Blu-ray Review: Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season
Supernatural originally debuted as part of 2005's fall season, and followed its Thursday partner Smallville from the WB over to the CW, until this year when Smallville when Clark ditches his younger brothers Sam and Dean and moves to Fridays. No review material available on the latest Smallville Blu-rays unfortunately, so no review on the website, but our podcast listeners know we talk about the show often there.
Now is the perfect time to pick up the Season Four Blu-ray set, especially if you missed any of these episodes during their original run. While Season Five has begun and is set up to be a Hell of a serious ride, many of Supernatural's best episodes ever were contained in Season Four.
Highlights:
"Lazarus Rising" - When we left the Winchesters at the end of Season Three, Sam had failed to save his brother from his fate and Dean quite literally went to Hell. In the Season Four Premiere, Dean comes back. How? Why? And who's this clown claiming to be an Angel?
"In the Beginning" - Take a trip back in time and meet your mother when she's your age, but make sure she still falls in love with your father, cause well, Marty McFly taught us that. This one also stars Mitch Pileggi (X-Files) as Grandpa.
"Wishful Thinking" - Sam and Dean discover a town where everyone's wishes are coming true, and while "be careful what you wish for" sounds cliché, this episode is excellent
"Family Remains" - While haunted houses are de rigueur for Supernatural Hunters, this house is haunted by the most frightful of evil spirits... and their victims.
"Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag" aka "Magic Me" - A delightful handful of guest stars including Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Phineas and Ferb), John Rubenstein (Crazy Like a Fox, Angel, Star Trek: Enterprise), and Richard Libertini (Mork and Mindy, Duck Tales, Star Trek: Deek Space Nine) show up for a tale that starts out like a plot out of an 80s show, and then twists darkly into the Supernatural we all know and love.
"After School Special" - Once again the creators of Supernatural take a cliché plot idea and turn it into something fresh, new, entertaining, and somehow uniquely their own. Sam and Dean flash back to their high school days.
"Death Takes a Holiday" - This one ties strongly into the Season Four mythology and yet still retains the feeling of freedom that the freak of the week episodes have. It's a fun premise (no one dies cause the reapers are all getting killed) that is well executed.
"It's a Terrible Life" - Another of the best episodes of the season. This one finds Dean living another life where he's never been a Hunter, he's a businessman living the good life, but when the world of the supernatural finds him, will Dean find his calling anyway? Of course he will.
"The Monster at the End of This Book" - Imagine you walk into a comic store and find out that there's a long running series chronicling your life. Sam and Dean go all metatextual as hell as they meet the man who has been narrating their lives and learn why.
"Jump the Shark" - Once again a cliche situation gets twisted by the Supernatural folks and made to feel fresh and new again. This time, San and Dean are visited by their version of the Bradys' "Cousin Oliver": Their long-lost brother that they'd never heard of.
"Lucifer Rising" - As Season Four's overarching mythology reaches its crescendo, brother is pitted against brother and the fate of the world is on the line as this time armageddon is near, and the wrong choice will bring about the apocalypse.
Special Features:
Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season on Blu-ray comes at you in the highest definition available today, 1080p, with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound so clear it's spooky. But you know, only in the spooky parts. Most of the special features are in high def as well, and while the special features might not be as voluminous as we might like, they are well done. They include:
- The Mythologies of Supernatural: From Heaven to Hell - 3-section featurette gallery bridging Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell to examine key mythological precepts.
- Creator Commentary on 3 key episodes
- Extended/Unaired Scenes
- Gag Reel
In the end, Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season was the greatest season of one of the best shows in this genre ever. The overarching mythology, the impending apocalypse and all that went along with it may have been the least appealing part compared with the masterwork vignettes that were the stand alone stories, but in the end they make for an awesome climax in the season finale. Season Five just started, so relive the best of Supernatural and pick up Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season now.
ComicsOnline gives Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season on Blu-ray 4.5 out of 5 plot twists involving angels.