Our Supernatural writer polls are heating up. The winner of the one-shot writer award goes to Nancy Weiner with 27% of the vote, followed by Daniel Knauf (18%) and Trevor Sands (15%). Our 2-3 three episode writers poll crowned Richard Hatem (36%) with Bob Singer (18%) and Brett Mathews (12%) in second and third place. Today we move to writers that were a bit more prolific, having written 6-7 episodes each. From here on out the polls will be run like the original ones in that the episodes compete not the writers. Choose your favorite episode each writer has penned. Again, polls will close at 7 pm CST the following day.
All episodes were written solo unless otherwise noted below:
Cathryn Humphries wrote Dead Man's Blood with John Shiban and Dream a Little Dream of Me with Sera Gamble.
Julie Siege wrote It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester with Eric Kripke.
Robbie Thompson has solo credit on all of his episodes.
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Cathryn Humphries wrote a lot of good episodes but no truly great ones for me. Only Dead Man's Blood and Metamorphosis would be in the negative column but some were more meh than others. My initial reaction was between Bedtime Stories, Sex and Violence, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. In the end I went with the one she wrote with Sera Gamble. I like how Dream a Little Dream of Me gave us a glimpse into Bobby's past but also jumped started Dean working to stay out of hell. It was an important character moment, but the entire premise of the episode was intriguing too.
ReplyDeleteJulie Siege penned some of my least favorite episodes and none I really enjoyed so by process of elimination, my vote goes to Fallen Idols. I loved Paris Hilton's speech about how no one should care one jot about Paris Hilton right before she got beheaded. I did not like most of the brother moments in it though. I did like Criss Angel is a Douche Bag better than most, but that's only because the old guy actors were awesome.
Of the three here, I think Robbie Thompson is the best although I do not like most of his season 8 work. Such goes that season. Bitten, LARP and the Real Girl, and Goodbye Stranger are definitely out for me and Pac-Man Fever is superior to The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo, which leaves Slash Fiction, Time After Time, and Pac-Man Fever. All had great storytelling and a moving plot. All had great character moments. All became favorites that I can rewatch over and over again. In fact, I would vote for these three over any other episode in today's 3 polls.
Slash Fiction had the LeviaWinchesters with the ultimate classic diner scene. It is one of my favorite scenes of the entire show. Funny and snappy, it still makes me laugh. "Eating righteousness" Bwah! Time After Time had Sheriff Jody beginning a mother like relationship with Sam, something I sorely missed in season 8. I hope that season 9 will feature a lot of great scenes with the two of them. Plus Dean looked nifty in 40's garb. Pac-Man Fever had the most honest, most emotional scene of all of season 8…and it was with a secondary character. Hard to believe that I connected with Charlie and Benny more than anyone else this season. In the end, my vote goes to Slash Fiction, my favorite season 7 episode, but this one was really hard.
The Girl Next Door quotes: Oh the infamous episode that introduced the eyerollingly bad Amy subplot. Good thing that came at the end and we could get some good quotes in first. Still this episode is pretty slim pickings.
ReplyDelete15. Dean: "Where's the pie?" Sam: "I got cake. It's close enough right?"
14. Dean: "What about those chompers that you and the sheriff saw at the hospital? Are they still making spleen burgers?"
13. WeeSam: "Okay are you guys cool? Can I have a normal life for 5 minutes now? Oh Dean, quick question. How do you talk to girls?"
12. Amy: "No, I…it's not what…look I'm not….I've had the same job for the last six years. I…I have a house, two cats, a mortgage. I have a normal life." Sam: "You call this normal?"
11. Dean: "Oh yeah no, you're a poster boy for mental health. You have any idea the kind of horror shows I had going on in my head?"
10. Dean: "Not different? Bobby I get this thing off in 5 days and I'm golden. Sam's not a curve. He's a freaking time bomb." Bobby: "It ain't like he's keeping secrets. What you see is what you get. So what's so nuts about calling it an upswing." Dean: "Because that's not how it works Bobby. Ever. Alright especially not with Sam. The other show is going to drop. It's just a matter of when."
