Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season
Starring: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Genevieve CorteseDirector: Adam Kane, Charles Beeson, Eric Kripke, J. Miller Tobin, James L. Conway
Studio: Warner
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 945 minutes
DVD Release: September 1st 2009
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User Reviews
Best season of them ALL!!!!! - Rating: 5/5
So I used to watch Supernatural religiously the first season and then I kind of lost interest during the second season for some reason. So I have been sort of playing catch up over the year. And I could not wait to see season 4 after i finished 3 and I really wanted to be able to watch s5 on TV every week like I used to with s1 so me and my brother searched the internet and found s4 online!!!!! Let me just say that was a lot of computer time to finish this season but Oh MY GOD was it worth it! Season 4 is bar far the best season in my opinion. Just the introduction of the Angels for me made it so cool and Sam and Dean trying to stop Lilith from opening the 66 seals!!! ahhhh it was just awesome. And surprisingly this was without a doubt THE FUNNIEST season of Supernatural ever. Dean is freakin hilarious this time around even more so than usual. The episode "Yellow Fever" had me and my brother Cracking up laughing the whole time ^_^ and the season finale was amazing, a great cliffhanger. Cannot wait till season 5!!!!!
A considerable letdown after the previous two seasons - Rating: 3/5
I started watching SUPERNATURAL with some tentativeness. I was far from confident that I was going to enjoy it. I had seen the first several episodes when it first started and was not at all impressed. But having been gifted with DVDs of the first three seasons I decided to give the show a try. Season One I did not enjoy at all. I found it quite boring and uninteresting, and conservatively within the traditional bounds of TV horror, offering no new innovations either to TV in general or to the genre in particular.
Seasons Two and Three, however, I thought considerably more enjoyable. While it was a world of work of me to get to the end of the first seasons, I breezed through. It didn't become one of my favorite shows. It certainly didn't crack my Top 15, but neither was it the least favorite of the shows that I now consider myself to watch -- it resides immediately below LEGEND OF THE SEEKER and about on the same level on the perpetually disappointing HEROES, which has never managed to actualize even a small portion of the considerable potential it evinced in its first season. But it is solidly behind my favorite shows like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, MAD MEN, BREAKING BAD, DOLLHOUSE, 30 ROCK, CHUCK, FRINGE (which will appear opposite SUPERNATURAL starting this fall, meaning that the latter will become a DVR show for me), LOST, BIG LOVE, BEING HUMAN, TRUE BLOOD, and CAPRICA, as well as some guilty pleasure shows like SMALLVILLE and LEGEND OF THE SEEKER. I found the story lines in Seasons 2 and 3 to be more interesting, more innovative, delightfully self-referential, and increasingly intelligent. I noticed that a lot of this took place after Ben Edlund assumed a prominent role on the show (I knew him previously for his work on various versions of The Tick, which he created, as well as his work on FIREFLY and ANGEL). I found myself looking forward to each episode and definitely was enjoying myself.
Season Four, however, was something of a huge regression. On the one hand, I do applaud Eric Kripke and his cohorts for trying to take the show in new and challenging places. I simply didn't find those places to be very interesting. Many, many of the episodes of Season Four I simply found unpleasant. Unlike Seasons Two and Three, I no longer found myself looking forward to each new episode. Watching the show had become a chore. And too much of the show suddenly struck me as out and out silly.
