All the reasons why you need to bingewatch ‘Supernatural’

We need to make a confession: we’re late to the game when it comes to Supernatural. In fact, we’re very late to the game. So late that we only started watching the show as of very recently after years of swatting away recommendations from friends that this is the show everyone needs in their life. Obviously, we thought we knew better and obviously, we were hella wrong.

After bingewatching our way through all thirteen seasons of the show in just a matter of months, we can now say that we get it. Furthermore, we’ve officially become those people suddenly urging everyone and anyone who hasn’t seen Supernatural to immediately start. As it turns out, our pals were right: Supernatural really is the show that everyone needs in their life and if you haven’t started watching it yet, you seriously need to. Here’s why.

1. First and foremost, those Winchester brothers are a serious treat

At the heart of the series is an unbreakable brotherly bond between older protective bro Dean (Jensen Ackles) and younger precocious bro Sam (Jared Padalecki). Together they’re basically in “the family business” of “saving people” and “hunting things”, as Dean once put it. The relationship imbues the show with a deep emotionality, but it also provides Supernatural with a buoyant sense of camaraderie and wit that you’ll more than likely find to be utterly irresistible (you’re only human).

As a result, there are a lot of terrific brotherly moments to be enjoyed during the course of the show that will either have you rolling on the floor laughing or curled up on the couch with a supersized tub of ice cream crying. Part of what makes the Winchester bros such a hoot are the consistently enchanting performances from Ackles and Padalecki. They’re easy on the eyes, their chemistry is lit AF, and whether the scene demands high emotion, action, or comedy, both of them nail it every goddamn time.

2. Supernatural‘s plot is intensely gripping and full of surprises

Basically, the whole premise of Supernatural revolves around the Winchester bros being brought up in the dangerous world of hunting wicked supernatural beasts by their dad. Quick backstory: Their mom is killed by a supernatural being just six months after Sam is born and their dad is eager to find this bastard and kill it. Naturally, that’s a pursuit worth getting the kids involved in.

From here the show is a non-stop wild ride of wicked, weird supernatural activity starting with Sam and Dean being tasked with finding their suddenly missing father and encountering a slew of mayhem and mishaps along the way. You might think a plot like that could wear a little thin after thirteen seasons, but Supernatural always finds fun ways to reinvent and refresh the narrative. That means it never gets boring, samey, or formulaic.

3. Supernatural features an ever-growing set of captivating supporting characters (and cast members)

Look, this is a show that’s hosted the great talents of actors as magnificent as Sterling K. Brown, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Leslie Odom Jr., Ashley Benson, Jason Dohring, and err Paris Hilton – when it comes to characters, it does not fuck around and the casting is always consistently great proof of that.

Though nobody can hold a candle to Dean and Sam (besides the ever-adorable Castiel played by the lovely Misha Collins – but you won’t really meet him until S4), the show boasts some of the most loveable heroes and (gasp!) even villains of any show on TV.

Supernatural is a series full of complex female characters, morally ambiguous protagonists, and complicated villains who you can often find yourself rooting for in spite of their monstrous ways (an especially big shout out to Mark Shepard’s Crowley for that one). 

This is a show that takes time to develop characters and it develops them well. So well, in fact, that you should probably prepare to have your little heart pulverized into a fine dust – Supernatural has a habit of doing awful things to the characters that you’ll inevitably love the most.

4. Supernatural has some of the best world-building on TV (and you’ll find yourself hopelessly engrossed in it)

By world-building, we aren’t talking about the sort of intricate, sprawling dimensions seen in a show like The Expanse (though Supernatural does a great job of uniting a slew of otherworldly realms with that of the living), but more in how the show draws you so completely into the perspective of the Winchester brothers.

The prime example of this is in how the show utilizes music – most notably, classic rock with the sound of the Winchesters. It’s not the most unique or modern TV soundtrack but it totally works in reflecting the world of Dean and Sam and ultimately their bond together.

It’s how they rock out in Baby (the name of their car, by the way) after a long, hard death-defying day and it’s how they goof off together, leading to such incomparable moments as Sam and Dean reluctantly singing along to Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive” to avoid having to talk about their emotions.

But the creature design of the show is also a joy worth beholding. The whole “monster of the week” format has always worked to the show’s advantage, with Supernatural finding fun ways to reference horror and sci-fi tropes while also introducing fresh new nightmarish visions that are always an absolute hoot.

5. Supernatural’s downright hilarious

We’re almost certain that not one single person who recommended the show to us capably highlighted just how funny (and smartly so, too) Supernatural is. A big part of that is simply that Ackles and Padalecki share some phenomenal comedic chemistry together that plays so perfectly within a show so dark. But another major aspect is just that the show is stacked with hilarious setups.

They’ve so far included the two brothers having a somber debate about whether they should or could kill an alcoholic teddy bear (long before Ted was a thing), a suitably uproarious crossover with Scooby Doo, and a meta-masterpiece of an episode in which Sam and Dean find themselves on the set of Supernatural as Ackles and Padalecki – yeah, it gets pretty nuts.

6. Fourteen seasons may seem like a lot, but trust us – they breeze by

We know better than anyone how daunting it can be to look at such a long-running show and think: “Holy crap, where am I going to find the time in my already stacked streaming schedule for all those episodes?” But trust us, you’ll make time.

Though you can probably just as easily dive into about any episode at random and still enjoy the show, we heartily recommend enjoying it from the start. That way you’ll understand the complexity of the overall Supernatural universe and can fully appreciate all the little in-jokes and callbacks of later seasons. Take it one episode at a time, folks – but trust us, you’ll be addicted in no time at all.