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Supernatural – a review through most of Season 4

Warning: potential spoilers for Supernatural seasons 1-4

Late to the party again.

I watched a handful of epsiodes of Supernatural back in 2005 when the show premiered.  It was pretty good, and I remember thinking that it had something unique about it. But the early episodes of season one were definitely formulaic “monster of the week” shows and Rome or Deadwood or The Wire distracted me.

I made a conscious decision to bail on the show.

What a mistake.  I’ve recently begun watching the show starting at Season 1 and am currently halfway through Season 4.  The show is still running, currently in the early part of Season 5 (please, no spoilers…).

Supernatural is smart, funny and as  you’d expect, downright scary.

The basic backstory is this: The Winchester brothers investigate supernatural occurrences and creatures while trying to figure out secrets of their family’s bloody past.  When the brothers were young, their mother was murdered by something supernatural.  Their father saved the boys, and embarked on a 20 year journey to find the thing that killed her, bringing the brothers along and training them up along the way.

When the show opens, Sam (Jared Padalecki) has become estranged from their father and has gone off to college.  Dean (Jensen Ackles) shows up to ask for his help because their father has gone missing.  Sam’s college girlfriend is killed in the exact same manner as their mother, and the two brothers hit the road in search of their father.

Sam and Dean are very believable as brothers – two very different men thrown together on the road, hunting things that go bump in the night.  As the show progresses, their relationship grows and changes, and the two become tight. Its very well written and not at all forced, both actors are very good and bring their respective roles to life.

What hooked me though is the mythology and backstory, and how it has morphed into a dark fantasy/religious horror arc.  Demons, Hell, Fallen Angels and Angels opposing them on earth all woven into a rich backstory which directly involves both of the brothers – exactly my cup of tea.

The sense of humor that the show as a whole has appeals to me as well.  Everytime Sam and Dean pose as FBI agents or whatever, they use rock n roll star names as aliases.  In the Season 1 episode “Nightmare” they introduce themselves as “Father Frehley” and “Father Simmons” (Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley from KISS); or in “It’s the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester” they introduce themselves as “Agent Geddy” and “Agent Lee” (Geddy Lee from Rush).

As an added bonus, they drive an old Impala (aka, Metallicar).  How can you go wrong?

There’s also some behind the scenes clips that are pretty funny that find their way into the end credits of some shows, like this gem (I couldn’t find a YouTube copy of this that I could embed, so you’ll have to click through).

This show is my new obsession.  The writing is great, the acting  believable and the stories are interesting, unpredictable and original.

9/10.