Supernatural DVDs, Books and Other Merchandise

[DittyDotDot]

Coming to a Hot Topical near you...

http://usaopoly.com/games/trivial-pursuit-supernatural#.V8yXZhFCItk.facebook

 

 

Is it wrong I want to challenge Kripke to a game? ;)

[Demented Daisy]

Yeah, we've got room for it on the shelf next to our SPN Clue.

[Boopsahoy]

Anyone else get the Jason Manns CD? Jensens voice...I am dead...

[catrox14]

2 hours ago, Boopsahoy said:

Anyone else get the Jason Manns CD? Jensens voice...I am dead...

I will be getting the Simple Man single.  We had some discussion about it in the SuperNormal thread :)

[Diane]

The Weight is really good too.

[catrox14]

I think I'm going to also get Michael Rosenbaum's cover of "Mad World".  That snippet was pretty great. He can sing too!

[Boopsahoy]

19 hours ago, Diane said:

The Weight is really good too

I actually like Jensens part of the weight better than Simple Man. I like the rock version more. on't get me wrong, I love His singing of Simple Man.

[Diane]

2 hours ago, Boopsahoy said:

I actually like Jensens part of the weight better than Simple Man. I like the rock version more. on't get me wrong, I love His singing of Simple Man.

I agree with you, a like the rock version better too.  Not that I don't like this version, but the rock version seems to fit his voice better, maybe?

[Boopsahoy]

6 hours ago, Diane said:

I agree with you, a like the rock version better too.  Not that I don't like this version, but the rock version seems to fit his voice better, maybe?

Yes! That's how I feel. I really really love his part on the Weight!

[catrox14]

 What I love about the Simple Man version on Covers with Friends is that it's so intimate. I think that song is an intimate conversation between a mother and a son. I love the cellos that come in towards the end. It literally brought a tear to my eye.  I'm happy he did this unique rendition.

Edited September 9, 2016 by catrox14

[catrox14]

The boys with a fan

 

[pixelcat]

Saw this today on Amazon, in case anyone is interested but hasn't yet bought Season 11 (looks like it works with either DVD or BluRay):

[catrox14]

Supernatural s11 DVD sales comes in at 8.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/top-sellers/top-20-sellers-week-ended-091116 

(another h/t to @Velocity23 )

[SueB]

Impressive that its the #1 TV show this week

[SueB]

Just started going thru the S11 Blu-Ray.  Couple of things:

"Don't Call Me Shurley" audio commentary - I LOVE that Robbie Thompson always says the boys smell "like baby Jesus".  He's SUCH a fanboy and I mean that in the best possible way.  The specific comment was when Curtis and Rob and he were talking about their scenes and I think it bled over a Sam and Dean scene. And Curtis/Rob were joking about why bother talking about the stars of the show.  Robbie chimed in with something along the lines of 'who needs to talk about two guys who look like models and smell like baby Jesus.'  They (J2) were, per the trio, of course perfect in the episode but the commentary was more focused on the Metatron/God scenes. It was a great audio commentary.  The more days they shot, the less takes they needed because they were really into the episode. Curtis said he cried when he read Metatron's scene talking about being the nearest guy (it was changed to "nearest the door" during filming, which Robbie loved because it's even MORE cruel).  Curtis had never cried before (in his entire career) while reading a script. He waited to re-read that scene and memorize his lines close to filming because he didn't want to overwork the material.  Personally, I think the whole episode was f*cking brilliant.

The Winchester Mythology: The Darkness
As usual, it's the Mythology featurette that is my favorite. (Bias alert: everytime Buckner and Ross-Lemming came on the screen I actively hissed -- they were actually less offensive than usual IMO so it's not too bad).  What I found interesting was how Dabb talked about the story arc developing.  Dabb made, IMO, an excellent point.  He said that if you start the season with a monolithic vision (IMO he meant all the details worked out by a single individual), it's never as good.  It's better (paraphrasing) to let the story develop and let the team of writers work on it through the year.  We've had this debate on PTV (whether or not they have a vision). Dabb was pretty clear, they have a broad picture but not the details.  They didn't definitively decide to bring back God before the season started.  They came to that as the inevitable conclusion as the season progressed-- that they should focus on the sibling relationship as it's a big Supernatural theme.  They also intentionally made Amara somewhat naive in the hopes of garnering sympathy for her.  They always intended for her to be somewhat sympathetic.  
Sue Opinion: I'm not summarizing the featurette very well, but as I listened to it, Dabb's comments struck a chord with me.  I work with an independent team that looks at various projects. And when a single voice dominates or decides the answer at the begging of the review process it's NEVER as good as when we work on it collaboratively and keep revising it until we get the right message.  So what some call "lazy writing" or "they don't have a clue", I think I'm going to call "intentional ambiguity which unfolds the story through collaboration".  I know, it may sound like spin but honestly, this makes a TON of sense to me when I put it in the context of my work environment.  

