I’ve been watching a lot (some would argue too much) of Supernatural lately. Supernatural (to be henceforth abbreviated to SPN) is an dark fantasy/horror/ghost story TV show. It follows the adventures of the brothers Dean and Sam Winchester as they drive around a version of the U.S. that looks remarkably like British Columbia in an amazingly reliable black 1967 Impala, fighting ghosts and monsters and trying (with more or less success) to avert the Apocalypse.
All in all it’s a wonderfully entertaining show. It takes classic elements of horror and gives them a new twist, it’s got great balance between drama and comedy, and the lead actors are hotter than a bucket of lava on the Sun.
Ahem. Hot. I told you. Like, hot-even-for-American-TV-where-everyone-is-unrealistically-beautiful-hot. It’s almost stupid how hot these guys are.
My main (indeed, possibly my only) gripe about SPN stems from this: you’ve got two boys driving around the country hunting ghosts, and sometimes their father. People who know me know where this is going, and yes: my problem is that there are no good female characters.
Oh, the writers try. They do try and I’ll give them credit for that. And to be honest the girl guests aren’t so bad—except that they are pretty much restricted to being the damsel in distress in one form or another. Or they are creepy ghosts. Or, if they show any hint of being slightly badass, they turn out to be evil.
In Season 2 the show runners were asked to add more female characters, so they introduced a mother-daughter pair as supporting semi-regulars. Now, I quite liked the mom, but she felt a little out of place in a show (literally) driven by a couple of twenty-something guys in an Impala. It almost felt like she had her own show going on behind the scenes, and only dropped into the Winchester storyline when she had the free time. And her daughter… well, I tried to like her daughter. Honestly, I really did. But her daughter suffered from trying to be the spunky badass while being played by an actress I could knockout by blowing hard. She had all the spirit and none of the spine (let alone the brains) and in the end she was dropped from regular appearances and the boys got on with hunting werewolves or whatever.
In Season 3 they tried again, this time with a supposedly “good” demon (harf harf), and the seriously most annoying femme fatal/thief ever. Again, I tried to like these characters, I really, really did. But they just didn’t click with me. The thief was written out at the end of the season specifically due to poor fan reaction, and the demon didn’t make it past Season 4—and from what I’ve heard, the fans weren’t too crazy about her either.
Now, I’m only on Season 4—there may be characters in the coming seasons (for SPN has a total of 7 and it’s not done yet) that prove me wrong, but up to this point it seems like the writers just can’t get the fans into their female characters, and I think I know why.
Because I think SPN is a girl’s show. Really. Oh, it’s cast might be dominated by guys (really, really hot guys), and most of the major villains are also male, but it seems to have a seriously strong female following. As in, a lot of the fans are girls. And a lot of these arguably failed female characters have something in common: the fans did not like them.
I think the SPN writers need to realize that, instead of trying to write female characters that are appealing to men (like they do on just about every other show), they need to write female characters that are appealing to women. The problem I found with Jo (the daughter) and Ruby (the demon) and Bela (the thief) was that they were all set up as potential romantic interests for the boys. And in a fandom dominated by other women this. Will. Not. Do. Women don’t want to see “their boys” falling for anyone they wouldn’t themselves fall for. And since by self-selection most of these women are straight this is a very tall order to fill. Basically, I don’t think the fans of SPN would accept anyone getting with one the bros who wasn’t River Song awesome. And possibly played by Alex Kingston as well.
The other option, of course, and one I would like to see taken, is to have more female characters who aren’t potential love interests. Shocking, I know, and in any other show it probably would not go over too well, but considering SPN’s fan base I think there is a real opportunity to introduce some female characters who for one reason or another (she’s a raging dyke! She’s a zombie! She’s a 12-year-old girl who can purify demons!) have no interest whatsoever in getting in the Winchesters’ pants.
When you look at the male guest characters who the fans have actually liked (Bobby Singer, Castiel, the Trickster) you will find they are independent, well-rounded characters who have development and are fundamentally interesting, and in Castiel’s case, give +50 to the overall hotness of the show.
I’ve already spoken to some extent about how gorgeous these actors are. I am really not exaggerating: they are bloody beautiful, and I think they more than fulfill the show’s glamor quota. SPN doesn’t need characters like Ruby or Bela, because it’s already got this guy:
In a hetero-normative environment it’s usual for the female characters to be objectified much more than the male ones, so I can’t blame the writers for just trying what’s always been done in the past. I just don’t think the stock TV babe will ever work with a show like SPN. What SPN needs is two or three supporting female characters who are interesting, likable, three dimensional, not necessarily babes, and most importantly: not potential romantic interests. Because the Winchesters are cowboys, their love interests must by definition by transient, and I don’t see them ever really settling down with a wife and kids—not for very long, anyway. If the writers added independent females instead of long-term romantic interests, the boys can keep cruising from town to town, saving the damsel in distress, making out with babes, breaking hearts, and killing monsters.
And sometimes, when they get in over their heads, they can call their dyke hunter friend, or the ghost-proof zombie woman, or the 12-year-old girl who can purify evil spirits, and those women can save them for a change.
I guarantee you the female fans will love it.
Goldeen Ogawa thinks it would be awesome if Sam and Dean were joined by a fat, bratty 10-year-old girl who can sass evil spirits into oblivion in Season 8. This is why she will never work in television. You can email her at goldeenogawa@gmail.com or peck at her on Twitter @GrimbyTweets.