Meta: The Aliens in Cardiff Trope in Supernatural

[partly]

tvrealm had a challenge where we were to explore TV Tropes either by show or by trope. They foolishly allowed meta, so I am doing that! Since Supernatural is tending to occupy my wheelhouse lately, I'm meta-ing about tropes found on the show.

Aliens in Cardiff

Looking for a place to set the disaster of the week/alien invasion/supervillain's base/origin of the bad guys etc? . . . Have the center of the plot be in an actual place, but some relatively harmless semi-known non-exotic location which makes you ask "Why THERE, of all places?" Or in the case of Supernatural, have it take place in some completely unknown non-exotic location... for example, Gleason, WI.

I've always joked with my friends that if the end of the world should come, they should just come up and live with me because nothing ever happens up here. I live in northern Wisconsin and we don't even qualify as "flyover country" because we are too far north to even consider flying over. The disasters and nasty occurrences that happen in TV and movies all take place in the well-known and heavily populated areas far from this neck of the woods.

Except, of course, for in Supernatural. As if just to prove me wrong, the newest, big-bad of the series is setting up shop at coordinates latitude (45.4) and longitude (-89.5), which isn't more than 15 miles from where I live (see reference to Gleason, above). But that's standard for the show. Supernatural excels at recognizing that most of the US isn't large cities; area-wise the US is mostly small towns and rural settings. Sure the show has been to LA and Chicago and the like, but most of the episodes takes place in towns that you will only get to see if you stay off the four-lanes and drive the roads marked 55 MPH.

Part of that is function, I suppose. Filming in Canada it's easier to mimic small town America than the big cities. But most of it is design. The show was intended to be a modern day Route 66, combined with an exploration of the myths, stories and legends that are unique to the US. You can't do that of you’re stuck in a city or even multiple cities. More than that, there is a different feel to the world when you move out of the city. Despite the trope that the woods are always full of psychopathic serial killers or other monsters, small town America is usually viewed as being safe, uninteresting and mostly harmless, in other words it’s Everytown America. Putting the evil of the supernatural in this Rockwellian setting makes the supernatural all the much more “otherly”.

The thing I like best about how Supernatural handles this trope, though, is that they handle it straight. They don’t do it just for the irony or juxtaposition or laughs – although that is in most of the episodes in one way or another. No, they do it right with a healthy dose of respect for the setting they are in and, more importantly, characters that exist in those settings. Case in point: they subvert the Working Class People Are Morons trope so the people they meet and the towns they go to feel real. That’s the key to one of the main reasons I love this show: The places they go to and the people they meet are (for the most part) like places and people I know. Two lane highways with waysides that overlook scenic landscape? Stopped there. Small towns with just one greasy-spoon diner that serves awesome pie? I’ve eaten there. Local motels that survive by offering kitschy rooms at cut-rate prices? Stayed in some. (I harbor a secret desire for all the hotels the boys stay at to be real and for me to be able to stay at them, too.) Small towns where everyone knows everyone else’s business? I live there.

As with all fictional writing, things are tweaked for dramatic/comedic/plot purposes, but the show gets more things right then it gets wrong when it comes to presenting their world. Of all the shows out there right now, Supernatural is the one that I most trust to do a good job when claiming be hanging around my little unknown part of the world.

Comments

[futbol16-4.livejournal.com]

The biggest city that can actually be classified as "Western Kansas"!
...Still more central Kansas, though. It's ok, the general consensus in Olathe and Kansas City seems to be that western Kansas starts at Lawrence.

And the show didn't play up the rural aspect in Wichita, so I wasn't bothered. :)

[cookiemom6067.livejournal.com]

the general consensus in Olathe and Kansas City seems to be that western Kansas starts at Lawrence.

ahahahahahaha!!!!

So true!