9. Bobby: "Come on sicko. Let's get you healed up some place a little safer."
8. Mensa Monster: "Do you know what I find? Plain old people taste fine, but everything is better with cheese."
7. Dean: "I hear you Sam, I do, but look at her now. She's dropping bodies man…which means we've got to drop her, no matter how many merit badges she racked up when she was a kid. I'm sorry, but it's that simple." Sam: "Nothing in our lives is simple."
6. Bobby: "Don't panic." Dean: "Too late."
5. Sam: "So how is it out there?" Bobby: "Weird with a side order of bloody."
4. Dean: "Bobby, you're alive." Bobby: "Of course I am. Why are you on the floor?" Dean: "They gave me morphine. Well uh, hey look, a monster broke my leg."
3. Dean: "Be careful with her would you? And uh Sam…" Sam: "Yeah." Dean: "Pie." Sam: "Obviously."
2. Bobby: "Well maybe he needed a little me time." Dean: "Yeah but his me time ain't just him. I mean for all we know he's road tripping with Lucifer somewhere. Uh. Left me here like Jimmy freaking Stewart."
1. Dean: "New rule: You steal my Baby, you get punched. The hell were you thinking Sam, running off like that? I mean for all I know Satan could have been calling your plays."
Two of Siege's episodes made me very cross, one of them ("99 Problems") having one of the most offensive lines ever on the show ("on a good day you get to kill a whore.") I thought Sera Gamble wrote that episode, so I guess I owe her an apology.
ReplyDeleteNot a big fan of Sex & Violence. (just depressing/trashy/overly dark) The others I had mixed feelings on. I think I voted for the wrong Humphries episode (I meant to vote for Usual Suspects). There was something I was a little unsure of with Dead Man's Blood (I accidentally voted for that). Seeing that it was co-written with Shibhan makes more sense, as I didn't care for his solo episodes.
Thompson had some good work this season, but the Charlie episodes were my favorites, mostly because I just love the Charlie/Dean relationship. Goodbye Stranger had a confusing Cas characterization, and Meg's last scene wasn't as good as it could have been, although it was still a well-paced, very solid episode, with one of the best Sam/Dean scenes of the season (the last one in the car).
I thought Pac-Man Fever was very good, not only in the relationships between Dean/Sam/Charlie, but also in a believable, moving backstory for Charlie, showing that Charlie was not perfect by any means (as she was pretty bad at solving the case), and Thompson learning from his continuity errors earlier in the season (not mentioning Cas in the LARP episode). One of the best episodes of the season.
I think Thompson is one of the writers who has a real ear for the more recent seasons of Supernatural, and the rhythm of the characters. His Dean is especially attuned to that, whereas some other writers, I feel like he's being jammed all over the place and they aren't sure whether he's season 2 Dean or season 5 Dean or season 8 Dean.
Defending Your Life quotes: This is one of the few episodes where a good portion of my favorite quotes comes from guest characters instead of the brothers.
ReplyDelete15. Dean: "Really Warren, all you noticed were the symbols?"
14. Sam: "We kind of…specialize in crazy."
13. Dean: "You and Sam, I just…you know hunters are never kids. I never was. I didn’t even stop to think about it." Jo: "It's not your fault. It wasn't on you."
12. Jo: "He was right about one thing." Dean: "What? Your massive crush on me?" Jo: "Shut up. You carry all kinds of cr** you don't have to Dean. It kind of gets clearer when you're dead."
11. Sam: "Witness is being called without prior notice." Dean: "Good one." Sam: "I saw that on The Good Wife."
10. Dean: "I gave up AA for Lent." Sam: "We're not Catholic." Dean: "Always with the details. AA gives me the jeebs." Sam: "Wow, shocker."
9. Sam: "Burn her bones. Put her to rest." Dean: "The fun never stops."
8. Sam: "Warren, I need your help finding that barn." Warren: "It's red. It stands out."
7. Sam: "People change." Dean: "Yeah tell that to ghost dog."
6. Dean: "Even possessed cars can't do stairs. It's something special. Check this out….AA, 10 years. Dead and sober. Double cr**."
