Called It

[oselle]

I just started laughing because I glanced over at my LJ Profile and saw the little "Sera Gamble is not going anywhere with this" tagline. I put that up way back at the beginning of the season, when all I seemed to be hearing was "I can't wait to see where Sera goes with this!" and I felt like yelling, "OMG WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE SERA IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH THIS!" hence the tagline. Now that almost all of her aimless storylines have been eliminated with ruthless efficiency and a total lack of fanfare, and we're suddenly getting episodes about characters and stories that the audience might actually care about, I just have to remind everyone that I totally called it and the whole world would be better off if everyone just listened to me. You're welcome.

Comments

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

OMG, she totally had all this planned and you just hate her because she’s a woman!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

OMG you're totally right! I'm just jelus!

In all honesty, I'm think I'm holding back some of my contempt because she's a woman -- which I shouldn't. There are so few women showrunners in television and she somehow managed to become one of them (in a geekcentric genre, nonetheless) and she blew it. She didn't just blow it, she lived up to every imaginable cliche about women -- a trite domestic subplot, an obvious shift in focus to her crush, completely scatterbrained planning and rumors of bad budgeting on top of it. I haven't heard any tales of her running around the set in hysterical tears, but she did everything short of that until the boys had to step in and fix things. Infuriating.

Oh, and PLEASE tell me there are actually people out there who believe this was exactly how Sera planned the season and people are just hating on her because she's a woman.

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

Oh, and PLEASE tell me there are actually people out there who believe this was exactly how Sera planned the season and people are just hating on her because she's a woman.

I haven’t been looking, but you know they have to be out there.

It’s not fair, but it’s so much more damaging when a female showrunner messes up because there are so few of them. It’s like every time a film fronted by a woman tanks at the box office we see reports that HW won’t risk money on them again, but you never get the same reaction when it happens to one fronted by a man

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Yeah they're out there. Hilariously, they're the same people who are calling Edlund out on his bias and demanding his head on a platter.

That's not to say that Edlund doesn't have his biases but since they're perfectly in line with mine, I totally fine with it. *G*

[ava-jamison.livejournal.com]

LOL! This episode was AMAZING! I just watched the whole thing again. *dreamy sigh* SO MANY GREAT MOMENTS!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I long ago gave up recording the episodes but I really do wish I had this one to watch over!

[twirlycurls.livejournal.com]

I'm even more concerned now that I've been reading things about how this season was intended to progress. Apparently "Sam's lost soul" was supposed to be the big plot to string out for the ENTIRE SEASON and "Cas the betrayer" was going to be the plot for S7 if the show was renewed. So, what's left for next season? I'm praying they bring in a new showrunner or it's probably going to be "Cas the betrayer part two, plus some stuff about Sam's stupid soul."

This season has felt so labored, as if every episode produced was born from acts of sheer will.

[aubergineautumn.livejournal.com]

YES. Each episode felt random to me, like a return to season 2- but 2 was able to do that because it fit the plotline, this season felt awkward, like Jared and Jensen filmed their episodes separately & then special effects glued them together. We didn't see much of Sam.

[muffaletta.livejournal.com]

"Apparently "Sam's lost soul" was supposed to be the big plot to string out for the ENTIRE SEASON and "Cas the betrayer" was going to be the plot for S7 if the show was renewed"


Seriously? I'd heard about the Sam part (like most fans weren't OD'd on that after only half a season) but the Cas part is news.

So glad all of that was derailed. The way this season was headed, I'm sure Sera would have made Cas into evil incarnate, Sam as the lone savior of the universe, with Dean tagging along as his pom pom waving caretaker. Cripes.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I'm praying they bring in a new showrunner

I'm thinking the old showrunner will be the new showrunner and I'm hoping that Kripke's little vacation has given him some inspiration. Hell, if Edlund keeps cranking out the Dean/Cas, he can be the showrunner.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

"Labored" is a good way to put it. They probably knew that "Sam's lost soul" wouldn't be enough to carry an entire season so they packed in all that other stuff and it was all so klutzy and awkward. I'm assuming that "Cas the betrayer" is not going to be resolved in the last two episodes of this season so that will have to be carried over to S7 but I sure hope they have more than that in their bag of tricks.

[muffaletta.livejournal.com]

"Admittedly, Kripke left a big mess in his wake...but she was the worst possible person to try and clean it up. Instead of sizing up that mess and responding to it with a thoughtful, lean and focused plan for the season, she ran riot with a mess of brand-new storylines and characters that she couldn't wrangle, that no one cared about, and that apparently even managed to horrify Kripke enough to get his ass back to work"

It's downright embarassing, isn't it?

I remember when Sera started out the season, I fully expected her to do exactly what you said. As it became more and more obvious that she was skewing the season to fit her own personal character bias- to the detriment of both the other characters/storylines- I was flabbergasted. Heck, even Kripke hadn't been that bad and he'd given us a five year ode to his avatar. And, imo, what made it worse was watching how hard she tried to minimize Dean: slapped some kind of domestic storyline together for him that went nowhere, refused to give Dean any other storyline aside from revolving around Sam, wanted make us believe that Dean would have gone from being a remarkable hunter to a "soft" Deansel, even tried messing with his core persona. Thank god for Jensen's talent and determination in trying to hold onto "Dean", despite all of that.

