In this blood pumping and tear-jerking series that is “Supernatural,”, creator Eric Kripke tells a tale of two brothers, Sam and Dean, who hunt monsters and suppress their threat to humanity on their personal pursuit between the forces of good and evil, all while keeping society ignorant of the reality of such monsters. He tells of brothers who would sacrifice their lives for each other. (Actually it’s amazing that they did sacrifice themselves just about three times and are still alive. Sort of.)
Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) have been with this show for nine seasons and counting. They present such a raw and complex portrayal of the brother’s loving relationship. They fight and hunt these things and pretty much save the world. And at the end of the day, they’re just like regular bickering dramatic brothers who would go to hell and back for each other. (Literally, like twice.) Kripke writes Dean with a classic rock soul and lady’s man persona, and Sammy with his more responsible personality and his people skills. With such antipodal characteristics, these two somehow manage to get along (for the most part) on long extraneous drives all over the country together.
The flawless writing in this show is so suspenseful, complex and foreshadowing, it makes for a very exhilarating and existential show. The direction is pretty spot on as far as excellent direction goes. Since so many monsters and creatures are featured in this show, there are lots of special effects. When watching the first few seasons of “Supernatural” and taking note of the quality of the special effects, one can very well tell that the creators started off with a low budget. But as the show got more popular and gained more money, their effects got much better. Currently as they’re airing season 10, as a professional opinion, the effects are pretty awesome.
This series includes so many religions. In this universe, every religion is real, as well as witchcraft and voodoo, even mythology. As a matter of fact, in one episode, they clash with Zeus. They may or may not end up killing him. Watch the episode “Remember the Titans” to find out. Every pagan God, deity, mythological creature and urban legend that’s been heard of exists in this series. Even “Bloody Mary.” And they know how to kill every one of them. If not, they get to doing their research.
These were all the things the main characters were taught growing up. They didn’t have a normal childhood. They grew up living in motel to motel, with their father out at “work” every night. Ever since the troublesome demon “Azazel” (a general for hell who’s got big plans for baby Sammy dealing with the Apocalypse) burned down their house, along with his wife Mary, John snapped and vowed to kill every demon and monster who walks the earth, immediately putting Sam and Dean to hunting. And that was the family business. Ever since they were little. “Savin’ people, hunting things, the family business.” After Sam ran away to Stanford to become a lawyer, his father went missing and he was dragged back into the hunting life. Which is how the show started. All he ever wanted was a normal life. But what started off as the family business, turned into something bigger and darker. Their destiny ended up being a lot bigger and greater than they could ever imagine.
It’s no wonder this brilliant show has such a huge dedicated fanbase. Some of the episodes made are mostly for the fans, which is so great because the creators are responding to their fans with these witty puns and pop-culture references. The writers often like to throw in dialog that will piss off the fans in a funny way, like when people say things like “why would ghosts be afraid of salt?” The writers know their fans very well. For the amount of seriousness in the series, there’s also a lot of hilariously ridiculous episodes. All of which have relevant reason for the plot, so they’re not just pointless episodes one can skip.
All in all, “Supernatural” is an excellent portrayal of life’s most cruelest lessons. All these big complex situations the brothers get into are mere metaphors for the simpler problems one may be dealing with in life. The show brings up all kinds of social topics such as LGBT people, abusive relationships, homelessness, love, and most importantly, death. Even with such big responsibilities, the whole world on their shoulders, they still run into everyday problems. No matter what one’s life consists of, everyone is dealing with the same problems. But the most important lesson of all is that family, isn’t necessarily relatives. It’s the relationship. Just like Bobby singer (the man who’s practically Sam and Dean’s second father) says in the show, “Family don’t end with blood.”

By Alyssa Lopez