Failing Upwards

[oselle]

baylorsr informed me that Sera Gamble has been promoted to showrunner for Supernatural's sixth season.

I know that some of you fangirl her and I suppose it's always good to see women get ahead, especially in a field where women are so dramatically under-represented. Wish I could be happier, but I'm not. I'm not going to cheer just because we share the same gender. I don't think this will be good for the show and I don't think she deserves this.

I say that knowing I'm not qualified to say it because I have no idea what her day-to-day responsibilities have been on the show and how much she's contributed to it. I don't doubt that she's worked hard. However, in my observation, she did a good job as writer when whe was paired up with Raelle Tucker and ever since Tucker left, Gamble's episodes have usually not been that great and frankly, the overall tone of the show has changed a lot during the past three seasons, while she's been climbing the ranks to Executive Producer. She certainly hasn't done anything to add more interesting female characters to the show -- not that I think she has some sort of responsibility to do so "as a woman." But she helped to give us Bela and Ruby 2.0 so I'd say her contribution in that area has been less than impressive. The show's gotten more juvenile and less focused and the one thing that really made it work -- the relationship between Sam and Dean -- has been all but broken down with little hope of a satisfying reconciliation on the horizon, especially now that Gamble's in charge. Slapdash "fixes" seem to be her specialty, not thoughtful and well-written resolutions.

I hate her take on Dean. I especially hate her episode "It's a Terrible Life" which was such a load of shit as far as Dean's concerned that I've never forgiven her for it. I think she'd be right at home with the TWoP "suck it up!" brigade. Raelle Tucker knew how to write Dean -- Gamble's never warmed up to it. I hate her obsession with getting Sam into bed so that she can see Jared with his shirt off. I hate some of the stupid things I've heard her say in interviews. Her "Song Remains the Same" episode two weeks ago was the first good thing I've seen from her in ages -- and she wrote that with a partner. So maybe if she has lots of help, S6 won't be a total disaster but right now...I'm seeing a lot of weepy Dean and shirtless Sam and dumb jokes.

Within the past couple of weeks, two people that I know in my own professional life have gotten promotions that they didn't deserve. I doubt that Sera Gamble is as incompetent and unworthy as either one of these two obnoxious imbeciles but I just feel like this is part of a pattern. They call it "failing upwards." The less you do the more you get. Caring about your job and working hard at it and trying to be better at it gets you nowhere, while making a lot of noise about how great you are seems to fool everyone. I'm probably taking some of my personal frustrations out on Gamble but even so, I still have to say that this is very disappointing news.

I plan to spend the rest of my day chain smoking.

Comments

Re: re jensen

[oselle.livejournal.com]

There's no way that can happen at this point. But I wouldn't be surprised if both he and Jared get a Producer's credit tacked onto their names. I've seen that happen before with leading cast members when a show's run gets extended.

Re: re jensen

[oselle.livejournal.com]

No I didn't but I'm not surprised. Directing has been something I think he's been interested in doing for a while. It's nice they gave him the 100th ep as his directorial debut.