10 Reasons to Watch Supernatural

Supernatural [2005-] is an American television series created by Eric Kripke. With eight seasons and over 150 episodes under its belt, it’s going strong with the release of Season 9 in October 2013 in America and Season 8 being released in the UK as of July 3rd 2013. The show was only meant to be five seasons long, and I for one, am glad that it didn’t stop there.

This television drama centers around two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester. Raised by their father, John, to hunt the things that “go bump in the night” after their mother, Mary, was murdered by an evil supernatural being when the boys were young. The show begins 22 years after this with the brothers setting out to find their recently missing father, fighting evil along the way and making both friends and enemies that aid them in their end goal, to find the demon that killed their mother and destroy it.

Here is a list of 10 reasons to watch supernatural and why we love it so much:

10. The Car

A ’67 Chevrolet Impala and what a beauty it is. The Impala came into the family by way of Dean’s recommendation to his father in a time travelling episode when Dean finds himself in 1973. The car is the ultimate hunting tool serving John Winchester well through to his sons Sam and Dean. It has a hidden armory under the panel of the boot which is shared by the boys and filled with evil fighting tools with everything from holy water to a Desert Eagle Mark VII filled with consecrated iron rounds. It’s seemingly indestructible too as this car over eight seasons has been possessed, rolled, ran through by a Truck and driven through almost every state in America. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up twice by Dean Winchester himself, stating this car as his ‘baby’ meaning that Sam only gets to drive under special circumstances, such as Dean’s need for sleep and/or in the event of his death. The most powerful thing about the car is its ability to be so important and so notable a Winchester in its own right, proving that an inanimate object is just as important as the character who owns it.

9. The Never Ending but Inventive Deaths

Now this may seem like a bad thing with the Winchester boys and almost everyone they know constantly dying, but it always seems to provoke a deep-seated emotion,

whether it’s anger, shock or genuine tears. Each death it unique in its own right, and that adds to the element of emotion each time it happens. In a Groundhog Day [1993]-style episode, Dean dies over a 100 times and each time is different. Each time the brother die they are revived either by the Angel Castiel or their own means but logic goes out of the window as you know that Sam and Dean make it to Season 8 and now Season 9, but it is so powerful that every-time you are right in the moment with them and feeling the loss that they feel as well as the excitement of knowing that they are to be revived in some inventive way in the near future.

8. The Comic Relief

This manifests itself in many different way throughout each season and is a welcome break from the horror, gore and drama that is the rest of the show. Sam and Dean as characters are immensely funny in their interactions with each other and other people:

Season 2, Episode 13: Houses of the Holy

Sam: “Dean, there’s ten times more lore about angels as there is about anything else we’ve ever hunted.”

Dean: “Yeah, you know what? There’s a ton of lore about unicorns too. In fact, I hear that they ride on silver moonbeams and they shoot rainbows out of their a**!”

Sam: “Wait, there’s no such thing as unicorns?”

Both the Winchester boys are comical in their one liners and sarcastic quips to one another and to other characters but sometimes the lack of humor is hilarious; the character of the Angel Castiel is one with very little humor, as he is an Angel, he rarely understands pop culture references however sometimes he makes references of his own that make no sense:

Season 5, Episode 17: 99 Problems

Dean: “And that Enochian exorcism?”

Castiel: “Fake. It actually means,’You, um, breed with the mouth of a goat.’ *laughs to himself as no-one else laughs” It’s funnier in Enochian.”

Robert ‘Bobby’ Singer acts as the Winchester boys’ surrogate father and is known for his straight-talking, lack of sugar-coating attitude; most notable perhaps is his catchphrase: “Idijits…” but there are moments when his straight-forward rants can prove to be humorous:

Season 4, Episode 22: Lucifer Rising

(Over the phone discussing Sam)

Dean: “I’m not sure if he’s my brother anymore. If he ever was…”

Bobby: “You stupid, stupid son of a b***h! Well boo-hoo, I am so sorry your feelings are hurt… princess! Are you under the impression that family’s supposed to make you feel good? Make you an apple pie, maybe? They’re supposed to make you miserable! That’s why they’re family.

And sometimes the Winchester boys find themselves in a situation they have no control over. In Season 4, Episode 18: The Monster at the End of the Book, it is revealed that there are books detailing the lives of Sam and Dean and with the book series comes the fans, who have taken it upon themselves to write fan-fiction, this includes ‘slash-fiction’ in which the boys are together as a couple rather than brothers, however this is not actually seen until Season 5, Episode 1: Sympathy for the Devil:

Becky Rosen (the Supernatural books’ number one fan) writing ‘slash-fiction’ and reading it aloud as she types.

Becky: “And then Sam touched… No. …caressed Dean’s clavicle. ‘This is wrong,’ said Dean. ‘Then I don’t want to be right,’ replied Sam, in a husky voice.”

