At what point should I quit watching "Supernatural"?

June 24, 2015 7:41 AM

One of my current brain-off binge-watch-while-tinkering/sewing shows is "Supernatural." I'm partway through Season 1. I've heard that, like many long-running shows (don't even look at me, X-Files), it eventually goes pear-shaped. As spoiler-free as possible: when should I quit? Alternatively, at what point should I quit, but feel free to point out any later episodes that are worth the watch.
posted by Naamah to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

My wife loves this show. According to her, the first season after Kripke left (Season 6) was a little off, but since then it's been good.
posted by Jacob G at 7:44 AM on June 24, 2015

Should've clarified, Kripke is the creator of the show, not a character or any other spoiler...
posted by Jacob G at 7:53 AM on June 24, 2015

Season 5 ends with a complete, clearly well-planned, climactic confrontation and a final resolution for the characters. The arc that ends in Season 5 is the same arc that begins in Season 1-- what happened to their mother? Why is Sam important? What are the true motivations of the villains?

The creator left after Season 5 because the show was over. Season 6+ is just the network bleeding it until it's bone-dry.
posted by 4th number at 7:55 AM on June 24, 2015

End of Season Five is a good stopping spot. There are a few good episodes after that, but the series was originally designed to go five seasons, and the end of season five feels like an ending.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:56 AM on June 24, 2015

Watch until the end of season five. Then stop. It'll be hard; the last shot of the last episode of season five will make you shout WHAT at your TV screen, but stop anyway. You probably won't listen to this advice; I didn't. I wish I had. The first five seasons are amazing. Everything after that will ruin your memory of the great show that it was.
posted by Sternmeyer at 7:56 AM on June 24, 2015

I just showed up to it last year and binge-watched seasons 1-9 to watch the most recent season in real time (and wasn't THAT a bitch to suddenly have to wait a week between episodes!) Every season has a couple of dumb episodes, but I think it's all worth watching. I skipped a few episodes here and there just so I would have something to go back to.

So I guess I'm saying, don't quit. This most recent season had a couple of weak spots but also some really, really good and worth-it stuff.
posted by tomboko at 7:56 AM on June 24, 2015

Yes, the end of Season 5 is a natural stopping point, so definitely watch through then and see how you feel. I feel like Seasons 7 and 8 had some boring ongoing side plots, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Season 10.
posted by mgar at 8:00 AM on June 24, 2015

Depends on what appeals to you about the show. I stopped in Season 5 when it became clear that the show was going deep on the concept of Destiny and biological determinism (Sam and Dean are descendents of yadda yadda and that's why so much crap is focused on them) (also I had other theological issues which are irrelevant to this discussion), and was still going to keep killing off female characters and secondary characters. None of that was why I tuned in originally, so I stopped watching.

TLDR: watch to the end of season 4. If you like how the show is at that point, recognize that it's only going to get more so that way, and continue on.
posted by suelac at 8:48 AM on June 24, 2015

I'd quit after season 5. After that it just went downhill. Basically every season since then has been a flat out recycle of the previous year's plot and the characters have changed in ways that are less than noble. They now seem to be more concerned about protecting one another from ever dying ever than being heroes who save other people. It's quite sad because it was a pretty great show once. Another victim of the CW's "beat a dead horse until it's not even a horse anymore" thing with TV shows.
posted by katyggls at 9:01 AM on June 24, 2015

Season 6 is a big pile of not-woth-it, but I did kinda get into season 7. Maybe skip 6 and jump to 7. I gave up early in 8, IIRC. The characters didn't go anywhere new, they were just more extreme versions of themselves. I didn't see anything new or interesting or different, apart from side characters that were killed off way too early.
posted by Solomon at 10:35 AM on June 24, 2015

Season 5 is the natural stopping point, but if you are OK with the "monster of the week" type episodes up till that point, you can keep going.

Do you really like Castiel as a character? Do you like to root for characters who have good intentions but still keep managing to screw up? Cas will not disappoint as he continues to make Bad Life Choices which have lasting consequences for everyone around him.

I enjoyed Season 7, just because the Leviathans were such over the top villains that it basically became a dark comedy.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 11:56 AM on June 24, 2015

You should keep watching it as long as you enjoy it. Really, it's that simple.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:14 PM on June 24, 2015

Look, probably every season (though especially after the natural ending point of season 5) is intermittently good and bad. Every season there are some awesome episodes that will make you happy you stuck with the show, and some godawful ones that will make you want to quit. I do concur that finding a new depressing arc every season does kinda suck, and the main three keep reviving while other awesome people do not so much...but the show is like those intermittent reinforcement science experiments with mice. I keep thinking I'm circling the drain and going to hit my limit and quit, but I never quite do.

I suspect just looking around for the most well liked episodes per season on the Internet might be your way to go.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:36 PM on June 24, 2015

Season 17
posted by sammyo at 8:04 PM on June 24, 2015

Thanks, everyone. If a show is set up to have a long-term narrative arc, I like when the show follows through on it, even if that means wrapping it up before the cash cow is milked dry.

I probably should have been more clear on that part in my question, but for now I will check in with how I'm feeling about "number of dead female characters" by the end of Season 4 and after that resist any temptation I have to go beyond Season 5.

If my resistance falters, I'll check out 6.15 and Season 7.
posted by Naamah at 8:29 AM on June 25, 2015

So, even if you're still enjoying the show, you're going to stop watching it because some people say it's not as good later?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:56 PM on June 25, 2015

Supernatural didn't suddenly tank in quality like some shows do (ie, the X-Files). It was more a long, slow slide into not-as-good-ness. I kept watching way after the 5th season, and am still watching the show, and it's still fun. But be advised that the problems with it (the casual killing of secondary characters, the crappy attitude towards ladies) never do get any better. At this point I consider it kind of a guilty pleasure.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 7:24 AM on June 27, 2015

Advice based not on watching Supernatural,
but based on trying to advise people to quit BSG while they were ahead*:

Don't necessarily QUIT watching Supernatural after Season 5, but... give yourself a little break. Consider the full impact of the show, and of how the 'Ending' affected you.
Then, after some waiting, if you go ahead and watch the rest of it, and then go, "Oh god, why did I do that?" it is kind of mentally easier to 'rewind' and fondly remember how it was at that earlier stopping point.
Which is a lot harder to do if you just marathon past it.



* BSG: Ahead being, after the writers strike 'finale' in the last season.
Just, shhhh... it's ok, that mangled mess of an ending never happened. They just decided to get back on their ships and look for a new home, and wasn't the emotional resonance of their characters/actors 'farewells' heartbreaking?
Maybe the writers really did have a plan, and we just never got to see it! *sobs*
posted by Elysum at 5:02 AM on July 16, 2015