The 'Genre' of Supernatural

It has been argued that television programmes do not always ascertain to one specific genre, often because programmes span multiple years and episodes during their run and committing to one genre may result in the stagnation of the audience. As a result “the texts of a given genre are much more broad ranging and diverse than can be summed up by typical claims” (Mittell, 2004, 5). In the case of Supernatural (2005), a programme that concluded at the end of 2020 after a 15-year-run, the showrunners make a point of manipulating genre and a diverse range of genre tropes in the case of multiple episodes. Whereas the overall narrative remains firmly in the roots of paranormal/supernatural drama horror genre, Supernatural frequently and deliberately manipulates other genres, often in the form of homage or specific reference.

“Most theorists of genre argue that generic norms and conventions are recognised and shared not only by theorists themselves, but also by audiences, readers and viewers” (Creeber, 2008, 1). The study of genre theory centres mostly around the idea that genre is an audience generated construct rooted in content and conventions that relies on the previous experiences and ‘horizon of expectations’ of an audience. The ‘horizon of expectations’, a concept of reception theory theorised by Jauss indicates, “a text that is written within a particular context [...], a reader comes into it from within a different horizon” (Willis, 2018, 153) and therefore with a different level of understanding.

Genre definition is largely reliant on previous experience and expectations, id est in a programme named Supernatural a reader may expect the presence of ghosts and supernatural beings, therefore placing the programme firmly in the genre of the paranormal drama. This understanding may be reached through the reader observing previous content consumed and consequently relying on their own ‘horizon of expectations’. “The classification of texts is not just the province of academic specialists, it is a fundamental aspect of the way texts of all kinds are understood” (Creeber, 2008, 1).

Organising media and literature into categories creates a mutual code of tropes recognised by audiences regardless of class, culture and socio-economic background. Genre classifications are marked by not only the repetition of tropes and content from programme to programme through time but also by the difference in tropes and content. This categorisation allows showrunners and production companies to adapt and amend the narrative of a programme to adhere to a specific genre or to recognised tropes in order to best appeal to their intended audience. The recognition of tropes by a programme reader, however, gives showrunners the freedom to manipulate genre in order to continue a television programme and keep an audience engaged.

Supernatural is representative of the tropes associated with a paranormal/supernatural drama, a division of the overall horror genre. The premise of the programme narrative and characters, such as the demon-smiting protagonist brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, who spend their lives hunting supernatural beings whilst battling their own ‘real-world’ problems such as grief, loss and identity, and specific episodes of Supernatural, such as 1x02: Wendigo or 4x11: Family Remains, easily fit the wider analogous allegories of the horror genre. These episodes in particular put emphasis on the recognised horror specifics that have come to symbolise the genre such as: handheld or found footage formatting, teenage protagonists misunderstood by their families, jump scares, dark and ominous lighting, lack of phone signal (meaning isolation of the victims), and the ‘final girl’. Recurring characters such as Claire Novak (Kathryn Love Newton) or Jodie Mills (Kim Rhodes) come to represent the ‘final girl’, an important and recognisable trope of the horror genre, in Supernatural, an “intelligent, watchful, level-headed; the first character to sense something amiss and the only one to deduce from the accumulating evidence the patterns and extent of the threat” (Clover in Jancovich, 2001, 79).

Some episodes of Supernatural are infamously terrifying, such as 1x15: Bloody Mary, and yet these seem to be the most popular episodes amongst fans of the programme: “audiences enjoy horror in spite of the fear it produces, as they willingly pay the price of horror to enjoy narrative pleasures” (Mittell, 2004, 3). Tropes that place Supernatural firmly in the identified paranormal category, which in itself is a widely recognised subgenre of horror, include the introduction of supernatural entities such as ghosts, werewolves, vampires, witches and the use of terminology such as ‘EMF (ElectroMagnetic Frequency (or Field))’ and ‘ectoplasm’, which, thanks to movies such as Ghostbusters (1984) and television shows such as Most Haunted (2002) have come to be recognised by audiences as paranormal. However, throughout the 15 year run of Supernatural, the programme has come to ‘branch out’ and ‘blur the lines’ of other genres as a recurring adaptation, including the introduction of elements of the biblical drama genre categorised through the frequent narrative use of angels, demons, Heaven, Hell and the characters of God and Lucifer. In the most apparent and blatant manipulation of genre the episode 5x08: Changing Channels plays with the tropes of multiple genres outside of the paranormal drama genre, primarily situational-comedy, medical drama, soap opera, crime drama, and game show.

The episode 5x08: Changing Channels opens with an exterior shot of a motel, a frequent setting for generic episodes of the programme, but with the addition of a non-diegetic voice-over of star Jensen Ackles announcing “Supernatural is filmed before a live studio audience”. This opening, recognisable to an audience with a similar ‘horizon of expectations’, is a direct homage to situational-comedies of the 1960s and 1970s such as Happy Days (1974) and instantly breaks the paranormal/supernatural drama genre. “Sitcoms are generally performed before live audiences, whether broadcast live (in the old days) or filmed or taped, and they usually have an element that might almost by metadrama” (Mills, 2005, 27). Any reader familiar with Supernatural will recognise that this episode is being set up as a ‘spoof’, or what is referred to within the Supernatural community as ‘single-shot’ (id est an episode that doesn’t necessarily influence the overarching plot of a season and is instead intended for the enjoyment of the audience, such as 3x03: Bad Day at Black Rock, 4x08: Wishful Thinking or 6x15: The French Mistake). Elements that make the opening scene of 5x08: Changing Channels recognisably that of a sitcom include the upbeat introductory music, brightly coloured static set, live-audience reactions, over-the-top, physical and non-verbal acting from Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Jensen Ackles (Dean) and quick-fire one-liners such as “I’m gonna need a bigger mouth” when referring to the comically oversized sandwich on the table.

