alexseanchai | (no subject)

Dear world: the problems with seasons six and seven of Supernatural were not caused by Sera Gamble's showrunning and will not be solved by Jeremy Carver's showrunning. Said problems were certainly not caused by the absence of, and will not be solved by the return of, a showrunner who was working on the show in its early years. Look at Gamble's SuperWiki page. She wrote or co-wrote at least three episodes a season every season. Usually four. Sometimes five. Starting with 1x03. Gamble is the definition of 'someone who was working on the show in its early years'; Carver, though also writing four episodes a season for every season he was involved with, was only on Supernatural S3-S5. That's middle years, not early years.

The problems of Supernatural seasons six and seven were, 'how does one top the apocalypse?' And that's...about it, really. Carver, had he taken over Supernatural for S6-S7 instead of going off to Being Human US, would have had the same problems. Kripke, had he stuck around, would have had the same problems. It is not Gamble's fault.

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I agree. There are things I sincerely don't like about Sera Gamble's contribution to SPN, namely her huge hate-on for John Winchester, but it seems to me that she did a fine job as showrunner and I wish her well.

Yeah. This.

The season five meta episode? The one with the alternate universe where Supernatural is being filmed as TV, anyway. It still cracks me up, the reference to Gamble as 'the new girl'. Mostly because the show mocking the shit out of fandom on that score? Actually totally deserved. Except then I ended up being annoyed because I realised much of fandom probably did not, in fact, realise that they were being mocked because they really and genuinely thought she was the new girl.

Seriously, I listened to some of the commentary on S1 or S2, I forget which, on DVD, which has Kripke and some other dude whose name I forget and Sera Gamble. I particularly remember them talking about how positively Gamble handled feedback on her scripts from the start. She's been around since the show was being developed, folks! Whatever problems she's had are certainly not due to not having experience with the show and characters.

(The funny thing is, I've not even watched any S6 or S7, largely because I went... how could they possibly top the Apocalypse? Well, that and also being unable to deal with the chunks of fandom who were not in the show because they found it hilarious. But yeah I had a feeling they might do something entertaining or interesting but that even so narratively there that problem would remain.)

Edited 2012-05-22 20:42 (UTC)

Uh, that was the season six meta episode. But yeah. And you're probably wise not to have watched any other S6 or any S7. There've been some absolute gems (whyyyy has no one pointed me to the fic spawning from Castiel's actions in the middle of the S7 premiere, because that was some religious-meta gold there), but there's also been some absolute dreck (the Amazon episode, every single female was a monster except the entirely-offscreen wife of the one vic known to be married, and naturally I went and fell in love with one of said female characters so must rewatch the aaauuugh fail, and I have been warned to stay entirely clear of the wedding episode), and mostly it's been mediocre.