I do so love this show. It gets so many things right.
The first thing it does well is Monster of the week. It’s
hard with a show of this format not to have monster of the week – week after
week of seeing a different gribbly creature that the brothers then kill, ta-da.
The problem with this is after 4 or 5 episodes of them in a row, the programme
feels pointless and the series feels like it’s mired and going nowhere – see Grimm
Season 1 and Haven, for example. But Supernatural always has something else
going on – the “previously on Supernatural” are always needed and always relevant.
The plot advances, the characters develop, something meaningful happens every
episode. It could be the characters recovering from an emotional trauma or
coming to terms with what’s happened. It could be them deciding what to do next
in terms of the meta plot. They learn new things, or grow as characters or work
through their latest trauma or build the greater world or otherwise extend or
develop the plot just about every episode – and you don’t get 2 episodes
together where something hasn’t moved forward or developed – even if it’s just
mentioned and talked out. The meta runs alongside the plot, it isn’t lost in
it.
And the plot is fun, exciting and epic – and it’s
maintained epic. The season builds to a slow crescendo from the horror, grief
and generally being lost after John’s death through to the slow revelations of
what it means to be one of the Special Children for Sam. Being one of those
Yellow Eyes – Azazel – has chosen to give his special powers to, these special
abilities to. Cumulating in not only gathering all of these special people
together in a duel to the death to find the best – but reaching an ultra epic
peak with the opening of the gateway to hell and the final vanquish of Azazel.
It develops at an excellent pace, it builds its foreboding, gives us a full
season priming us for just how epic it is then we have an amazing, powerful,
grand finale of excitement, death and the world hanging in the balance.
The plots themselves, week in week out, are also pretty
good. They’re original for the most part
- in fact, I think every episode of these season was something I hadn’t
really seen elsewhere. It doesn’t follow the same formulaic patter of Urban
Fantasy and it is interesting to see the switch from vampires and werewolves to
demons and ghosts. I also like that the same monsters will re-appear – like the
shapeshifter – because just because they’ve killed one doesn’t mean they’ve
killed every last one, after all. Among these very original episodes were some
really powerful ones – like Molly, the ghost who didn’t realise she was,
seeking her husband and being tormented by the ghost of the man she killed. Or
Sam and the werewolf Madison and finding that no, there isn’t a cure and there
isn’t a happy ending. Then there were the fun, rather cheesy episodes with the
Trickster and the horror movie set, that were nicely timed a break in the
grittiness that characterises the show and adding something almost a little
silly.
The acting is also extremely well done – including with
many side characters (Molly and Madison as I already mentioned) carrying a lot
of the pain and fear which, combined with decent writing and a special effects
budget, really created the atmosphere, excitement and feel of the story. The
acting of the Winchesters also bring the emotions home. There’s a lot of angst
in this genre – a lot – and usually for very little reason or for very
convoluted reasons and the angst is normally very dramatic, with wailing,
crying, tooth gnashing and the whole nine yards. But in a few short scenes over
several episodes we get the full sense of how hard it can be for Sam and Dean –
the pain of losing their father, the fear of Dean dying in his hospital bed,
Dean’s guilt over the deal his father made, dealing with what Sam may be
becoming, what it could mean and whether he’s evil. Heavy, high emotions,
excellently and realistically delivered within their characters without robbing
them of impact.
There were some issues which were also surprisingly well covered - like Dean's insistence that just because a ghost is murdering convicts in a prison doesn't mean it's not important or the victims are negligible or not worth saving and the sacrifice Dean and Sam have to make to live the life they do - but why it's worth it.
So many reasons to love this programme – and yet, as a
social justice blogger and a marginalised person, I cringe to watch it. This
show is stunningly erased with little more than token inclusion – if that. Not
only are the two main characters straight, cis, white men but it’s rare for
anyone but straight, cis white men to have any presence in the plot. It is a
straight, cis, white, male big damn hero power fantasy. Now, it’s a great one,
it is, the story, the theme, the emotion – perfect – but it’s grossly limited.
POC are very very rare (and often victims when they do
appear – we have some bit parts show up before they are eaten/killed/mauled by
the monster of the week – I believe there was a Black man who died to the
Croatoan plague, 2 Black men who made 10 year soul deals with the crossroads
demon). There were 3 Black men who made up the entirety of their recurring POC
characters – and I am being generous here. 1 is Agent Henrickson, the FBI agent
trying to hunt Sam and Dean down, so an enemy. And he’s not so much as a
recurring character in season 2 so much as he will be. The second is Gordon,
the sociopathic and lethal hunter who wants to kill Sam (another enemy) who
ends up arrested. And Jake, fellow psychic child like Sam, who ends up working
for the Yellow-eyed demon Azazel (yet another enemy) and Sam murders.
The lack of POC is especially annoying when we consider
that Supernatural likes to use supernatural beings from many different
cultures. Now, while it’s nice to see something stepping outside the norm of
western mythology (except for Wendigos – Wendigos have become damn compulsory) and
it adds a lot more richness to the world, it’s problematic to borrow creatures
from foreign or native cultures with only a rudimentary – or non-existent –
inclusion of that culture. With virtually no POC, Supernatural has borrowed
Tulpas, Wendigos (of course), Rakshasa, Djinn and a Native American Curse while
having virtually no representatives from these cultures present. We even had a
white woman practicing hoodoo.
In terms of women – we have a lot of murder victims. We
also have a lot of male victims as well, but women are so absent from other
roles in comparison that it’s glaring. Especially as there are a lot of
romance/love interests who are menaced because they are romance/love interests
(Madison in particular made me cringe as did Episode 5 with the mind
controlling Special Child being driven to action to save his girlfriend). And
even more especially when we consider Dean’s general attitude towards women.
The only recurring women are Ellen and Jo based out of the Roadhouse. I like
both characters a lot – but they could do to be around more often, Ellen as a
source and mentor and Jo as a hunter. I especially don’t like that Jo had to be
rescued by the Winchesters on her first hunt – and rescued from a ghost that targeted
“petite, blonde women,” which went a long way to undermine her presence as one
of the few strong women on the show.
After yet another series of gay jokes we have one lesbian.
She appears for 5 seconds in the second the last episode, lesbian is pretty
much all we know about her before she becomes the first of the psychic children
to die. For extra funsies, her power means she kills everyone she touches and,
for bonus points, she touched her girlfriend – so that whole gay-intimacy-is-punished
trope is still alive and well and beginning to smell more than the bones they
dig up.
I want to love this show – in fact, I do love it. Unreservedly,
I love this show, love it love it love it and hope it’s never cancelled – but I
wish I could love it and not cringe and I wish it could be a pleasure, rather
than a guilty pleasure. And Supernatural has an awesome sound track (don’t
judge my music choices)
