I’m finally starting with Supernatural, and yes I do realize that I might be a wee bit late, but between gaming and studying one can only watch so much TV. So after nearly one and half years of getting badgered by a friend about how much I’m going to love that show I finally gave in. Afterall it’s not like I don’t trust the guy’s judgement. Usually he’s got very fine tastes when it comes to wasting my time.
Flashy lights, bit of flickering writing - I wonder if that was actually the entire title sequence. Bit short. Also the flickering is slightly annoying. Especially in the small hours of morning, when bleary eyes are most sensitive and it might generally be a far better idea to just work on improving your sleeping hours.
But I guess it really isn’t all that bad, afterall it gets a tad tiresome to sit through the same scenes and title music over and over again - and no, exchanging some of the clips is not an improvement. Only downside on it is that this also means losing the last chance of getting something to munch, might just as well start a diet.
And we‘re in Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago, nighttime. Now my geography skills are not the best, but I’m fairly certain that Kansas isn’t exactly the most exciting place on earth, unless of course you’re a little girl with red shoes, unfortunate enough to get caught in a tornado.
But of course something is about to happen as dictated by the cosmic law of storytelling. The music doesn’t bode well, and the crickets happily chirping away in the background have never ever been an indicator of a nice evening in a rural setting - this only works in advertisements for a vacation in the countryside, and even then it’s still dubious.
The camera tilts down to show an old two-storey house, shadowed by a gnarled tree. With the swelling music and cold lighting you’d almost expect some horrid scene to play out in that house. But inside a mother carries her young boy into a nursery, telling him to kiss his little brother goodnight. As the mother, with her long blonde curls and a nightgown that isn’t exactly the height of fashion, bends down to nuzzle the toddler, the apparent father makes an appearance. The boy whirls around and throws himself happily into the man’s arms. It really is a bit sappy.
After the parents leave baby Sam to put his older brother to bed we get a good look at the nursery, leaving me with a feeling of vague apprehension. It is not only the baby that worries me, it is the ticking clock, which miraculously stops just as the camera zooms closer, the muted lights, the flickering of the little lamp shaped into a crescent moon and most of all the slow lullaby tune. Most people in their right minds will agree that right now we’ve seen an assortment of horrorfilm cliches.
We cut to mom, woken by the babyphone. Never really got the point in having such technical gizmos. I mean, you usually wake when the baby screams, and as long as it’s not screaming it must be fine. But it probably goes along with the madness of getting one of these babbling, drooling creatures in the first place. On a side note, did they even have such babyphones back in the 80s?
So mom switches on the lights and stumbles out of bed to go and check on the little monster, while the camera lingers for a moment on the picture of the happy couple. I think even the most dense viewer has by now realized just how perfect this little family is.
Crossing the corridor she sees the silhouette of a man in the nursery, standing above the crib. Daddy is there, baby Sam seems to be fine, no hunger, no screaming, not even gurgling. See? There’s nothing to worry about.
Actually this makes me wonder why she bothered to get up in the first place, afterall the other side of the bed was empty. They don’t seem to have separate rooms, so I guess her husband’s usually staying up late. As she turns to head back to bed she’s distracted by a flickering lamp at the end of the corridor, giving an old photograph eerie illumination.
Frowning mom goes over to give the lampshade a good tap till the flickering stops, commenting her success with a non-committed “hmm”. Another one of those cliches this show seems to be quite fond of and I would comment further on it, but mom just heard some weird noise coming from downstairs.
The TV is running and in front of it is her husband, snoring completely undisturbed by the mayhem of a warfilm. Me and mom probably think the same thing right now. Oh shit.
So she bolts, up the stairs and back to the nursery. Horror is etched onto her face when she comes to an abrupt halt.