Thinking about all that wasted potential is just so sad-it really could have been such a great season.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I remember when Sera started out the season, I fully expected her to do exactly what you said.

I knew she'd never be able to put together a tight season (frankly, "tight seasons" have never been a hallmark of SPN)...but I did think she would try to stay true to the promise that she would "get back to basics" or whatever she called it. I started to get suspicious when I heard about all the different shit she was so excited about. Sam-and-Dean role reversal. Lisa and Ben. Campbells on the Mayflower. Origin of monsters. What's wrong with Sam. None of those ideas sounded interesting to begin with, and even if they had been I knew she'd never been able to keep them all in the air.

slapped some kind of domestic storyline together for him that went nowhere

After that dreadful Romantic Montage a few episodes ago, I saw so many people claiming that was the last we'd see of Lisa and Ben and I knew it wouldn't be. I also knew we'd eventually wind up with "Lisa and Ben in peril" and sure enough, that's what we're getting next week...in an episode that, not surprisingly, Sera wrote. Bleh.

Thank god for Jensen's talent and determination in trying to hold onto "Dean", despite all of that.

I agree, and I wonder if Jensen was being even more vocal about this in private to the right people, because something sure lit a fire under Kripke's ass.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

God, I'm laughing now thinking about all that aimlessness in the beginning of the season. Campbell's on the Mayflower! Totally interesting I swear!

I feel kind of bad for Sam, actually, because it seems like yet again he's been given this storyline that was supposed to show how special and interesting he is and it never sticks. Because he hunted with the Campbells for a year and I feel like he's forgotten about all of them and never had a connection to him. Even when he was asking if Castiel took me out of hell without his soul on purpose it didn't seem like a big deal because it wouldn't be a personal betrayal.

All the real emotional connection was Dean reacting to Castiel's lies and Castiel reacting to Dean's reaction. The only thing interesting about the whole Purgatory thing is how it connected to Castiel and just how badly he'd gotten lost without Dean.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

All the real emotional connection was Dean reacting to Castiel's lies and Castiel reacting to Dean's reaction.

It seems to be a continual weakness with SPN that the things they want to matter somehow don't, while the subplots are the ones that rise to the surface. Like I said in my original post, I know some important things were revealed in this episode, but all I could focus on was what was happening between Castiel and Dean.

just how badly he'd gotten lost without Dean.

The leaf-raking scene was a riot because the anguish on Castiel's face was so overwhelming. Dean is his lodestar, and Cas is just adrift without him. Oh, Cas!!

[coronasunrise.livejournal.com]

Do we know that Sera has been replaced? She could have just found her legs. Since season 3 seemed to go nowhere until the last set of episodes. Or this could have been her plan all along.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

You simply can't use Season 3 as an example of anything because they were completely discombobulated by that writer's strike that knocked six episodes out of the season. By the time they came back on the air, they had no choice but to ramp things up because they had to send Dean to hell by the end of the season and they only had a few episodes left to do it.

As for Sera this year...do you honestly think that blowing nearly three-quarters of the season on apparently pointless story arcs was part of some intentional strategy? Do you really think that she planned all along to rapidly and very unceremoniously wipe out the characters and storylines that she introduced? And as for finding her legs...I've heard this argument before and I just don't buy it. She's been on this show for six years -- she's had plenty of time to find her legs.

As far as I know, Sera Gamble has not been officially replaced, but a tangible shift occurred some time around "The French Mistake." After that, Sera's characters and plots started dropping like flies. "And Then There Were None" marked a clear break between the first part of the season and the remainder. At the Paley event a few weeks ago, Kripke more or less dominated the panel while the titular showrunner had little to contribute, and I'm fairly certain that Kripke is back on board as much more than some sort of consulting producer. Sera may indeed keep her showrunner status but I think she's going to have some serious supervision from here on out.

[jenneany.livejournal.com]

I went into this season with an optimistic hope that it could be good, so I had almost no preconcieved bias about Sera Gamble. And I was dissapointed in every way. Every point you've made here is spot-on...talk about having no clue. It all just makes me so sad.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I'm not that sad about it. Yeah, they wasted a lot of time but at least they're trying to fix the mess, however clumsily, and at this point I've gotten so easy that they can just buy me off with some Dean/Cas fanservice and I'm happy.

[siouxsmn-3745.livejournal.com]

Thank God someone has finally stood up and spoken the truth about Sera and the mess she made out of Season 6. I only hope they don't make her the showrunner for Season 7 or else we'll end up with nothing more than a bunch of useless plotlines and poor writing.

And can we FINALLY be rid of Castiel! His role was worthless in S6 so why bring him back for another? Same with Lisa and Ben. I heard a rumor that Sera may turn them into hunters. Why? For what purpose? Lisa has always been opposed to it.

If they're going to do all that again, why bother bringing the show back for another season?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

And can we FINALLY be rid of Castiel!

