To say that the fans were shocked is an understatement. Of course, nobody really thought the show would go on forever. Fans are rational people, despite what you might hear, and we all knew that one day either the actors would decide to call it quits or the network would say that the ratings no longer justified the show airing. But next year? Only weeks before at a convention, there had been jokes about Season 28 and the actors thanking the fans for continuing to give them the energy and inspiration to make the show we and they love.
I got the news at Lexington Comic Con, where I was doing a panel with Supernatural’s Ruth Connell and Buffy’s James Leary. Like all unexpected losses, this one hit me hard. I watched the video that Jared, Jensen and Misha Collins made for the fans to explain the news, all three of them barely holding it together. For hours, I was in shock, still chatting with fans who came up to my table to buy Family Don’t End With Blood (edited by Lynn S. Zubernis), the book the actors wrote about how Supernatural and its fandom changed their lives. My phone blew up, everyone from fellow fans to my family to my colleagues wanting to know if I was okay. I’m lucky – nobody was judgmental or dismissive. Nobody said “oh get a grip, it’s just a TV show.”
Many fans were not so lucky. In the following weeks, fans posted on social media about how alone they felt in their grief, and how much ridicule they had faced in their ‘real lives’ for grieving the loss of a television show. That’s the last thing you need when you’re in the midst of grieving! So to anyone out there who’s feeling sad about your favorite show ending, here’s what you should know: It’s okay to grieve. The ending of a television show may not be equivalent to a natural disaster or the loss of a loved one, but it is a loss nevertheless. And it’s okay to grieve.