Supernatural: First Season In Review

Born on The WB last fall, the new series "Supernatural" got off to a running start with a fresh take on urban legends and cult folklore. The show sports the tagline, "Wicked... rest uneasy." It is something of an inspired hybrid between "The X-Files" and the teen horror genre, influenced by some of the popular scare flicks out there and paying homage to those vessels as much as it makes light of them. It's scary and serious without a lot of camp but not without a great sense of humor. Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, are hunting down the things that go bump in the night, saving lives and having paranormal adventures along their journey to revenge. Following the same path as their father, they long to destroy the demon that killed their mother 22 years ago, the same demon having returned in the present to kill Sam's college love (Adrianne Palicki, "Smallville") in the pilot episode in the same freakish, ritualistic manner.

Jensen Ackles ("Smallville" and the film "Devour") and Jared Padalecki ("Gilmore Girls" and the films "Cry Wolf" and "House of Wax") star as Dean and younger brother Sam. Ackles and Padalecki give the brothers every ounce of real humanity and intensity that makes the characters the most intriguing and riveting aspect of the show. Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Grey's Anatomy") and Samantha Smith ("Seinfeld") play Dean and Sam's parents. When Mary Winchester was burned alive while pinned to the ceiling above the baby's crib in the Winchesters' home in Lawrence, Kansas, John Winchester was left with sons Dean, age 4 at the time, and 6-month-old Sam, and he has raised them to seek out evil in all its forms and stop it from ever hurting another family the way it forever scarred theirs.

The mythology, like the wholly sympathetic and beautifully tragic Winchesters themselves, is rich in driving dynamics and potential. These elements come together to make this series a great hour of television for teens, horror fans, and aficionados of all things supernatural. The stories in the first season have covered everything from haunted asylums to traveling poltergeists, faith healing to ritual sacrifice, shapeshifters to vampires, Hook Man to Bloody Mary. Season One holds many highlights, but those are just a few. Even the most familiar territory becomes revitalized when it is visited by the Winchester brothers, both of whom bring fantastic, highly contrasted psychological and emotional reactions and experience to every situation with their history and conflicting personalities.

The white-hot talent is what really makes the premise work. The believable and endearing performances turned in by the two stars of the show as well as the quite talented supporting cast gives the show its extra enjoyable edge. Guest appearances included "The X-Files" own Cancer Man William B. Davis, The WB's "Angel" regulars Amy Acker and Julie Benz, as well as Loretta Devine ("Boston Public" and "Grey's Anatomy"), and Megalyn Echikunwoke ("24" and "The 4400"). Nicki Aycox brought the season's main villain Meg to life making her the girl you love to hate not unlike Laurie Holden's character dubbed "Unblonde" by fans in "The X-Files," but the part of the grand rogue demon went to Jeffrey Dean Morgan for a brilliant and painful twist in the final episode, "The Devil's Trap." The writing is sharp and tight and purposely turns left where most shows would go right. It's one of the best and most brilliant pieces of the "Supernatural" formula that makes it stand out from anything else on television today. Everything down to the ideal classic rock soundtrack is different and makes the series a refreshing pleasure to watch.

The road trip surface bonds with the ghost hunter core beneath it and keeps this show full of flavor, mood, and heart. Even Dean's '67 Impala has become its own character in the show. Dubbed "Metallicar" by a rapidly growing fanbase that continues to swell as the series expands beyond the broadcasting boundaries of North America, the black tank took a bad hit in the last moments of the season finale, having been T-boned by a truck. The truck was driven by a victim of demonic possession, the possessed man being one of the Winchesters' allies in this war on demons and the other supernatural threats at large in the world. In the final seconds of the episode, Dean and Sam along with their father John are all unconscious and bleeding from battle in the equally wounded vehicle. And, this is how hangers-on were left to await next season.

Of course, the Winchesters will be back, living to ride again, like the extraordinary and persevering heroes they are. The CW will be airing the show on Thursday at 9PM after "Smallville" just as it was at season's end this year. "Supernatural" is wonderfully done. It's compelling, fun and witty horror with deeply dramatic overtones, a strong original mythology, and complex three-dimensional characters. Having triumphed in its freshman struggle uphill by graduating to The CW from The WB after only one season on the air, "Supernatural" deserves to have a long and glorious run.