SN Official Companion S1 - Review
Sep. 29th, 2007 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galatheaSo, yesterday I received an eMail from Amazon, telling me that my SN S1 Companion would be delayed for about 2-3 weeks and of course the post delivery knocked me out of bed this morning, delivering my Amazon parcel with the book in it .. huh? *lol* Being the obsessed fan that I am, I naturally dropped everything else today to just breathe through the whole thing and let me tell you, I had fun! ♥
It really came as a bit of a surprise that even for me, who reads every interview, set report, fan encounter and whatever information is available about the show, the book indeed held a multitude of insights and fun bits that I never heard about before. Every episode is shortly summarized and then accompanied by lots of interesting tidbits, interviews, anecdotes and other information from producers, directors, actors, writers, set and prop masters, costume designers and score composers, giving an overall beautiful look into the production of the show from various interesting angles.
The episode summaries were mostly accurate, only minor mistakes and lapses here and there (see list below), that weren’t overly annoying, with only two exceptions: The opening summary to the Pilot states 23 years have passed, while we all clearly know that it was only 22 years. Secondly, in the summary to 'Devil’s Trap’ the author noted that the YED tells Sam that he has plans to turn him and children like him into killing machines, which not only isn’t true for that episode (although I know a similar line was in the original script) but also was devaluated by S2, so it’s entirely inaccurate. There’s some other little inconsistencies with the show, but they were negligible in terms of spoiling the fun by giving off the impression the author didn’t do his homework well enough, that I so strongly have with the SN comics.
I love how the book so completely mirrors all online reports and interviews in how relaxed and friendly the working atmosphere on set is and how everybody seems to be genuinely thrilled and passionate about doing the show. It’s also funny when it is revealed that what so often looks like a well planned and amazingly well plotted (in terms of parallels and recurring themes) string of events was actually completely accidental and/or was only a result of budget problems, so in the end they had to work around it and ended up with much better, concise scripts, story-wise. Kripke has no problems whatsoever to admit when things didn’t work and how they made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, before they found their footing, he never tries to retroactively make it sound better than it actually is, but easily makes jokes at his own expense. I really like the guy.
I really loved the character chapters about Sam, Dean and John, told from Jared’s, Jensen’s and Jeff’s perspective, giving their own intake of the characters they spent so much time with. I’m always happy to see when actors actually have intelligent things to say about their characters, showing us that they are really invested in their roles, exploring the motivations for their characters in order to give a better performance, trying to understand where their characters are coming from and where they are going, even if it is only for an under-appreciated genre show. It’s apparent how much each of the actors brings into their roles! ♥
I also really liked the whole design of the book, the gritty header textures, the asymmetrical typography of the quotes, the urban legends infos designed as pages from Dad’s journal, the ‘Did you know’ boxes with funny or interesting tidbits about the episodes and the random images of items from the show, all in all well done. It’s an amusing and informing read and if there is only one thing that I missed a bit then it was that there wasn’t enough focus on the character journey/development throughout the episode guide, it’s very much concentrated on the urban legends and the production terms.
The funniest anecdote that I found in the book was, that apparently the network had no objections whatsoever to show 2 badly mangled victims of the car accidents in 'Route666', but advised the producer that it's impossible to show the girl on top in the sex scene!!! *lol* I was actually on the floor laughing at that! American networks /sigh .. a never ending story of amusement.
Highly recommended read for every fan! ♥
* * *
Nitpicky list of inconsistencies/errors for the episode summaries:
1. Pilot: Not 23 years ago Mary was killed, but 22 years ago.
2. Skin: They mix up Sam and Dean's name at the end. It's Dean who goes to the sewers and Sam who visits Rebecca.
3. Route666: The episode plays in Athens, Ohio and not in Mississippi, like stated in the book.
4. Nightmare: It's not indicated in S1 (or later) that Sam's use of telekinesis lead to an manifestation of telekinetic abilities.
5. Benders: Missy doesn't exactly stab Dean, she just pins him to a wall.
6. Shadow: John does state he is closing in on the demon, but not that he's close in finding out how to kill it.
7. Hell House: It's not stated that the tulpa ceases to exist, when the house is burned. Sam even indicates the opposite.
8. Something Wicked: Technically it's the nurse who reveals the disease works its way through siblings.
9. Actually the holy water is more a means to secure John's escape route, rather than a trap for Meg to avoid.
10. Devil's Trap: Dean only 'wasted' one bullet to save Sam, not two. Plus the whole 'killing machine reference (see above).
