On DVD: Supernatural The Complete Second Season

Produced By McG, Cyrus l. Yavneh

Starring Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki

Supernatural is one of those series that I just didn't give a chance when it originally aired and that was my mistake because when I caught season one on DVD I was hooked.  I was very happy to see season two coming to DVD in time to play catch up before the season three premiere.

The Season

In case you haven't watched this series before let me do a quick recap of what it's all about.  Basically you have two brothers and their father who have trained themselves to fight all sorts of demons.  They do this because the mother of all demons came to their house and killed the boy's mother.  Season one was sort of about set up for the two brothers.  Dean, the older brother seeks out the help of his younger brother Sam when their father disappears on a hunt.  Sam has long abandoned the demon hunting life for a girlfriend and college.  When Sam's girlfriend is killed in the same way his mother was killed Sam agrees to get back into the hunt with Dean in order to find the demon that killed his girlfriend and his mother, and to find his father.

In season one we slowly learn that Sam is special, that he is a psychic, and that their are others out their whose mothers died in the same way and that they are all the same age.  Eventually the two brothers reunite with their father and they begin a final chase on the yellow eyed demon.  So, in a nutshell season one was mostly about finding dad.

Season two picks up with an even darker tone than season one and it's really about learning the demon's plan for Sam.  Right at the beginning the brother's father makes a deal with the devil that killed his wife and their mother.  He trades himself for Dean's life.  So Dean spends this season with not only the weight of protecting Sam from the yellow eyed demon but also with the knowledge that in order for him to live his father ahs to exist in Hell.  So it's mostly dark and somber, dare I say gothy?  There are some lighthearted moments including some of the humor that carried over from season one between the brothers and even one episode involving a trickster demon that spent the whole episode playing jokes on the brothers.  But overall, it's a darker season, in one episode  Sam gets a girlfriend and he has to kill her because she's a werewolf. 

I have some real mixed emotions about one new addition to the season; the roadhouse.  We get some great new characters including Ellen and her daughter, but the idea that there's a roadhouse where all these hunters get together to drink and clean their guns ads a cheese factor that doesn't work in this show because overall the show is more grounded than this roadhouse is.  In a campier show, sure this could be fun but here it doesn't quite work for me.

What does work is everything else though.  Even with the roadhouse being a misstep everything else that made season one so great are all ratcheted up here.  The underlying glue of this series is the relationship between Sam and Dean and in this season everything gets even more complex, like in real life.  Dean has all this pressure on him to protect Sam while he worries about what Sam will turn into.  At the same time Sam is afraid he's losing control of himself and he's carrying so much guilt and loss too.  The complex and realistic nature of their relationship helps to ground the fact that their are demons that rip people apart and that often turn to smoke and escape just before they can be killed.

The big climax of this season was a bit surprising for me.  It felt like it was really building to a major cliffhanger.  It actually build to a finality with nearly every answer to every mystery in the series.  This scares me because now that we know everything what will we see next season?  In the closing moments of the season finale I got my answer.  Season one was about finding Sam and Dean's father, and it appears that season three will be about all out war with the demons with a serialized story where Sam finally gets to be responsible for saving Dean who will be taken by the devil at the crossroads in a year unless Same can find a workaround.  That leads me to one of my favorite episodes; Crossroad Blues.  The creators of the series research real stories and utilize them in the series to great effect and here they take the story or Robert Johnson and play with it in the Supernatural universe.  The episode cuts back and forth between modern times and Robert Johnson's era.  The episode shows how Johnson made a deal with the devil to become the greatest bluesman of all time and his eventual payback for the deal.  In real life most people agree that Johnson died of syphilis on his hands and knees barking like a dog.  In the episode he is attacked by hounds from hell.  I just loved this play on his story especially since many people do actually believe he had to pay his debt to the devil and others still believe he was poisoned.

This is a solid season in what ahs turned out to be a fantastic series.  It features a serialized story arc but not as heavy serialization as something like LOST.  Supernatural is more akin to The X-Files in that way.  Fans of science fiction and horror should definitely pick this box set up and play catch up with the series.  Even fans of good drama should give this series a shot.  Plus it has the best soundtrack of any show on TV.

9/10

The Video

This is a really dark series and this standard TV transfer doesn't always do the darker scenes justice.  Often in the extreme darkness things can really get murky and grainy but in brighter scenes everything looks pretty good.  It never looks terrible and in fact the bits of grain here and there add some atmosphere to the series and it may even help cover some cheaper CGI.  Skin tones look as they are intended, often filtered for effect and in reasonably lit scenes detail is solid.  It's not great but it's not bad either, it's a standard TV transfer. 

6.5/10

The Audio

The season is presented in standard surround sound that features a great dynamic range but horrible balance issues.  I found myself riding the volume on my receiver throughout the box set turning it up for quieter dialogue and down again for action and explosions.  Dialogue, score, and effects are clean and clear for the most part though, other than the balance issue.

6/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

Surprisingly Supernatural season two still comes in a "classic" packaging design that other studios have been moving away from, often for good reason.  The six discs come in a fold out cardboard case presented inside a cardboard box.  The issue I have with the packaging is that it's kind of fragile.  When my box arrived in the mail it was actually damaged.

There's a bevy of bonus features available but they are a little tough to find due to the menu design.  There are some great commentaries scattered across the discs with producers, directors, and writers.  across the board everyone involved in the commentaries are super enthusiastic about the series and they share tons of great behind the scenes information.  It seems that when the commentaries were done it hadn't been decided whether the show would come back for a third season because in one of the last commentaries the creators are sending messages to the CW about how great the series is and that it should get to come back for a third season.

As I mentioned earlier the main bonus features can be a little tough to get to due to the menus.  On disc six you'll find some featurettes hidden inside a "devil's map" that runs across the country covering the episodes of the season.  You might not find this map right away because when you click the bonus features link in the menu you'll see a list of commentaries and a link back to the main menu.  Beside the "Main Menu" button is an arrow.  Highlight the arrow and it'll take you to a list of bonus features including the map I mentioned.  Once on the map you can click on a push pin that represents an episode and you'll be treated to a featurette or a simple audio recording from a writer or producer sharing a brief story tied to the episode.  The main featurette can be found by clicking on episode 22.  The featurette is all about the making of that season ending episode.  The featurette offers a series of interviews with the cast and crew discussing the highs and lows of getting the episode made.  There are a few other featurettes that cover the urban legends and stories of mythology utilized for the specific episode.

Other than that there's a gag reel and three webisodes focusing on special fx and writing.  These webisodes are slightly redundant but still a good watch.  With all the commentaries, a solid making of featurette for the season finale, some featurettes covering the urban legends, and the sound bites from the creators there's a lot here for fans to take in, more than most TV series box sets have to offer.

8/10

After checking out two fantastic seasons of Supernatural on DVD I'm officially a hardcore fan of the series and can't wait for it to come back this fall.  Fans of The X-Files have a new series to get addicted to, buy this box set.

Overall (Not an Average) 8.5/10

The Review

The Movie 9/10

The Video 6.5/10

The Audio 6/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 8/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8.5/10

-Stephen Lackey