Non-spoilery-Sera (gasp!) talks about Fans and Religion
The "Supernatural" fans are obviously passionate and very committed. Does fan reaction or possible fan reaction come up when you are talking about stories? Does it ever preclude or change anything you might do on the show?
We very much respect the fans' perspective. You're making the show for your fans. But you can't be breaking a story or figuring out a story and thinking exclusively of about your audience while you're doing it. It's a sure way to tangle yourself up and block yourself. You have to move forward serving the story first.
We knew that some people were going to be excited about the story [of the brothers growing apart] and some people are going to be strongly averse to some of the decisions we were making. But we knew that all of us in the room felt like this was a really rich area to go to. The ways the story made us feel ambivalent were good. They're worried about the characters in a good way, and that's kind of how we felt. It felt dangerous in a way that excited us.
We're a group of writers who want to take risks. We didn't want to go into Season 4 and be like, "We don't want to do that, [because] it scares us." If it scared us, we wanted to go there and explore it, trusting that the audience was going to trust us.
And we're just glad that they show up and that they have been supporting us and coming along for the ride. If people weren't talking and discussing it, then I would be really worried.
It seems like the show got a different reception in the press this year. Why do you think that was?
I don't know what happened this year. I kind of think maybe it was the angel thing. We did get a lot more coverage in the mainstream press.
Religion plays such an important role in our culture and it's a role that I think Americans feel strange about. The political process was so front and center this year and the separation of church and state is something that people could talk about all day and all night.
There's something about talking about issues of faith and issues of God, and "Is there a destiny?" If you find the sweet spot where you can tell stories like that that don't feel preachy and feel like they are organically coming from your characters, that's something I think people want to watch. I know I do.
-- excerpt from The Watcher, by Maureen Ryan
(the article HAS MAJOR SPOILERS at the bottom of the page)
POLL TYPED OUT BECAUSE LJ's POLLS SUCK DONKEY NUTS
Separation of Stuff and Whatever
* Does the Show leveraging religious cosmologies bother you?
* Do fan metas or discussions about aspects of those religious cosmologies bother you?
* Does the Show leveraging scientific cosmologies bother you?
* Do fan metas or discussions about aspects of those scientific cosmologies bother you?
We very much respect the fans' perspective. You're making the show for your fans. But you can't be breaking a story or figuring out a story and thinking exclusively of about your audience while you're doing it. It's a sure way to tangle yourself up and block yourself. You have to move forward serving the story first.
We knew that some people were going to be excited about the story [of the brothers growing apart] and some people are going to be strongly averse to some of the decisions we were making. But we knew that all of us in the room felt like this was a really rich area to go to. The ways the story made us feel ambivalent were good. They're worried about the characters in a good way, and that's kind of how we felt. It felt dangerous in a way that excited us.
We're a group of writers who want to take risks. We didn't want to go into Season 4 and be like, "We don't want to do that, [because] it scares us." If it scared us, we wanted to go there and explore it, trusting that the audience was going to trust us.
And we're just glad that they show up and that they have been supporting us and coming along for the ride. If people weren't talking and discussing it, then I would be really worried.
It seems like the show got a different reception in the press this year. Why do you think that was?
I don't know what happened this year. I kind of think maybe it was the angel thing. We did get a lot more coverage in the mainstream press.
Religion plays such an important role in our culture and it's a role that I think Americans feel strange about. The political process was so front and center this year and the separation of church and state is something that people could talk about all day and all night.
There's something about talking about issues of faith and issues of God, and "Is there a destiny?" If you find the sweet spot where you can tell stories like that that don't feel preachy and feel like they are organically coming from your characters, that's something I think people want to watch. I know I do.
-- excerpt from The Watcher, by Maureen Ryan
(the article HAS MAJOR SPOILERS at the bottom of the page)
POLL TYPED OUT BECAUSE LJ's POLLS SUCK DONKEY NUTS
Separation of Stuff and Whatever
* Does the Show leveraging religious cosmologies bother you?
* Do fan metas or discussions about aspects of those religious cosmologies bother you?
* Does the Show leveraging scientific cosmologies bother you?
* Do fan metas or discussions about aspects of those scientific cosmologies bother you?