cuff making up mean things, which she is, but the important thing is that she’s still paying attention. In a weird way, she’s a version of Will Rogers. She’s the Will Rogers of mean. She’s always observing and making comments about our culture.

I mean, what 80-something year old lady knows who Ariana Grande is? I think it’s extraordinary. Clearly it comes from a place of being driven, maybe a little bit crazy, or desperate … but she’s still doing it at a level that other people her age just are not.

SOM: What I loved in that “Piece of Work” doc were her file cabinets of jokes. One was labeled “Cooking to Tony Danza.”

[Roaring laughter.]

SOM: D comes after C. Oh my God.

MF: It’s genius.

SOM: Cooking to Tony Danza…

[More laughter.]

SOM: There’s that moment in the documentary where she’s playing the club in Wisconsin and she makes a Helen Keller joke and a guy storms out after heckling her. And afterwards there was a little Wisconsin lady getting Joan’s autograph and the lady was like, “That guy, he just doesn’t understand comedy,” and Joan said, “I know. It’s comedy. It’s not meant to be serious.” I loved that bonding moment with a real person, but then, Joan is being walked out to her car, and she’s saying, “I feel bad. His son is deaf. Maybe he had a catharsis tonight. Maybe it was good for him to shout at me.”

MF: What I love about that scene is how she handles the heckler. As someone who has spent many years onstage, making jokes, hoping the audience thinks it’s funny and then dealing with people who don’t, watching Joan deal with it is a master class. She tells the joke. He heckles. She rips him a new asshole. She improvises a joke to get the audience back on her side. And then, boom, she’s back into her act. THAT is technique. She’s an old lady. She’s a senior citizen. I know 20-year-olds who cannot recover from a moment onstage like that. She does a 3-point turn right back into her act. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It blew me away. I watch that scene over and over, asking, “How does she do that? What’s the formula?”

Here’s one of my favorite Joan Rivers moments of all time. It was from when she had a daytime talk show and it was during the whole Jessica Hahn and Jim Bakker scandal. Jessica Hahn was on Rivers’ show via satellite and Hahn turns the interview around to start attacking Joan for saying mean things. And you think, “Honey, what possessed you to take on Joan Rivers?” Underestimate her at your peril. Underestimate this old lady at your peril. It ends with Joan Rivers, legitimately pissed, saying, “I’m not the one who slept my way to the middle.” I think when the history of television is written, that is definitely a high point. It is one of my favorite moments of all time.

SOM: “I’m not the one who slept my way to the middle.” Wow. You can’t recover from a comment like that.

MF: Yup. Done. Garry Shandling tells this great story about how he opened for Joan Rivers in Vegas years ago. There was a big party afterwards, there was dancing. Joan was dancing with Edgar, and Garry was dancing with his wife, and this old Jewish woman danced up to Garry Shandling, not realizing Joan Rivers was right behind them, and she leaned into Garry Shandling and she said, “We thought you were much funnier than Joan.” And Joan turned her husband around, without missing a beat, and said, “You have no breasts,” and then danced away with Edgar.

So mean, so base, but the whole point is: You’re shaming me in my own place, and I’m going to go right for the jugular.

Joan Rivers

MF: This is sort of a non sequitur but it has to do with my feelings about Joan Rivers. I was recently talking with someone about Madonna. There is a world of Madonna Gays. I am not one of them. I love Madonna but I stopped paying attention after “Music.” There are Madonna apologists, you can’t say anything bad about Madonna, they lose their minds. I’m a bit of a Joan Rivers apologist.

Yes, she’s politically incorrect. Yes, she’s rude. Yes, she’s self-deprecating. Yes, she has had too much surgery. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I still love her. She’s a legend. She changed the game. She’s a trailblazer who’s still working at a certain level at her age. How many people of her generation have their own television show? Don Rickles doesn’t have his own television show.

Then there is the fact that Joan got her fortune back. Selling jewelry on QVC. Doing Hollywood Squares. There’s something about this woman as a business woman that I find unbelievably admirable. Everyone made fun of her for hawking her jewelry on QVC, and now, who DOESN’T have a line on QVC? Everyone snickered and sneered at the time, and now Mariah Carey does it, Jennifer Lopez does it, Gwyneth Paltrow does it … not that they personally sneered at Joan, but the idea that Rivers would have the gall, the lack of class, to go hawk jewelry that she thought was pretty – which, by the way, she stands by and wears all the time – and she did it anyway. She was a single mom with a daughter to raise. She made all her money back. Amazing.

