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Worst TV Show of the Week Brought to you by the Parents Television Council	Share |
WARNING: Graphic Content!!! Do NOT push play if you don't want to see the explicit video!!!

Supernatural on CW

The sci-fi/fantasy genre – much like animation – is given a certain degree of latitude when it comes to violent content on broadcast television.  Apparently, zombie violence doesn’t really count as violence, since the person being killed is already dead.  At least, that must be the reasoning behind the excessively graphic episode of Supernatural (Thursdays, 9:00 p.m. ET) that aired on March 25^th.  For extremely gory content, including cannibalism and decapitation, Supernatural rightly deserves the title of Worst TV Show of the Week.

In this episode the demon-hunting duo, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, investigate the mysterious resurrection of the deceased in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Among the newly undead is Karen, the wife of their fellow hunter, Bobby Singer, whom Bobby shot several years ago when she was possessed by a demon.  The dead rising from the grave normally is met with fear and panic.  In this case, however, these aren’t your typical zombies.  The deceased return as their former selves, albeit a bit paler.  And the town is filled with happy family reunions.

That is, until the zombies start to act more zombie-like.  After a few days of “normal” behavior, things start to get a bit more “paranormal.”  The zombies begin to feel intense hunger pangs.  (Hungry zombies are never a good sign).  And everyone knows what zombies crave: BRAINS!  (Or, in this case, human flesh in general).

While Sam checks up on the living dead, he discovers a sickly zombie woman resting on a bed.  As he leans closer, she pounces on him.  Sam lands on the ground next to the dead woman’s devoured husband.  She’s about to sink her teeth into Sam when he takes out his gun, sticks it in her gaping maw and blows her brains out.  Blood splatters the ceiling.

The most disturbing scene, however, involves the town sheriff’s young son, Shaun, recently resurrected from the grave.  After a few days of bliss, Shaun becomes ill and, yes, famished.  His mother is on the phone with the doctor when she hears a commotion in the other room.  She enters to find her zombie son hovering over her husband. Blood is everywhere.  Shaun’s mouth is covered in his father’s viscera. 

Soon, the whole town is crawling with zombies.  Bobby mercifully shoots his wife right before she turns into a flesh-eating monster, but his neighbors apparently aren’t as intuitive.  Bobby and Dean find themselves trapped in Bobby’s junkyard surrounded by zombies – not the slow, plodding George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead zombie, but the rabid, Usain Bolt-sprinting zombies a la 28 Days Later.  Luckily, Bobby and Dean have shotguns, which they use to literally blow off the zombies’ faces.  One zombie after another has its head blown to bits until Bobby and Dean run out of ammunition, cornered inside a closet.  Just in the nick of time, Sam and the Sheriff arrive to pick off zombie heads left and right.  There is even a Saving Private Ryan moment when zombie brains splatter the camera lens.

This level of violence is rarely seen on network television.  Again, the reasoning must be that since zombies aren’t real, it’s perfectly okay to show their heads exploding, even if the only distinguishing characteristic of a zombie is perfunctory pale make-up. 

Unfortunately, if you think this is bad, just wait until cable television takes a stab at zombie-carnage.  AMC, the cable network behind the exceedingly violent Breaking Bad, has just announced that it has ordered six episodes of the television adaptation of the popular Walking Dead graphic novel series.  With a name like Walking Dead, any guess what it’s about? 

We smell a Cable Worst of the Week festering soon.

For extremely graphic violence Supernatural has been named Worst TV Show of the Week.