The Supernatural Revisited Project
In 2006, I discovered a new TV show called Supernatural. I loved it instantly. I made a lot of friends through SPN fandom, I wrote a lot of fanfic, created fan art, went to conventions, joined challenges and contests and even ran a few. It was my last big fan obsession.
But by series 6 I was beginning to fall out of love with the show and by the end of series 7 I was done. The point of this project is to revisit the show and see if my perspective has changed, so I won’t go into details now. But I’ll give three broad reasons.
- First was the angels. One of the reasons I loved Supernatural so much in the beginning was my sense that “religion” served the people, instead of the other way around. Once angels showed up, that changed, and I missed it.
- Second was the breaking of the fourth wall. It’s not the breaking itself that bothered me, but what many fans at the time saw as fan-service, I read as mockery of the fandom, and mean-spirited mockery at that.
- And thirdly, the Leviathan storyline in series 7 just made me angry. It treated obesity, a very real problem and, for some, a disability, with utter contempt. It was so tone deaf And I felt like it crossed a line.
In the years since I stopped watching, I stayed on the fringes of the fandom for a while, as many of my online friends remained fans. I’ve heard the highs and lows, and I promised myself that when the show ended I would go back to it and watch again.
That’s what this blog is about. I’m watching Supernatural again, starting from the beginning, and I’ll blog each episode. Some blogs might only be a few sentences, others I suspect might get really long.
I’m going to give my thoughts on each episode, the ongoing storylines and my fandom memories. I will include the comics, maybe as a break between seasons. I don’t know about other tie-ins. It will depend on how I feel at this goes on.
Fan fiction
Supernatural is a fanfic heavy fandom, and much of it is adult. So will I talk about slash in these reviews? I will, but I’m not going to make a point of it. Early Supernatural felt like a show designed to be slash-proof. The leads were brothers, and the road-trip nature of the show meant there were no other recurring characters. But of course, fandom is fandom and there was no chance that a show with such handsome and charismatic actors would fail to inspire slash fiction. That they are brothers did give some in my circle pause, but the Winchesters are also fundamentally transgressive characters. They live outside “normal” society, fund their lifestyle by hustling pool and committing credit card fraud. Sexual transgression doesn’t seem a huge leap (especially if you think like a slash fiction fan) and their family dynamic is dysfunctional. We fans write what we see when we read between the frames.
But this isn’t a “Wincest” project. I’m going to point out subtext in places and since the show itself broke that fourth wall I’ll discuss it in some detail when I watch those episodes, but it’s not my focus here.
And lastly…
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS and I’m not going to warn for them because the show is over.
Join me. Comment. Share. Enjoy.
Love
Morgan Briarwood
May 2021
