Supernatural: Season 12 - TV review
Supernatural: Season 12
Plot: Season 12 of this fantasy drama picks up right where it left off, with Sam kidnapped by British Men of Letters member Toni Bevell; and Dean in shock at the sight of his mother, Mary, who's been long dead. Castiel is forced to partner up with Crowley to search for the vessel-jumping Lucifer
Cast: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins
Number Of Episodes: 23
Channel: E4 (UK)/The CW (US)
Certificate: 15 (strong violence)
Air Date: Thursday 13th October 2016 - Thursday 18th May 2017
Before we get down to business allow me to just clarify what my relationship with Supernatural is. I was never a fan from the very start. In fact, it wasn't until last summer that I even began to watch Supernatural. I took the advice and then the consequent bombardment of "WATCH IT" from a close friend of mine, that I eventually managed to binge the entire eleven seasons needed to catch up in order to be up to date come the premiere of the twelfth. Truth be told, all eleven seasons have merged into one blur but the main thing is, I'm familiar with all of the characters, demons and relationships. So; grab a burger and a beer, jump in your Impala and get ready to blare out Kansas' 'Carry On My Wayward Son' as we sum up the twelfth season of Supernatural.
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| Dean's always had a thing for pointy objects. |
When Season 11 drew to a close we, the fans, were on the edge of our seats as we feared for Sam's life as the demented British Men of Letters make a reappearance and Dean gets the mother of all shocks, literally. As we rejoin the action, Dean and newly reincarnated Mary are on the hunt to find Sam who is being tortured for information by the deeply troubled and psychopathic Lady Bevell. It's in these opening episodes where we began to discover that the British Men of Of Letters were likely to play a considerable role in the development of this season. Ultimately, there were two storylines running in tandem with each other which, on paper, was a clever idea to cover the twenty three episode count. To the show's detriment, it doesn't quite balance those two stories brilliantly resulting in an often muddled flow as we drift back and forth between sabotage with the BML (British Men of Letters) and the birth of the Anti-Christ. Both of these stories could have easily warranted a single season and potentially lasted the full amount of episodes but instead, were crammed together. So, in an attempt to make things right this review will work in the way this season of Supernatural should have proceeded. One portion will be dedicated to the BML storyline and the other will focus on Lucifer and his developing spawn rather than weave in and out. The BML plotline was the most inconsistent. When the episodes revolving around their shady group worked, they ended up being the best of the season however, when those episodes weren't 100%, that's when cracks began to show.
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| Sleepwalking had now become a big problem for Mary. |
As ever, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are excellent as Sam and Dean (with Ackles being the star of the duo this year) and for a little while, Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester was everything I hoped we could see of her. She proved herself to be a phenomenal hunter but an even better mum to her boys. That all ceased once she decided to ditch Sam and Dean to work with the BML for reasons that seemed particularly vague. Not only did I find this a horrendously odd decision for a character who prided herself on loyalty, not to mention SAM AND DEAN ARE HER FRICKIN' SONS, but her sudden switch just made no sense. I understand that the BML are supposed to be manipulative and tricky but Mary's change and departure didn't seem like Mary at all. Now, as the season progresses the BML crop up now and again but they don't come back to the limelight until the final third of the season as their plan and villainy comes to fruition. It makes sense for the BML to do some pretty shocking things, like killing the immensely likeable Mick, who we've only begun to enjoy on screen, but then they had to go and murder the criminally underrated character of Eileen in the most unheroic way possible. For such a beloved character, her death was just tossed aside leaving myself and other fans reeling that she didn't get a deserving sendoff. As the season drew to a close, Mary is now brainwashed to hunt the hunters and characters like Ketch (who is such a pretentious asswipe) and Lady Bevell are running riot among America and so it takes Sam and the remaining surviving hunters to burst into the BML base Raid-style. All in all, I enjoyed the dynamic of having an opposing group who take Sam and Dean's work to the extreme but the lack of any real motive for their brutality and methods of dispatching and brainwashing fan favourite characters all culminate in a storyline that felt completely like Supernatural just with the fast forward button pushed down.
FACT: Ruth Connell, who plays Rowena, is actually 15 years younger than Mark Sheppard, who plays her son, Crowley - the King of Hell.
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| She wasn't enjoying Sam and Dean's unique bonding exercises. |
Thankfully, there is redemption for this season, and when I say redemption, I mean near perfection for a Supernatural story. When I first began this show, this is the type of storyline I was hoping for. The show's called Supernatural so why focus on evil humans when you can have the literal Devil himself? Yes, for the second half of Supernatural, Sam and Dean are tasked with stopping the reappearance of Lucifer who shifts from body to body including a Mick Jagger wannabe rockstar, played fantastically by Rick Springfield, the President of the USA (who some would say is already possessed by a devil) and then back into a body Supernatural fans all recognise, Mark Pellegrino. Without a doubt, Pellegrino relishes this role and has so much fun being the maniacally evil lord of the underworld. This, in turn, provides a great conflicting relationship with everyone's favourite King of Hell, Crowley. As the season reached the halfway mark, Lucifer decided it was time to get busy so knocked up a secretary of his whilst as the President, and thus, a little baby Omen was on his way. The character of Kelly Kline (the mother of said Anti-Christ) is pretty damn thick. She has no obligation to give birth to this child seeing as she does find out she had sex with the Devil and now harbours his child, a child that can bring an end to the world, and yet, for a preposterously forced reason of finding connection with her satanic foetus, decides to keep it. As plot devices go, it wasn't the best, but hey-ho, we need Lucifer to be on the chase somehow. Similar to the BML plotline as it neared its end, tensions increased greatly as Lucifer was growing nearer and this child was closer to being born. This all culminated in what I imagine, will be a season finale of Supernatural that will be long remembered. So. Much. Happened. As the finale finished, my legitimate reaction was "Well...shit". Mary sacrifices her being with her sons to trap Lucifer in an alternate universe (a universe that beautifully still contains a war-torn Bobby), Crowley sacrifices himself (for a saddening confirmed good this time. Farewell Mark Sheppard. You've been terrific and you will be missed) to seal the portal and then, from out of nowhere, Castiel (Yes, he actually is in this series despite being absent for a ludicrous number of episodes) drops down dead too. It's a shocking season finale but ends on one of the top cliffhangers than Supernatural is so well known for.
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| Cue the triggering of all the Destiel supporters. |
Season 12 won't be remembered as Supernatural's greatest ever season but it does contain some sensational episodes. Padalecki and Ackles own these roles now so much so, they are indistinguishable between actors and characters. The British Men of Letters made for worthy adversaries but deserved a more prominent focus and season of their own. As for Lucifer and his baby, this is the Supernatural that I love. On the whole, it's another hit year for the Supernatural team.
My Verdict: 8/10
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