The Road So (Very) Far, plus CBS All Access -- Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 

    I was not in the mood for Sam & Dean Winchester when I first took a look at them the night the series premiered, September 13th, 2005, on the now long-vanished WB network.

     I remember being suspicious of it, and the intent of the people behind it. While it seems odd now, at the time the only shows I'd watched that included demons were Joss Whedon's Buffy and Angel, which had had their own set of rules built on shifting sands.
     My first impression of the Winchesters and their family mission had me unsure if this show was coming from some self-avowed Christian, and these were supposed to be Christly warriors in a ragtag army of God. If so, it wasn't going to be what I wanted. Also, I think there may have been some begrudging of the show as a vaguely-offered thematic replacement for Buffy, which had wrapped in '03, and Angel in '04. As I say, it all seems so funny to look back on it, but as best I can

recall that was my snap judgement at the time, and I let the show pass during its first couple seasons.
     This first reaction "no" is a general default for me, which is good practice in a world where people are constantly trying to sell me something, but it's also sometimes at least a little funny to me in retrospect, given that some things I initially shot down - the above mentioned Buffy and Angel, and today's lead topic, Supernatural - eventually went on to become favorites.
     The show was quickly pressed into syndication on TNT by the third season, which helped bring it back to my attention and give me rapid access to catching up once I'd given it a second chance. Such VCR (remember those?) assisted bingeing quickly

brought me up to speed.
    Much as with those who become entangled in a soap opera, it largely becomes about the characters and their relationships. At the core of the series is the fraternal bond between Sam and Dean, elder and younger siblings, respectively, whose lives have been an almost non-stop military campaign against horrors mostly unseen by all but their victims. It's a family business, more even than they know at first, the rigors of which have cost them their family -- more than once in some cases. Resurrections are far from unknown in the Supernatural universe, and at one point we even learn that in at least a couple of cases they've become common.
     One can also be drawn in by the details, the fleshing out of their world. At first it's the catalog of monster species and types of ghosts, witches, and demons, which are at first treated as just another type of predatory monster that needs to be killed - complete with the rules for each of them as part of the hunters' lore. Later, once more evidence mounts, they

come to accept that there is a Hell and even a Heaven, and there are operational hierarchies in each - but that these can be and are being challenged. And that in many ways the universe is a vast clock... but the clock maker went missing so long ago that Heaven's running on authoritarianism, habit, and some shreds of faith. And that there are many schemers, and plans hiding within or behind other plans. Alternate realities exist, too, with the occasional, magical crossover visitation.

     Some adversaries become allies, often just as matters of momentary opportunism, but a few new bonds last. Story cycles will wear on the more cynically-minded viewer, as again and again personal compromises and grudging head-butting lead each character to keep secrets - with the best of intentions - leading inevitably to escalating problems.
   Last night (November 12th) the penultimate episode of the series aired, as the Winchesters and allies faced the truly ultimate adversary for seemingly the last time. Next week there'll be a one-hour series retrospective, complete with love letter farewells to the fans, followed by a final

episode as we, presumably, get a glimpse of Sam and Dean's ever after, including (presumably) a much better sense of how their world works following the climax of last night's episode.
     As the standing deal regarding this (and several other - but not all) CW show sees each season appear on Netflix 8 days after the final episode airs, the final 7, pandemic-delayed episodes of season fifteen are expected to join the rest on Black Friday, so all fifteen seasons will be in one place. An assembly line Frankenstein's monster body of work, held together by duct tape, contracts, and the willpower of just enough fans on both sides of the camera. I expect to be revisiting it soon enough, and I like the idea that there are people who've not yet heard of it who will become huge fans.

    Meanwhile, with pandemic raging, the daylight hours continuing to shrink, and the holidays fast approaching, I decided to add to the family's access to (mostly) commercial-free viewing options by adding a year's subscription to CBS All Access. A seasonal tipping point for this is that starting December 17th, a week before Christmas Eve, a new, 10-part adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand will begin weekly airings there.

