Review

Got to love a plot arc being enhanced in an effective way, and Nightmare supplies more intrigue on two of the current ones being developed. Sam’s powers are growing, and he’s finding new and unique uses for those powers. Interestingly, we find that Sam is not alone in his development, and that things started to simmer away psychically seven months ago. At the same time we get further information on way the Bros’ mother, Mary, was targeted by the demon in the pilot episode. Other than that, a pretty mundane episode that is only saved by a pretty cool resolution that is at least trying for some tension. Good use of Sam’s powers there, and an almost Nightmare On Elm Street twisting of the real world and Sam’s visions.

I also really dug the character of Max Miller. Brendan Fletcher nails the role of the dude with real family issues who isn’t completely black or white. That’s one great performance as the tortured Max heads towards, for mine, his unexpected fate. We can of course speculate on what drove his family to do what they had done in the past, but without any firm commitment from the episode writers, that remains pure speculation. Maybe a slight weakness there.

There’s a slight feeling of the Carrie Whites to Nightmare, once again due to Max, although the dude isn’t going to the prom anytime soon. I wouldn’t put it past Dean to supply the pig’s blood in this instance.

Nightmare at least gets us out from underneath the revenant concept which the season has thus far presented one too many of. Guess we were always going to get this particular plot device at one stage of the season, and it’s wrapped up in an interesting enough package, although it’s slightly disappointing end of day. Gamble and Tucker, presenting their second episode here, leave you with the feeling that they could have done a whole lot more with the episode; if they had taken time to brain storm, who knows what could have been achieved.

We get some good mystery elements during the first part of the episode: why is Sam connected to the Millers, and why aren’t there any supernatural forces at work? But this is dispensed with pretty quickly, and the final showdown is a tad too long to be truly effective.

Besides advancing Sam's storyline not much to be writing home about

Jensen Ackles’s character Dean is developing into a more rounded individual as the season unfolds. We are starting to see the serious side of the dude, while still getting the benefit of his wisecracks. The one-liners are still coming at us; I loved Dean’s insistence that there was only one thing to do with Sam’s powers: head to the Las Vegas casinos.

Jared Padalecki is also presenting well, though his overly-tortured character Sam tends to rub me up the wrong way from time to time. There’s being dramatic and a tragic figure, and then there’s being a whiny bitch. Padalecki is edging toward the less desirable character from time to time.

Look I don’t like to complain and nit pick, but we are definitely getting short-changed on the music department as the season progresses. Once again we get a single track – “Two Plus Two” by The Bob Seger System. I’ve decided that we should get an average of three tracks per episode, with at least one Black Sabbath number every second show. On the same side of the ouija board, would it be too much to ask for the odd Alice Cooper song? Hopefully the producers will lift their game from here on in.

Do I have anything else to say about this episode? Nope, we’re good to finish.

Nightmare is sort of interesting in a “seen it before” fashion. Some good plot arc developments to ensure we haven’t forgotten about those, and a reasonable story to be going on with. Brendan Fletcher (Max) was a good selection as another single episode actor, and held the episode together when it could have turned into schlock. Overall there’s not much new about the actual plot, but some more spice is added via Sam’s growing powers, and why the Winchester clan might have been targeted by the demon. We await further developments here at the Supernatural coal front.

The season is starting to remind me of any of the seven seasons that Buffy the Vampire Slayer ran for. Whereas the Buffster’s primary focus was on slaying, or bonking, various vampires, the Winchesters seem to have their work cut out with various revenants of one shape or another. And like the Buffyverse, the producers are clearly waking up to the fact that they can’t just redo the same episode again, and again, and again each season. This makes it nice to see some other cards from horror’s tarot pack being dealt in between the avenging spirits mayhem. It remains to be seen whether or not Supernatural will follow the Buffster’s lead and have a new major villain each season, or whether the series will move into the X-Files neck of the woods with a continued background storyline bridging multiple seasons.

[Editor’s Note: I assume you mean X-Files aliens-amongst-us background plot arc here, which saw that series jump the shark by about season 8?]

A worthwhile episode, though Nightmare clearly isn’t the best one we have been exposed to thus far. I was kind of enjoying it in an offhand fashion, and consider it worthwhile fronting for. There’s enough meat on the bone to chow down on, but Nightmare perhaps misses a bit of gravy to round the meal out fully. Am starting to be concerned that the second half of season one is going to be a let down after the great opening we grooved to.