If you've got some sugar for me . . .
. . . sugar daddy bring it home.
I watched SPN when it started. I believe I came in on the second ep and watched about 3 eps total. I started because all the BtVS fans were watching it; I'd started watching some other stuff because they were all watching it, namely BSG, which became a very important show for me.
But when it came to SPN, it seemed like another monster-of-the-week type show that yes, could have some very interesting stuff. But then you'd have to sit through all this crap to get these little character dribbles, and it just wasn't worth it. BtVS was worth it because it had sparkly dialogue. But by then I was watching way more tv (like two different shows!) than I had ever watched at once before, and it just seemed too much of a waste of time for too little pay-off.
I currently feel that way about X-Files. Lord, do I love me some Scully, Mulder, and Skinner, but when I think of what I had to sit through to get it, it almost doesn't feel worth it. Now that I've watched it, I'm glad I knew those characters. But I'm not sure I'd do that to myself again.
So anyway,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
my_daroga, housemate extraordinaire, started watching SPN because she wanted something to watch that no one else wanted to watch, so she could watch it when no one else was around. So she watched it . . . and watched it . . . and watched it. Here are some conversations for you:
J: La la la. I understand there's some interesting Sam and Dean stuff, but mostly it's monster-of-the-week, right?
K: Yeah.
J: So is it worth it?
K: Well, it's entertaining, but no, it's totally bad.
J: I figured.
*
J: Everyone wants those two boys to hook up. I sort of get it; I mean, Dean is so pretty and there is so much angst.
K: I know. But I don't ship them.
J: So, there aren't interesting family dynamics?
K: Oh, they're interesting.
J: Oh. So . . . is it worth it?
K: No. It's bad. I mean, it's entertaining, but it's not a good show.
J: Yep, that's what I thought.
*
K: This is crack.
J: But that's why you're watching it, right?
K: No. I mean crack.
J: But like it's bad, right? I mean, we talked about this.
K: Yes, but it's crack.
*
J: La la la.
K: Where is the Sam/Dean fic? Where is the Sam/girl!Dean fic? Where is the first time Sam/Dean fic? Where is the oh-so-wrong Sam/Dean fic?
J: La . . . la?
*
J: So. This show. I thought you said it was crack.
K: Oh, it is.
J: And I thought you said it was bad.
K: Oh, it is.
J: But I need to watch it now.
K: Yes. You do.
Anywho, so I started watching SPN. Here's the thing about this show: not only did I determine that it was bad, andmy_daroga tell me it was bad, I feel like fandom told me it was bad. Yes, fandom also told me there was much crack and angst and pretty, but fandom also said there was misogyny and bad writing and stupid plots and . . . well, actually. Most of what I know about this fandom I learn whenever I go looking for the dirtiest, filthiest, most squalid porn I can find by following various links on delicious. When following various links to disgustingsauce, I get this one infamous HP fic and 50,000 SPN fics that are far worse than the infamous HP fic. So, I have actually read lots of SPN fic (50,000, to be exact).
However, I am miraculously unspoiled. There was a big thing that happened at the beginning of S2 and I had no idea. I only ever read SPN for porn. Obscene, vile porn. If there was plot I went away. You know, many ladies in fandom say nothing gets them hotter than good characterizations and good writing. I am not one of those ladies. (And I don't know why I'm like that, because I love cerebral hotsauce. But in certain situations, bring on the nasty, and honestly I don't care about quality. I may be the only person I've seen who feels that way. But there ya go.)
Anywho, so I was under the impression this show was bad. And man, it sort of is. The plots and the writing and some of the one-off characters, and just how blunt everything is. I feel like the characterizations are short-cuts and we are told a lot more than we are shown. And usually when I hear a "but" appended to these shortcomings, what I see or hear is, "but they are pretty!"
Well, both of them are pretty. I knew that I could very easily get into a situation of just watching Ackles for like, ever. I'm not even that attracted to him. He's just. That. Pretty. But one reason I didn't keep watching initially was I didn't want to be stuck watching something just because someone was pretty, and I thought if I avoided it all together I wouldn't miss much and would avoid wasting time. But. But, the "but" I'm going to append to these shortcomings is not, "but the pretty."