The episode quickly develops to reveal Sam and Dean Winchester are trapped within ‘TV land’ and are being forced to undertake a range of roles in order to escape. The tropes of situational-comedy quickly fade to those of a medical drama not too dissimilar to the American serial/medical drama Grey’s Anatomy (2005) or Days of Our Lives (1965), the latter of which starred Jensen Ackles from 1997 until 2000. In this section of 5x08: Changing Channels, Sam and Dean are aware that they are trapped in a medical drama, categorised instantly through the closed frames, as they don white medical coats and partake in the over-the-top acting associated with a soap opera (or serial as the genre is referred to in the United States). The most common tropes associated with the soap opera/serial genre could not be shown actually within Supernatural as they are not reliant on appearance but instead are reliant on scheduling and airtime: the main trope that makes the soap opera/serial genre recognisable is the every-day, daytime broadcast and the exceptionally long run, which in the case of Days of Our Lives (1965) currently sits at 54 years and counting.

5x08: Changing Channels then continues in its quest to represent a multitude of genres from medical serial/drama into a Japanese-style game show within which Sam and Dean are the contestants. The segment relies on the readers external knowledge to recognise the unpredictability, insanity and hilarity of Japanese game shows such as Takeshi’s Castle (1986) in which contestants are often forced into ridiculous situations. From this game show Sam and Dean find themselves trapped in a crime drama similar to Criminal Minds (2005) or CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), identifiable by the use of language and costume: Sam and Dean wear oversized aviator sunglasses often associated with the character of Horatio Caine in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Miami (2002). The most notable tropes of a crime drama is the crime that has been committed and how the hero(ine)s, often police-officers or Federal agents (both roles, within Supernatural, have been falsified by Sam and Dean), go about solving it. Above many other genres the crime genre, which in itself has its roots in literature and the detective literary genre, offers a form of escapism as the reader loses themselves in the case being solved. “In terms of television crime drama and its effect, we may designate the ‘thriller’ as a subgenre of crime that, like a comedy, depends on an audience experience of sustained anxiety and/or excitement” (Turnbull, 2014, 6). Above many other genres, then, the crime drama genre relies heavily on audience ‘horizon of expectations’ in order to deduce the culprit and achieve satisfaction. Within this scene in 5x08: Changing Channels Sam and Dean fail in deducing the culprit which causes conflict in the overall plotline of the episode.

Whereas 5x08: Changing Channels is intentional in its manipulation of genres so that both the audience and the characters themselves are aware of the mixing of tropes, Supernatural often blurs the lines between different genres. Within the opening titles of 5x08: Changing Channels there is a sequence in which Sam and Dean walk backwards around each other in an overly comedic sense. This enactment pays direct homage to paranormal cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969), a text easily recognisable to the reader due to its cultural impact, even if they have never watched an episode. This latter reference is not the only time Supernatural has made reference to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! as throughout the narrative the character of Dean often refers to it in reference to their line of work (id est hunting the paranormal), as-well as similar paranormal/supernatural drama shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), Ghost Whisperer (2005) and films such as The Twilight Saga (2008-2012).

In response to fan requests Supernatural collaborated with Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros in the episode 13x16: Scoobynatural in which Sam and Dean find themselves trapped in the 2D animation universe of Scooby-Doo and must solve a case alongside Mystery Incorporated. This blurring of the lines between genres throughout the 14 years Supernatural has been running places emphasis on the argument that television genres are often hybrid. “Supernatural is a hybrid series, mixing horror and the road movie melodrama, but unlike other shows it privileges horror as its dominant general mode, visually and narratively” (Abbott, 2011, 4). In Supernatural episode 3x13: Ghostfacers! the genre becomes that of a hand-held paranormal reality show/documentary such as Most Haunted (2002) as it mixes direct-to-camera interviews with ‘found-footage’ shot in ‘night-mode’. This episode specifically relies on the prior knowledge and ‘horizon of expectations’ of the reader to understand the format, genre and message of the episode.

It is the hybridity and manipulation of the paranormal/supernatural drama genre of Supernatural that has been main appeal of the programme to fans and audiences throughout the entirety of its 14 year run. Each season contains a multitude of ‘single-shot’ episodes that blur the lines between the established and other genres, and therefore appeals to a range of audiences and continues to keep existing audiences engaged. However, “as genres become less pure, they lose their distinction and their usefulness” (Mittell, 2004, 156) . Although Supernatural maintains tropes that place it within that of paranormal/supernatural drama genre, which in itself is a dilution of the horror genre, the continuous adaptation of the genre may eventually result in an entirely hybrid genre with little to no purpose except ‘mindless’ entertainment.

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