Aiieeeeeee! Blasphemy! Mileage varies, but you're not going to get much agreement from this quarter that Castiel needs to go! His role was worthless in S6 (at least until this episode) because Sera and the writers didn't know what to do with him. In the right hands, he can still have a lot to contribute as a character.

I can't in any way say the same about Lisa and Ben -- the only way they can ever fit into the story is if they're waiting for Dean at the very end of the series. If Sera is fool enough to try to shoehorn them in by making them hunters, she's going to fall on her face again. I can't imagine there are too many viewers who are hungering for this scenario.

[andromakhe001.livejournal.com]

I am so with you on this. I knew Sera wasn't going anywhere with this stuff. I felt that Dean's freakin' boring as hell and mostly ignored domestic storyline was simply something to somehow explain his lack of being part of the action so that way Sam could be shoved to the forefront in everything, as a hunter, as a snarker, as a sort of "rakish hero", etc, etc PLUS leaving him with the whole central storyline(aka Dean becomes a completely supporting character with decent screen time and nothing else--in reality he had less of a storyline than Castiel did this season, he just had more screen time).

The Campbell's went nowhere, which was a total waste of Mitch Pileggi. I actually think Samuel Campbell could have been a good character IF Sera had any sense of direction for him - instead much like how Sam's characterization had no consistency from episode to episode, neither did Samuel's. I even think Gwen could have turned into a decent character, she was starting to show signs of it but it was too little, too late. As it was, Sera did such a terrible job set in order to move forward to try and clean up this mess, IMO.

And I still can't get over how completely they sidelined Dean from the storyline. It's like Sera didn't even pretend to try and have any reason beyond ratings for bringing Dean in full time - as usual there is nothing special about Dean, no skills he has that are anything better than what everyone else has, they even had people like Bobby claiming he wasn't as good a hunter. So Dean just needed to be there...because you'd have a lot of fans pitching a fit if he wasn't.

Ever since I heard that DVD commentary for When the Levee Breaks where Bob Singer complimented Jensen on something and Sera got kind of pissy about it and said "it was written in the script"(at which I was like "yeah but Jensen had to act it, twit, if he'd done a bad job of it, it wouldn't have mattered what was written") I've felt that she might just be a wee bit jealous of the kudos Jensen gets. I think besides her Sam crush, she wanted to prove somehow that anyone with the same writing could "be Dean".

No matter how this season or next season goes - I'll be glad of one thing: It was proven that no, not just anyone with the same writing could "be Dean". :) For years they've been trying to create "the new Dean" with one character or another, usually at the original Dean's expense, maybe this will finally prove to the once and for all to let Dean be Dean and let the other character's be themselves.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Ever since I heard that DVD commentary for When the Levee Breaks where Bob Singer complimented Jensen on something and Sera got kind of pissy about it and said "it was written in the script"(at which I was like "yeah but Jensen had to act it, twit, if he'd done a bad job of it, it wouldn't have mattered what was written") I've felt that she might just be a wee bit jealous of the kudos Jensen gets. I think besides her Sam crush, she wanted to prove somehow that anyone with the same writing could "be Dean".

Aaaah, I knew there was a good reason why I've never listened to those commentaries.

Even excluding my crush on Jensen (and Dean), I think that's a remarkably ungenerous thing for Sera to say. The writing is important but the actor needs to be able to sell the words on the page. Even Shakespeare is going to fall flat if the actor can't pull it off. This applies to any performing art. The most brilliant choreography will go nowhere without a talented dancer. Great musical composition won't matter if the orchestra sucks. Dismissing an actor's performance because he's just reading what was "written in the script" is just...it's not just ungenerous, it's downright spiteful.

If Sera needs proof that the actor is important, she needs to look no further than Jared and Genevieve. Neither one of them was able to sell the material in Season 4, and Jared continues to be a weak link, especially when he's called upon to portray anything that requires a little depth or nuance. Meanwhile, Jensen (and Misha, and Mark Sheppard among others) have occasionally had to work with some really lame lines and have nevertheless pulled it off.

I think besides her Sam crush, she wanted to prove somehow that anyone with the same writing could "be Dean".

I'm still convinced that the writers have always been a little taken aback by Dean's popularity and so they keep trying to duplicate it, especially with Sam. Sera's whole "role reversal" experiment this year failed exactly because, as you said, not just anyone can be Dean. Dean became the character he is because of Jensen. He took the material that was written for Dean and made it his own. Maybe Sera refuses to admit that, but tough. You can't transfer Jensen's portrayal onto another character, any more than you could just hire some other actor to play Dean (perish the thought!).

[emeraldus.livejournal.com]

I think one of the funnier things about this season is how the fans are just GUSHING about how OMG AWESEOME! it is, while last season they were grumbling and nit picking like crazy.

Thanks, though, to the writers for not spending the entire season on Sam's lost soul, I wouldn't have made it through the whole season with that bit of inconsistent idiocy.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Good heavens, who's gushing? I saw plenty of inexplicable praise early in the season when people were still holding out for "where Sera's going with this" but now? This week's episode was the only one I really liked this whole season, and I pretty much liked it for the "wrong" reasons.