All Things TV: Review – Supernatural (Updated)

I’m still so disgusted the morning after, I’m wondering if I should wait in case I write something I may later regret because of the promise I made to be fair and empathetic to the creators and writers I review on here.

So be it.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Let me preface all of this by saying I haven’t completed the 15th season yet. I don’t watch live tv anymore ever since that dog-awful GOT finale. I like to read more than watch tv and getting older I’ve learned to manage my limited time aboard this unruly cracked cloudy-blue pellet on things that will give me the most enjoyment and weak-ass tv is not one of them; therefore, I mostly cull beforehand everything I watch through reviews and spoilers and twitter. Also, because I’m tired of being told by people that trauma and suffering are a part of life and to cowboy-up and blah-fucking-blah. No shit. When you’ve lived with as much trauma and suffering as some of us, you just roll your eyes at the miserable fucks that perpetuate and celebrate this and move on—why waste your time on privileged entitled assholes that glorify that and have probably never even suffered so much as a hangnail but love to dispense the trauma porn with a nihilistic no-hope sense of glee. They seem to salivate and bone at the thought of fans being crushed by their creations in an orgy of torture porn. This is usually celebrated and obsessed over by one specific brand of asshole: the white male showrunner who readily gets to dispense more power to he and his ilk on the backs of us other poor pawns. Well, cowboy-up, fuckers, and take your criticism like the blue-balled, homophobic, misogynistic, entitled cowards you are.

About season 15—I watched a few of the episodes on Netflix (where I normally watch of late) then stopped. I wasn’t getting any enjoyment out of it anymore. I love the cast, but the writing became demonstrably awful. The cast—bless their beautiful bleeding tingly hearts—endured doing their very best with what they were given and obviously had an enjoyable time doing it. Out here in the real world though, reality was biting our ass exceedingly so and things that seemed entitled and normal for the few designates had infinitely been and were starting to grate considerably more so than usual.

I’ve had an ambivalent relationship with Supernatural since I first started watching in 2005. Yes, I’ve watched it religiously since it first aired. I’ve voiced criticisms at the misogyny and homophobic queerbaiting many, many times. I stayed with the show because I enjoyed the cast and characters and no one was doing what they were doing—I’m a firm believer of heresy, especially Christian heresy and they were giving lots of women great acting roles that no one else was. And there was Dean and Cas—my most favorite ship ever in my forty-cough-some years of watching tv. I was also hoping that TPTB would eventually evolve along with their characters.

Neither happened. People keep telling me that LalaLand is liberal. I ain’t seeing it. What a disappointment.

The show is a parody of the Supernatural including Christianity and the bible. In some instances they were successful and others, not so much. I’m an atheist so knowing what I know about Christians, the bible and Christianity, I understand there is gonna be misogyny and I’m willing to suffer it to a point because it’s reality, but the 15-fucking-years of queerbaiting? No, nada, not gonna happen—sorry, luvs, no whitewashing what we all know: Queers have been around since the dawn of time and because the homophobes wanna dismiss it like it doesn’t happen doesn’t mean it ain’t gonna and we gotta sit by casually and let it fly by without so much a word on how fucked up and erroneous that whitewashing and queerbaiting all is and how cowardly the writers are in carelessly letting it hang then dismissing it like it was nothing.

What I was hoping for was some full-on subversion in the extreme; something so remarkably different that it shattered the status quo. What I got was Dean Winchester—while remaining a closeted bisexual—dying on a rusty nail instead of a cross, Sam wearing an Einstein wig being Cody-homemaker, Cas given a smooth bury-your-gays trope categorized as ‘unrequited love’ but really just a polite and nuanced fuck-off, a clichéd TVD-happily-ever-after-endgame replete with a heaven-like send-off that has apparently become CW’s modus operandi, and nowhere in it did Dean and Cas get their moment. There was a stunt in which Dean rushed to the door thinking it was Cass alive and hurt when it was Lucifer—wow, a literal homosexuality-is-Satan-knocking-on-your-door moment; ha-fucking-ha, how terribly droll. There was no Butch and Sundance-type ending and basically, TPTB creatively choked on their puny cowardice and swallowed the fragile cishet patriarchal bilge forced down our gullets since the dawn of stories. So yeah, Ima little pissed about that and I didn’t even bother watching. Like hell am I ever gonna watch now. They took one of the greatest ships of all time and flushed it down the fucking loo. Hoorah, boys, de-fucking-testable. Good luck on getting those residuals from me cuz it’ll be a technologically barren day on this fucked up hole before I ever watch again or anything you create. There are shows that disgust you so badly in the end, you never watch them again. Congrats, y’all just made the list. And the most fucked up thing is I didn’t even watch. Go figure.

To the cast and crew not in the making of that fucked up decision: Thank you and love and hugs—I look forward to your future endeavors.

Addendum: I’m still pissed and I’ll never get over it. An ode to destiel here.

Recommended read: Supernatural’s finale missed a chance to fix the show’s biggest mistakes

Update 23-Nov-2020: Media cleanup arrives in the form of gaslighting—’no, you are mistaken and didn’t see what you saw, or felt what you felt, silly,’ says person that wishes to keep being paid by the very industry that doesn’t like being criticized and accused of doing what they still continue to do. Please stop—if this is the hill you choose to die on than you will lose fans; it’s sad and embarrassing. Those of us that have been through this our entire lives can recognize the gaslighting and excuses and platitudes that only make you appear even more foolish—perhaps not to the starry-eyed naïve young’uns that stan you, but to those of us that have been around the block many times, we know the spiel. I can only hope you gain some insight through empathy and compassion and move on to projects that don’t belittle and demoralize the marginalized you may write/direct/play/portray, and instead accept, represent, praise, encourage, and highlight our humanity (or lack thereof) as you would your own as a white cishet male. I continue to give thanks to the cast and wish them the best of luck in the future.