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Movies/TV/Theaters, Uncategorized

Review for ‘Ginny and Georgia’

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By: Kendra Shanklin

*Warning this review contains spoilers

‘Ginny and Georgia’ is a show about a mom named Georgia who wanted her 2 children Ginny and Austin to have a fresh start so she moved them to Massachusetts. It was released on February 24th, 2021 and this show is rated TV-14 containing intense language, sexual situations and violence.

*Recap

In the first season Austin and Georgia are at his first day in school and he’s nervous but his mom reassures him that everything will be okay and that he’s strong. She then gives him a hug and sends him off to school. Later on, Ginny starts her first day at school and she’s in class and her teacher sees her and says that students in his class take AP English very seriously and she should move down to regular English. She takes that as a racial comment because she’s the only colored person in the classroom. She then throws a comment about how they’re reading 14 books but there’s not 1 black author that wrote a book amongst them.

She then starts talking back to the teacher saying how she thinks he’s a racist because he doesn’t talk about any black book writers. Her classmate Max then jumps in and starts siding with her and having her back.

Ginny’s class then ends and she’s in her locker when she closes it and a boy named Marcus is standing there looking at her. He then asks if she’s new and moved across the street from him and she says “It’s Monday,” because he’s wearing a shirt that says Wednesday.

They then have a tiny conversation and he mentions how he met her mom the night before. Ginny says, “She can be friendly,” and Marcus says how her mom asked for drugs so she can’t be that friendly.

Ginny’s classmate Max then tells Marcus to leave and Max starts talking to Ginny and they ditch lunch to get tacos off campus, but from afar Ginny sees her mom having lunch with the mayor.

‘My review’

I love this show every time a new season comes out I’m always so excited to see what’s next. Although this show can give you a few second hand embarrassments and get boring at times because of how much they talk, other than that, it’s a pretty good show to binge watch on your free time.

If you like drama movies or anything that has to do with a lot of controversy I recommend you check this out. I give this series an 8.5/10.

Thank you for reading me review I hope your willing to watch the show after reading this🤍. You can watch ‘Ginny and Georgia’ on Netflix.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review of ‘Spider-Man’ (2001)

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By: Norah Hoglund

There’s a lot of different Spider-Man movies, but I’m my opinion, the best ones are the original ones. A lot of the time, they are referred to as the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies because that is the actor who plays him.

Summary

‘Spider-Man’ is about a teenage boy, Peter Parker, who gets bitten by a genetically modified spider and begins to develop powers. He decides to use his powers for good after his uncle is shot and killed by a carjacker. At his best friend’s father’s company, Oscorp, an experiment went very wrong and the father starts having episodes where he goes crazy and kills people. He is known as the Green Goblin. Peter has to protect the city against him and ultimately defeat him, all while balancing school, friends, his family, and his job.

Review

The plot of ‘Spider-Man’ is very intriguing. It’s really exciting to see Peter develop his powers and realize what he can do. Although he has superhuman strength, so does the Green Goblin. He has to use everything in him to fight him and save the city from his schemes.

The movie also has great special effects; for example, the scenes of Spider-Man swinging through the city are very realistic and ahead of their time. The movie also demonstrates good character growth. Peter starts out as a shy nerd type of person and by the end he has much more confidence as he has become a hero.

The soundtrack of the movie is also on point. The tones of different songs really add to the scenes to make them more suspenseful, emotional, etc. depending on the music.

The only thing I don’t like about this movie is how long the credits are at the beginning, but I do like the vibe and overall look of how they are presented.

Overall, this movie is honestly a classic for me and I would rewatch it. I rate it a 9/10.

You can watch ‘Spider-Man’ on Amazon.

Music/Concerts

‘The Life of a Showgirl’: Part 2- Song by Song

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By: Charlotte Aver

Taylor Swift’s latest album just dropped on October third, breaking records with tons of streams and a dozen upbeat pop songs.

