Like I said, Pascon was special because it was the last Creation con of 2015 – and because it’s where Louden Swain first played for a con (and sort of the start of Rob and Rich’s epic friendship). It was also just a helluva lot of fun.
Flying all the way across the country from east coast to west isn’t a picnic, and I was worried that I wouldn’t get there in time for Friday panels. I grabbed a cab, miraculously hit no traffic on the freeway, no line at registration, stored my bags at the hotel and ran into the ballroom – literally just in time to hear most of Richard’s rendition of Rules and Regulations! Phew! And Rob’s shaker dance. He looks like some sort of exotic dancer, doesn’t he?
I feel like I start lots of con reports by saying ‘this con was special,’ but oddly, it seems like many of them do have something that sets them apart. Pascon is the successor to Burcon, which is the successor to LACon, which first happened way back in early 2009 (I think). That was the second Creation con that Kathy and I went to, and our (mis)adventures there are chronicled for posterity in a chapter of “Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls”. We got to know Richard Speight a lot better at that con, after meeting him at Chicon and enjoying our interview so much that we just kept talking, leaving the green room and going to the hotel restaurant for dinner. I’m sure exactly no one is surprised that Richard was that much fun to talk to.
Afterwards, there was a band playing a concert at the con, which was something Creation has done from the start of SPN cons. That night, it was Louden Swain, fronted by Rob Benedict, who Kathy and I had met briefly on our second Supernatural set visit (That chapter is a lot more MIS than adventures…). We were still talking to Richard, so we brought him with us to the concert, the three of us sitting in the back of the auditorium. We were all blown away by Louden Swain.
Season 11 is off to a fantastic start. It strikes me as I write this what an unusual thing that is to say. Season 11 and the word “fantastic” aren’t often used in the same sentence. Many long-running shows, even ones who are beloved by fans, often take a downturn in quality as they go on. It has to be difficult to come up with fresh story arcs and keep characters interesting over such a long span of time. Even real people aren’t quite as fascinating after you’ve known them for a decade – how can there possibly be nuances still to discover about fictional characters? How can we possibly still care about fictional characters enough to sustain a weekly television show in its eleventh year?
I’d be the first to say that Supernatural has had its ups and downs. Not every season is stellar and not every episode is breathtakingly awesome. But I still find something to love about this show every time I watch a new episode, and I’m enjoying Season 11 almost as much as I did the early seasons that first drew me into this decade-long love affair. That’s pretty damn amazing!
One of the highlights of my week (in addition to the momentous court decision and the rainbow of celebration that all my social media feeds became) was chatting with Ruth Connell, Supernatural’s enigmatic witch Rowena. I was already a passionate fan of the character, but now I’m equally enamored of the woman who portrays her. An hour of conversation with Ruth is made extra pleasant by the fact that her lilting accent is just plain gorgeous. I’m pretty sure I could listen to her talk for an alarmingly long time, just sitting there nodding and grinning. Luckily, Ruth is too engaging for a one-sided conversation.
Also, as is always the case in Supernatural, it’s a small world.
I went into this week’s Supernatural episode already feeling very emotional, thanks to Jared and Jensen’s posted videos celebrating the last day of filming their tenth season of the Show. Seeing them so emotional about the ten years and about how they’ve only grown closer during that time – not to mention sharing some good whisky with their neckties as headbands – was the perfect way to mark that momentous occasion. That they shared what was originally intended as a video just for them with US only made it better.
Jensen: Just finished season 10!!!! 10 years. Same show and same ugly co-star. But damn is he lovable. Here is my post season interview with my boy Jared Padalecki. Cheers everyone!!!
There was a lot of cheering in response to both those videos, that’s for sure.
The ending episodes of this season feel extra special because it’s such a ‘big year’ for the Show, and it seems like everyone is amping up their game in response. I usually have at least SOME things to pick apart, and there’s usually a whole contingent of fans who dislike any particular episode, but in the last few episodes? Not so much. Supernatural is always good – but recently? It’s off the charts good. It’s like everyone wants to close out the tenth season with a BANG.
I’m so torn. Do I gush first about the writing of this episode that laid the groundwork for so many powerful scenes? Or the brilliant cinematography and direction and set dec and visual effects? Or do I marvel at the acting performances of ALL of the main players, who collectively blew me away and kept me so sucked in that I was holding my breath for most of the second half of the episode?
Not a bad dilemma to face on a Friday morning. I think I’ll gush about all of the above.
Girls Girls Girls was a surprising episode – by which I mean, it managed to surprise me! Not once but several times. Which makes me a very happy fangirl indeed. Here’s my quick thoughts before we hit the road for the holiday…
One of the most surprising things? I liked both the story lines in tonight’s episode.
I haven’t been a fan of jumping back and forth between the Winchesters’ story line and the angels, but this time both worked. The pacing was right and the actors all outdid themselves. Let’s start with the angel story line, which I really liked in this episode. Erica Carroll did a fabulous job portraying Hannah’s growing confusion and discomfort with her possession of Caroline. She has the ability to show a dozen subtle emotions flashing across Hannah’s face, and every one of them twists your gut. You can see her turmoil, and I felt for her. That’s unusual for me and angels who aren’t Castiel.
In honor of Kim Rhodes’ birthday today, we’re sharing a lovely chat we had with Kim over lunch at the recent Creation convention in Washington D.C., shortly after she had returned to Supernatural for the Robert Berens’ penned episode, “Alex Annie Alexis Anne.” Much like our previous chats with Kim, the conversation went from serious to silly and back again, and we left feeling inspired. Kim has a way of doing that, doesn’t she?
Before we asked Kim about her filming of the recent episode and were treated to some inside scoop on both her character and costars Jared and Jensen’s naughty antics, we asked about the fundraiser for her daughter’s school that Supernatural fans had helped with.
It’s been a long time since a new episode of Supernatural didn’t inspire a whole lot of mixed reactions among its fans – from squee to sobbing to gnashing of teeth to threats to flounce from fandom all together. I’ve written elsewhere (http://www.winchesterbros.com/site/index.php/articles/10224-only-love-can-break-your-heart–or-what-fandom-wank-is-all-about ) that there are reasons for that range of reactions that run the gamut, and for the passionate disagreement that follows. As I was watching ‘Captives,’ I thought for a while that this episode might be an exception. For one thing, there was so much going on, I didn’t have time to dwell on the fact that Sam and Dean continue to ignore my desperate pleas for them to get back to being brothers. There were, as often happens in Cas episodes, two story lines running simultaneously, which always makes me feel a little disoriented every time we switch between them. This is far from unusual in a television show, but for many years Supernatural was an odd exception, with Sam and Dean (and the probably very tired Jared and Jensen) in every story line and nearly every scene. I still subconsciously hang onto that expectation.
For another thing, there were some delicious tidbits of consistency, which invariably make me smile foolishly at the tv. Castle Storage reappears, and I love that we’ve seen that distinctive sign in so many pivotal episodes. It even appears in our next book, Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, in the chapter by SPN’s brilliant cinematographer, Serge Ladouceur. That’s how iconic it is!
Photo Op! SPN Writers with Jared and Jensen – photo Chris Schmelke
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.”
