Supernatural: Pilot

Now that The Walking Dead is off our screens I am stuck for something to review so I thought I would try my hand at Supernatural. I was absolutely obsessed with the show up until season five but as the end of that particular season was so choppy I stopped watching. I know what I am like and if I catch the Winchester bug again you can expect me to reinvest in the show and catch up on the episodes I have missed.

PLOT: After watching his wife Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) get pinned to the ceiling and set on fire in their son’s nursery John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) sets off on the road with his two young sons Dean and Sam in order to kill the supernatural entity which destroyed his family.

Cut to twenty-two years later Sam (Jared Padalecki) is happy, at college and in a stable relationship with Jessica (Adrianne Palicki). All is well in Sam’s apple pie life until Dean (Jensen Ackles) breaks into his apartment and informs him that their father hasn’t come back from his latest hunting trip.

The brothers head off to Jericho, California, John’s last known whereabouts and they find that a local teen has mysteriously disappeared. They stumble across John’s motel room and discover that they are hunting a dangerous and vengeful Woman in White.

After Dean is arrested for impersonating a US Marshall he discovers that John has left behind his journal containing all his hunting knowledge.  Dean unleashes the power of a multifunctional paperclip and he easily escapes the police station.

Sam encounters Constance Welch, the Woman in White, who asks Sam to take her home. Sam drives the Impala into the house where Constance comes face to face with the ghosts of her two young children and is destroyed.

As Sam has to get back to prepare for an interview Dean reluctantly takes him home. At home Sam discovers Jessica pinned to the ceiling and Dean arrives just in time to save Sam from the fire.

Sam decides to go on the road with Dean to find John and get to the bottom of Jessica’s murder.  Sam gets the closing line of the episode with “We’ve got work to do” and this line is parallelled by Dean at the end of season two.  END PLOT

The opening episode of Supernatural does a very good job of creating a solid back story for the Winchester family as well as showing us what the show is really about – the relationship between the two brothers.

The plot flows very well and the brotherly dynamic is immediately obvious due to the chemistry and friendship of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. The dialogue between the brothers is fast, snappy and full of pop culture references and bitchy family banter; again the chemistry between the two actors makes it work all the better.

Out of the two leads I have always thought that Ackles was the better actor and this isn’t to say that Padalecki is bad I just think that Ackles has been given the better opportunities to show what he can do. In "Pilot" Ackles appears the more confident of the two however as Dean has the larger personality Sam and Padalecki can't quite keep up and get slightly overshadowed.

As I am watching the episode with the benefit of around six years worth of hindsight it is strange to see the brothers not only looking so young but also living their lives relatively free of the tiredness and recognition that hunting is the only life they will ever know.

Dean’s desperation to find John and kill the demon who murdered Mary has always been there whereas Sam had little interest in avenging his mothers death - Jessica's death is the only reason he converts to Dean's way of thinking.   The brothers attitude towards their father and hunting develops right the way through the entire series.

The mythology in Supernatural has always been very strong and although the vast majority of the episodes are “monsters of the week” it does keep the main story arc of the Winchester family ticking over nicely in the background.

In Pilot what starts off as a local legend of a strange woman who hunts the local highway becomes a Woman in White. We discover that after her husband is unfaithful Constance Welch drowns her two children in the bathtub and thereafter comits suicide. After her violent death Constance becomes an angry spirit who haunts unfaithful men. Supernatural has always been fairly decent at giving strong backstories to the monsters of the week.

The show is character and performance heavy and it keeps the effects to a minimum.  When the effects come they are of tv quality but despite the relatively small budget they don't look cheap or dated.

Supernatural is an original concept and not based on a comic book or novel. The Pilot episode cannot be faulted in its attempts to introduce the audience to brand new characters and the Supernatural world. It gets an 8.5/10.

Dean line of the week: “No chick flick moments”

The Winchesters don’t do touchy feely moments and so begins the fans' desperation for the brothers to hug

Sam line of the week: “Even if we do find the thing that killed her – mom is gone and she isn’t coming back”

Sam’s attitude changes completely by the end of the episode.  This line angers Dean however later in the season he starts to think this way

Guest line of the week: Mr Welch “Boy I don’t care much for nonsense”

In reference to Sam explaining the Woman in White

Musical cue of the week: AC/DC Back in Black

The Impala's unofficial theme song

Monster of the week: Woman in White

A woman who has killed her children and committed her suicide.  After her death she becomes a vengeful spirit who kills unfaithful men

Disclaimer: It took me until the end season two of The Walking Dead to find my groove so chances are it will take me just as long to find it here!  Hopefully it will improve and if not meh.