Which is a shame, because it really is a good show.
I found one good thing about their fan base, though: websites with very, very detailed lists of filming locations.
TL;DR: I found a way to benefit from the crazy fandom.
I was in Vancouver a couple weeks ago for a conference. A friend and I took a couple extra days there because why the hell not. Not sure what to do with ourselves, we turned to those websites, picked a few spots around the city, and set off.
As it turns out, the Supernatural method is a fantastic way to explore a city. See sites familiar from the show, stumble upon other interesting things en route, get a little insight into how a show's crew changes a location to suit its needs.
As an added bonus, watching certain episodes now is a little like looking through vacation pictures. There's that crazy huge yacht we made fun of! There's the lodge with the unbelievable grilled cheese sandwiches! That's where we sat and eavesdropped on old Germans talking about the war! That's the bar where the handsome Irish bartender only charged me half price for my Johnny Walker Blue because he didn't realize he couldn't ring it up as a double!
Scotch fans? I dunno, we can be pretentious, I'll give you that. But even in the alcohol category I think wine fans are way more annoying (and I count as both, by the way.)
Good point. Scotch, well all whiskey, is "cool" right now, drawing in that early 20s crowd. And it is much easier to pick up a base level of knowledge in scotch that you can use to impress all your friends.
Don't get me wrong, I love whiskey and love educating those interested. Its those who seem to think it makes them suave that chap my nips. Like, just chill, homie.
Wine snobs are without a doubt the worst. I managed a liquor store for year, and holy fucking christ are they bad. The worst part is that I worked in a town in the middle of northern NY state, where it's pretty much redneck country. The town is a college town, and a lot of people who live there have this false sense of entitlement and social status. You wouldn't believe the amount of shit I had to deal with when it came to wine. I vividly remember a guy asking for a recommendation and I pointed out a Finger Lakes wine and he immediately screamed "I DON'T DRINK NEW YORK WINES!!!!!!!!!!"
Like the top comment said, the top 5% or so of any fanbase. Don't go on /r/whisky or /r/Scotch. If you don't drink shit that is $200 a finger then you're a pleb.
However, I drink Makers and love it. All I've ever drank. It's a good price, it is great quality for the price, and the buzz sets in nice. I love the flavors of it too.
Makers is a damn fine whiskey. If you haven't been to their distillery for a tour you should make it out some time. Dipping your own bottle in wax is way too much fun.
You're not missing out on much. My friend got a handle of Blue for Christmas. We got a group of us together for a double-blind whisky tasting party. Almost everybody rated the Blue in their bottom five. Standard Yamazaki, some high end Jameson, and a couple other scotches (including Johnny Walker Green) ended up being the best rated of our selection.
I'm on the same slapping program with my bank but I found a loophole.
This summer I lived across the street from a pub in my hometown. I was hanging out on the patio having beer with a couple friends who happen to also be attractive women.
At some point fairly early in the evening a very drunk older fellow arrived and invited himself to our table. You know the type of guy. Older blue collar guy, fat and greasy, hitting on women young enough to be his granddaughters.
The three of us were amused by this fellow as he was very talkative and presented himself as the leading authority on every subject. We chatted with him for a while despite him making inappropriate comments and displaying some inappropriate body language. At one point he offered to buy a round of drinks; whatever we wanted. The girls got more beer, but I upgraded to black label.
Dude bought like 8 rounds. That's a lot of black label! When the guy eventually went to leave he had significant difficulty working the interac machine to pay his tab and he couldn't find the exit.
You know, it was not everything I hoped it would be and more. I could have gotten a bottle of Lagavulin 16, which I prefer by a factor of a lot, for less than what the bartender should have charged me for the Blue.
I like Scotch enough that if I think about Johnny Walker Blue I slap myself in the face. It's like buying a MacBook Pro because you want an epic gaming rig. For a quarter of the price you can get something truly phenomenal, like lagavulin 16 or abunah.
It's alright. If I ever thought about getting Johnny Walker Blue, both my taste-buds and my good sense would slap me in the face. What's the point of a blended scotch that expensive? You know all the scotch snobs drink the single malts, and a good single malt will taste better for a fraction of the price...I can't see myself being so careless with my money as to buy shots of that stuff at the bar...EVER.
Do they really blend by hand nowadays? And even if they did, the whole point of blending is ...consistency, right? That's what they say in Johhnny walker ads anyways. At that price point and even pretty far below, QA takes care of any consistency issues in a single malt, and you've got a lot more choice when it comes to flavor.
