Midseason Report Card: Is ‘Supernatural’ season 10 as strong as ever?
While there are some seasons on TV this fall that were more or less a part of a consistent arc, we are not exactly sure that we can say the same thing about “Supernatural.”
Instead, what we had for the CW series through the first half of season 10 were some very great episodes and some fun moments, but also not at times a very cohesive story. Demon Dean was the original focus, and from there, we went on to see more of Rowena, the Mark of Cain, and some recurring favorites before having the dark side of Dean come out again by the time we rolled around to the end of the fall season.
What worked – Major props to the writers / producers for the 200th episode, which may be overall the show’s strongest episode of the past couple years. It was pure joy, and a fantastic love letter to the fans.
Also, Jensen Ackles was the MVP of the fall much in the way that Jared Padalecki was the year before. It was difficult to see Dean literally battle his inner demons, and much of the reason for that is because we have grown to have such a deep affection for this character over time.
What didn’t – The biggest setback for the first half of the season was just that we spent a whole lot of time bouncing around, and for much of it, characters were all of doing their own thing. We like Castiel and Crowley more when they are directly interacting with the Winchesters, and that did not always happen through the first nine episodes.
Also, we wonder whether or not we should start to introduce some new recurring characters to the show at this point. We really found ourselves missing such folks as Bobby and Kevin at times through these episodes.
Overall – A solid season for “Supernatural” so far, but other than the premiere and the 200th episode, we’re not sure we’d put any in our top 50 episodes ever so far. There were no clunkers, but not enough bright spots, either. Grade: B.
What did you think about “Supernatural” through the first half of this past season? Share some of your quick thoughts on the matter right now with a comment! Also, head over here to get more “Supernatural” scoop, or here to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)
Maha
January 7, 2015 @ 7:47 am
They need to figure a plan for SPN. Get Kripke included.
The first 5 seasons were so damn good because SPN had a plan to go through those 5 seasons, they had it structured.
These days SPN has become… random. Like a ship without a course. I hope they figure out a storyline and structure for the show, until it ends. I don’t want the show to end on a low note. It deserves better.
Lore Krajsman
January 6, 2015 @ 1:54 pm
I have to say that this season is a major improvement on last season when the angel storyline bored the hell out of me, and Sam became an intollerable asshole.
At least this season Sam is likeable again, and the main storyline actually involves the Winchesters, instead of the way they were pushed aside and ignored for most of the main storyline last year. (Sorry, but s9 was the worst season of spn ever)
Kadysn
January 6, 2015 @ 12:56 pm
I totally agree with those who are tired of Cas and the angels story line. Cas and Crowley are better when interacting with the brothers. I’m not a fan of Rowena, so I’ll be glad when her story is finished.
As for Dean and the Moc, I don’t mind that story. It lets Jensen shine.
What I disliked most for this season so far is the lack of J2 airtime. Too often, scenes were about other characters when what I watch the show for are the Winchesters. I realize J2 want more time off, and yeah, maybe they deserve it, but not at the expense of the show.
roxi
January 6, 2015 @ 6:11 pm
I agree here, I feel the main problem is that the Winchesters have become supporting players in their own show. I don’t mind Cas or Crowley, but they are supporting characters, and supporting characters are supposed to support and enhance what is supposed to be the main story of the lead characters, not drawing time away from the lead by having their own completely separate storylines that have barely nothing to do with the leads. And it’s not just those two, we have had whole episodes devoted to recurring and guest characters, like (ugh) Charlie and Jody( although I like Jody) and Kate the werewolf, etc. that have seen Sam and Dean playing supporting roles while the guest stars took center stage.
Lore Krajsman
January 6, 2015 @ 6:17 pm
It’s really what ruined s9. When it comes down to it, Metatron couldn’t possibly care less about the Winchesters. The most they were to him were tools to get to Cas. They pretty much were 100% disconnected from the main story arc. Which made the angel storyline boring as hell.
Sure there were some huge scene settings, but most of them, especially the angel massacres were meaningless, because they never gave us any reason to care about any of the angels that died. Who even cared what side any of them were on, since the show never bothered to give us a reason to see a difference between any of them.
In s4, the angels were interesting, because they were there to support the Winchester’s storyline, but I just don’t care enough about Castiel, for him to have the main story arc.
