I was going to take this month off but thanks to Warner Brothers, I have a clip to share. It's a holiday greeting from the editing crew at Supernatural — a preview of what's to come in January. It's nothing too spoilery; just enough to spark interest in between getting drunk at the holiday party (assuming your company didn't cut theirs this year), writing fake sentiments of joy on Christmas cards, using martial arts on grandmas at the shopping mall while wondering why you didn't try Amazon.com, and getting your fingers stuck to pretty much everything from wrapping too many presents.
For those who have had too much family bonding come 9:00 pm on Christmas Day, the absolutely brilliant "A Very Supernatural Christmas" from season three will be rebroadcast. Just make sure the kids are in bed. It's a trifle disturbing. And bloody. Human eating pagans aren't known for their restraint.
Some Fans Drove Me To This
Recently I've been working on a retrospective of season one, a season I've largely ignored from a critical viewpoint due to lack of time. Also recently, I've been on the fan forums seeking lively discussion and have mostly come across griping about character direction and season four in general, even though this is by far this best season of the series. So, put those two together, and I've easily got a way to change everyone's perspective.
I'm going to show everyone what a bad episode is all about. I'm going to point out what happens when a horrible script, bad acting, crappy special effects and editing, substandard directing, and even poor song choices collide.
It's time to take a gut-turning look back at "Bugs."
Worst...Episode...Ever
If anyone thinks that any episode in season two, three, of four did not measure up, I dare you to sit down for 40 minutes and try to get through this hideous episode without losing your lunch. It didn't work for me, but I went through it anyway for the sake of this review to prove my point; because I'm all about proving points.
You know an episode is bad when the weak teaser is actually the good part of the episode. An unknowing gas company worker falls in a hole at a housing development, one where the homes are huge and fancy (???) so no one working for the gas company can afford them. Come on, this is the pre-mortgage meltdown, where jobless alcoholics are getting loans. Plus, the homes aren't all that extraordinary. Anyway, while the other worker goes for help, the doomed man in the hole has his brain eaten by, well, bugs. Thus the name of the title. Of course the bugs worked pretty damn quick to feast on brain and disappear without a trace, but I'm being petty, right?
Article comments
1 - Julie
The more I read your article the more I disliked the episode! It's true that the episode is one of - if not - the worst episodes ever. But I'm grateful that the crew and the cast (yes, poor Sam was... poor in the eppy) learned a lot from the bad experience and worked their way up!
But being a Sammy fan you totally brought my mellow down :( I know the episode wasn't his best (heck, he did a better job in In The Beginning where we only saw him for 25 seconds) but maybe a great New Year gift would be to have a little retrospective on the good things from both characters.................
Happy Holidays and I hope you have a wonderful 2009 !!!
2 - Rachel Elisabeth
Bugs is bad, but I like the brother stuff in it. For me the worst episode is Hookman. Awful.
3 - Alice Jester
Julie - I was actually working on a review for "Home", which is one of my favorite episodes from season one. That one is definitely a home run for both characters, and in my mind the turning point for season one. I'll shoot to post that one next, hopefully before the New Year.
Rachel - "Hookman" was awful, but that actually comes in number 3 on my worst list. The one I thought that was almost as bad as "Bugs" was "Route 666."
4 - Suze
I hate bees. My Dad has loads of hives and they're really unpleasant. Stroppy, aggressive gold-standard grudge-bearing little buggers. It's all down to pheremones, apparently, and they can't act either. Sam was having a bit of an off day too. So a total downer all round.
Mind you, at least it didn't have pointless posho Bella and her foul beige trench coat mincing around the place as well, so it could have been worse!
5 - mindy
Yeah I hated this episode as well. But I honestly thought "Dead Man's Blood" was worse! Combine the hooky vampires who can't really act, the filler storylines & let's face it, the just plain annoying & you get that episode. After actually sitting through "Dead Man's Blood" I almost began to doubt my sanity for watching it in the first place. You could practically understand all of the mythology introduced in that episode just by watching recaps.
But yeah, this episode is bad too. Thank goodness that season 4 has been so awesome!
6 - Sal
Honestly "Bugs" I can handle. It wasn't too bad for me. Ok so the sun comes out 5 minutes after midnight and Jared wasn't all too great in the episode.
But I've made it my mission to watch all 70 episodes this haitus amd the one episode that almost made me give up was "Route 666".
