“Supernatural: Season 3” Blu-ray Review
One of The CW’s best reviewed and most watched shows, Supernatural follows two brothers as they fight against the myriad of demons that inhabit their world and who have taken so much from them. First their mother and then their father, the Winchester brothers have done all they can to avenge their deaths, but doing so has brought about some horrible consequences. With a myriad of monsters in this jam-packed third season, Supernatural proves that it has a lot of life left in it, even after wrapping up the initial storyline that the series set out to produce.
The yellow-eyed demon is vanquished, but at a terrible price. The battle that brought him down released hundreds of demons from Hell into an unsuspecting world. And it cost Sam (Jared Padalecki ) his life. But a grief-stricken Dean (Jensen Ackles) made a deal with the Crossroad Demon – his soul for Sam’s resurrection. Now Dean has just one year to live. On year to fight the unholy, the twisted, the ghoulish. One year to say farewell to Sam. And one year for Sam to search desperately for some way to save his brother. Mind-bending adventure awaits on this Deluxe 3-disc Set as the Winchester brothers continue their astonishing odyssey into the supernatural…and their personal odyssey into destiny.
As many TV shows as I watch, Supernatural was never one of them. The CW network, for me, has never been home to a lineup of “must-watch” shows, which is mainly due to Smallville being such a disappointment over the past few years (although this recent season has some promise, so we’ll see). In any case, I never even thought about watching Supernatural if only because the premise seemed so similar to Angel and it had a guy from Smallville in it that got to be a bit annoying. In any case, that’s in the past—with this third season showing up (and in high definition no less—if it’s in 1080p, there’s a good chance I’ll watch it regardless of what the content is), it was time for me to take up watching another new show, which is probably the last thing I needed considering I’m already up to twelve or thirteen…can’t even remember now.
In any case, I do dislike jumping into a series that isn’t its first season, so I was apprehensive at first for only that reason. But there wasn’t much of a choice in the matter, so I dug in. After viewing the first episode I was a bit put off as what I was seeing really wasn’t very good and I found myself rather uninterested in the plot. Moving onto the rest of the set, however, I became immediately more engaged in the characters and stories, as not only is this show rather packed with action and genuinely interesting characters, the interactions between Sam and Dean are just downright funny. In a way that brothers fight and bicker with one another, the two actors here have great chemistry with one another that comes off flawlessly on screen. Of course this season is a bit of a more somber note (as described in the synopsis above) so it’s probably not as laugh-filled as previous seasons (I’ll see once I backtrack and watch the first two).
Aside from the brothers, this season also features a pair of new hunters that join the brothers in their quest to vanquish the world of evil. One of them is a demon herself, while another is just in it for the money. Both of the characters add a bit of female eye-candy to the series, so for that reason alone it’s obvious as to why they were worked in. But from a story standpoint, they’re quite interesting in their own right.
For the most part the entire season is a home run, with only a few real “stinkers” in the bunch, but even then they aren’t too shabby. This is the type of series where even if there is a mediocre episode, it’s still entertaining to watch due to the actors. I haven’t had this much fun watching demon hunting since…well, the last WB demon hunting show (Angel). Though it makes me wonder if they can green light this show why they couldn’t give Angel one more round…ah well, that’s in the past. Whatever the case, Supernatural’s third season is highly entertaining and not a bad one to jump in on—although prepared to have some previous season “surprises” spoiled for you (but that’s expected). Highly Recommended.
The Blu-ray
Like Chuck, Supernatural’s third season saw a standard DVD release months ago, but this Blu-ray edition paves the way for TV show collectors who want to start building their Blu-ray library. Arriving on a three-disc set with a foil reflective slipcover, Supernatural comes complete with a booklet noting the contents of each disc and the episodes contained (as well as descriptions, show information and original airdate). Also included in the package is a redemption code for a digital copy of the entire season—although you have to download them in one go, so be prepared to have a lot of hard drive space sucked up pretty quickly. As with all Warner titles, the episodes auto-play with only a pop-up menu being a form of navigation.
Video for this release arrives in a VC-1 encoded 1.78:1 transfer, which looks absolutely fantastic. Although the show itself is pretty dark, there are still plenty of colorful bits to pick up, as well as a lot of character detail (count the stubble on Dean’s face!). TV shows continually surprise me with just how good they can consistently look and Supernatural is no different. Although there is some grain present, Warner didn’t wipe anything away so there’s still plenty of detail to witness from this image. Unfortunately the audio is a standard DD5.1 mix, which is the same as the DVD edition so for those of you who wanted some monster mashin’ in TrueHD, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Not that it’s really a bad thing, I doubt they’d fit this show onto three discs if we had bloated TrueHD tracks on board and as is they sound pretty good, with a decent surround field (surrounds are mostly occupied by the shows rock soundtrack, however) and some decent bass here and there. Audio on the extras was a bit uneven in some places though.
Moving onto the extras, all in SD, we have a nice bit to sort through, with the highlights being the “A Closer Look” segments. Focusing on specific episodes (“The Magnificent Seven,” “The Kids Are Alright,” “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “Red Sky at Morning,” “A Very Supernatural Christmas,” “Dream a Little of Me,” and “Jus In Bello”), each segment runs about two to three minutes in length and interviews writers, directors and VFX supervisors about the episodes. While not as good as a commentary, they do focus on some of the standout episodes of the set, so it’s better than nothing.
Next we have “From Legends to Reality: Supernatural” a twenty-three minute featurette that delves into the visual effects done on the show, while “Ghostfacers! Confessionals”, a sixteen minute piece, revolves around the production cast of the show as featured in the episode of the same name. Finally we have “Supernatural Impala Featurette: A Look Inside the Classic 1967 Chevrolet Impala”, a five minute quickie on the car used in the series and last but not least, the gag reel which clocks in around seven or eight minutes. It’s not a bad reel, although a lot of it seems to just be joking around rather than actual flubs, but hey…whatever works.
Overall this is a decent mix of extras for the season, although I would’ve liked at least a commentary or two on the more prolific episodes on the set. Still, it’s better than nothing and the Blu-ray presentation is definitely a sight to behold—even if the aural experience didn’t change at all from the DVD release. Recommended.
Supernatural – The Complete Third Season arrives on Blu-ray on November 11th and is currently available on DVD.