5. Cop: "Welcome to Crazytown, population…one dead guy."
4. Dean: "It's okay." Jo: "No it's not. You deserve better." Dean: "No, you did. You deserved better Jo." Jo: "Dean, my life was good…really."
3. Rabbi: "I'm guessing you're not here for bar mitzvah lessons."
2. Bobby: "That's all I've got so far, but you know what this means." Sam: "Yeah, we've got to find him before he goes underground again." Bobby: "No ya idjit. It means you two got to get the hell out of Dodge. This guy hones in on people that feel guilty. Who does that sound like to you?"
1. Mia: "Well Dean, luckily I'm like a captive shrink with unlimited alcohol, so shoot."
it's really funny how I can look at the poll and know which one is going to be in the lead and the one I pick is going to have the least votes... I love how varied the fandom can be and that's not sarcasm, I swear.
ReplyDeleteA lot of great choices.
ReplyDeleteI went with born under a bad sign (I just watched it the other night. So awesome)
The monster at the end of this book (I love that our show can make fun of itself.)
The last one was tough. I like all the Charlie's episodes. I went with the girl with the dungeons and dragons tattoo but LARP and the real girl was close second
My choices never win either. I have vastly different opinions than most of the SpoilerTV community.
ReplyDeleteI had to dig deep because even the one I picked had plenty I did not like in it. Kind of glad she's not around anymore. Things would have been even worse.
ReplyDeleteI like all the Charlie episodes too although LARP was my least favorite of the three. Charlie may be the only recurring character in the last couple of years that I would like to see more of.
ReplyDeleteWhile X-Files was my first TV obsession, I never paid attention to the writers. It was only after I got hooked on Supernatural that I went back and compared writers, etc. Suddenly things became much, much clearer.
ReplyDeleteI love Born Under a Bad Sign, The Monster at the End of this Book and Goodbye Stranger ;)
ReplyDeleteBorn Under A Bad Sign, It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester and Goodbye Stranger
ReplyDeleteBorn Under a Bad Sign, Monster at the End of This Book, Pac-Man Fever. Robbie Thompson has become one of my favorite writers. He takes the time to go back and research the canon. I like that in him.
ReplyDeleteHello Cruel World
Dean: "You cannot be in that crater back there. I can't…If you're gone, I swear I am going to strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car and I'm going to drive us off the pier. You asked me how I was doing? Well not good. Now you said you'd be here. Where are you?"
Dean: "Believe in that. Believe me okay? You've got to believe me. You've got to make it stone number one and build on it. You understand?"
The Girl next Door
I chose the pie ones because it's the first normal thing Dean has done in ages.
Dean: "Be careful with her would you? And uh Sam…" Sam: "Yeah." Dean: "Pie." Sam: "Obviously."
Dean: "Where's the pie?" Sam: "I got cake. It's close enough right?
Defending Your Life is not one of my favorites but the acting between Jensen and Alona was superb.
Dean: "You and Sam, I just…you know hunters are never kids. I never was. I didn’t even stop to think about it." Jo: "It's not your fault. It wasn't on you."
Bobby: "That's all I've got so far, but you know what this means." Sam: "Yeah, we've got to find him before he goes underground again." Bobby: "No ya idjit. It means you two got to get the hell out of Dodge. This guy hones in on people that feel guilty. Who does that sound like to you?"
So do I, man. So do I.
ReplyDeleteWe commiserate in every contest together then.
ReplyDeleteI like all of these episodes. Very hard too choose.
ReplyDeleteMy instinct would make me go for BUABS and Sam's great performance, but I liked 'The Usual Suspects' a lot, so it gets my vote this time.
The written communication between the brothers was sweet and Sam's interrogation by the agent was so well done, and Dean's too was terrific.
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Not too fond of the Seige episodes, but I'm going with Swap Meat which I know isn't well thoiught of, but I liked it. :P
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Not too fond of these Thomson episodes. My favourites are Slash Fiction and Time After Time, but I will go for Slash Fiction.
