Next fall, and later this season in the form of a backdoor pilot, will see the long awaited “Supernatural” spinoff. Over the years there have been all manner of rumors floating around including a Samuel Colt prequel that was ultimately taken care of in an entirely too coincidental time travel episode for Dean including a Phoenix. Now though a lengthy new addition has finally been announced to the Winchester’s universe. But as we find out more details of the show, I begin to question how good of an idea this is and where it should go.
I’m a very formulaic type of hunter: I go into every season ecstatic, convince myself of how great a story it is, love the finale cliffhanger and eagerly await the following Fall premiere. It’s not until about a season or two later that I really start to look back at how bad it got. I think we can all agree the show was flawed, but near perfect for a 22 episode show for the first five seasons. The transition from monster hunters to pawns between the war of Heaven and Hell was both enticing and fairly groundbreaking. I attribute low viewership to fact that more bible-thumpers didn’t freak out about a show where Angels were harbingers of death and Demons were companions. But show creator Eric Kripke left after his pre-planned five seasons and the show has struggled to maintain a consistent storyline. Now we’re faced with another show that will almost inevitably make this show’s universe even more flawed.
This spinoff has promised to stray from the Traveling Winchesters' formula and plant new characters in the dark recesses of Chicago, which is certainly a nice way to change up the story. Recently news broke of the spinoff’s title (Supernatural: Tribes) and the main characters. The plot focuses on a human hunter stuck in the middle of Chicago with the realization that the city is run by five families of monsters, including shape shifters and werewolves. Why Sam, Dean or any of the other hunters don’t know about the monster mobs in a very major city is beyond me and probably won’t be answered in the show, but oh well. We’re “Supernatural” fans, we have a reasonable (HUGE) suspension of disbelief. That being said, the characters really didn’t interest me and I had been hoping and praying (to Crowley or Cas, you’ll never know) for Felicia Day’s Charlie to lead the show but oh well. Strong, female, LGBT characters will have their way one day. Hopefully.
So being less than thrilled with what I’ve heard about the spinoff and the show’s last four years overall, I got to thinking about what the show could do. Spinoffs are huge right now. The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” and DC fan fav “Arrow” will both have spinoffs by next Fall, ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” took a miserable stroll into “Wonderland” and Agents of SHIELD is pretty much a spinoff of the MCU. Some do better than others, but either way they’re popular and network execs love the ease of adding another time slot for an already established fan base. We’ll see more soon I’m sure, but another TV trend is quickly rising behind it: Anthologies. “American Horror Story” started it and has received pretty good ratings, but HBO’s “True Detective” has stepped up the game. The Brits probably perfected the art of the mini-series, but adding them to a collective universe is going to be something we see a lot of in the years to come. Bringing me to my main point: Go ahead, give “Supernatural” a spinoff, but wrap up the story after one season and gives us different one next year.
Again, I’m not sold on “Tribes” yet but it will most certainly have crossovers with the Winchesters which is what all fans want. It’s genius to showcase the other stories outside of Sam and Dean’s story lines as well as continuing a few that were left unanswered, but fans love the brothers and will always want more. Having an anthology spinoff could give fans a bit of closure on some open stories, while also working as a way to keep Sam and Dean coming back after their long awaited retirement. Both Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) are getting old and I’m certain they want to pursue other roles, but it wouldn't be hard for them to come back once or twice a year in a supporting role. This is also a security for showrunners because, like myself, fans may not warm up to “Tribes” and if things don’t settle by season’s end the big ole reset button is an easy fix.
The other upside to the current anthologies on TV is the shortened seasons. The days of 22 episode shows is slowly coming to an end with 13 episode seasons getting much better ratings. Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Justified, the list goes on and shows that short seasons are sufficient lengths for storytelling and “Baddie of the Week” episodes are almost unheard of in these series. Give me a season following up on the found footage female werewolf episode, one were Dean’s amazonian offspring fights back against her wonder women cult, and please give me some insight to Charlie’s adventures in Oz. Hell, I’d even watch a mockumentary about the mundane lives of Crowley’s pencil pusher demons a la “The Office.” The options are endless and wrapping up quick, in depth story lines would evolve this series’ universe beyond belief.
Maybe I’m crazy, perhaps I’ve been possessed by Kripke’s demonic followers, but even as dated as this show is, they still have a ton of stories to tell. Let me know if you agree, if not, well go to Hell. It’s better than Heaven if you know the right people.