TV Goes to Hell An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural

by Abbott, Stacey; Lavery, David

• ISBN13: 9781770410206
• ISBN10: 1770410201
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-01
• Publisher: Ecw Press

Summary

As a natural heir to the hit television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernaturalhas risen to prominence with a strong cult following, and this series of essays from contributors around the globe investigates the genre-bending series' cultural footprint both in the United States and abroad. The writings explore topics such as folklore, religion, gender and sexuality, comedy, music, and much more, and a brief guide to all the episodes is also included. Supernaturalfollows brothers Dan and Sam Winchester as they encounter and battle evil beings such as vampires, shapeshifters, ghouls, and ghosts from a multitude of genres including folklore, urban legends, and religious history.

Author Biography

Stacey Abbott is the editor of Falling in Love Again, Investigating Alias, Reading Angel, and the Investigating Cult TV series. David Lavery is a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of 17 books, including The Essential Cult TV Reader and Joss, as well as the author of numerous essays and reviews. He lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction Then: The Road So Far (Stacey Abbott)	p. ix
"Bon Jovi rocks... on occasion": Comedy and Music
Rabbits' Feet and Spleen Juice: The Comic Strategies of tv Horror(Stacey Abbott)	p. 3
Two Greasers and a Muscle Car: Music and Character Development in Supernatural (Stan Beeler)	p. 18
Skin Mags and Shaving Cream:Sam and Dean on the Fringes of Time and Place
Purgatory with Color tv: Motel Rooms as Liminal Zones in Super natural (Lorna Jowett)	p. 33
Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers: Supernatural and the Shift in"White Trash" from Monster to Hero (Aaron C. Burnell)	p. 47
Renegades and Wayward Sons: Supernatural arid the '70s (Simon Brown)	p. 60
"Jerk... bitch": Representations of Genderand Sexuality
The Road to Lordsburg: Rural Masculinity in Supernatural (Lorrie Palmer)	p. 77
Angels, Demons, and Damsels in Distress: The Representation of Women in Supernatural (Bronwen Calvert)	p. 90
"Go be gay for that poor, dead intern": ConversionFantasies and Gay Anxieties in Supernatural (Darren Elliott-Smith)	p. 105
The Gospel According to Chuck: Narrative and Storytelling in Supernatural
"That's so gay": Drag, Camp, and the Power of Storytelling in Supernatural	p. 119
"There's a ton of lore on unicorns too": Postmodernist Micro-Narratives and Supernatural	p. 132
Breaking the Mirror: Metafictional Strategies in Supernatural	p. 146
"What's the lore sail?": Exploring Folklore a Religion
"There's nothing more dangerous than some a-hole who thinkshe-" is on a holy mission": Using and (Dis)-Abusing Religious and Economic Authority on Supernatural	p. 163
"I am an angel of the Lord": An Inquiry into the Christian Nature of Supernatural's Heavenly Delegates (Jutta Wimmler and Lisa Kienzl)	p. 176
Televisual Folklore: Rescuing Supernatural from the- Fakelore Realm	p. 187
Cruel Capricious Gods: Auteurs, Fans, Critics
Sympathy for the Fangirl: Becky Rosen, Fan Identity, and Interactivity in Supernatural	p. 203
Crossing Over: Network Transition, Critical Reception, and Supernatural Longevity	p. 219
Plagiarism or Props?: Homage to Neil Gaiman in Eric Kripke's Supernatural	p. 230
Now The Road Ahead, or the Chapter at the End of This Book (David Lavery)	p. 245
Supernatural Episode Guide (Stephanie Graves)	p. 253
Notes	p. 273
TV and Filmography	p. 286
Contributors	p. 290
Bibliography	p. 295
Index	p. 316
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Normal people, they see a monster and they run,
not us. No, no, no we search out things that want to
kill us, yeah, huh, or eat us. You know who does that?
Crazy people. We are insane.
Dean(“Yellow Fever”)

Hunting ghosts, demons, and monsters and staving off the Apocalypse may make Sam and Dean Winchester crazy, according to Dean, but it is that very premise that enabledSupernaturalto build up a loyal fandom eager to come back for more. The show began its broadcast on the WB (before the network merged with UPN to become the CW) on September 13, 2005, and was conceived as a hybrid of the horror and road movie genres. The show mixes American urban legends with aRoute 66(CBS, 1960–1964)1 formula that focuses on two brothers traveling across the U.S. in a 1968 Impala, looking for their demon–hunting father while fighting ghosts and monsters. While the pilot episode sets up the back story about their mother’s mysterious death and their father’s mission to hunt all manner of supernatural beings, the second episode, “Wendigo,” establishes the show’s formula when Dean explains to Sam that he thinks their father left them his journal — his guide to “everything he knows about every evil thing” — in order to pick up where he left off: “you know, saving people, hunting things. Family business.” The episode ends with Sam and Dean taking to the road, in Route 66fashion, to find their next hunting job. Along the way, however, the show becomes so much more.

Looking back atSupernatural’s first five years, the series not only draws upon the iconography and conventions of the road movie genre on an episodic level, but its entire narrative arc is constructed as a journey. This journey begins when Sam and Dean accept their father’s mission and ends when Dean drives the Impala into Stull Cemetery — not to stop the confrontation between Lucifer and Archangel Michael, now inhabiting the bodies of Sam and their half–brother Adam, but to be with Sam at the end regardless of the consequences (“Swan Song,” 5.22). This epic narrative trajectory is called to mind in “Two Minutes to Midnight” (5.21) as Sam and Dean, surrounded by fellow hunter Bobby, fallen Angel Castiel, and demon–ally Crowley, prepare for their next mission:

Dean: Good luck stopping the whole zombie apocalypse.
Sam: Yeah. Good luck killing Death.
Dean: Yeah.
Sam: Remember when we used to just hunt wendigos? How simple things were?
Dean: Not really.

Throughout the first five seasons, Sam and Dean hunted ghosts, vampires, shapeshifters, witches, werewolves, demons, ghost ships, haunted trucks, and pagan gods. They lost their father, traveled back in time to meet their mother, found and lost a brother, drank loads of beer, died and came back to life, and died and came back to life again. They went to Hell and Heaven. They met angels, Lucifer, Death, and God. They appeared in reality ghost–hunting showGhostfacers!and, scariest of all, went to aSupernaturalfan convention. It has been a hell of a journey and a journey to Hell.