Supernatural: 10 Things From Season 1 That Haven’t Aged Well

The saga of the Winchester brothers has had a massive impact on pop culture. From fanfiction to conventions, Supernatural still maintains a high degree of popularity.

There is a reason that Supernatural still sees massive success, even though the show ended after 15 seasons. The fight against demons, angels, and other monsters have made the brothers iconic. That’s not to mention how many times Sam and Dean have died for each other. But despite this wide acceptance, there has been a backlash against the show, mainly for killing off most of its main female characters. These problematic aspects can be traced back to season 1.

Fridging The Women In Sam’s Life

“Fridging” or “Women In Refrigerators” was a term originally coined by comic book writer Gail Simone. It refers to female characters that are killed or hurt to move the male’s story arc forward. Unfortunately, Supernatural is guilty of this. The first scene of the series entails Dean and Sam’s mother being killed and burned alive in their childhood home.

20 years later, Sam is trying to live a normal life as he never took to the hunting lifestyle and opted for law school with his girlfriend Jess. Even when Dean comes calling to go on a job, Sam resists returning full time, hoping to live his life with Jess. It is only by her brutal death in the same manner that his mother died does Sam return to – as Dean puts it in one of the most iconic quotes of Supernatural -“the family business.”

Toxic Masculinity

Toxic masculinity presents itself in many ways on Supernatural. The most prevalent is the affection that Sam and Dean have towards each other. Sam aptly states that he would die for Dean but that doesn’t mean that they show genuine affection for each other. They would rather throw punches than admit they love one another.

Any time one of them is about to reach out with authentic emotion, the other one shuts it down. This begins with the first episode when Dean distances himself from Sam saying, “no chick flick moments.”

The Male Gaze

On Sam and Dean’s road trip across America, they meet a lot of different people but the type of person they meet the most is objectified women. There are many things about Dean that have not aged well, including seeing women as objects. Even though Sam does not demoralize women as much, it is clear that the show itself has an opinion of women based on how these characters are shown onscreen.

On multiple occasions, Dean has inappropriate interactions with underage girls. In season 1 episode “Bloody Mary,” Dean sneaks into an underage girl’s room looking for clues and even when the brothers are not around, the camera shoots these women in a sexualized way. There are many times when women are killed while wearing next to nothing, all for the pleasure of the male audience.

Lack Of Diversity

Supernatural has failed to be diverse in several ways. For a show that travels across America and sees all walks of life, Sam and Dean only seem to encounter one type of person. Typically the people that they help are heteronormative, cis, white victims.

This was common in the mid-2000s, but Supernatural did not get much better throughout the show. The only main storyline with a Black family is “Route 666” as the episode is kicked off when a killer racist truck tries to kill an old girlfriend of Dean’s.

CGI

An unavoidable issue with a supernatural show being made in the mid-aughts is the computer graphics. This is an aspect that improves throughout the show, but season 1 is certainly rough. The minimal examples are of the greenscreen when Dean and Sam are driving in the car. It is evident to modern eyes this was not shot practically.

One of the worst visual aspects was in the episode “Bugs.” The crawling spiders were computer-generated and not very convincing, especially when looked back upon.

Female Archetypes

Women are a big problem in Supernatural. One of these issues is watering down female characters. They are simply not as developed as their male counterparts. Men rarely need to be saved as much as women and this puts Supernatural in the uncomfortable position of shoving women into two categories.

Women are either meant to be saved or they’re evil. Meg was one of the only recurring female characters in season 1 and is slotted in the unabashedly evil category. If they don’t fit into these categories, they’re usually killed off immediately. Even though Supernatural season 1 is one of the best, the show struggles with writing women convincingly.

Hitchhiking

Hitchhiking is a relic of an old age. Many people in the ’60s and ’70s made use of hitching for rides along the highway. However, this mode of transport has fast fallen out of fashion due to violence on the road. Sam hitchhikes after splitting with Dean momentarily. He meets up with Meg Masters who gets a ride with an admittedly creepy van driver.

Sam points out that the driver is shady, but Meg has no concern for her wellbeing. The driver will only take Meg because she is an attractive woman, which is played for laughs as Meg disappears into the van and leaves Sam behind. This glosses over how many women go missing on highways.

Sexual Orientation

Not only is heteronormativity viewed as the default on Supernatural, but the show also takes it a step further. If anyone is implied to be gay on the show, it is viewed as a joke. A recurring joke in “Bugs” is when Dean and Sam go undercover at an open house. The realtors assume that Sam and Dean are gay and not brothers and Dean is offended when it is implied that he’s gay.

This joke occurs in other episodes as well. Every time it is implied that Dean and Sam are not straight, it is played as a joke or used in a derogatory sense.

Child Abuse

There are many depictions of varying degrees of child abuse. Sam and Dean encounter bad parents all around and put a stop to it if they can. But the one aspect of child abuse that is not addressed is the abuse of Sam and Dean themselves. Dean hero-worships their father John, happy to be raised in a world where he sacrificed his childhood to hunt demons.

Sam is less fanatical about John, but he still doesn’t address the toxic way that he and his brother were raised. John was neglectful and cruel to his children, making him one of the most hated heroes on Supernatural. He often left them on their own for days at a time and he even blames Dean for a Striga attacking Sam when they were children. Dean had the responsibilities of an adult and John blamed him for wanting to be a kid.

Casual Hatred Of Women

One of the most infamous aspects of Supernatural is the treatment of women and it is not just how they are written or objectified. There is one glaring issue that remains for the rest of the show. Though this applies more to Dean than it does to Sam, there is a significant word that they seem to attribute to women.

Whenever a woman offends them in some way, they call them derogatory names. These terms are used casually in season 1 and beyond. Dean’s derogatory reference to women happens constantly and is especially obvious in light of how women are not respected on the show.

About The Author

Carolyn Jenkins
(109 Articles Published)

Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King.

More From Carolyn Jenkins