Submitted by forman98 t3_11e8do9 in television
I recently finished a rewatch of Supernatural's first 5 seasons for the first time in about a decade. I picked up on the show around 2010, right when season 5 was airing and binged it all on Netflix at that point in time.
I've watched seasons 6-15 and having now rewatched the first 5 seasons again, I can't believe what a steaming pile of crap the rest of the series ended up being.
Kripke's treatment through the first 5 seasons is consistent and coherent and builds to an appropriate climax. Those seasons tend to naturally break up into 3 buckets; Seasons 1-2, Season 3, and Seasons 4-5.
The first two seasons have a certain aesthetic that was never really recaptured in the rest of the series. They were still riding on the dark and grungy look of the early 2000's horror movies. Grey filters, night settings, rain. They did a really good job of shooting horror on a budget with mostly practical effects and camera tricks. The story line through those first 44 episodes wraps up somewhat nicely in the final episode of season 2 where they finally confront the yellow-eyed demon. I know Kripke somewhat wrote that as a close in case they never got picked up again.
Season 3 was shortened to 16 episodes due to the writer's strike, but looking back it seems the shorter season was a good thing. Many great shows are now producing fewer episodes with higher quality. This season didn't really move the overall plot forward much because it all ended up being for naught; Dean couldn't get out of the demon deal he made in season 2.
Season 4-5 are the first real departure from the Monster of the Week style that the show had been. People have mixed feelings about this departure, but I think the overall story makes up for that. This is when angels are introduced and the Winchesters find out about their true destinies. They harp on the symmetry between Sam/Dean and Lucifer/Michael and their absent fathers quite a bit. They string along the final battle throughout the last season and don't hint at the possible conclusion until the last couple episodes. The conclusion is very tragic, but very fitting to what they all went through over those 5 seasons.
Overall, it's 126 episodes of interesting TV with only a handful of duds. Sam and Dean are consistently the best part of every episode. It's often the side characters or the plots that make something meh.
I write all of this to highlight just how far the show fell after season 5. It ended up being a complete flip. Seasons 6-15 had a handful of really good episodes with a bunch of meh. Nothing made sense anymore, the canon and lore was progressively tossed out, and the campy side characters started taking center stage. Most of those characters worked in small doses, but they would consistently show up. So much of those seasons were cringy fanservice. The overall season plots were flimsy and rarely lead anywhere substantial. Sam and Dean just seemed to be there dealing with it instead of actually part of the story. The writers kept killing and bringing back people just to highlight how much pain the Winchesters have to endure. Sam and Dean would constantly go back and forth lying to each other and betraying each other. And ultimately the series ends on a dud. So much of a dud that it caused a lot of controversy in the fandom (who had already been heavily catered to for a decade).
The first 5 seasons work too well as a contained series and the remaining 10 seasons just served to taint that. If the show were to ever comeback in some form, I would only want Kripke to come back and begin with an alternate season 6 that ignores 6-15. Pick up with Dean 20 years in the future and Sam having been gone the whole time. I'm sure there's a good story out there, but for now I'll just keep rewatching 1-5 and skipping the rest.
connorroy_2024 t1_jacrcwr wrote
Yes. I truly pretend season 6-15 never existed and just appreciate seasons 1-5 for what they are. It’s a great five season arc.