The "but" is--but, these characterizations are very strong, the thematic elements are very strong. And almost every episode brings these things out. Yes, SPN does so very bluntly, in sweeping melodramatic ways that are far easier than perhaps more quiet moments would be. But, well, in my experience, TV doesn't give us many quiet moments, and when it does you get something like the X-Files where you actually never get enough, and are just slogging through all this crap to get the things you like.
But SPN gives it to you, and it gives it to you a lot. And yes, I still feel they use short-cuts to give us some of the biggest character moments, but they are good character moments. They're very intense. What it is is like sugar injected straight into your veins.
So, the sugar in wheat is inside the seed. And the seed has this husk that protects the seed. And it has a germ, which is what grows into the actual plant. Then it has this thing called the endosperm. If you look at a normal plant cell it has these little chloroplasts. And chloroplasts photosynthesize! This means they take sunlight and CO2 and make sugar, which the plant eats to stay alive. And there are just a few per cell, and these little chloroplasts are the sugar in, say, you veggies. However. If you look at an endosperm plant cell, they have these HUGE packets in them full of sugar. This is sugar waiting to feed the baby plant for when it grows. So, take away the husk, take away the baby plant, and leave the endosperm, and what you've got is nothing healthy and nothing with any nutrients, but it's the one thing a plant feeds off of that keeps it alive, and it tastes damn good.
That's what SPN is.
Why didn't anyone tell me this? I feel like no one told me this.
What's particularly interesting is SPN feels fannish. The things SPN gives, fandom--as an amorphous, heterogeneous whole--wants. Fandom wants something that much media just doesn't give us. I mean, we're not looking for this one thing from this one canon. If you, as an individual, are looking for a specific thing from a specific canon, another individual is looking for another specific thing from a different canon, and yet those specific things for which we are looking often fall under an umbrella. That umbrella encompasses the things we are looking for that we just don't get except in fandom, and I'm not talking about the friends and family here. I'm talking about the sugar.
In SPN the characters, character relationships, and themes are all about family--see how we've refined it so we don't have to deal with other themes or relationships, really; it just all comes back to family, which simplifies everything considerably. The sugar fandom wants (bear with me here) is character and themes; exploration of characters and relationships between characters from every angle, themes played on again and again and again.
I used to feel that character and thematic exploration was a matter of quality, because I associate exploring character and themes with quality work. The weird thing is, there is plenty of badfic and wank and stupidity in fandom. There is plenty of non-quality work. But many of the people who write badfic or commit stupidity are looking for sugar, too. Most of us are in it for the sugar, no matter what the nutrients or flavor we choose to add to what we do here.
So what SPN made me realize is that fandom is a bakery. It is a bakery, and we are all making breads and buns and biscuits, and some of us make pies and cakes, and some of us make fancy little macaroons and some of us make good down-home hearty apple pie and serve it a la mode with caramel sauce. And some of us make ding-dongs and ho-hos and they're really bad for you and don't even taste that great, but man, you eat 'em anyway for the sugar. And some I can't even stand because I don't like sour stuff; I won't touch Sourpatch Kids with a ten foot pole. But other people will, for the sugar. And some of us are making like kolaches with meat tucked in, or zucchini bread, or things which are healthy for us. But we all want sugar. We are sugar fiends. We crave it.
Evilmy_daroga: she made me crave SPN.
*loves her forever*
I watched SPN when it started. I believe I came in on the second ep and watched about 3 eps total. I started because all the BtVS fans were watching it; I'd started watching some other stuff because they were all watching it, namely BSG, which became a very important show for me.
But when it came to SPN, it seemed like another monster-of-the-week type show that yes, could have some very interesting stuff. But then you'd have to sit through all this crap to get these little character dribbles, and it just wasn't worth it. BtVS was worth it because it had sparkly dialogue. But by then I was watching way more tv (like two different shows!) than I had ever watched at once before, and it just seemed too much of a waste of time for too little pay-off.
