Three Reasons to Be Excited for Supernatural Season 10

The CW's long-running series Supernatural will enter an astonishing Season 10 this fall, a feat few shows reach these days at all, let alone genre shows like this one. Supernatural is the last remaining holdover from the WB Network, which became the CW in 2006. And after nearly a decade on the air, the show hits its milestone tenth season.

I've been a devoted fan of the series almost since day one (I didn't start watching live each week until Season 2, but I caught up on Season 1 almost immediately), so I can admit it's been hard to stick with this show sometimes. The first five seasons are excellent television. They tell a complete, focused story that ends in tragedy, sacrifice, heroism and hope. The show could have ended at Season 5 and this fan would have been satisfied.

But then the show got more popular, so Season 6 happened. And Season 6 was...not so good. Don't get me wrong. It's still enjoyable. But the quality of the story declines noticeably. Except for "The French Mistake," which I maintain is one of the best episodes of the entire series. And then Season 7...let's not talk about Season 7.

When Jeremy Carver took over in Season 8, the show needed a change. It was starting to wear out its welcome and needed some new energy to keep it alive. And Carver did just that by establishing a story arc that continues through the beginning of Season 10. After nine seasons, fans still have reasons to be excited. So with that in mind, here are three reasons you should be glued to your televisions when Supernatural Season 10 kicks off this fall.

1) Demon Dean.

Sam Winchester has gone through roughly 141 2/3 incarnations of his character over the course of this series, from Soulless Sam to Samifer (that's Lucifer possessing Sam) to Samzekiel (that's Ezekiel aka Gadreel possessing Sam). Jared Padalecki has been able to play the character in so many ways, but Jensen Ackles has had to keep Dean more or less the same. But not anymore.

Demon Dean (Deanmon? DemoDean?) is going to be awesome. Ackles has described the character thus far as Dean turned up to 11 in that he does not care about consequences of his actions. He'll spend a drunken night of debauchery in Vegas and not bat an eyelash. He'll beat the tar out of someone who crosses him and move onto the next guy. We've seen violent streaks in Dean and we've seen him party a little too much, so Demon Dean will likely take this to a different level. And it's going to be great.

2) Crowley's increased presence.

Mark Sheppard is a series regular this season, which can only be a good thing for the show. Sheppard's performance as the King of Hell has consistently been one of the highlights of the series since his arrival in mid-Season 5. Whether he's playing the Big Bad manipulating events behind the scenes or crying to Sam about HBO's Girls, Sheppard routinely knocks it out of the park. He helped turn Dean into a demon in the Season 9 finale, so it only makes sense that he would be around to mentor him in Season 10.

Plus, we'll probably get to hear "hello, boys" more often, which is always a good thing.

3) A direction for the ship.

The biggest problem in Seasons 6 and 7 was the lack of direction. The show felt like it was just aimlessly wandering with no real sense of purpose. That all changed in Season 8 and continues into Season 10. It feels like Carver is continuing the natural progression of an arc he laid out years ago. Season 8 had the trials. Season 9 had Metatron. Season 10 has Demon Dean. Where we go from here is anyone's guess.

Bonus Reason: The 200^th episode.

It's going to be "musical-ish" and feature callbacks to past characters. This can't miss.

Why are you excited for Supernatural Season 10? Let us know in the comments section.