Creator Eric Kripke says he pitched the show as "Star Wars in truck stop America." He has also cited Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Joseph Campbell, and the Hellblazer and Sandman comics as inspirations. Of course it also draws from horror movie tropes and plays with archetypal critters such as vampires and werewolves. Most intriguingly, it draws its spooky stories almost entirely from urban legends and folklore from the United States and around the world. Sam and Dean Winchester have encountered Bloody Mary, the ghost of H.H. Holmes (America's first serial killer), the Albanian legend of the shtriga, a figure from Tibetan mysticism called a tulpa, and the story of blues legend Robert Johnson, who supposedly made a deal with the devil.

The visual effects, while obviously not on a big budget, are memorable and the series has established its own visual style, both sunlit and dusty, gritty and colorful, consisting of old gas stations and cemeteries, diners and lonely highways. The music is also a stand-out, the classic rock used as an indelible part of the characters and the show's style. Visually and thematically, The X-Files is clearly an influence here, and the production staff includes a number of alumnae from that show. Yet Supernatural manages to feel like something new, a response to both urban legends and to the TV shows and movies that are familiar not only to its two lead characters, but to the show's audience.

The premise: when Dean was four years old and Sam was an infant, a mysterious supernatural force killed their mother. Their father, John, made it his life's crusade not only to hunt down and destroy what murdered his wife, but also to make sure his sons grew up knowing how to hunt and kill the things that go bump in the night. As adults, Sam and Dean Winchester travel the country in a '67 Chevy Impala, "saving people, hunting things, the family business," to quote Dean. Their tools are not only shotguns loaded with rock-salt rounds, but the Internet, Latin incantations, arcane books, and dusty archives. This show makes geekery look sexy.
 
One reason for the show's success is its buddy format. Each week features a good variety of guest or recurring characters, but the focus stays on the connection between the brothers Winchester. While the show's genre is primarily horror, mostly sticking to the standalone, monster-of-the-week format, it also delivers a good dose of comedy and drama, with clever dialogue and superb chemistry between its leads, Jensen Ackles ("Smallville") and Jared Padalecki ("Gilmore Girls"). The show occasionally veers into its own mythology, which is comparatively uncomplicated and well-plotted, and makes the show as much multi-generational family saga as horror story.

Supernatural premiered on The WB (which merged into The CW) on September 13, 2005 with a Tuesdays at 9 pm time slot. It proved to be The WB's strongest new show in the Fall 2005 season, the only new show on the network to get a full season pick-up. It was also the only significant new genre TV series to emerge intact from the Fall 2005 TV season. With a 90% retention rate from its lead-in "Gilmore Girls," the show quickly picked up a devoted fan following. Later in season one, the show moved to Thursday nights following "Smallville," which was considered to be a stronger lead-in.
Supernatural continued its high audience retention rate in that slot, but the change also put Supernatural up against ratings powerhouses "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI." Despite its ratings struggle, Supernatural had a strong end to its first season and strong numbers on its season two premiere. The second season has been excellent, exploring and evolving the characters and the Supernatural universe further.

New viewers continue to find the show, although the ratings numbers for the end of season two were disappointing. For season three, the show will retain its Thursday night slot with the lead-in of "Smallville," as well as the fierce competition from other networks. Supernatural is a show "on the bubble," with the potential to become another cultural phenomenon like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files. While it can at times be uneven, the characters are vivid and three-dimensional, the emotions ring true, and the episodes are fast-paced and scary. It is by turns spooky, hilarious, and heart-wrenching, scary not just because of its monsters but the truths it presents about family, grief, loss, and finding your way in the world.

The show's fans find the characters easy to relate to, and also respond to the folklore and research aspects. It appeals to everyone from media studies scholars to scientists to professionals to high school and college students, from all over the United States and the world. While it can't be denied that a good part of its appeal comes from the two attractive male leads, that's definitely only part of the equation.

To quote a few viewers:

"Supernatural-- before the monsters, before the action, before the scares -- is about family. When it comes to men relating to one another, the writers have a intrinsic grasp on how men talk to one another. How what they say with their silences and their actions is greater than anything they could ever say with their words...They don't fight because of a burden of destiny, they fight because of their knowledge of what is out there and that it can be fought against. It isn't because of any innate ability that they fight, it is because of their knowledge that they choose to fight. They are heroes in a world everyone will recognize." --Andie Masino

"Television is full of shows that claim to be about families, but I can't think of any other TV family that feels as real to me as the Winchesters, with all their love and anger and conflict and loyalty. Part of it is the acting and the great chemistry between the leads, and part of it is the writing, which is much more complex and insightful than it often gets credit for." --Marina Frants

"Injects old world mythology with a burst of road movie American cool."--Alison Schwartz


More about Supernatural:

Supernatural airs Thursdays at 9 pm on the CW. Episodes are available for viewing on The CW website, and as downloads on iTunes and at Amazon. (The CW logs how many views the streaming episodes get, and of course itunes and amazon tracks sales, so if you aren't a Nielsen household this is a good way to register support for the show).

Season one is available on DVD. Supernatural on The CW website

The CW has an official blog for Supernatural with links to interviews, news, and fandom activity.

Supernatural on IMDB