When academics go to Hollywood!
Last night’s Supernatural, First Born, was so jam-packed full of action, adventure, angst, plot twists and episodes of nail-biting OMG NOOOOO screams at my poor abused television, that this morning left my head still spinning. Waking up the day after a new SPN episode bursting with thinky thoughts and eager to see what everyone else thought is the way the early seasons of Supernatural were for me – this is not the first time in Season 9 that I’ve felt exactly the same way. How awesome is that?
We’re quoting Supernatural writer Adam Glass in that title – but we’re also feeling very lucky to be part of the SPN Family today. For those of you who missed it, there has been a lot going on in the Sherlock fandom for the past few days, after a journalist at the screening of the new season printed out some racy Sherlock fanfic and then got the show’s stars to read it aloud, apparently trying for some cheap laughs at fandom’s expense. (Ironic for a television show that is itself – literally – fanfiction). We’d be the first to stand up and say that fans shouldn’t be ashamed of however they participate in fandom – that’s the whole point of Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls after all – but it wasn’t the fan author’s idea to share and in fact she was mortified. We reached out to her and offered to send her a copy of “Fangasm” and “Fandom At The Crossroads” – which she graciously said she appreciated but wanted to purchase for herself in fannish solidarity. We wish we could send a copy to the entire Sherlock fandom!
The Sherlock actors were respectful (unlike the journalist), but the whole kerfuffle got us thinking about how much the Supernatural cast has embraced the fandom – how much they respect their fans, how the term “SPNFamily” is used by the cast and crew and writers as much as it’s used by the fandom. We thought about Jared’s words at Burcon about how fandom lets us all be ourselves, that we shouldn’t let anyone else tell us what to like; Misha’s joyous and inspiring way of bringing us all together to do good in the world through Random Acts; Jensen joining fans and family in this year’s Buddy Walk for Downs Syndrome in Dallas; Osric cosplaying along with fandom and writing his own Kevin Tran fanfic; Kim Rhodes’ passionate defense of the Sherlock fan and all fans; the writers, actors, producers and crew members –virtually everyone involved with the show — joining fandom for live tweets of episodes. We’re lucky – and so are they. And I think we all know it.
As we blogged at the time, we invited a bunch of the SPN writers to ‘crash’ our photo op with Jared and Jensen at Burcon. It was wonderful to see the surprised looks on the boys’ faces when so many of the writers walked in! Some hadn’t met the actors before, so the whole thing was warm and wonderful (and we’re still really glad we lured them in with us!) We got the jpeg from super-photographer Chris yesterday, and sent it on to the writers. Adam Glass tweeted it out with the message “feel privileged to be part of this Supernatural family.”
Couldn’t have said it better, Adam.
We were also pretty excited that Slate Magazine ran a piece on Fangasm and Supernatural yesterday – we hope that lots of people who haven’t had the pleasure of discovering the best Show in the universe will read it and say hmmm, what’s this Supernatural show about?? Check it out here, tongue in cheek title and all — http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/12/academic_studies_of_fandom_two_professors_become_stalker_fangirls_of_supernatural.html
Of course, if you’re reading this blog, you already know what Supernatural is all about. That makes you – and us – some of the lucky ones.
You can order Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls from the link at the top, or at Barnesandnoble.com, where it’s in stock in paperback or Nook! – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fangasm-katherine-larsen/1115150113?ean=9781609381981
Happy holidays from Fangasm! Whatever other holidays you’re celebrating this season, we hope you’re also celebrating what we all have in common – our love of Supernatural. And we hope you’re celebrating something else that we think is unique, special and important: Fandom.
We’ve been in love with this Show and part of this amazing fandom for eight years. It’s been eight years of incredible highs and more than a few painful lows, but – improbably perhaps — we’re still here. Still in love with Supernatural and still grateful to be part of the best fandom in the world. So we wanted to take a few minutes and say thank you.
Happy Halloween, SPN Family! We loved this week’s episode – it felt like the quirky, zany, fun episode that we needed after the heartbreak of last week’s episode. We were swept along as the story played out, laughing sometimes and gasping at others, and though it wasn’t really scary, there was enough suspense to keep us on board as we went along for the ride. And really, a story about Oz and the Wicked Witch? Perfect for Halloween!
Last week, we confessed that we were ridiculously excited for Supernatural Season 9 after spending some time with Jared and Jensen and hearing how excited they were. We also got to chat with some of the Show’s amazing creative team while we were in Vancouver – which only made us even MORE excited. At this point, it’s a miracle that we’re still managing to go to work every day instead of just watching the S9 promo vids over and over and counting down the hours. Does anyone else feel that way?
More than any of the other writers on board for S8, Robbie Thompson seems to get fandom. This episode had something for just about everyone – the Dean and Cas fans, the Sam and Dean fans, the Megstiel fans (kudos for getting the ship name right on that, btw). Even the Sam and Amelia fans got a shout out. Not sure there are many Sam and Amelia fans, but if you’re out there, you must be happy too.