7. The Soundtrack

The music of the show is that AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and the most famous music of the show, Kansas’ Carry on My Wayward Son. It is played at the end of every season in the opening credits of the last episode, whilst showing ‘The Road So Far’ to quickly summarize the events of the entire season,which allows for a quick reminder of how the characters have developed throughout the season. Whilst this type of music wouldn’t seem to fit into a show like this, it’s perfect. Dean and John Winchester’s love of rock and roll not only brings more to their characters but also it annoys Sam, which in Dean’s world is a bonus. The backing music in the actual episodes creates a lot of emotion stimulus, with orchestral spikes that needed for the sudden reveal of a monster to the soft whimsical melodies used for the touching relationship-building scenes between the Winchester boys. Each carefully chosen piece of music constructs a wonderful mixture of emotion, action and music that adds to the experience and escapism of the show.

6. The Gore

Each and every episode is filled with gory action-packed sequences that satisfies any television viewer and love of action/horror, whilst some scenes may be considered gruesome, it is carefully shown to demonstrate the result of the violence rather than the act of violence itself, allowing for the imagination to run and fill in the the gaps between the shots. Whilst the fight sequences are plentiful they are necessary to establish the way the Winchester brothers live whether it’s the struggle within them to win their own personal fight between right and wrong or against the monsters they hunt. The boys have a knack for the fist fight rather than automatically going for a weapon, this could be due to the writers to create most of a spectacle or simply to enhance the characters’ personalities of someone that would prefer to get their hands dirty rather than just shoot from afar.

5. The Writing

The show has seen many writers over the the years and this can come with problems as each writer has their own style but luckily the show runners have kept an overall view of what needs to be accomplished. This style of the show is that each episode has a new monster to fight but a long running theme throughout. The different writers bring new light to the show with hidden character arcs (mostly seen in flashbacks) and subplots galore as well as the predominant Sam and Dean relationship carefully woven into each episode. The realism of the show amid the supernatural theme is brilliantly written; the relationship of Sam and Dean is powerful and moving through the good times and the bad, the influence of absent characters is clear through the way they live, act and/or speak creating fully 3-dimensional characters.

4. The Monsters

When you think of the supernatural you think Vampires, Ghosts, Werewolves etc. Well the monsters on the show do not disappoint, bringing their own lore and unique weaknesses as it pulls you along for the ride. The show contains everything from the common Vampire to the Leviathans who pre-date angels, humans and the soul itself. Angels are Demons are the main monsters throughout the season with Demon tending to be the most dangerous as they have the ability to possess a human host or “meat-suit” and other than throwing holy water at them, can easily go undetected. The journey to discovering what monsters it is and how they’re going to “gank” them is long and yet rewarding as you follow them step by step in figuring it out.

3. The Other Hunters

The supporting hunters provide a link to the rest of the world and aid the Winchester boys when they are needed and vice versa. Ellen and Joe Harvelle are two of the reoccurring hunters that feature throughout the show. Ellen was married to Bill Harvelle who knew John Winchester (the boys’ father) and her daughter Joe later became her new hunting partner. Ellen’s frank attitude parallels that of bobby Singer and she provides a mother-like character to create the full second family feel of the other hunters and their friends. Some of the other hunters the boys are associated with are brutal and stuck in their ways whereas others are helpful, as well as a further generation of hunters created through victims encounters with the Winchester family.

2. Castiel Angel of the Lord, Bobby Singer, and the Supporting Characters

Each of these characters has their own story to tell and their won personality to either counteract or compliment the Winchester boys but Castiel and Bobby are probably the most notable. Bobby takes on the role of surrogate father who aids the brothers in their investigations and personal relationships. His personality is that of a direct nature, he’s referred to as ‘the town drunk’ but I like to think of him as a man who is dealing with a great deal of knowledge in perhaps not the best way. He is skilled as a hunter and proves as a role model of the brothers especially Dean. Castiel proves as comic relief and serves as the brother’s moral guide as well as their link to Heaven. He doesn’t understand much of the world and most of human interactions. Lying isn’t one of his strong points, attesting him to his sometimes self-righteous ways however most of the time he has simply misunderstood the situation. All of the supporting character add something special to the show in their won unique way as well as entertain the audience.

1. Sam and Dean Winchester

The Winchester boys are the leads of the show and with them the audience feels, truly feels. Dean is the elder of the two and is a hunter through and through, he knows nothing other than ‘the life’. His personality is similar to a soldier, sometimes following blindly into a battlefield he knows nothing about but having the up-most trust and faith in those that sent him there. Sam is the academic of the two boys; we first meet him studying at Stanford University to become a lawyer. Sam seems to be the one that fights when it’s absolutely necessary preferring to talk about it first and taking into account the circumstances of each monster and its victim. Together the brothers are almost unstoppable, and send the audience on an emotional roller-coaster, sometimes it’s heartache, sometimes it’s laughter and on the odd occasion it’s cringe-worthy but they make you feel. It’s not hard to become emotionally attached to each and any character but the boys are relate-able. When you take out all the demons and monsters you are reminded of your own family and friends and how you interact, and it’s easy to draw parallels to your own life. The Winchester boys are powerful leads with a strong back story and subplots of their own, it also helps that they are easy on the eyes.

Supernatural is a show that has many elements to a simple premise. It’s not only action-packed and realistic; it’s a mystical underworld of paranormal beings that threaten the human way of life with modern day anti-heroes that becomes somewhat of a guilty pleasure to indulge in. It allows the audience to escape their lives and problems without getting completely lost in the world of the unknown.

What do you think? Leave a comment.