Show: Supernatural
Episode: Series Premiere
Originally Aired: Tuesday, September 13th 2005
Rating 2 out of 4 stars
Quick Synopsis: Two brothers hunt down things that go bump in the night.
Long Synopsis: Sam and Dean are two brothers whose mother was killed twenty-two years ago by an unexplained evil. Since then their father, with them in tow, has hunted down every evil spirit, ghost, or supernatural phenomenon trying to find the one that got his wife. Sam the younger of the two brothers has left that life and is trying to be as normal and safe as possible in college. Then his brother Dean arrives that Dad has disappeared while on a hunting trip. Hunting for ghouls and such. Sam reluctantly goes off with Dean to find their father. They find their fathers things including his notebook that he never goes anywhere without. After solve and banishing a bad entity and a clue to where they might find Dad, Sam wants to return back to his life and his law school interview. When he arrives home he finds his girlfriend taken in the same way, as his mother was when he was a baby. This puts Sam back in the supernatural hunting game with his brother on a trek around the country trying to find their father and vanquishing evil along the way.
Review: Shows like this can be fun. This one while not great is a pleasant watch. There are many stories and fun ghosts, goblins and ghouls that can be hunted down in a show like this. They get to interact with new characters in small towns all over the country in each episode, which can lead to interesting stories. It attempts to be frightening and spooky but doesn’t always succeed. You could tell when something was going to jump out at someone or something spooky was going to happen.
The potentially best twist in the show, of Sam’s girlfriend dying as his mother did, was foretold by the commercials for the series. In the ad you see him lie down and blood drip on his face and then he looks and jumps up. This is how the show opened with the blood dripping down on baby Sam and his father looking up to find Mom dead on the ceiling and then is consumed by fire. At the end of the show you knew something was going to happen that would thrust Sam back into hunting with his brother. Unfortunately because I had seen the ad I knew exactly what was going to get Sam back in the game.
This show coming on after Gilmore Girls is kind of a weird fit. A comedy-drama and then a sci-fi thriller are not exactly a match. The only connection is that Jared Padalecki used to be on Gilmore Girls. Unfortunately they are going to need more than that to draw and audience for this show.
The returning competition is tough with one of my favorites House on Fox and the reality show The Amazing Race on CBS in the same time slot. Also, the new Commander-in-Chief on ABC and the new comedy My Name is Earl and returning comedy The Office on NBC this show will probably be a third tier choice at best on Tuesday nights.