Bitten is a great de-merit for him, IMO.
I didn't know he had written 'Goodbye Stranger. Oh dear! Just about as bad as Bitten, maybe even worse!
Three Charlie eps. He's really getting his money's worth from his character. ;)
Dean: "You cannot be in that crater back there. I can't…If you're
ReplyDeletegone, I swear I am going to strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car
and I'm going to drive us off the pier. You asked me how I was doing?
Well not good. Now you said you'd be here. Where are you?"
X
. Dean: "Believe in that. Believe me okay? You've got to believe me.
You've got to make it stone number one and build on it. You
understand?"
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I love that first quote. It cements Dean's readiness to go out together with Sam, and if there has to be a tragic ending to the show,that's what I want to see.
The Girl Next Door
ReplyDeleteX
. Mensa Monster: "Do you know what I find? Plain old people taste fine, but everything is better with cheese."
Cheese makes everything tastier! :)
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Dean: "Oh yeah no, you're a poster boy for mental health. You have
any idea the kind of horror shows I had going on in my head?"
Aw, big brother Dean.
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I liked this episode despite everything.
I loved young Sammy and I even got Dean and San's points of view about Amy.
I'd love an episode where adult Dean goes back int ime and meets young Sam (Colin) pre-Stanford. :)
Sam understood Amy's need to keep her son safe, and he appreciated that she had tried to live a normal life, apart from the fact that she had saved young Sam's life.
Sam reminded Dean that they would do the same , maybe even worse to keep each other safe, yet i could also understand Dean's point of view.
He didn't know Amy personally but he saw her as a monster that killed, and did his job as a hunter by ganking her.
It 's strange though, how in season eight Carver twisted everything around making Dean the one who was sympathetic to a monster who saved his life, Benny; and Sam the one who not knowing him, wanted to kill Benny!
The exact opposite of the GND.
Bobby: "That's all I've got so far, but you know what this means."
ReplyDeleteSam: "Yeah, we've got to find him before he goes underground again."
Bobby: "No ya idjit. It means you two got to get the hell out of
Dodge. This guy hones in on people that feel guilty. Who does that
sound like to you?"
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So true, Bobby!
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Sam: "We kind of…specialize in crazy."
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Not many good quotes in this, you're right.
I don't mind this episode though. It sort of grows on me with the re-watch.
We voted the same except for the last one, I went with Slash Fiction..loved Levi Sam & Dean and how they made fun of their bodies. But I am always going on how SPN can make fun of itself in this ep and French Mistake.
ReplyDeleteDean did shoot fireworks off with young Sam in Heaven. The difference was Benny was not killing people, Amy was.
ReplyDeleteGod I wish Humphries came back. I wouldn't mind the Edlund loss then.
ReplyDeleteBest thing Thompson's done is that scene of Dean trying not to sing Air Supply and Sam's face as he did it. <3
Ugh Fallen Idols. ugh
ReplyDeletei was initially gonna vote for slash fiction but charlie tugged me away. but leviasam and dean were great
ReplyDeleteMetamorphosis because it made me care for a one-off character. Fallen Idols because I thought it was funny and clever. Lastly, I had a tough time with this because nothing really stuck out but I guess Slash Fiction because all the Levi's were individuals with personality and you felt that,
ReplyDeleteI think the Leviathans are given a bad wrap in the fandom. Sure the mytharc wasn't as tightly crafted as it could have been, but the actual leviathan characters were distinct and interesting from George the real estate assistant to Mensa Monster, my favorite leviathan. Besides certain demons, I think leviathans as a whole have the most distinct personalities.
ReplyDeleteDiner scene trumps all in Thompson's work for me but the Air Supply scene had me laughing until tears ran down my face, so I get your attachment.
ReplyDeleteDefending Your Life will never be a favorite of mine but there are some moments and scenes in it that are awesome. I like the cop again, which seems to be a theme in later seasons, and the Dean and Jo scene at the end was all kinds of fabulous. I also loved the bartender scene. Everything with Osiris though could go.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I see far fewer similarities between Benny and Amy simply because Benny was not killing people. No matter her reason, Amy did and she would do it again if the same situation occurred.