Track 1: “The Fate of Ophelia” is the lead single of the album and so far the only song with a true music video. The premise of this song is that her love saved her from “The Fate of Ophelia”, which is to go mad and drown herself. This is a love song about her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, however you could argue that part of what saved her from this fate was her tour and fans that kept her afloat in the waters of madness that had she not been saved from, she would have drowned in. This song is a lot of fun to listen to and dance along with. I think that it is quite good but not the best on the album.

Track 2: “Elizabeth Taylor” is a love song told through the lens of Elizabeth Taylor’s life. The tag line of the song is “if your letters ever said goodbye, I’d cry my eyes violet, Elizabeth Taylor”. She references multiple things in Elizabeth Taylor’s life, Musso and Frank, a fine dining restaurant in LA that many celebrities would go to including Elizabeth Taylor. “All my white diamonds and lovers are forever” a lyric from the song referencing the iconic scent made specifically for Elizabeth Taylor. The plaza Athenee was also referenced in this song which is where Elizabeth Taylor stayed for six months in Paris, 1971. Portofino is also mentioned in the song because it’s where Elizabeth Taylor got engaged in 1964. One of the vinyl variants for ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is called the “Portofino orange glitter vinyl”, further referencing Elizabeth Taylor. This song in my opinion is possibly one of the best songs on the album, the references, the beat, and the lyrics are just so much fun, I feel like I could keep listening to this song and it would never get old.

Track 3: “Opalite” is another love song but from the perspective of things can be hard but it will be alright. “[D]ancing through the lightning strikes, sleepless in the onyx night, but now the sky is opalite”, the message of this song is actually quite cute, that things can be really hard until you find the person who will make your sky “Opalite”. Opalite is a man made opal, so the idea of Opalite being a metaphor for happiness is really saying that happiness doesn’t always come to you, you have to make it for yourself. This song is such a feel good song with a good beat, fun to listen and dance to, and sounds like in a year or two it will be classic and a fan favorite within her discography.

Track 4: “Father Figure” is a song about the relationship of a mentor and mentee told through power dynamics. The song follows the story of how the narrator becomes the father figure of someone who then turns their back on the narrator. “Your thoughtless ambition, sparked the ignition, on foolish decisions, that led to misguided visions, and to fulfill your dreams, you had to get rid of me.” This line tells the story of how the ‘father figure’ was betrayed. The narrator then says “Whose portraits on the mantel? Who covered up your scandals? Mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card cancelled, I was your father figure, you pulled the wrong trigger.” By this response to the betrayal the narrator has told the audience exactly what happens when you take advantage of a father figure. This song is full of angst and revenge and is incredibly fun to listen to.

Track 5: “Eldest Daughter”. Typically track five is the saddest track on the album, and this track is also the longest track, at 4 minutes and 6 seconds. This song is about how now everyone lives a dual life, the performative life for social media and their personal life. It also is about how Taylor has taken her experience as an eldest daughter to how she deals with her fame as an adult. This song is probably the slowest and saddest song on the album.

Track 6: “Ruin the Friendship” is a song about part of her high school experience and how she feels she should’ve kissed the person she liked anyway even though she didn’t. After she graduated and left where she went to high school her friend calls her and tells her that he died, so she travels home with “so much left to say”. This song is so happy and fun until the end, but the song as a whole tells a story quite vividly and I enjoy it.

Track 7: “Actually Romantic” is a song that was expected to be a romantic love song but is actually a song about someone who has put so much effort into her while saying that they hate her. “It’s actually romantic, all the time you’ve spent on me, it’s honestly wild all the effort you put in”. It’s also about finding out about a one sided relationship that she didn’t even know she was in and she ends up thinking it’s actually romantic. This song is rumored to be about Charli XCX. This song is funny and fun and all around is just a good listen.

Track 8: “Wi$h Li$t” is a song about how everyone has really different “wish lists” and different dreams, but she also has her own wants and dreams, and that everyone deserves what they want. “They want it all, and they can have what they want, they deserve what they want, but I just want you”. It also has a lot about how people live their lives really publicly and how we all know what people want. It’s also so fun to listen to.

