Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Favorite Supernatural Writers

I never knew writers of shows before Supernatural. But as I watched, I knew I loved some shows more than others. As I watched, I realized I enjoyed some episodes more than others. Some were funnier, some were more heart-felt.

John Shiban was my favorite writer early on. I LOVE “Scarecrow” and “The Benders.” He let me down a bit with “Everybody Loves a Clown,” but redeemed himself big time with “Croatoan,” one of my all-time favorite episodes.

Kripke writes the season premieres and finales, and has a hand in the ones that are heavier on the store myth. He’s writing more episodes this season than he has since the first, and I love how he portrays the boys’ relationship.

I’ve heard fans accuse Sera Gamble of trying to make Supernatural into a romance. She does have more episodes that have the boys entangled-“Faith,” “Heart,” “The Kids Are All Right,” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” She explores more of the consequences of what this life costs our boys.

Ben Edlund tends to write the funny ones: “Monster Movie,” “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “Ghostfacers!”, but he also wrote “Night Shifter,” which was one of the darkest episodes. Still, he lightened it with humor.

Some of my favorite episodes were written by one-time writers: Trey Calloway wrote
“Hell House” and David Ehrman wrote “Provenance.” Trey is working on CSI:NY and David worked on “Lincoln Heights” after Supernatural.

I’m impressed with two new writers this season, Julie Siege, who wrote “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” and “Criss Angel is a Douchebag,” and especially Andrew Dabb, who wrote “Yellow Fever” and “After School Special, ”two of my favorite episodes this season. I look forward to see what else they have in store.

Here’s a list of the writers and their episodes. Who are your favorites?

Eric Kripke
“Pilot”
“Wendigo”
“Home”
“Shadow”
“Devil’s Trap”
“In My Time of Dying”
“All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2”
“The Magnificent Seven”
“No Rest for the Wicked”
“Lazarus Rising”
“Heaven and Hell”
“Death Takes a Holiday”

John Shiban
“Scarecrow”
“The Benders”
“Dead Man’s Blood”
“Everybody Loves a Clown”
“Croatoan”
“Tall Tales”
“Folsom Prison Blues”

Sera Gamble
“Dead in the Water”
“Faith”
“Nightmare”
“Salvation”
“Blood Lust”
“Houses of the Holy”
“Heart”
“All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“Fresh Blood”
“Jus in Bello”
“Time is on my Side”
“Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester”
“I Know What You Did Last Summer”

Raelle Tucker
“Dead in the Water”
“Faith”
“Nightmare”
“Salvation”
“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”
“Hunted”
“Roadkill”
“What Is and What Should Never Be”

Richard Hatem
“Phantom Traveler”
“Asylum”

Eugene Ross-Leming
“Route 666”

Brad Buckner
“Route 666”

Trey Calloway
“Hell House”

Daniel Knauf
“Something Wicked”

David Ehrman
“Provenance”

Cathryn Humphris
“Dead Man’s Blood”
“Born Under a Bad Sign”
“Bedtime Stories”
“Dream a Little Dream of Me”
“Metamorphosis”
“Sex and Violence”

Matt Witten
“Playthings”

Ben Edlund
“Nightshifter”
“Hollywood Babylon”
“Bad Day at Black Rock”
“Malleus Malificarum”
“Ghostfacers!”
“Monster Movie”
“Wishful Thinking”

Jeremy Carver
“Sin City”
“A Very Supernatural Christmas”
“Mystery Spot”
“Long Distance Call”
“In the Beginning”
“Family Remains”

Robert Singer
“Sin City”

Laurence Andries
“Red Sky at Morning”

Andrew Dabb
“Yellow Fever”
“After School Special”

Julie Siege
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester”
“Criss Angel is a Douchebag”

6 comments:

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Though I value all writers, I don't usually pay attention to who writes what episode, even for shows where I recognize the writers' names. But, of course, SPN is different.

My favorites are scattered, and perhaps volume plays a role, but when I see Catheryn Humphris, Ben Edlund, and Jeremy Carver, my expectations go up.

Sera Gamble has a reputation for killing off our favorites, too. Meg, Gordon, Henricksen...and Sam! She seems to enjoy the gore more than the romance, but she does like to torture the boys emotionally, and I'm rarely disappointed in one of her episodes (except, you know, the killing-our-favorites part). I'm looking forward to her upcoming ep with Dean in a Prius with a soy latte, or whatever it was she said.

Anonymous said...

I'm anxious to see the happy, peppy Dean episode too.

And I have to confess that the first several seasons I didn't pay attention to episode titles at all.

phouse1964 said...

This show, for the most part, is so well written I love almost every episode! i look forward to Kripke and Gamble. I love Cathryn Humphris. I miss Raelle. I found it very interesting that Ben Edlund wrote my favorite episode of Angel ever - Smile Time.

But I think I favore the female writes a little more. They seem (to me) to write the boys more deeply. Does that make sense?

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I think generally speaking you're probably right, but then I think about "In My Time of Dying" and "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2," written by Kripke, and "Mystery Spot," by Jeremy Carver, and those got pretty emotional and deep, and...well, I hold tightly to my notion that his generation of writers (which includes JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon) have less trouble tapping into their emotions than older generations did. :)

Anonymous said...

In "The Monster at the End of This Book," Jeremy Carver and Ben Edlund used their last names as the pen name for the writer of the Supernatural Books, Carver Edlund.
I thought that was cool, and that's one of my favorite episodes. Also, Hell House, Mystery Spot, Bad Day at Black Rock, Magnificent Seven, Heart, It's the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester, and In the Beginning.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if the writers see this but I would kill for a slenderman episode!! I wouldn't sleep for days!!