Get geeky with Dean Winchester: genres he binge-watches

Supernatural’s Game Night provided a snapshot into what a night in with the Winchesters would look like. While it served up delicious banter between Dean and his childhood love, Mouse Trap, with pop culture references sprinkled throughout the seasons, we can’t help thinking about what we would binge-watch. Here are some likely suspects.

Whether it be flicking back his duster coat in the wild west, storming the battlefield after quoting Braveheart per verbatim or breaking the fourth wall in a callback to Scooby-Doo — if there’s anyone who can give us a fannish run for our money on Supernatural, it’s Dean Winchester. His brain alone is an encyclopedia of movie quotes dating back to 1960’s sci-fi. Born just a decade later, we can seemingly attribute his taste to the overabundance of motels the duo would be left at as John took off.

Years, motels, and a bunker later, the one thing besides Sammy and his baby that had remained consistent is television. Although Dean’s nerdy knowledge may seem endless, he’s known to have a few comfort genres.

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Horror

Being chained to hell’s pit for 40 years isn’t enough to turn Dean off this genre. In fact, he fully embraces it. Celebrates it even during the lighter moments (or c’mon, certainly close to) in “Mint Condition” where the once campy comic book store turns bleak. The deceased owner is inhabiting action figures, nothing new. But it’s one of those episodes where we catch a glimpse of the real Dean stripped beneath not just his plaid layers. Standing next to his wonder twin, Derk, Dean energetically discusses the adventures of Hatchet Man.

We rarely see Dean like this knowing that it takes him longer to warm up to people. With Sam, it’s right off the bat. Doesn’t matter if it’s a vic or one of the alternate universe hunters boarding their bunker, he takes to them almost immediately.

While Dean has the same need to bond with people, it almost always isn’t as instantaneous. But here it is. Maybe it has something to do with how connected he is to the subject matter. “You really know your ASD”, Derk quips. “Ah, well. Growing up it was always nice to check out once in a while.”

Perhaps something else. There’s a pause and then he picks up again somberly, “I like to watch movies… where I know the bad guys can lose.”

The insight into Dean is familiar because he’s one of us. Dean uses television in the same manner that we do. It isn’t just water cooler talk but a form of escapism and horror isn’t any different. No matter how many deaths they’ve racked up between them, there is never a certainty in being brought back from the dead. In watching gore, there is. He can map the shots before it happens on the screen.

Bringing it back to “Mint Condition,” there is a prime example of this during the opening minutes. He’s sprawled out on the bed, in socks (they’re cute, with ‘SEND NOODS’ scrawled across them), a piece of pepperoni pizza stuffed into his mouth, and practically engorged in the slicing and dicing happening on the square box before Sam interrupts. Sam humors him for a fraction of a second by pulling up a chair only to scold him for staying holed up in his room.

Then comes the protest that the house is full of strangers. It may be a minor form of escapism but after the last few weeks, he had it made perfect sense for him to be indulged in television rather than making new friends.

Some other favorites include Cujo which Dean has referred to, a total of three times throughout the series, and metas House of Wax, Jaws, and Poltergeist.

Drama

It might seem off-kilter for a rough around the edges hunter to take a liking to something as theatrical as soap operas, but “Changing Channels” presented to us the first glimpse into one of Dean’s obsessions.

His hair is kept around the same length as Sam’s, past his ears yet cut just underneath the baseline of his neck, where the stethoscope hung loosely over his white coat, points towards what should be mundane closed shoes swapped for cowboy boots. His name, Dr. Sexy M.D and if you ask Dean, it’s definitely based on a book.

As the episode progresses, fanboy Dean comes out in full force. Alongside Sam, they not only enter into the fictional world sprouted to life by Trickster’s — we knew he was fishy even back then — childlike illusions, but in a close encounter which involves slaps across Sam’s face much to Dean’s dismay. “Seriously? Seriously? You’re brilliant, you know that. And a coward. You’re a brilliant coward.”

At this point, Dean couldn’t care less what Sam is thinking since he’s stuck in pure wonder. We would be too if Dean and Sam were right in front of us but we digress. She slaps him for a second time. “As if you don’t know.” Dean’s giddy now, “That was Dr. Piccolo.”

Doesn’t require much thinking to realize Dr. Sexy MD is a parody of Grey’s Anatomy. For extra help, the hospital is a shortened version of the series, Seattle Mercy Hospital and there’s also a parallel to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Denny, a patient inhabiting Izzie Stevens’ mind. As we all know, Grey’s is best known for otps sinking ship due to one-half of the couple’s death, or in the lucky case, eventually two.

