So, we are officially less than 24 hours away from the season five premiere of Supernatural, which for many of you readers (read: at least 3 out of the 4 of you) probably means very little. “Why should I give a shit?” you may ask. “Isn’t that show on the CW? The only other thing that network is known for is America’s Next Top Model! Lame!”
Well, I’m going to tell you why you should give a shit, so hush up for a minute. Also, yes, it’s on the CW, but what’s with the Tyra hate? Top Model is pretty fabulous!
…*shifty eyes* …IGNORE ME! …No, really, keep reading.
I understand your skepticism, dear reader. To be honest, until the beginning of the fourth season, Supernatural was barely even on my radar as a potential nerdy obsession. I vaguely recall it getting decent reviews around the time the pilot premiered a few years ago, but at the time I was just starting university and wasn’t really in the market for a show that would make me look even nerdier than I already do (my DVD collector’s set of X-Files, proudly on display in my dorm room, gave me away anyway…don’t know why I was so concerned there), so I didn’t watch. But, after the initial buzz that comes with any new show on a semi-”big deal” network’s fall lineup, I heard nothing. NOTHING.
*cue crickets*
After I graduated university, I made the same choice as many of my peers to not get cable in my first “real adult” apartment. This was primarily due to cost, but also because everything I watched on a regular basis was readily available on Hulu or on DVD. Well, the thing about cutting yourself off from standard television is that you also lose the huge volume of commercials that tells you what’s new and cool and sexy. After about a year of TV-free life and having watched every DVD I own at least seventy times, I started taking recommendations from friends. The first three guys I asked all told me to watch Supernatural. I watched the pilot, and it was a match made in fangirl heaven (seriously, if you haven’t seen this show, go watch the pilot–the characters feel remarkably established and there’s never that feeling of “wait two or three episodes while the actors get used to the parts” …everyone on that show is a fucking champ). Sexy brothers with severe daddy issues save the world, Buffy style, on a weekly basis, with all the cinematography, lighting, and tone that made X-Files so successful. The recently departed Kim Manners, an X-Files alum himself, can get most of the credit there, having contributed to a significant amount of the Supernatural world building. And, for the Whedonverse fans out there, one of the writers was also the man responsible for the stupid awesome puppet episode from the final season of Angel. That should easily be reason enough to watch.
Anyway, just as it seemed the cool, underground thing to watch this show (despite my incessant proselytizing) and I’d finally blown through four straight seasons on DVD, all of a sudden it’s being advertised everywhere! I’m seeing posters in Best Buy, top ratings on “what to watch” lists, even Perez Hilton mentioned one of the show’s stars in his blog a few times. Fans started coming out of the woodwork. What made this show so big, so fast?
Well, the circumstances that got me to watch seem to be more and more common: people are ditching “real TV” for Hulu and network website video players to catch their favorite shows. In the land of real TV, Supernatural is up against Grey’s Anatomy and The Office every week, two of the most popular shows around. BUT! In Internet land, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you want.
But, you may be asking, isn’t that exactly what happens with Tivo? No commercials, you watch things on your own time. This whole argument, foiled! Foiled, I say!
No, dear reader. I beg to differ. You’re speeding through commercials, but they’re still there. My friends and I had Tivo at university, and despite our own best efforts, if something was shiny or cool-looking enough, God frak us, we slowed it down and watched. Also, the live TV element of Tivo means that at some point, you’ll be channel surfing, which means you’ll probably run into commercials on a much more massive scale than you do on Hulu or some other kind of video service. So, the element of complete disconnect from mainstream commercials is just not there with Tivo, and it’s that disconnect that prompted me (and the others I know in a similar TV-free situation) to bring new programming into our lives solely on the recommendations of our friends. With Tivo, most people also set up “season passes” for the shows they watch the most. In Internet land, there’s no hard drive of shows piling up for me to watch, making me feel slightly guilty if I don’t watch. I watch what I want, when I want. To put it slightly more pretentiously, the recession-prone TV-free proletariat has created an artificial multimedia indie underground, and quality shows like Supernatural are finally reaping the benefits.
So, in conclusion, watch the fucking show. You’ll be glad you did.
ALSO: dearest readers, we at Fangirls: The Blog would love to know what shows/movies/radio plays you’ve discovered recently. Doesn’t matter if it’s not “new and hip”, just that it’s quality… Kiiiiind of the whole point we’re trying to make here.
