Whether you believe in the supernatural, spirits and ghosts, as a society we never seem to tire of wondering whether there are other spirits present on earth, apart from the people and animals we know to exist. Many people wear crystals daily to protect them from threatening situations – check out this guide on how to use crystals for protection from theCircle.com, a tip that some characters in some of the successful series about the supernatural might bear in mind to keep them out of scrapes!
The world of ghosts, vampires and supernatural spirits is a constant theme in fiction, TV and movie production. Audiences are often drawn to the possibility of other beings living amongst us here on earth. One of the longest running TV series that focuses on the spiritual world is Supernatural, produced by Warner Bros and is now in its ninth season. Although it took years to get the programme off the ground, ever since the first series started in 2005 there has been a wide and devoted fan base.
In each episode we follow the two main characters, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester (played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) as they hunt out and destroy demons, ghosts and monsters living in our world. The background behind their ‘career’ is that their mother died in a fire when they were kids and they then went on the road with their father, John. Their father is a hunter, but not of animals, instead he hunts out ghosts and vampires and he has taught his kids to do the same. Sam develops psychic abilities and their father eventually tells them that their mother was killed by a demon called Azazel. This is a recurring character in the following series and represents a nemesis figure for the brothers, a bit like Voldemort for Harry Potter. Though there are few main characters in the show, there are plenty of other recurring characters that the Winchester brothers meet in different episodes.
As well as the focus on spirits and demons, the series has plenty of appeal as it’s got great main protagonists in Sam and Dean, who not only die and get resurrected on a regular basis, but the clever writing also injects the series with comic elements. There’s plenty of gore and inventive deaths in the series and the cinematography is stunning. A spin-off series called Supernatural: Bloodlines will follow the 20th episode of series nine.
True Blood is another supernatural TV series that has us hooked. The story follows the life of a bored and telepathic waitress called Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), who works in a town called Bon Temps, Louisiana. In this fictional town, vampires and humans co-exist. It’s an HBO series that premiered in 2008 and last summer HBO announced that a seventh season (the final one) will premiere in June this year.
If you’ve not seen any of True Blood the story begins with the idea that vampires and other supernatural creatures have been living amongst the townsfolk without their knowledge, but that because a synthetic blood has been developed by scientists, vampires can now ‘come out of the coffin’ and live openly with people as they no longer need to drink their blood to survive. However there is a split in the vampire world between those who want to co-exist and those who believe the idea is impossible due to the innate violent nature of vampires.
Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran from 1997 to 2003, there’s a more-ish quality to these shows that focus on the supernatural and all those things that we think might be out there, but can’t be sure really exist. But what keeps us hooked and eagerly waiting the next episode and next series isn’t just to find out more about the supernatural world – it also depends on the quality of the writing and the choice of the actors. That’s why there are some TV series where we are always left wanting more, and others that don’t really get off the ground.