ReplyDeleteThe brother moments in this episode are some of the finest on the show. I particularly liked the phone call to Bobby because it showed Dean's vulnerability and exactly how much Bobby meant to both the brothers. It was a precursor to the sadness and desperation that followed his death. And by desperation, I mean my own. :-) I loved Bobby.
ReplyDeleteI am pleasantly surprised that The Usual Suspects is getting so much love in this poll. It's an episode I find is very underrated in the fandom usually.
ReplyDeleteOf all the writers currently on staff, Robbie Thompson is my favorite too. I also like that he attempts to know the first seven seasons. I would argue that he seems to know them better than the majority of the writing staff put together.
ReplyDeleteThat was the show I was the MOST into. If you named an ep, I could tell you the writer/writers in less than five seconds. If you named a writer, I could tell you which episodes they wrote and which seasons they were in. Of course, I began to get disenchanted with the series around the end of season four/the movie/season five. I can't remember which season I quit watching completely. But the premiere was when they killed off Mulder's old partner/love interest, Diana Fowley. I wasn't a huge fan of hers, but I was just fed up with the convolutedness of the show by then. Came back in a later season to see the ep where they revealed the Truth About Samantha. Wish I'd never seen it. Just pissed me off.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a parent, but I know the parents I talked to after that episode said they could sympathize and would probably do the same to save their child. It's a real "how far would you twist your morals to save your child" deal. Other than that, Amy and her son lived a normal life. What really got me is Dean completely set up the son to be all Kill Bill, by inviting him to find him in a few years and get his revenge. Reminded me of that scene of what the Bride told Verita's daughter when the girl saw the Bride murder her mother: " It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm
ReplyDeletesorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it comin'. When
you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting." I called that moment the "Kill Dean" episode set up for a future season.
My favorite Levi was the one who put the nacho cheese on someone when he ate them. I LOL'd my ass off. He was great in the scenes when he was captive in Bobby's basement, too. One of two Levi's I was sad to see go. The other being the real estate lady one-off. She was a hoot.
ReplyDeleteMensa Monster is the cheese guy who was in Bobby's basement. He's one of my favorite characters even though we did not get to see much of him. I loved his snark.
ReplyDeleteFor me the situations are pretty similar.
ReplyDeleteX
AMY is a Kitsune.
BENNY is a Vampire.
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AMY, as far as we know, tried to live a normal life feeding on people who were already dead, hurting no-one.
BENNY from when he got out of Purgatoryy, as far as we know, hadn't killed anyone, feeding on bags of human blood, ( which however could have maybe saved some hospital patient's life ithey had reached the hospital. )
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AMY kills for a limited time to save her son's life, trying to pick out criminals,etc,; not killing aimlessly, although that can't fully excuse her.
BENNY hasn't yet killed but he IS a vampire and must have fed at least once when he was turned, killing someone; and then I don't think there would have been as many bags of blood to be found in the hospitals of that era,so...
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Both Sam and Dean went to speak to their relative monster friends with a knife in hand, ready to kill them if they thought fit.
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It's true that Benny hadn't killed yet but his fangs had come down when he saw Dean's warm blood, so all his vamp characteristics were still there.
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Now if Dean really believes what he said to Amy in the motel room when he went to kill her,( she could have put up a fight,
hurting Dean, but she didn't. She tried to talk it out with him.)
Dean to Amy:-[ "But people... They are who they are. No matter how hard you try, you are what you are. You will kill again.
Trust me, I'm an expert. Maybe in a year, maybe ten. But eventually, the other shoe will drop. It always does" ]
If it was true for Amy then it must apply to Benny too. It's just a question of time.
I missed the poll, but here are my choices:
ReplyDelete1. BUABS
2. TMATEOTB
3. This was really hard as I'm not a huge fan of ANY of these episodes. I really wouldn't watch any of them again. If I had to choose, it would be PMF.
+10!
ReplyDeleteThanks.:)
ReplyDelete