The chronology of the events in most of the episode summaries is kind of warped, but I think that's more a result of trying to keep the summaries concised.
It really came as a bit of a surprise that even for me, who reads every interview, set report, fan encounter and whatever information is available about the show, the book indeed held a multitude of insights and fun bits that I never heard about before. Every episode is shortly summarized and then accompanied by lots of interesting tidbits, interviews, anecdotes and other information from producers, directors, actors, writers, set and prop masters, costume designers and score composers, giving an overall beautiful look into the production of the show from various interesting angles.
The episode summaries were mostly accurate, only minor mistakes and lapses here and there (see list below), that weren’t overly annoying, with only two exceptions: The opening summary to the Pilot states 23 years have passed, while we all clearly know that it was only 22 years. Secondly, in the summary to 'Devil’s Trap’ the author noted that the YED tells Sam that he has plans to turn him and children like him into killing machines, which not only isn’t true for that episode (although I know a similar line was in the original script) but also was devaluated by S2, so it’s entirely inaccurate. There’s some other little inconsistencies with the show, but they were negligible in terms of spoiling the fun by giving off the impression the author didn’t do his homework well enough, that I so strongly have with the SN comics.
I love how the book so completely mirrors all online reports and interviews in how relaxed and friendly the working atmosphere on set is and how everybody seems to be genuinely thrilled and passionate about doing the show. It’s also funny when it is revealed that what so often looks like a well planned and amazingly well plotted (in terms of parallels and recurring themes) string of events was actually completely accidental and/or was only a result of budget problems, so in the end they had to work around it and ended up with much better, concise scripts, story-wise. Kripke has no problems whatsoever to admit when things didn’t work and how they made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, before they found their footing, he never tries to retroactively make it sound better than it actually is, but easily makes jokes at his own expense. I really like the guy.
I really loved the character chapters about Sam, Dean and John, told from Jared’s, Jensen’s and Jeff’s perspective, giving their own intake of the characters they spent so much time with. I’m always happy to see when actors actually have intelligent things to say about their characters, showing us that they are really invested in their roles, exploring the motivations for their characters in order to give a better performance, trying to understand where their characters are coming from and where they are going, even if it is only for an under-appreciated genre show. It’s apparent how much each of the actors brings into their roles! ♥
I also really liked the whole design of the book, the gritty header textures, the asymmetrical typography of the quotes, the urban legends infos designed as pages from Dad’s journal, the ‘Did you know’ boxes with funny or interesting tidbits about the episodes and the random images of items from the show, all in all well done. It’s an amusing and informing read and if there is only one thing that I missed a bit then it was that there wasn’t enough focus on the character journey/development throughout the episode guide, it’s very much concentrated on the urban legends and the production terms.
The funniest anecdote that I found in the book was, that apparently the network had no objections whatsoever to show 2 badly mangled victims of the car accidents in 'Route666', but advised the producer that it's impossible to show the girl on top in the sex scene!!! *lol* I was actually on the floor laughing at that! American networks /sigh .. a never ending story of amusement.
Highly recommended read for every fan! ♥
Nitpicky list of inconsistencies/errors for the episode summaries:
1. Pilot: Not 23 years ago Mary was killed, but 22 years ago.
2. Skin: They mix up Sam and Dean's name at the end. It's Dean who goes to the sewers and Sam who visits Rebecca.
3. Route666: The episode plays in Athens, Ohio and not in Mississippi, like stated in the book.
4. Nightmare: It's not indicated in S1 (or later) that Sam's use of telekinesis lead to an manifestation of telekinetic abilities.
5. Benders: Missy doesn't exactly stab Dean, she just pins him to a wall.
6. Shadow: John does state he is closing in on the demon, but not that he's close in finding out how to kill it.
7. Hell House: It's not stated that the tulpa ceases to exist, when the house is burned. Sam even indicates the opposite.
8. Something Wicked: Technically it's the nurse who reveals the disease works its way through siblings.
9. Actually the holy water is more a means to secure John's escape route, rather than a trap for Meg to avoid.
10. Devil's Trap: Dean only 'wasted' one bullet to save Sam, not two. Plus the whole 'killing machine reference (see above).
The chronology of the events in most of the episode summaries is kind of warped, but I think that's more a result of trying to keep the summaries concised.
