Supernatural Overview (Sort of a Rant)
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The first three seasons were the ones I watched first (not in the right order and with few episodes missing, but still). I got hooked up on Supernatural while the season three was aired and eventually managed to convince my friends to provide me with (almost) all the episodes.
First three seasons of Supernatural are classic, everyone knows that. I would go as far as to say that pure classic are just the first two. Yes, seasons one and two are our tradition, the roots we constantly try to come back to. More or less.
We have one main bad character. The Super villain of Supernatural. It's something the later seasons will try to reconstruct, but fail miserably. Azazel will always win the cake.
We have Sammy. Not Sam, the abomination, the Anti-Christ, the boy-king, the monster, the emotionless hunter, the lost crusader, the blood demon junkie, the paranoid cynic, etc. etc. etc. No, in seasons 1-2 we have our Sammy. The one who used to care for people. The one who made bitch faces. The one who made this adorable huffing noise whenever his brother acted immature. The one who was always slightly emo and lost, and looked like he needed a hug. The one who always surprised us with his power over Dean and hidden strength. (Which lead to so many delicious top!sammy wincests. SO MANY.) In later seasons this Sammy gets lost forever and we can only cry after him.
We have monsters. Pretty, adorable, uncomplicated monsters without a great plan to rule over the world. We got killing bugs, lady in white, bloody marry, wendigos... and vampires, but it's still funny then. Later the monsters will become more and more complicated to the point when we will wonder what happened to good, old ones. Poor sobs.
We get Dean. Strong and youthful. Making inappropriate jokes and following Daddy's orders. Flirting with everything that has legs and slapping Sam on the ass. We get happy Dean. And we will miss it later on.
We have daddy issues. For all characters, through whole seasons. And no worries, we will still get plenty of daddy issues in later seasons. They will taste like re-heated for the 650840 time dinner, but they will be there.
We have slash hints. And they are still hints subtle as, I don't know, lying Ruby, not subtle as Cas trying to be subtle. Those hints are so delicate that people who don't care for slash watch them all without blinking and then go: huh. those two look very gay. Without conscious thought process! Those hints make slash fangirls FAINT. ("One king or two queens?") Those hints are what wincest was build on. Then unfortunately writers learned that slash is what gets them more viewers and so we went from subtle hints to obvious innuendo that will still end nowhere.
Fair enough we also have crappy quality and special effects that are sometimes more funny that scary. We still have crappy episodes (like mentioned episode with bugs, ugh). We get emo scenes (Daddy dies). We get mistakes. We get characters that make no sense. We get sucky female characters (because this show hates good female characters and when it manages to create one, it has to kill her).What's even worse, we get awesome characters that we will never see again. (But we also get some that will always come back or at least they will in fanfiction.)
The first two seasons are what made Supernatural a good show. A great idea build on and was made into an awesome show full of great action, witty dialogues and subtle hints for fanfiction writers to indulge in. Perfect.
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Season 3 in my opinion is already moving away from the classic scheme.
We loose the main bad guy for the unclear visions of some other horrible enemies. Is it Ruby? Is it Bella? Is it Gordon? Nameless road-cross demon? Lilith? Eventually, I think Lilith gets the title, but seriously, it's not the point of the seasons. The point is to save Dean.
We get Ruby, who is awesome, but starts a trend I really don't like in Supernatural. I mean, it started well, but now it's horrible. I mean the whole: can a demon be a good guy? and if yes, then later on: can an angel be a bad guy? what about pagan god? Or God? Or Satan? Is Lucifer deeply misunderstood and just needs a hug? Great line of plot, but they went TOO far. At this point everyone can turn out to be an evil mastermind and I wouldn't even be surprised.
We get beautiful brotherly scenes. So heartbreaking. So beautiful. Perfect.
We get Trickster involved in the main plot. Which I would like to believe was a nice hint for next season. Shh. Let me stay naive.
We get Dean, who is so beautifully broken I have no words. He is happy, because he's dying! He's too tired! It is absolutely epic. And his fight with his 'inner demons'? Magic.
We get determined Sammy, which is a bad sign of future Sam, but still so loveable I can't hate him yet.
We get Bella, who is absolutely amazing and female. So yeah, she had to die.
We get great comedy episodes. They are actually still funny and at the same time they don't waste the space, because we always learn something about the main plot from them. I'm not sure if it's thanks to the fact that it's much shorter season, but we don't get the episodes that are just there to fill the gap when authors had no idea what to do with the plot.
We get to see Dean die. And as much as I cried on this scene I was happy that they ended it like this. After episode after episode of being told we can't save him, it would be pathetic to see him survive. It was a great ending, one of the bests ever.
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Season 4 is when we go waaaaaaaaaaay away from the classic theme. And yet, in my opinion, it's the best season of all. I was unsure at first, because, seriously? Angels? But The Lazarus Raising hooked me up so fiercely I could not stop loving this season no matter what.
