Ranking 327 Episodes of Supernatural
(And I need your help first!)
Okay, so I'm finally planning to live up to my blog's name by doing a full rewatch of Supernatural (Only 3+ years after the show ended and 1+ years after I made this blog for this purpose 🤦♀️ ). Anyway, I’ll be "Rewatching Sam and Dean," in other words. (Sorry 🙄.)
I'm not only gong to rewatch it and comment, but I'm going to try to rate and rank every episode. I'm generally bad at ranking on a large scale, but I want to be able to say with confidence what my top 5, 10, 20, etc. episodes are. Because right now, I can list episodes I love, but I can’t say which one I like best among my favorites. Also, ranking gives me an additional purpose to my rematch.
(I’ll put my particular criteria for ranking under the cut, so there no need to skim through that part if you’re not interested in specifics.)
So, you might be asking, "Why do I care about this?"
And if you don’t, that’s cool. But, I’m posting about it here because I’m hoping to get some ideas for things to track as I’m watching the episodes. I don’t want to do too many things because that’s a sure way to get bogged down and make this feel like work, but there are often those little things that I wish I had a quick answer to, and looking for them as I go through each episode should be easier than hopping back and forth to track things down. And I know there are things like Superwiki for that (though they aren’t perfect), but I want to track some things for myself, too
So, these are some things I’m already planning to watch out for:
How John is described/acts, and his relationship with both boys
Sam and Dean's "anger issues"
How/when each brother responds when the other is upset (and how this changes), and which brother shares more
How Bobby treats each brother
How each brother relates to Mary and how she treats them
When each brother prays; who is it to, and what is it about?
Times when Sam and Dean are depicted as classic brothers, vs. blatantly compared to a couple, a parent-child, friends, or are just weird.
So, if you made it this far, could you please give me your suggestions for other things I should keep an eye out for while watching? Or, suggest other things that might be interesting to rate/rank as I go through the show?
Thanks for reading!
How I’ll be Rating the Episodes:
Now, when I rate these episodes, I’ll be determining MY FAVORITE episodes, not what I think are technically THE BEST episodes. For example, "On the Head of a Pin " is a very well executed episode, but I can pretty much guarantee that it wan’t be in my top 25 or anything, because Alistair disgusts me so thoroughly that I can't stand rewatching it.
I’ve created a bit of a rubric for myself to quasi keep myself honest, though there is still a lot of room for subjectiveness in my ranked areas. So far, my criteria is:
1. The Brothers: Are there good or meaningful brother moments? Do we learn anything new about either brother or their relationship? Are they behaving in character?
2. The Monster: Is the monster or antagonist of the episode interesting, frightening, handled in a unique way?
3. Story: Is the narrative strong, impactful to the show as a whole, or entertaining? Is there canon-breaking or retconning that damages the show?
4. Recurring/Side Characters: Are the characters who are sharing the screen with Sam and/or Dean interesting, effective, important, and/or standouts in some other way? Do I care about them?
5. Re-watchability: On Subsequent viewings of the episode, am I still entertained? Do I gain a new perspective or find more to enjoy when I watch it again? Does the episode lose impact, relevance or entertainment value (in a significant way) on repeat viewings?
Anyway, as I said, this is deeply subjective, so maybe no one will be interested in my takes, and that’s fine. But, I will give reasons with canon support, for what I like or don’t like, so my ratings won’t be based on what I head-canon to be true. I’d ideally like to do this on YouTube with edits, but I’m not sure I want to put myself out there to that extent. Either way, I’ll be on here, too. Either I’ll post here, or link my videos (if I ever make them) here.
My Pilot Review
From ages ago …
Also, if anyone is interested, you can find my original attempts at episode reviews HERE. My format for rewatching will likely be a bit more structured now (and not take multiple posts per episode), but here’s how my brain works, if you’re interested.
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