I currently feel that way about X-Files. Lord, do I love me some Scully, Mulder, and Skinner, but when I think of what I had to sit through to get it, it almost doesn't feel worth it. Now that I've watched it, I'm glad I knew those characters. But I'm not sure I'd do that to myself again.
So anyway,
my_daroga, housemate extraordinaire, started watching SPN because she wanted something to watch that no one else wanted to watch, so she could watch it when no one else was around. So she watched it . . . and watched it . . . and watched it. Here are some conversations for you:J: La la la. I understand there's some interesting Sam and Dean stuff, but mostly it's monster-of-the-week, right?
K: Yeah.
J: So is it worth it?
K: Well, it's entertaining, but no, it's totally bad.
J: I figured.
*
J: Everyone wants those two boys to hook up. I sort of get it; I mean, Dean is so pretty and there is so much angst.
K: I know. But I don't ship them.
J: So, there aren't interesting family dynamics?
K: Oh, they're interesting.
J: Oh. So . . . is it worth it?
K: No. It's bad. I mean, it's entertaining, but it's not a good show.
J: Yep, that's what I thought.
*
K: This is crack.
J: But that's why you're watching it, right?
K: No. I mean crack.
J: But like it's bad, right? I mean, we talked about this.
K: Yes, but it's crack.
*
J: La la la.
K: Where is the Sam/Dean fic? Where is the Sam/girl!Dean fic? Where is the first time Sam/Dean fic? Where is the oh-so-wrong Sam/Dean fic?
J: La . . . la?
*
J: So. This show. I thought you said it was crack.
K: Oh, it is.
J: And I thought you said it was bad.
K: Oh, it is.
J: But I need to watch it now.
K: Yes. You do.
Anywho, so I started watching SPN. Here's the thing about this show: not only did I determine that it was bad, and
my_daroga tell me it was bad, I feel like fandom told me it was bad. Yes, fandom also told me there was much crack and angst and pretty, but fandom also said there was misogyny and bad writing and stupid plots and . . . well, actually. Most of what I know about this fandom I learn whenever I go looking for the dirtiest, filthiest, most squalid porn I can find by following various links on delicious. When following various links to disgustingsauce, I get this one infamous HP fic and 50,000 SPN fics that are far worse than the infamous HP fic. So, I have actually read lots of SPN fic (50,000, to be exact).However, I am miraculously unspoiled. There was a big thing that happened at the beginning of S2 and I had no idea. I only ever read SPN for porn. Obscene, vile porn. If there was plot I went away. You know, many ladies in fandom say nothing gets them hotter than good characterizations and good writing. I am not one of those ladies. (And I don't know why I'm like that, because I love cerebral hotsauce. But in certain situations, bring on the nasty, and honestly I don't care about quality. I may be the only person I've seen who feels that way. But there ya go.)
Anywho, so I was under the impression this show was bad. And man, it sort of is. The plots and the writing and some of the one-off characters, and just how blunt everything is. I feel like the characterizations are short-cuts and we are told a lot more than we are shown. And usually when I hear a "but" appended to these shortcomings, what I see or hear is, "but they are pretty!"
Well, both of them are pretty. I knew that I could very easily get into a situation of just watching Ackles for like, ever. I'm not even that attracted to him. He's just. That. Pretty. But one reason I didn't keep watching initially was I didn't want to be stuck watching something just because someone was pretty, and I thought if I avoided it all together I wouldn't miss much and would avoid wasting time. But. But, the "but" I'm going to append to these shortcomings is not, "but the pretty."
The "but" is--but, these characterizations are very strong, the thematic elements are very strong. And almost every episode brings these things out. Yes, SPN does so very bluntly, in sweeping melodramatic ways that are far easier than perhaps more quiet moments would be. But, well, in my experience, TV doesn't give us many quiet moments, and when it does you get something like the X-Files where you actually never get enough, and are just slogging through all this crap to get the things you like.
But SPN gives it to you, and it gives it to you a lot. And yes, I still feel they use short-cuts to give us some of the biggest character moments, but they are good character moments. They're very intense. What it is is like sugar injected straight into your veins.
