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deathbycoldopen:

If you have never seen Supernatural before, consider this a sign to start watching.

I thought about writing a long meta about all the things I love about Supernatural, all the reasons why everyone should watch it.  I even started writing it, had notes scribbled out on my fandom notebook- previously known as my school notebook- before I realized the impossibility of transcribing it all.  The show is too big, too layered, too complex, for me to capture in these inadequate words all the elements that make up the whole.  There’s so much to say about it- which is, of course, part of why I love it.

I never expected to love this show as much as I do, but there you go.  Even when it comes to silly things like television shows, love can surprise you like that.  It certainly can surprise you when the premise of the this silly television show is so simple: two brothers hunt monsters.  I never expected to become so invested.  I never expected to fall in love, not just with the story but with the characters, and with their relationship to each other.  To wonder desperately what will happen next, in a show that had all the signs of being just your standard monster-of-the-week.  I never expected I would spend hours of my time reading and writing essays analyzing every aspect of the show, finding all the layers hidden under the facade of simplicity.

There are so many things that drew me in.  So many things that drowned me.  The way Dean has little inner monologues play across his face.  The way Sam can look frightening or like a puppy, sometimes all at once.  The way they annoy the crap out of each other, just like real siblings.  The way they love each other, just like real (dangerously codependent) siblings.  The way that the writers wink and nudge at the audience, saying, We know what you’re thinking, we know all our flaws, we know that this is a television show, we know that we’re not gods.  The way they lean so hard on that fourth wall that they occasionally shatter it, trample it, dance a little jig on it, only to rebuild it in an instant without hesitation.  The way the monster-of-the-week plots are balanced against the arc of the season and the arc of the series and the characters themselves.  The way it all calls for another viewing, and another, and another, giving something new every time in layers and layers of complexity.  Oh god, does this show revel in complexity.

Two brothers hunt monsters.  But it’s not that simple- of course it’s not that simple.

Two brothers, raised to kill monsters after their mother’s supernatural death, are caught up in something much larger than a simple hunt.

It’s not that simple either.

Because this show is about two brothers who face a world painted in greyscale, but disguised as black and white, and there is nothing that simple about it.  The bookish, sensitive younger brother can be the family rebel, the one filled with anger and obsession.  The smart-mouthed, womanizing older brother in a leather jacket can be the obedient son, the soldier devoted to his family.  The confident angel sent to save them can fall down to them instead, shattered and made whole all at once.  The surly old drunk who helps them from time to time can be the father their father never was, can be a genius and a drunk and a flawed human being all at once.  The death of their mother is more than a death, it’s also a plan, it’s also a motive, it’s also a symbol, it’s also a tragedy.  Demons and monsters and angels and humans are more than their natures.  Sometimes they’re less.  Sometimes the big bad is just a pawn, and sometimes the big bad is a child throwing a tantrum.  Sometimes the big bad is a friend, and sometimes the big bad is themselves.  Sometimes, evil is just a word that flies around but never sticks.  The world is never black and white, no matter how much they might yearn for simplicity.  It’s all a tapestry of motivation and emotion, stories of people human and inhuman, weaving around and past and through the lives of two brothers doing their best to fight battles they don’t fully understand.

It’s the story of two brothers who hunt monsters.  It’s the story of two brothers so dependent on one another that they would sell their souls just to keep the other safe.  It’s about an angel who shouldn’t be capable of emotion, yet breaks apart under the weight of too much heart.  It’s about an old drunk who thought he broke everything he touched, who adopts two boys and raises them to be heroes.  It’s about a family of archangels torn apart by love, that turns around to tear the rest of the world apart as well.  It’s about demons torturing and being tortured, about monsters and spirits killing and being killed, and what makes any of it evil.  It’s about family, and love, and free will; it’s about the troubles that all those things bring, the troubles that fester when they’re gone, and the troubles that simply fester no matter what else comes.  It’s about carrying on in the face of impossible odds, and hoping against all hope that maybe, just maybe, someday you can lay your burdens down and rest.

If you’ve never seen Supernatural before, I don’t know what you’re waiting for.

(via destielbiteme)