When it comes to action-based TV shows that exist within the realm of all things spooky, it’s difficult to look beyond Supernatural. For 15 seasons, the adventures of Sam and Dean captivated viewers with a potent brew of biblical battles, sibling drama, and paranormal lore, and even if some seasons fared better than others, the chemistry between Supernatural‘s cast members kept the ship afloat. The sheer excitement that greeted The Boys season 5’s three-way reunion between Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins perfectly demonstrates how strongly Supernatural still resonates.
With Hulu giving its Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival the boot, Supernatural stands relatively unchallenged at the top of its field, especially since more episodes will inevitably happen sooner or later. Nailing the right tone is devilishly tricky, since demons, ghouls, and spirits are intrinsically hokey, but also require a degree of earnestness in order to carry any kind of stakes. The likes of Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeeded by perfecting that delicate balance between silly and serious.
Now another series has come along in the same vein and managed to locate that all-important sweet spot. Netflix’s adaptation of Devil May Cry is based on the video game series now over two decades old, and while certain changes to the source material have ruffled feathers among sections of the fandom, the series has earned rave reviews, with season 1 scoring 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and season 2 currently sitting at 100%.
Echoing its esteemed predecessors, Devil May Cry is self-aware enough to embrace whatever campiness comes from making Hell a real place. Dante rarely keeps a straight face, and Devil May Cry‘s soundtrack is a larger-than-life, bombastic beast designed to slap smiles onto faces. At the same time, the emotive moments don’t pull their punches. The goofiness has its place, of course, but when a major death occurs or a protagonist experiences a spark of self-enlightenment, Devil May Cry keeps itself grounded enough for those beats to matter. That’s especially evident in season 2, which grows up ever-so slightly compared to its 2025 counterpart.
Elsewhere, Devil May Cry‘s animated format naturally gives it plenty of creative license in the action stakes, and season 2’s addition of Vergil brings the same kind of brotherly antagonism that defined Supernatural‘s entire 15-year run. Also like Supernatural, Devil May Cry avoids the standard “people good; demons bad” trope by depicting Hell as a politically complex web of deceit, morality, and carefully laid out rules.
Devil May Cry Is A Lesson Supernatural’s Future Revival Should Pay Attention To
The biggest difference between Supernatural and Devil May Cry is not the gap between live-action and animation, but the length of each season. As is typical for streaming shows, both seasons of Devil May Cry clock in at 8 episodes each. As was typical for The CW, Supernatural seasons routinely doubled that number.
The distinction is palpable in how lean Devil May Cry feels in its narrative, with every scene serving a larger purpose for that season’s arc or the show’s direction as a whole. Supernatural was a very different show, at least to start with, and mostly followed a case-of-the-week structure. As Sam and Dean grew older, however, Supernatural‘s serialized plots adopted a more central role, and the burden of long seasons began to take its toll.
When Supernatural returns, it will undoubtedly benefit from a much shorter 8 or 10 episode order that follows one meaty mystery from beginning to end, casting aside all notions of bottle episodes and side quests in favor of a more streamlined, all-masked-killer-no-filler format that brings the Winchesters right up to date with the prestige streaming releases they’ll now be competing against.
Supernatural‘s final season never went full-steam-ahead with the Winchesterbowl storyline that would have pitted Sam against Dean. If nothing else, Dante and Vergil in Devil May Cry season 2 prove an 8-episode, no-nonsense run is perfect for a violent brotherly feud involving demons and dead parents.
- Release Date
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2005 – 2020
- Showrunner
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Eric Kripke
- Directors
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Philip Sgriccia, John F. Showalter, Kim Manners, Thomas J. Wright, Charles Beeson, Guy Norman Bee, Richard Speight Jr., Mike Rohl, John Badham, Steve Boyum, Amyn Kaderali, Jensen Ackles, Tim Andrew, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeannot Szwarc, P.J. Pesce, Nina Lopez-Corrado, James L. Conway, Amanda Tapping, J. Miller Tobin, Stefan Pleszczynski, John MacCarthy, Jerry Wanek, Ben Edlund
- Writers
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Meredith Glynn, Davy Perez, Raelle Tucker, Cathryn Humphris, Brett Matthews, Nancy Won, John Bring, Ben Acker, Daniel Knauf, David Ehrman, James Krieg, Trey Callaway