What BOTH of these two extras emphasized is how much of a collaboration the entire effort is.  Robbie puts down a few sentences and then watches the dailies and it's SO MUCH BETTER than he imagined because of the acting.  The writers feed off of each other in the writers room and the scripts significantly change as they move forward.  And the boys (J2)?  They pretty much raise the quality of every episode.  And everyone kind of knows it.  Their ad-libs are very valuable to the finished product (note: the beer ironing was the boys' idea). 

Edited September 23, 2016 by SueB

[DittyDotDot]

Thanks for the info @SueB! Out of curiosity, which episodes did they do commentary on? And, who did those commentaries? I'm still on the fence about buying the DVDs--wouldn't be if they had done a featurette on making Baby--and just gathering more information.

16 hours ago, SueB said:

Sue Opinion: I'm not summarizing the featurette very well, but as I listened to it, Dabb's comments struck a chord with me.  I work with an independent team that looks at various projects. And when a single voice dominates or decides the answer at the begging of the review process it's NEVER as good as when we work on it collaboratively and keep revising it until we get the right message.  So what some call "lazy writing" or "they don't have a clue", I think I'm going to call "intentional ambiguity which unfolds the story through collaboration".  I know, it may sound like spin but honestly, this makes a TON of sense to me when I put it in the context of my work environment. 

I guess I'd say there's a difference between a bunch of people collaborating on a project and a bunch of different people working independently on the same project. Eh, tomato/tomato. ;)

[SueB]

I'll have to watch to let you know what the other episodes have comments. I always race straight to the deleted scenes and the mythology special.  The deleted scenes were just okay.  I didn't feel pained by their absence and the cut decision on "Don't Call Me Shurley" was an improvement IMO.  It's not that it was bad (shows Chuck working so he's revealed to the audience before being revealed to Metatron).  I liked the way it was broadcast.

[DittyDotDot]

Thanks @SueB, I'll just be waiting over here strumming my fingers...hum-dee-dum-dee-dum...have you watched them yet? ;)

[Demented Daisy]

Fair warning -- the Trivial Pursuit game ain't great.  The packaging is horrible.  I suppose it would be good for a road trip, though.  Isn't that apropos?  ;-)

The questions are from every season so far, for what it's worth.  (My husband just got a question about Safe House.)

[DittyDotDot]

16 minutes ago, Demented Daisy said:

Fair warning -- the Trivial Pursuit game ain't great.  The packaging is horrible.  I suppose it would be good for a road trip, though.  Isn't that apropos?  ;-)

The questions are from every season so far, for what it's worth.  (My husband just got a question about Safe House.)

That's disappointing. Are they good questions, at least?

[Demented Daisy]

36 minutes ago, DittyDotDot said:

That's disappointing. Are they good questions, at least?

Fair to good.  The wording could be better on some -- one made it sound like Dean had lost his soul in S6, not Sam.  

I beat my husband, by the way.  6-2.  Not a stomping, by any means.  Especially because he's only seen most of the episodes once.

[DittyDotDot]

15 minutes ago, Demented Daisy said:

Fair to good.  The wording could be better on some -- one made it sound like Dean had lost his soul in S6, not Sam.  

I beat my husband, by the way.  6-2.  Not a stomping, by any means.  Especially because he's only seen most of the episodes once.

Well, he just needs to start hangin' out here and bone up if he wants to beat you! ;)

[SueB]

The two additional DVD commentaries are Baby and Just My Imagination.

I watched the Baby commentary - it was Robbie Thompson and Thomas J. Wright (director).  Oh how I wish it had been J2!