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SOM: I think the fact that the boys are all rallying around her on Twitter – that it’s not just the women – speaks volumes.

MF: Yes! I mean, Seth Rogen. He’s so current-generation goofball stoner boys club, and his Tweet says

I really need Joan Rivers to be ok.

The tone of Seth Rogen’s is the tone of a lot of them. In these tweets, is the idea that Joan would want her friends and fans to be like, “Get your ass up, Joan Rivers, because we are not done with needing you.” It’s almost selfish and it’s revealing the importance that she had for people, even those who don’t admit it because she’s not hip or politically correct.

Listen, there is an argument for being kind to each other and to not use words that hurt people’s feelings. But Joan is a social commentator, Will Rogers as a pit bull. She’s making a social comment with her shark-biting humor. It’s all absurdity to her. The absurdity of life, of the human condition. If she pulls out of this, the jokes that she’ll tell about it … I am so looking forward to it.

The Tweets from other comics reminds me of the poem that we love by Frank O’Hara.

SOM: “Oh Lana Turner we love you get up.”

MF: We need our Lana Turners to get up, we need our Joan Rivers to get up. Oh Joan Rivers we love you get up.

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Later that week

Sadly, Joan Rivers did not “get up.” Here is the tribute I wrote to Rivers for Rogerebert.com.

 
 
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.

Posted in Actors, On This Day, Television | 4 Comments

Supernatural re-watch, Season 4

Posted on June 7, 2025 by sheila

If you’re following along:
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 12-15

