SN's New Characters

There's a lot that I want to say about the rumors running rampant through fandom about the two new girl characters on SN, Ruby and Bela. I'm really on the fence about this whole thing, is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Until I actually SEE the eps, I just don't know.

I avoid spoilers like the plague. Even so, I heard about two new girl characters and saw the interviews with them on E! My only thought at the time I saw the interviews was that the girls were pretty. Pretty. Pretty's what brought me to Supernatural in the first place.

I started watching Supernatural solely because of Jensen Ackles. He's cute. Yeah, I said it. I also admire the man's work, what can I say? But 'cute' will only take you so far. Television's history is positively littered with shows from dramas to sitcoms that were full of pretty people and never found an audience. I kept on watching SN for reasons that go far beyond pretty. The relationship between the two brothers, first and foremost, is what keeps me coming back to this show, over and over. Then there's the writing (Sera Gamble, how much do I love you? So much! You are a HUGE inspiration to me.) and the production values; this show has always looked and felt more like a movie than a television show. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention series creator Eric Kripke, also otherwise known as The Dealer (SN is my drug of choice, y'all) or god, whichever you prefer. His vision for the direction of the mytharc and evolution of the characters is important because none of us would continue to watch if it was always just a 'monster of the week' show. It is so much more than that.

Having said all of that, though, my thoughts about new recurring characters on the show are not two-fold, they're more like ten-fold. I did say I was sitting on the fence on this whole thing, didn't I? Right.

First, think back to television shows you've really liked over the years. Name 3 for me that had strong, non-neurotic female characters who could be role models. Ally McBeal? Um, nope. She was as neurotic as they come. Plus she was so skinny, I'm sure that she launched a generation of anorexics. Kyra Sedwick's character in The Closer? Nope, not her either. Brenda is a mess in her personal life. Grey's? Booooo! to them for hogging our time slot, plus in my ever-so-humble, there's isn't a strong female character on that show.

As a feminist, and a pretty radical one at that, it really bothers me that there just aren't too many strong women out there for girls to see. Of course flawed characters make better television. Of course we're more likely to watch a train wreck than a peaceful train journey. That's just common sense. But ESPECIALLY in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, female characters tend to be of the "Help! Oh, Help me! Help!" variety than anything else. Waiting to be rescued by some big, strong man. Helpless, unable to defend herself and totally dependent on the male hero. Eventually, you get a gut-load of it, and want to see something else. So the chance that these two new female characters might be kick-ass chicks is thrilling to me.

Buffy was about the last kick-ass chick on TV weekly, and I don't know if you're aware, but folks? Buffy went off the air more than 4 years ago. Since then, the United States has made a big, big shift politically to more and more conservative schools of thought. Not to get toooo political, but the Supreme Court has made a huge shift to the right, with two very conservative justices replacing the more moderate Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens. Then there's the Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, along with the religious nut that somehow got elected president. Conservatism is a way of life, not just a descriptor. Hollywood reflects the mood of the times by putting out movies and television shows that showcase traditional roles for men and women. I don't agree with it, but that's what's been happening. So I'm hopeful that Ruby and Bela WILL be fighters, the take-no-shit-from-anyone types of women that I admire, bucking the trend of recent history.

Then there's the fact that this show is just about the only one on television that is carried by two characters and everyone else (no matter how much we love or hate Gordon, Ash, Jo, Ellen, or Bobby) is peripheral. Think about your favorite episode. (Because I know you have one. If you're reading this, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're just as much or more so of a nut about this show than I am, and that no only do you HAVE a favorite ep, but also a favorite director, producer, writer, and that there are lines from the show that you use in conversation daily.) How many minutes of your favorite episode are without either Ackles or Padalecki on the screen? Very, very few, I promise. I don't know a lot about television production; shooting commercials in my home town in Oh-hia-ia hardly counts as TV experience. But I do know that the two title characters have got to be extremely exhausted, not to mention under an enormous amount of pressure to be 100% on, 100% of the time. So adding more characters that show up on a regular basis is going to ease that strain a bit.

Do any of us want less screen time for Sam or Dean? Hell, no. Would we prefer that the two men who play those characters not collapse from exhaustion? Yeah, I think we would.

Ever since this little bit of information has been released, that there will be two regular female characters, everyone involved with this show, from Kripke on down, has been spin-doctoring like mad. I know you've seen or read every single interview that every person involved with this show has ever done, so I know you've seen Kripke say at least twice that I can think of that these characters are not going to evolve into riding along in the Metallicar with Sam and Dean every week. Good. Because I for one would hate that. But that brings me to the whole love interest angle of the show.

Sam and Dean are two 20-something men, right? Yes? You're with me here? OK. Do you know ANY 20-something guys who are not looking to sleep with any and every thing that comes along? C'mon. I'm pretty sure that fandom for this show is overwhelmingly female, and I get it that most of the fans don't want to see Sam or Dean with a steady girlfriend. But not having romantic involvements at all isn't the answer either. So what if Sam or Dean sleeps with Ruby or Bela? Given Dean's track record of being a womanizing letch, I'm guessing that a steady girlfriend isn't in the plans for him. Given Sam's history of everyone he's slept with in the last two years, oh, you know, DYING, I think that he's pretty unlikely to get a regular girlfriend either. Normal sexual involvement, though, I just don't have a problem with.

Finally, I have to point out two last things. One, I believe in Kripke's vision for this show. I'm willing to take a 'wait and see' attitude about the new characters, give the women playing them a chance to show their acting chops. Deciding that we in fandom 'hate' them before the episodes have aired just isn't right.

Two, an essay I read on LiveJournal a while back talked about the power of fandom. Our voices are heard. Even the latest edition of Rolling Stone magazine talks about how fan's questions online have resulted in changes to storylines on shows as diverse as Lost on ABC to MythBusters on Discovery. That LJ essay has as its ending line the....not warning, or threat, but caveat, "Don't fuck with fandom. Fandom will fuck back." I apologize for being more vulgar than is truly needed, but I'm quoting. So if it is terrible, or the brothers' relationship is changed by the new characters, then fine, make your voice heard. I know that the powers that be are listening.

Until then? Let's give them a shot.