Bit's I remember:
- A GREAT amount of ad-libbing in this one.  Intentionally so.  Bot Robbie and Tom were very complimentary regarding Jensen and Jared.  The common theme was that they need very little direction or even script to play "Sam and Dean".  Like the "Night Moves" bit: Robbie wanted a song for Dean to tease his brother. Robbie's wife said "Night Moves, DUH."  Bob Singer said 'Of course Night Moves, Bob Singer is one of the 10 greatest rock writers of all time.' So Robbie put in that Dean puts on the tape and he made a note that 'according to Bob Singer, ESQ, Bob Singer is one of the greater rock writers of all time.' Jensen decided to use it as a line and finished with "Samuel".  Jared decided to come back with "It's Sam." Which Robbie loved because of the callback to EP1.  The rest of the scene was a montage of 'two brothers on a road trip, singing to a song and having a good time' while the song plays.  Tom put them in a car and said, 'do the scenes'...and the boys just did what they do.  Robbie said they ARE brothers (Jensen and Jared).  It was very nice words.  
- Tom said he was hoping for the lens flare with the camera angle but you can't really stage it
- Tom CLEARLY loved every moment of the script and filming process. He apparently puts all sorts of storyboards in the margin notes and really thinks out every scene, every POV.
- Robbie's favorite scene was the 6 mins of dialog in the car when they are getting ready to sleep.  Tom said they filmed it like three times.  And they did the complete scene, full acting, every time. And the boys were 'in the moment', every time.  It's a comment we've heard before but it's nice to know that it's still true.  They (J2) REALLY give the directors a lot to work with.  
- Lots of praise for Jensen learning how to stunt drive (over lunch on the day of shooting) and how well it came out.  The ONLY use of stunt people/stunt drivers was when the car crashes into the orange water barrels.  Every other stunt was the actors.  Tom talked about getting praise from professional stunt workers on the back-seat fighting.
- Now that they established the "how" in Baby, they are using that POV in more episodes.  In a later episode, Tom even extended the car scene JUST so he could do that Baby POV again.  He really really loved shooting that episode.  

There's more but those are the items that stuck with me.  I'll try to watch Just My Imagination in the next few days. 

[DittyDotDot]

Thanks @SueB, I'm glad they at least did a commentary for Baby. I really wish they'd done a featurette on that one, though. I'm really interested in how they rigged up the cameras and stuff like that. I'm not super-fond of Just My Imagination, but might enjoy the commentary more than the episode depending on who does the commentary.

9 hours ago, SueB said:

Lots of praise for Jensen learning how to stunt drive (over lunch on the day of shooting) and how well it came out.  The ONLY use of stunt people/stunt drivers was when the car crashes into the orange water barrels.  Every other stunt was the actors.  Tom talked about getting praise from professional stunt workers on the back-seat fighting.

This alone could've been an awesome featurette! ;)

9 hours ago, SueB said:

Now that they established the "how" in Baby, they are using that POV in more episodes.  In a later episode, Tom even extended the car scene JUST so he could do that Baby POV again.  He really really loved shooting that episode.  

TBH, I wish they didn't use that technique in the later episodes. They were perfect for Baby, but don't feel like they visually fit in other episodes and are kinda jarring to me.

[catrox14]

I am seriously disappointed to learn there is no featurette about Baby. I cannot understand the logic there. It's arguably in the top 5 best episode of s11  and one of the most unique episodes of the entire  show without being a meta episode.

I bet Jensen would have babbled happily about the filming techniques. The crew deserves to be acknowledged for their work in setting up all the camera angles etc. I especially would love to hear him talk about stunt driving and amazing fight scenes in the back of Impala. Whilst  I appreciate the director! Jensen featurette that was already released and they did one when he directed in s6. I do wonder who makes these decisions.

[SueB]

2 hours ago, catrox14 said:

I am seriously disappointed to learn there is no featurette about Baby. I cannot understand the logic there. It's arguably in the top 5 best episode of s11  and one of the most unique episodes of the entire  show without being a meta episode.

I bet Jensen would have babbled happily about the filming techniques. The crew deserves to be acknowledged for their work in setting up all the camera angles etc. I especially would love to hear him talk about stunt driving and amazing fight scenes in the back of Impala. Whilst  I appreciate the director! Jensen featurette that was already released and they did one when he directed in s6. I do wonder who makes these decisions.

There was a TON of praise for the crew but no BTS bits of them doing their work.  

[auntvi]

The commentary for Just My Imagination was by Jenny Klein and Dick Speight. I enjoyed it, especially the

Spoiler

sparkle blood and air guitar

.  Dick is his snarky self, but it's clear that they both enjoyed making it and talking about it.

[DittyDotDot]

Thanks @auntvi! I was hoping Richard would be on the commentary.

I think that seals it that I'll eventually buy them. First I need to buy the S10 ones, though, since I'm such a completionist. Either I stop buying them altogether or I keep buying them for a complete set. Can't miss only one season. I'm such a dork.

[FlickChick]

Yup! A complete set girl here too. I'll buy S10 (at a nice sale price) when I get S11. Even though I watch episodes on TNT, I like to have the DVDs. Honestly though, I need to get into more of the extras. :(

[Commando Cody]

I walked through a Barnes and Noble today and spotted a Supernatural Monopoly game. Lucifer is Park Place, really? I don't get it. I couldn't read the rest of the board. Were they using monsters going from weakest to strongest?

