Happily, Supernatural is back on. I was worried there for a bit thinking the writer’s strike had ended the season and we wouldn’t see anything till next fall, but so far they have put out two new episodes.

‘GhostChasers’ was campy and sort of fun, but I had to watch it in two sittings because I couldn’t really get into it at first.  The handheld cameras made it sort of disorienting and I had difficulty really enjoying the characters. Ultimately, I can see the attempt and enjoy the step out of the usual Supernatural box, but it wasn’t really my thing.

‘Long Distance Call’ was an interesting look into the isolation Dean is facing in himself with the eminent arrival of his date with Hell. He’s shutting down inside and pushing Sam away in an effort, I think, to come to terms with the fact that he is, without a doubt, about to go to hell and he’ll have to do it alone.

With that major character shift that was the only redeeming factor of that episode – which sort of makes it more like a nightly continuing drama than a show based on stand alone episodes. The plot felt old, the creature seemed flat and lacked sincere motivation, I felt like I’ve seen it all before.  The last two episodes felt like fillers.

While I suspect the writers are shaking off some dust and put out a couple of easy to patch together stories… I am more than a little concerned that the passion is slipping.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but a couple of months ago I applied to McG to write for Supernatural.  McG is one of the executive producers of the show and with some help from Pha and a few others we dug up his contact info and I sent a cover letter and a page of pitches.

I had three story concepts – one of them I was the idea I had about getting Dean out of his deal with the Devil. The characters are easy to write and the concepts are fun for me, after all – I’ve been writing for supernatural and folklore for quite some time. Anywhoo, obviously I didn’t hear back but the way I figured it – You can’t win if you don’t try but you will most certainly not win if you don’t at least attempt.

So with all that being said, I have much more interest in seeing what they cook up to keep the show vibrant.  How are they going to breathe life back into Dean? How are they going to keep him from his deal? What will Sammy do when the chips are down? What other creatures will they meet and how will those adventures help shape them into better/worse men? How will their choices make or break them and what supernatural forces can the creators come up with to push the boys to the edge – maybe they’ll go over –maybe they won’t, but I am deeply curious to see how it turns out. What I am most interested to see is how they will pull the show up from this slump and send it spinning off in a much more powerful and entertaining direction.