Why You Should Give "Supernatural" a Chance

Well, for starters, it has made me respect Jared Padalecki as an actor.

I know.

In all seriousness, though, I strongly urge you all (read: am poking you with my brain) to sit down a watch a few episodes. Give the show a chance, you'll see it's worth it.

But April, you ask, I don't like whiny teenagers or characters that live in idyllic small towns in CutesyName, U.S.A. - why the hell would I watch something on the CW Network? Good question.

A recent convert to the show myself, I have since found describing the show to be a bit tricky. "Well, it's like The X-Files meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with less teen angst."
"You see, it's like Bonnie and Clyde vs. demons and stuff."
"Actually, it's more like a competent version of Hank and Dean from The Venture Bros. on a road trip fighting evil supernatural stuff instead of costumed villains and...and...well, it's effing good."

Rather than trying to reduce it down to some gimmicky little tagline I'll say this: It's about two 20-something brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester, road-tripping across the country and fighting the forces of evil and not-so-evil-but-bad-nonetheless. A demon killed their mother in a particularly horrific manner by a demon when Dean was 4 and Sam was an infant, so their father raised them on the road as a family of "hunters", tracking down supernatural beings that are attacking innocents and putting them to rest/destroying them.

The series actually starts off with Sam having been away at college for 3 years seeking normalcy. He is thrust back into the hunter's life when his girlfriend, Jess, is killed off in the same manner as his mother. Much of the show revolves around the boys' relationship and them coming to terms with their bizarre upbringing. That's not to say that there isn't plenty of crazy supernatural stuff going down in the meantime as the boys travel from town to town doing their best to save people while living in crappy hotels and scraping to get by. Dean and Sam are more heroes than other characters of their ilk because they aren't paid for their work and they have made the conscious decision to do what they do. They seek out the cases and piece things together on their own, resorting to things like credit card fraud and pool hustling to make ends meet.

If you've read all this and are still thinking "but it's the CW Network" then bear with me, please.

Everything I listed above is what initially piqued my interest in the show. However, what makes me stick with Supernatural is the quality.

- The two main actors, Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam), have not only improved over time but when they're called up to the plate they have both proven that they can hit it out of the park. Not only do they come off as convincing brothers but, when thrust into a dangerous situation, you actually believe that they are capable. Both actors understand the subtle nuances that are required to get the characters right and have exhibited the ability to remain in character even when their character is posing as someone else (as the Winchesters so fairly regularly). They manage to convey gobs of character history in the smallest scenes with the least amount of dialogue. You don't need the characters to come right out and tell you how ingrained the boys' training and experience is because you can see signs of it in everything they do. You can see how they're more or less comfortable with the more grotesque parts of their job (like digging up a corpse). Rather than the characters explaining it, both actors are able to convey in a few words or movements whole ideas to one another, to the point where the audience believes that they can have whole conversations without hardly saying a word.

- None of the characters are allowed to rest on a cliche. Dean is set up in the beginning as the more "macho" brother and Sam as the "sensitive" one. However, Dean and Sam often come off more as a Mulder and Scully style duo. Dean acts macho but his emotions are always bubbling on the surface and rather than being completely hard he has a light-hearted sense of humor. Dean is more likely to wear a weapon 24/7 but he's also the first to befriend "wackos" and outcasts. Sam seems like the more sensitive type because he'll insist on discussing his feelings but in reality he is more hardened emotionally than his brother and sees most outsiders, including the "wacko" types, as roadblocks in his way. When they have run-ins with the police, Sam will act more annoyed than anything.

- Though the show is mainly from the perspective of the two boys, the writers are not afraid to show us an outsider's perspective of what they do. We actually get to see that the police mostly see them as scary, dangerous "para-military survivalist" types. The show isn't afraid to take a step back and say "hey, you see these boys as heroes, as two guys trying to do the right thing but to others they look like traveling psycho-killers."

- The characterization on the show is blessedly, blessedly consistent. And yet, the characters are allowed to evolve and change over the course of the series as the result of various events. They don't just drop things after the next season picks up. They run with it and see how the characters are effected by various happenings and how that effects their relationships and how they do what they do.

- Parallels. SPN is excellent about paralleling events in one episode with a prior episode to show you how things have changed or stayed the same or even how the characters have learned from past events. Parallel scenes are also used to highlight certain aspects of the overall plot or certain truths about characters without having to come right out and explain everything.

- This show never talks down to its audience. It expects you to remember past events. It expects you to understand what is going on without having to do tons and tons of explanation. Yet, at the same time, it is willing to explain the little things that often get overlooked in most genre shows. It doesn't rest on cheap plot devices, there's always a reason for whatever is going on. None of the characters make a move without it making sense to the audience why they did that.

- The boys actually go to where the action is. This isn't a show where the monsters and bad things just always happen to conveniently be in the vicinity of the heroes, where there always seems to be a murder right where the main characters are. The Winchesters actually seek out these cases and go to the them instead.

- Unlike many shows that involve humans vs. demonic entities and various seedier Christian mythology, this show has proven that it isn't afraid of taking the topic of religion head-on. They are not afraid to declare a character's faith or lack of faith and have them discuss it rather than just allow the audience to project their own beliefs onto them.

- The balance of humor, creepiness, and drama is just right. None of the monsters seem hokey or over-designed. One of the best things about the demons and critters on the show is that they are very subtle, often just humans that look slightly wrong somehow. They don't need tons of make-up and doo-dads to make a creepy scene happen. At the same time, none of the drama feels heavy-handed. As someone who doesn't care for teen drama (or most OMG!drama TV) or whiny-ness, I have to say that the drama in this show is quite compelling because it feels real. The characters feel more like real people and less like the whiny plastic people you generally tend to get on CW-type shows. You actually care for them because their angst and their man-pain is compelling rather than irritating. Best of all, through all of the horrors that these boys are dragged through on a regular basis, the show retains a sense of humor - both a sense of humor about itself and the normal silly rapport you would expect from two brothers who spend as much time in the car together as the Winchesters.

The show is solid, a real great ride. The characters and storylines are compelling, the new take on mixed mythology is interesting and often very original, and the pace hardly ever slows down. And the acting is better than The Dresden Files. Give it a try and you'll see it's worth it.