“Supernatural” is So Gay (In My Dreams Anyway)

Wait. Why is AfterElton.com writing about Supernatural, the CW show about a pair of demon-killing brothers? Are we saying it’s a show of gay interest merely because it features four of the most attractive men on television?

Um, yeah!

In fact, these four Supernatural actors all made the Hot 100, our recent reader survey of who gay and bisexual men think are most attractive: Jensen Ackles (at #5), Jared Padalecki (at #12), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (at #70) and Misha Collins, a relatively new addition to the cast as the angel Castiel (at #93).

The show also has a funny reoccurring joke where the show’s central characters, Sam and Dean, are mistaken for a gay couple (but which almost never results in gay panic).

Dean goes undercover as a high school PE teacher

And last year, an episode with a gay character (played by 90210’s Dustin Milligan) was nominated for a GLAAD Award. In the episode, a gay intern named Alan dies a becomes a ghost. Later, the living guy who Alan had a crush on is encouraged to pretend to be gay in order to marshal Alan into the afterlife. “Ed,” he’s told, “you have to go be gay for that poor dead intern!”

One recent episode even had Sam and Dean discovering that their lives were being recounted in a series of pulp fiction novels, and that online fans of the two characters’ were arguing about which of the two were hotter (as people do in real life, including here at AfterElton.com, except about the actors). On the episode, some people were even, it seems, writing “slash-fiction” about the characters.

“Do they know we’re brothers?” an appalled Dean asked, in one of the cheekiest, most meta lines ever uttered on television.

But the truth is, there’s plenty for gay and bisexual viewers to like about Supernatural, which has its season finale Thursday night, even apart from the obvious.

Basically, it’s a terrific show. And while it’s always been good – with solid scripts and good acting, impressive thrills, and a cinematography that rivals many feature films – this last season, the show’s fourth, has easily been the best so far.

And yet, despite its enthusiastic online fanbase, Supernatural has gone mostly unappreciated in the industry and in the wider pop culture landscape.

Some of this is, no doubt, due to the genre. The show is a cross between The X-Files and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer – although much grittier than either. But let’s face it: monster or horror-themed projects are often considered the lowest of the low-brow, even within genre circles.