At first, the CW’s hit television show, Supernatural, didn’t sound like something I’d like. I’m not big on episodic monster-killing dungeon crawls and a story about two brothers running from the law in a muscle car sounded like a throwback to the Dukes of Hazard. But upon the wildly enthusiastic recommendations of my friends and family, I rented the first season I’d missed and popped in the disk.

Now, one thing Supernatural knows how to do is grab viewers with a stunning premise. A mother walking into her baby’s room to find a dark stranger standing over the crib…it’s iconic. The very first few minutes of that very first episode were so gripping that I was hooked. Sure, that first season was a little rocky. It was hard to swallow the idea that our heroes lived off of stolen credit cards and fake IDs, but the whole thing went down a lot smoother when I realized how brilliantly the writers used unusual and creative interpretations of ancient lore.

Smart writing and sassy dialog carry the show, but it’s the celebrated bro-mance between Dean and Sam that make it something special. As a romance writer, I suppose I should be wishing for the Winchester boys to find true love with the girls of their dreams, but this show is really a love story about family. The unfolding family drama intensifies and matures each season. The writers are just as clever with their supernatural elements. They have an unfailing instinct for what will horrify–they know that evil in the guise of an innocent child is more upsetting than an ugly monster. They know how to twist the things that bring us joy and show us the ugly sides. So I’m a total squealing fan girl.

And while I’m not going to give away any spoilers, let me just say that the Season 4 Finale had me sitting there with my jaw dropped open. Not many shows do that.

Given that I write Greek Myth-inspired paranormal romances, one of my favorite episodes was about the siren. (Feel free to add that as an entry to my autumn contest in which you could win a gift certificate and a book just for brainstorming with me!)

So how many Supernatural fans do we have out there and are you more partial to Dean or Sam?

Tags: speculative fiction

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Television, speculative fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.