The emotions at the house have been running high as we slip into the month of October. All the new television shows are premiering and our old favorites are finally coming back including Supernatural. I understand that television shows can't be in production all year round and the actors and other staff need a break from working seven days a week. I don't know if things have changed, but I don't remember so many breaks between episodes.
Television shows like Supernatural have around 22-23 new shows each year. That translates to just under half a year's worth of shows and the rest are filled with repeats. These serve a couple of purposes. Before the days of Netflix and DVR, repeats gave people the opportunity to catch up on any episodes they missed.
It also gave the writers and producers a chance to meet up and tweak anything for the second half of the season or the new season. Many times an idea that was great on paper doesn't translate well on screen and they have to creatively switch to something new.
I don't think I'll ever learn to like the spaces between new episodes, but it's something we're just going to have to live with. Netflix and DVR have changed the landscape of modern television viewing and networks still haven't quite figured out how to deal with it. Sure, I've been bored these last few months as I awaited the new season, but it's amazing how quickly we can forget that once the new season starts.