Reply To: Let’s all talk about The Winchesters Pilot (S1 E1)
Well, Well, Well…..and here it goes. It was GOOD, not great…yet….but very enjoyable and intriguing.
It could TOTALLY be me and my old(er) brain, but the fast and furious start caught me a little off guard. I didn’t dislike it but, MAN, it moved quickly. I DID really dig the Indiana Jones vibe at the very beginning, though. Knowing Jensen loves that character and would have loved to play it….
Immediately I loved the LOOK of it – the hues of amber and moss and rust, the slight fuzziness of everything, almost sepia and nostalgic. VERY vintage and cool looking. (Very Southern)
It’s probably as obviously NOT Kansas as Broward County in “Mystery Spot” was NOT Florida….so, I will always forgive that.
And the use of music was great, too, ASIDE from the incessant need nowadays to ALWAYS have background music in every scene….
I also liked a lot how we jump straight into it all with John and Mary after the fist “Slaughterhouse Five” meeting.
John having a letter from Henry and looking for where the key fit that first night and Mary looking for her dad overlapping with that seemed a good fit to make them interact again.
I didn’t mind at all that we got an immediate reveal of the MoL “clubhouse” and the fact that Henry (aaaaawwww Gil’s voice at the end!) left John a letter and key! YES, it throws up a lot of questions, but I can wait for clarification on that. I always hoped for more MoL content on SPN that would show them in a more useful and less elitist way than the BRITISH MoL. Maybe Robbie can give that to us?! I’m FOR it.
I do have to say, though, that I found John a little TOO accepting of the fact that Mary tells him about demons, monsters, suflur, vampires etc and later Carlos tells him about a ghoul. John never even bats an eye or is the least bit suspicious??!! I wish they had to put a little more skepticism into that! Or a montage of him reading some of Henry’s paperwork and finding out more? SOMETHING to make him a little more disbelieving. I mean we KNOW he has seen evil in Vietnam….but it’s not the same. The Supernatural still needs to stand out from that.
I get that they had time constraints and needed to get a lot communicated in the first episode….but he never even questions “what? Vampires are real? Like Dracula?” Or ask Carlos about what a ghoul is? MISSED opportunities at humor here.
Also, Mary is a little too sharing for someone who wants OUT of the live and doesn’t want to involve anyone else in it, BUT I can take that as an attempt to try and scare John away.
But I do like Meg as Mary. To me she portrayed nicely how closed off and wary Mary is at this point. There was a lot of good awkwardness about her.
Drake makes a charming picture of a very square John here at the beginning. Black and white world view nicely shown, something we know him for later. We can also feel bits of his pain and search for purpose. His recklessness over jumping into the next dangerous adventure makes sense to me for someone who just returned from war and doesn’t want to sit still and look too closely at what he just went through.
To me John wore a Sam-style shirt until Carlos gave him a “John-like” leather jacket, but I might be stretching the intent. LOL.
Latha, Carlos and Ada were just intriguing enough to make me want more. There are hints at what got them into hunting, and explanation enough why they would might want to make their knowledge about the supernatural a weapon against it.
I have 100% trust in Robbie Thompson to layer them in a way that we get bits and pieces of their personalities and intentions episode by episode.
VERY dynamic and ambitious scene in the underground chamber!!! Mary throwing punches at the demon, John fighting the Loupgarou (I APRRECIATE the use of THAT specific monster, indigenous to Creole culture, even though it DID look a little “early SPN” rubbery), Latha figuring out the box, Carlos….being knocked out. There was a lot going on in that scene and it was a little confusing, but exciting.
I am not on board (yet) with the musical use of what I always considered the Sam and Dean Theme when John and his mom talk about his “destiny” towards the end. But I might be convinced otherwise later as the music itself DOES invoke warm feelings of belonging in me. Maybe it’s simply the “Winchester heart to hear music”? I have to wait and see.
There were also some definite “HUH?” moments.
When John “exorcises” the demon Carlos throws at him (funny) he didn’t use the full incantation?? Sign of the (squirrel) attention span of the younger viewer? Or time constraints? I did not like that.
Did Mary just leave her car in Lubbock to ride in Carlos’ van to New Orleans? WHY. Two cars might come in hand and GAS was $0.89 a gallon at the time…lol.
Dean’s narration needed a little more context to me! WHEN was he? (Where was Sam?) WHAT set off the curiosity about his parent’s origin story? The actual words of his speech changed a lot from the first teaser trailer but now it seems a little disjointed – AS GREAT AS IT IS TO SEE DEAN!!!!
But overall….strong start for a prequel that had to live up to a LEGEND! 6 out of 10 for me.
PNP