Warner Home Video
MSRP: $59.98
Release date: September 1, 2009
Stars: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Genevieve Cortese

At the start of Supernatural‘s fourth season, Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), who had sacrificed his soul for his brother and gone to Hell, rises from his grave, resurrected by the angel Castiel (Misha Collins). Though Dean feels as if he’s been away forty years, only four months have passed for the living. In that time, his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) has learned how to draw demons out of people with the assistance of the seductive demon Ruby (Genevieve Cortese). Dean struggles to come to grips with the existence of God and angels in a world where so much goes wrong, but Castiel reveals that Dean was rescued to help prevent the breaking of sixty-six mystical seals, which would free Lucifer to walk the earth.

Thankfully, Supernatural doesn’t get bogged down in its own mythology. It is tightly written and planned out to five seasons, but you still feel the freedom of the open road, the idea that the brothers can encounter anything while heading toward their larger goals. Supernatural also avoids moralizing. Sam and Dean are flawed heroes who hunt demons more out of self-defense than righteousness. At times they seem like pawns in the ongoing war between angels and demons, the role you’d expect humans to play.

The tone of the show is appropriately dark and serious, but seems to be lightened with humor at the right moments, in the right proportion. In short, it’s a show that keeps you watching. Creator Eric Kripke has said he only has enough story for five seasons. I’d like to see the show stick to that plan and go down as a cult classic that does the horror genre proud.

The six-disc set includes commentary on three episodes, a featurette gallery on the mythologies of Supernatural, deleted and extended scenes, and a gag reel.

–Gerald So