Hello Supernatural Family,
So this year marks 20 years since Sam and Dean hit the road in their 1967 Chevy Impala. *Cues Kansas Carry On Wayward Son*
20 Years Ago...
So who was I 20 years ago? What was I doing? Where was I? Well I was a 21 year old college student three months legal to drink certain beverages:
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| Look at that shiny new 21 year old! |
I was working on getting my Associates Degree in Film and Video Production Technology, and yes we were fully aware that was a mouthful. I was suppose to be starting my final year of college, but my program head shifted my final classes to the spring and summer semesters, probably due to all the drama from the spring before, which left me with an unexpected fall break.
On the entertainment front this was the year Fangirl and I would walk out of the only that I've ever walked out of House of Wax**, which is funny given Jared Padalacki is in it. TV wise Buffy, the Vampire Slayer had ended two years previous, it's spin off Angel had ended last year, and the OG Charmed was entering it's last season, so I definitely needed new shows. Well hear about this show called Supernatural (SPN) and it has fantastical elements which is up my ally.
So the night of September 13th, 2005 I sat in my moss green chair in my bedroom, and began the hunt. I remember watching Mary burst into flames on the ceiling and thinking "That's different". I also remember Sam coming home and I got a bad feeling and I'm like "Not the girlfriend, not the girlfriend", of course that went up in flames. Little did I know 16 years later I'd be having similar emotions going "Not Dean, not Dean", that got epically skewered.
I know what you're thinking and so began a 15 season fandom love affair... I wish I could say that, I really do. I mean most people fell in love instantly with, heck if the memes are to be believed it was when Dean uttered the line: "Dad's on a hunting trip... and he hasn't been home in a few days." 21 year old me, a whole different story. I watched for a few episodes, I remember getting excited that Amy Ackers from Angel was gonna guest star in the third episode "Dead in the Water", but that's the most I remember of my viewing of that first half of the season. I think I dropped of sometime after "Faith", the first episode with the reapers, because when I was watching it for what I thought was the first time I recalled having seen Julie Benz one of the dresses she was wearing before. Plus the release date for it was near time the spring semester usually starts at my college, and I know I fell off watching after I started back.
I know this has literally turned into a horror show for the Supernatural Family. I don't blame you. I'm horrified myself. Believe me I've had words with 21 me it's like "What was not to like in the show? There was a supernatural element, two cute boys, a pretty, pretty car! (If you get that reference you're awesome) Seriously totally your jam!" But remembering back I think the show initially came across as too dark and serious for my tastes. Keep in mind humor early in the show was much more subtle compared to what we got later on. Plus scarier, at least compared to the previous WB offers I was accustomed to watching. Now I loved spooky things back then, but what I could tolerate was a much smaller threshold compared to my spooky tolerances now at 41, amazing what 20 years can do to a person. So yeah I think I wrote it off as a uber serious weekly Horror movie, and mostly forgot about it. I mean this was forgotten so much that one time I saw this your birth date determines who you'll be stuck in a room with the rest of your life and I got Jenson Ackles, and I had to look up who he was. I know send chills up the spin thinking about it. Although what did Jenson do to get stuck with my Nerdy Butt for the rest of his life? Okay I'll stop scaring you now.
The Road To Fandom...
So Thrifty how did you finally start watching the show again? Glad you asked! You can that thank in a tiny part The Vampire Diaries, and a large part to Fangirl. So fast forward to 2009 when the aforementioned vampire show premiered, which attracted this Buffy loving geek, and I started watching it. It was while I watched that show, which at the time aired I think on Thursdays along with Supernatural, I would occasional like almost once a year see an ad for an SPN episode that peaked my interest. The first of these was "Changing Channels", cause mainly the guys were on a Japanese game show, a format I was familiar with thanks to G4 (RIP). I was surprised this serious horror show was doing humorous things like this, keep in mind had no clue they got a huge injection of funny. This was my first episode with the Trickster, and because it was the big reveal at the end had less of an effect on me as it would if I had been watching it all those seasons. This is also my first Castiel episode, yeah I'm salty about it too. Everyone else got a bada** coming into a barn holy glory, I get him coming out on a stage looking for the missing idjits, only to get spirited away by an arch angel. *Sighs* The next episode would be "The French Mistake" that I ended up watching when I realized they'd been brought to the real world. Then the last of these ad drawn in episodes, I think I was drawn to it cause of the ad, was "LARP and the Real Girl" because it had Felicia Day, who I had become a fan of thanks to The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (which are mandatory shows to watch for the 2000's Era of your Nerdy History class). Now you'd figure at this point I'd have realized my first impressions of the show were not correct, but apparently those first impressions stuck.
It was a little later when that special time came along... When Fangirl was looking for a new show to binge. I can't tell you how many of my fandom origin stories involve this special time. Well this time Supernatural was her chosen one. So fun fact for you all: Fangirl exhibits signs when she has a new show obsession: 1. She starts making references, 2. She talks her Best Friend's ear off about it. *points to self* Whatever I had not learned about the show from the few episodes I watched and hanging in nerd spaces, I learned that day. This would be the catalyst for what happened next in my journey to SPN Fandom.
I awoke one morning, I wasn't feeling so hot, can't remember if it was physical or mental, but I lounged on the bed channel surfing, and it was while scrolling the channels I came across Supernatural on TNT, and I'm like eh let's watch it. I soon found myself every so often watching this show that seemed to even capture my friend in it's grasp. I quickly found myself enjoying it, but at this point was one of those shows I had to be in the right mood to watch, like NCIS. Of course my every so often TNT watch didn't last long cause SPN is not a show that will just be a sometimes thing, it's too powerful, supernatural I daresay. Soon I found myself being dragged with the rest of the multitudes to tune into the new episodes every week.
And so there you have it my long road to becoming a fan of Supernatural.
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| 41 Years old cosplaying Dean this year |
This was originally just suppose to be my memories of the pilot episode, but apparently Chuck decided to inspire a novel... I was gonna include a write up about the series finale in this blog as well, but I think this post has gone on long enough. Since it's also the 5 year anniversary of the show ending I will probably write that part of the story in November.
So I hope you have a good 20th SPN Fam, I'm gonna watch the Pilot episode and eat a piece of pie. Carry on and may the road treat you well.
*Thrifty Geek*
**For record I didn't want to see House of Wax to begin with, I warned Fangirl it was horror which she doesn't really like (probably do to being traumatized with Nightmare on Elm Street as a child... but that's another story). I'm not a big of those style of horror movies either, hence why I was shocked when she said we were going to see it. I wasn't thrilled, but I wasn't going to abandon my friend so I went, but I didn't wanna abandon my friend, so I went with fully intending to keep my eyes cover for the movie. Well I did just that when things started getting more dark, I heard the horrible first people screaming and then Fangirl going "Let's go". We get out of theater and I look at her and proclaimed "I told you!" The we decided to head to a grocery store that was in the plaza at the time.
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