[Demented Daisy]

6 hours ago, Commando Cody said:

I walked through a Barnes and Noble today and spotted a Supernatural Monopoly game. Lucifer is Park Place, really? I don't get it. I couldn't read the rest of the board. Were they using monsters going from weakest to strongest?

*saunters over to board game shelf*  Yes, I am a geek, why do you ask?  ;-)  Starting with Baltic Ave. and ending with Boardwalk:

• Ghoul
• Changeling
• Wraith
• Rakshasa
• Shapeshifter
• Witch
• Wendigo
• Djinn
• Ghost
• Werewolf
• Vampire
• Phoenix
• Hellhound
• Dragon
• Reaper
• Skinwalker
• Leviathan
• Eve
• Lilith
• Abbadon
• Azazel
• Lucifer

The Horsemen are the railroads.  

[Commando Cody]

Thank you, Demented Daisy, for going through the trouble of posting this. 

Where does Crowley fit into this game?

[Demented Daisy]

I haven't played in a while, so he might be on the Chance (Pie) and Community Chest (Men of Letters) cards.

[SueB]

TV Insider seems to have taken the DVD Commentary and added in things Jensen Ackles said in various interview and made a nice BTS story for Baby:

http://www.tvinsider.com/article/98521/supernatural-behind-the-scenes-of-season-11s-baby-photos/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=TVGM

[catrox14]

Quote

Thomas J. Wright: "Baby," they actually got to me early, because they had really saved it for me to do. My first read on it was, "Wow. Terrific." It was really different. And so of course, my head's spinning about all kinds of things that get in the way. But eventually it all calmed down, and I was just really happy to get this episode, because it was a lot of fun.

Hmm. Re the bolded part, this kind of implies that they do hold some scripts for certain directors. 

Also, I am giving Jensen co-director credit for this episode. 

Thanks for bringing this over, @SueB. I love this stuff

Edited September 28, 2016 by catrox14

[FlickChick]

Sue B, I enjoyed the article so much. Jensen's background in both directing and performing on stage really showed in his comments. Something tells me he had a blast with this episode! My only complaint is that we have to find an outside article on this episode instead of having this interview on the DVD extras. Thanks for finding it for us!

[Demented Daisy]

New t-shirts from TeeTurtle:

[DittyDotDot]

So, I was just listening to the commentary on Phantom Traveler (Jared and Jensen) and this exchange cracked me up quite a bit:

It starts off with Jared talking about how he had no idea going in how much responsibility and hours would be involved since there's only two series leads and they're both in the majority of scenes together. 

Quote

Jensen: I think that, uh, that Jared and I both were so excited about this project when David Nutter, uh, approached us with it and talked to us about it. We read the script and just realized what an awesome storyline and what great characters had been written and just the promise of what could be. That we were probably a bit blinded by the, uh, excitement of it that we didn't realize that this was going to be quite a daunting task. Not to say that...uh...we regret it, but it's been an awesome ride and it's just a...uh...I would say the workload, um, is a good problem to have. 

Jared: Right. 

Jensen: I mean, I definitely have enjoyed working and getting to know Jared and the awesome on- and off-camera relationship, and...uh...

Jared: And, I know that Jensen has enjoyed getting to know me. 

Jensen: Right.

Jared (laughing): Just kidding.

Jensen: And, he's super-humble.

Jared (laughing): I'm better at humbleness than anyone. 

First, just the number of times Jensen said "awesome" is pretty awesome. Second, I picture Jared looking like he did when he made the "Losechesters" joke a few years ago. Third, they've always been big goofy dorks!

Too cute. ;)

Edited March 18, 2017 by DittyDotDot

[catrox14]

AHAHAHAHAHA

[Commando Cody]

I stopped in Lawrence when I was down there. I finally had to confess to the person road tripping with me as to why we went there. 

[catrox14]

11 minutes ago, Commando Cody said:

I stopped in Lawrence when I was down there. I finally had to confess to the person road tripping with me as to why we went there. 

I've been through Lawrence once. Alas, I knew nothing of Supernatural back then so I could not laugh about it. Ah well.

[Wayward Son]

I'm watching the s10 mythology feature on the Mark of Cain for the first time :)

[Wayward Son]

And the key question if left me with is; do these writers and J2 not remember Dean's time in hell? All the talk of the battle with Cain forcing Dean to face the depths of his darkness had me rolling my eyes. He's already been forced to face that darkness and in a far more brutal manner. 

