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The TV show Supernatural (2005–2020) features itinerant brothers Sam and Dean Winchester battling pagan gods from ancient Greco-Roman mythology who pose a threat to the present-day American way of life. The show utilizes two key concepts to define perils to American culture and values: the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism. In a remote town in Alaska (i.e., the frontier), the brothers encounter the Roman goddess Fortuna, who reveals to the Winchesters how they can protect America. Fortuna's appearance signifies a shift in how the show's heroes, Sam and Dean, see themselves: they are forced to experience the despair everyday Americans feel when their luck runs out. A critical analysis of several key episodes will demonstrate that as the series advances, the focus on the brothers' erasure of pagan threats to America is replaced by a critique of monotheistic religion, a reexamination of the myth of American exceptionalism, and social commentary on the problems with a culture based on consumerism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For years Supernatural (CW, 2005-) has gained the status of a cult series as well as one of the most passionate and devoted fandoms that has ever emerged. Even though the main concept of the series indicates that Supernatural should appeal predominantly to young male viewers, in fact, the fandom is dominated by young women who are the target audience of the CW network. My research is couched in fan studies and audience studies methodological perspectives as it is impossible to understand the phenomenon of Supernatural without referring to its fandom and fan practices. However, it focuses on the series' structure in order to explain how this structure enables Supernatural's viewers to challenge and revise prevailing gender roles. Supernatural combines elements of divergent TV genres, traditionally associated with either male or female audiences. It opens up to gender hybridity through genre hybridity: by interweaving melodrama with horror and other "masculine" genres the show provides a fascinating example of Gothic television which questions any simplistic gender identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on adoption of interdisciplinary methodology for administration of research in horror genre. Topics discussed include deployment of an interdisciplinary approaches in assessment of horror scholarships; proposal of Noël Carroll over representation of horror stories with geographic depiction of monsters origin; and argument of Christina Klein over an impact of globalization over proliferation of horror texts such as the "Supernatural" television series.

The article talks about the development of the fandom or fan base of the U.S. fantasy-horror television series "Supernatural." Topics include a description of a fandom according to an article from "Project Muse," a comparison of the Nielsen ratings of Supernatural with shows with higher audience number, and the role of fans in the success of the television series. Also mentioned are the characteristics of Supernatural fandom.

The CW network series Supernatural (2005–) draws its text from the horror and fantasy genres as well as religious mythology. Concurrently, it transmits a core “American” mythos. As its protagonists keep watch along a supernatural frontier and eradicate threats to the American way of life, this program both reinforces and alters aspects of the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism by depicting its main characters as representations of America writ large whose mission has grown from an appointment by God to being equals to God. In this manner, Supernatural forwards a new American exceptionalism through the notion that America is exceptional because it is not just divinely appointed by God, but is divine itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Soon after its premiere in 2005, the American television show Supernatural spawned an online fandom dedicated to 'slashing' the show's two protagonists, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester: that is, to writing stories in which the brothers are portrayed as lovers. Over time, the existence of these slash narratives - affectionately dubbed 'Wincest' by the show's fans - has been incorporated into the series' diagesis. Indeed, in the wake of the programme's repeated forays into diegetic metatextuality, some Supernatural fan writers have re-incorporated Sam and Dean's canonized awareness of slash fiction back into Wincest stories themselves - specifically, into the subgenre of metatextual Wincest, stories that recast Sam and Dean as conscious participants in Wincest fan culture. Using Della Pollock's notion of performative writing as a guide, this essay will explore the distinctive types of encounters between reader, writer, and text that metatextual Wincest stories facilitate. Further, the application of this critical approach to three such narratives - nyoxcity's 'Stranger Than Fiction', Road Rhythm's 'This is All Very Meta', and Fanspired's 'Conversations with Head People' - highlights fan writers' perception of their own creative authority within the ongoing process of meaning-making that continues to spin around Supernatural. Ultimately, this essay will argue that what makes metatextual Wincest stories distinct is their suggestion that only by working in concert with their fans can Sam and Dean finally write their own version of a happy ending, something 'the show [itself] eternally defers' - even if the lasting power of the ever-after they create together remains, in the end, uncertain (Tosenberger 2008, 5.12). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes multi-genre television series oscillating between fantasy, mystery, and horror with regard to their self-referentiality. The author discusses the interplay between a series' plot elements and narrative techniques and its active reception by its viewers in creating this self-referential system and, as examples, provides interpretations of the U.S. television programs "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Supernatural."

