Supernatural: A History of Television’s Unearthly Road Trip

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Cult TV phenomenon Supernatural, which ran for fifteen seasons (the longest run for a genre TV show, Giannini insists, though the definition she is using of “genre” would seem to narrow the concept to the fantastical, since westerns Gunsmoke [1955-1975] and Death Valley Days [1952-1970] both had longer runs and produced significantly more episodes—and one also would need to exclude medical dramas and crime shows from the “genre” category to give Supernatural the nod), has received a remarkable amount of critical attention, from monographs to essay collections, from scholarly studies to books for general audiences. Giannini’s history of the show has scholarly heft but a style that makes it accessible to general readers, and at a mere $36.00 for a hardcover book is also priced for a non-scholarly audience. It would probably be accurate (and I do not do so pejoratively) to describe Giannini as an aca-fan, engaging in serious study of a TV show she evidently loves. Features such as her “Highly Subjective List of 30 Must-See Supernatural episodes” in the Appendix speak as much to fandom as scholarship (and the fact that I would have weighted my own such list more heavily in favor of earlier seasons should make clear my own aca-fan propensities.

Giannini traces the genesis of the show in her introduction by contextualizing its origin in 2005 in the historical events of the time, and then devotes the first three chapters, in a section called “In the Beginning,” to the earlier television stew from which show creator Eric Kripke fished out ingredients and to the genesis of the show specifically, from Kripke’s own personal and work history. Part of the show’s richness can be traced to the diverse influences that shaped its development. Though Supernatural can be categorized as horror (as Giannini notes, always a tough sell on network TV, given the restrictions of the graphic and transgressive elements endemic to the genre), its influences are diverse, and perhaps thanks to the show’s fifteen-year run, it was able (sometimes gleefully) to employ a lot of generic slippage into its run. Indeed, Supernatural developed into a remarkably self-conscious show, including overtly meta episodes and ultimately a protracted and plot-central meditation on the complexities of the creative process and the relationship between fans, artists, and art itself. These chapters are especially useful for their careful and thorough grounding of the show in its historical and social context, a topic Giannini continues to explore in more detail in the balance of the book, as she tracks the show’s development across its fifteen-year run. This unit concludes with an overview of the show’s main characters, as well as of significant characters who appeared less frequently.

Part two consists of four chapters, under the section title “The Supernatural World.” The first of these chapters revisits somewhat the historical context elements of the preceding unit. Indeed, a feature of this book is a fairly modular construction, with individual chapters evidently designed to be read easily as single units. This does lead to some repetition. However, here Giannini makes some interesting interventions. Her detailed consideration of the show in relation to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), though strong in its own right, is hardly surprising. Surprising, and insightful, is Giannini’s subsequent detailed discussion of Supernatural in relation to Roseanne (1988-1997), as shows representing blue-collar life on screen. The other chapters delve into Supernatural’s other major influences, such as folklore and religion, throughout its run. Early seasons often built on urban legends, myths, and folk tales; later seasons created extended narrative arcs in which the Judeo-Christian god (primarily; others also appear) is central. The final chapter in this section considers the complex and shifting perspectives on politics across the show’s run, offering interesting readings of how the show’s politics shifted under different show-runners.

The final section, “’People Watch This?’ Supernatural’s Cultural Impact,” steps away from the show proper to consider its influence. The book therefore neatly turns from exploring what Supernatural emerged from to considering what has emerged from it. Giannini begins with a recap of the history of how television has been marketed and consumed, providing perhaps more detail than is really needed for her purpose, but she nevertheless offers useful insights into how the show capitalized on emerging technologies such as streaming to broaden its audience and develop a passionate fan base—and therefore to become a “tentpole” show for the CW, used to help grow audiences for other CW offerings The final chapter focuses on fandom and perhaps downplays the complexities and conflicts therein. Supernatural’s passionate fans have not always seen eye to eye, as Giannini’s chapter title suggests: “Beyond ‘Sam’ and ‘Dean’ Girls” refers to the division among fans of each of the two lead characters. Nevertheless, Supernatural fandom has been active in positive ways, to which Giannini draws appropriate attention. This real-world influence is perhaps a more important legacy than Supernatural’s status as “one of the texts that ushered in a golden age of television horror” (156) or as possibly one of the last long-form serials on TV (if one excludes shows such as soap operas, anyway); “its legacy, from content to distribution, continues to resonate” (156), Giannini concludes. One could do worse.

Dominick Grace is the Non-Fiction Reviews Editor for SFRA Review. He is co-editor, with Lisa Macklem, of Supernatural Out of the Box: Critical Essays on the Metatextuality of the Series (2020) and A Supernatural Politics: Essays on Social Engagement, Fandom and the Series (2021).