A Sera Supernatural
Welcome back to Bethany! She has offered her opinion regarding the rumors (and I highly stress are still rumors) about Sera Gamble taking over as showrunner in season six. It’s an interesting “what if” based on some of her prior episodes. So, enjoy Bethany’s POV and feel free to chime in with your take!
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*SPOILERS AHOY* – yep still can’t do the cut thing yet so count this as fair warning for spoilers for all episodes aired in the US.
So season 6 is a go … fangirls everywhere do the snoopy dance.
With this in mind and the probable promotion of Sera Gamble to showrunner (although Kripke is still around as exec producer) is it time to place our bets about the possible changes in the show? At the time of writing this is was still unconfirmed whether Sera was to take over from Kripke.
I went onto imdb.com in curiosity to see which episodes Sera Gamble actually wrote and feel for what she brings to the show when she’s at the writing helm:
Dead in the Water
Faith
Nightmare
Salvation
Bloodlust
Crossroad Blues
Houses of the Holy
Heart
All Hell Breaks Loose pt 1
The Kids are Alright
Fresh Blood
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Jus 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
Curious Case of Dean Winchester
The Song Remains the Same
So we’ve got Sam angst, Sam crying, Sam nude, moral quandaries, questioning of the concept of faith, good people doing bad things with the best of intentions (the way to hell is paved…and all that malarkey), vampires, good people who are haunted by something they did that was bad (and taking responsibility for the consequences/accepting their fate).
There are very few black and white people in Sera Gamble scripts and when there are they tend to be somewhat fundamentalist in their views and convinced that their actions are for a good cause, that they are on the side of right. Case and point, Gordon Walker and Sue-Ellen LeGrange. It seems to me that Ms Gamble is not a fan of such thinking, as characters with such rigid worldviews end up as the villain of the piece because of their inability to see another point of view.
Another feature of Sera Gamble scripts I noticed is that they highlight the unfairness in the world – bad things happen to good people. Layla isn’t healed, poor Max has been subjected to abuse by the people who love him and is driven to revenge and tragedy, Madison against her knowledge/will is turned into a monster and faces a heartbreaking choice, Sam Winchester is murdered (first time round) after he walks away from killing Jake, Dean has to walk away from the life he’s always wanted with Lisa and Ben, Bobby kills his wife not realizing she was possessed, the mother in “The Kids are Alright” faces killing her child, there are many more examples. The “villain” of the piece is often not some out and out evil creature like YED, even though he does make an appearance, but often someone who has been driven to it by circumstances not of their own making.
Sera seems to be a fan of the moral quandary – “Jus in Bello” is a good example of this. Do you do and unspeakable act and kill an innocent to save a large group of people or is that life just as important than any other? Is Max in “Nightmare” really evil? Is the young Priest smiting from beyond the grave in “Houses of the Holy” really wrong in what he’s doing? Is something evil because of it’s make up or because of it’s actions e.g. the Vampires vs. Gordon Walker in “Bloodlust.” Which one is more evil – the Vampire or the hunter of the supernatural? This is a question that I think this show handles well, not preaching at the audience rather presenting them with the situation and Sam and Dean’s reactions to what’s in front of them all the while leaving room for the audience to wonder what they would have done in the situation.
For example in “Heart” Madison makes a brave decision to end her life to stop the monster within from hurting anyone else and yet she makes Sam do the deed., I never understood that why couldn’t she take the gun from them and end things herself rather than put such a burden on someone who had so desperately tried to save her. Why add to his guilt? So now he’s not only left with the knowledge that he failed to save her but that he had to kill her himself … surely if she cared for him enough to spare him that? If I ever meet Sera Gamble it’s the one question I’d ask.
So in conclusion if Sera Gamble takes the helm, brace yourself for brotherly angst, the torture of Sam Winchester in every way possible – physically, emotionally, hell even grammatically, gratuitous nudity (of the Sam variety) and a whole lot of grey area and moral quandaries.