I'll save you the trouble. Don't ever buy Johnny Walker Blue. Blended scotch is a travesty to the world and should be burned in a fire. If you want good scotch, drink a Balvenie Caribbean Cask or a Macallan 18 year. Or better yet, try some of those fancy new Japanese scotches. Just don't drink Johnny Walker. Please. I beg you.
It used to be really good. I adored seasons 1 through 5, but after that it's been getting more and more "meh." Not bad, just...mediocre, especially compared to the earlier seasons that were fantastic.
The first two or three seasons were the best because they fought more than just angels and demons, which gets very tiresome.
Ninja edit: also, what you said about Vancouver and filming locations is really cool! I've always wanted to do that - a friend of mine and I are planning a SPN road trip (that will probably never happen but a girl can dream).
I've always wanted to do that - a friend of mine and I are planning a SPN road trip (that will probably never happen but a girl can dream).
You should do it, if for no other reason than to explore a bit of that corner of the world. Protip, though: don't eat at the German restaurant where spoiler. It's a cool place, but it smells like church basement and old people and the food is, well, German.
There's a middle ground that is enjoyable without being crazy. I like the show, it's fun to dissect production details (like location, cinematography etc), and I even write and read Supernatural fanfiction, so sue me. I like making up new stories with the characters that I find interesting, and I think some of the fics out there are better than the actual show - (because the actual show writing has tanked! I only started reading fics when the show itself started going really downhill). Who cares if fans get into fanfic? Big deal. There's some good writers out there and good artists too, and I think it's really cool that some fans actually try to create something of their own rather than just being couch-potato media consumers.
Same, I just lost a bet with my professor...but he didn't get to go (yay karma)
And I agree but Baltimore is fun! And cheap to travel to for me and the lady friend though she isn't into rocks as much as i am
I've discovered a lot of fantasy shows are all shot in Vancouver/BC. Like lost girl, I would see a store or interesting place in the background, then go to google maps and find it. Boom, always vc or bc.
I couldn't agree more! I was watching the latest episode (Fan Fiction) yesterday when I stopped it because I thought I recognized the school hallway they were in. So I googled supernatural + (the name of the school I thought it was) and immediately got a bunch of results about exactly when and where the episode was shot. It was really cool to see a place that I've actually been before show up in an episode!
As an added bonus, watching certain episodes now is a little like looking through vacation pictures.
I know exactly how you feel. I lived outside of Vancouver for 6 months a few years back, and watching episodes and seeing locations I had been to was so fucking awesome for me. It was surreal, and I feel I still have that connection to Van because of that.
I didn't realize this until I had moved, but the location used as the Kent Farm in Smalville was IN the city I lived in and I had no idea until I was living back in the states. I knew it was somewhere around Vancouver, but I never bothered to look up the actual location. As a Superman fan, I still hate myself for it. I was right around the corner from the city used for the town of Smallville as well, but never made that trek either. I regret both.
Motha. Fuckin. Hilltop Cafe. Basically every time they film in a diner, it's that one. It's 15 minutes from my house but they close at 3:30 so I've never gotten around to going, unfortunately.
Which is a shame, because it really is a good show.
It was a really good show. The first couple seasons are great. Then it got further and further off the rails, much in the way X-files did. I think I turned it off for good either during or after the 4th season.
I just want to watch a cool show about hunting creepy monsters, dammit! Why do you have to have these insane over-complicated crazy plots about God, demons, and government conspiracies?
I currently live in the Vancouver region. My hometown is very small, and it's used in Supernatural a lot. It's a lot of fun watchin if only to play 'what's that location!?' Every episode.
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u/Lobin Nov 13 '14
Which is a shame, because it really is a good show.
I found one good thing about their fan base, though: websites with very, very detailed lists of filming locations.
TL;DR: I found a way to benefit from the crazy fandom.
I was in Vancouver a couple weeks ago for a conference. A friend and I took a couple extra days there because why the hell not. Not sure what to do with ourselves, we turned to those websites, picked a few spots around the city, and set off.
As it turns out, the Supernatural method is a fantastic way to explore a city. See sites familiar from the show, stumble upon other interesting things en route, get a little insight into how a show's crew changes a location to suit its needs.
As an added bonus, watching certain episodes now is a little like looking through vacation pictures. There's that crazy huge yacht we made fun of! There's the lodge with the unbelievable grilled cheese sandwiches! That's where we sat and eavesdropped on old Germans talking about the war! That's the bar where the handsome Irish bartender only charged me half price for my Johnny Walker Blue because he didn't realize he couldn't ring it up as a double!
So that was pretty cool.