31 Days of Halloween - Day 9: Supernatural Television Shows

Supernatural television has long been in vogue. Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we had Dark Shadows. Before Tales from the Crypt, there was The Twilight Zone. Today there is a plethora of supernatural programs, many of which are just taking advantage of the whole vampire craze. All I have to say about the newer crop of supernatural shows is this: NOT... A... FAN!

I used to be totally addicted to True Blood. Then I got behind on a few episodes which then turned into a few seasons. Now, I could care less about the show. Sounds awful, I know, but I'm no longer into those shows anymore. Grimm didn't hold my attention enough to watch the pilot episode, Fringe seemed just like that CW show but for adults, and Vampire Diaries is a just a serialized version of Twilight. The last great supernatural show was X-Files. Yeah, the basic storyline was about aliens, but they frequently switched it up with other supernatural elements. X-files was fun and exciting. This latest crop of wannabes is far from exciting.

Other than True Blood, the only supernatural show that seems creative and has a loyal (adult) following is American Horror Story. That show was kicked it up a notch for so-called scary television. I also like the cast/storyline overhaul Ryan Murphy wants to do each season. His reasoning of that makes sense: you can only drag out a story but so long before it gets stale. You hear that True Blood?!

That's the problem with supernatural television shows these days. Most of them don't seem to have an end date in sight. They just keep going, rehashing storylines, changing characters, introducing crazy plot twists until fans of the show blow up the 'Net with how much the show has "jumped the shark." That seems to be the biggest issue with American television. We seem to want to milk a show's popularity for all it's worth at the detriment of the story and characters. Even X-Files suffered this fate the last couple of seasons. At some point, you just have to call time and let the show go out with a bang, not a whimper.

I have hope that not all supernatural shows in the future will suck. We've seen some fine examples of ones that set the bar impossibly high. However, if networks continue to pander to the Twi-hard crowd, we will continue to get crap of CW proportions!