Reply To: Let’s all talk about Phantom Traveler (S1 E4)
This was a fun ride — LOL — pun fully intended 🙂
First things first — Ooh-la-la! That opening scene when Dean is sleeping is still one of my favorites in the whole series. Those peach-fuzzy legs and cheekbones to die for! And I don’t really like feet, but Dude has the most perfect toes. Okay, back to reality 🙂
Speaking of that opening scene — this is a minor thing, but I LOVE that Dean always (at least in the early seasons) takes the lid off of his coffee before he drinks it. It’s smart to SEE what you’re drinking before you drink it. I thought that was a GREAT idea at the time, and started doing that too, all those years ago. I still do it, by the way, and I’m very proud of that 🙂
I love how the same visual effects budget that gave us such uninteresting demon smoke also created a FANTASTIC plane crash when that two-seater went down. I guess they decided to blow budget on the good stuff. And it’s also possible that they hadn’t yet conceived a better graphic for the demon smoke we saw later in this season with Meg, and in season 2 when Sam was possessed.
It would’ve been nice if they’d kept some consistency between season 1 and the later seasons. Like, demons clearly don’t always leave sulfur trace, but it’s still one of the first things the boys look for when working a case. Dean also used an EMF detector to find a demon on a plane, but we never see that used again to locate demons. In fact, the show rarely even alludes to the fact that demons are a type of spirit. Anyway, it always sticks in my craw when someone raves about how “perfect” the first five seasons were. They were good, but not perfect. They were also full of hiccups (in terms of lore and plot) because it took a while for the writers to get their legs under the story. Anyway, I wish the later seasons (at least 6 – 12) got some of the respect they deserve. There was some tight storytelling there.
Speaking of production stuff, I remember watching the commentary for this one, when they talk about that long camera shot in the airplane hangar. I think Bob Singer directed this one — kudos to him. Now, whenever I watch a long shot like that, I’m impressed, because they talked how difficult it is to set up correctly, but it saves time and money in the end. They do a lot of that in West Wing, which was probably my favorite show before I fell in love with Supernatural.
This was a good one 🙂