The Show:
Then:
Meet Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who have tasked themselves with hunting the supernatural creatures that prey upon mankind from the darkness. The Winchesters represent perhaps the most battered and bruised heroes on television today, having lost most of their family and friends through the show’s 6 year run.
Their story follows an epic 5-season arc, beginning with their hunt for their missing father, who had introduced them into their current profession, after the mysterious death of Sam’s girlfriend. Their hunt introduces them to the Demons, who are your hellbound possessors and tormentors of mankind, which steps the game up from your usual monster of the week to a much greater goal of preventing the biblical Apocalypse.
Now:
Season 5 details the Winchesters’ quest to avoid their role in the coming Apocalypse, in a big example of the battle between destiny and free will. Meanwhile they are searching for a way to stop Lucifer and save the world. Their quest takes them up against angels and demons alike, with both sides wanting the Apocalypse to play out for their own reasons.
The Review:
The show had really big shoes to fill with the shocking finale of season 4, where the brothers were tricked into releasing Lucifer, however the season manages to meet this task with some pretty good episodes over the massive story arc that takes up most of the season’s episodes. That being said they do manage to squeeze in a few standalone episodes, which are evidence some of the great wit the show has to offer.
The shows main arc has some of the best dramatic moments as the brothers are assaulted by both sides of the coming Apocalypse. Constantly searching for a way to take down Lucifer, some of the main antagonists are revealed to be the angels themselves, who you would expect to be the good guys. Their main role is trying to force the brothers, particularly Dean into accepting their destiny and letting himself be possessed so that the Apocalypse can play out.
You then have an episode like “The Song Remains the Same”, where the angel Anna disagrees and in a typical ‘ends justify the means’ moment she goes back in time to try and stop Sam and Dean ever being born in the first place.
The standalone episodes this season are also among some of the strongest they have produced in the show. The highlights of them are the episodes “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester”, “The Real Ghostbusters” and a surprise cameo by Paris Hilton in the ironically named “Fallen Idols”.
In “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester” is a poignant tale of loss and self-discovery. While Bobby tries to come to terms with his paralysis the brothers follow up a lead about a poker player that deals in years of life as the ante. The brothers discover that Bobby had aged 25 years after losing a poker hand trying to win back the use of his legs, and the brothers endeavour to win him back his life. The real story of this episode is Bobby’s journey of self-discovery as he tries to see usefulness in himself after losing the use of his legs, but also the poker player’s partner, who is getting use of the extra years to stay with her lover. She finds that her life as it is isn’t enough and forces him to play her a hand, where she goes all-in.
“The Real Ghostbusters” is about the brothers being lured into a Supernatural convention by a fan, as the books are being written by a prophet called Chuck as a new gospel of how the saved the world from evil. This episode plays fun at many aspects of the shows fandom, from the many fans they encounter who are pretending to be like them, with a slight nod to the gay fan fiction where the two fans they associate with the most are life partners. The ghost story that frames the convention humour is quite well done, where the obvious cause of the strange goings on isn’t quite what it appears and they actually make the situation worse before it gets better.
Finally in “Fallen Idols” there is a slight jab at the world of celebrity, where the brothers are in pursuit of a being that lives off adulation and sets up home in a wax museum, where it can learn to imitate the famous faces of the past and present. The highlight of this role is the entity taking the form of a super-powered Paris Hilton.
Extras:
Considering it’s a full season box set it is surprisingly light on extra features. The main feature is the Apocalypse Survival Guides, which is a combination of in universe film clips to a small selection of clips about the making of the show and the goings on behind the scenes. This is followed by the Ghostfacers ‘webisodes’, which chronicle their latest adventure in 10 small parts compensating for their lack of appearance in the season proper.
The odd part is the appearance of only one commentary and deleted scene. The commentary track for the episode “The End” does make up for this a bit by being packed with show information rather than being the usual talking about the episode as it plays.
Lastly is the ubiquitous gag reel, which has a somewhat mixed bag of outtakes, a few of those which are quite humorous.
The Score:
The fifth season sets a really strong climax to the show’s main 5-part story arc, and is easily worth the purchase for a fan of the show. Although it would have been better to have had a more ample selection of extras to see more of what went on to produce the season.
Anyone who isn’t already a fan of the show is probably better off getting an earlier season to start off with as there is a lot of background plot elements that have been going on for some time, some as far back as the second season.
Click here to buy Supernatural Season 5 on DVD from Amazon.