Supernatural Review

Eric Kripke plans five seasons, tells that story, and then the series runs a decade longer because the audience will not let go. What results is the longest running American live action fantasy series and one of the widest gaps between critical and fan reception anywhere on television. Reviews of the first season were mixed, warming as the show found its register, and most outlets simply stopped covering it somewhere in the middle of the run.

The early years are the best of it: a road show shot in damp Vancouver forests, a monster of the week structure with real craft behind the scares, and a mythology about family obligation that gives the horror something to press against. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles grow into the parts, and Ackles in particular gets funnier and sadder as the years pile up. Misha Collins and Jim Beaver supply the best supporting work.

The cost of the length is obvious. Death stops meaning anything once every principal has returned from it, the apocalypse is averted so often it becomes routine, and whole seasons run on retreads of arcs the show has already closed. Dialogue leans hard on catchphrase and quip. It is at its most alive in the meta episodes, where the writers admit they know exactly what they are running and make a joke of it. As craft it is ordinary. As a fifteen year relationship with an audience it is close to unique.