It feels like a completely natural extension....which in no way prevents it from being facepalm and potential Motts city. Well, maybe not Motts, if we don't identify with them enough.

I have faith in AJ Buckley, for some weird reason. And I'm still mad about how they wrote him in CSI:NY.

In reading around I get the impression JA thought it was OOC for Dean, but coupling that with the bare supplication he showed his father later in the episode, it worked for me--he's just that much of a family beast. Later on he'd sacrifice for Dean to have a normal life, but not yet, I guess.

Emphasis mine. Are the he's the same people here?

I think it was slightly OOC for Dean to be that forthcoming, but it was early days in the show, and I'm not entirely sure they had him down completely yet. I'm willing to handwave it because Sam is so heartbreaking in that scene, and JP played it really well.

The he's are the same people--I meant to say that later he'd sacrifice for Sam to have a normal life. Although Dean might have been a bit OOC, I thought JA sold it hard. I had a harder time believing Sam would not notice that pain, so I was a little less sold on JP's job. But I need to apply what I know of sibling dynamics, and maybe it makes more sense.

Okay, gotcha.

I'm amazed at what I'm finding in each episode watching it straight through from the start again. Stuff happened in the beginning of Shadow, for instance, that I didn't remember at all.

The reunion with John was also a lot more powerful with the buildup of the previous episodes. Plus, I am a sucker for the way JDM plays him -- that smile, and the husky voice. I may have swooned just a *little* bit.

I know John's a lousy father, et al., but yeah, he was hot in Shadow. The family dynamic on this show weakens me. When the boys call him sir, they're all hotter.

Lots of shallow thoughts about that ep--the boys bound and cut? Meg taunting them? Mmmm.

Despite what Sam said even in the pilot about their childhood, the episode that really hurt was Something Wicked, which is on tomorrow. *Seeing* how young Sam and Dean were there, especially Sam, and the responsibility John left to Dean, was just heartbreaking.

I have a lot of sympathy for John, probably because of the way JDM played him as well as Dean's love for him, but even that gets twisted later, when Dean starts to realize how blindly he idolized him.

Oh! And speaking of shallow, today in Hell House I was really struck by how gratuitously beefcake Sam was, coming out of the shower. Not that I didn't enjoy it, mind you, but wow. They really went for the drool factor there with no shame.

I don't have clear memories about the S1 episodes, so I look forward to what tomorrow will remind me of. So far, A Very Supernatural Christmas takes my heartbreak cake.

I love how complicated they get about their father. I'm looking forward to that.

I admit, I rewound and rewatched Sam coming out of the shower. JP flexes his pec quite gratuitously. It's...it's terrible. That's why I had to look again to be sure.

Exactly. You need to verify that he is indeed showing off. I understand completely.

I didn't even see Hell House today, but you are taking me to my one of my very happy places. That scene is engraved on the inside of my eyelids.

I have a lot of sympathy for John, probably because of the way JDM played him as well as Dean's love for him, but even that gets twisted later

I have pretty much no sympathy for John. Despite the physical loveliness of JDM any sympathy got burned out of me by John's treatment of the boys -- when Dean, the supremely competent and obedient soldier/son called him in tears, saying that he was afraid and didn't know what to do, John did nothing. He didn't show up, didn't even call. Even though he was in the same damned town. When Sam, who we can be pretty sure didn't call and ask for much of anything in the intervening years, called and told him that Dean was dying, again, John did nothing. Didn't even call. Once John reestablished contact it was only to send them off on missions again. His only excuse for a lack of conversation, if I remember correctly, was that it was safer for them if he wasn't in contact. But apparently it was safe enough for him to contact them and order them around and put them in danger chasing various supernatural beasties. I get conflicted sometimes about my reactions to Sam, and occasionally Dean drives me up a wall, but I remain gloriously unconflicted about John.

For the sake of the story, I love what John has done to Dean and Sam. Because of JDM, I find his presentation sexy.

I can't even say I'd want to save the boys from him if I were in the universe, because it's so gloriously impossible.

So on conflicting levels I appreciate John, but he's an absolute ass. He does gruffly touching things later, but he's still an ass. Those boys needed a mother, but then we'd have had no story.

Then again, I liked JDM as The Comedian in Watchmen, and that's an unequivocally nasty character. He has a way about him. I need to see him do something else--something not Denny.