By Cultural Learnings

Supernatural
The Complete Third Season
Starring Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Katie Cassidy
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Release Date: September 2, 2008

In the third season of The CW’s Supernatural, one of the show’s sibling protagonists is in trouble: to quote the packaging itself, “the Doomsday Clock is ticking for Dean.” There’s a certain allegorical value to this statement: the show has always been quite soundly on the bubble with the network in terms of its potential cancellation, facing stiff competition in its timeslot, and potentially performing below expectations.

But, judging by the quality of the show’s third season, and the fan support given the series over the past year, it is clear that the Doomsday Clock is not ticking for Supernatural. Despite some roadblocks involving the introduction of new characters (always a difficult role for a series heading beyond its first few years), this strike-shortened season demonstrates the show’s central strength: two brothers, their fates intertwined, protecting humans from all things demonic and ghoulish.

And as long as Supernatural delivers on this promise, chances are that the Doomsday Clock will stay silent.

As far as plot constructs go, the end of the second season offered the right combination for a show that operates using both serial relationships and weekly demons. Dean Winchester sold his soul in order to resurrect his brother Sam, killed at the hands of their arch-nemesis, which means that he only has a year to live: unfortunately, in the process of condemning the yellow-eyed demon Azazel, they inadvertently unleash hundreds of demons into the world.

The combination of these devices offers two solutions: it presents a point of tension in the central relationship between the two brothers, and it helps to increase the urgency of their demon slaying. While some fans may feel that the show loses some of its original charm when the relationship between the brothers is this rocky, it is not so far out of character: the brothers have been dealing with death and mortality all of their lives, and staging it as the central drama of the season helps to expand both of their characters in new directions.

Jensen Ackles, in particular, gets to play the character (Dean) any actor would love: someone who has resigned themselves to death and wants to spend most of it drinking, having sex, and slaying demons with a reckless abandonment that makes for engaging television. While said recklessness has its comedic qualities though, Ackles does a great job of emphasizing those smaller moments where, as the older brother, we realize that this is still a sacrifice he’s making for his brother, and that he does fear the fate that (potentially) waits for him at season’s end.

Sam (Jared Padalecki), meanwhile, gets to discover his own fate and have a little less fun in the process: he learns from the mysterious Ruby (Katie Cassidy) that his purported destiny, as leader of the demons in their war against humanity, is slowly becoming a reality. The season is defined by an underlying tension that has Sam making decisions and choosing actions inconsistent with his moral code before being resurrected, the end result of which is a character who is desperate to save his brother but who, in the process, perhaps loses sight of the safest path.

Despite these complications, however, the show maintains its best element: two brothers who riff off each other, enjoy a good skin mag, and who (most importantly) get into a bunch of harrowing and legitimately scary situations on a weekly basis. As a “road trip” show, this is the kind of series that needs its leads to interact in a way that draws viewers in, and Supernatural has this in spades. From the manifestation of the Seven Deadly Sins to Changelings, and including a Cursed Rabbit’s Foot, a twisted Christmas episode, and suicide-pushing phone calls, the show knows its genre and its strengths within it.

The third season, however, represents a shift: oft-reliant on recurring guest stars (Bobby, murderous Gordon, etc.) to flesh out its universe, the show makes a concerted effort during this season to integrate two new female characters into this universe. Ruby enters our narrative as a mysterious female before we find out that she’s really a demon, hiding more knowledge than she lets on and, potentially, secrets and weapons to help Dean out of his plight. Bela (Lauren Cohan), meanwhile, arrives on the scene as an opportunistic, money-grubbing woman whose own fate intertwines with the Winchester boys as they head on their journey.

But as a fellow hunter notes in the season premiere, “This ain’t Scooby Doo — we don’t play well with others.” It isn’t that either of these two characters are poorly portrayed or poorly integrated into the main storylines, but rather that in a strike-shortened season it feels like one more complication that moves the show ever so slightly away from its usual center. It leads to a central hypothetical of whether, without these two diversions, the central storyline could have spent more time on the “big evil” revealed late in the season and less time slowly getting to know these mysterious women before eventually revealing how they fit into the grand scheme of things.

In the end, though, the season doesn’t suffer too greatly: there’s still plenty of charm, plenty of scares, and a season finale that feels like a culmination of the season’s themes especially as they relate to Sam and Dean’s relationship. When the Winchester boys are sitting in the Metallicar singing along to Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive,” it feels like one of those pivotal moments in the show’s history. The cliffhanger, more final than perhaps expected, resonated with viewers: the show’s fourth season premiered last week to the Supernatural‘s highest ratings since its premiere on The CW, ensuring that its fourth season probably won’t be its last.

Arriving on five discs, the Complete Third Season is fairly sparse in terms of special features. Rather than full commentaries, the discs feature just several short little interviews with one of the writers, directors, or producers involved about some of their favorite scenes in selected episodes — their observations are strong, and one can only wish that there were full commentaries to make use of the extensive talents at work on the show’s crew. The set is rounded out by a couple of documentaries focused on the boys’ ’67 Chevy Impala and the show’s exemplary special effects. For United States buyers, the set also comes with a free Digital Copy which can be redeemed from iTunes or a Windows-based media outlet.

Supernatural airs every Thursday at 9/8c on The CW.