The Winchesters were back for another season after an impressive five year run with Eric Kripke at the helm. With Kripke stepping down from his day to day duties Sera Gamble was given the difficult task of having to appease a diehard fanbase with a follow up season that involved a battle with The Devil himself. It was expected season six would be a drop off from the previous season, but it wasn’t expected to have such a sloppy outing. As stated in my previous article on the show I wasn’t too particularly fond of how they were handling all the different plot lines. With Crowley, a search for Purgatory, Sam’s soulless return, the war in heaven, and Eve all being done in one season it made the season feel like it lacked focus.
Season six started off with Dean living his normal life with Ben and Lisa. Until of course his old life comes right back to put him and his new family in danger. With that we also got to see that Sam was in fact okay and not in hell(though that wasn’t really news). This sets off an early stretch where Dean is now back on the road with his brother, but also gave us a glimpse that something was wrong with Sam. While I applaud the writers for taking such a gamble I don’t necessarily think it worked very well. For one thing the soulless Sam sort of lacked the chemistry we are so used to between the Winchester brothers. It also didn’t help that the new Campbell family that was brought in(along with the return of their Granddad Samuel) was incredibly distasteful. The writers made it extremely difficult to really care for even understand their motives. Where as characters such as Lucifer or Azazel were written in a way that made them interesting or even worth understanding(especially Lucifer’s version of his story) the campbells came off as a bunch of glorified scumbags.
Early on we were also given how Crowely is the new King of Hell, and Castiel is fighting a civil war in heaven against the arch angel Rapheal. These two plots actually end up being the thing that connects the entire season together, but the early portion of the season rarely even acknowledged these parts of the storyline. That said when they finally are center stage the season felt like it came together. The five episode stretch before the finale felt like a nice turn around for the season. It really made it feel like all the time the audience gave to the show for the first half was finally being rewarded. Castiel’s pride being his descent to the dark side was expertly handled. You were actually given a reason to understand Castiel’s motives for why he did what he did. You also get some noteworthy scenes between Dean and Castiel about their reactions to what Castiel has done. If the season was paced a little big better this revelation late into the season could have easily become one of the more memorable archs in the entire series. Unfortunately the odd pacing, the soulless first half(pun intended), and a rush job stops this season from being up to the Supernatural standard of the past 2 years.
The Mother of all Eve was handled poorly, and taken out far too quickly. The younger actress(Julia Maxwell) turned in a solid performance, but she lacked the gravitas to really pull off Eve character. Her later form as Mary Winchester(Samantha Smith) suited the character far more. It provided another incentive for the Winchesters to ice her, as well as giving the character the instant draw that she needed. Sadly all the character was given was one memorable scene against the Winchesters in a dinner.
The Sam’s soul storyline also was rushed, and really felt like it contradicted a lot of the things they were saying. The entire second half made it seem like Sam would crumble and die if he found out what happened to his soul in Hell, but it ends up being nothing more than a throwdown between three different Sam’s in his head? Just felt like an odd way to end it, and even more so just a boring and lazy way of saving Sam(because you can’t kill Sam again with the 7th season already being set).
Now the most controversial part of this season also happens to be the most shocking event this season. Castiel takes in all the souls of Purgatory, and is basically the new God in the supernatural universe. The ending was a bit cheesy with the multiple close ups on the shocked faces of the Winchesters and Bobby, but as usual Supernatural leaves us hanging with another cliff hanger ready for the next season. Personally I have a lot of doubts if Supernatural can handle this type of cosmic battle with the grace and tight writing needed. If done poorly it’s going to come off entirely cringe worthy. Either way cheers to another season of Supernatural.
On the more positive note we had plenty of strong stand alone episodes. As the meta episode “The French Mistake” was hands down one of the funniest episodes in the entire series. With the scene of Dean and Sam playing their real life selves trying to play Dean and Sam was nothing short of hilarious. As well as “My Heart Will Go On” and “Clap Your Hands if You Believe” being memorable for giving us an X-File spoof, the introduction of fairies, Fate herself, and my personal favorite an Angel that really hated The Titanic and Celine Dion. Season six had no chance in hell of living up to the grand arch of the previous two seasons, and it didn’t help itself with such shoddy pacing. It was still mostly an enjoyable season thanks to some good performances by the main characters, and another solid season of good ol monsters hunting. Here’s hoping season 7 brings the show back up to standard.
Sloppy Pacing out of 10