I drifted into my world of imagination during "Bugs" but when even half naked Dean can't get me to pay attention to the TV, you have a problem.
7 - elle2
First off, Alice, I've missed you. Secondly, I'm glad you're taking a break.
Seriously though, right on in your analysis, although I argued in a post on a site we mutually go to, that both Bugs and Scarecrow, two eps that get lousy raps (and in the case of Bugs, deservedly so) still add something. For me the brotherly moments between Dean and Sam w/the box of bones makes that eppy worth something -- although not much. Route 666 similarly has some moments as I watch Sam discover some things about Dean that cause me to say -- see, even this clunker has something good in it, again, not much.
I love this show and am glad you've "Stood up" against the unceasing tide of negativity: The show is too funny, the show makes Dean look like an idiot, the show is too Deancentric, the show is too Samcentric, Sam is evil, Dean is an angel, blah, blah, blah...my favorite complaint to dislike these days is: It's changed...I want S1 again, Season 4 stinks, the brothers have changed, changed, changed -- yeah, that's what's great. These characters grow and evolve sometimes it's messy and sometimes it's really great.
I fully expect we'll have some episodes this season that are clunkers, it's to be expected but out of the 10 already shown there isn't one that belongs on the bus with those failures from S1 when EK and crew were still figuring some things out. Bugs, Route 666, Hookman they're all in a class by themselves (and I think Wendigo, Sin City, Red Sky in the Morning all ride on that bus in various places of illrepute)
Anyway, I'm eagerly looking forward to new episodes in four, four, count them four weeks (*cough) and three hours and 17 minutes...yes, I'm counting...
Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
8 - vichi
Hi Alice, I'm glad you didn't forget us:)
As for your article, wow, we think the same:) I made a top ten worst episodes, a week ago and the top of the top is, of course, Bugs. For the same reasons you said:) Indeed, in this episode, teh only chemistry onscreen was between Jared and Jensen. Once Jensen was left away from a scene, Jared sucked. He is a good actor, evolved a lot from his beginnins but in this episode, his act was awful.
As for the clip of new episodes, personally, I am dying to see ep 11 adn 13. I love to see Dean in shorts:) "I don't do shorts" said Dean in Wendigo:) As we can see, he do it!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Alice.
Happy Holidays, everyone:)
9 - Sasha
While Bugs is cheesy and the insta-morning laughable, to me it is still entertaining cheese to me. It's bad but it doesn't really bother me.
There are numerous episodes, namely from Season 3 on the other hand that had better production value and a better plot than Bugs but that I found absolutely infuriating at a character level and as such much, much worse than Bugs. Honestly, I'd rewatch Bugs ten times before Magnificent Seven, Red Sky at Morning or my personal clunker Yellow Fever.
I think the worst episode moniker depends on one's personal likes and dislikes just as much as the favourites.
10 - -lauren
I'd gladly take bugs in an attic over grace in a bottle and angel food cake sex in the Impala.
Bugs was cheesy enough that it didn't bothe rme so much. It was bad, but bad in a plastic-y cheap horror movie way. With this season's bad episodes (and there have been bad episodes) there's no cheese for me to have fun with. Ah well, everyone's different right?
11 - Donna
Cheezy plastic spiders and time-compression mistakes I can live with and re-watch. Demon hate sex and angel grace in a bottle are, to me, unforgivable sins which easily outdistance the simple badness of "Bugs".
12 - shamangrrl
You know, I agree with pretty much everything you said about this episode. But I have to say that the episode that disappoints me the most, would be Magnificent Seven. At least there was the limited excuse of the series (and Jared) still finding their way, since Bugs was filmed so early on. What was the excuse with Mag7? And to make it the season opener was almost unforgivable. Jensen, Jared and Jim really elevated sub-par writing with that episode. It's funny, because I've had other episodes bother me with the clunky dialog, bad directing/editing, horrible guests or lame monsters. But that one disappoints the most, since I was so jazzed for the premiere. The fact that such a rich idea was totally wasted also didn't make me too happy.
13 - Anna M Nappo
Alice you are an amazing writer!
I knew from the week before that the premise was a weak one, but I still watched and enjoyed most of it. I agree with your comments, especially the spider in the shower, and the 'lost time' at dawn. These are the only times that I've watched SN with suspicion and incredibility. I'll believe the boys that the ghosts are 'real' and the demons are really after them, but how can they get a spider so wrong??
Merry Christmas,
Anna.