salt and fire

hey, look, guys! i finally finished a season of something! i thought the fireworks last night were in celebration of that fact, really -- not the really irritating ones at 2 a.m., but the nicer ones earlier in the evening. i definitely think that something should mark the accomplishment of finishing the first season of supernatural.

yeah, i know; i'm only about 6 years behind the curve here but at least part of that time? i was living with no cable and no real way of knowing such a show existed. i would have walked over broken glass to get cable had it been a new doctor who series -- and, in fact, went to great lengths to find internet rips of the first christopher eccleston episodes via canada -- but no-one told me about supernatural.

i actually rather walked into it through sheer chance; the first season boxed set was on sale at best buy for something like $12. and i looked at it, remembered part of an episode i had seen recently where the boys walked into a convention of themselves, and thought, 'what the hell.' so far, i have not been disappointed.

in fact, certain episodes -- like "asylum," "faith," and "nightmare" -- have raised the bar in terms of what i expect. if you can do that, guys, lets have less messing about with stuff like "skin" or "the benders" -- both fun, don't get me wrong (and it's always a delight to see dr. julia from earth 2 again), but nothing special and both really derivative of episodes from other series: "squeeze" from the x-files in the case of "skin" and "countrycide" from torchwood in the case of "the benders" as well as things like the hills have eyes and so on and so forth.

i always hope for more out of season finales than i usually get. the exceptions to this tend to be the new seasons of doctor who ("journey's end," anyone?), torchwood, and buffy. carnivale kind of doesn't make the list because, lets face it, it's that weird all the damn time and there are only 2 seasons. i have a great fondness for al swearengen's monolog at the end of season 1 of deadwood, but i haven't found time or focus yet to watch the next season, so i can't comment.

back to the original topic in hand: so, yes, i like the end of season 1. it was great to finally get some answers out of john winchester even if they were unsatisfactory and partial. i'm interested to see what happens with the colt if only because i know it's important in later seasons and the idea of a side-arm made especially for a "hunter" on a horse by colt himself just seems like such an obvious nod to roland in the dark tower series that it makes me happy. it probably has nothing to do with it and we're either setting up for a plot element that goes nowhere or a flashback to some winchester ancestor, but it makes me happy anyway.

and there was some good character development in the last few episodes. it was nice to see dean finally admit how much he depends on his brother and father; how little else he feels he has outside of them. and equally pleasant to see sam stop bitching about his father in rather vague ways and actually take a shot at standing up to him squarely.

and since i vaguely remember some of the twitching online in the genre blogs i read around the end of season 1 and the kind of "well, we know it got renewed so they really can't all be dead---right?" feeling that was wandering around, i'm intrigued to see what happens next. the good bit is that season 2 was on sale the next week for about the same amount, so i don't have to indulge in any delayed gratification. i can get my gratification at about -- oh, 5 this afternoon. :)