Eric Kripke's initial conceit for Supernatural was the premise that all our human myths and urban legends had a core of truth: that magic and the supernatural were all around us, just a few degrees off normal. He gave us rough-edged, blue-collar heroes who fought to save people they didn't know, all because they knew things normal people would never have believed. And there was always the sense that the Winchesters and their world could be just around the corner, if you only cut that turn a little short.
I miss that.
Mind you, this change was in the mix for a long time. The eventual loss became inevitable the moment Supernatural transitioned from being a simple horror anthology (anchored by two brothers traveling U.S. highways and byways) into a tale of two brothers, manipulated by supernatural forces beyond their control, rejecting the roles ordained for them and aborting the apocalypse instead. That change was exactly what the show needed – Kripke himself acknowledged at the first Paley Festival in 2006 that the show really took off in season one when it became about the brothers, their relationship, and their defiance of destiny instead of being about the monsters – but it had this one little downside of gradually divorcing the Winchesters from all of us as the stakes they played for became steadily bigger and more global. It took five full seasons to achieve completion, but it happened as it was one day fated to occur.
The inescapable void finally opened and swallowed us all as Dean, Bobby and Castiel watched major ecological disasters unfold on store televisions in Swan Song. Those earthquakes and super-storms never happened in our world, so it was undeniable that the Winchesters' world wasn't ours any more. The show made the split explicit in The French Mistake when it established the existence of multiple parallel dimensions, including ones like ours where magic didn't work, the apocalypse never began, and the Winchesters weren't real – and where Supernatural was, at most, just a television show.
Ever since then, the gulf has widened. The show now takes place in a Charmed-style dimension where witchcraft has all the power and holds all the answers; where literally anything can be accomplished simply by the right recipe of ingredients, words, symbols, and gestures. It's become a gaming or comic book world, something perhaps made inevitable by the experiences of its stable of writers, many of whom now have gaming and comic book credits. Even the Word of God, as represented in the various tablets on Demons, Leviathan, Angels, and who knows what else, consists simply of spells to harness elements of the physical world to produce effects on its supernatural components. Angels, demons, hunters, witches, and gods – even the ultimate God – all just use spells as tools to achieve their ends. It's become just a game.
The inescapable void finally opened and swallowed us all as Dean, Bobby and Castiel watched major ecological disasters unfold on store televisions in Swan Song. Those earthquakes and super-storms never happened in our world, so it was undeniable that the Winchesters' world wasn't ours any more. The show made the split explicit in The French Mistake when it established the existence of multiple parallel dimensions, including ones like ours where magic didn't work, the apocalypse never began, and the Winchesters weren't real – and where Supernatural was, at most, just a television show.
Ever since then, the gulf has widened. The show now takes place in a Charmed-style dimension where witchcraft has all the power and holds all the answers; where literally anything can be accomplished simply by the right recipe of ingredients, words, symbols, and gestures. It's become a gaming or comic book world, something perhaps made inevitable by the experiences of its stable of writers, many of whom now have gaming and comic book credits. Even the Word of God, as represented in the various tablets on Demons, Leviathan, Angels, and who knows what else, consists simply of spells to harness elements of the physical world to produce effects on its supernatural components. Angels, demons, hunters, witches, and gods – even the ultimate God – all just use spells as tools to achieve their ends. It's become just a game.
With that development, Supernatural lost any and all connection to our reality.
I mourn that.
Make no mistake; I still love Supernatural. And as long as Jensen and Jared commit to it, so will I.
But it's not what it used to be. And that's just truth.
I mourn that.
Make no mistake; I still love Supernatural. And as long as Jensen and Jared commit to it, so will I.
But it's not what it used to be. And that's just truth.
Do you agree? Is there another way to look at this? Curious for your input!
Comments
It's not that the show hasn't been fun or entertaining. Or that I am bored with the show and want it to end (blaspheme!). But when Carver talks about returning to the original format i.e. the brothers united against a common foe (the Darkness) this wasn't the format I was hoping for. I'm glad that the personal journeys seem to be over with everyone scattered and not really connecting. And I hope it's true that everyone will be on board with defeating the big bad. But I was really hoping for the true original format....."sav ing people, hunting things. The family business".
I miss the days of S1 and 2 when the people that Sam and Dean saved were just regular people being touched by a reality that was previously just out of focus. Without too much of a stretch of the imagination I could believe there were hunters out there that would come and save me if my resident ghost got to vengeful. But sadly they don't exist in my world anymore.
I will watch the show and love some episodes and be puzzled by others but my secret safe place will always be S1 and 2.
I am a early season lover and although change can be a good thing in SPN,s case sometimes it has been far from that.
They should have reintroduced the show in S6 with new ideas and a new base line - keeping the broad outline of Kripke's idea. It would have then given them the chance to change the show without the comparison to the Kripke story. Fans may have liked it or may not have. They can't carry the original story the way it was over another 5 seasons. Change was necessary but done with little thought
I still love the catch cry - Saving people hunting things the Family business, And I too will keep watching as long as Jarod & Jensen stay Happy and content with the show
Just a few random thoughts. I think Swan Song might have been a good series finale except for the idea that Sam was going to be in hell for eternity. I didn't initially think it through. It just seemed like a heroic and redemptive ending for Sam. But it would have left a bad taste always thinking back to where Sam ended up. If it could have been written that Sam as a reward or something for putting Lucifer away again , then got to ascend to heaven it might have been more of a palatable idea as an ending. Heroic or not having the series end with the death of one or both brothers will be very hard after so many years of laughing and crying with them. I want to hope the "peace" when they are done would be some earthly happiness.