Track 9: “Wood” is the shortest track on the album, coming at 2 minutes and 30 seconds. “Wood” is a love song about superstitions, and using different superstitions to tell a love story: knock on wood, wish on stars, black cats, stepping on cracks and catching the bouquet. This song doesn’t need much explanation and has some very fun 70s beats.

Track 10: “CANCELLED!” is about being cancelled and then seeing your friends get cancelled and still supporting them. The tagline of the song is “good thing I like my friends cancelled”. This song is also partly about how the media will see people get cancelled and immediately they are persona non grata, but how Taylor will always judge not by what people are saying but by their actions.  This song is full of silent rage and pure angst; these raw emotions make this song really interesting to listen to.

Track 11: “Honey” is a song about how words that have been used to hurt you in the past, but then someone calls you those names sincerely. In the song she has said that people have used honey and sweetheart against her to make her feel bad, “When anyone called me honey, it was standing in the bathroom, white teeth, they were saying that skirt don’t fit me, and I cried the whole way home” but now those words have different meanings because those words have been used to make her feel loved. “When anyone called me lovely they were trying to find ways to not praise me, but you say it like you’re in awe of me”. This song is just a bop. It makes you feel good, and is just pure fun to listen to.

Track 12: “The Life of a Showgirl” feat. Sabrina Carpenter is the title track of the album. This song is about a fictional showgirl named Kitty “She made her money being pretty and witty”. The character that Taylor sings the part of goes to see the show with Kitty in it and gets to meet her and Kitty tells her the truth of how the life of a showgirl is not one you want. Then Sabrina Carpenter sings the story of Kitty, “She was a menace, baby of the family in Lenox”. Lenox is a small town in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Lenox is famous for being home to Tanglewood, a venue that attracts world famous performers. She tells of how Kitty goes to the club promoter to ask if she can be a showgirl and live a magnificent life and then says “But that’s not what showgirls get, they leave us for dead.” They both then go on to sing about the showgirl business and how it’s hard to stay afloat in, “They ripped me off like false lashes and then threw me away”. They both then sing to the character of Kitty “Hey Kitty, now I make my money being pretty and witty”. At the very end of the song they say thank you to the crowd which is a recording of the final night in Vancouver and the final show of the Eras Tour. One detail about this song is the dynamic between cats and dogs, Kitty’s name being Kitty, and calling Taylor, the future performer, a kitten. There is also the mention of the “autograph hounds barking her name” making the connection between performers being cats and the fans being dogs. This song is my absolute favorite of the album from the amazing story telling, to the fact that Sabrina Carpenter is featured and finally that it has actual recordings of the Eras Tour. The whole thing is fantastic to listen to and is a little like being transported somewhere else when you listen to it. If you haven’t listened to it, I highly suggest this song. If you only listen to one song make it this one.

Listen to the album here: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-life-of-a-showgirl/1838810949

Movies/TV/Theaters

My review of ‘You’

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By: Kendra Shanklin

*Warning: this review contains spoilers

‘You’ is a psychological thriller about a guy named Joe Goldberg who is a charming but dangerous obsessive man who becomes obsessed with women and goes to the highest standards to insert himself into their lives. The show is rated TV-MA for its murdering, violence, and sexual content.

Recap:

In the first season Joe works at a book store and a customer comes in named Beck who is looking for a good book and asks Joe if they had it and they have a conversation. After that conversation ended Joe instantly fell in love and knew that Beck “was the one for him” and knew he needed to become close with her. After that day Joe would think about her on a daily basis.

Once Joe got home he opened his laptop and started typing Beck’s name on social media looking at her pictures and even looking in the background of her photos to find her address .

The next morning, he walks to her place and sees her through the window and watches her while she’s getting ready. After that he finds her schedule and gets his day ready at the same exact time as hers, and starts stalking her throughout the day. Once Joe finds out Beck has a boyfriend he gets angry and wants that obstacle removed immediately because he doesn’t want anything blocking his chance of getting with Beck.

