Erika Engstrom - Television, Religion, and Supernatural: Hunting Monsters, Finding Gods

Television, Religion, and Supernatural

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Engstrom, Erika, 1964

Television, religion, and Supernatural : hunting monsters, finding gods / by Erika Engstrom and Joseph M. Valenzano, III.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7391-8475-2 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7391-8476-9 (electronic)

1. Supernatural (Television program : 2005- ) 2. Religion on television. I. Valenzano, Joseph M., 1978- II. Title.

PN1992.77.S84E55 2014

791.45'72--dc23

2013048172

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Introduction

In 2005, the WB television network premiered a new show featuring monsters, ghosts, and witches and the Midwestern American family who hunted and destroyed them. The show, titled simply Supernatural, contemporized the classic ghost story and treated the paranormal as real and normal, at least for the Winchesters, the family of hunters who roamed the United States on a single-minded mission to rid the land of evil. If this new program proved successful, its creator, Eric Kripke, envisioned a run of five years at most (Radish, 2010).

In May of 2013, Supernatural completed its eighth season on the WBs successor network, the CW, and was renewed for a ninth. Over the course of those eight seasons, the series protagonist brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, have died, been resurrected, prevented the End Times as foretold in the Book of Revelation, fought demons, vanquished three Horsemen of the Apocalypse, destroyed a wide array of monsters, met and fought with angels, gone to and returned from Hell, and traveled to Heavennot necessarily in that order. The Winchester brothers literally have been to Hell and back.

Supernatural has consistently rated in the top three shows offered on the CW network. Though not comparable to the major networks viewing audiences, which may reach 20+ million viewers, Supernatural garnered approximately 2 to 3 million viewers in its first few seasons (Nielsen Ratings for 200506 Season, 2006; Overnight Nielsen Ratings, 2008; Seidman, 2009; Supernatural Ratings, 2007).

Beyond being a long-running television series, this program enjoys a devoted fan base. In 2012, Supernatural won its second Peoples Choice Award; its first win came in 2010. The show has garnered numerous Emmy and Saturn Award (Academy for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films) nominations (Awards for Supernatural, 2012). TV Guide put Supernatural on the cover of its December 9, 2010, issue after the show received the most votes in the magazines Fan Favorite contest. One can find evidence of the fan loyalty the series enjoys from its various Internet web sites, a fan magazine, attendance at science fiction conventions such as Comic-Con and Supernatural-only conventions known as Salute to Supernatural, a series of books and anime (Japanese cartoons), and several nonfiction books documenting the series real life basis in mythology and religion.

The wiki-based web resource Supernatural Wiki, or Super-Wiki, allows contributors to add to a range of canonical information about the series. Created in 2006, Supernatural Wiki had posted 2,411 articles by 2013; its home page had been visited more than seven million times as of June 2013 (Supernatural Wiki, 2013). Visitors can access episode transcripts, a library of mythologies portrayed in the show, a portal on the shows fandom listing conventions, academic articles and works, and other web sites and blogs (Super-wiki: About, 2012). Social media sites attest to the shows popularity as well; in mid-2013, the shows fan page on Facebook counted more than 11 million likes (Supernatural, 2013).

In their survey of television horror, Jowett and Abbott (2013) described Supernatural as differentiating itself from other television programs in the horror genre because it does not rely just on scary stories, but narrative elements borrowed from soap opera. Thus Supernatural adopts a flexi-narrative that includes monster-of-the-week episodes, season arcs and ongoing relationship stories, they wrote (p. 50). Storylines incorporate both origins of monsters in ancient myth as well as a focus on character development, namely, familial themes concerning the relationship between the Winchester brothers, Dean and Sam, played by actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki, respectively. Broadcast on the CW network, whose demographic consists mainly of 18 to 34 year olds, and is known as being woman-friendly in its programming (Abbott, 2011; Villareal, 2013), the casting of two attractive stars adds to the appeal of the show. However, DeCandido (2009) pointed out, even if the show was just about two pretty men driving a cool car, cracking wise, and shooting demons in the head on a fifth network, its much, much better than it needs to be (p. ix).

We agree with DeCandidos (2009) assessment that Supernatural offers much, much more than eye candy or ghost stories. We saw the potential of this televisual artifact to serve as a research topic beyond examining its connection to genre, popular culture, and fandom. Our investigation into the world of Supernatural and its depiction of the Winchesters adventures hunting monsters, ghosts, demons, angels, and other mythical creatures and their added discovery of the existence of angels and maybe even God, began when we discussed examining the shows depiction of religion during Supernaturals fourth season. Both of us already were casual fans of Supernatural and enjoyed watching the show, which is always a plus when doing mass media research.

As researchers who had already done some work on media and religion separately, we saw the series content as rife with religious-tinged data, and we began seriously examining the portrayal of religion in the stories of