Monday, May 30, 2011

Theresa Meyers Talks About Her Favorite Episode of Season Six

In lieu of our normal Monday news, I'm delighted to host author Theresa Meyers today. She's a great fan of Supernatural, and her upcoming book, The Hunter, is inspired by our favorite show. If I hadn't already decided to buy this book the moment Theresa told me about the premise, I'd be buying it based on the cover alone! Take it away, Theresa...

Okay, I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit of a Supernatural nut. In fact my best friend (who is also addicted to the show) and I get along for the simple reason that she’s a Sam girl and I’m a Dean girl, so we don’t have to fight each other over the same Winchester when we’re watching the show together. Sometimes Supernatural is what gets me through a week of tough writing on the novel in progress.

One of my favorite episodes from this season had to be "Frontierland," not because it was the best written show of the season, but because it touched on some back story of Dean we’d never seen before – his love of all things western.

I know that in an earlier outtake interview (was it season 3?) Kripke talks about how he’d like to do something back in the Old West revolving around Samuel Colt. I think this was their shot at the idea. Did I love the whole idea of the Phoenix being a man that couldn’t die? Oh yeah! That was brilliant.

I also liked how Dean was almost *squee-fan-girl* over the whole chance to go to the Old West, but when he gets there it’s not nearly as romantic as it seemed. (Witness the whiskey that tastes like gasoline and the diseased saloon girl who freaked him out.) And in contrast Sam was totally out of his element (going so far as to try as scrape horse poo of his shoe and carry about his cell phone for comfort.)

Putting Samuel Colt and Elkins in there was a fantastic means to integrate the back story of the revolver (which is almost a character itself in some seasons) with the current hunt the boys are on, and I really liked how they discovered the journal in the Campbell family vault of hunter knowledge. The only thing that would have made the episode better for me was if Dean had gotten to collect the ashes of the Phoenix himself rather than having it all tied in a neat “back-to-the-Future-3” style bow where the ashes miraculously appear just on the right day and the right time after they’ve returned home from their visit to the wild west.

Another reason I loved the episode was because I wanted to see how close it came to the book I just finished writing that comes out in November. The Hunter, which is steampunk and best described as Supernatural meets Wild Wild West with a little bit of Indiana Jones for flavoring, features three brothers all out to unite the Book of Legend, which is kind of the compendium of Hunter knowledge and can help protect against the Gates of Nyx opening and letting all the Darkin into the world (think purgatory and Hell combined). Truth was, while my three brothers hunt down Darkin, they really don’t have anything close to the abundance of resources the Winchesters have. Sure they’ve got cooler steampunk weapons and the hero has a mechanical horse instead of a throaty muscle car, but overall, their world is just a little bit different because the society I’ve created is a little bit different because of the more advanced steam-powered technology. The Supernatural episode was gritty, real west, which I could appreciate. My stories have just a shade more sci-fi and romance.

Sure there were other episodes that were better written than "Frontierland," and certainly those that gave us more eye-candy than others (Souless!Sam, I’m looking at you). But overall, after so many shows in several seasons, it was nice to see a little glimpse of the characters that we didn’t know. Those little nuggets of surprise are part of what keep me addicted to the show—okay, well that and my absolute adoration of Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester.

So, in looking back at season six, what was your favorite episode?

11 comments:

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Before I commented I had to go add The Hunter to my wish list. Though I love the idea of steampunk, the actual books never really grab me—but you got DEAN on your cover! Have to have it. :)

That was one of my favorite episodes, too. It's funny what elements people love and not-love. Some disliked Dean's fanboy-ness and the fact that this was something we'd never heard before. My daughter LOVED with a fiery passion that they did the BTTF thing at the end, because that's her all-time favorite movie trilogy.

I loved that they had a new monster, who wasn't all monster, and that we got to see bad-ass Samuel Colt. His blase response to the time travel was awesome. :)

I don't know what my favorite episode was. As usual, there were things I loved in every episode, even the ones that weren't fantastic.

Thanks for being our guest today, Theresa!

Trish Milburn said...

It is amazing how much that guy on the cover looks like Dean. I'm really looking forward to this book. And that mechanical horse is pretty darn cool too.

Natalie, I liked that we didn't know this about Dean until this episode. All of us have these fan parts of us, and it wasn't really pertinent to the stories until now.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

That's true, Trish, and it fit the idea that he watches a LOT of late-night TV in those motels. :)

Patricia Preston said...

Awesome blog! Favorite episode? I liked them all, of course. The one I thought was very inventive was the episode where they ended up as the actors on Supernatural. It had so many funny lines.

Lisa Kessler said...

I love the idea of a steampowered horse!!! LOL

What if the world had gone that way insteadof making cars? :) Interesting...

Great blog!

Lisa :)

Theresa Meyers said...

See, this is the thing I love about Supernatural. We can all be fans, and yet appreciate such different things about the show.

For me the show where they were actors in the real world wasn't as big a rush as season five's episode where they find out their lives are being reported on in detail in Chuck's books. I thought that meta episode rocked. Especially since Chuck was lamenting torturning his characters so much (which I guess I identify with!)

I'm so glad you guys like the cover! (Not that I had much to do with it.) But I was thrilled Colt does look so much like Dean!!! (and super secret here - up close, like at 300% magification - he looks even more like Dean - I may even have to get a poster of this thing.)

Thanks for letting me hang out with you today!

Anonymous said...

My favorite is a run-off between Frontierland and My Heart Will Go On.

Since you've discussed everything I liked about Frontierland, I won't talk more about that.

I liked My Heart Will Go On because I'm really into the idea of how life would have turned out if X or Y hadn't happened or if I hadn't chosen A or B. The Butterfly Effect is a favorite movie as well.

The other thing I liked about My Heart Will Go On was that it featured the mom and daughter team who were killed a season or two ago. I was really sorry to see them go. I'd thought Dean could find true love with the daughter.

Thanks for the post, and I've added The Hunter to my wishlist.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I definitely agree, Theresa, that "The Monster at the End of this Book" was the best of the meta episodes, but I love them all so much. I'm not ready to say "The French Mistake" was my favorite episode of this season, but I think it's close. :)

Man, *I* want a poster of that cover! LOL

Hi, catie, thanks for commenting here! I loved that episode for the same reasons you did. Ellen rocks, and it's always fun to play "what if" like that.

Anne said...

Sam doing those pull ups shirtless was quite something. Why isn't there more of that????

I probably enjoyed the show where they went to the alternate dimension and were themselves as actors on Supernatural. Lots of inside jokes (Does Mischa Collins tweet that much?) and I learned that Jared is married to the actress who played Ruby (did anyone else notice her bra strap was showing in that cocktail gown? No one in wardrobe corrected it???)

I also couldn't believe I never noticed one of the producers and the character of Bobby shared the same name (boy, I'm observant).

Traci Bell said...

I'm a HUGE supernatural fan and so happy to have found your site. I'm a Dean-girl, too!

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Yeah, Anne, I'd like shirtless pullups in every episode! LOL

Misha tweets outrageously but not often. His was the first Twitter feed I ever read regularly. Jim Beaver actually tweets constantly, though.

I didn't notice the bra strap, but now I have to watch again to look for it. LOL

We're glad you found us, too, Tracy! :)