I brought my dvds on vacation. I don't know how many I will watch but my goal is to watch some of the extras for season three to a)break the plastic and b) try and deepen my appreciation for a season that wasn't my cup o tea.

I did watch the Pilot first though. OMG! I've never slurped up exposition like I did rewatching that episode. Then listening to the commentary, David Nutter said they had much more exposition that they cut that went into how the boys grew up, who got the top bunk, etc. ZOMG! Want that now ::grabby hands::

Also, I never cease to be amazed by the youth of both Jared and even Jensen in this first episode.

I still have S2 & S3 from iTunes on the laptop, plus all to date of S4. They're, um, Portable! Yeah.

I was rewatching H&H, as you do. There's a moment that is so delicately, beautifully done that got so overshadowed by the final scene. It really impressed me on rewatch. When Anna's talking about Dean in hell, and she says, "I know."

He stammers there, mumbles, can barely make his mouth work to form actual words, his face goes completely slack from fear and all that remembered pain. And finally tells her, "I can't. I can't talk about that." The expression on his face is just devastating. It's just a moment, but it is beautifully played.

I'ma rewatch Lazarus Rising. Anybody up for a W&P? Or is everybody in a triptophan haze?

I think the triptophan hit my system and went, "whoa!"

It's just a moment, but it is beautifully played.

That was on the list of finest acting moments that I have ever seen. Anywhere. Ever.

You can probably look back and see me saying this about him all along, but Jensen still continues to surprise me. I expect his A game every time. But every once in a while he hits a note and I realize how perfect this series has been for his acting development. I also realized not long ago that I don't have to wish to see the J's in a western, because many episodes are westerns set in modern day scary places.

I started 3.01 and quit right after they met the other hunters. I started 3.02 and quit after Lisa yelled at Dean for giving fighting tips to Ben. I think I am going to finish that one though.

I'm going back to do a season one watch through. Setting up this universe is so fascinating now that we are looking back on it. It was also strange seeing John and Mary in the pilot after ITB. Poor John. Dear John. You really were a male Sarah Connor, weren't you? Mary was Kyle and should have prepared you more, but I can't blame her. Who can blame Mary after ITB? I don't know if that makes Dean or Sam into John Connor, maybe both.

Back to my turkey coma and season one. It's research. Honestly.

Anybody up for a W&P? Or is everybody in a triptophan haze?

I'm in tryptofamily coma. And don't have discs. Which makes me sad.

I did watch the Pilot first though. OMG! I've never slurped up exposition like I did rewatching that episode. Then listening to the commentary, David Nutter said they had much more exposition that they cut that went into how the boys grew up, who got the top bunk, etc. ZOMG! Want that now ::grabby hands::

Actually, having thought about it overnight, I'm sort of glad we didn't get it. Given what an unreliable narrator Sam was, in first half of first season especially, and that the premiere ep was totally The Sam Show, with his comic sidekick Dean, it might have been ugly. Especially when they saw what they had in their actors and worked to center the POV between the brothers later on.

Plus, I like the slow reveal, with puzzle pieces dropped along the way. You have to keep them all, and rejigger them when you find new ones, to get a clearer picture.

Also, I never cease to be amazed by the youth of both Jared and even Jensen in this first episode.

I know! Mere babies, both of them. Being Winchester is almost as aging as being President, right?

Actually, having thought about it overnight, I'm sort of glad we didn't get it. Given what an unreliable narrator Sam was, in first half of first season especially, and that the premiere ep was totally The Sam Show, with his comic sidekick Dean, it might have been ugly.

What we got was a little ugly already though. This is where Sam says John gave him a gun when he said he was afraid something was in his closet. He said John told him not to come back if he left for college. I think the longer exposition scenes that were cut would have just expanded the major points that we already had.