After that day, Joe heads back to Beck’s and sees the door open. He doesn’t want to be suspicious so he acts like Beck’s boyfriend so he wouldn’t have people second guessing about his behavior.

He then snuck into Beck’s house and went through all of her stuff to see what he could find and went on her computer and through all her pictures.

After snooping he hears the door open and gets scared and he jumps in her shower trying to hide so Beck won’t see him. He then hears Beck on the phone saying how she’s going to a bar and he has the idea to also go to the bar so he can see her.

He then goes to the bar and stalks her for awhile until he sees Beck get drunk. When he notices she’s taking a subway home he follows her. While trying not to get noticed he sees Beck stumbling by the train tracks and falls. He runs towards her and helps her up and notices she drops her phone but doesn’t say anything.

My rating:

In my opinion I love this show. It’s really mysterious and you never really know what is gonna happen next. I love how there’s like the inner voice of his thoughts. Lastly, I like how it shows flash backs from when he was a child to show the reasoning behind his behavior.

If you like shows that have crime and psychological thrillers I recommend that you watch this show. I rate it a 9.5/10

Thank you for reading my review. I hope you enjoyed my review and are willing to watch this show after seeing it.

‘You’ is available to watch on Netflix and Amazon video.

Tech/Games

JOYSTiCK Reviews Ep. 18: ‘Fatal Fury’ (1991) – I Couldn’t Think of a Subtitle for This One

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By: Daniel Kendle

Hey guys, welcome back to JOYSTiCK Reviews, the leading choice in video game serials for those seeking writing comparable to the Infinite Monkey Theorem’s. It’s been a long summer away, but at last we’ve returned to my boiling vat of video games (yay!) and opinions (boo!).

‘Fatal Fury’ is an arcade fighting game released by SNK in 1991, later being brought to home consoles like the SNES and Sega Genesis by Tamara LTD. W!WALOZA!(‘Wow! What A Load Of Zany Acronyms!’) The game is the first in the franchise of the same name, one cemented alongside ‘Street Fighter,’ ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Tekken,’ and ‘Super Smash Bros.’ as a cornerstone part of its genre.  

Overall, a legacy title whose influence on future generations of games is prevalent all these years later. It’s a shame it was released the same year as ‘Street Fighter 2,’ arguably the most predominant fighting game out there for its introduction of genre staples. It’s ALSO a shame that ‘Fatal Fury’ kinda sucks!

Yeah, I didn’t really love this game, despite its importance. But why is that, and what could’ve been improved? As always, let’s find out.

‘Fatal Fury’ is a 2D fighting game, like I said before. Upon booting it up you get the choice of 3 playable characters: Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, and Joe Higashi. The story remains mostly similar for all 3, as each character instead gets completely different movesets. I solely used Terry for my playthrough, so he’s the only one I can really speak on.

To begin, the game’s combat is similar to other fighting games from its time: 1v1 matches with health bars to denote hits taken. Combos and multi-button inputs are here in spades as well, along with a unique feature to the series: unlike its contemporaries, ‘Fatal Fury’ lets fighters switch between the foreground and background, or as I’ll call them: planes. The 2 planes act the same, but switching between them lets you attack, opening up new opportunities for combos and the like.

This distinction is neat, and I think is a lot cooler in a PVP setting. For the campaign mode it becomes less of a core facet of combat, however. From my playthrough the lane-switching mechanic acted more like a rudimentary parry. By mashing the attack button you’re able to attack as you switch lanes, so as you and the opponent hop back and forth, it culminates in the 2 of you waiting to see who’d eventually mistime an input and be hit first. An alright addition in theory, but the AI on display here doesn’t make the most of it.

On the topic of AI, here comes the primary issue with the game: its difficulty. Critiquing a game’s level of challenge is always a risky venture, but I think public scrutiny has to step aside for a second because yeah, this game is disturbingly-annoying to play.

