if you were to recommend one spn season to someone who only knows about november 5th shenanigans, which season would you recommend? asking for a friend
oh hcrist ok uh. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 BELOW BUT. tie between season 3 and season 4. season 3 is really well written in the sense that literally every episode ties into the plot in a really interesting way and it has a good number of standalone monster-of-the-week eps thrown in there too. the plot of that season has to do with the season 2 finale, where dean sold his soul to a demon to bring sam back to life. now they both have a year to find a way to get dean out of the soul contract before time runs out and he gets dragged down to hell by a hellhound. you also meet some interesting side characters like bela talbot (a cat burglar who specializes in stealing and selling supernatural artifacts), agent henrikson (an fbi agent currently looking for sam and dean because they're wanted for several murders because yk. sometimes you can't really explain that the man you just murdered was actually a werewolf or smth), ruby (a demon who wants to help sam and dean fight against hell for unknown reasons), and gordon walker (a vampire hunter with a very black-and-white view of monsters who believes sam should be killed for his involvement with the yellow-eyed demon azazel)
season 4 on the other hand can be watched by itself but it's best watched back-to-back with season 5. some people even start with this season and it's widely considered to be spn's best run of episodes. it introduces the angels and the plot of the demons racing to release lucifer. the gist of it is that there are hundreds of 'seals' or locks on lucifer's cage in hell. these seals are events like killing reapers, raising souls from the dead, etc etc. basically tasks that the demons have to accomplish to get closer to freeing lucifer and kickstarting the apocalypse. sam and dean frequently get roped into helping the angels stop these tasks and this is also where cas gets introduced. major side characters for this season include yk. the guy himself castiel supernatural (an angel intent on carrying out his orders from god who has doubts about whether or not they're doing the right thing), anna milton (a girl who insists she can hear angels and see demons), lilith (a demon at the forefront of the quest to release lucifer from his cage who especially has it out for sam because he was intended to be groomed into becoming the king of hell), and chuck (a prophet writer who uses his visions to write books about the events of sam and dean's lives)
basically if you want a season of largely standalone episodes that still has an interconnected plot watch season 3. if you're fine with shit getting a little crazy in a good way and despairing over cycles and all that watch season 4. though tbh if you watch season 4 youre probably going to end up watching season 5 too so it's up to you
