Does Supernatural Season 13 have a problem with newer writers?
Supernatural Season 13’s writing has been choppy. Some weeks are on-point and others miss the mark completely. Is this an issue with newer writers?
The start of Supernatural Season 13 was excellent, in my opinion. It was packed with flashbacks of the past, intriguing promise, and excellent introductions. We had this huge buildup to the Wayward Sisters backdoor pilot and while there was one episode in particular that I wasn’t a fan of, the overall first half of the season was developed well.
Then the backdoor pilot happened and things started to go downhill from there. It was like the next focus was “Scoobynatural” and now the focus has been just to get to the end. The writing in the middle has been sloppy and questionable at points.
When I look at who has written the episodes, it seems that newer writers have been most of the problem. Maybe they just don’t know enough of older episodes–and what they mean to the fans–as other writers have done.
Forgetting times in Hell
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Let’s start with two episodes, in particular, that stand out for poor writing when connecting to previous seasons. “The Scorpion and the Frog” and “Unfinished Business” both failed to connect with me. Both of these were written by Meredith Glynn, who joined the series as a writer in Season 12.
Neither of the episodes remembered much about Sam’s time in Hell. In “The Scorpion and the Frog” there was all this focus on Dean’s time, but nothing about why Sam couldn’t be the one. Just a 30-second mention of why it couldn’t have been Sam to open that door would have been enough for many of us.
Then in “Unfinished Business” there was all this focus on Gabe’s torture for seven years. It was as if Sam and Dean’s time being tortured in Hell for decades (remember Hell’s time moves differently) was overlooked. And we seemed to forget the fact that Hell’s time moves differently. Now that Hell is a place used on the series, there is never a mention of how time has moved more quickly there than on Earth. Even Ketch hasn’t aged the way he should have when spending prolonged periods of time down there.
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Poorly connected episodes
“Funeralia” was an episode that was brilliant in one storytelling and had potential in another, but the connection to other episodes seemed lacking. This was written by Steve Yockey, another fairly new writer to the series. He joined in 2016.
While we finally got the chance for Castiel to get his own storyline, it was overshadowed by Naomi’s return and Heaven crumbling. Nobody mentioned Lucifer once, who in the last episode was still around in Heaven. Just when did he leave and why? We knew he wanted to find his son and rule the world with him, but he never showed signs that he was leaving.
Plus, there’s a continuity issue from previous seasons. Back in Supernatural Season 6, we learned that souls powered everything. Shouldn’t that mean that angels can die and go extinct but souls would power Heaven? In Season 9 all angels were kicked out of Heaven. Shouldn’t it have crumbled then?
Of course, this is just two writers. And some of this should have been spotted by the showrunners–who have been around for years. Maybe it’s gotten to the point that there’s too much and they need a dedicated member of staff looking out for the continuity flaws.
Next: Has Supernatural wasted the potential of the Apocalypse World?
Do you think Supernatural has a problem with newer writers? Do we need someone to remind them of previous seasons and spot the contiunity flaws? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Supernatural Season 13 continues on Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW.