Religion in Television

 Recently I've been re-watching the dark fantasy drama, Supernatural. When I first watched this series, I was around fourteen and although I picked up on the religions aspects of the show, I never thought about them the way I do now, with a higher ability of really analyzing what is being displayed and what not. Basically the show is about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, the story goes that when Sam was a baby, a yellow-eyed demon came to his crib one night and had him drink some of his blood, their mother attempted to stop the occurrence but was struck to the ceiling in flames. After that night, their father became a "hunter", determined to find whatever killed his wife. This caused for the boys to continuously stay in motels, move around schools, and raise themselves as their father would leave for extended periods of time, hunting other supernatural creatures along the way. Dean being older, took after his father in their young adult years and continued on hunting with him whereas Sam chose to attend University.

The series starts when Dean shows up unannounced to Sam's dorm saying their dad is on a hunting trip and hasn't been back in a few days, signaling something was wrong. Sam agrees to help his brother out in finding their dad, and they end up working a case he left note of in his journal with Dean. During this sequence, Sam reveals that he had a nightmare of his girlfriend dying as their mother did, and not long after, sure enough she experiences the same death; stuck to the ceiling engulfed in flames. This causes Sam to leave school and continue on with the family business alongside his brother, with the end goal of defeating the demon.

 It is clear from the very beginning that this show follows somewhat of a traditional religious core stemming from the Christian/Catholic faith. We later find out in the show that Sam has faith, but Dean has more negative feelings toward religion since he believes if there were a God, the world wouldn't be so cruel. However, as we continue on through the show God actually plays a major role, sending angels down to fight against the demons and eventually sparking the apocalypse. Although the main storyline revolves around a specific faith, many aspects of the show contain numerous other religious symbols, most being the lore behind the creatures they find themselves hunting. The cases are very research-based, so every time the brothers are about to start a hunt, they uncover specific myths and lore from different religions that provide a minimal explanation for the creature they've found.

The contrast between the main storyline and the religious aspects merely thrown into the episodes is fascinating to me, as it shows a way of portraying multiple religions, while simultaneously making one the actual focus of the show. What's even more fascinating is the element of the supernatural and the creators' take on it. They are taking something that nobody truly has a sense of what it is or means and putting it into this huge perspective, and then incorporating religion, drama, humor, suspense, all in all giving viewers somewhat of an otherworldly experience, which I believe is highly beneficial especially in terms of what our class covers.