Tribble here! This is an article written by Diane. Before we start I wanted to let you all know that you too, can prevent forest fires! I mean... write articles! all you have to do is send them to Tribblesntargspodcast@gmail.com
Here are links!
Follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/Tribblesntargs
Read the Blog! http://tribblesandtargsgeek.blogspot.com/
Podbean! http://tribblesntargs.podbean.com/
Email! Tribblesntargspodcast@gmail.com
Last week's poll was less successful, but I will take that as you all agree with us! yay!!!
So, without further ado, here is Diane's article!
One day Tribble and I
were discussing Supernatural and the
difference between the Sera Gamble years and the Eric Kripke years. I told her
I could go on for hours about how the season 5 finale, Swan Song, should have been the series finale. She asked me to vent
about it in an article for GEEK. I know
there are some of you who will agree and disagree with me, but I just wanted to
share my opinion.
When I was little I had
to do a project about an enigma for school. Enigmas, in that sense, encompassed
everything from supernatural or mythological creatures to local legends and
ghost stories. I chose to study the history of vampires. I did this project in
6th grade, and it sparked an obsession with anything paranormal,
strange, or just flat out impossible. So in my senior year of high school, this
show came along that described everything I loved to read about in its title: Supernatural. I watched every episode
live as it aired, from the beginning. This was the first show that I needed to
see each week and could watch repeats of endlessly. I learned the gag reels and
DVD special features forwards and backwards. I read the tie-in novels. I read
and watched every cast/crew interview I could find. The show miraculously kept
being renewed year after year, even with a relatively small fan base. I could
not imagine the way I would handle the news that the show could ever possibly
be ending, but each year I tried to prepare myself for that possibility.
Then Eric Kripke, the
creator of the show, mentioned in the fourth season that he had a plan through
the fifth season and then he would end the show. At first I was devastated. The
CW has a history of making terrible choices with their shows to try to keep the
network alive. Even knowing that Kripke had planned for the show to run for
another year at that point, they made contract moves with the stars to keep
them locked in through a sixth season. They saw that Supernatural had a rabid fan following and decided to push the show
for another year. Kripke, being the brilliant man that he is, stepped down at
this point, handing the reins to a writer who has proved her worth in many
episodes, such as Faith, Crossroad Blues,
Dream a Little Dream of Me, and It’s
a Terrible Life. She has been with the show from season one which, not many
writers could say. She was one of my favorites. I was ready to see what she
brought to the table. Was. I wanted
to re-watch some episodes to try to find examples and pinpoint where exactly
she went wrong, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch that much of seasons 6 or
7. I decided to watch the season 5 finale and the season 6 premiere (Exile on Main Street) to revisit how the
transition went down.
I do not have the right
words to explain the way I feel about Swan
Song. It is one of the most perfect hours of television I have ever
seen. That may sound like hyperbole, but
when I was watching it again and still feeling the way I felt the night the episode
premiered, I have to believe that is the most accurate description of the
episode. In this one episode Kripke made
us all remember how much we loved the show and why. Before Castiel, before
Bobby, the Impala was always considered the third main character on the show.
In the season one finale Devil’s Trap
Kripke had her absolutely destroyed by a monster truck. That was the first time
I ever felt such loss over a main character. Then, in true Supernatural fashion, she was resurrected the next season and got a
new theme song (AC/DC’s Back in Black). This random history of the car proves
to be an explanation of how the Impala was their home, and their savior. After
the entire fifth season was spent building up to a fight between the brothers
Winchester, he starts the episode discussing the other main character.
When Sam has allowed
himself to become Lucifer’s vessel, we see demons that worked with Azazel to
bring Sam to Detroit that very day. Kripke demonstrated right then that even
though he originally thought it was a miracle the show made it past two
seasons, he always had a plan in place in case the show went on longer. At the
end, Chuck writes about how endings are difficult and there are always loose
ends. Sure Kripke left a few mysteries behind when he left. But he also
provided us with a lot of literary symmetry. The boys were basically born in
Lawrence, KS because that is where Michael and Lucifer, played by Dean and Sam,
would die. No minor detail was an accident. He realized in the fourth season that
he would not necessarily be able to end the show the way he wanted, so he
opened himself a loophole by adding Adam Winchester, who could therefore also
play Michael at Stull Cemetery.
Now we move on to Exile on Main Street. I tried to watch
it with an open mind when it premiered and now, but it just didn’t work for me.
Gamble started the show with a monster we have already encountered and defeated
before. She set up the plot that lasted only half a season (Grandpa Cambell is
hunting down Alphas), only to have to set up Purgatory and Eve later on. Kripke made Sam sacrifice himself so that
Dean could have the life Sam always wanted. Gamble brought Sam back SOULLESS to
keep him from giving Dean what he always wanted: his little brother safe and
sound. Throughout her two seasons in charge, she kept finding ways to keep the
Impala hidden somewhere. How could Kripke put so much effort into making a CAR
the third main character, just for Gamble to destroy the car by making it
disappear? Then she also repeatedly found ways to make us believe Castiel was
dead, and killed Bobby for real. She is not evil in the delicious way that
Kripke is; I’m pretty sure she just wanted to see what the fans would put up
with before she faced a torch-wielding mob.
Sera Gamble was put in
a difficult position to find a villain more fearsome than the Devil himself. I
understand that. But Eve, Purgatory, Dick Roman, and the Leviathan just did not
cut it. I respect that she took a role that not many people envied. But she did
not have a plan. Seasons 6 and 7 still had some pretty epic episodes (The French Mistake anyone?). However she
made the best decision of her career to step down after season 7.
Jeremy Carver has to
split his time between Supernatural and Syfy’s Being Human, and he still managed to plan out a better story than
Gamble did. I know Tribble and Targ have not seen most of season gr8 so I will
restrain myself from commending Carver here in detail. He did get off to a slow
start, but he also had to clean up the mess Gamble left behind to try to make
sure the plot advanced logically. The season 8 finale left me with a whole
range of feelings, some good and some bad, but I also haven’t enjoyed an
episode this much in years. At the time I am writing this, it has been a week since
the episode aired and I am still holding internal debates about how things went
down. I am looking forward to the next season, which I haven’t done since I was
looking forward to season 5.
However, Carver has a
plan through a 10th season, should the CW renew it after season 9.
The president of the network has mentioned that he wants Supernatural to survive for the duration of his career at the CW.
Why shouldn’t he? The network has some other wildly successful shows, but who
wants to deal with the fans after losing Supernatural?
With all of this in mind, sometimes you just need to let the story finish
when it is done. When Dean drove up to
the prize fight in Swan Song, Kripke
used a clip from Def Leppard’s Rock of Ages that says “it’s better to burn out,
than to fade away”. That was Kripke explaining that the show will never be as
good as it was while he was in charge. He was not arrogant, he was right. The
story was over and ready to be neatly tied off with a ribbon, and the network
pushed it on anyway. Hopefully after season 10 the network will allow Supernatural to burn out on its own,
rather than fade away. I still can’t imagine a life where I don’t have a new
episode of Supernatural to look
forward to ever again. However I was at a point where I had to remind myself to
watch it so I didn’t fall behind, and that hurt more than having the show taken
away. Do the right thing, CW executives. Just sayin.
