Supernatural: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Review

Dean (Jensen Ackle) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) haven’t had a glamorous life, or a normal life for that matter.  Their father John had raised them to be demon hunters after one of them killed their mother and set their home a blaze.  But, one’s future isn’t the same for both brothers as Sam decides to move on and go to college.  Fast forward four (4) years later, John is missing and the only ones who can find and save him are his two sons.  Sam reunites with Dean after similar circumstances gets his girlfriend killed and the two of them go on a search for their father on a journey that will pit them against horrific figures only found deep in our imaginations, or so we thought.  Now the Winchester brothers are on the road looking for a loved one and in hopes of finding that beast that took their mother away. 

Personally, I find very few TV shows appealing, why?  Mainly because of the lack of creativity and recycling of the same old stuff that didn’t work before and it will not work again.  There are too many shows that are alike and have similar plot lines that clutter our TV stations in hopes to come back next season.  Although Supernatural has caught my attention, it’s not the best show I have seen out there, but it certainly isn’t a bad one either.  Tackling on urban legends such as Bloody Mary and the Hookman among others and creating their own hasn’t been an easy job to do, but I like the way they are doing it.  This show brings a bit of freshness into the mix, especially since networks have this sudden break of vampire shows and the need to have them on TV. 

The story is well written and told, not to mention the written is exceptional on various portions providing a good balance between comedy and horror.  The overall look and feel of the show is perfectly fitting and gives you a bigger sense of tension during certain scenes.  The cast of Jensen Ackle as Dean and Jared Padalecki as Sam are nothing short of spot on.  The chemistry between these two guys is obvious throughout the first season, which makes things easy with the flow of the story and dialog.  I couldn’t have been more pleased by the time the finale was over.  This show is definitely worth it, but it isn’t for everyone. 

Supernatural: The Complete First Season sports a 1080p/VC-1 encode with 1.78:1 aspect ratio, well fitted for this release.  This isn’t the best transfer out for a TV series, but it does the job perfectly.  There are subtle amounts of grain but this doesn’t take anything away from the details.  The skin tones look very natural; nothing over the top or over saturated.  There seems to be some softness in a few scenes, but this isn’t a major problem throughout the show.  Also, some might notice some edge enhancement from time to time.  Surprisingly the picture in this release is very polished; there are minor issues, but nothing to really to take away from the overall Supernatural experience.  The previously released Season 4 showed similar quality. 

Again, it seems to be the norm for Warner to give TV series a Dolby Digital 5.1 track rather than taking their time and add a lossless audio track.  Anyway, while I may have some complaints about the track included in this release, it does the job intended.  The dialog seems to be nicely prioritized and it is very clean.  The rears are used for ambience effects and atmospherics.  Effects are outputting constantly as much as we would hope, but they do the job.  Obviously my main complaint is the lack of a lossy audio track, but I will say that the Dolby Digital audio in this release will please the fans willing to look past the shortcomings. 

The debut season for the thrilling series Supernatural has come to Blu-ray jam-packed with features and extras.  So check below for a list of supplements included in each disc. 

Disc 3
Supernatural at the Museum of Television & Radio’s Paley Television Festival – A Q& A session with the cast & crew
Deleted Scenes

Disc 4
Supernatural: Tales from the Edge of Darkness – The featurette shows the evolution of the show beginning from the casting, special effects, and the myths behind Supernatural. 

Day in the Life of Jared and Jensen – Follow the two lead actors of the show behind the scenes on the set of Supernatural. 

Other Extras Include:
The Devil’s Road Map – An interactive guide to every episode in Season One, with interviews, journals, and references to all the urban legends. 

Gag Reel

BD-Live Functionality

There are several things that make Supernatural appealing and that are its characters and plot lines among other things.  The show is not just a small time weekly horror movie.  The Blu-ray comes with a good video transfer and jam-packed with extras.  My biggest complaint is still the stubborn choice of Digital Dolby instead of a lossless track for the audio.  Other than that this should be a no brainer for the fans of the show. 

The screen captures are only a small representation of what the Blu-ray looks like and are not representative of Blu-ray’s true quality.