Tuesday November 8, 2005
2T6907
Dean and Sam arrive in a town checking up a report of a mysterious death, and stop at a realtor's open house barbecue. Sam meets the realtor's son Matt, who is fascinated with bugs. Soon the town is invaded by swarms of deadly bugs, and there may be no way out.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)Given the content of this episode, I was more than ready to state how much the storyline bugged me (I simply couldn't pass it up), but I really liked this one. It's not must-watch TV or anything, but it's a brief preview of the kind of formula Supernatural perfects in later seasons – a mix of stand-alone fare with the overall arc streaming through it. Sam empathizing with Matt's father issues gave the overall storyline a bit more gravity, although some of the Dean/Sam dialogue felt rather hammy. The budget clearly couldn't afford the effects the show needed to make the bug attack in anyway threatening (we see thousands of unrealistic bugs one minute and then only a few real ones the next); having said that, when the show uses real spiders and roaches – yeeesh!! The late Kim Manners did a wonderful job with the material given; adding depth to a story that could have crumbled in the hands of a less capable director, some of his shots looked amazing. I also got a giggle out of the realtors assuming Dean and Sam were a gay couple, with Dean calling Sam 'Honey' and patting him on the bum. A solid episode.
Dean and Sam arrive in a town checking up a report of a mysterious death, and stop at a realtor's open house barbecue. Sam meets the realtor's son Matt, who is fascinated with bugs. Soon the town is invaded by swarms of deadly bugs, and there may be no way out. This episode kept my interest in no way. I tried going into the episode with a positive mind, seeing that this was the lowest rated episode to this point of the first season - but yea... The ball was most certainly dropped here on this episode. No depth, no interesting story - that's about all you can say about it really. Just a bad bad episode from the Supernatural team.
Watch out for the creepy Bugs. hide show
A very different and original Supernatural's episode. I think this is one of those episodes that just has it all. It's funny cause a lot of other fans weren't so big of this episode, but I am. I loved the whole legend thing. I loved the interaction between the brothers in this episode, it's so great to see how different they each experienced their own childhood and the way their father raised them. This episode isn't named Bugs for no reason, cause there were a lot of bugs in this one, like a lot! And the scene at the end of the episode with all the bugs had me just freaking out. A great episode with a great story!
A nice episode, hampered by a bad ending. hide show
When I first watched "Bugs", being a severe insect-phobic myself, I was pretty scared and horrified. Then, I recently watched it again and, even if it still creeps me out, especially the shower/spider scene, I must say that I found it rather watered down, in comparison to other stand-alone, Monster of the Week episodes. What it lacks is some serious tension and the original twist capable, in other episodes, like "Bloody Mary", to add an unexpected layer to the story. The plot here, on the other hand, is quite banal and straight-forward (Native Americans' massacre, curse, realization of the curse), and the end felt to me totally unrealistic and contrived: the salvaging dawn comes out like an artificial deus ex machina, and a pretty rushed one since the episode went from midnight to dawn in less the four minutes.
Fortunately, Kim Manners' touch was right there to elevate the episode from its mediocrity and the script - faulted in regards to the main storyline - did instead a great job in exploring Sam's relationship with Matt, his childhood memories and his conflictual approach to the family's legacy. This backstory further enriches Sam and Dean background, which will takes a huge step forward in the next episode, one of the very best of the season, "Home".
A buggy episode. Pun intended. hide show
If there was an award for most unoriginal title, this episode would win it. It's about bugs. So they named it bugs. Ah well.
Sam and Dean arrive at a new housing project, where a construction worker was killed by bugs eating his brains out, or something like that. Fishy, right? Well, this is not a single, isolated incident. Later on, more people are killed by bugs, including a chick being attacked by spiders in the shower. It would've been so much more hot if she was attacked by Spider-man, right? The reason? They're building houses on an ancient Indian graveyard. Or something like that.
Anyways, while the first death is creepy enough, considering it's all very real, the second one here, with the spiders is just stupid. I mean, spiders crawling out of the walls is creepy, but why the chick completely froze, before throwing herself through the shower door, made out of glass, beats me. Also, the spiders are very clearly CG. Now, if you have a phobia of little bugs, you'll hate this episode. Mainly because of the huge amount of spiders, roaches and bugs in general.
Even though the episode isn't very good, it still builds a little on the characters, the Winchesters. We learn that the father never was angry at Sam for wanting to go to Stanford, but rather worried for him, considering all the dangers out in the world. It also shows that Dean understand both sides, which is something we usually don't see, behind his perverted, childish behavior. Jensen does a good job!
We also get to meet a family that resembles the WInchesters in this episode. The father doesn't understand his son's love for bugs, and Sam manages to see something of himself in the kid. Then again, the family we meet in the story fixes their problems by the end of the episode. As the "teaser" says, this is a buggy episode. The highlight of this episode is obviously, when the family is boarded up in their house, under attack by thousands of bugs. They try to keep them out, but it doesn't really work very well. They run up to the attic, where it doesn't take long before bugs eat their way through the roof. The only protection they have is an improvized flamethrower that spews out what, a few inches of fire. Obviously, the writers thought that it'd be enough to keep thousands of bugs away.
Also, the brothers arrived at the house at approximately midnight, and the bugs are going to be attacking all throughout the night. After like, 20 minutes in the house, the sun rises, for some reason. Only good reason I can think of is that there are still some Indian spirits roaming, and they decided to timelapse 7 or 8 hours ahead.
Not a great story, but it builds even more on the characters, which is a good thing.
Gislef
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