The Winchesters failed to follow in Supernatural’s footsteps, but it was evident from the first episode.
In 2022, the Supernatural fandom got a fresh start: the spinoff series aired on The CW, and we all thought that the third time was the charm, and The Winchesters would last. The network canceled the show last month, and the fans have been up in arms ever since.
Jensen Ackles even launched an online campaign to use the power of the fandom to save The Winchesters and find it a new home. So far, the effort hasn’t paid off.
The CW claims to have killed the show due to low ratings, but is that really the reason? Actually, the series was going to be canceled sooner or later (it just happened to be sooner), and the ratings were just the tip of the iceberg.
In the Supernatural finale, the main characters got the closure they deserved (though not the one we were hoping for), and their story was finally over after 15 long years. The Winchesters attempts to bring them back in the best multiverse fashion of 2023, but it just doesn’t work (it simply taints the memory). Plus, we are getting tired of the alternate reality rhetoric.
The fact is that The Winchesters would’ve been better off as the prequel we initially expected. The familiar story and the beloved characters would’ve been enough to keep us going. Instead, we got what is essentially a Supernatural remake – and we already know how that turned out.
And we’re off…#SaveTheWinchesters pic.twitter.com/9EAIJpblFd
— Jensen Ackles (@JensenAckles) May 12, 2023
The Winchesters tries to preserve the atmosphere of the earlier seasons of its predecessor, but it isn’t nearly as terrifying. The show takes the dad-is-missing concept from Supernatural’s season 1 (because we loved it back in 2005) and uses it as a plot device, failing to account for the fact that this already exists.
Besides, we sympathized with John Winchester – at the end of the day, he was a good guy who wanted to avenge his dead wife. However, we never liked Samuel Campbell, and we knew that he would be found (we’ve already seen it). Frankly, it’s hard to care about a character who is as horrible as Samuel is.
Too bad that none of the Supernatural spinoffs have taken off (The Winchesters is no Young Sheldon ). Maybe there’s still a chance somewhere down the road?
