Supernatural

I try to avoid commenting on television shows, because each episode can be a creation in itself, and because if you don't like the genre you certainly aren't going to spend fifteen hours watching an entire season, but I want my readership to know that I haven't abandoned my boob tube entirely just because I fell in love with a passing book (The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, incidentally).

Supernatural seems to have taken horror movies to prime time. This show currently runs on the CW, and although I've only seen large chunks of season 1, I've been enjoying it so far. The CW affiliation manifests through the obscenely attractive cast, the constant stream of anorexic blondes (with a few notable variations), and the fairly current-gen pop-culture references (with a few throw-backs to classic horror).

Although the X-Files and other science-fiction shows have televised horror from episode to episode, none of them seem so firmly planted in the genre. Angel and Buffy, although closely related subject-wise, seems to spend less time in fear than they do in drama. Medium and its ilk relate more closely with the perennially popular Crime Drama genre, as did The X-Files, somewhat. Supernatural avoids the crime drama maelstrom entirely by firstly, keeping the main characters just skin-of-teeth distance from becoming fugitives, and secondly, by making them exuberantly hunters instead of brainiac puzzle-solvers. Both of the brothers seem more at home cocking a rock-salt-loaded shotgun than cracking a book (although the writers seem to waffle on this point).

Supernatural frightens. The boys hunt at night, and are hunted. Things go bump in the night. Things jump out of shadow. Blood spurts, splashes, and gushes. Dismemberment abounds. Every cheap trick, every agonizing moment the repairman spends with his hand down the supposedly non-functioning garbage disposal unit, every camera angle hides a bogeyman. Every sunrise falls weakly on another victim. Some might call it intense, but as a long-time fan of supernatural horror genre, I'm enjoying the directorial and authorial display of creativity in what so often proves a stagnant idea pool.