Plus: my season recaps from back in the day:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 1 “Lazarus Rising”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners
I gasped seeing Kim Manners’ name come up. Welcome to the new digitally-shot Supernatural. Supernatural is so old its first seasons were shot on film. An actual physical object. They used the Red camera in Season 4, a very very good digital camera. Feature films use the Red. This season, to me, LOOKS cinematic (although all the early seasons do). The Red gives the images a pop though. You really feel like y ou could reach out and touch the skin and the dirt onscreen. The SHADOWS sculpting the faces. It’s like magic, but it’s not: it’s the artistry of everyone involved, mostly Kim Manners who understands light and shadow, and understands these faces. Castiel entrance is such a spectacular set piece, my God, it’s still exciting- and I shake my head, completely baffled, at what angels turned into in later seasons. Honestly, once Balthazar died it was corporate MLM snoozeville. But lOOK at this character introduction. He keeps trying to say Hi and he blows out windows and blinds a woman. Lights explode. Nobody even knows there IS such a thing as angels. And Misha Collins is so intense, he’s truly “other”.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 2 “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester”
Teleplay by Sera Gamble
Story by Lou Bollo and Sera Gamble
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
We are in Dean’s Henley Era and I couldn’t be happier.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 3 “In the Beginning”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Steve Boyum
“You need to stop it.” It’s so annoying when Castiel is cryptic! This one was a total revelation on first viewing. I couldn’t even believe it was happening. There was this sense – back then – of eagerly filling in the blanks of this family history – and yet they could take their time with it. We’re in season 4 and we’re still learning new things. I can’t help but think if Supernatural came out now, all of this would be front-loaded (to be fair, it’d have eight episodes a season if it came out now). Watch Dean give Mary the warning. This is why I say Jensen is tough as an actor. He doesn’t “indulge”. He focuses on suppressing the feelings rather than expressing them, because that’s what’s right for the character. The result, of course, is that Dean is extremely emotional – but it’s despite himself. This type of acting takes a tough mindset. You can see Jensen’s toughness in operation in Dean’s little monologue of warning to Mary. Dean thinks he’s going to be able to get through it, he has no sense of how MUCH emotion will be there until it floods him. The beautiful thing about this – and about Jensen – is he the actor is in control of this. He controls what we see, what we don’t. He’s young to have mastered this much control over his own emotional instrument.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 4 “Metamorphosis”
Written by Cathryn Humphris / Jeremy Carver
Directed by Kim Manners
Moving backwards, broken record, I am always alarmed when these Sam-Dean disagreements come up, since they are nonexistent in later seasons: to kill or not to kill? What if we give the potential monster the facts and let him make the choice? So here we get all that times 10, because Dean saw Sam and Ruby doing their sex-kink-exorcism in the opener. Dean is on the warpath after that, leading to an insane fight scene where Dean punches Sam in the face, twice. Dean’s refusal to listen to what Sam is saying, his refusal to consider that maybe what Sam is doing is okay … launches us into the real VIBE of season 4, the brotherly conflict: Sam being in danger (and not realizing it), and Dean losing his shit. Here, this conflict is brought into stark relief with the “rugaru”? monster who – incidentally – tries to satisfy his hunger by trying to rape his wife, a queasy correlation made between hunger/sexual violence. Dean has no problem pulling rank. It’s interesting to watch the progression of this dynamic.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 5 “Monster Movie”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer
A fave. Those old Universal monster movies are classics and it’s so cool that they still – STILL – inspire other artists. Ahem.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 6 “Yellow Fever”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer
For me, this episode is peak Supernatural. It does so many different things, and yet nothing feels obligatory. You don’t hear the creaking of the wheels, you don’t feel the plot being presented. The “monster” is actually dangerous and puts one of them at risk. It gives the actors a lot of fun things to play. What is going on with Sam right now is all that’s going on with Dean, because Dean has no boundaries. His refusal to remember hell, or even to acknowledge it, hardens into a carapace – and this is a nice metaphor for dealing with what you’re afraid of. The honeymoon glow of realizing the angels have taken a personal interest in him has diminished. Now he’s left with panic about his own fate (and the teenagers on the corner), as well as real fear about what’s going on with Sam. You have all THAT but you also have the hilarity of Dean’s transformation, and Jensen’s overall meticulous excellence with tracking that change. It all works so well together, so much so that the final moment – when Sam’s eyes briefly flash yellow – is devastating.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 7 “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester”
Written by Julie Siege
Directed by Charles Beeson
Yet another creepy middle-aged dude who tries to be hip to the kids (he “rapped with her about her work” – gross), all while he is using and manipulating them.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 8 “Wishful Thinking”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer
There’s stiff competition, but I think the suicidal teddy bear is the funniest thing that has ever happened, not just on Supernatural, but in the history of the planet.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 9 “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Charles Beeson
Another interesting example of an Arc-Heavy episode from back in the day that also manages to stay connected to the emotional through-line, i.e. the brothers. This is all very Heaven and Hell-y, angel and demon-y – but it’s season 4, it’s all still new, so there is some excitement in the unknown. Ruby and Sam are a wild card pairing, and it took me a while to come around to Anna, but I am okay with her now. I think it is an extremely difficult role: she has to start as this cringing confused girl, but then her dialogue is all this incomprehensible stuff about grace and prison and commanders, and I think she does a good job with all of it. Anna and Ruby do a LOT of heavy lifting in this episode, and it could be a real slog, but the show still knew how to handle this shit. They forgot how to do this later. There’s a plot-dump but ALSO some important flashbacks, very different from the endless Season 8 flashbacks which take up half the season – my God, why?? Here, we are shown what we can already guess, the true nature of Sam and Ruby’s relationship. And finally: we get the butch-est scene EVER of wounded Sam and Dean stitching themselves up and drinking whiskey. It’s insane. Also insane is the sex scene between Sam and Ruby, as graphic as this fairly chaste show ever got. No wonder those two got married. Side observations: I love the sheer SQUALOR Sam is living in during Dean’s “time away”. The pizza boxes, the half-finished house – or house gone to seed – the grossness of his living conditions, a pure sign of his vulnerability to manipulation from someone who says “I can show you a way out.” Production design so on point. The details of all these different squalid spaces are so well thought out and specific. Again, once the bunker became a regular, we didn’t get much squalor anymore.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 10 “Heaven and Hell”