It’s common knowledge that older games often made up for their short runtime by amping up their difficulty, thus making them artificially-longer. ‘Fatal Fury’ is a prime example of this: the story can be beaten in about an hour if you know what you’re doing. If not? Well, welcome to the trenches, kiddo!

For the few fights there are in this game, each’s respective challenge fluctuates wildly. Raiden, this luchador guy, sucks! Every move in his kit combos into one another flawlessly, so even poking him is enough for him to play ‘Operation’ with your dead, flailing body. Meanwhile, the subsequent fight against Billy Kane features a brain-dead easy infinite combo you can perform against him. By repeatedly breaking his staff, you turn what should be a tricky fight into a cakewalk.

Then there’s Geese Howard, the final boss. Going in, I knew he was notoriously-tough, but brushed any trepidation aside. So how did the fight against him go? Well, let me put this lightly:

I would rather rip my fingers apart than rematch Geese Howard.

I would rather eat a bag of nickels than rematch Geese Howard.

I would rather hot-glue rusty nails into my leg than rematch Geese Howard.

I would rather guzzle gasoline than rematch Geese Howard.

I would rather coat myself in tar and feathers, tie myself to a log, and plummet over the Niagara Falls 11 TIMES than fight Geese Howard.

This fight is horrible, truly. He spams a ground-based projectile the size of a small island nation, making blocking a constant. Couple that with his various close-range grabs and pummels, and I can confidently say that this is the only boss fight in any video game where I think the programmer responsible genuinely had some sort of malice for the player. I’m joking, of course…kinda.

Geese Howard is the worst of this rollercoaster of difficulty, though make no mistake: playing through ‘Fatal Fury’ in 2025 isn’t a walk in the park. I’ll die on this hill – though hopefully not with my credibility.

The pixel art is pretty good, albeit a bit “shiny.” The backgrounds are lavishly-decorated, and while animations for moves rely on key poses a lot, said poses look really nice in motion! Any indoor spaces especially look nice; I’m a big sucker for pixel art of rooms with interesting perspective-points.

The music’s also nice. Nothing stand-out, except for maybe, er… (inhales) ‘Haremar Faith Capoeira School – Song of the Fight [Believers Will Be Saved] (Richard Meyer’s Theme).’ It’s kinda catchy, which surprised me. Richard Meyers’ fight in-game blew, but hey-what a nice song!

Anyways, I think that’s about it. ‘Fatal Fury’ is a short arcade title that strives for combat depth almost as much as it strives for your quarters. The result? A tough-as-nails fighting game that will do 1 of 2 things: make you a lifelong fan of the franchise, or make you want to jump off a cliff. Fortunately for me, it did both!

While the various challenges presented to me irked my opinion of the game, I can’t say I don’t look back with pride on my accomplishment of finishing. It’s not for everyone and doesn’t hold up the best, but there’s an eternal charm here that some will love. I’m giving it a 5/10.

That concludes today’s JOYSTiCK Review. Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

Travel/Food

Crepe recipe and review

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By: Nils Hileson

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup of milk
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 3 tablespoons of melted butter

Steps:

  • Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk vigorously for 10-20 seconds until smooth.
  • Put the batter in a bowl with a lid and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours
  • Put a pan on a burner at low-medium heat and add butter
  • Add 1/3 cup of batter in pan
  • Swirl pan until the surface is coated with a thin layer of batter
  • Let sit until the edges start to peel off the pan then flip the crepe
  • Wait until it’s only a little crispy and then put on a plate

You can add toppings like;

  • Butter & sugar
  • Jam & whipped cream
  • Nutella & banana
  • Butter, sugar & cinnamon
  • Scrambled egg

The crepes were really good, I made three; one with Nutella and banana, one with cinnamon and sugar and one with scrambled egg. Crepes are really good due to how many different things you can put on them. While most crepes are made sweet you could make one more savory.