We still don't get the main bad guy. There's still Ruby. There's turning Sam. There's Alistair. There are angels. The vague risk of Lucifer and other evil just waiting for the right moment. It's like every few episodes we're getting someone new to concentrate on. It's a bit pathetic, but at least it gave us Alistair, who - if given more time on the show - could even fight Azazel for the title of most amazing villain.
We get angels. The bad, the mysterious, the conflicted. All kinds. We even get one female angel (she's horrible, so she gets to live for a while). Of course heaven is far from good and safe place, because not only monsters under your bed are real, but heros and good guys are always fake.
Most importantly, we get Castiel. And it's probably one of the main reasons why this season is better than others. Because Castiel... Above the whole awesomness of Castiel about which I could write for hours, Castiel brings as Dastiels (Destiels, however you like it). Because in the time of doubt, when Sam is not only sleeping with a demon (I could get over that, I really did like Ruby) he's also being a stubborn idiot that can't listen to anyone. When Sam turns his back on his beloved brother, and yes it all started because he wanted to save him, but let's be honest, it went so far beyond it it's a lame excuse. In those times of crisis in wincest, appears an angel who left his mark on Dean (literally), lifted him from hell, watches him sleep and has no respect for his personal space. And yes, in the end Sam and Dean get back together (so to speak) and Sam does start an Apocalypse, pushed on by fake message from Dean, and all that. But call me a blind shipper, because for me most important thing in the season 4 final is that Castiel rebels and gives up heaven FOR DEAN.
Ruby dies, because no females shall live. She already lived for too long, really.
Anna gets taken away and we think she might've been killed, but wishful thinking and all that.
We get slash hints far stronger than in seasons 1-3, but they're still not as obnoxious as the ones in season 5. And the eye-sex!
We get Chuck, which opens a whole new can of warms. I really liked the episode, but seriously, it just brought problems later on.
The daddy issues are back. Fair enough now different characters experience them, but still. And, fair enough, daddy John was never as much of an asshole as Heavenly Father apparently is.
We say goodbye to Sammy and welcome (or not) Sam. We keep on hoping Sammy will come back, but yet again - wishful thinking.
We get once-again-broken-Dean, who was perhaps not so carefully glued together by out beloved Castiel. Don't blame the guy, it was probably his first human puzzle.
We get a new Winchester. Unfortunately it's not a good thing.
We get the episodes that are there just to fill in the blanks, when the plot gets too thin. We get way too many meta jokes. We get young Marry and John (because flashbacks are the way to go). We got a frickin’ apocalypse.
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Season 5 hurts most of the time. It's a total disappointment after season four. And yet, it's not THAT bad.
There are some really crappy episodes. Like, so crappy I didn't believe it was actually possible. And yet, there are some who are on the level of season 4 or better. If only from the best episodes of seasons 4 and 5 we could get one amazing season. Or at least make season 5 short so we wouldn't have to suffer through really sucky filling-the-gaps-in-thin-plot episodes. Then again, in my opinion, the final episode of season 5 was the worst episode in this show. And it hurt even more since the episodes leading towards it where quite fine. *sigh*
Still, we get Crowley. It's worth mentioning. He is amazing and perfect and doesn’t get the best villain title, 'cause I don't consider him a true villain.
We get Gabriel and that's just one amazing turn of events. Really, I think it's worth suffering through season 5 just to meet Gabriel. Of course then we loose him, because he was way too awesome.
We get to watch Jo and Ellen die and it's not as fun as I imagined while watching season 2. Jo actually got a character and was really awesome in season 5. So, she had to die. (I'm still waiting for Missouri to be brought back and killed.)
We get Lucifer, who is really fun though a bit too much of a drama queen. And his speech to Sam always sounds the same. And seriously, the guy can hold a grudge, judging by his relations with Michael.
We get to see Michael. As young John he is marvelous. As Adam, he's pathetic.
We get Adam back, because he's a man so he can be resurrected.
We get to see Castiel explode. Watch the twinkle in Sam's eye. And we all wonder, why were we laughing at season 1 special effects?
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Season 6... I'm on the episode five, so far. And I decided to write this thing down, because I felt like ranting. I had this thought about season 6, which was brought to me by my new fandom, which is Sherlock Holmes (preferably the BBC version).
You see, seasons 1-2 are like a good, old ghost stories. CLASSICS.
Season 3 is like a new movie made on theirs base. Better effects. Quicker actions. Still classic.
Season 4 is like even newer version, that goes a bit AU here and there, surprises you with canon bits in other parts. Shocks you with how great it is, while still being so different.
Season 5 is like fandom in large. Lots of meta jokes ALL THE TIME. Some stories so breathtaking you can't believe someone thought about that, some so crappy you just wanna scroll down and not even bother with commenting, because you would have to use vulgar worlds.
Season 6 so far is like a dead fandom in which someone tries to remix all the old concepts. I'm just waiting for the Merry Sue to show up.