Teleplay by Eric Kripke
Story by Trevor Sands
Directed by J. Miller Tobin
Sam had sex with a demon and so Dean had sex with an angel. It’s only fair.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 11 “Family Remains”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Babar alert. The episode is dark and dirty and nasty, although I’m not sure exactly … the point? Maybe the point is it makes me happy to be back in the era when the show had a distinct aesthetic. Because it’s all about me.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 12 “Criss Angel Is a Douchebag”
Written by Julie Siege
Directed by Robert Singer
Sam was into magic? Really? Making a thematic connection between Sam and Dean and those old magician coots is a stretch. I think The Mentalists does this sort of thing much better- where Sam and Dean are immersed in a “scene” where literally everyone is engaged in the same activity which the puritanical Sam and Dean find a little bogus. They are outnumbered. But The Mentalists was funnier.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 13 “After School Special”
Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Directed by Adam Kane
It’s obvious teenage Dean isn’t quiiiite right, and it’s not the actor’s fault, it’s a casting thing, so let’s just leave it at that. Teenage Dean will be much more fleshed out in Season 9 – SEASON 9 – with the whole “boys school” thing. We swing from the specter of old age in the previous episode to the brothers’ young adolescence in this one: a gap of hard road. The look on that poor teacher’s face as he takes in Jared’s (admittedly gorgeous) face, the cuts on it and bruises … and realizes what a hard life this man has had, trying to square it with the cute kid he remembered. I love when a side character gets to bring his whole life to a moment. Then there’s a stunning scene in the car on a rainy night, blurry windshield and lights, deep thoughtful conversation: gorgeous.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 14 “Sex and Violence”
Written by Cathryn Humphris
Directed by Charles Beeson
I really love this one. It’s a PhD dissertation on the gender-swamp. The audience is implicated too because you assume Dr. Cara Roberts (the excellent and captivating Maite Schwartz) is the siren. She has to be, right? She’s so overt with her sexuality. And not in your typical “performative” way. It’s not cliched: this is a grown woman who is clearly activated sexually, so much so she emanates that “I just got laid” or “I am just about to get laid” energy. It is a thing, sorry to be blunt. Sam gets the message (pheromones). If you’re not clueless to these signals, it’s apparent she’s picked him out as a playmate. So again: we are implicated. We feel like we’ve solved the case before Sam and Dean have. Sam sleeps with the doctor – in her office – Sam! – putting himself at risk, or so we assume. I’m not saying assuming she is the siren is misogynistic or even sexist: the assumption goes back much farther. We assume sirens are women, because men are the ones who wrote the stories back to antiquity. And, not for nothing, but women – or, at least, sex with women – WAS dangerous, because unprotected sex led to either pregnancy or syphilis. You took your literal life into your hands if you were promiscuous and single in the 19th century back to the beginning of time. Yes, women are blamed for these things, and that’s awful, but it’s not some weird conspiracy mystery that sexual women were looked at as dangerous (back then, I mean. If you think that way now, get the fuck out of here). Once you learn about what syphilis did to people back before penicilin, it makes you want to kneel in prayer, thanking the Lord above for science. How wonderful, how subversive, that the siren is the MAN, and Sam having sex with a woman he met an hour ago is FINE (as indeed it is fine), it’s DEAN who’s fallen under the spell. Of his new bro. A stand-in brother. But because sirens also have sexual interpretations, made explicit in the episode, Dean’s new “friendship” is a sexual seduction, and he doesn’t clock it. Sam is the one constantly being violated, but Dean – in a way – is the more vulnerable one. Why is this? Maybe because Sam knows that there ARE things called boundaries, and they are difficult but they are worth striving for? And Dean has no idea what Sam is even ON about when he talks about boundaries, and Dean finds boundaries dangerous and unsettling? Is that it? Whatever the case, Dean falls for it. It’s so good. And the infection is passed through saliva (or, bodily fluids, in general) and at one point the siren literally ejaculates into Sam’s mouth. I’m just reporting what happened.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 15 “Death Takes a Holiday”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Steve Boyum
RIP Pamela. In this re-watch, I was mesmerized by the motel room. Every surface is tempered, and greenish, like unpolished brass, maybe, or, more likely, rust-covered. Maybe it’s mold or just discoloring from age. Everything is greenish. There’s a small old TV up in the wall. The curtains are thin. There are these weird cut-outs in the wall, spaces, almost like a truncated stoa from ancient Greece, only grody and moldy. The amount of detail given to this dark weird space is so beautiful.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 16 “On the Head of a Pin”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Mike Rohl
Surprisingly still difficult to watch. This is where Castiel begins to emerge as his own being, and Dean clocks the change. This, naturally, will lead to 10 more seasons of increasingly irrelevant Castiel plot-lines – but in this moment, here, now, it is thrilling and unpredictable. The show – plus Jensen, Misha, etc. – have laid the groundwork for what the angels are about. They are scary pure warriors and to have one of them go a little soft is shocking. And it’s not shmoopy, it’s frightening. Dean has his “why am I the center of attention” thing this whole season and I am here for it.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 17 “It’s a Terrible Life”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by James L. Conway
“The End” and “It’s a Terrible Life” are lessons taught by Zachariah. It’s his thing. Zachariah makes his entrance with a lesson. Because he is such a disgruntled put-upon middle-manager type, the corporate setting really fits! There’s a lot of fun details here, especially watching Jensen and Jared remove their Sam-ness and Dean-ness, while still being convincing while also a little bit blank-slate-y.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 18 “The Monster at the End of This Book”
Teleplay by Julie Siege
Story by Julie Siege and Nancy Weiner
Directed by Mike Rohl
Here’s the deal: If Chuck is God, then this introductory episode years before is LESS entertaining, less fun, less interesting than it was to begin with. Having some big twist like that should be satisfying, yes? It shouldn’t DIMINISH the past story, right? Like learning the Trickster is Gabriel: when you learn that it makes the original Trickster episode even MORE interesting. Or big plot twists like the one Ruby is playing this whole season, her long long con. Once you know the truth, it makes even MORE sense, and when you watch it again you can incorporate your new information and it’s even MORE entertaining once you put the pieces together. But Chuck being God makes THIS episode seem … unfinished. And that’s NOT the impression the episode gives as a stand-alone.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 19 “Jump the Shark”
Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
I include this gif because it might be my favorite part of the episode. Jensen pulling himself up out of the crypt. There’s another great motel room in this episode.