Part of the reason I came to dislike the show in Season Three was the enormous liberties taken with Christian theology. This is a problem in many shows dealing with the supernatural. I absolutely loved BUFFY and ANGEL, but the theological assumptions on the show were absurd. The notion of a detachable soul, for instance, I always found grating. I mean, taking out Angel's soul and putting it in a vessel? Come on! That is not merely bad theology and philosophy, but just . . . weird. Thanks to the heritage of Greek Philosophy our culture has always struggled with the imagery of the soul (Gilbert Ryle famously characterized Descartes' platonic vision of the mind-body connection as "the ghost in the machine," but even Descartes, who took the soul-body dichotomy to its furthest extreme had any notion that they could be separated, at least before death). But the theology in SUPERNATURAL is a pure hodge-podge. I do applaud them for avoiding for the most part a simply dualism, a Manichaeism where absolute good and absolute evil are posited against one another. Christian theology has always identified Satan and the powers of darkness not as powers in their own right, but merely as the negation of god. Satan is portrayed as having rebelled against god through pride. But virtually nothing about angels found in SUPERNATURAL can be found in the Bible. Most of the iconography of angels and the description of their hierarchy derives instead from medieval theologians writing in the Neo-Platonist tradition. Even with several medieval theologians writing about such things (in a genre that can only be called Speculative Philosophical Theology) no one really synthesized all the disparate ideas about angels until Dante wrote the "Paradise" part of his COMEDY. Surprisingly, there was little real thought about Satan (I'm talking about all the delightfully little details) until Milton's masterpiece "Paradise Lost." Most of what we imagine we know about angels, demons, and Satan derive from theologians like Pseudo-Dionysius and poets like Dante and Milton. SUPERNATURAL's use of these source materials is just a mess. I could go on, but I'll stop by saying that the lack of consistency and the rather slap dash use of these traditional (even if not Biblical) ideas is irritating. As Christians go, I'm as tolerant you can be. But I don't really care for make-it-up-as-you-go-along theology. And when they introduce angels in Season Four, they are among the least interesting such creatures as have ever been revealed. They also made a character who had been complex and interesting, the demon Ruby, into a deceptive toy of the devil. What is interesting about that? Ruby could be back (though not the actress who played her in Season Four, who apparently will be in the cast of the new ABC Sci-fi series FLASHFORWARD). In the mythology of the show a demon inhabiting one human body, when killed, has its soul return to hell, from which it can then inhabit a new human body. Perhaps Ruby will be back, but given her boasting in the finale of how she managed to deceive all the demons chasing her, the angel, and Sam and Dean, I suspect that she now be merely a bad character. Like so much in Season Four, simply not very interesting.
Season Five could well be the last of SUPERNATURAL. Eric Kripke has insisted that he wrote a five year arc for Sam and Dean and has hinted that both he and the brothers may depart the show at the end of this season. The CW moved the most popular scripted series on the network, SMALLVILLE, to Friday nights. This should reduce the ratings of SMALLVILLE enough to make SUPERNATURAL the highest rated show on the CW (unless THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, which is taking over SMALLVILLE'S slot). So it will be interesting to see how the CW reacts to the possible loss of one of its most important shows. Plan A will surely be to talk Kripke and the Winchester Brothers to extend their contracts by two or three years. Plan B, if they all leave as some fear, would be to continue somehow without them. One thing is for certain: the spring of 2010 will see the most interesting negotiations to date about the future of the show. Let's just hope that Season Five is as interesting as the negotiations. Even if they do work something out to keep the show alive past next year, the chance that this could be the last season should, you would think, inspire them to pull out all the stops in making this a great season. Hopefully better than the remarkably drab Season Four.
Awesome! - Rating: 5/5
I've watched this show from the 1st season also like many other awesome fans of the show. This past season was great! Especially the battle between the angels and the demons. A whole new twist on the show this season with the introduction of the Angels. I wasnt expecting that but it was a cool idea. We all have to agree the couple of seasons were all about the Winchesters going after Yellow eye. Cool last name by the Way! Then came 3 when they were going after Lilith and the 4th with the new additions, the Angels. Anyway, let me just say that i hear talk about this being the final season. Id say to heck with that. They need to keep going with this show until it has nothing more to tell. I believe and this is just me and i dont know if anyone agrees. They need to keep going since this show is so popular. Very popular. We need to get the scare back like the 1st season. 2nd was good....3rd was too short. 4th was very good. Ive got some ideas if they wanna hear it for the show or maybe from the fans! The Winchesters should just keep driving and kicking butt! Even if its up to season 10. Thats just me though.
Duh I love this - Rating: 5/5
I can't wait to this comes in the mail. I've wanted to rewatch season 4 ever since it aired. After season 3's huge cliff hanger, I couldn't imagine what they were going to do with the show, and season 4 doesn't disappoint. Genevieve Cortese and Misha Collins don't disappoint as the newest regular cast members.
Easily the best season yet - Rating: 5/5
Note: Obviously, this is only a review of the show, not the DVDs themselves, and readily spoils material from earlier seasons.
