I know what you mean - and it's entirely within the mentality of the producers to go 'strong female character' and come up with something really unpalatable. But a lot of that is just down to the same vaguely shoddy writing that keeps the 'big bro, kid bro' machine running: sure, they add the occasional 'going to hell' or 'you might be evil' thing, but not so much as to ruin the monster of the week. Emotional truths: not really their bag - much as I adore the little car scenes and suchlike.

I think the trouble is that in SPN, the women who aren't just death-fodder DO have to be emphatically 'I am better than you' - yet in a way the show will, by necessity, beat down and thus make look stupid. They've established such a rule of 'the show is the boys, do not touch the boys' with the only female presences being people who get to die, and occasionally get snogged, but not usually in that order, that any recurring woman has to be evil (check) or disinterested to the point of being evil (check). (There's a discussion to be had re whether it's possible to be 'good' and a shag-prospect in the Winchesterverse without it leading to instant death, methinks.)

And after all the fansnit over Jo, it's tricky. They fucked up big time with her character, I can't bear to watch 'No Exit', I think that her final ep with no apologies after is 'Born Under A Bad Sign' says a lot about how unspeakably thoughtless the producers were - but then from what I can tell the fan dislike wasn't from her being treated as some kind of meatpuppet at random, but that she dared to express any interest in St Dean. So fuck knows.

I'd LOVE to see Ellen back (now there's a woman who didn't need to prove herself, jusyt did it by turning up), and Jo too, only with some better writing so she didn't appear to be the reverse Buffy pls. But in the meantime, if they can keep Bela and Ruby at the level they are, as recurring guesties who progress the plot, that's great. I'd like to see some more of the romantic tension too, but bizarrely enough I can see the boys remaining neatly celibate just to keep the cesty fans happy.

Ultimately, of course, I am mainly in it for Dean's manly manpain, so *shrugs* whatever.