I personally woudl have preferred more focus on Crowley and Abbadon as the main bad guys. And to have the final episode be about Dean facing off against Abbadon, and having it be her that ended up killing him, leading to Dean becoming a demon. Because unlike the angels, the demons actually cared about the Winchesters, and felt that the brothers mattered. To the angels, they were nothiing more than Castiel’s pets.
Kadysn
January 6, 2015 @ 6:37 pm
Exactly! The episodes that are mostly about the supporting characters are ones I refuse to rewatch. I HATED Bitten and Bloodlines (from past seasons) for that very reason. The eps this season that put the supporting characters front and center, and not having much to do with the brothers, are boring to me. While I like Jody, her ep with Donna didn’t hold the interest for me because it still didn’t have enough about Sam and Dean.
Surething Toots
January 6, 2015 @ 10:44 am
The day Crowley is no more, I will cry buckets. Mark Sheppard is soooooo unbelievably funny, sexy, and evil portraying Crowley.
Anon
January 2, 2015 @ 3:10 am
Yeah, this show has for sure run its course. Should have ended LONG LONG ago.
roxi
January 6, 2015 @ 6:14 pm
Then why the hell are you even here taking the time to comment on something you don’t even like? If you don’t like it, fine, your prerogative, so just ignore it like most people do when they don’t like or aren’t interested in something.
Five Hundred Thread Count
January 1, 2015 @ 11:40 pm
my professor at uni calls this the ‘longest running show that nobody watches.’ he always uses it as an example of how random the entertainment business is and how much success for actors is based on things other than talent.
roxi
January 6, 2015 @ 6:25 pm
I don’t believe many of us here really care a wit about what you and your professor think. Your comment doesn’t make sense: on one hand you and your professor claim that “nobody watches” SPN, and then you claim they are successful despite your opinion that they have no talent. So which is it? How can you and your snobby professor claim that nobody watches SPN but then turn around and say that J and J are successful actors despite the fact, in your and his opinion, that they have no talent?
And why pray tell does your professor spend so much time talking about something he disdains so much? If your professor is so much better of actor then Jared or Jensen,why is he teaching instead of acting?
By the way, tell him he is dead wrong: SPN has MILLIONS of devoted fans all over the world. Is it a huge mainstream hit? No. But he and you can hardly claim that nobody watches it when millions DO.
Maha
January 7, 2015 @ 7:44 am
Obviously more than enough people watch and care for it to be running this long.
evave2
December 31, 2014 @ 8:18 pm
I think that IS Crowley’s problem: he doesn’t care about Hell. BUT he also knows that if he “gives up” Hell then he is toast, because the next Abaddon will want to just snuff him to seize power.
A fan
December 29, 2014 @ 5:57 pm
The return of Chuck should tie up with the original story. It began with Lucifer rebelling against his father by corrupting Cain and Abel and creating demons. The writers have to make it plain that the MoC is tied in with Lucifer.
SPNForever
December 29, 2014 @ 5:43 am
I wanted get it a grade B, more like a C or C+. After they stopped the Demon Dean story line, well it seem somewhat flat. Except for the 200th episode. come on writers, get with it….
Jayne O'Connor
December 29, 2014 @ 3:14 am
Crowley and Castiel are better as supporting characters who primarily interact with the brothers. No one cares about Cas and the angels. The angels are boring and it’s way past time to get rid of them. At least Crowley’s mother Rowena is interesting.
I’ve had enough of Dean and the Mark of Cain angst. It leaves Sam with no point of view or story! Even when the story in previous seasons was supposedly about Sam, we still constantly got Dean’s POV.
MissDaisy1776
December 29, 2014 @ 10:34 am
yeap… agree 100%, I’m still going to be a devoted SPN viewer, but I see it like you “I’ve had enough of Dean and the Mark of Cain angst. It leaves Sam with no point of view or story! Even when the story in previous seasons was supposedly about Sam, we still constantly got Dean’s POV.” … ALL SAID :))
spnrules1
December 30, 2014 @ 2:49 am
I don’t mind seeing Dean do some struggling in regards to living with the MoC but I agree with you in regards to Dean and his angst. It seems to me that all I am now watching is a redo of the second half of season 9 and once again all Dean POV. I know what happens to Dean and how he gets because of the MoC. Dean has had POV since S1 and even now with Dean having the arc we still get his POV. It is time for TPTB to put some focus on Sam’s story.
