The Good
A solid show that fleshes out the urban legends we have known all our lives.
The Bad
At 41 minutes per episode this show is too short.
Sam and Dean Winchester are back in Supernatural: The Complete Second Season. This second season begins with the boys losing their father and having to come to terms with the fact that they are all they have now. Sadly for them there isn’t a moment to really reflect as there’s a lot of hauntings going on and it’s up these brothers to meet these foes head on. From killer clowns, to a grave that saps the life out of anything around it, a deadly virus that infects Sam, and hoodoo demons, we haven’t even scratched the surface of what the Winchester Bros. are up against. If this wasn’t enough the boys also have the demon who killed their father and their mother looming around. These boys always seem about to be crushed by all that they have going around them, and while friendly foes pop up here and there it is the link between the two brothers that ultimately keeps the Winchester name alive.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
This show is filled to the brim with intelligent stories, characters and just about everything else. I really keyed into how layered all the shows are and the fact that they essentially are set around ghost stories, urban legends and other things we’ve all been exposed to throughout our lives, really has a hand in making Supernatural: The Complete Second Season the relatable piece of pop culture that it is. From the the awful clowns in “Everybody Loves a Clown,” to a virus that drives people to violence in “Croatoan,” this show never lets up in trying to examine our larger world by melding issues with entertainment. I also loved the way the episode “Houses of the Holy” used theology to comment on modern religion. In closing, “Nightshifter” manages to meld Dog Day Afternoon and Terminator 2 with a heavily inspired shape shifter.
Fans of this show will be quite pleased to see the treatment that Supernatural: The Complete Second Season has been given for its second go round on DVD.
Features
Gag Reel
This was a true gag reel because the crew actually played tricks on the actors. There is a point where they have to crawl down a hole and when they do somebody dumps water on them. This is about as good as it gets in the gag department, while we see the actors messing up lines, farting up a storm in one scene and basically wasting time as the the crew and everybody else no doubt wants to go home.
Unaired Scenes
The Devil’s Road Map
Real life Ghost Hunter Richard Senate hosts this look at the various urban legends, myths and other plots that are brought up on this show. Users of this DVD are given a map that is broken up into two parts and it has thumbtacks on it for places all the characters have gone in the show. I obviously didn’t have a chance to go through all of these things (there’s 22 tacks on the west and 20 of them on east), but I did check out the section that examined the lore behind clowns (personally, I find them terrifying). First they discuss how the character of Sam is afraid of clowns, but then we delve into why they are so scary. From the expressions on their faces, the make-up they wear, all of it goes about playing into the evil clown persona. Lastly, I got a chance to look at the “Haunted Hollywood” section which focuses on the ghosts who have failed in that town and might be walking the streets. Most interesting was learning about Peg Entwistle who had some success, it went away and then she climbed up on to the “H” in the Hollywood sign and jumped to her death.
Jared’s Original Screen Test
Shot on video this screen test really doesn’t offer much but it should make the fans of this actor pretty happy. Dressed like he just walked in from an afternoon of skiing, this actor sits in his chair and delivers each line pretty much the same we does on the show. Even at this early point he had a decent handle on who Sam Winchester was. As I stated, you don’t really need to sit through this whole thing unless of course you’re highly enamored with this actor.
The Making of “All Breaks Loose” Pt. 2
Webisode Gallery
There are three of these webisodes to choose from. They are “Inside the Writer’s Room,” and then a look at the Visual FX and the Props of this show. I chose to go with the writers room mainly because that place is something you often hear about, and having never been in one I decided that I wanted to see it. Essentially, this plays as an EPK for this show as people like creator Eric Kripke and John Shiban break down this show. They talk about the episodes, the horror movie feel they were trying to infuse into it, and how they wanted to put twists on well known urban legends.
Video
Widescreen Version. Presented in a “matted” widescreen format preserving the aspect ratio of its original television exhibition. Enhanced for widescreen TVs. The thing I liked the most about this show was how little editing it seems was done on these episodes. They don’t cut to the music that much rather they simply seem to let this thing play out. These shows are also a little too clean for the stories they are telling, also all the main characters are either too quirky or too good for their own good. Despite this Supernatural: The Complete Second Season manages to achieve a hallowen, ghost story type vibe with every episode.
Audio
Dolby Digital. English: Dolby Surround 5.1. This show sounded pretty solid although nothing really jumped out at me about it. For a show made in today’s television climate, everything played pretty straight forward as an audio/video experience. There wasn’t anything too rich about the sound because it mainly seemed to underscore the action and events that we were seeing on screen. Decide for yourself but I liked that this show didn’t beat the viewer over the head with the information that it was putting off.
Package
This slip case cover features the Winchester Bros. in a blueish/silver-type color with a graveyard behind them. The back cover serves up shots from this show and some promotional shots of the Brothers as well. There is also a description of what this movie is about, a Special Features listing, a credits list and technical specs. All 6 discs in this set pull out in one piece of packaging which then unfolds. It has images from the all episodes, descriptions, airdates and it does its best to let viewers find out where the special features are.
Final Word
I have two problems with this show. One of them is something that really can’t be helped (well it can but then it cuts into the bottom line of The CW). The second problem that I have with this release centers around Jensen Ackles performance as Dean Winchester.
First and foremost, minus the credits, this show has a run time of 41 minutes. That means that 19 minutes of the hour that it airs on TV is devoted to commercials. Call me old fashioned but that seems like entirely too much and for a show like Supernatural because it really effects how these stories come off. Granted, I have to give Eric Kripke credit for focusing a lot of time on the set up. This is what makes horror movies, horror TV shows and everything else of that nature really work. The build-up, the suspense, all of it plays really well here, it’s just that when we finally get to the pay off the network TV commercial requirements make this whole show go way too fast. It’s as if the first and second acts have all the time they need and then the third act gets resolved really quickly. I can appreciate this Twilight Zone aspect of the show, but sadly both shows are two different for it to work as effectively as it does in Supernatural.
My second problem with this show is that Jensen Ackles needs to change up how he delivers lines in this show. There is no range whatsoever. Everything plays at the same, quick witted, cool guy level. In fact, I was waiting for him to talk normally but it really never seemed to happen. It isn’t that Ackles is a bad actor it just seems like he has limited this character’s range. If you doubt this I think you will see the proof in how much fire Jared Padalecki’s character has caught over Ackles as far as this show is concerned. If viewers saw more diversity in Ackles delivery, I think the actors would see parity among fanbases.
At its best, Supernatural: The Complete Second Season lives up the promise it provided fans in the first season.
Supernatural was released .
