On Supernatural and the Art of Writing

So to aleviate the creepiness of it... I'm gonna talk about how I feel about Supernatural whilst teaching story writing techniques?

[[ This contains spoilers about the first season of Supernatural as well as some FMA spoilers. ]]
The interesting this about this show is that overall I find it very enjoyable. I like Dean and Sam, I enjoy the episode by episode supernatural investigation. I even tend to enjoy their brotherly dialogue and banter, which in my opinion, is pretty well written!
The thing that does get me though is the inter-episode strings and lack of decent follow through.
I’ve watched about 10 episodes now and I think it’s safe to say that I can have a strong opinion now.
Here’s my issue: “We have to find Dad” and “We have to find Mom and Jessica’s killer” is a great plot line, if, they actually made any headway with it. And no, making comments about how they haven’t gotten any closer to finding their dad is not a proper way to address the issue. “hanging a latern” on the problem is only appropriate for comedic purposes if you ask me and Supernatural is far from a comedy.
There are plenty of shows that have an objective that seems general and far away like the premise for Supernatural’s first season. I’ll pick out two shows for examples of this. The first show isHow I Met Your Mother a comedy in which the main character has spent over 7 seasons telling little stories to his kids about the long LONG span of events that somehow adds up to him meeting their mom.
And yet, there is very little faith that we will actually EVER REACH THAT GOAL.
Because no matter the event, we are never actually closer to that goal. Now, HIMYM has a lot of other things going for it and really that plotline is really just a background that allows for the existence of the show, rather than the driving point of it.
Supernatural doesn’t have another premise and in fact, keeps turning back to the plotline that we are supposed to be caring about without allowing us any information that can be building toward a climatic episode.
On the flip side, I present, Full Metal Alchemist (the original anime because I haven’t watched Brotherhood).
The premise for Full Metal is similar in it’s overarching plotline. The two boys spend the entire series chasing the idea of a Philosopher’s stone with which to return themselves to the bodies that they were born with. The difference between FMA and a show like Supernatural is that just about every episode builds on the one before and the boys Ed and Al are always learning new information and progressing toward their ultimate goal.
Sam and Dean don’t seem to be gaining any knowledge at all and in fact are pretty aimless and explanation-less when they are choosing their “next fight”. The closest we’ve come to progress in either of the driving stories “finding Dad” and “finding the killer” is the revelation that Sam has psychic powers that, likely, he shares with his father because their dearest Dad has left them a notebook that strangely holds a lot of information that is a little too relevant otherwise. (That and Sam couldn’t sense his Dad when they were in the same place, which I suppose could be a sign of connection between the two? Maybe?)
Aside from that, we really don’t have any progress toward them finding their dad. No leads, nothing. Change the title and Supernatural could become “how we found our father” and join the ranks of the endless series just like HIMYM.
Now I know that that isn’t the case in actuality. I’ve been assured by friends and family that the series does move beyond that plotline, but the thing is, a show with a beginning and ending, like FMA is generally a stronger series and it all honestly has to do with the simple art of storytelling! Something that many of the episodes and the series (or at least the first season as I’ve seen so far) of Supernatural seem to be weak on.
Let me break it down a bit. A good story requires several basic elements; Exposition (or intro), Rising Action & Conflict, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.
((Here’s a handy diagram to refer back too if you want. Or, for some, it might jog your memory back to grade school stuff.))

The exposition is all the back story that we need to establish the show, for FMA it was those episodes that we learned the basic details of how Ed and Al ended up as they did. For Supernatural it’s the initial episode in which their mother is killed and their father vanishes and they begin their roadtrip.
The rising action of the story are those events that are of discovery and movement, the moments in which the plot begins to push forward toward it’s goal. In the episodes of Supernatural this is that portion of the show in which Sam and Dean are investigating whatever incident is at hand. They are interviewing, gathering data, all that stuff.
The Conflict(s) are, simply put, the obstacles that get in the way. When Sam and Dean have to overcome a previously unknown or non-existent issue such as the death of a person that was helpful to them, or the vulnerability of a character they didn’t before, but now have to protect. (Think, the girl who they save in the Bloody Mary episode who originally wasn’t a complication to their attempts to be rid of the spirit.)
The next part is the Climax. It’s the confrontation scene, the moment of attack, that moment where you are clutching your pillow and wondering how someone is going to make, what is possibly going to go wrong, etc. It’s that scene that decides the rest of the story line that follows. It’s that moment in the Supernatural episode “Bugs” where Sam and Dean are in the house trying to ward off the deadly swarm until dawn.
The next important piece is the falling action. The events that follow the climax and lead into the resolution. It’s where anything that needs to be done in order to finish the job, happens. For Sam and Dean this is where the bones are burned or the mirror shattered.
The final bit is the resolution, the tying of strings, the waves goodbye as the hero(s) ride off into the sunset.
As you can see, overall, the episodes of Supernatural have most of these elements. I say most because often I find that the weight of the climax is toppled by the choice of falling action (usually I find it to be improbable or ridiculous) or resolution to the climactic scene. In most of the episodes so far there has been something that is jarring and which pulls away from the previously well flowing story,
The biggest culprit so far was the “Bugs” episode. Recall, if you will, that the climax of the episode occurs when Sam and Dean rush to the house built on the burial ground, in the hopes of getting the family out of there. They mention that it is after midnight, the swarm is already approaching and now, they have to fend it off.
Instead of the climax concluding with them having to find a creative way to hide or fend off this buzzing death cloud, they hide in the crumbling attic until, quite suddenly, it’s bright daylight.
This type of resolution breaks the “suspension of disbelief” and throws the audience back into reality because of how improbable the scene is and unfortunately this is the case several times throughout the series it seems.
The series as a whole has it’s weak point in these basic elements too and it’s a very critical one I touched on earlier. There is no progress toward their “season plot goal”. Just like how in every episode they learn information which guides them toward the climactic confrontation with whatever they must overcome in order to save the day, each episode should be providing us with something that pushes the season’s plotline toward its goal. We should be learning information about their Dad or the monster that killed their mother. Instead, every episode we are left without any new information. Unfortunately, this lack of rising action makes it difficult for further conflict or rising action in that plot line to occur which makes me, the audience, question whether or not the climax will actually occur!
The appearance of the Winchester father and his calling them, doesn’t provide any conflict or any satisfaction to the audience because it doesn’t add to any existing plot build up thus, it falls flat and uneventful because it doesn’t feel like it will have an actually bearing on the story line. Or, it will make the audience feel impatient, bringing out a great sigh of “well, it’s about time”.
In the end, I do like the show a lot. It’s really interesting, I just hope that the second half of the season, and the seasons that follow, make up for the lack of plot structure in the series.
We’ll see.