Supernatural: Season 5 Review

• 26th Sep 2010

“Dude, what the hell?” It’s taken five series, but we’re finally there – it’s Apocalypse Now in Supernatural land! Nope, no Marlon Brando; this is full-on weirdy weather, four horsemen, hell-hounds, devil-walks-the-earth apocalypse. The whore of Babylon is alive and well and living in Minnesota – and it’s all Sam’s fault.

I have to hold my hands up at this point; Supernatural is one of my favourite programmes (and Jensen Ackles one of my biggest crushes) but if you’ve never seen it before then this series is maybe not the best place to start. The story of two brothers, Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) trained from birth to be “hunters”, wiping out the supernatural scum of the earth, has evolved almost out of all recognition from series 1 – from self-contained X-Files-esque (before it got really complicated) kill-the-demon/ghost/vampire/scary clown and save the girl/boy/children/old lady episodes, to a filmic universe with its own lingo and mythology. A rare televisual feat these days. Fans of the series won’t need this review to know that it’s a great watch, but newbies may want to go back to the earlier series – without the back story provided previously it’ll be almost impossible to follow.

Series 4 finally answered the obvious question – if hell and demons exist, then what about heaven? – and brought us the angels, a bunch of unsympathetic, amoral vindictive bastards (“always happy to do some smiting”), intent on using Sam and Dean to their own ends. In Series 5 the battle between heaven and hell takes centre stage. Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) is impressively underplayed, constantly reminding us that he was once an angel, even requiring the permission of the “meat-suit” he wants to inhabit. Softly spoken, regretful and seemingly only evil due to “loving my father too much”, he brings us back to earth with a bump when he commits gruesome acts of brutality. On the flipside we have Castiel (Misha Collins), cut off from his divine power having rebelled to help the Winchester boys, beautifully deadpan and revelling in his new found humanity, even when he’s sitting on Dean’s whoopee cushion. Not to mention the not-so-small mission he sets himself – “I’m going to find God”. Castiel also often provides unconscious comic relief, off-setting the darkness in what could otherwise be an unrelentingly grim experience. This is a world which God doesn’t care about anymore and he’s left his children – human, angelic and demonic alike – to wreck it in his absence like a teenage Facebook party with 60 billion attendees. For a seemingly trite American TV series, Supernatural asks some serious questions about faith, trust, family (absent fathers are a BIG deal) and the nature of religion.

The things that consistently raise Supernatural above its peers are all happily present and correct – Dean has the usual stand out lines (although nothing will ever beat ghost-Dean becoming corporeal for the first time with the line “I totally Swayze-d that mother” in series 2), generally delivered with a mouth full of junk food (“Try New Mexico, I hear God is on a tortilla”, “What is the average customer wait time to speak to an archangel?”); Sam’s brooding even more than usual, and the Metallicar is running beautifully. It’s as gory as ever – sawing the top off a man’s head? Check. Cannibalistic sex scene? You betcha. Man impaled on car windscreen? Yep. Someone puking up blood? Pretty much every episode. But the brothers’ previously easy relationship is tinged with bitterness, what with Sam starting the aforementioned apocalypse and all, as well as a revelation about their destinies that will change them both forever. Sam’s quit the demon juice but is threatening to fall off the wagon and “go darkside” at any point, and Dean’s got some serious trust issues.

The standalone episodes are still there and still excellent, with the usual line-up of demons, ghosts and ghoulies. Stand out episodes include The Real Ghostbusters when the brothers attend a supernatural convention (if only morethanbrothers.net was a real website!), the deaths of two major recurring characters in the poignant Abandon All Hope… and a Neil Gaiman-esque meeting between gods from every pantheon you can think of in Hammer of the Gods, but there’s a sense of inevitability about it all as the end of the world beckons.

Packing a huge emotional punch, this season is a great addition to an already impressive show. Extras include an apocalypse survival guide with some good behind the scenes stuff as well as the obligatory (and very funny) gag reel.

Emma Wilkin