Hellatus Ending…Finally!

The ending of a five-year storyline, the stepping down of the creator/showrunner, the fears that Bobby and Castiel, though alive, would not figure into Season 6’s storyline – mostly due to the cryptic comment that Dean and Bobby would not see each other for a long time – had me worried.  As the first few days passed and then a couple of weeks I recovered, vowing not to watch Swan Song any time again, although I loved it, I just couldn’t bear it.

Hellatus Ending…FINALLY! By Elle2  

Back on May 13, 2010, at about 10:01 p.m. EST I thought to myself, self, you can do this.  Then I broke down in tears.  Shortly after I typed my first of many articles in this long, long, long Hellatus, “Kripke’s Love Letter, Swan Song.”  That was 18 weeks ago, my how time has crawled.
 
The ending of a five-year storyline, the stepping down of the creator/showrunner, the fears that Bobby and Castiel, though alive, would not figure into Season 6’s storyline – mostly due to the cryptic comment that Dean and Bobby would not see each other for a long time – had me worried.  As the first few days passed and then a couple of weeks I recovered, vowing not to watch Swan Song any time again, although I loved it, I just couldn’t bear it.
 
May ended June arrived as did Burn Notice.  I like Burn Notice, don’t love it but do like it, so Thursdays had a place for me to go again.  I vowed to watch as many of The Vampire Diaries repeats as I could so Thursdays were a double date for me.  The rest of the week I mostly ignored but that’s okay, the weather was beautiful, I was riding my bike, my dog was starting agility, all was good.
 
June rolled into July and White Collar and Psych arrived.  Now I had shows on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays along with Monday nights with agility, all was going just fine.  Supernatural was back shooting, Jim Beaver was tweeting and Comic Con loomed large.  
 
July showed the fandom doing its usual fandom things, swinging from one extreme to another.  The Winchester Family Business was invaded with an unusual wave of criticism and anger, both at the site and about the show; I despaired and vowed to head for the hills.  A few days rest and some therapy with Alice, thank you, Alice, and I was better.  Comic Con provided much new information, spoilers, interviews, videos and the much-anticipated and enjoyed ‘clip’.  All was well.
 
August arrived and despair set in pretty heavily.  While enjoying my Thursday nights with The Vampire Diaries I realized that the CW was beginning its campaign, showing only four weeks and then three weeks and so on until TVD premiered.  Sheesh, and I had to wait until near the end of September for Supernatural.  I was certain not to make it.
 
The Winchester Family Business suffered another round of angst and anger from the fandom but this time without despairing I unknowingly teamed up with Laurel and Elle and Jas and many others (Tim the Enchanter and Anene as well as the newly delurked Peekaboo) among many others leaped to the defense of our beloved site and with that most horrible of horrible evils ever we ‘out-positived’ them.  
 
USA’s characters welcome slowly headed off to their hiatus for the summer, bye Burn Notice and Psych, see you in November, bye-bye White Collar see you in January, hello September and the premier of TVD and Hellcats and Nikita – all of which I’m enjoying although only TVD am I really ‘into’, but both new CW shows have promise (and thus far are kicking GG and 90210’s slutty, smutty and bratty little butts.)  
 
Now, at long last we’re in the final days, days not weeks, until Supernatural’s Season 6.
 
I have a fairly full week (of TV and fun that is) to get through until 9/24/2010; Jobe’s agility and Hawaii 5-0 on Monday, NCISx2 on Tuesday, Criminal Minds (and Hellcats, I’ll flip back and forth) on Wednesday, TVD with werewolves and Nikita on Thursday and then, then we’re there.  Smallville at 8:00 p.m. and Supernatural at 9:00 p.m. – so far there appears to be no baseball games slated to usurp that date and make me wait until Saturday so all looks good, whew!  Smallville’s last season is my warm up to Supernatural’s 6 season.
 
Season 6 gives us new writers, new directors (or newish directors) and a new showrunner.  I’m excited.  I’m not worried about Sera Gamble’s abilities at all.  She loves both brothers, writes and breaks stories seeing the brothers as a unit.  She’s able to write them emotionally, in action mode, she’s able to separate them and bring them together and she even showed she can write them in a different ‘plane of existence’ and yet they are still Sam and Dean.
 
