Supernatural 10.5 "Fan Fiction"

[unfeathered]

Just hit the 200th episode of Supernatural tonight, almost exactly 18 months after I started watching the show for the first time last year in lockdown. I realise I haven't posted anything else about it since but, boy, do I love this show. I REALLY wish I'd caught it when it first aired so I could have shared the excitement and discussions with everyone else.

And this episode? Utterly perfect. Obviously, as an am-dramer myself, I was going to enjoy this am-dram story, but oh, there was so much there. A different take on the obligatory 'musical episode', and yet another different way for the show to break the fourth wall, and an utterly delightful way for the show to celebrate everything it's accomplished. All (well, most of) our beloved characters there even if not with their original faces, and a beautiful way for Sam and Dean to learn about themselves. Far too many lovely little moments to mention, but I have to give a big shout out for the "Carry on my Wayward Son" which made me tear up a little, and also to that little glimpse of Chuck at the end there. Gorgeous.

I haven't got any Supernatural icons, so you get Giles singing with his guitar instead, because that's the same sort of emotion for me. :-)

Comments

[shivver]

I've only ever seen one episode of Supernatural, and it was "Fan Fiction". I was traveling and got to my hotel and turned on the TV, and SN was on and I thought, might as well watch it, and wow.

Of course, I came into it stone cold (I know who Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Crowley are, and that's it) and had to learn a lot of the context from the show itself (such as the fact that someone is writing novels about Sam and Dean), but even without that, it was wonderful. To me, the writers were demonstrating that they understood and embraced fandom and transformative works, that fans express their love of the show and their engagement with the world and the characters through the art they create, and that fanfiction and other art is not an attempt to defile nor monetize. I thought it was gorgeous.

[unfeathered]

Ha, well if you were only going to watch one episode, I guess that was a good one to watch! Really interesting to know that it still worked going in with around the same level of fan knowledge I had when starting from the beginning last year. Though I suppose it *was* probably written with non-fans in mind to some extent, being the kind of episode non-watchers might tune into just because it was a 'special' one, if you know what I mean?

But yes, exactly, Supernatural is the first show I've seen that really, really seems to love and embrace its fandom. There have been so many episodes that deal with this already, right from the first introduction of the idea of a series of books having been written about the boys, but each one brings something new and plays around so entertainingly with all the fannish conceits, the fanfic, the slash, conventions, megafans, all of it. I guess a part of it is the timing of if all - Supernatural seemed to come in right at the peak of online fandom - but it didn't have to embrace it quite so thoroughly as it has, and I love the way it's done so. :-)