Review

The first episode opens in Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago. Mom is putting the kids to bed and pre-teen Dean says good night to baby Sam. Dad makes the scene, and we are left wondering if Sammy is ready to toss a football. A few “all is not well” indications later, Mom is getting up to see what the baby monitor is reporting in Sam’s room. Dad’s name is John, I can’t say we know what Mom’s name is – anyone else thinking Mom isn’t going to be making it to the final credits in this episode? Anyways, Mom checks Sam, then goes downstairs cause there’s a light on down there, and – Gasp! Horror! – John is watching telly. Which would have been cool and all, except Mom saw John – or at least, someone or something she thought was John – in Sammy’s room.

Mom dashes upstairs, and we get our first scream of the series, which also reinforces the fact that Mom didn’t need to be named. John rushes upstairs and … you’ll have to watch the show; it isn’t pretty, folks.

Flash forward to present day Stanford University, and Sam is in pre-law with the hot babe girlfriend and cool mates. We did take note of that framed family photo, right? Oh, and it’s Halloween, and we know how Sam feels about that. Later, enter older brother Dean with the info that Dad is missing, and Sam needs to join the family “hunting” business. We then, surprisingly, get this episode’s actual content: lady in white, missing hitchhiker yadda yadda. Sorry, really blowing the plot summary here, so speeding things up.

Sam joins Dean in checking out some place called Jericho and what Dad was “hunting”. Seems a lot of males have gone missing on a certain stretch of road. It’s up to the Bros to bring it all back home. Loved the “Agents Mulder and Scully” reference. Well okay, finishing this part, history repeats for Sam and he’s back in the family business; hey, the brothers “have work to do”.

Excellent first episode that had me humming to the Winchester beat

When I slipped the first disc of this box set into the DVD player, I was left wondering what I had stepped into. The first episode is simply called “Pilot”, which didn’t bode well for the 21 further episodes as far as I was concerned. How wrong I was – this one kicked my arse across the lounge room. We’re talking horror here, and a take-no-prisoners attitude. There’s a good reason that the start-off episode is called “Pilot”, and if the season keeps up to that concept then I’m in good hands. It’s a “highway to hell”, and damned if I ain’t catching a ride, hombres.

The opening scene really set up the season. We are left wondering exactly what’s going down, and the final scene really hammers home that coffin nail. Anyone else notice that both women end up dancing on the ceiling over Sam’s various beds? Not entirely sure if that will pan out, but was one of the things I took from the first episode.

Basically we have two stories being told: why the Bros are “hunting”, and the “lady in white” episode content. Already we are introduced to the background framing; Dad is missing, presumed whatever, and there’s a demonic situation going down revolving around Sam. Interesting that both Mom (Mary, we belatedly find out) and girlfriend Jess suffer the same fate, and it’s all to do with their relationship with Sam. Clearly this is going to be a major factor as the series unfolds, and I’m for sure waiting on some exposé there. Sins of the father perhaps, is my early call. And before you ask, nope, this is only the second episode I’ve dialled into so we’re in the same boat.

The main storyline of the episode covers a couple of urban myths: the “lady in white” scenario and also the “disappearing hitchhiker”. Both of these will eventually turn up in our “Deep Undercover” section in due course. I was buying into both urban myths as portrayed here, though I did note a certain Ring like use of quick freeze frame used to good, and freaky, effect. If you note a hot chick wanting you to “take her home” on a lonely stretch of highway, my advice is to keep motorvating, as it isn’t going to finish well.

Pilot does its job well. We are introduced to the main characters quickly, the traditional horror hero in Sam, and the comic relief, Dean. The Producers aren’t going cheap with the effects with quite some quality put into the episode, and the dialogue is worth listening to; the cultural references came quick and fast, which shows there’s going to be a lot of attention to detail. Backing it up is a pretty impressive soundtrack; big fan of AC/DC over here. Overall I was nodding in approval at what was going down. Hopefully they can keep this one under control; one of the big problems with shows like The X-Files was that they blew the time lines and internal logic. We have our background; let’s rock to each episode’s content!

End of day I was happy with developments and think we may be onto a winner here; thanks to Davy and Lisa for sending the discs our way.

Somewhat disjointed review of the opening episode of Supernatural but I’m not entirely sure what I have dialed into here. The episode itself is lean, mean, and baying for blood, while setting up the background and presumably the major underlying plot directions. Clearly each episode is going to stand alone with its own plot, and for sure we’ll get background and development of the framing that went down here as we progress. I’m pretty cool with the whole concept, and am looking forward to seeing where things might head in the future. Not entirely sure the makers of this series adequately covered the actual episode contents, but Sam certainly brought it home for the audience, in a freaky deaky package.

Okay, we’re dialing into the whole Supernatural thing slightly late, par for the course around here. At time of writing there’s been seven seasons thus far, so we’ve certainly got a lot of mileage to clock up. As usual the internet is full of fan sites and more Supernatural trivia than you can poke a stick at, so clearly there’s a fan base out there.

Full recommendation on this episode. It’s freaky, has some superb dialogue and music, and sets up what promises to be a great series. Unfortunately the episode has already broken its internal logic – Sam wasn’t unfaithful, so why a potential victim? – but I was digging what was being shown on my screen. It’s a highway to hell, I’m getting onboard, and going along for the ride.