Supernatural Rewatch - Season One

[redrikki]

I broke up with Supernatural back in season seven, but Netflix recommended it and I figured, what the hell. Now that I've finished up season one, I have some thoughts:

God, the boys are so young. And Dean's voice is so high pitched. He sounds like a normal person instead of Christian Bale's batman.

A number of the classic rock songs have been replaced by more modern alternative rock songs. I assume this is for copyright/licensing reasons. They're not bad songs, exactly, but I think the show loses something by not having "Don't Fear the Reaper" in Faith or "Wayward Son" in the season recap. And to think, everyone who came to the show via Netflix will have a different viewing experience than those of us who saw it live or on DVD.

Sam is clearly intended to be the POV character and it isn't hard to see why. He's the sort of nice college boy viewers can recognize and relate to in a way that gruff, conman Dean isn't. His reintroduction to hunting allows viewers to learn the ropes and his reconnecting with his brother allows us to get to know Dean too. The problem is, Sam is an incredibly opaque character. Dean may be opposed to chick flick moments, but he wears his heart on his sleeve and talks about his feelings in a way Sam just doesn't. On the one hand, this makes it easier for viewers to project themselves onto Sam. On the other hand, we end up knowing Dean better.

A big part of this comes down to the way the brothers deal with relationships. Dean dates Cassie for a hot second and tells her everything. He wants to be seen and accepted for who he is, even if it means rejection. Sam, meanwhile, tries to keep his relationships on his terms by controlling the flow of information. He hides those parts of himself he doesn't like out of fear of rejection, and ends up lying to Jess, his friends, and even Dean. His brother rightly points out how unhealthy this is, but Sam comes by it honestly. After all, that's exactly what John does.

Speaking of John, there's a lot of talk in fandom how later seasons did him dirty and ret-conned him as a lousy father, but let's be real. Season one is not shy about portraying him as a shit dad. His obsession with hunting is likened to alcoholism, both by Sam in the pilot, and by the narrative itself in Nightmares. The entire premise of the season is that he has abandoned his children and, according to Sam, it's not the first time he's gone missing. We see John leave his kids unprotected in a town with a child-eating monster on the loose, use his adult children as bait, physically assault Sam for arguing with him, and abuse Dean while mad at Sam. Neither of his sons believe he's proud of them and, while he talks a good game about wanting a future for them, he consistently places his own quest for vengeance over their wellbeing. When Sam says at the end of Nightmares how grateful they should be John wasn't a violent drunk, it's a case of damning with faint praise.

Over all, season one is just as good as I remember it. The whole thing was like reconnecting with an old friend. Some of the dialog is almost painfully clunky, especially in the pilot, but the character work is solid and so is the world building.

On to season two!

Comments

[cathyw]

You're right that the music was replaced because of licensing. Season 1 was on long enough ago that "streaming rights" was something nobody would have thought to buy...

and I think you're talking about Dead Man's Blood when you say "abuse Dean while mad at Sam"? Something about their body language/movements in one scene of that episode led me to believe that Dean had a history of interposing himself - emotionally and physically both - between John and Sam. Sam is not a reliable source on John's parenting...

[redrikki]

I agree with you about Dean in that scene in Dead Man's Blood. Also, the look on his face when Sam was talking about how John never hit them in Nightmares. Something about Dean's face in that said he got hit plenty, even if Sam didn't. See also his "and when dad came home" expression in Dark Side of the Moon.

As for the verbally abuse Dean when mad at Sam, I actually meant the scene, I forget which episode, where John berates Dean for failing to keep up the car after walking away from an argument with Sam. Was that also in Dead Man's Blood? I know the bit where he snaps at Dean over his new attitude was. John and Sam argue, but he seems to expect Dean to be silent punching bag and is surprised and pissed off when Dean stands up for himself.

[cathyw]

I think it was in that episode, yeah. I honestly don't know how anyone could watch that one and not conclude that John was an abusive dad? The one with the shtriga, you had to kind of read between the lines to get "used his children as bait" (but "left them unattended in the vicinity of a child-targeting monster" wasn't much better and it's still the best case). But Dead Man's Blood lays it out in the open.

John's... a really interesting, supremely flawed guy? It's simultaneously true that...
- He loved his sons.
- He did the best he could for them under the circumstances.
- The best he could do was still really shitty.

[li_izumi]

Oh yeah, those three points are on point.

[redrikki]

I waffle back and forth on point number two. I mean, other hunters manage to own a home, hold down a day job, and not abuse their kids. I certainly think Sam and Dean insist that John did the best he could because the alternative, that he didn't feel they were worth the effort to actually parent, is unthinkable if they want to remember him fondly.

[vampiresincowboyboots]

I think, like Mary, a lot of hunters grew up in the world; it's something they've always been aware of, it's something they've trained to do and they have a support network around them of other likeminded people.

John was a grieving widow, with two young boys, who lost everything in his life and thrust violently into a world he knew nothing about. He was trying to survive, make sure his kids survived and avenge his wife's death.

Not that that excuses the abuse and abandonment etc, just trying to see things another way of how John may have ended up... as John

[redrikki]

Oh, his initial response to his trauma makes sense, but that doesn't excuse what he did to his kids or somehow make it not abuse.

[vampiresincowboyboots]

Oh, I'm not at all trying to excuse the things we've been told about him. I also thing it should be worth remembering as well that the things we're hearing are hearsay and through the views of teenage boys, so that may also skew perception.

But no, John certainly won't win any awards for parent of the year, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I still rather adore him, flaws and all.

[redrikki]

Personally, I adore him as a character and love to play with him in fic and write about him in meta, but I would probably hate him in real life. I have a lot of characters like that whom I love.

[kaasknot]

Oh my god i viscerally recoiled at the thought of them taking out the classic rock, lol, spn was my entre into overwrought cock rock, it's an essential viewing feature! how could they have removed it!!

that said, this seriously made me nostalgic for s1. i'm tempted to rewatch it, maybe dig up some old fic if it still exists.

[redrikki]

Go, re-watch. It was like catching up with an old friend after running into them on the street without any of the awkward what-have-you-been-up-to small talk.

It was, however, super disconcerting hearing the wrong music on the Netflix version. DVDs if you've got them.

[kaasknot]

i'm so annoyed rn that i deleted my downloads, bc they all had the original music and i'm in a situation atm where i can't redownload them. argh!1

[redrikki]

When you can't find it for free on line, visit your local library. Hooking you up with what you need is literally their job, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a librarian.

[kaasknot]

WHAT A GREAT IDEA, thank you. they do have them, wonder of wonders :p

[musesfool]

You've made me just the tiniest bit sad I purged my DVDs when I moved, because I cannot imagine the show without the classic rock. What even is the point if you don't get that amazing bit in Faith with "Don't Fear the Reaper"? Or the Road So Far without Carry On Wayward Son? SPN had such great musical cues! The use of Renegade in Nightshifter also comes to mind!

[cathyw]

Starting from Season 2 they have all the proper music.

[kaasknot]

that's so odd, tho, if they couldn't afford the licensing for s1 you'd think they couldn't have for s2 as well?

[cathyw]

It was a question of timing as much as anything. When they were buying music rights for S2 streaming video was starting to become a thing so they bought streaming rights along with broadcast and DVD distribution rights. They had to buy S1's streaming rights after the fact and it was harder/more expensive that way.

[musesfool]

Well that's good to know. Weird, but good.

[redrikki]

Too bad about your DVDs. You should check at your local library if you want the authentic re-watch experience. I'm sure they have them.