They are also pretty easy to make but it’s easy to accidentally cut them due to how thin they are.

The crepes tasted really good the egg one might’ve been my favorite as the cheese I put in the egg and the crepe itself worked really well together. The other crepes also tasted really good though, both being sweet in different ways.

Due to how much batter I had we ended up with a lot of extra crepes since the crepe doesn’t take much batter to make due to being so thin. When making crepes the first one will almost always come out really bad as the pan isn’t quite ready yet so the first one will look bad.

Overall crepes are really good and pretty easy to make.

This recipe was a modified version of my dad’s.

Music/Concerts

‘The Life of a Showgirl’

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By: Charlotte Aver

On August 12th at 12:12 am the countdown ended. Taylor Swift announced her 12th studio album by putting a countdown on her website that ended at 12:12 am resulting in a pre pre-order of ‘The Life of a Showgirl’. The album cover was a light green blur with an orange sparkly lock.

The next day she was featured on her boyfriend’s podcast where she showed the album cover and revealed the track list which is, 1. The Fate of Ophelia, 2. Elizabeth Taylor, 3. Opalite, 4. Father Figure, 5. Eldest Daughter, 6. Ruin the Friendship, 7. Actually Romantic, 8. Wi$h Li$t, 9. Wood, 10. CANCELLED!, 11. Honey, and last but not least track 12. The Life of a Showgirl feat. Sabrina Carpenter. She also revealed the release date which was October 3rd.

Leading up to the announcement of her 12th studio album, almost every time she was seen in public she was wearing plaid, this led to much confusement within the swiftie community. The supposed reason for her wearing plaid was a clue to the album’s release date October 3rd, which is also Plaid day. The album’s main theme colors are orange and green.

During the album rollout there have been seven countdowns on her website. One led to the pre pre-order in which you could not see the album cover but the track list was still a mystery. Two led to the album cover reveal as well as deluxe CD’s. Three, four, and five led to vinyl variants. Six led to a cardigan for the album, and the seventh led to hand signed CD’s.

Taylor is known for her use of Easter eggs, which are little clues for her fans to pick up on and guess what her next move within the music industry is going to be. To Easter egg this album she had many outfits and visuals on her eras tour that led to this. One of these Easter eggs was the orange door that showed up during the finale of the Eras Tour each night that she only exited through on the very last show of the tour. Fans speculated that this was a metaphor for her entering her next era, which was confirmed on the podcast she released the album on.

Another thing that she did to hint at her upcoming album was when she brought Sabrina Carpenter out as a surprise guest; Sabrina was wearing a white baby doll dress referencing Taylor’s 11th studio album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’. Taylor herself was wearing an orange flowy dress that was referencing her upcoming album which Sabrina would be featured on, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’.

The craziest Easter egg she left was during her Midnights era (which was her 10th studio album) three years before ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ was announced. She made a music video for her song “anti-hero” that included two versions of her: one was self conscious and wore multiple white and gray outfits, the other version of her was loud and seemingly happy, this version wore an orange and green sparkly romper. Throughout the music video the two versions did many things together one of the notable things was that the happier version of her slammed a guitar into the ground 12 times possibly referencing her 12th studio album. The main theory about this music video is that the self conscious Taylor was referring to ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ and the happier Taylor was referring to ‘The Life of a Showgirl’.

She has also announced a movie coming to theaters October 3-5, in which the debut of the “Fate of Ophelia” music video, brand new lyric videos and her own personal insights on the songs. I will be deconstructing each song with information I gather from the movie and also my personal insights. Coming soon!

For more information, please visit:

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review of Part 1 of the hit Netflix TV show ‘Lupin’

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By: Karl Salkowski

(Image credit: Unsplash)

‘Lupin’ is a crime drama directed by Louis Leterrier set in modern-day Paris, France. Part 1 premiered in January of 2021 to wide critical acclaim which guaranteed it several more seasons. As of October 2025, ‘Lupin’ has premiered both its second and third seasons, with a fourth season recently confirmed to release at some point in mid- to late 2026. 

