MANFLESH! (Er, Face)

For me- it started with the car. And, you know, that’s cool. The guys are attractive enough, but that car? That car got me going every time the foley artist started the engine.

I want one.

Aside from the coolest vehicle ever, though, I stuck around for the story and the characters. So did Rich. We cracked open Season One in February and just finished Season Five a week or so ago.

Now what?

See, this is the problem with burning through several seasons of a TV show. I remember the Post Buffy Letdown well. The problem with that was the series was over. Finis. I watched the last episode on the last disk and felt totally and completely bummed.

Supernatural? Well, here’s the thing. When I snagged the first three seasons everyone was under the impression that the current season, Five, would be the last. Figured we’d plug along and watch, grab Season Five when it was released, and be done with it. Now?

Well feck.

Now a Season Six is on the way. September 24th. The corner of my screen here tells me that today is August 16th.

So I pace inside my skull, wondering how the writers can possibly do this without major suckage, jonesing for more story even while feeling a bit worried about it.

The jonesing is winning, though. See, this is one of the best TV shows ever created. I would have never suspected that.

There were a few issues that struck me, but they didn’t happen very often, and because the show is so balls to the wall fabulous I was totally willing to forgive. I’d call Jennyquarx and say, “Wait. WHY did the writers do such and such… that makes no sense.” And, well, she’d mock me in a loving fashion, and simply by my getting that out of my system it was done and over. I’d put it aside and move on because the ride was just way too much fun.

Rich believes in not one single element of this series, and he hung out for the entire ride. We wrapped it up one night recently when he had a conference call at 1130pm. I was playing the last season on my laptop (Amazon downloads are the Best Thing Ever), and that night because I knew I’d be up late I pushed through the last four episodes. When his call ended at 1am he joined me, and we blearily finished up at about 3am. Couldn’t stop. HAD TO KNOW. When the final episode ended we shut off the laptop and passed out. Didn’t even talk about it.

A few days later we did.

Twice now he’s asked me when the next season begins.

Occasionally we reference something we saw and discuss the idea in depth. Even items from the first season.

It is incredibly strange to me that my husband enjoyed this show so much. I’m grateful for it, because it’s been a hard year, and every week we’d watch a few episodes and forget about how crappy it’s been at times. When summer started we charged through them in earnest since the regular season shows were over. Watching the seasons all at once let us discuss things like character arcs and story lines in a way closer to reading a book because there was no break which would lead to forgetting things. Watching the actors age over the course of “a few months” was food for discussion at times. It wasn’t as noticeable on Jensen Ackles as it was on Jared Padalecki, until afterward when I went back and looked, but it’s sort of fascinating to watch men get their manfaces anyway.

Boys...

... to men

Am I saying that something as ridiculous as a TV series saved 2010 from becoming one colossal bucket of suck?

Yes.

Due to various circumstances we couldn’t do much in the way of activity. Being more or less stuck in the house most of the time can be a recipe for disaster. There were times when I thought it was right around the corner. TV watching is generally a very passive activity, but in this case it wasn’t.

We thought.

We pondered some.

We discussed ideas and theories about things we’d never had reason to before.

We laughed. A LOT.

I cried. Some.

We thought some more.

We devolved into arguing the merits of various weaponry.

We had deep discussions about what we believe and why.

We busted each other scanning classic cars on Craigslist, and I pouted for three days when he wouldn’t get me a $400 ’67 Impala.

We talked about our childhoods, the merits (or not) of siblings, and spent a lot of time talking about dads.

We spent a lot of time hashing out what might happen next.

To me, at least, this is the mark of great fiction. TV, novel, what have you- when something is written so well that themes and ideas stick in your head for as long as these do you’ve created gold. The funny? The funny lasts too. Months later now something will pop into my head, and I’ll start laughing my ass off.

Even in its weakest moments this series is pure brilliance.

Go watch it. I’ll wait.