Beyond that though it was a rather informative commentary and confirmed several things I suspected about the narrative purpose :)

[Aeryn13]

Quote

Beyond that though it was a rather informative commentary and confirmed several things I suspected about the narrative purpose :)

What did they say about it?

[SueB]

On 3/28/2017 at 4:33 PM, Wayward Son said:

And the key question if left me with is; do these writers and J2 not remember Dean's time in hell? All the talk of the battle with Cain forcing Dean to face the depths of his darkness had me rolling my eyes. He's already been forced to face that darkness and in a far more brutal manner. 

Beyond that though it was a rather informative commentary and confirmed several things I suspected about the narrative purpose :)

I think PART of Dean's darkness came from the time in Hell.  As Alastair said, he 'carved you (Dean) into a new animal'.  While I think Dean was permanently changed by Hell, I think he was not a completely different person.  That was just Alastair trying to unnerve Dean.  

[Wayward Son]

I just finished watching The Devil's Road Map featurette for the  season one finale Devil's Trap! I found it quite interesting! Some things to be learnt from it. 

 

• It was director Bob Singer's idea to cast Jim Beaver as Bobby Singer! 

• It was Eric Kripke who decided to name him after Singer! (I knew this already!) 

• Originally it was meant to be Dean kidnapped by Meg. The finale would have focused on the tension filled relationship between Sam and John as they were forced to work together without Dean to act as a mediator. They had to scrape this and make John the kidnapee when JDM was  needed for a significant role in Grey's Anatomy. 

• With hindsight Kripke believes the revised version to be the better version. He thinks it was great to allow the boys to fulfill their two main goals of the season, find John and find the YED, at once by having them share the same body. 

• Kripke considers the scene where Sam faces the decision of whether to shoot possessed John or not the culmination of season one. It covers "every single emotional issue, every single plot issue, every single issue and thread we had all season came together in one scene". The issues he specifies include; Sam's desire for revenge against the yellow eyed demon, Dean's love for his family and desire to keep everyone safe, Sam's troubled relationship with John i.e that he hates and resents him and yet loves him deep down. 

Edited April 20, 2017 by Wayward Son

[SueB]

Found this on iTunes tonight. It's been there since 28 Oct. It's part of the Season Pass and I never watched it before.

 

It's REALLY good IMO.  It contains spoilers thru the first three episodes and talks about Mary's rationale for leaving.  I really wish this had been broadcast. But since it wasn't, I'll talk about it here since some people are touchy about anything not on broadcast TV. Italics are pure opinion/speculation only. 

Key points (directly stated):

- Mary feels guilty for EVERYTHING that has happened to the boys
- Mary left not only because she wanted space but because she almost killed the boys in American Nightmare
- Mary has a hard time watching her boys get injured 
- Sam sees Mary as an new adult he's meeting
- Dean's having a lot of internal struggle with the memories of her when he was a child and this new adult person
- Mary went back to hunting because it represented the bulk of her adult life

Other things I got/fairly clearly implied:

- They really did mean to give Mary John's journal.  I'm kinda alarmed by that.
- "Mary's story is just beginning." I think that means she's not going to die this year. I could be wrong.
- Dabb & company understand the importance of Mary to the Supernatural story.  Personally, I think they've taken too many risks with the character.  They've pushed her too far outside the likability range.  I like her but I'm harboring some hard feelings for the character's choices.
- This was filmed before she went to the BMoL but I think that plan was always the plan. I think Dabb had her entire season arc planned.  

[catrox14]

Here's what doesn't make sense to me.

They say she spent her life trying to get out of hunting...but she kept hunting and seemed pretty reluctant to actually get out of the life after Dean was born.  That doesn't jive

Too bad they didn't show us her figuring out the boys life.  Pfft.

Edited May 11, 2017 by catrox14

[Bessie]

@SueB, thanks for posting that clip. It was really good. I got the impression that she'll be sticking around after this season as well. I hope she does. 

I have a lot of empathy for Mary. And I'm interested to see where the writers go with her. They could've made her the ultimate sympathetic character yet they chose not to go that route. I don't know if that was a conscious decision or more plot-driven.

Some of her actions have bothered me, but I'm glad the writers seem to show interest in her as a character in her own right and not just as an extension of the boys. 

[RulerofallIsurvey]

30 minutes ago, SueB said:

Found this on iTunes tonight. It's been there since 28 Oct. It's part of the Season Pass and I never watched it before.

Wow!  That was terrific!  Thanks for sharing!  Some very interesting insights and perspectives on Mary's motivations.  I'm going to try to keep them in mind through these last eps of the season.  Hm....