Wayward Supernatural Sisters

I haven’t blogged about Super-bloody-natural in a while, eh? Yes, I’m still watching it. Yes, I’m still amazed they’re doing so well. I don’t mean that in a bad way; they’s still coming up with good ways to keep it fresh and acknowledge the worn-out bits so they can skip over them to get to the good bits and new twists. We’re on season 13 right now, and long may it last as far as I’m concerned.

I first started watching Supernatural 11-12 years ago. I was visiting the UK when I happened upon the season finale of season 2, and it made me want to go back and start from the beginning. I was in HK at that time and had no idea this show was on, as it wasn’t offered on any networks in HK at the time. Every season Warner Bros threatened cancellation or polite not-picking-it-up. However, every year the fanbase grew and the staunch supporters made the show you see on your telly every week the tip of the fandom iceberg. It has the second biggest amount of fanfic ever written (which is surprising, as the first has been going more than 50 years so it’s had more time to amass the written words of millions of fans); it has its own charity drives and worldwide treasure hunts; it has its own family of mental health support groups; it’s still drawing incredible ratings from a show that people said wouldn’t last more than a few seasons. In this competitive TV show environment, it’s become a staple of the CW channel and the Warner Bros network across the States. In other territories it’s doing well on cable/satellite and VOD services like Netflix (if your country has the complete set) and Hulu, Amazon and of course CW Seed.

So where are we up to? Parallel universes (it was only a matter of time), some characters apparently dead for good (yeah, right) and others reborn in suspicious circumstances. And in the centre, still the brothers Winchester, possibly in the best place they have been for a while where brotherly synchronicity is concerned. All they have to worry about is the son of a major character, some new dude in a white suit (obviously a bad sign), and being the victim of new writers hell-bent (no pun intended) on twisting the current format into something new. Oh, and the rumoured animated Scooby Doo episode coming up in January 2018 (no, I shit you not). I don’t want to know how much crack they were smoking the night they came up with that, but hey, I’ll watch it before jumping to conclusions.

And then there’s the small matter of a back-door pilot. The last time we had one of these (S09E06: Bloodlines, to be exact) it was a messy, derivative, complete arse-gravy affair. Badly plotted, poorly executed, and the way characters were stuffed in fridges to aid the character they were setting up as the main protagonist was just a shitty, shitty waste. I was particularly unimpressed with the perfectly coiffed, marvellously made-up stiff Dallas-rejected white dudes they’d decided were going to be the important factions of the new show. SPN has never been as down and dirty as, say, The Walking Dead, but then it’s a Warner Bros/CW show. How can I illustrate this? Hmm - that moment John Constantine turned up on Arrow and we saw him, rumpled mac, dirty hands and cigarette butts, standing next to perfectly made-up, Beautiful People. That’s the difference. John is rough as a bear’s bum but in a CW way - he can still squeak by to get onto the show, but he’s not One Of Them. The same is true of SPN. They may look clean and CW-coiffed, but they are not One Of Them. To put a back-door pilot in a show like that and make the new one definitely The Boring/White Elite is just wrong.

However, even the CW can realise their mistake and try to catch up. They may have only just noticed the WOMEN ARE PEOPLE TOO bandwagon pass their window and dropped everything to run after it, but they might just have a chance of leaping on the back and having a good bash at it.

See, there’s always been one problem with SPN, and that is Everybody Dies. EVERYBODY. This includes every single female who’s been on the show. The fact that the show is about 2 brothers and not 2 sisters means that it seems to be the norm to kill off all the women. Add to that the fact that the most popular recurring villain they’ve ever had is also a man, and so is the angel who’s somehow got caught up in their shenanigans (and come back to life a few times himself), and you have a very male-centric show. This has been the norm for the last 13 seasons.

So the Next Big Thing every network is desperate to find might be women. Supergirl is making waves and doing very well indeed. Arrow is adding women left, right and centre and it’s helping to keep the show interesting. Lest we forget, Warner Bros and DC just delivered a box office smash with Wonder Woman and people are asking when a Black Widow movie will follow - after the Captain Marvel movie hits in 2018/9. So what can you do with SPN when the cast is by default straight white dudes?

This is where the back-door pilot comes in. Sheriff Jodi Mills is a national fucking treasure and a firm audience favourite. So too is Sheriff Donna Hanscum - a relative newcomer, but no less loved. The response to these two characters has been epic in fandom terms, as they’re the first females that have survived (so far) and yet they’re not here to drastically change the boys’ brotherly adventures. In fact, they end up asking for help from these two women a few times - and these women are in roles that, when first written, I’m sure were there for story-propelling purposes. But now they’ve grown and the fandom has asked for more - and more. If you ever get the chance to see Kim Rhodes or Brianna Buckmaster at a convention, please stop to listen. They are compelling speakers and advocates of change. They’re also heavily involved in the Wayward Sisters movement (a twist on the unofficial SPN anthem of Carry On Wayward Son) and also probably a lot to do with the Wayward AF t-shirts the two of them were selling to raise money for the Random Acts charity. What we’re getting in this spin-off is a host of women doing what Sam and Dean do every week, not as biological sisters but as a group bound together by need and support.

I can’t wait for this - the whole thing sounds like we're finally getting something that blokes got in 2005 with the original SPN show, and in countless others films and shows. I’m hoping it’s going to be good, obviously - the last one did not fill me with confidence for their next effort, but then they were trying to invent a world from nowhere. This spin-off attempt is set in the same universe as the original show, and even carries over 2 or 4 characters from it, too. They’ve already got a fanbase almost built-in, and at least 60% of those really want this new show to succeed.

And with that, I think I’ll get back to my day off. I hear a beer calling; here’s to new shows and the networks finally giving us what we want.

Soopy twist.