Shows that prove to be cash-cows for their networks will typically get a bigger budget over time. Game of Thrones is the perfect example of this. But not every show gets the kind of budget it necessarily needs to make it better. And it's an especially tricky subject when dealing with the fantasy genre because of the special effects needed to make it work.
One would think that Supernatural, a show that made it to season 15, would've gotten the budget to do a lot more at some point. While the effects on the show are generally good, there are still many times throughout the show when a bigger budget would've helped a lot. Here are a few of the more noticeable ones.
When the Scenery Got Old
Sam and Dean are supposedly road-tripping around the United States. But the show is filmed in Canada. For a good portion of the show, this isn't really noticeable. But there was a point at which it started to feel like Sam and Dean were really stuck in one place as the same scenery got used over and over again.
The landscape just isn't uniform enough across the States for them to constantly use Canadian greenery and suburbs as the backdrop of every episode. The effect is subtle, but by the time they'd been on a decade, it was starting to feel like a bubble.
When the First Apocalypse Was Nigh
There have been a few events that nearly ended Sam and Dean's world. But the first apocalypse with the war of heaven and hell was supposed to be pretty big. Unfortunately, the budget forced them to imply the severity rather than show it.
It's easy to forget in later seasons, but there was supposedly a load of natural disasters during the apocalypse, and also worries about epidemics like swine flu. But the severity of what was happening was largely constrained to in-universe news reports on t.v. and radio. They didn't generally witness mass destruction, it was only mentioned.
When Angels Became Major Players
It's not unusual to represent angels as just people. But in Supernatural, humans are the vessels of angels. It made sense that they were usually only seen out of their vessels when they were entering said vessels, but it did raise some questions about their true forms.
Zachariah once described his multiple faces, and Castiel once mentioned being the size of the Chrysler building. But after more than a decade on the show, it's unfortunate that not a single angel has appeared in their true form, with all of their multi-faced and ridiculous-sized glory, even when the villain was as big as Amara.
When Heaven Became A Set
Viewers first saw the heaven of the Supernatural universe in season 5 during "Dark Side of the Moon." Since their heaven was made of human memories, it was interesting and worked pretty well. But as angels had an increasing presence on the show, they eventually had to go to the angels' part of heaven. And that... was a little dull.
It's basically a bright white office space. And all of the angels appear to be in vessels, which is weird since they're in heaven and shouldn't need those. It makes sense on the practical level of how to cheaply show the angels without special effects, though.
The March of Monsters
Season 6 shifted the focus from heaven and hell back to monsters (at least somewhat). The mother of all monsters was released from Purgatory and was creating new monsters. But it's mentioned in the show that monsters all started traveling around this time, headed in seemingly the same direction.
A migration of monsters could've made for some interesting visuals, even if they weren't literally all in a group. But that would've meant a lot of makeup, special effects, and more to show both old monsters and new making their way toward Eve. It's just a little disappointing that this is only mentioned and not shown.
When Purgatory Became A Set
Purgatory should've been an interesting set in several ways. For one thing, the first five seasons focused so much on heaven and hell that Purgatory was a wild card. Nothing was known about it except that it's where monsters go. But more importantly, it was essentially a whole other world.
Except it didn't look like it. It just looked like Canada with monsters, and viewers didn't even get to see much of it because the show skipped Dean's time there to give flashbacks instead. And that's not even going into all the monsters that Sam and Dean killed being there, including Dean's daughter Emma, who never became an issue. It was just disappointing that they couldn't go farther with it.
When Crowley Got A Throne Room
Much like the heaven of Supernatural, hell had a lot of significance given the number of demons and the fact Sam and Dean both had to be there. But given the nature of the show, they couldn't skirt around actually showing it forever. There were glimpses of it here and there, including a glimpse of Crowley's hell-queue in season 6.
But when Crowley became King of Hell and needed a throne room, that would've been a good time to actually show a darker part of hell. Instead, he ruled from an abandoned asylum on earth. It may be dark, but it feels like a cop-out where they're trying to compromise with budget restrictions. How can the King of Hell stay out of hell?
Pretty Much Every Season Premiere
Season finales in Supernatural generally get better special effects, which makes sense when trying to do a big finish. But unfortunately, those effects don't necessarily get followed through on in the premiere of the next season. For instance, the end of season 7 left Dean in Purgatory, with creepy eyes watching him in the darkness. But in flashbacks to Purgatory in the next season, it's just greyed out Canadian wilderness with monsters in special effects makeup.
It happened when Dean went to hell and his experience was only talked about, and again when Lucifer was released from the cage and his true form wasn't shown, and when Castiel became God and his actions were mostly just reported, and again when the angels fell but ended up just being more people in suits. It's an unfortunate pattern.
When Amara Became the Antagonist
Supernatural kept upgrading its villains as much as possible over its extensive run. And eventually, they got all the way up to God's older sister, which even made them bring God back to fight her. Her introduction is pretty intense, with a huge black cloud destroying everything in its wake.
But for most of the season, she was in human form, including her one fight with God. It's understandable that most fights on the show would be in human form, but at this level of power, it would've made more story sense for Amara and even Lucifer to take their true forms.
The Michael and Lucifer Fight
The original five-season plan for Supernatural was all building up to this fight. But it didn't happen. Fans got comfortable with that fact, particularly because it was a satisfying conclusion in its own way; Lucifer ended up in hell, and Sam and Dean beat the apocalypse with great sacrifice.
But eventually, with all the twists and turns of additional seasons, the big fight finally came to fruition in season 13. Too bad the airborne portion looked ridiculous. If ever there was a time this fantasy show needed better special effects, this was it.