Her scream jolts daddy from his slumber and for reasons unknown he stumbles into the nursery instead of his own bedroom, looking around for any murdered wives or monsters hiding in the shadows. When he finds nothing out of the ordinary he visibly calms and goes to check on his son, who seems to be fine, happily sticking his tongue out at his father. Personally I think the kid is in league with whatever evil is lurking in that room.
Some dark spot appears on the pillow, right besides the toddler’s head. Daddy reaches out to touch and both his and baby Sam’s faces grow serious. Three more spots drip down and onto daddy’s hand. Blood. He turns to look up and there’s his wife, staring down at him with a huge red stain tainting her gown. Daddy stumbles back, screaming her name as she erupts into flames.
Well, not bad. After daddy and his sons make it safely out of the house, looking grief stricken we switch to present day, Stanford University.
Some pretty blonde in a cheap nurse’s outfit is calling for Sam. Apparently baby Sam survived getting raised by his father and brother and even turned into a nice, shockingly normal boy. He’s being forced into attending some Halloween party. I feel his pain.
Also it seems like Sam got the brains in the family. They’re celebrating Sammy’s LSAT victory, and while I know that it is apparently some awful university test the score means nothing to me. Then again Sam’s weird friends seem to think the boy wonder’s score equals that of a genius. We’re being further informed that Sam can now go to any law school he wants. Conveniently he’s already got an interview appointment in Stanford on Monday. And his family doesn’t know. Do I sense some daddy issues here?
A scene later Sam’s awakened by some noise coming from the inside of the house. Burglars? Monsters? Aliens? Nope, just some guy Sam promptly attempts to beat the shit out of. I emphasize ‘attempts’. Said guy happens to be his older brother Dean.
No hugs, no kisses, Sam’s definitely not happy to see family. But Dean doesn’t seem to be in the least offended and simply informs him that their father went missing while being on a hunting trip - and I doubt he’s talking about fuzzy mammals. Well, that certainly got Sam’s attention and while the boys start chatting about some rather abnormal, but probably very exciting, past-time activities involving Poltergeists, Voodoo and whatnot the viewer - me! - gets the first bits of exposition. About time. Anyways, Daddy’s missing and Dean needs help in finding him. Naturally he goes to his baby brother, not giving the poor boy much of a choice and more or less forces Sam into tagging along. Oh my, why do I get the feeling Sammy’s never gonna make it to that interview?
While the boys do some much needed catching up on their road trip, we skip ahead to their destination: Jericho, California.
It’s nighttime. Some new, random guy’s driving along the road. Doesn’t really matter that he’s talking to his girlfriend on the phone, we can be pretty sure that he won’t be seeing her again. He swiftly ends the call when he spots a lone figure standing at the roadside. Said figure is having bits of transmission problems, at least she - I’m pretty sure it’s a female - keeps flickering out of view and all of a sudden the radio is also having problems. That’s already been a dead giveaway for aliens, monsters and other unpleasant inhabitants of our humble planet back in the good old days when Mulder & Scully were still bickering about the very existence of these creatures.
But random guy doesn’t seem to be bothered much, and instead willingly follows her simple request of “Take me home.” This is worthy of an hearty eye roll. Of course it is perfectly normal that some woman in a fancy dress is standing all alone in the middle of nowhere. Even more so to be asking the first best guy to take her home and then to promptly start hitting on him. Right. You know, same thing happens to me all the time.
But random guy being a gentleman and all follows her request. They halt in front of some run down house and random guy is pretty much sure that this can’t be the right place. He turns to ask where she really lives but the lady is gone. He leaves the safety of his car to look for her, but after being scared shitless by some bat or bird coming out of the house finally decides to get the hell away from the place.
He hits the road, and after checking that nothing’s following him, tries to regain some semblance of composure. But of course the lady had to reappear in the backseat, looking not very pleased. So bloody predictable. Still jumped, only a little. Not that I’d ever willingly admit to doing such a thing. Never.
A few seconds later we witness the unfortunate end of random guy, with his blood spurting against the windshield. Who do you call? Ghostbusters.