Sera’s episodes are as follows:
 
Dead in the Water  
Faith 
Nightmare
Salvation
Bloodlust
Crossroad Blues
Houses of the Holy
Heart
All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One
The Kids Are Alright
Fresh Blood
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Just in Bello
Time Is On My Side
Are You There, God; It’s Me, Dean Winchester
I Know What You Did Last Summer
It’s a Terrible Life
When The Levee Breaks
Good God, Y’All
The Curious Case of Dean Winchester
The Song Remains the Same
Two Minutes to Midnight
 
I haven’t loved every episode (notably Two Minutes to Midnight was rushed, full and yet underwhelming at the same time and Time is On My Side is all right).  However, she has penned several of my favorites, three of my most pivotal (Nightmare, Crossroad Blues, Jus In Bello).  I love Faith and Heart and Dream a Little Dream of Me.  I Know What You Did Last Summer, It’s a Terrible Live and When the Levee Breaks are near brilliance.   The Song Remains the Same makes me cry at all the right places.  She brought us Gordon Walker and then she killed him.  She introduced us to Lisa Braedon and showed us how important the idea of family is to Dean on a subconscious level – in one of those happy accidents SPN couldn’t get the rights to Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Freddy Krueger or some such horror character and thus in DaLDoM they opted for the gentle dream of Lisa and a picnic and her loving Dean…so much the better.
 
Sera loves to kill so Madison, Gordon, Victor and Anna all got the ax because of her, as well as Pastor Jim and Caleb and the much hated Bela.  She showed us just what Sam had been up to all those months without Dean and gave us an older Dean, cranky and obstinate, as well as Dean and Sam making peace with their parents – well, more Sam than Dean, Dean just got his heart and psyche trampled a bit more there.  She gave us the first insights to Dean’s emotions after the death of his mom and showed us there were more ‘special kids’ than just Sam.  She also gave us Bobby’s breakdown as well as showed us just how important he is to the brothers, especially Dean, and gave us some of his back story as well.
 
Over five seasons Sera has done a lot with the characters; she knows them inside and out.  We’re in good hands, I’m not worried.  
 
There are a lot of new writers and likely directors this season.  
 
J. Miller Tobin is a producer on The Vampire Diaries so I doubt we’ll see any of his creative efforts here this year.  John Showalter is directing this season’s second episode, he did Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, and I thought the directing was very good there so I’m not too concerned.   Last season we had the brilliant Dark Side of the Moon directed by Jeff Wollnough who I hope to see again this year.  I think we’re in good hands directorwise hopefully with Steve Boyem, Robert Singer and Phil Sgriccia still on hand.
 
This year we lose the talents of Jeremy Carver, this is a loss.  He’s given us A Very Supernatural Christmas, Mystery Spot, In The Beginning, Death Takes a Holiday, Changing Channels and Point of No Return.  He also gave us Long Distance Caller, Family Remains which were not my favorites.  Then there’s The Rapture, Free to be You and Me, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and Sin City which all stand up quite well, thank you very much.  Jeremy will be missed.
 
Dabb and Loflin remain on board and I’m hopeful they’ll build upon what they did so magnificently in Dark Side of the Moon – a masterpiece – and stay away from some of their lesser efforts, these two worry me the most as they have penned my least favorite episodes over two seasons, although I did enjoy Jump The Shark., They did well with that oh-so-difficult task of introducing a third Winchester.  Still, the jury does not favor their efforts much.
 
This season’s second episode is written by new writer, Adam Glass.  I’m interested in the premise and hopeful for the effort.  We’ll know soon.  There are a lot of new writers on board this year but with Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Robert Singer, Phil Sgriccia and Eric Kripke still very involved I have high hopes.  Plus, a new set of creative minds is a good thing in a season that is starting a new mythology.  People were concerned back when Ben Edlund and Jeremy Carver came on board and yet look what we’ve gotten from them.
 
Plus, if you think only Ben has the crazy ideas, you should listen to the commentary on The End with Eric Kripke and Ben Edlund.  Thankfully it is Robert Singer these two go to to bounce their ideas off of and he is a voice of reason – it’s also quite hilarious as Eric and Ben realize their lunacy and are thankful to Robert for his blunt assessments.  Robert remains on board and Eric has always credited him as being the one who said it’s the brothers’ relationship that will keep the audience and grow the show.  Nothing has changed there.
 
So, Supernatural siblings, we’re here (or there). It’s close, mere days, likely to be counted on one hand by the time this gets posted.  We’ve made it, 19 weeks, the longest hellatus yet and Season 6 is set to begin.
 
Thanks for everyone’s efforts at making hellatus pass as quickly as possible.  I’ve come here for therapy just as everyone else has and enjoyed the games, the videos, the banter back and forth, the articles and the camaraderie.  2010 Hellatus is ending…Finally!!!
 
So what are you most excited for in Season 6? 
 
Thanks for reading, Elle2  
 

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