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Reviewed by:
  • Supernatural, Humanity, and the Soul: On the Highway to Hell and Back ed. by Susan A. George, Regina M. Hansen
  • Lorna Jowett (bio)
Susan A. George and Regina M. Hansen, eds, Supernatural, Humanity, and the Soul: On the Highway to Hell and Back. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 236pp. US$95.00 (hbk).

Brian McGreevy, author of the novel from which Netflix developed the series Hemlock Grove (US 2013–), has publically lamented the emasculation of vampires and horror post-Twilight and sees his story, featuring two male protagonists, as reinvigorating the genre with a much-needed killer masculinity. He doesn’t mention that one horror television series has been negotiating masculinity and violence for a decade, before the massive popularity of the Twilight phenomenon and after, perhaps because its two main characters are not vampires. They’re blue-collar brothers whose mission, passed on to them by their father, is ‘saving people, hunting things’. Supernatural (US 2005–) established itself as part of the recent growth in fantasy and horror television, and after 11 seasons has proved its staying power. It survived its creator and showrunner, Eric Kripke, leaving at the end of the fifth season, concluding a long-running apocalyptic story arc, and continues to attract consistent audience numbers. At press time, the CW seems likely to renew it for a twelfth season. Like most horror television series, Supernatural draws on more than one genre, and after over a decade on air it has developed many plot twists and its own elaborate mythology. While the premise of Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) being demon hunters might recall predecessors like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (US 1997–2003), Supernatural distinguishes itself by featuring a predominantly masculine world and presenting the Winchesters as blue collar at best, ‘white trash’ at worst. This is not simply a reactionary attempt to recuperate traditional masculinity: Dean and Sam exist on the margins of society and as such the series represents and negotiates contemporary identity in relation to [End Page 278] US and western culture. It is hardly surprising, given the longevity of the series, that another edited collection analysing Supernatural has now emerged.

The editors, Susan A. George and Regina M. Hansen, state in their introduction that this volume will build on previous scholarship on the series, especially the supernatural.tv collection In The Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural (2009) and Stacey Abbott and David Lavery’s TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural (2011). This collection’s distinctive angle is that it examines ‘the ways in which the series represents humanity, the human soul and will’ (1) and the opening section comprises four essays focused on theology. The other two sections deal with monstrosity and gender respectively, covering ground more familiar from In the Hunt and TV Goes to Hell but this time combined with George and Hansen’s chosen perspective.

The remit does narrow the focus, meaning that while a few chapters refer to Supernatural fandom there are no detailed examinations of its audience and/or fans. Given that fandom has been examined in two previous books by Lynn Zubernis and Katherine Larsen, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame, and Fan/Producer Relationships and Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls, however, this is not a glaring omission. This direction also means that the various chapters do not all offer consistent or detailed treatment of the series as television: several contributors analyse it without taking into account branding, scheduling, viewing habits, actors, writers or other industrial or commercial factors. Admittedly this might be partly influenced by chapter length – with an introduction and 14 contributions, all are fairly brief – but it may seem slightly strange when the series often foregrounds heightened self-awareness of itself as a television production. Its regular ‘meta’ episodes refer to fandom and reality television, and even sometimes move Dean and Sam to parallel dimensions where they are slotted into different television shows (‘Changing Channels’ (5 Nov 2009)) or discover that they are Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, actors playing Dean and Sam Winchester in a television series called Supernatural (‘The French Mistake’ (25 Feb 2011)). Yet Supernatural, Humanity and the Soul offers an alternative perspective on...

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