We've all heard the news, right?

[feliciakw]

The news has broken that Sera Gamble (who has been with SPN since S1) has opted not to renew her contract and will be (from the sounds of it) leaving SPN to pursue other development projects. She is being replaced by SPN veteran Jeremy Carver. I'm not surprised she opted not to renew her contract, given some of the very vocal opposition (some of which has been expressed with extreme and violent hatred) from the fandom. Or this could be the politic way of describing a different series of events.

I'm nonplussed (in the non-standard meaning of the word). While her skills as a showrunner are perhaps questionable, she has without question written or co-written some of my very favorite episodes of their season, if not the series (my favorites in bold):

1.03 Dead in the Water
1.12 Faith (one of my favorite eps, period. With one of the best lines describing faith that I've ever heard in broadcast TV.)
1.14 Nightmare
1.21 Salvation
2.03 Bloodlust
2.08 Crossroad Blues - (She well and truly freaked. me. out. with this one. Ask Izhi.)
2.13 Houses of the Holy
2.17 Heart
2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One (along with Part 2)
3.02 The Kids Are Alright
3.07 Fresh Blood
3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me
3.12 Jus in Bello
3.15 Time Is On My Side
4.02 Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer
4.17 It's A Terrible Life
4.21 When The Levee Breaks
5.02 Good God Y'All
5.07 The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester
5.13 The Song Remains The Same
5.21 Two Minutes To Midnight
6.01 Exile On Main St.
6.11 Appointment in Samarra
6.21 Let It Bleed (Yes, as painful as this one was, and as dubious as the ending was, I liked it.)
7.01 Meet The New Boss
7.10 Death's Door (arguably the best dramatic episode of S7)
7.17 The Born-Again Identity

Actually, all the eps on this list are pretty good to varying degrees. Those bolded are just my very favorites of the ones listed.

There has been much rejoicing, complete with extremely rude send-off wishes from some. I'm not dissing people for their delight that there will be a change in showrunners next year (which, renewal now seems to be all but a formality), or their happiness that Sera is stepping down. To each their own. Her seasons had some clunkiness, but then, Kripke got a little out of control, too. I wish her well on her next project.

This does lead us to something Bob Singer (the real one, not the one who wears a trucker cap) said earlier about next season, that they're going to get away from the All Angst, All The Time, and get back to the Saving People, Hunting Things. This? I cannot argue with. This makes me happy. This I look forward to.

So, best wishes to Sera. Maybe we'll see each other around.

Yay! for saving people, hunting things, the brothers working side-by-side and fighting back-to-back! Maybe we'll get a little more insight into the stuff Dean has (not) been dealing with the past three seasons. Maybe we'll get some of the incidental humor back into the flavor of the show. Sera gets blamed for a lot of stuff that I don't think is solely her fault. However, if bringing Jeremy Carver back will get us back to Saving People, Hunting Things in a fleshed out, creative way, I'm all for it!

Comments

[gluisa88.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never been sure what things that the fandom blames on Sera are actually her fault or not.

Nevertheless, I'm thrilled about the change- it's always good to have new blood and I can't wait to see what Carver does :D

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

The change caused me raise an eyebrow (or rather, it would, if I actually *could* quirk one eyebrow), but otoh, I'm not entirely surprised. S6 was rocky in places, and I don't think she ever really got her sea legs when it came to showrunning. But I do think that fandom took a lot of stuff out on her that wasn't solely her fault.

But regardless of her showrunning capabilities, she's been one of my favorite writers on the series.

I think the change makes sense and will be good for the show. Jeremy is familiar with SPN, has written some wonderful eps, and has perhaps been away from it long enough to be "new(ish) blood."

Here's hoping for a S8 that gets the boys back to Saving People, Hunting things, with a dish of angst/mytharc on the side.

ETA: Huh. After checking Jeremy's writing credits for SPN, only two or three of his eps jump out at me as making me squee. In fact, one of his eps presented me with one of my least favorite turns of events, though I can't totally blame him, since it's mytharc-related. And I do really like the first half of that particular ep. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.