     I've been trying to not dig into the details on this, and that goes back to last year's casting announcements, because I want to stay loose for the sake of a possibly happier landing. The novel (and even there, it depends on which version one read, as there's the original, and the greatly expanded that also included some minor rewrites for technological advances) is its own thing, as was the 1994, 4-part tv miniseries. Each thing its own, I remind myself. As with the casting for the '94 attempt, it's difficult to be a fan of the book and then look at much of the cast and convincingly say "nailed it." 
     One part I've wrestled with in particular has been Harold Lauder. While I understand the considerable risks and difficulties in going for it, for many a key aspect of Harold's transformation over the course of the story is that we see him go from an overweight, acne ridden, bookish and bullied, small town adolescent, to become a lean, focused, seemingly successful human being who's an important part of his community. Unfortunately, he makes a vengeful deal with the devil too near the beginning of that arc, and denies the reality of the changes he himself has wrought until it's too late.
     I remind myself that it would be insane to expect the possibly health-damaging commitment of a DeNiro or Bale from an adolescent actor, who would pack on considerable, unhealthy pounds for the early part of the role and then train them off - worse, on-schedule - over the course of the months of the shoot. Also, do we really want to see fat suit and make-up? I don't think so. It may be that the sensible thing to do is to let each adaptation be its own thing, and remember that the novel (more than one version of it, even) still exists to be reread for that version.
     The new version - an almost unbelievable 26 years since the earlier tv version - is meant to reflect cultural and demographics changes, too, as race and gender have been retooled.  Here's a fan made '94 v '20 casting comparison for most of the key roles.

     Anyway, I don't mean to go into all that now. I'm sure there'll be plenty of temptation to hit specific notes once the series arrives.
     All of this brings me back around again to whether or not, push comes to shove, some of us will even be interested in sitting down to soak in a world-flattening, fictional pandemic come the week before Christmas. I recall that as we rolled into late March I had casual, but seemingly assured, plans to watch the '94 version as I have that on disc. Here we are, less than two weeks from Thanksgiving, and I've yet to do that.
     The other major draw for CBS All Access for me has been the new Star Trek shows. While I'd

initially been cool to Star Trek: Discovery. it's important to recall that it was introduced at the same time CBS was starting to promote their streaming service. We got a tease, with the first episode broadcast on standard CBS, then the quick come-on of letting us know that episode two was waiting for us that same night, just requiring a service sign-up. Being presented as a come-on to lure us through a paywall went over very poorly for me, so I was inclined to be hyper-critical of this new series' first episode, all the more so as it was simultaneously set as a prequel series to the original show seen in the '60s, but also demonstrated far more advanced tech than that retro-'60s future sported.
     Months later, the complete first season made its way to me. I watched it and it quickly grew on me. Since then, a second season came and went, and the third is now five episodes into its run.
     In the short time I've had it, I've already watched the second season of Discovery, which helped fit the show a little more convincingly into a Trek timeline, watched the full 10-episode first season of another Trek spin-off, Picard, and have caught up on Discovery's third season, now five episodes deep.

     With that focus, I've yet to poke around much into the other offerings, old and new, on the platform, I did check out a few details, though. One is that while they do have the 12 seasons of the original Hawaii Five-O (1968-80) there, we have the continued annoyance of the omission of a "banned" episode from the second season.
     On January 7, 1970, episode 16 of the second series of the show aired. This was "Bored, She Hung Herself." A key aspect of the episode was that one character employed what he described as a "yoga" technique to allow himself to hang by the neck from a rope without being strangled. Well, someone out in the audience decided she'd try it, and it didn't work out so well for her. Her parents sued the network, and not only was the episode never re-aired nor made available as part of the syndication package, it's also not part of any of the official, so-called "complete" DVD releases. Poor-quality copies of it are unofficially around, and reportedly the original wasn't destroyed, just tucked away. By nearly all

accounts it's a poor episode in general, from the writing on up, but this adds the forbidden fruit appeal. Eventually I'd like to see it (a reasonably good copy) for simple completeness sake. It was directed by John Newland (almost totally known for his presiding over One Step Beyond), and somewhere along the line I read one review of the episode that claimed Newland made an uncredited director's cameo in the episode that struck at least that fan as being over-the-top in its "swishy"-ness.
   Stepping back, much as when I was looking over shows on NBC's site and their Peacock streaming platform, it's a confusing affair for those of us from an earlier generation, when there were basically just three networks (four if one counted PBS), and so who fairly clearly remember which shows were on which networks. In the current media properties landscape it defaults to studios and production companies, though, so the matter of who got to air series back in the day holds no sway here. Still, little fuses start to crisp in my head as I look at a CBS site to see an assortment that includes items I'd never associate with this network, including The Brady Bunch, Beavis & Butthead, Cheers, Chapelle's Show, Daria, Happy Days, Taxi, Tosh.0 and Twin Peaks, among others.
     The control interface is a bit clunky and temperamental, but I want to work with it a little more to get a better sense of whether any of it is just my unfamiliarity. One person's "intuitive" can be vastly different from another's.
    That's more than enough of this for one week, though I apologize for not bringing much in the way of immediate recommendations this time.  Take care, I hope your world's starting to feel a little saner this week. The year continues to speed by in the dark.
     Two weeks from now will be Black Friday?!  - Mike