Created by Eric Kripke, Supernatural centers on Dean and Sam Winchester (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, respectively); the two brothers travel around the country in a black 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating paranormal events and other unexplained happenings, many of them based on myths, American urban legends, as well as classic supernatural characters such as vampires, werewolves and ghosts. Eric Kripke sites Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and American Gods as influences on Supernatural, along with American Werewolf in London and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey.
The Winchester brothers obsession with the paranormal started twenty three years earlier when their mother was killed by a demon with yellow eyes. Their father John (Jeffery Dean Morgan) vowed to hunt down the monster that killed his wife. He spent the intervening years searching for the demon and raising his children to follow in his footsteps, teaching them to track, stalk, and kill monsters wherever they found them, and they learned the lessons well.
In the first season, their father has turned up missing, after failing to return from a hunting trip. The spend much of the season searching for him. Surprisingly, they find him alive as well as the demon that killed their mother. The demon is able to escape, but not before it inflicts some pretty serious damage on all three Winchester’s. They were all hurt and Dean was left near death. John did the only thing he could think of to save his son’s life–he sold his soul to the demon he’d been hunting and dies.
In season two, Dean is forced to come to grips with the fact that his father died to save his life. He devotes all his time and energy to tracking the demon. At the end of season two, Sam, who is actually a pawn in the demon’s plan gets mortally wounded. Knowing he can’t live without his brother, Dean sells his soul for his brother’s life. In exchange, Dean is granted one year to live and then he will go straight to Hell. If Dean can find a way out of the deal during the year, Sam’s cure will revert and Dean will die.
Sam and Dean are able to kill the demon they’ve been hunting all their lives, but not before the gates of Hell open up and hundreds of demons escape to earth. Clearly, the brothers have a lot of work to do!
Season three predictably has Dean and Sam trying to track all of the demons that escaped to earth. The demons realize they have the upper hand and hunt the hunters. Thankfully, the brothers do have a little help this season. Ruby (Katie Cassidy) is a good looking girl who actually has a knife that can kill demons! The only weird part is that she’s a demon too. She tags along with Sam, giving him tips regarding what demons he’s about to face. She claims she only wants to help, but Dean doesn’t trust her. I can’t say I blame him. After all, she is a demon, so it’s only natural to question her true motives.
The other new person in the mix this season is Bela Talbot (Lauren Cohan). She is not a hunter like the Winchester’s. Instead, she prefers to use her knowledge of the supernatural world to make money. She sells occult objects to clients who can afford her services and wares. Their paths cross a few times and Bela often ends up getting the better of the brothers.
The main story arc of this season deals with Sam trying to find a way for Dean to get out of his deal. The only problem is that Dean doesn’t want to break the bargain. He knows if he does, Sam will die, and he’d rather go to Hell than face that. In the meantime, Dean just wants to have fun and kill monsters.
This was another fascinating season with some intriguing new characters. I have watched nearly every episode of the series’ first three seasons, and I have been impressed with the writers and producers successfully mix humor and horror, without making it seem cheesy. In my opinion, the best episode of the season was “Ghostfacers!” a parody of reality shows; more specifically Ghost Hunters. Whilst investigating the haunted Morton Mansion, Sam and Dean run into Ed and Harry again and become inadvertent participants in a new reality show named Ghostfacers. As events turn deadly and the team is trapped in the house, the investigation becomes a battle to survive until morning. For those of you who may not remember, Ed and Harry were two geeky paranormal investigators from the episode “Hell House” in season one. They’ve now gone from blogging to creating their own reality show.
The 1.78:1 widescreen anamorphic image looks very good. The show was shot and mastered in HD and the resulting standard definition DVD has a good amount of detail. The image is sharp and the blacks are deep and dark. The show has a dark atmosphere with a lot of scenes taking place in sewers, dark warehouses, and abandoned buildings late at night. These low light scenes were reproduced very well, with details still present in the shadows and colors appropriately toned. On the digital side, things also look good with only minor aliasing in a few scenes.
This set has a DD5.1 mix. Like the earlier two seasons, the original music was kept intact. The soundtrack consists of classic rock by groups such as AC/DC, Boston, and Styx, among others, and it goes a long way towards creating the show’s unique atmosphere. The dialog is crisp and clean and the sound effects are never overpowered by the music. Distortion, hiss, dropouts, and other audio defects were absent.
Supernatural – The Complete Third Season has a few special features. Seven episodes have “A Closer Look” featurette, where a writer, director, or producer discusses certain scenes from the show.
There is also a sixteen minute featurette on the episode “Ghostfacers!” The cast of the “Ghostfacers!” show being interviewed as they prepare the pilot to send to network executives.
“From Legends to Reality: Supernatural” is the longest feature at 23 minutes. It combines looks at the visual, special, and makeup effects, and how those teams work together to complete what a scene needs.
Eight Minute Gag Reel – Gags, bloopers, general yuks.
