Supernatural Season 8
***
Them priddy boys are still chasing shadows.
FILM: While this TV series about urban legends took years to gain traction at the production company, audiences took to it in enough numbers to keep the show going – season 9 started on US TV late last year.
Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are brothers travelling the by-ways of the US, fighting demons and things that go bump in the basement, in case you didn’t know.
The storyline changes tack considerably with this series because the guys actually find themselves a base, courtesy of their grandfather, instead of relocating to a different motel every week.
The motel lifestyle has always been an integral part of the style of the series, so this represents a sea change of sorts because after so many seasons, those wallpaper patterns were becoming rather predictable.
Still, we’ve left behind the Leviathans which were dragging down the previous season and stepped out of demon territory into fighting with angels. Urban mythology of the American heartland got left behind several seasons ago, though we do see Dean (Ackles) rifling through his dad’s journal every now and then, which he hasn’t done in a while, so that’s a nod to the past.
SPECIAL FEATURES: The all-important gag reel, commentary from directors and writers and a feature about angel Castiel (actor Misha Collins actually has a much higher-pitched voice than his character) as well as how they made the “found footage” episode.
Found footage is a bit of an inside joke on this series, since the brothers’ entire life being turned into a popular book series is a running plotline, and then there was that episode when they fall out of the TV and find themselves in the bodies of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.
See, they don’t even take this too seriously – think weekly dose of comedy horror, except you can watch it all in one go on DVD. – Theresa Smith