S10 started out well with getting to see some Sam POV but now we have had nothing. Looking at Dean is not a story/POV/angst. I really hope that this second half focuses more on Sam’s struggles and angst over what he has to do to rid Dean of the mark. This is what we should be seeing. I am trying to remain optimistic that we do not get a repeat of second half of S9.
Lore Krajsman
January 6, 2015 @ 1:57 pm
Well that’s how I felt about Sam since s6, we got nothing but Sam angst, I was just so tired of seeing Dean get wasted as being nothing more than Sam’s caretaker
spnrules1
January 6, 2015 @ 7:15 pm
I hope to see way more Sam angst/POV ahead. To me Dean has owned that corner of the market and still does. The little bit of Sam angst we ever get doesn’t compare to Dean’s. I have never viewed Dean as just Sam’s caretaker. Dean has the narrative/story/POV and we get to watch him struggle over what is going on inside himself and with what he feels in regards to Sam.
This is what needs to be written for Sam in the second half of S10. They need to let us see what Sam did while searching for Dean and what he is going through to help rid Dean of the MoC. I want to hear Sam tell Dean how important he is to him and how much he loves his big brother. I know that is wishful thinking and not sure what we will get but I hope we do in some fashion.
roxi
January 7, 2015 @ 1:50 am
Well, for many of us, Dean HAS seemed like he was only there to take care of Sam. That is NOT a storyline.
I have never seen this big narrative that Dean supposedly has had. In the first season for sure, the story was told entirely from Sam’s narrative.
Let’s reverse it and give Sam the very same sidekick role that Dean has had for the majority of the series. i’m betting most of you wouldn’t be happy.
This is the VERY first time that Dean has had the focus. Some of you are acting like it has always been that way, when in fact, it has always been Sam that had most of the focus.
spnrules1
January 7, 2015 @ 4:42 am
We see it differently which is fine. I am all for Dean having the arc but at the same time we should be seeing Dean’s arc through Sam’s eyes. I want to know what is going on in Sam’s head just as I have seen what is going on with Dean when Sam has had the arc. The most ideal story would be if TPTB wrote equal stories for Sam and Dean yet I doubt they can manage that.
Oplover
January 13, 2015 @ 11:03 am
yaasssss…… I like this idea!!! Show some god damn love for Dean Sam ….you idjit..!
Lore Krajsman
January 6, 2015 @ 1:55 pm
I was agreeing until your second paragraph. The show has focused far too much on Sam for the past nine seasons. It’s long since time that the show actually gave Dean a halfway decent storyline, that they don’t hand over to Sam halfway through. But then s8-s9 nearly destroyed Sam for me. He just became so utterly unlikeable that I lost all patience with the character.
roxi
January 6, 2015 @ 6:03 pm
Season 8 Sam was NOT Sam. I have no idea what character the writers wanted Jared to play, but it wasn’t the Sam that many of us knew and loved. Dean wasn’t all that much in character either, but they really, really wrote Sam very OOC. I now just write that off as Jared doing the best he could with the horrible trashing of his character by the writers and moved on.
Season 8 was such a horrible season, I try to forget it ever happened.
Lore Krajsman
January 6, 2015 @ 6:08 pm
Definitely agreed, s8 and s9 Sam felt like Sam written by someone who hated Sam. It felt a lot like some fanfics I’ve read by Sam bashers. Worst of all, they tried to hide it, by never having him make up for his behavior, and talking about how ‘great’ Sam was, without ever showing him acting like the good person he was up until the s7 finale.
It was like Sam was just gone, replaced by someone that only looked like him. At that point he went from my second fave char on the show, to someone I could no longer stand.
roxi
January 6, 2015 @ 4:25 pm
You know why that was? Because Sam got EVERYTHING else! So what, pray tell, was left for Dean? Was Sam supposed to have all the major storylines AND all the POV as well?
I love all these complaints from some of you about how everything right now is all about Dean, when in the previous 8 seasons, Sam and his various arcs dominated every season except for season 3, where they both, for once, had equal storyline importance, and season 7, when neither did. Even the first half of season 9 mainly spotlighted Sam being possessed by Gadreel. And for all the complaints about no Sam POV, I seem to remember many times when he explained where his head was at to various characters. And all his arcs lasted for the better part of the season, whereas any crumbs they ever threw to Dean, such as the Michael vessel, Lisa,Purgatory, and then the mere 3 episodes of being a demon were cut laughingly short before he ever got a chance, which is a shame, because as this article stated, he was really starting to shine in the Demon role. Even in season 9, Dean’s supposedly major storyline was given mere lip service until the very end.
