Orson Welles used radio in a way it had never been used before, in one case so memorably it made the front pages. They would adapt well-known works of literature and put them on the radio. Now about “The Shadow.” Orson Welles, of course, in his early days in New York (where he began the most meteoric rise to fame in entertainment history), did radio shows with his Mercury Theatre group (which included folks like Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead). So many of those early and influential comic book stories took place in cities. It has a comic-book vibe: the dark gleam of Gotham, the steam bursting up from subway grates, the lonely figure stalked by a shadow taller than a building. A clear influence on Manners and team in creating the look of the episode.

There are even some images in “Shadow”, of the shadow floating up the wall, growing in size, looming, that are reminiscent of some of the images from that original source material. Naturally, “Shadow” makes me think of this iconic figure. Shadows that have a life of their own.Ī word on shadows themselves, and their symbolic power. “Shadow”, which takes place in Chicago, is all about shadows. Of course, cities provide more shadows because there are more light sources. So many people piled on top of each other.

But when they do enter a city, like they did in “Skin,” the first time, it just highlights their … oddness. But their regular milieu is the wide open spaces of the midWest and Western states, the back roads, the gravelly crossroads, the ramshackle farmhouses and biker bars spread across the plains. They touch down, take off, touch down again, moving on, moving on. The Winchester brothers are cut off from a regular community, roaring past in the Impala, unconnected. Shadow is one of the rare urban-setting episodes, which always seems to bring out interesting romantic things in the team in charge of Supernatural. “Sam, this is bigger than you think.” – John Winchester said.

Supernatural season 10 episode 16