How Supernatural Changed My Life

Hey there and Happy Spring! Last night I found out that my favorite television show is coming to an end after next season. For those of you who don’t know what show I’m talking about, it is the show Supernatural. I didn’t want to believe it but after seeing the video announcement that Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) posted on Instagram, my fears were confirmed. After fifteen amazing seasons Supernatural is calling it quits and I am deeply disappointed, so I decided to reflect on how much this show has changed me as a person and as a writer.

Before this show aired in the Fall of 2005, I was scared to death of ghosts and anything else that was related to the supernatural. Especially demons. I remember being terrified of the film The Exorcist as a kid back in the 70’s even though I hadn’t seen the film, just hearing my family talk about it scared the crap out of me because I was very young. I had never heard of demonic possession until that film came out. My crazy brother used to scare me with it just to get rid of me and I had trouble going to sleep at night for fear that my bed might start shaking.

So why in the world would I watch a show like Supernatural? Well aside from the fact that actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are gorgeous, it was a show that had me from day one. I remember being excited when I saw the promos on tv, and I couldn’t wait to see it because it was something different. Well, the pilot episode didn’t disappoint, and I’ve been hooked on this show ever since. It helped me to face my fears of anything that had to do with demons because it became the focal point of the show. I had to either face it or miss a lot of good drama. I was already a fan of classic rock music and hearing ACDC for the first time on a tv show made me smile. Let’s face it, Supernatural made classic rock cool again and we know it.

Supernatural taught me the importance of brotherhood and family even when things get tough, you never abandon family. The relationship between Sam and Dean Winchester was the main focus of this show and in my opinion, the heart of it. I quickly became a fan of the show’s creator Eric Kripke and admired his creativity and forcing us to think about whether there really is a God or a Devil and could Angels and Demons actually be real? The lore was always accurate on this show and the people working behind the scenes worked hard to make it so with a lot of research. Kudos to them for keeping it real.

When I started out as a writer, I was a romance novelist. After being heavily influenced by Supernatural, I started becoming intrigued with writing paranormal stories. I plan to write more of them in the future as it has become my favorite genre. The novel The Blood Oath was my first paranormal romance novel and my recent novel Evil Has No Color has some supernatural elements as well with the apple tree in Uncle Frank’s backyard and how eating the apples can bring out a person’s true desires and alter their personality.

Supernatural brought forth a lot of inspiration for future stories that I have yet to delve into that I am no longer afraid to write about and I will always be grateful for the brainchild Eric Kripke who started it all and helped me to not be afraid of things that go bump in the night anymore and to try to understand what it is that I’m really afraid of.

I remember one episode from season one called The Benders. The Winchesters didn’t fight anything that was supernatural in that episode but instead got a chance to see that there are humans that can be even scarier than monsters by the evil that they do. That episode stands out because sadly it’s true.

The show often pushed the envelope with many of its episodes like having Dean die and go to hell at the end of season three. Not to mention all of the episodes that had Sam and Dean getting to do alternate storylines in episodes like Changing Channels and The French Mistake to name a few. The show’s violence was on the level of an R rated movie and things were shown that were so shocking that I’m sure had Catholics very ticked off. But they didn’t care who they offended. They handled this show on their own terms.

I’m really going to miss this show when it ends after it’s fifteenth season and I can’t wait to see how it all ends. I am hoping that Sam and Dean get to have a happy ending after having lived and died and lived again so horrifically over the years. I would often watch this show when I was depressed about something and it would always make me feel better because nobody’s lives sucked ass more than Sam and Dean’s. They do deserve a chance to have a normal life after spending so many years saving people and hunting things and in the year 2020, we will have to say goodbye to The Family Business…