This isn’t a once off on dramatic avenue either as in “The Girl Next Door”, while Dean’s hiding out in Rufus’ cabin, he’s watching telenovelas. It’s also important to note, that Dean loves Jack Nicholson who’s known to have made a splash in this genre in The Departed and flings remote control onto the impending bad guy perfectly knocking him out, Batman.

Some other favorites include Veronica Mars, nose-wigging Bewitched, trading impalas for motorcycles in Sons of Anarchy, and Game of Thrones.

Westerns

There’s nothing quite as entertaining as watching Dean enter the wild west and for good measure, he does so twice: once with Sam and then with Cass. Obviously, there’s a difference between the two. One is time travel and, well, the other is a sleepy western town.

We’re not quite sure, however, which one makes him more excited. See, in both, he’s dressed in full attire and it’s not just because he has to but he forcefully wants to. He’s a tirade of references and quotes. Stepping into “Frontierland” as if it’s where he belongs yet within minutes of being there, Sam steps into horse poo.

However, upon sashaying into the saloon he’s welcomed to an unwanted reality. It’s stranded aside from two females, a sleeping drunk and a barman which has very minimal alcohol behind him. Eh, it’s still alcohol, right?

To further the fairytale crack, a woman approaches him with confidence equally matched to his own. Only instead of paying attention to the meticulous sweep of curls falling near to the choker reminiscent of the era, there’s another reminder he’s stuck in that time period: germs! More precisely, on the corner of her mouth. It’s there and you can spot it within seconds, making for a hilarious reaction when he reels back.

We like to think that little Dean dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween. Quite possibly the first time he put on John’s leather jacket, shrinking himself into it as the material pooled to his feet.

Sure, they hardly celebrate it as it is, but according to Sam, Dean can recite every Clint Eastwood movie ever made. Although not falling into that selection of classics, Untouchables too, is still one for the record books with him, must’ve seen it around fifty times. And while Cass wouldn’t have previously been the best person to watch movies with due to a lack of understanding references, Dean’s also made him watch Kurt Russel’s Tombstone.

Some other favorites include The Apple Dumpling Gang, Dustin Hoffman’s Little Big Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Sci-fi

If one of the Winchester brothers hasn’t had the best run in with the extraterrestrial, it’s certainly Dean. He’s been kidnapped by aliens in an open crop field — yeah, okay, after reading that sentence may be the forewarning was there — and attacked by naked fairies.

This didn’t exactly end up on great terms, both for the fairy who was toasted in the microwave and for Dean. He may have attacked a poor older gentleman in the alleyway to then end up in prison but semantics. All the while, his very Deanish humor was intact. “Fight the fairies!” is both what he tells Sam to do when being handcuffed into the police car and an iconic line of Season 6.

Of course, these two episodes don’t raise much of an eyebrow to us. After all, it’s all in the name. But what Supernatural does best is play into the meta of the series and it goes the same for its genre.

When walking into one of the victims’ rooms in “Live Free or TwiHard”, there are posters Blu-Tacked to the walls, pillows decorating the beds, and cutouts of characters parodying Twilight. “In The Beginning” quite literally mirrors a scene in Back to the Future. Behind horror, it’s the second most referenced genre with Dean often finding anecdotes relating to the often unfortunate situations they’ve found themselves in.

Some other favorites include Blade Runner, the force is with Dean in Star Wars, Robocop, and William Shatner’s Star Trek.

Animation

By now, one would suggest that Sam has gotten used to Dean’s boyish charm when it comes to everything pop culture, but this isn’t the case when they turn into cartoon form. The store owner in “ScoobyNatural” rewards the boys with anything they’d like from his shop. In this case, a giant TV that glows a freakish purple as it zaps unsuspecting victims inside. The Mystery Machine is the episodes first clue into the antics that are about to happen.

Then when Dean comes close to the infamous Scooby crew, he walks up to their table and takes a seat next to Daphne. His excitement and continuous wave of flirtation shouldn’t come as a shock as season two Dean puts it, “Mhm, Daphne. Love her.”

If anything, it makes us as viewers aware that Dean not only takes part in conversations dissecting movies, he also fantasies about its characters. This isn’t just in relation to animation, rather mainstream media as a whole. While we’re unaware if Barbara Eden is higher up on his list than Daphne it’s been known that he has the hots for both.

As he puts his arm around Daphne, pulling her closer to his body, he suggests that they share a room together. She then chastises him. Not that it makes any difference. If girls were to share a room with boys then it’s more likely she’d bunk in with Fred. Something Dean comes attuned to (or rather begrudgingly accepts) in the remaining minutes of the episode when he sports a cravat.

Some other favorites include that cartoon smut, anime thing Hentai, Disney’s Bambi, and Cinderella.

What shows do you think Dean Winchester binge-watches? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW. Don’t miss it!