So, the sugar in wheat is inside the seed. And the seed has this husk that protects the seed. And it has a germ, which is what grows into the actual plant. Then it has this thing called the endosperm. If you look at a normal plant cell it has these little chloroplasts. And chloroplasts photosynthesize! This means they take sunlight and CO2 and make sugar, which the plant eats to stay alive. And there are just a few per cell, and these little chloroplasts are the sugar in, say, you veggies. However. If you look at an endosperm plant cell, they have these HUGE packets in them full of sugar. This is sugar waiting to feed the baby plant for when it grows. So, take away the husk, take away the baby plant, and leave the endosperm, and what you've got is nothing healthy and nothing with any nutrients, but it's the one thing a plant feeds off of that keeps it alive, and it tastes damn good.
That's what SPN is.
Why didn't anyone tell me this? I feel like no one told me this.
What's particularly interesting is SPN feels fannish. The things SPN gives, fandom--as an amorphous, heterogeneous whole--wants. Fandom wants something that much media just doesn't give us. I mean, we're not looking for this one thing from this one canon. If you, as an individual, are looking for a specific thing from a specific canon, another individual is looking for another specific thing from a different canon, and yet those specific things for which we are looking often fall under an umbrella. That umbrella encompasses the things we are looking for that we just don't get except in fandom, and I'm not talking about the friends and family here. I'm talking about the sugar.
In SPN the characters, character relationships, and themes are all about family--see how we've refined it so we don't have to deal with other themes or relationships, really; it just all comes back to family, which simplifies everything considerably. The sugar fandom wants (bear with me here) is character and themes; exploration of characters and relationships between characters from every angle, themes played on again and again and again.
I used to feel that character and thematic exploration was a matter of quality, because I associate exploring character and themes with quality work. The weird thing is, there is plenty of badfic and wank and stupidity in fandom. There is plenty of non-quality work. But many of the people who write badfic or commit stupidity are looking for sugar, too. Most of us are in it for the sugar, no matter what the nutrients or flavor we choose to add to what we do here.
So what SPN made me realize is that fandom is a bakery. It is a bakery, and we are all making breads and buns and biscuits, and some of us make pies and cakes, and some of us make fancy little macaroons and some of us make good down-home hearty apple pie and serve it a la mode with caramel sauce. And some of us make ding-dongs and ho-hos and they're really bad for you and don't even taste that great, but man, you eat 'em anyway for the sugar. And some I can't even stand because I don't like sour stuff; I won't touch Sourpatch Kids with a ten foot pole. But other people will, for the sugar. And some of us are making like kolaches with meat tucked in, or zucchini bread, or things which are healthy for us. But we all want sugar. We are sugar fiends. We crave it.
Evil
my_daroga: she made me crave SPN.*loves her forever*
no subject
EXACTLY! This show is not subtle, not one bit. But at the same time it provides everything I wants from a fannish show. And;
In SPN the characters, character relationships, and themes are all about family--see how we've refined it so we don't have to deal with other themes or relationships, really; it just all comes back to family, which simplifies everything considerably. The sugar fandom wants (bear with me here) is character and themes; exploration of characters and relationships between characters from every angle, themes played on again and again and again.
EEEEE! You have nailed right on the head why I still love this series – it is all about family, no matter how big or small this how gets, at its core it is about family, and that’s like complete crack for me. Hell, this is why even after 6 seasons with some truly rage at a few of them I’m still around and will more than likely watch season 7.
I really hope you continue to post SPN-reaction posts, because it is always fascinating seeing/reading someone watching this show in ONE giant gulp as opposed to watching it real time. I got into the show at the beginning of season 2, after resisting it for the first season. Then I started watching it, and it was so bad, like, sure I can see why fandom loved it, but I need more than pretty. Then someone passed me the first season and the first 5 eps of season 2 and I was a goner.
I sometime I wish I had the chance to watch the first 5 seasons in one sitting (or as closely as possible) instead of watching it week by week.