Deadly Furniture

To be honest, I was always going to like Supernatural a little bit. The show, or at least the little of it I’ve caught from promos and general mass media knowledge, draws too much from Joss Whedon’s Buffyverse and The X-Files (there’s even a direct reference to Mulder and Scully in the pilot) for me not to enjoy it just a little bit. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t think that I’d enjoy it so much. Sure, Supernatural has its fair share of CW groan-worthy lines and there are more than a couple of slow parts in the middle of it’s pilot episode-but I could always say the same thing about many a Buffy episode (*cough*seasonone*cough*). All in all, the show’s pilot creates a compelling storyline and two pretty and watchable main characters. (Quick Aside: As I was reading through the IMDB cast to find names, I just realized that Mitch Pileggi aka ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WALT SKINNER is a guest star for eight episodes. This elevates Supernatural from “watchable” to “will watch next episode immediately in order to get to !!!SKINNER!!! faster.”)

The pilot starts twenty years in the past and sees the death of the two main character’s mother from a strange demon possession/attack/something that creepily forces her against the ceiling and then sets the room on fire. The grieving father (played by the very watchable Jeffrey Dean Morgan) immediately becomes a man obsessed with revenge. His life, and therefore the lives of his two sons, centers around weapon training and demon hunting. Fast forward twenty years and you have a pretty messed up family. The youngest, Sam, (played by Jared Padalecki or the very annoying Dean from Gilmore Girls) has never wanted to be a part of his family’s obsession and has therefore run away to college and hopefully law school. His older brother, Dean, (played by Jensen Ackles aka I’ve actually liked him in a couple of things that he’s been in) is the complete I-will-break-the-law opposite. Dean interrupts Sam’s new normal life to tell him that their father has gone missing and they should go looking for him.

The rest of the episode sets up the entire series, as the two brothers who actually hate each other in many respects, have to hunt demons/spirits/supernatural things as they search for their father together. Supernatural therefore promises to include a whole lot of monster-of-the-week episodes but the ending of the pilot (a repeat of the brother’s mother’s death) promises that there may actually be a few episodes that connect to a bigger Truth (oh X-Files, how I love you). (Quick Aside #2: Wait, Mark Sheppard and Mark Pellegrino show up in this show too?!!?!!?)

Needless to say, any episode that ends with “Let’s get to work.” is something that’s going to make me watch the next episode. Add to that the whole science fiction element, the watchableness of the cast, the fact that ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WALT SKINNER appears, and you’ve got me for at least the first season.

Series to Watch: Supernatural and The X-Files