Supernatural - This is Where it All Began

I had the chance to catch the first two episodes of Supernatural and decided to give them a go. No way am I taking on yet another long series at the moment, having even suspended [well, somewhat] Walking Dead for the time being. On Walking Dead, it has been more or less brief dalliances with the show but never full-time commitment. I come and go, arrive for a bit and then leave. On Supernatural, I just entertain the show for quickies. I really enjoyed the episodes I watched in 2017, so getting the chance to check out the very first two episodes. The Pilot gives us Negan of all people (the irony, considering my mention of Walking Dead) as the father that raised his boys to help him fight different creatures of the supernatural kind. Adrianne Palicki was familiar to me, portraying the temporary love interest for Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki). I guess I know her especially from my numerous revisits to repeats of CSI: Miami, or in movies like Legion or John Wick. She’s only in the episode at the beginning of it and at the end; dying as Sam’s mother did certainly provided motivation enough to abandon the prospects of being a lawyer with focus towards assisting his brother, Dean (Jensen Ackles), in the hunt for whatever it was that destroyed their family life before it could really begin. Palicki’s short stay includes her dressing in the “slutty nurse” outfit for Halloween and discovering Sam after a play scuffle with Dean wearing a short shirt and skimpy sports shorts…the latter incurring Dean’s particular interest. Dean has never been much of a subtle guy when it comes to women. Sam is the softie of the two brothers. Of course the Winchesters’ mission at the beginning is to find their father who went missing investigating the case of a female ghost preying on adulterers who pick her up hitchhiking, willing to “take her home” where the end of the line is a closed, decaying bridge. The bridge was the final resting place for a suicide, a mother named Constance Welch (the seductive Sarah Shahi, of the highly advertised but ultimately cancelled USA network show, Fairly Legal) who had drowned her kids and took the “swan dive” (so jokingly applied by Dean, looking over with his brother before his car nearly slams them). Imitating US Marshalls, the local police arrest Dean while Sam gets away to interview Constance’s husband, Joseph (genre icon, Steve Railsback). Amusingly, Dean is presented with “evidence” of his father’s “involvement” in missing men (all victims of Constance when they agree to “take her home”, only to suffer her wrath), according to the police that found a hotel room interested in the Constance Welch case. As seen by law enforcement, it is easy to understand why the father of Sam and Dean (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) could be considerably suspect with how his room looked, the walls covered in past history of incidents and his journal of “weird ramblings”…and a paper clip which would allow Dean to escape handcuffs holding him in interrogation. As expected the brothers together must undermine Candace’s efforts not to actually “go home”. She never goes all the way into her former home, soon accosting men who carried her there (except for poor Sam, who didn’t volunteer to take her home or give himself to her). This is where Dean must come to the rescue just to distract Constance, so that Sam can literally drive her [into] home. Together, the brothers can be successful as creature hunters. Often the show would see them apart where success against the dark forces didn’t always go so well.

*I was thinking about how this show has the kind of ongoing story arc (and supernatural-creature-of-the-week formula) perfect for syndication. I have to imagine the show's longevity stems not by its presence as a CW mainstay exactly but on TNT or streaming. Its profile certainly remains distinctive.