In recent years, religious-themed media about the end of the world offering interpretations of the Book of Revelation have become popular. On television, the CW's Supernatural featured a storyline that involved a fight between Heaven and Hell, leading to an eventual Apocalypse. We examine how television's depictions of religion in modern American culture serve as contemporary Christian homilies by exploring this program's Apocalypse story arc, informed by Revelation 6:2-8. The depiction of a Christian-based story that never featured Christ nevertheless provided the audience with a message about life grounded in Biblical lessons, essentially serving the purpose of a homily that one might hear in a church on a Sunday morning. In addition to broadening our understanding of how homilies function in a mediated world, we discuss how this religious-themed television show has managed to stay on the air when so many others have failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doubles are everywhere in Gothic narratives. The transmedia universes surrounding the television series Supernatural and the videogame Alan Wake are no different. However, rather than focusing on how, for example, characters are haunted by their pasts, the present essay zeroes in on doubles created by the transgression of medial boundaries. Special attention is given to how the television show and the video game are burdened by the history of the genre and how doubles emerge from the transmedia narratives surrounding these contemporary Gothic texts. In the process, it becomes evident that Supernatural and Alan Wake do not merely draw attention to the present absence inherent in any representation, but, moreover, highlight the constant attempts by the media to not merely replicate, but replace reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion of La Llorona, a female character in Mexican and Chicano folklore who murdered her two children, and examines the existence of the La Llorona character in American novels and television programs. The author comments on the cultural elements of the La Llorona myth and analyzes how interpretations of the legend in American popular culture fail to address its cultural legacy. Examples of the La Llorona character in the television show "Supernatural," the novel "Bruja" by Mel Odom, and the book "The Wailing Wind" by Tony Hillerman are provided.

Eric Kripke"s Supernatural tv-series, aired in the United States from 2005 to the pre-sent day. In a typical study i tried to demonstrate autothematic operations, widely understood executive producers games and how a show's creators use pastiche, irony, grotesque and kitsch. All of these place Supernatural in the whole complex of production belonging to the group of the post-modern. Then I proved that seemingly innocent fantasy story was hiding something more, a deeper message - the myth to modern human beings. Producers transformed, in many ways, functioning in our culture mythological themes. They created a fictional universe which became the basis for the superstructure of meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the 28th annual conference for the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, which was held from June 28 to July 1, 2010 at the Meertens Institut in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is presented. Topics include urban legends, racial components of contemporary legends, and the television show "Supernatural." The conference featured several legend researchers including Paul Smith, Patricia A. Turner, and Peter Burger.

This article analyses two television series first screened in 2005: Medium and Supernatural. It argues that, in the context of post-9/11 anxieties about the surveillance and defence of the borders of nation/family, the narrative use of paranormal phenomena offers a new forensic model. While traditional detective narratives rely on empiricist, Enlightenment ways of identifying and defending against the invisible, threatening other-making it visible and hence allaying the fears that it excites-these programs, drawing on the narrative strategies of both the detective story and the Gothic tale, offer a way of knowing the unknown and seeing the unseeable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors analyze the religious themes and portrayals in the television program Supernatural, aired on the CW television network since 2005. As fictional entertainment programming, Supernatural incorporates various religions and lore into its episodes, which feature its protagonists fighting monsters, demons, and the occasional evil human. Findings from a content analysis of 60 episodes from the first 3 seasons illustrate a religious hegemony that forwards Catholicism, in the form of weapons used to fight evil, such as holy water, and depictions of priests, as the main and most powerful opponent of evil. Non-Catholic, “other” religions, and their associated villainous characters, in contrast, serve as distractions for the protagonists, thus contributing even more to their marginal stature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]