What a long, sad trip it's been

One thing about me, I am consistent. You could set your watch by me.

Here it is, Memorial Day weekend and I woke up feeling all nostalgic about Supernatural. I remember it was exactly one year ago, also on Memorial Day Weekend, that I wrote my last SPN Nostalgia Post.

Then I was talking with tazical and mentioned the exact moment I knew I was an SPN fan -- the scene in "Folsom Prison Blues" when Dean got billy-clubbed by the prison warden. I'm so glad I recorded that moment for posterity. I was flocking all my posts back then, but I've gone back and unflocked that one because it really needs to be out there, now that I've been in this thing for almost FOUR years. God...FOUR YEARS! Plenty of people have marriages that don't last that long.

Since then I've spent what must be hundreds of hours online talking about this show. I've written one AU standalone, one gen epic, one John Winchester backstory, and one little episode coda that wound up turning into an endless multi-story Dean/Cas saga. I've even written RPS, for God's sake. I've drunk an awful lot of chardonnay at baylorsr's house while cackling over Smallville and Dark Angel. I've gone on a terrifying (but very motivating) tour of Detroit. I ate cake in a snowstorm on Jared's wedding day and shamefully, got all melancholy at an ashram on Jensen's wedding day. I've written this show off at least a half-dozen times only to find myself crawling back for more.

What can I say? I'm in it for the long haul. In fact, this year, I think I've gotten back to my roots because I've realized that it's really all about Dean. It's always been all about Dean. No wonder I dig Castiel. We both love Dean so very, very much.

Now I think I'm going to spend the weekend watching Seasons One and Two on DVD. Ah, the memories.

I don't know what to make of the fact that NBC's new Fall schedule includes a show named Grimm, described as "a dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales exist"...and they'll be airing it on Fridays at 9:00.

You can watch a preview of Grimm here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/05/16/136365928/nbcs-fall-schedule-the-dramas.

Watch that and tell me it doesn't look and feel like Supernatural. It even has the whole family-business angle, since the title character is supposed to be descended from the actual Brothers Grimm, who apparently were...hunters.

Could Supernatural possibly have enough clout that one of the Big Three networks ordered a show with almost the same premise to run in the exact same timeslot? If I were Eric Kripke, I'd be both flattered and pissed off. I'd also be thinking that it was time for SPN to shape up. I hope the new head of the CW feels the same way. All in all, I find myself strangely enthused about Season 7. Sera Gamble's got some supervision, the CW has a brand-new chief executive with serious network chops (he was running ABC when they were flying high with "water-cooler" shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives), and now one of the biggest networks has scheduled a copycat show against them. They'd better be bringing their A-game.

Also in the unoriginal ideas department, another NBC show is The Playboy Club, which I can only imagine aspires to duplicate some of Mad Men's glamour with its setting in early 1960s New York. Prime Suspect is an Americanized version of the great British crime drama, but of course this being America, they weren't bold enough to cast a woman of Helen Mirren's age in the lead role and instead went with ER's Maria Bello. Perhaps it's sort of like "dog years" -- in American TV years, Maria Bello actually is Helen Mirren's age. Rounding out the lineup, Smash just sounds like its trying to ride Glee's coattails.

Boy, I know there are no new ideas under the sun, but it sounds to me like the NBC executives just went channel surfing and built a schedule based on what everyone else was doing. I do have to admit I'm a little proud of Supernatural for inspiring what sounds (and looks) like such an obvious ripoff. If the show has a classic rock soundtrack and Det. Grimm drives a muscle car, I will laugh my ass off.

I got to work this morning and there was the Media Life Daily newsletter in my email inbox and the first story was about the shows the CW had renewed. The first paragraph of the blurb ended with "Supernatural" and the next sentence began: "Not on the schedule..." but when I first read it I was sure it said, "Supernatural is not on the schedule" and my heart just dropped into my guts for one horrible split second before I realized I'd read it wrong.

Supernatural really is the weird, fucked-up relationship I never had in real life. The one that you hate and that alternately bores you and angers you and makes you feel stupid and used and cheap but that you don't know how you'd live without. After recovering from the shock of thinking it had been canceled, I sat there filled with stupid-chick thoughts about how I really need to start being nicer to Show because we've had so many good times together and I still love him. I need to stop being so judgmental and accept Show for who he is. Because Show is still very special and...I love Show! Don't ever leave me! Shoooooooow!

( I blame all of this on Mary Tyler Moore... )

baylorsr's podfic of my Dean/Castiel fic, In Country is now available for your listening pleasure. Click here to download, and also be sure to view the very apt photos and artwork she chose for each chapter. These include starkly haunting images of the real Detroit, some of which actually served as inspiration for this story.

Speaking of Detroit, you may also enjoy her essay, Detroit's Apocalypse, a succinct and thought-provoking look at the current state of the Motor City, along with some great links and that "Imported from Detroit" Chrysler commercial that affords some intriguing (if glossed-up) glimpses of the city.

And, in case you've been waiting for it, my thoughts on ( SPN 6:17: My Heart Will Go On )

Do you ever reach the point where everything has gone so wrong for so long that you begin to believe that it all means that something very good is bound to happen very soon? I think that's what they call "magical thinking," isn't it? And magical thinking never works out, does it?

On a completely unrelated note, I have, incredibly, only just now noticed how much Sera Gamble looks like all of those identical brunettes that have populated the SPN universe, especially the ones who wound up sleeping with Sam. Of course all of those women were actresses so they were all "professionally pretty" but Gamble is definitely in their mold if not in their league. It's like, if you were going to cast an actress to play "Sera Gamble," you could have picked any of those women. Including Genevieve Padalecki (nee Cortese). And to think, all these years I thought Kripke was responsible for the parade of lookalikes. Huh.