Supernatural
The CW
Today is a big day in television history for today marks the final season premiere of the only currently airing series older than the network it airs on, Supernatural. Beginning in September 2005, Supernatural has enthralled fans the world over and endured through corporate mergers, network rebrands and diminishing ratings to earn a place in the pantheon of legendary television. But, with the beginning of its end comes the beginning of a new journey. The journey to find its replacement. And it is here where one truth could just very well be uncovered over the next year of television development: the hunt for the next Supernatural will uncover the next Game of Thrones.
While that statement is not meant to be taken literally, as the hunt for a new Supernatural will not actually yield the reveal of a new, hit, high-budget fantasy series, this is more about the spirit of the sentiment.
Searching for Supernatural’s replacement – that is to say, a new procedural genre show that can endure through the love of its main characters – has a great potential to end up stumbling onto the next zeitgeist conversation show. The only way to fill Supernatural’s shoes is to find a show based in characters as strong and compelling as the Winchester brothers played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki… which means also trying to find a duo as perfectly matched as Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. But, should a distributor manage to stumble on a show that meets the criteria, they could very well be stumbling into the next show people can’t stop talking about – which is the marker for success in a post-Thrones era.
At this moment, every network is chasing the next Game of Thrones the wrong way. They want the next big, ensemble, high-budget fantasy epic. The slate to fill these shoes is massive, which is why every single series in that said slate (regardless of creator or brand pedigree) is going to be facing an uphill battle. Meanwhile, it’s entirely possible for the next Supernatural so sneak in from the flank and grab the top spot while no one’s looking.
Any development executive worth their salt should be looking to Supernatural as the model of what will succeed in television for the next decade. A small group of characters on an adventure putting them up against impossible odds. That’s what audiences are going to want. Not another massive sweeping ensemble. They’ve gotten their fill of that for the last decade. Success requires going in a different direction. A more personal direction.
As cliche as it sounds, there’s nothing that’ll pull an audience into a show more than relatable character work. The big, sweeping, fantasy sell is great for a trailer but will do nothing for people in the long run. The compelling question of Game of Thrones wasn’t who would sit on the Iron Throne. It was who would be alive by the time someone did? An audience drive like that only comes from character work that draws them in. Not plot set-up that takes a decade to pay-off.
Overall, Supernatural is a show that endured so long because it was a perfectly constructed series with an infinitely expanding ability to re-invent itself built on the foundation of two perfectly constructed characters that never grew tired by the actors or the audience. That dynamic is the answer to television’s Game of Thrones question, and the first show to come to the table with this answer will reap benefits no one thought was ever going to be possible again.
