Done right, it could enhance its quality and emotional effect like a dash of spice. Having a common theme in one's story is a double edged sword. Add to them the core fans who watch for the characters and their relationships, and schmucks like me who watch just to see how it all ends, and you get a healthy, hefty viewership for a show that has had the equivalent of a face transplant from its earlier seasons.ī - The single minded pursuit of the anvil-over-the-head themesĭid you get it this week, the “absent parent” motif than ran through the entire episode? How could you not? It was hammered on top of everything, with sirens and flashing lights going off every time it was hinted. A lot of people don’t mind this format, some perhaps like it even more than the genre format because it doesn’t require them to constantly follow a plot. This could explain why so many still watch and love Supernatural despite the weirdness of the recent seasons, and why the ratings remain high. It’s no mystery that procedurals have a lot of fans and some of them are more popular than genre shows. The main hero’s special power is what decides the fate of every case not the personal talents of the week's supporting characters. Grimm is an example, but even Grimm keeps the focus on the core cast nearly all the time. Of course there are genre procedurals out there too. The most important episodes focus on them, and the bit-players only show up for standalone episodes fitted in the season to give the main storyline some breaks. The heroes save some people throughout the seasons, but the story is ultimately about their quest. In a genre show, particularly in the style established by the earlier seasons of Supernatural, the story belongs to the main characters and it dictates everything. The problem here though is that Supernatural is a genre show. It's a bit uninspired and cliché, which isn’t unheard of in the two dozen such shows currently on TV. This isn’t a bad story for a typical procedural. He ends up killing all the perps in cold blood. Another one of them, who had a long history of PTSD, is triggered by an event and loses control. She resists them, but in the end they manage to rescue her. One of them (Castiel) knew her father and was the cause of his disappearance. Now think about this week’s episode and imagine Sam, Dean and Castiel as cops trying to help teenage Claire off the streets.