In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural
edited by supernatural.tv
BenBella Books, 2009
$14.95 US/$17.50 Can

Supernatural premiered on The WB (which later merged into The CW) in Fall 2005 to mixed reviews. The series about Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who travel across the country in a classic '67 Chevy battling ghosts, demons, and scary urban legends, was either going to be the scariest, most innovative genre show since The X-Files, or a night-time soap lit more darkly than usual. While I'd be one of the last people to deny the visual appeal of its two male leads, Supernatural turned out be a lot more than its detractors made it out to be. It is genuinely startling, scary, and moving, with some of the most consistent characterization on television, and storytelling that goes for the emotional jugular.

It's no wonder the show rapidly gathered a dedicated fanbase--a fanbase that has only grown exponentially each season. Like other successful genre shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer or The X-Files, Supernatural has led to reams of fanwork and fan conventions, merchandizing, as well as a number of books.

In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural, edited by the supernatural.tv website team and published by BenBella Books, promises to take a close look at what makes Supernatural "about more than a cool car, a kick-ass soundtrack and hot guys with guns." In that it succeeds, proving that the show not only stands up to close analysis, with multiple layers and interpretations, it actually lends itself to that kind of reading.

However, the collection is somewhat uneven. With a few essays it was hard to see how they added anything significant. Others covered too much of the same ground, and many didn't offer enough that would be news to any fan who has spent any amount of time watching and pondering the show. For that reason, it's difficult to say who the intended target audience for the book is.

Among the more stand-out essays, there is "We're Not Exactly the Bradys" by fantasy author Tanya Huff, a balanced, thoughtful look at John Winchester's strengths and weaknesses as a father. "Dean Winchester: Bad-Ass...or Soccer Mom?" by Tanya Michaels is an effective look at the contradiction of Dean as both a tough, no-chick-flick-moments demon hunter and as a nurturer who secretly longs for stability.

"Who Threw Momma on the Ceiling" by Carol Poole is another one of the better pieces in the book, examining the power of the image of Mary Winchester burning on the ceiling. It looks at the ambivalence some female viewers feel about the show's violence towards women, as well as the importance women hold for Sam and Dean. It also touches on how the show reflects American mythology and culture.

Jules Wilkinson's "Back in Black" is another strong piece, placing the Impala in the long tradition of the cool cars owned by TV heroes, but more importantly, undertaking a close reading of the emotional role the car plays, what the Impala symbolizes for Sam and Dean (and the viewers). "John Winchester and the Magic Bullet Theory" by Tracy S. Morris lays out the importance of the magical Colt revolver and how it acts as a parallel and even a mirror for John Winchester.

"The Evils of Hating...Um, Evil" by Amy Berner was also a good read, tackling the psyche of hunter Gordon Walker, who is both bad guy and, from his own point of view, hero. "Another Roadside Attraction" by Maria Lima is an engaging examination of Supernatural's trickster character, what he means for Sam and Dean, as well as the trickster's role in folklore and legend.

Some of the essays seemed unfocused or problematic. "We've Got Work to Do" by Amy Garvey and "A Powerful Need" by Sheryl A. Rakowski both cover the same ground, and serve more as a catalogue of the Winchesters' heroics and sacrifices than as analysis. (The same problem happens with Mary Fechter's "Riding Down the Highway" following Jules Wilkinson's "Back in Black"; I found "Back in Black" the more readable, interesting essay).

I'm not sure what "A Supernatural Love Story" by Heather Swain, an epistolary tale of two people who meet and fall in love through their interest in the show, is doing in the collection. The piece offered only a few standard observations on the Winchesters and not much else that was relevant.

The strength of Mary Borsellino's essay "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jo the Monster Killer" is in the sharply written second half, where she examines the show's introduction and then removal of a female hunter, Jo Harvelle. The first half of the essay, which posits that Supernatural is a deliberate attempt to undermine the feminist themes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer not only seems out of place, but puzzling. Series creator Eric Kripke owes as much, if not more, to Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Route 66, and The X-Files, not to mention the works of Jack Kerouac, than he does to Joss Whedon.

In "Spreading Disaster," Television Without Pity's Jacob Clifton studies the role of the feminine on the show. Women (either as a presence, and more often as an absence) are extremely important on the male-dominated Supernatural, often in non-obvious ways. Intriguing as the essay is, it's also problematic. The author suggests that the show's female viewers feel "pushed out by the conflicted masculinity and morality of the show's deepening complexity." Yet it's that conflict and complexity and moral ambiguity that the show's female viewers are drawn to, part of what makes the show appealing to both genders and varying demographics.

There's a lot that's good here, but a lot of padding and redundancy. Whether the collection is worth it will vary wildly from reader to reader.


Disclaimer: one of the essayists mentioned in the above review, Tracy S. Morris, is a reporter at Firefox News. The review was written as objectively as possible, without regard for website affiliation.