Supernatural (2005 series)

Promotional image for Supernatural (2005 series)...

Summary

"A supernatural enemy that will stop at nothing... A family that will risk everything to stop it." Two brothers (joined in later seasons by a troubled fallen angel and a sometimes sympathetic demon prince of hell) follow their father's footsteps as "hunters" fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.

Details

• Release Date: 2005-present; 2010 Ghostfacers web-series spin-off
• Country/Language: US, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror (monster-of-the-week), Fantasy, Drama, Mystery
• Runtime: (generally formatted for a 1-hour commercial television slot)
• Starring: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard
• Creator: Eric Kripke, Bob Singer,
• Producer/Production Co: Kripke Enterprises, Warner Bros. Television, Wonderland Sound and Vision
• View Trailer: (Supernatural), (Ghostfacers)
• Film Website: (link)
• View Dedicated Wiki: (link)
• TVTropes: (link)
• IMDB Page: (Supernatural), (Ghostfacers)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: TV-14 (Violence, mild Profanity and Adult Content)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; could be a very loose adaptation)

The show started out with the "Mythos-lite" and somewhat Call of Cthulhu RPG-friendly premise of a couple of working-class brothers in a muscle car traveling scenic American highways to battle ghosts, vampires, shape-shifters, urban legends, and other such non-Lovecraftian monsters, but later seasons introduced a "Leviathans" plot-arc involving a race of demonic monsters from before the dawn of time which loosely corresponds to Lovecraft's "Great Old Ones", and Lovecraft himself was apparently a member of a secret organization of scholars and magicians dedicated to preventing such monsters from returning to this world.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

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Synopsis

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)

This haunting series follows the thrilling yet terrifying journeys of Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who face an increasingly sinister landscape as they hunt monsters. After losing their mother to a supernatural force, the brothers were raised by their father as soldiers who track mysterious and demonic creatures. Violent memories and relationship-threatening secrets add additional burdens on Sam and Dean as they investigate all things that go bump in the night. As old tricks and tools are rendered useless and friends betray them, the brothers must rely on each other as they encounter new enemies.

Notes

Associated Mythos Elements

• TO DO
• character: H.P. Lovecraft is a character in the episode "Let it Bleed" (Ep. 6x21)
• organization: "hunters", an informal group of working-class monster-hunters dedicated to traveling across the country to investigate suspicious deaths and kill the monsters responsible
• organization: "The Men of Letters", a secret society of scholars and magicians dedicated to interfering with supernatural plots
• organization: "Ghostfacers", a group of amateur TV-style ghost-hunters, generally ill-prepared for meeting real monsters
• race: "Leviathans" (a sort of stand-in for a Lovecraftian precursor race, given a flimsy pseudo-Biblical origin story)
• race: Wendigo (Ep. 1x02)
• race: assorted Vampires and Vampire-like creatures
• race: various "Demons" and monsters of various sorts
• tomes: in addition to monster-hunter diaries, tomes of various sorts appear throughout the series
• artefacts: various artefacts appear throughout the series, most commonly in the form of demonic and angelic daggers and other such weapons; carloads of monster-hunting gear (crosses, stakes, holy water, salt, iron, shotguns, etc.) also make regular appearances

Keeper Notes

• In a "Mythos lite" campaign, investigators are part of an informal group of working-class "hunters" who travel the American highways by night, sleeping and researching mysterious deaths by day when not actively hunting dangerous monsters from legends, folklore, and urban legends....
• In a more "Mythos heavy" campaign, investigators are part of an informal group of working-class "hunters" who travel the American highways by night, sleeping and researching mysterious deaths by day when not actively hunting dangerous monsters straight from the Call of Cthulhu RPG "Petersen's Guides" of Lovecraft monster lore....