The Season Seven Showdown: Buffy vs. Supernatural

Today we're announcing a new blog series that will span the entirety of the 2011-12 TV season! Get ready Supernatural fans, this one's for you! We've been wanting to bring our love for Supernatural to Buffyfest for some time and after a recent internal disagreement, an idea was born. In a nutshell, we were discussing if Supernatural is going the way of Buffy in it's final seasons. The bad way. I say it won't, but Michelle thinks I'm setting myself up for heartbreak. So we plan on putting this all to the test by doing an episode comparison until next May. Yes, this will probably entail a S.7 Buffy re-watch.

That's a whole lotta hotness.

Let me explain: While we're clearly obsessed with Buffy, it's no secret that most of us here at Buffyfest believe it's final 2 TV seasons were it's weakest. Season 6 was what it was (and we don't really need to re-ignite that debate), but I remember like it was yesterday the hope that Buffy's Season 7 brought me. Week after week, I swore to the gods that Joss would turn it all around by the end. Sadly, it didn't really happen. Every week was a let-down (ugh, Buffy couldn't beat that one vampire for 5 episodes?? Really?). Potentials were everywhere and by the time "Chosen" came around, we were phoning it in as much as SMG was.

Fast forward to present-ish day. Supernatural is "Buffy with Boys" (Michelle's words) as there are so many obvious similarities between the shows. From crossover actors, to the demons, to the lore. Both lead characters have apocalyptic prophecies and every single character on both shows have some serious daddy/little sibling issues. Dean's deal with the crossroads demon is strikingly similar to Willow resurrecting Buffy. Not to mention, all both Sam and Buffy ever wanted was just want to be free of it all and have a normal life, dammit!

Nothing drives the comparison point home more than the Season 5 finales of both shows. Ah, the Season 5s. Buffy ended with a banger of an episode, "The Gift", and Supernatural's S.5 finale, "Swan Song", was basically the same exact fabulous episode. They both tell a tale of understanding that being hero often means making a sacrifice - not just to save not just the world, but for family. Both Sam's and Buffy's apocalypse-averting suicides are illustrated as a final, fatal tumble into a mystical hole of energy. Unfortunately, the biggest comparison might be that both "The Gift" and "Swan Song" should've been the series finales of both shows.

But they weren't the end...and that's where this particular idea began. After the series kept going - Buffy on a new network and largely without Joss and Supernatch without series creator Eric Kripke - the similarities kept on going too, both good and awful. From main characters coming back from the afterlife wrong (which got depressing fast) to Castiel's abuse of power mimicking Willow's descent into the "magic is a drug" abyss to some simply lame-ass villains. Point is, being familiar to Buffy S.6 isn't really a good thing around here so basically Supernatural got a little sucky. So now that the pattern's been explained you'll understand that some of the team over here think that trend will continue and that Supernatural is destined for a Buffy Season 7-type crash and burn.

Call me naive, but I still have hope just as I did way back then. So what we're going to do for the entire season is an episode-by-episode comparative study of Season 7. After a new Supernatural episode airs, we are going to recap it alongside the same numbered episode of Buffy Season 7. What will be similar? What will be different? And most importantly, will Supernatural survive the series ending curse that Buffy had on it? Or will it prove that "Swan Song" should've been it's...well...swan song. Sera Gamble, you better not let me down. Check in tomorrow for the Season Premieres and comparison #1!