Obviously it's a horror show, but it's that late-80's action/adventure horror with the wisecracking good guys who can give the foes a real run for their money, so "horror" falls short. It's a drama with comedic overtones far outweighing the obvious one-liners. It's a debauched road trip. It's sci-fi. It's fantasy. We could go on.
I've been wracking my brain to figure out exactly why Supernatural rocks as damned hard as it does - and it does, oh, it does - but it's like trying to fit it into a single category - there is no one thing that "makes" Supernatural what it is.
The writing is the best on television and should be up for Emmy after Emmy. Of all the shows actually nominated for such, only Supernatural has remained (and still remains) even; Grey's Anatomy, ER, etc., they're all uneven - sometimes plodding, often flailing, with scenes and characters inserted to affect pacing and "revelations" that "shatter the viewer's expectations" and "change everything." Supernatural is steadfast in its exploration of horror and the brothers' relationship, stays true to the characters while still developing them (there have been no major, show-shattering "twists" where we find out Sam or Dean or their father or Bobby aren't really the people we thought they were - though time and again, we have become privy to secrets which reveal so much more without betraying our perceptions of them), the dialogue is ever crisp, the beats are hit so perfectly that it's downright pulpish...
Okay. So there's the writing.
And then there's the acting. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki take their roles seriously. That's easy when the dialogue and writing is so good, but in less capable hands, from actors who bring nothing of their own to the table, a whole lot of Supernatural could clunk like any forgettable Silver Age issue. Padalecki has a tendency to overplay the innocent farmboy routine and Ackles is sometimes too hip and flippant, but they always pick it back up and work beautifully off one another. Whatever else, no one in Supernatural chews their lines or casts them off like most actors in similar shows; they all bring their A-game, always.
Supernatural succeeds where so few shows of its kind do - and it is the crux of such true genre shows: it exists in a world all its own. It has created its own mythology, history, and existence and remains consistent to it above all else. Its near-unprecedented continuity makes it easy for viewers to suspend their disbelief and become totally absorbed in the program, but even better, with each and every episode, it continues to forward this world - it builds on the past, expands it without rewriting it, and never ret-cons. It is one of those shows where you cross your legs and do The Pee-Pee Dance for however long it takes until the commercial break - and the only show where, if I hear it coming on before I'm done, I shut it down in mid-stream and happily continue the dance through to the next break - because even the talking-head scenes might drop some singular clue that changes everything you think you know about what is going on that episode, what happened before, or the whole show!
When you get right down to it, what makes Supernatural succeed so spectacularly is also the genre in which it best fits: Supernatural is a Buddy show. Without Sam, Dean would wilt; without Dean, Sam would implode. We saw that in the opening scenes, when Sam had adopted Dean's partying ways - and was doing a good job with it, I'll add - and we've seen it before in a half-dozen episodes, when Dean has been shown as a ne'er-do-well with a mechanic's job, when he sold his soul to resurrect his brother, and more. The Yin and the Yang; though I look forward to the occasional solo/rescue adventure, Supernatural is Sam and Dean.
And it is, hands-down, the best show on TV.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
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