Reply To: Let’s all talk about The Winchesters Pilot (S1 E1)
Wow! Okay…some I really liked and some not so much. Overall; I want to see more. Overall, I liked this.
I’ll get the complaints out of the way first. It’s the trend now in so many shows, but I detest music under EVERYTHING (instrumental music). I had this problem near the end of Supernatural too.
On the other hand, I LOVED the use of the music from that era. That was awesome.
John sure signed on to all of this very quickly and without much fear or wonder at the fact that monsters are real. I can kind of let that go because he saw so much action and violence and horrible stuff in Vietnam…but monsters are different and I would think it would kind of shake your world view. I really loved that he saw the ghost of his dead friend in the backseat…I want a bit more creepiness like that. That felt very real and personal; must more scary than the rather alien “guard dog” in the crypt.
I was not in love with how “Indiana Jones” the first few minutes and “box retrieval” scenes were…but we know Jensen loves Indiana Jones.
I do love the look of the show! It’s somehow like “warm dark” – very distinctive in color and tone and I really love that. The sets like the MOL bunker (this version) and the bookstore are so rich in detail; really nice. Love the use of the New Orleans cemeteries. The Manners postcard on the bookstore bulletin board…awwww.
Characters. John/Drake is instantly likable and charming. Loved how he and Mary were sneaking peeks at each other. I like Mary more than I thought I would. Their talk in the car on the way to Texas was good (and so SPN) – made her more human. I liked Lata’s sweet counterpoint to Mary’s tough wariness. And Carlos. I need to get more depth in Carlos but I am SURE we will. LOVE having a rather nonbinary character like that. Once I get some more serious episodes for Carlos, I’ll like his comic relief better. I did like the serious scene of Carlos and John in the van – that was good and I hope for more of that. Gave me a hint of how good Carlos could be.
Did Mary just leave her car in TX and jump into Carlos’ van????
I like Millie quite a bit. I want more subtle scenes for her though (everything was very emotional for her here, but that makes sense with John coming home from war).
Not sure how I feel about the big threat/monster. But we’ll see where that goes; the thing the box was going to be used to trap (besides demons).
Dean. We did not learn WHERE Dean is narrating from yet. Heaven? I kind of hoped for that as he waits for Sam. But maybe it’s from the years post-Chuck but before he died. I guess maybe we’ll find out eventually. I was surprised that hearing and then seeing Dean so suddenly; as he was not part of this story, was very jarring to me. He didn’t have time to be very “Dean” at all. No real Dean expressions…and then I thought about it and realized that he’s not nearly as “Dean” without Sam to play off of. It really is both of them together that make it Supernatural. I always liked the rare SPN episode where Sam and Dean were apart – the actors and characters got to stretch in different ways and we got to see different sides of them. But here, I guess I didn’t learn anything about Dean; where he is, how he’s feeling, what they hell is going on with him…and I wanted to know all of that. So I didn’t get the surge of love I thought I would. Seeing him with the car felt like kind of a cruel tease in a way. I want more Dean so badly. I’ll give it time.
I give this first one a solid “B”. Most importantly, I want to watch next week.