I ended up watching 3.02 and then 3.03, Dream a little Dream, because there was a dream sequence of Lisa that I didn't remember. Kripke said he had tried to get JDM for that episode to be the one that Dean talked to instead of it being a double Jensen scene. I am SO very glad they couldn't get JDM. He said they kept some of the dialogue as it related to the relationship between Dean and John. I don't think I could have taken John talking to Dean like that or Dean snapping and shooting him. It just takes the whole thing to a new level if I had to see it.

I'm starting to get to the place where I almost hope they don't get JDM back.

I'm starting to get to the place where I almost hope they don't get JDM back.

You must be watching GA.

I'm starting to get to the place where I almost hope they don't get JDM back.

I think the brothers have evolved beyond the point where their father's input would be helpful. He's not really relevant any longer.

Which is why I'd like him back as a younger relative of John's, new to the whole supernatural thing, closer in age and relating differently to Sam & Dean than John did. It would be an interesting dynamic for the show, I think. And JDM would get to play his own age, with the occasional flash of family resemblance to eerily remind the boys of their dad.

Dream a little Dream, [snip] Kripke said he had tried to get JDM for that episode to be the one that Dean talked to instead of it being a double Jensen scene. I am SO very glad they couldn't get JDM. He said they kept some of the dialogue as it related to the relationship between Dean and John. I don't think I could have taken John talking to Dean like that or Dean snapping and shooting him.

Oh, a very shuddery reprise of Devil's Trap. I don't know. Those two actors face off so well, especially when John's possessed by something evil. I'd like to have seen it, I think.

I think the longer exposition scenes that were cut (from the pilot) would have just expanded the major points that we already had.

Possibly. But we already have such a deep dislike and often hatred of John, such a jaundiced picture of him as a parent because of those few lines of Sam's in the pilot. A ficwriter said she was completely convinced that John had spent the boys' chldhood either in a drunken rage or a drunken stupor, and believed there was support for her view in canon. She cited (to herself) scenes in Home, in Dead Man's Blood and Salvation where there was a whiskey bottle at John's elbow, and when she rewatched to verify, she was surprised to be proven wrong. John is not, in canon, ever shown drinking. Where that impression came from is Sam's acid criticism in the pilot--a Sam who was still in the lingering throes of adolescent rebellion and a completely biased narrator.

He gets a more balanced picture of his dad in Bugs, and in little lines all through first season, and in Nightmare Sam admits that John had a difficult time dealing with the loss of his wife, being a single father, and discovering and learning about the supernatural, and John that did a good job raising him and Dean considering the odds stacked against him.

But the pilot episode made such an impression on fandom at large that John has been forever labeled an abusive, alcoholic parent (which has some merit, but not to the lengths fandom seems to believe), no matter what qualifiers came later.

So I don't know that more exposition in the pilot would have clarified anything, or just have given more Sam-biased background information to be refuted or qualified later.

Pie and tea.

Wasn't there mention a few weeks ago about a W&P sometime this weekend? Anybody up for that? If so, what would people think of a good selection of cross-season eps?

I'd love to W&P, but I'm running in and posting around others' activities. I feel like the Posting Bandit. :)

I understand what you are saying Bev. I love John. I won't ever call him abusive because I can't put that label on him. However, I think the idea that John wasn't perfect has merit. I think he was, as Dean called him in that awful (wonderful) scene, "an obsessive bastard" who layed too much on Dean's shoulders. Do I have more forgiveness for John than the boys or most of fandom? Probably. I can't place myself in John's shoes and think that I would have done any better and am sure that I would have done worse. I'm not sure it would be believable for anyone to have done better.

I LOVE your idea of having Jeff come back as a relative. John's youngest mechanic brother who never was quite sure why John left town or why the family won't talk about it. OMG, I may have found my plot bunny.

You must be watching GA.

HA! I did see some of the clips that tiggy pointed me to so that I didn't have to see complete episodes. Yay tiggy! I think I will see all of Denny on youtube because I don't think I can stomach the show.