This television series takes inspiration from a collection of French novels by Maurice Leblanc titled ‘The Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief.’ Arsène Lupin is often described as the French equivalent to Sherlock Holmes and has inspired several adaptations over the last century. 

The lead actor Omar Sy delivers an incredible performance throughout the series, demonstrating his ability to display both his vulnerability and his charm. He is able to make the character of Assane Diop instantly likeable. Many of the supporting actors did very well throughout the series as well, especially Ludivine Sagnier, who plays Assane Diop’s ex-wife. 

‘Lupin’ is complicated with twists and turns, but it never becomes too convoluted or hard to understand. Time definitely plays a role in the writing, as much of the background information is told through flashbacks and memories rather than hinted at in conversation. Rotten Tomatoes calls it “an engrossing espionage thriller that lives up to its source material and then some.”

This show tackles a number of important themes and issues, including race, class, and identity. ‘Lupin’ is a commentary on who gets seen, heard, and believed. These themes persist throughout the entire season, which helps everything to feel important and interconnected. There is a sense of purpose within each scene, and the pacing doesn’t seem to be too slow or too fast.

Although it sometimes requires suspension of disbelief, ‘Lupin’ is incredible and is definitely one of the most captivating heist shows released in the past few years. The show is very engaging and displays lots of incredible acting. Its use of setting a mood really helps it to develop such an amazing atmosphere that draws the audience in. This is a must-watch TV show for anyone interested in crime-dramas or mysteries, and I would rate it a 9 out of 10.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Supernatural’ episode 1 review and summary

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By: Ivy Dahl

*Warning: this review includes spoilers

Summary:

The first episode of ‘Supernatural’ begins with a normal family consisting of John Winchester, the father, Mary Winchester, the mother, and two young brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester. Mary puts Sam into his crib before later coming back to check on him and seeing a man, who she assumes to be John, holding him. She goes downstairs and to her horror, sees John laying asleep in the living room. She sprints back up the stairs and John wakes up to his wife’s screams.

He runs up to Sam’s room and is momentarily relieved to see Sam safe in his crib, but notices a drop of blood fall on Sam’s forehead. He looks up and sees Mary on the ceiling, suddenly bursting into flames. He grabs Sam and then Dean before running out of the house onto the sidewalk, only able to watch helplessly as the house burns down.

The show cuts to Sam 19-years-later in his first year at Yale university, happy with a girlfriend and bright career prospects of becoming a lawyer. But one night he hears strange noises coming from his and his girlfriend’s apartment, and upon venturing out of his bedroom he immediately starts sparring with a shadowy, unknown intruder. Pinned to the ground, he looks up and realizes it’s his older brother Dean, who he hasn’t seen for a year after leaving for Yale.

Dean tells him that their father, John, has gone on a “hunting trip” and hasn’t returned. Sam immediately understands what Dean means. After their mother died, their dad started hunting monsters and trained him and his brother to do the same. So hunting for them means monsters and not animals. Dean wants Sam’s help to find him, and Sam reluctantly agrees, not eager to disrupt his normal life. Dean tells him that their dad disappeared while investigating multiple disappearances that happened over the span of twenty years on the same highway.

The next scene is of a teenager driving down a dark road when he sees a woman wearing a white dress standing by the road. He pulls over and offers her a ride, and drives to an abandoned building at her request. She mumbles “I can never go home” before vanishing into thin air. The man, terrified, accidentally crashes through a bridge.

Sam and Dean are at a gas station, a quick stop sandwiched between yesterday’s day of long driving and tomorrow’s. They start driving again and come across a bridge with a crashed car and lots of cops on it. Dean pulls the car over, and pulls a fake ID out in front of the cops, beginning to question the cops, while posing as a US Marshall. A cop said that he knew the latest victim and that his girlfriend is putting up missing posters for him.

