"The X-Files is a TV show. This is real" You know what’s really great about being a Supernatural fan? Every year, regardless of the established laws of diminishing returns, the show just keeps getting better and better all the time. The first season was good but not great. The second was much better. And season three, despite being curtailed by the writer’s strike, was simply fantastic with a really dark and shocking twist at the end.
But season four has to be the show’s best season so far. This is no longer simply a show about two brothers roaming America, fighting monsters and ripping off crappy horror movies. The ante has been upped to Biblical levels as Sam and Dean are now at the centre of a epic celestial battle between demons and angels.
Don’t expect any Highway to Heaven-scale schmaltz from Castiel and co. These angels are, as Sam and Dean constantly reminded us all season, dicks. Yet they were the kind of dicks that could also smite a whole town off the map, fiddle about with the time space continuum, pluck the dead out of hell and turn demons to dust. These guys are Old Testament bastards to be sure.
While the central arc story goes from strength to strength this year the standalone episodes don’t suffer as a result. ‘Monster Movie’ is a great tribute and pastiche of classic horror movies complete with a scooter riding Dracula. The brothers find themselves against a suicidal giant teddy bear in the brilliant demented ‘Wishful Thinking’. Even the questionable nature of ‘Jump the Shark’ where a third, long-lost Winchester brother is introduced manages to defy preconception and be quite good.
It’s staggering to believe but there’s isn’t a single naff or rubbish episode all season. There are a couple of simply average and okay ones but that’s about as negative as it gets. ‘Metamorphosis’ and ‘Family Remains’ are perhaps the most average and okay, feeling more like leftovers from a much weaker season.
Oh well, nobody’s perfect.
Rating: * * * * *
DVD Extras
- Audio Commentaries
- Making of
But season four has to be the show’s best season so far. This is no longer simply a show about two brothers roaming America, fighting monsters and ripping off crappy horror movies. The ante has been upped to Biblical levels as Sam and Dean are now at the centre of a epic celestial battle between demons and angels.
Don’t expect any Highway to Heaven-scale schmaltz from Castiel and co. These angels are, as Sam and Dean constantly reminded us all season, dicks. Yet they were the kind of dicks that could also smite a whole town off the map, fiddle about with the time space continuum, pluck the dead out of hell and turn demons to dust. These guys are Old Testament bastards to be sure.
While the central arc story goes from strength to strength this year the standalone episodes don’t suffer as a result. ‘Monster Movie’ is a great tribute and pastiche of classic horror movies complete with a scooter riding Dracula. The brothers find themselves against a suicidal giant teddy bear in the brilliant demented ‘Wishful Thinking’. Even the questionable nature of ‘Jump the Shark’ where a third, long-lost Winchester brother is introduced manages to defy preconception and be quite good.
It’s staggering to believe but there’s isn’t a single naff or rubbish episode all season. There are a couple of simply average and okay ones but that’s about as negative as it gets. ‘Metamorphosis’ and ‘Family Remains’ are perhaps the most average and okay, feeling more like leftovers from a much weaker season.
Oh well, nobody’s perfect.
Rating: * * * * *
DVD Extras
- Audio Commentaries
- Making of
- Deleted Scenes
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