I agree that right now that Sam has no story, and I hope he does soon, because I DO love Sam and think SPN is best when the boys are together in the main arc, but come on, those of you complaining now didn’t seem to mind a lick when almost EVERY main season long arc revolved around Sam, but suddenly, Dean finally gets the main arc, and it’s a terrible injustice.
Jared did a wonderful job with all his arcs, but he also was given so many opportunities, whereas Jensen was only given the same “looking after Sam, reacting to what’s happening with Sam” plotline.
Dean fans have had to wait patiently forever as he constantly was sidelined as a supporting character to Sam while Sam got all the focus. Will it kill some of you to allow Dean to have the spotlight this once after Sam having had it for so .long? I think this MOC story could turn out to be as strong for Sam as for Dean, because it gives Sam the opportunity to be the strong one.
AZGurl
January 10, 2015 @ 10:15 pm
Samgirl, much?
The show was conceived to be about Sam. He was Luke Skywalker on a rite
of passage journey. All the actors who tested for the show tested for
the part of Sam, including Jensen Ackles. Sam was intended to carry the
show for five seasons, and has since gone on to have additional arcs in
which Dean does whatever necessary to save him. Now Dean finally has
an arc of his own, and people are complaining? Yeesh. The “Year of the
Deanmon” was actually the “Three Episodes of the Deanmon,” after the
greatest season finale in show history. It was well past time to give
Dean a full arc, as they have with the MoC. Remember–some of us
actually do watch for *both* characters. And it’s a treat to watch Ackles work his magic.
rubyangel
December 29, 2014 @ 2:16 am
Depends on who you talk to. Since S10 was sold to the fans as “The Year of The Deanmon” and the year lasted 3 weeks, some would say this season has failed miserably. I imagine people who didn’t like Demon Dean are thrilled with the same old, same old: that stupid angel arc and those goofy filler episodes. Demon Dean was used as a tease over the summer and a hook to get people to watch in the fall. Once he served his purpose he was dropped like a bad habit.
What brings SPN down even further are those misleading promos, (“Year of the Deanmon,” I’m looking at YOU) and the latest one for the midseason finale. People who saw that last one and didn’t know the finale really was about bird butt and Claire thought that Dean had finally cracked up and angel butt was going to have to put him down for good. What Dean really did looked like self defense to me. And that “Is he or isn’t he?” with the Mark of Cain is very irritating. The writers tease us, but they don’t deliver. It’s a shame that SPN doesn’t want to try anything new and different.
evave2
December 31, 2014 @ 8:17 pm
I “think” the Hannah/Castiel stuff was to get the audience to where Castiel was: regretful over the destruction of Jimmy Novak’s family. And thus to bring on Claire.
I think the show WANTS to have a viable teen Hunter.
And I think that Dean killing Loan Shark, Loan Shark’s posse and the icky RANDY was indeed self-defense. BUT I admit that unless Dean kills kittens, puppies, babies and/OR pregnancy women I will be on his side.
rubyangel
January 1, 2015 @ 2:39 pm
I believe the midseason finale was not the time nor the place for her. It’s obvious the PR department and the show felt Claire has limited appeal, otherwise the promo wouldn’t have been Dean centric. She could have been introduced later on in the season with no problem. And now I hear that she’s plotting revenge against Dean for killing Randy. Seriously? Even after she was almost raped by those people, thanks to Randy? She’s got a very short memory and she’s whiny and dumb too. A hunter with that attitude won’t last very long. I hope she doesn’t.
You can add toddlers and nuns to your list. If Dean ganked the list of beings you described I would still support him. Even the brightest heroes have the darkest spots, otherwise, what’s the point of redemption? We’ve had endless dark variations of Sam that stretched over entire seasons; the one time Dean goes dark the writers wimped out. They rushed to ‘cure’ him (which shouldn’t have worked anyway) and I have no doubt they’ll do the same with the removal of the Mark of Cain. The show is clearly incapable of writing and sustaining a decent story arc so that’s why we have those tricky promos. The January promo is not for that one episode, but a combination of scenes from various episodes, all to give the idea that Dean is out of control and gone amok. It’s very interesting to me that the show shortchanges Dean with his stories but that have absolutely no problem using him to hook fans into watching.