Sam and Dean track down the victim’s girlfriend, Amy, and lie to her that they are his uncles who are looking for him also. They go to a diner where they run into Amy’s friend, who mentions a local legend about a girl who died on that highway and how her ghost now hitchhikes on that highway.

At the local library, Sam and Dean research online and come across an article about a woman who committed suicide after her two kids mysteriously drowned. Sam and Dean go to the bridge where people are disappearing that night and while they wait, they get into an argument about their mom after Sam dismisses her. They are interrupted by the figure of a woman dressed in white at the other side of the bridge throwing herself off it. They run over to where she jumped and see nothing below them. A loud roar of a car engine brings their attention to their car on the other side of the bridge, which has started driving towards them with no one in the driver’s seat. With no other option, they dive over the side of the bridge into the water. Though dirty, they escaped the ghosts’ attempt to hurt them.

Sam and Dean try to check into a motel when the clerk mentions another man who rented a room for a whole month.

The pair of brothers find the man’s motel room, and immediately recognize it as their dads. The one he was staying in before he disappeared. It’s covered in investigative papers, and has a salt line in front of the door, which is known to ward off supernatural creatures. They conclude from this that their dad was trying to keep something out. They see that their dad solved the case and conclude that the woman they read about in the article was in fact the ghost, and their dad must have burned the woman’s body to get rid of the ghost, but it was somehow still around. Sam tracks down and talks to the dead woman’s husband to try to find where she’s buried. Sam learns that his dad visited the husband a couple of days ago to ask the same questions. He figures out that he was unfaithful to his wife, which led to her ending herself and their kids, before becoming the ghost known as the woman in white, who kills unfaithful men on the highway.

Dean is interrogated at a police station and told he’s a suspect in the men’s disappearances. They show him a journal they found in his dad’s motel room. Dean’s interrogation is interrupted by a phone call and the police officer leaves Dean handcuffed to the table he’s sitting at to answer it. Dean picks his handcuffs with a paper clip and escapes before anyone can notice he’s missing. The first thing Dean does is call Sam, who’s driving in their car. Dean immediately calls him out as the one who made the phone call to distract the police officer. Dean also tells him that their dad left their journal behind, even though he usually goes nowhere without it.

There were also coordinates within the journal and their dad has left to go to them. Suddenly, the woman in white appears in front of Sam’s car, and then next to him in the passenger seat of his car. She asks to be taken home. When he refuses, she takes control of the car and drives it to the abandoned house. When there, she attempts to seduce him, which Sam refuses.

Enraged, she starts to transform into a horrible monster, but is stopped suddenly by the appearance of Dean. Dean shoots her. Sam is startled and drives the car straight through the house, getting pulled from the wreckage immediately afterwards by Dean. The ghost pins them down with telekinetic powers and is about to hurt them, when the ghosts of her children show up. The kids snatch their mother into the netherworld. Sam and Dean, now free, get into their car and drive off.

On the way back to Sam’s apartment, they figure out that their father is in a place called Blackwater Ridge from his journal, and Sam decides to not follow his trail and expresses his desire to return home. Dean doesn’t like this decision, but respects it and drops Sam off at his place.

Sam returns home to his and his girlfriend’s apartment, laying on their bed, glad to be done with his family drama. A drop of blood falls onto his forehead. He opens his eyes and sees his girlfriend on the ceiling, bursting into flames. Dean appears, saving him from the sudden fire by pulling him out of the house. Devastated by what happened to his girlfriend, Sam decides to go with Dean and find their dad.

Review:

‘Supernatural’ is an amazing, iconic tv show, which clearly shows even in the first episode. It sets up an interesting, complex brother relationship between Sam and Dean. It also establishes unique world building with the portrayals of supernatural creatures and ways to fight against them, as well as creating a compelling question of how the brothers are going to find their father.

The first episode also explores how Sam and Dean reacted to their father’s monster hunting training in different ways, with Sam rejecting it and Dean embracing it.

I would give this episode a 10/10. You can watch ‘Supernatural’ on Netflix.