Nowadays the trend in television is to peak early and stay on the air too long. Thus far, Supernatural has avoided these pitfalls, and has steadily improved from the show's entertaining, but hardly remarkable first season, which focused on conventional monsters, urban legends and horror film homages. Season 2 proved to be a substantial leap, where the show expanded and detailed the demonic underpinnings of the narrative, and with season 4 we see another increase in quality. While Supernatural always had individually entertaining episodes, it was only after Dean's (Jensen Ackles) Faustian bargain concluding season 2 that the central story arc came into focus. Now the mythology grows more impressive, with Dean mysteriously retrieved from hell by a disturbingly impassive, stoic angel Castiel (Misha Collins), and called to assist in the struggle against Lilith. Some are surely skeptical about the introduction of angels, as they aren't the coolest supernatural figures around, but Kripke and the host (haha) of writers provide an atypically powerful, unnerving portrayal. While wussy, friendly angels are common in modern popular culture, Supernatural draws upon a more biblical and Miltonian view of angels as fierce warriors and messengers. Moreover, the angels aren't precisely friends to humanity, but simply oppose the demonic hordes as well and will use the Winchesters as necessary to combat them. Misha Collins's Castiel, the most prominent angelic figure, is the most effective addition to the show. Collins's performance is brilliantly minimalistic, with his ragged look and deliberate movements perfectly suggesting a lack of familiarity with his body. Even better, Collins slowly inserts a subtle sense of humanity into the role as Castiel grows more conflicted about his duties, and finally creates truly intriguing character to go along with the Winchesters.
Simultaneously, Supernatural complicates the central relationship between Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean. While at the show's beginning it was the loyal Dean that dragged a rebellious Sam back into the "family business," the roles are now substantially shifted: Dean has, unsurprisingly, been scarred and left somewhat hesitant by his months in hell, while Sam has learned to work by himself, even expanding his demonic powers which he had sworn to forsake. (And yes, the shifty but supposedly pro-human demon Ruby has returned, though now portrayed by the less attractive Genevieve Cortese.) Using a fraternal relationship as the heart of the show proves to be the series most impressive element. While, ahem, manly bonding is hardly unheard of in pop culture, the relationship between two brothers, particularly those of similar ages, are still unique, and too often ignored in our romance-obsessed world. Dean has always been the more likable of the two, as Sam is usually too whiny, but Sam has slowly gained more depth as the show progressed. While Padalecki and Ackles both initially struck me as somewhat vapid hunks, they've both proven to be effective leads and both provide some of their best work this season. Indeed, after this season Ackles's cocky and jokey but also committed and loyal Dean has cemented his position as one of my favorite TV characters.
With all the developments in the central story, the conventional monster-of-the-week and comedy episodes are still atypically strong. Previously the humorous episodes tended to be weaker, but now we have some first rate examples in the requisite B&W horror tribute "Monster Movie" and the oft-hilarious malevolent wishing well episode "Wishful Thinking." They also find some new twists on the monster angle, including the disgusting cannibalistic manbeast the Rougarou in "Metamorphosis," the murderous Siren (yes, like in Greek mythology . . . kinda) in "Sex and Violence" and a classic bit of magician-oriented horror in "Criss Angel is a . . ." Kripke and company also don't hesistate to take the show in bizarre directions, as in the "Back to the Future" style "In the Beginning," where Dean meets his youthful parents and "It's a Terrible Life," where Sam and Dean have inexplicably lost their pasts and identities, and instead work in a seemingly generic office. The season has no real throwaway episodes, always maintains the level of stylish eeriness that defined the show, and manages to step up the gruesomeness and intensity a bit from time to time. ("Family Remains" and the vicious ghoul epic "Jump the Shark" are both particularly nasty.)
The final few episodes concerning the central story are perhaps not as strong as I would've hoped considering how compelling the season had been previously, but the conclusion still leaves me with great expectations for season 5. I fear that it may well try and be to big, if you understand my point, but the rock solid nature of this season give me reason to hope that they can pull it off. If they can maintain this level of quality for another season and if 5 is indeed the end, Supernatural will likely vie for the title of the best supernatural/horror TV show ever.
All in all, this is a terrific season from what is, with the end of The Shield, my favorite show currently on the air. Anyone with an interest in horror-oriented television needs to check this out, from the beginning.
