Surprising absolutely no one, The CW has confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that it has renewed Supernatural for a sixth season — something that has been hinted at all year long. Better still, creator Eric Kripke will remain at the helm.
“We’re climaxing that story this season,” executive producer Sera Gamble said of the current “apocalypse” storyline. “We’ve been working on the Season 6 storyline for quite some time, and we’re very excited about it. We have lots of ideas, and are grateful for the chance to keep the show going.”
Kripke had previously spoken about his “five-year plan” for the show and hinted that he would not continue after that — although his comments about ending the series had become far more ambiguous in the last year.
The CW has also announced that it is renewing The Vampire Diaries for a second season, which is also no surprise, since the show has been a solid hit for the network.
After a long hiatus, Supernatural is back with a new episode this Thursday, and the CW has released this pretty funny (spoiler-free) scene from the episode.
Meanwhile, USA Today has an interview with the show’s creator, Eric Kripke, and he includes talk about what’s in store for a possible sixth season. (Incidentally, is there anyone left who thinks there won’t be another season?):
If there’s a sixth season, how do you top the apocalypse?
Well, the trick is to not go big but go intimate – at least those are the initial conversations we’ve had [if the show is picked up for a sixth season]. We always set up this five-year storyline, because in my heart of hearts, I just never imagine we’d actually go five years, much less beyond. We are going to climax the storyline and really wrap up the story of Satan and Michael and the apocalypse. The big question is, how do you follow that? We look at this as a unique challenge but also an opportunity to really launch a new storyline next year. We’re almost looking at it as the sequel to a movie. Rather than as a lot of genre shows do as they get on in years, becoming so convoluted and almost collapsing under their own mythology and getting to the point where you just can’t follow any of it anymore, we’re really looking forward to the opportunity of just sweeping it all clean and starting over with something else. We talk about returning to a stripped-down version of the show that’s almost similar to season one, in which the mythology was just as simple as finding their father and finding something that’s really personal and meaningful to Sam and Dean. One of the things that’s hard about the end of the world is sometimes it’s hard to have your characters emotionally connect with it, because it’s so big. But if their emotional storyline for, say, season six is to save a loved one, then that’s something you can really understand and get behind and actually have some really emotional storytelling that takes you through a lot of the scary episodes.
So you think about what you’ll do in the next season — how about who you’ll do it with? We don’t know yet if Sam and Dean will survive the end of the world. Are they in your plans?
Oh, absolutely. The one thing I can say is there’s no Supernatural without Sam and Dean. If they’re not driving the bus, then I’m not sure there’s a bus to drive. Maybe they’ll survive this year and maybe they won’t, but we’re at the point where, hilariously, death on our show for our main characters has now basically become an inconvenience. [Laughs] Even if they don’t survive, they’ll certainly be back for a season six. I just don’t know how to tell this story without Sam and Dean.
Eric Kripke, the creator of Supernatural, has been hinting all year that he might be willing to come back for a sixth season of Supernatural, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have implied they’d also be on board, and the CW network has demurred when asked if this will be the last season of the show.
“I did set out [to] tell a five-season storyline,” [Kripke] maintains. “Quite frankly, I never expected [the show] to make it to five years. But now that we’re in our fifth year, I have every intention of ending the story with a bang and not drawing it out or watering it down.” …
“That having been said,” Kripke continues, “I’m looking at this season as the last chapter in this particular story. That doesn’t mean there can’t be a new story. Buffy did it. The X-Files did it. You close a chapter on a big mythology storyline and then you begin a new one.”
This is obviously great news, but it’s also not really “news.” Move along, folks, there’s literally nothing to see here.
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the “The Real Ghostbusters” episode of Supernatural.
Let’s get one thing very clear up front, shall we? It’s impossible to parody something that isn’t either really good or really bad. For parody to work, people have to have a very clear, very specific idea of exactly what’s being parodied.
“The Real Ghostbusters,” tonight’s terrific episode of Supernatural, proved yet again what a fantastic show this is. Why? Because by parodying themselves, they showed just how indelible and original this show really is.
When it comes to humor, the characters, the storylines, and the overall look, there has never been a show on TV quite like Supernatural. All the details are great too, and made for easy humor: Dean’s love for his Impala, Sam’s and Dean’s FBI pseudonym’s, and on and on and on.
The tone of a TV show is often invisible, because it seems so effortless, like it just “happened.” But I believe that creating something that feels genuinely fresh and new is actually an extremely difficult thing to do. This is why most TV feels so hackneyed, like you’ve seen it all before (because you have!).
I also have to give a lot of credit to this specific episode. On the surface, it sounds like this episode would write itself: Sam and Dean go to a “Supernatural” convention — a convention of fans of the series of books-within-the-show based on Sam and Dean’s lives.
How could the writer miss, you say? Oh, please. There were a million different ways they could have screwed up this clever premise.
But again and again, the episode got it exactly right. Mostly it did what I most love about this show: it deftly alternated between perfect humor and genuinely scary or touching moments.
The names of the panels at the Supernatural convention? “Frightened Little Boy: The Secret Life of Dean” and “The Homo-erotic Subtext of Supernatural.”
Hilarious.
Meanwhile, the twist about which ghosts were the real villains was nicely unexpected. And it was truly touching that by the end of the episode, the “fat guy and the dork” get to be the heroes.
Indeed, after the real Dean tells Fake Dean that Dean’s life “sucks,” Fake Dean sets him straight:
No offense, but I’m not sure you get what the story’s about. In real life, [my partner] sells stereo equipment, and I sell copiers. Our lives suck. To be Sam and Dean, to wake up every day and save the world, to have a brother who would die for you … Well, who wouldn’t want that?
In other words, the character of “Dean” is being told by a role-playing fan of his “character” what his life is really all about. That’s some really complicated stuff. But, of course, it makes perfect sense — who better than a Sam and Dean “LARP” player to get to the heart of their story?
Likewise, it makes sense that “super-fan” Becky, who has surely pored over every word in the books, would know and remember some details about the Colt that Sam and Dean have forgotten. A nice, seamless way to add some important exposition for the show’s arc.
My hat is off to the writers of this episode: creator Eric Kripke (who scripted) and Nancy Weiner (who wrote the story).
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When it comes to humor, the characters, the storylines, and the overall look, there has never been a show on TV quite like Supernatural. All the details are great too, and made for easy humor: Dean’s love for his Impala, Sam’s and Dean’s FBI pseudonym’s, and on and on and on.