I’ve always been a fan of Sera Gamble. That lady’s mind works fabulously,and what has fascinated me most is her multi-dimensional approach to whatever character – which you wonderfully pointed out here, Bettany.
Plus: she likes to torture our guys, and, let’s be honest, we all love her do that…
Put that in the pot, sweeten it with great wit, esprit and (dark, way dark) humour, and you’ll get the best gumbo imaginable.
I don’t care much for rumours, but if this should be true, I can imagine the Gamble will surprise us with yet another facet of her talent. There might be more tormenting of Sam, but she might just put more to it with her new role.
Whoever will be at the helm – I’m a fan of this show. There have been many talented contributors to it. Whoever will take on this job (should Kripke indeed pass on the torch) will deliver fine goods. No doubt about it.
Thanks for this, Jas
Like you Jas, I feel sure that even if Kripke does hand over the reins for the day to day running we need not worry.
Whoever does take over has an amazing springboard and good tools to work with with the wonderful established cast and crew.
If it is Sera Gamble as seems to be the current thinking, she has been there all along she knows and really “gets” the show. She has made us laugh, cry and think in the past and I am sure she will continue to do so in the future.And yes, I am sure she will continue to torture Sam to the delight of all you Sam Girls out there!
Thanks Bethany for the list. I have been wanting to check out Gamble’s episode for a while and haven’t had the time.
As for who runs the show, it will be fine with or without Kripke. A series has changed showrunners before with no problem.
Whoever it is, is fine with me.
Thanks Bethany.
Though I would like to see Kripke stay until the end of Supernatural, reality is this may not happen. That said, Sera Gamble strikes me as the ideal captain for this ship. I know the fear from some out there is that SPN will become the Sam-show because the scripts more well known to be Sera’s have a Sam focus. However, looking at her whole list of scripts – this isn’t the case. I see in that list about equal Sam and Dean angst and drama. Just consider The Song Remains the Same – Sam was killed and Dean had an emotionally devestating meeting with Michael = balance of the torture. I’m a big believer that we can’t judge something before it happens – it was a big point of contention this past summer with the endless negative speculation on season 5 before it had even begun airing – and I just know that Kripke will leave his brainchild in good, capable hands. Sera Gamble certainly qualifies for this position. And truly, I don’t believe Kripke will step back 100%, so I doubt season 5 will be the end of his genius touch on the Supernatural world.
I’m not too worried if Gamble ends up taking over, as Kripke it’s been said that Kripke will still be heavily involved. I actually am wondering if Gamble will write less because of her new position. Of the three episodes she’s written this season only one was written by her alone, and I wonder if she’s been in transition for a while now, learning the ropes of what her responsibilities will be in S6. If so, it also makes me wonder if Kripke will write/direct more episodes. Less businessy responsibilities would give him more time to write/direct, right?
Honestly, though, Gamble is actually hit and miss for me. While some of her episodes are fabulous (LOVED all of her earlier work with Raelle Tucker and Time Is On My Side remains one of my favourites of the entire series), I also find that some of her writing can be rather heavy-handed at times. That speech the vampire gave Dean about being lonely in FB, and Meg’s speech on her younger sibling destroying herself because she couldn’t deal with the loss of her older sibling in Are You There God, were some of the most heavy-handed, on the nose writing ever to grace SN.
Hi Bethany
Sera certainly loves to torture these two.
I’m not worried if Sera does take over the reins. I would still prefer Kripke, but either way I’m not going anywhere. I’m dug in and will be there till the end.
Kripke’s strength (writing-wise) is the big mytharc stuff and since there will presumably be less of that, she’s a great choice for more brotherly angst.
I don’t completely disagree with immie_8’s comment, but to play devil’s advocate (and this is the view I primarily subscribe to) is that the over-the-top speechifying in 4.2 was certainly purposeful. Their anger due to being raised by that spell was on steroids, so a little melodrama wasn’t all that out of line. At least that’s how I read it.