Why Season 9 Of Supernatural Is So Hard To Watch For Fans
"Supernatural" had a monumental run on The CW, lasting an impressive 15 seasons before finally coming to an end in 2020. Throughout its lifespan, "Supernatural" went through a lot of changes as it found new enemies for Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) to face off against. The first five seasons, which were spearheaded by Eric Kripke, culminated in the brothers stopping the literal apocalypse from happening in an action-packed finale. After that, Kripke exited as showrunner (via Entertainment Weekly) and the next 10 seasons saw a coming and going of head writers.
This naturally led to some mixed results when it came to overall quality. Still, "Supernatural" maintained its popularity just fine, given that it lasted as long as it did. However, there's a particular subset of the fanbase who find Season 9 of the show extremely difficult to watch. And the reason comes down to a particular dynamic in the show that rubbed viewers the wrong way.
Supernatural fans do not like the Sam and Dean dynamic in Season 9
Over on Reddit, u/cellokitty made a post about the dynamic between Sam and Dean through Season 9 and joked about their toxic relationship. "I'm on season 9. Supernatural is just Sam and Dean asking each other if they're ok, and then the other saying yes and lying about it," they said. u/RamblingHeathen made the point that this back-and-forth between the brothers was how the entire show is, but others took the time to point out that it's much more prevalent in Season 9.
u/BlackMagic0 agreed with u/RamblingHeathen, but admitted that they found Season 9 the most difficult for them to watch. u/wdeister08 said that the season was the one that nearly lost them as a viewer, but added that the show does bounce back and improve in quality. From a critical standpoint, Season 9 of "Supernatural" actually fared quite well. It sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, though its audience score is significantly lower at 73%. Compare this to Season 10's 77% audience score.
Season 9 of "Supernatural" has Dean and Sam fighting against the demon Abaddon (Alaina Huffman) while also contending against the angel Metatron (Curtis Armstrong), who has sent all of the angels down to Earth and closed the gates of Heaven. This season changes up Dean's arc a bit and sees him get the Mark of Cain so he can wield the First Blade and finally kill Abaddon for good. However, the Mark of Cain is also slowly making Dean lose his humanity and turn into a demon. It was definitely a season of trying new things, but some of the elements involving Sam and Dean didn't exactly land for some viewers.