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auntiemeeshLacking the concentration to write, I decided to watch some tv instead. And the dvd that was already in the machine happened to be disc 1, season 1 of Supernatural, so hey, being lazy, I went with it. Watched Dead in the Water and Phantom Travelers.
And living in the general area that Phantom Travelers is supposed to take place in, I get to nitpick. So, first of all, they are supposed to be in the general area of Kittanning, PA, based on the phone call with Jerry. And they give us a shot of the boys driving down some rural highway, completely flat, with wide open vistas that look more like Iowa than western PA. Kittanning is located on the Allegheny River, just northwest of the Appalachians. We don't have wide open vistas around here. We have hills and river valleys.
Second of all, Jerry calls them back and sends them off to Nazareth. "About sixty miles west of here," he tells them, "near Nazareth." Now, Nazareth, PA is almost three hundred miles east of Kittanning, just this side of the New Jersey border. And just to be sure, I double checked and there's no Nazareth in Ohio or West Virginia, that I could find.
Third of all, boys realize they have to get to Indianapolis, IN. It's already dark where they are, somewhere close to Kittanning. It's a little hard to figure out what time of year it's supposed to be. The pilot takes place in early November, so this should be late November or early December and I'll go with that, even though everyone is running around in lightweight clothing that might be worn in late September or early October (and in the previous episode, they're in Wisconsin and everyone is also wearing very lightweight summery clothes). So, the sun is completely set but there's just a hint of light still in the sky, which puts it around five o'clock or a little later (sunset time determined here). And somehow, magically, they've managed a four hundred mile drive in two to two and a half hours (flight leaves at eight, they say they have half an hour still, when they get there). Dean could easily do the drive in five hours as long as he doesn't get pulled over along the way (he would have to average 80 mph to do it, but for the Dean, I don't think that would be too unheard of). To do it in under three hours, though, he'd have to average somewhere around 145 mph. This, I believe, on the sort of roads he'd be driving, would not be physically possible, regardless of the car (and the only indication I can find for '67 Impalas indicates she wouldn't be able to go much above 130, period).
So yeah, the writers did a pretty half-assed job of researching their facts for this episode. Part of the problem of sitting tight in Vancouver and then sending their boys off, virtually, four thousand miles away.
Don't take this as a dislike of the episode or the show in general, especially the first season which I love dearly. Watching the boys just starting out, I'm reminded of how young and relatively unburdened they were. Sure, there were plenty of bad things happening, especially later in the season, but the angst was of the normal, human variety. "Oh, my girlfriend's dead, oh, my family's f**ked up, oh that monster wants to eat us."
Show has become so absurdly, painfully dark in the past two years that I have a hard time watching it. I can't see a satisfactory outcome for the boys. I don't think I'm going to much like the way the show ends. I've heard there will be another season, so at least they have a little room to maneuver, but something truly amazing would have to happen to bring these boys back into the light. I continue to hope, though, because I love them no matter how bad things get, and I hurt for them, fictional characters or not.
And living in the general area that Phantom Travelers is supposed to take place in, I get to nitpick. So, first of all, they are supposed to be in the general area of Kittanning, PA, based on the phone call with Jerry. And they give us a shot of the boys driving down some rural highway, completely flat, with wide open vistas that look more like Iowa than western PA. Kittanning is located on the Allegheny River, just northwest of the Appalachians. We don't have wide open vistas around here. We have hills and river valleys.
Second of all, Jerry calls them back and sends them off to Nazareth. "About sixty miles west of here," he tells them, "near Nazareth." Now, Nazareth, PA is almost three hundred miles east of Kittanning, just this side of the New Jersey border. And just to be sure, I double checked and there's no Nazareth in Ohio or West Virginia, that I could find.
Third of all, boys realize they have to get to Indianapolis, IN. It's already dark where they are, somewhere close to Kittanning. It's a little hard to figure out what time of year it's supposed to be. The pilot takes place in early November, so this should be late November or early December and I'll go with that, even though everyone is running around in lightweight clothing that might be worn in late September or early October (and in the previous episode, they're in Wisconsin and everyone is also wearing very lightweight summery clothes). So, the sun is completely set but there's just a hint of light still in the sky, which puts it around five o'clock or a little later (sunset time determined here). And somehow, magically, they've managed a four hundred mile drive in two to two and a half hours (flight leaves at eight, they say they have half an hour still, when they get there). Dean could easily do the drive in five hours as long as he doesn't get pulled over along the way (he would have to average 80 mph to do it, but for the Dean, I don't think that would be too unheard of). To do it in under three hours, though, he'd have to average somewhere around 145 mph. This, I believe, on the sort of roads he'd be driving, would not be physically possible, regardless of the car (and the only indication I can find for '67 Impalas indicates she wouldn't be able to go much above 130, period).
So yeah, the writers did a pretty half-assed job of researching their facts for this episode. Part of the problem of sitting tight in Vancouver and then sending their boys off, virtually, four thousand miles away.
Don't take this as a dislike of the episode or the show in general, especially the first season which I love dearly. Watching the boys just starting out, I'm reminded of how young and relatively unburdened they were. Sure, there were plenty of bad things happening, especially later in the season, but the angst was of the normal, human variety. "Oh, my girlfriend's dead, oh, my family's f**ked up, oh that monster wants to eat us."
Show has become so absurdly, painfully dark in the past two years that I have a hard time watching it. I can't see a satisfactory outcome for the boys. I don't think I'm going to much like the way the show ends. I've heard there will be another season, so at least they have a little room to maneuver, but something truly amazing would have to happen to bring these boys back into the light. I continue to hope, though, because I love them no matter how bad things get, and I hurt for them, fictional characters or not.
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Date: 2009-04-08 12:57 am (UTC)I hope things somehow get better for the boys.
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Date: 2009-04-08 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 01:42 am (UTC)Everytime I go back to a first season episode I am struck by how much harder things were about to get for the boys. The fact that "My girlfriend's dead" and "Dad's missing" and "Hunting monsters" seems like happy-fun time is truly, truly depressing.
My dear hope for the end of the show is for the boys to drive off in the Impala as 'Ramble On' plays. I have a bad feeling that my wish won't come true but I simply cannot continue on without some glimmer of non-hellfire light at the end of the tunnel. I hope I hope I hope
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Date: 2009-04-08 02:15 am (UTC)click your heels togetherrev your engine three times, think 'there's no place like Bobby's' and drive straight on for two hours. And voila! you're there.I would like to think that the writers have a plan, and that this plan of theirs involves redemption for the boys, both a reprieve from the eternal damnation they both seem bound for, and a personal redemption that allows them to find some peace with the things they've done and the people they've become (hopefully become only temporarily - dude, Sam scares the bejesus out of me these days).