The Krike years, although not perfect, were a hard act to follow. You had to basically take a story that had reached a conclusion and say...ok, now where do we go from here? I believe the ending with Sam standing there under the light pole was hastily tacked on when it became apparent that it would be renewed. Correct me if I'm wrong. I am glad it wasn't my job to figure it out. Sera did pretty well with what she had.
Quote:
but I guess I disagree that this
Quote:Yes, the show was magical those first few years of saving people and hunting things, and the early seasons are my favorites. But a show that was simply about the brothers working case after case would not have drawn me in the way SPN did. Even though the mythology of the brothers' destiny was largely in the background those first few seasons, it was the thing that drove the brothers' relationship and that had formed their characters. It was what transformed them from fun, interesting characters into these two tragic people in whom I became completely invested.
To me, the problem isn't that the mythology has become too big- you don't get much bigger than the apocalypse and that whole story played out beautifully to me. The problem is that the show has fallen short at crafting the stand-alone episodes that were such an important part of previous seasons. (I also have disliked much of the execution of the myth-arc the past two seasons, but that's a whole separate issue!) TPTB have struggled at recapturing the excitement and fun of those earlier MOTW episodes. Partly I wonder if the well has simply run dry. They have covered so many of the more widely known urban legends and mythical creatures, and I think by this point it's hard to provide a fresh take on vampires, ghosts, werewolves, etc. Many of the recent episodes featuring those creatures have seemed really stale and dull. Or maybe there are still great, original ways of exploring those stories but the current writers aren't up to the task. The ghost in the wires in HACF maybe could have been interesting, but not as executed in that episode. And when they've tried to explore fresh territory it has generally been underwhelming to me- like Oz (ugh!!!). I actually enjoyed the introduction of the pishtaco in the Purge, but that episode was dragged down by the brotherly rift. The mythology has often taken the fun out of the MOTW episodes lately, instead of just playing in the background. But then I think about episodes like "Everybody Hates Hitler"- 8 seasons in and the writers came up with a fresh, fun, fascinating new MOTW in a great episode. So maybe there are still plenty of great new stories to explore, they just have to find them.
Bottom line, IMO the major shortcoming of the show the last couple of seasons is that it has lost its footing when striking a balance between the stand-alones and the myth episodes, and the stand-alones often just aren't that good. Maybe it's the fact that 11 seasons in it's impossible for the show (or any show) to remain as fresh as in the earlier years. I don't see how the show could ever recapture the sheer brilliance of the first few seasons, when we were slowly learning about the brothers and their crazy world and lives. But I like to think it's possible to craft a season-long mythology that co-exists with, and doesn't completely overwhelm, a good mix of MOTW episodes which focus on the whole "saving people, hunting things" element that was so central in the earlier seasons. And I would settle for that!
up in Lazarus Rising, the brothers were no longer "in control" of their own lives.
I absolutely love everything from "The Pilot" to the end of "Lazarus Rising". It's the brothers moving the pieces on the board, "saving people,
hunting things, the family business". From that point on they have been pawns on a chessboard. I still love them dearly and will be here
until the very end, but it is not the same anymore and hasn't been for 7 years.
I wish the writers thought the same as you and I still hope that the next season will be more like the first 3 were, back to the "saving people,
hunting things, family business" again. But I've been hoping for that for some years now.
I want them to take control of their lives again.
Mary, I miss your commenting on every episode so very much.:( Your metas and reviews were so fascinating. Please don't stop altogether!
Bevie
Castiel used to be the "magic" fix but now the magic fix is... magic. And, for that matter, God is being presented more and more as quite the magician these past few seasons, with magic spellbooks, tablets that can give angels God-like powers, and God and the archangels locking away the darkness with a magic lock and key which oh, by the way, a crazy nun from the middle ages figured out how to unlock with ingredients that came in to existence AFTER The Darkness was locked away.
And the shame of it is it didn't have to be that way; they opened up a world of possibilities with the Men of Letters, the tablets, etc., and have not really followed thru as well as they could have. I still think the acting and production values are top notch, and the writers are still capable of putting together really good episodes. The big disappointment has been in the overall story construction by the show runners. Kripke did a good job of creating this Supernatural universe and followed certain rules; it wasn't perfect but stands in stark contrast to the current regime. I won't go in to all the discrepancies because they've been discussed ad nauseum but, suffice to say that Kripke at least put some thought/effort behind it, where the current show runners have no problem changing canon to suit the current story or arc.
njspnfan --- Kripke at least put some thought/effort behind it, where the current show runners have no problem changing canon to suit the current story or arc.
Yes at the moment there is no real depth to the story - what magic spell works this week for something may not work next week because the creature has a sore toe :(:(
Like I say: Once upon a time the additions to canon in the show made sense and deepened the story & characters. Now they just make the plots and characters dumber.
In the early seasons, there was always this sense of terror and mystery. We had glimpses of Hell, but we really didn't get a full view of it. Likewise, Heaven was depicted as the dead's favorite memories, but we (as humans) couldn't fully perceive it for what it really was. For example, none of us could see Zacharia's 6 heads, we only saw him as a tall, older guy.
What I miss is the terror and the mystery. I miss how powerful angels seemed during season 4, and I miss how terrifying the YED was during seasons 1 & 2. I missed a King of Hell who wasn't Liberace in a black trench coat, and I miss a guardian angle who was more badass than Balki Bartokomous.