Thursday 2 February 2017

Supernatural, Season 4 (2008)



Supernatural was originally conceived as a five season story, so it's thus not surprising that the big meta-plot really escalates in season four.  The forces of Hell are working to bring about the a full Book of Revelation style apocalypse, and literal angels now walk the Earth in an attempt to stop them.  Naturally, the Winchester boys are going to be right in the thick of the whole thing.

In the context of this ever-escalating danger, the usual Supernatural shenanigans occur: monsters are fought, angst (so much angst!) is angsted, and there are occasional breaks of goofiness or changes of pace to lighten the whole thing up.  This latter category includes an episode with a giant, magically self-aware teddy bear, one where the brothers are suddenly office drones with no memories of their lives as monster-hunters, and another where they discover a series of novels exist that accurately describe all their adventures.

Season four also marks the point where the show expands its core cast.  Well, Misha Collins is still a "guest star" in the billing here, but since he's still on Supernatural today, and they're up to season 12, I think we can accept that he's going to be a core fixture.  Also, yeah, season 12.  The whole "five season story" does actually happen, I believe, but the program then continued anyway, albeit under a new show runner, on the basis that ratings were good and the cast and crew liked making it.

I'm not sure I'll keep tagging along with the Winchesters past the originally planned conclusion at the end of season five, but I have enjoyed the show to date, and overall I think season four is the strongest they've done so far (the other possible contender would be season two).

If you want broody bad boys battling bombastic beasties, you could certainly do worse.

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