Supernatural Season 7 Review

In a day where many TV shows end up getting cancelled after only two, three, or four seasons thanks to TV stations like FOX not giving anything a chance, having a TV series make it through seven seasons is quite the accomplishment. Well, that is exactly what Supernatural has done as the season seven finale was just this past week. Maybe being on the CW has something to do with that as they are more prone to giving TV shows a shot, but still. More impressive is that Supernatural has been renewed for a season eight and may even last for nine or ten. In addition, it has survived the past two seasons on Friday nights, which is a typically the night that TV shows have gone to die. The reward it gets for surviving that spot for two years is a time change to Wednesdays nights for this upcoming season. Now Supernatural could've easily ended after five seasons. That was the original plan. And with the apocolypse happening in the fifth season, it would've been a great ending. But they decided to move on. And how do you top the apocolypse? Well, you don't. What you do instead of trying to top it, you just take the show in a completely new direction. And that is exactly what they have done for the previous two seasons.

The direction they took in season seven is with leviathans. Now what in the heck is a leviathan you ask? A random creature that Supernatural made up? Heck no. That's one of the reasons that Supernatural is so awesome. They do their research with the stuff that appears in their show and using a leviathan is yet another argument to support that. Sure they use creative liberties in the actual way they portray them, but the creatures or monsters in Supernatural exist in mythology. Now which mythology you ask? Well, a combination really. Looking at a leviathan, it actually appears in biblical mythology, just like much of the stuff from Supernatural, especially seasons four and five. Now I am not asking you to convert to Christianity with this next request, but for the sake of Supernatural crack open an Old Testament and turn to Job chapter 41. The whole chapter is dedicated to describing a leviathan. Why? I don't know. But it is. I won't quote the whole thing here, but I'll start with verse one in my King James version: "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a card which thou lettest down?" Pretty cool, eh? Now if you read the whole section, it's describing a powerful sea serpent which is not quite what Supernatural does with the leviathans, but they are seen differently in different mythologies. Demonology says a leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and it's gatekeeper. Some later Jewish sources see a leviathan like a dragon. In the middle ages, Christianity saw the leviathan as a symbol for Satan. So what a leviathan is depends on your perspective really and Supernatural kinda combines some of these ideas and turns a leviathan into a crazy, nearly unstoppable monster from purgatory that can take over the body of a mortal.

With that small history out of the way, season seven starts with the pompous Castiel paying for his mistake of trying to become God. The end of season six saw him suck in Purgatory and become all powerful while the beginning of season seven sees him explode releasing the leviathans onto earth along with their leader Dick Roman. While I did enjoy the somewhat complex storyline style of season four and five, season seven does a great job of going back to the style done in the first few seasons. That style included a loose story line that played along during the season while including a bunch of stand alone episodes that the casual observer could enjoy without having to know much of what was going on. This worked quite well for season seven. Also working in its favor was the emotional aspect of the season. I won't blurt out what happened, but those who watched it will know what I am talking about. Some may be angry and bitter about this, but they shouldn't be. The number one rule of Supernatural is to expect the unexpected. Crazy things happen all the time that take the audience by suprise and that is the fun part of it. You should never be mad at Supernatural for doing something unexpected or doing something to a character that you didn't want done. The journey for Sam and Dean has never been peaches and roses and what happens in season seven just adds to that dynamic.

Now lets end this with talking about the finale. No the finale wasn't as epic as the season five finale and no it wasn't as jaw droppingly shocking as the season six finale, but the way it ended was quite amazing. I felt that season six set up quite nicely for season seven. Now I feel that the with the way season seven ended, it set up quite perfectly for the eighth season. The journey has been long for Sam and Dean and each new season adds a new dimension to their story. Both brothers have progressed quite a bit since the start of the series and I am excited to see where this next season will take them. Season seven was great and I have a feeling that season eight will be even better!