Plus: I am assuming you’d have to be Gen X to the core – in other words young enough to have watched The Brady Bunch in its entirety – to notice that the diner where Sam and Dean go to meet their half-brother is called Cousin Oliver’s. It’s so hilarious. Equally hilarious is the detail the props/production department put into that sign. Just LOOK at this beautiful thing:

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 20 “The Rapture”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Charles Beeson
Misha does really beautiful work in this episode. And it calls into question the morality of the whole angel thing. You are possessing someone else. Yes, with their consent, but you are ruining people’s lives and you’re being rapey. This conundrum is not REALLY addressed again – at least not in re: Castiel – until we get to the dreaded Hannah in her rolled-up jeans or capris or whatever they are. She’s the one who’s like “This isn’t right” and even though Hannah didn’t work as a character, when she decides to give up her vessel so her vessel can live it’s important – although really I think it’s just used to jump-start Castiel’s new plot-line, where he tries to make things right with Claire. This, of course, means we will be saddled with Claire for far longer than Ellen and Jo were even on the show. If memory serves, Dean makes some snarky comments early on about “meat suits” and Castiel assures him his vessel wanted this but … We get into the whole angel possession thing repeatedly when Michael and Lucifer come into play, which is very soon, and then of course there’s the Dean-generated debacle that is Gadreel. I think a lot more could be done with this whole angel possession thing, just in terms of the ethics of it. And because it was Hannah who monologued about the ethics we might not be inclined to listen. Because she just ruined our day with three bean surprise.

I sound stark raving mad. But I KNOW my people know what I’m talking about.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 21 “When the Levee Breaks”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Robert Singer
To beat a dead horse from my Season 6 recap: I want to point out that when Alistair straps Sam into the demon-torture-table – the same one Ruby AND Meg were strapped into – SAM gets to be clothed. I see you being skeezy and hypocritical, Supernatural.

Supernatural, Season 4, episode 22 “Lucifer Rising”
Written and directed by Eric Kripke
I’ve seen fans be like “the way Bobby talks to Dean is unforgivable and I will side-eye him forevermore.” I guess I just don’t watch the show that way. The way Dean is talking is outrageous – he literally says “I don’t think Sam is my brother anymore. If he ever was.” And Bobby flips out. So he doesn’t use the language you would deem appropriate. It’s not a therapy session held between two well-adjusted therapized men. Stop being so middle-class lol. Bobby has had it with Dean’s attitude, and saying Sam was maybe never his brother is too far. Dean has tried. He has tried. This has been a very intense season of Dean trying. What I love about season 4 is I can see both sides (I usually can). I’m not a member of the Winchester Cult (or as I call it, their Belljar), and I don’t think Sam is wrong to want to assert boundaries. He KEEPS TRYING to assert boundaries – and sometimes he does so in a healthy way (Stanford) – and sometimes it’s insanely wrong (hooking up with Ruby) – and sometimes it’s hurtful – (not looking for Dean when he’s in purgatory) – but whoever said “setting boundaries” is this pleasant calm process? Especially if you were never taught the healthiness of boundaries, especially if you grew up in a Family Trio where boundaries were suspect? Sam was violated before he even had language, he was part of a family system which was like a cult, and so he broke free – awkwardly. He ran away. He had to. Going to college was the ultimate betrayal and Dean mentions it here – AGAIN. He STILL feels betrayed. So. Sam doing all kinds of things to assert “I am my own man” makes total sense to me. I mean, I don’t want him to be hanging around demons but again: when you’re not taught things properly as a kid, you’re left vulnerable.

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