SPN: Home and Asylum

[snick_backup]

Yanno, I guess I should have guessed the main subject of this show, given the title, but I really am not all that interested in hauntings, spirits, or poltergeists. Really I am not. Can we have another wendigo, please?

By and large, this seems to be a smarter show than the X-Files, but the X-Files dealt with a much more interesting variety of phenomena. I'm more interested in weird than ghostly - actual zombified psychiatrists with brain-frying capacities, rather than just ectoplasmic manifestations thereof.

Also, this whole "John Winchester is hiding from his sons for reasons completely unexplained, which is coincidentally very useful for dragging out the plot" thing is getting old.

On to the episodes!

Home
Am already enjoying how the show explains itself via other pop culture - a Vulcan mind meld in "Skin," A Shining reference here.

Man alive, Jensen Ackles can do the wet eyes and the teary voice like nobody's business. Wow. I was a little iffy on some of the acting early on, but now I am sold, you guys.

On the one hand, Missouri Mosely is the Magical Negro and the Sassy Black Woman rolled into one; on the other, it's awfully hard to dislike her, especially when she keeps ruffling Dean's feathers. Plus, it's lovely to see the boys working with someone else for a change, and also she's the first evidence we've seen that the supernatural is anything but 100% nasty.

I'm a tidge confused about why Mary Winchester's spirit was still hanging around the house after all this time. Did she come back from the beyond specifically to protect the house, or had she been there all along, or what? Do spirits not go off into a white light in this universe? Does everybody have a spirit, or only dead people? Is it like a soul, eternal, or does it usually wink out of existence upon death?

No doubt the show will answer me these questions eventually.

Also, hmm, Sammy the psychic. Eeeenteresting. Also alliterative!

Asylum
Hands down the plain scariest episode so far. Scary dead-people make-up, decrepit insane asylum, freaky instruments of psychiatric torture, VINYL CURTAINS. I mean. Quite effective.

Naturally I was quite tickled that the silly guy was appalled at the idea of being able to shoot a shotgun, but his girlfriend knew how.

Loved the bit where Sam had to trade the psychiatrist emotional honesty for info. I almost expected the psychiatrist to be evil, too, but it was not so. I expect we'll get deeper into Sam's anger issues later on.

DEAN points to the shotgun loaded with rock salt
DEAN: You know that won't kill me.
SAM: No. [Shoots him.] But it'll hurt like hell.

So, fannish consensus requested: was that a shout-out to Darla's lines in "Angel"? I mean, they're not so distinctive a person couldn't come up with them independently, and yet. I'm inclined to say it was intentional.

Comments

[silverusagi]

Man alive, Jensen Ackles can do the wet eyes and the teary voice like nobody's business.

Jensen has also perfected the Single Emo Tear.

I'm a tidge confused about why Mary Winchester's spirit was still hanging around the house after all this time. Did she come back from the beyond specifically to protect the house, or had she been there all along, or what? Do spirits not go off into a white light in this universe? Does everybody have a spirit, or only dead people? Is it like a soul, eternal, or does it usually wink out of existence upon death?

Sort of explained, sort of not. I was never personally sure about Mary. I suppose she was in the house the whole time. SPN is clearer on the whole souls thing than Buffy ever was, but it's never laid out in great detail. The general consensus seems to be that a spirit is a soul that got stuck here for some reason and didn't go on to wherever it was supposed to go. Because we definitely deal with souls later. Every human has a soul. Ghosts just seem to be souls who never moved on to the next plane.

[snickfic]

By sheer willpower I will avoid all puns about planes.

You're welcome. *g*

And thanks for the info RE: souls.

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

This show is brain crack, I swear it. I got through all five seasons in a month, that's how addictive it is. Asylum creeped me out big time, but I remember loving the girlfriend, too! And there's Papa Winchester in Home, and I'll just say I'd call him Daddy any day! Jeffrey Dean Morgan is actually my favorite hot guy out of the hot guys.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Jeffery Dean Morgan could get me to say "poppa" any day. He also cries very prettily, please note.

[snickfic]

I would be going through it faster than I am, had I the resources. But it's just as well; I've done the full-season-in-a-week thing while also working, and I do nothing else. Plus this way I can cogitate in between disks. :)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is actually my favorite hot guy out of the hot guys.

Serious? If I have a type, he seems to be the opposite of it, from what I've seen of him so far. Huh.

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

Well, I loved him on Gray's Anatomy when I actually watched Gray's Anatomy, so I was biased towards him when I started. It's funny, he's totally my type, but Spike is the opposite of my type, so he's the anomaly in my personal harem of hot guys.

[ghostyouknow27.livejournal.com]

Most of my TV crushes are not people I would be into in real life. I didn't find James Marsters attractive until I fell for Spike, and I still don't think he's hot in any other roles. I think Jensen Ackles is AMAZINGLY gorgeous, but he's not anyone I would go for in RL, either. Not least of all because he's out of my league, lol.

Actors more in line with RL tastes would be David Tennant (and I've come to really dislike Ten, actually) and Adam Scott (Party Down and Parks and Rec).

My fantasy crushes and RL crushes tend to be super different. It's weird, but there you go.

[snickfic]

Ah. I was blissfully unaware of the Grey's Anatomy connection.

My type is usually skinny, dark-haired, thin-featured, not your standard all-American looks. Think Adrian Brody or Keanu Reeves or, um, I'm blanking.

Which isn't to say I can't find other types attractive, but it takes longer. Like, I adored Spike long before I found him physically attractive; that happened sometime last year when I realized I really, really liked his arms. *g*

[ghostyouknow27.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the shared line was intentional or not. I think the biggest Whedonverse-SPN connection is Ben Edlund, and he didn't come on as a producer/writer until S2.

[snickfic]

It's just that the scenario is so similar.

In unrelated things, why is your default icon of a malevolent bunny with red eyes?

[ghostyouknow27.livejournal.com]

Dude! It's Bunnicula! BUNNICULA!

I've loved that juice-sucking, furry vampire since I was a kid. My love of absurd horror comedy has been with me pretty much since birth.

Plus, I'm vegan, and he's a vegan vampire. So, there's that. :D

[snickfic]

Ah. I think somehow I missed reading that, although I definitely saw it on the shelves.

Bunnicula is a vegan vampire? Does he suck all the juice out of the carrots?

[ghostyouknow27.livejournal.com]

Does he suck all the juice out of the carrots?
Exactly so!

[gryfndor-godess.livejournal.com]

Naturally I was quite tickled that the silly guy was appalled at the idea of being able to shoot a shotgun, but his girlfriend knew how.

That was an EXCELLENT scene!

was that a shout-out to Darla's lines in "Angel"?

THAT'S IT. I KNEW I'd heard that line before, and I of course suspected Whedon, but I couldn't think what it was.

Hands down the plain scariest episode so far.

Thanks for the heads-up about the jump-out-at-you moments, btw. I don't think I responded to that comment 'cause of the DDS attacks, but it def helped tonight. :)

[snickfic]

Thanks for the heads-up about the jump-out-at-you moments, btw.

You're very welcome! There've been other episodes that have been grosser or more tense, but Asylum really is the scariest one so far, IMO. I'm not generally into straight horror, but if I were this'd be near the top of the list - for TV, anyway. HIGHLY EFFECTIVE. *g*