Supernatural: The Complete Third Season
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Actor: Jared Padalecki, Jensen AcklesBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 651 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Box set; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Supernatural: The Complete Third Season
DVD Review: A few gems interspersed between a season of mediocrity
Summary: 3 Stars
If you're looking at Season 3, I think it's safe to know you have a good idea about what the show is about, so I shouldn't have to reiterate that.
Since the show started, I've been singing praises that Supernatural was one of the best shows on television. It was smart, refreshing, organic, and unpretentious. I was so impressed with it the last two years, I didn't even feel the need to write a review for the Season 2 DVD set, because there was nothing more I could add from what I wrote in my Season 1 review here on Amazon.
With that said, I'm sad to report we have some definite problems with Season 3 that absolutely have to be fixed, and I'll do my best to articulate what they are:
I. Interference and Mishandling:
The most conspicuous thing I noticed in Season 3 was a case of too many cooks in the kitchen interfering with the direction of the show. For two years we had a relatively stable direction as to how the show was run mechanically. But this season brought in some noticeable creative changes that impacted the mission statement. Not to mention many of the stabilizing factors from the first two years were seemingly minimized or removed in order to try new things that didn't inherently work with how the show was initially set up.
Previously the show was about two "blue collar" brothers with a cool vintage muscle car, on a road trip hunting down supernatural elements while listening to classic rock. Simple, but wonderfully effective for setting a unique and new mood for television. Unfortunately that tried and true formula was switched to focus on a much demon-centric arc, and with that came changes that I feel hurt the show:
The classic rock was drastically cut from the season's soundtrack, too much horror was offset by comedy, the iconic Impala was relegated to a mere prop, and it felt as if the quintessential "guy stuff" was removed or lessened because CW's Dawn Ostroff wanted more estrogen added into the mix to make it more viewer friendly for female viewers. This isn't "Gossip Girl", and we didn't need to make Supernatural more like that with the risk of alienating the core audience that carried the show for the last three years. I will also submit the female fans already knew the show rules and dynamic, so they didn't need fluff added in that just dumbed things down.
The addition of Bela and Ruby were also questionable moves. On one hand I can understand it. It brought in both eye candy and it gave a female perspective. But on the other hand, this could be seen as more artificial character placement to appease network executives.
Bela Talbot (her name is a nice Easter egg) was a good choice because she was a foil for Sam and Dean, and she could be written in or written out of an episode as needed. She was also fairly well developed, though I have to wonder if we would have seen more of her subversive antics towards the brothers had the Writer's Strike been averted.
Ruby was a different story. Like Jo from Season 2, she didn't work. She was a one dimensional, cardboard cut-out as far as character development was concerned. It seemed like she was nothing more than pastiche of Buffy Summers and the standard CW network's hottie; a clone that could be found on any other CW show that had young, attractive bad girls complete with the same hair style and makeup.
From the onset of her absurd uber-macho introduction, to the season finale, she was essentially portrayed as nothing more than a shallow plot device; a dues ex machina more geared to progress the plot than to fill any genuine interactive roles with the Winchester brothers.
Again, perhaps there was more planned with her before the Writer's Strike cut short the season, but either way, nothing was really done with her in the time they did have.
II. Poor Writing:
My next big gripe is the bad writing. The beauty of Supernatural for the first two years was it generally took lesser known monsters, urban legends, and other spooky stuff, and put a unique spin on it. The show would also introduce supernatural elements that were deliberately obscure, so if we didn't know about it from our own knowledge, we'd have to find out the details in real time with Sam and Dean. This kept things fresh by giving us a good mix of investigation and action.
Unfortunately Season 3 throws much of that away by giving us some painfully formulaic episodes, and it falls back on tired and overused cliches that are found in every other horror medium. Furthermore, they compound this by blatantly ripping off plots from other shows or movies; but justify the pseudo-plagiarism by acknowledging the original source material in-episode as if that clears them of unoriginal and lazy writing.
This is unacceptable. When a plot is so predictable that the audience can call the ending halfway through, that's bad writing. Why go two seasons giving us unique and new takes on supernatural elements, only to shamelessly rip off "The Nightmare on Elm Street", "Dreamscape", "Groundhog Day", "The Fog", and a host of other shows? Surely they couldn't possibly be out of ideas for new supernatural threats, could they? If so, then it's time for a new stable of writers, because watered down, cliched, or stolen plots are not going to carry this show for another year.
III. Threat Levels:
My third complaint is the seemingly incoherent categorization of supernatural threats. What is the balance and/or hierarchy of the monsters that Sam and Dean face? On one side you have the trickster god Loki; who is arguably the most powerful being in existence if he can manipulate reality to his will.
Next in line we get demons; who were the primary focus in Season 3, yet are arguably the most uninteresting and boring selection of all the possibilities the show can offer in terms of enemies. And I'm sorry, but "black eyes" aren't scary. Especially when it's used ad nauseam.
Finally we have the lowly stand alone monster-of-the week.
It's fine to have an long term plot arc with a developed enemy, but the in-show demographics and the meta-mathematics of this formula seems to be unrealized or skewed. What are ghosts compared to lycanthropes? What are demons compared to deities? If legions of demons are the most organized group of monsters, where does every other creature type fit into this dynamic? What is the food chain? Why even deal with Hoodoo or magic if it's inferior to monsters?
Extremely powerful threats are cool, but you can't throw the Winchester brothers up against gods, then expect to have something "epic" with anything less. That just kills the suspension of disbelief.
I'd rather see a "separate but equal" policy towards the supernatural entities. That way all monsters are important and a credible threat. Unfortunately by the way things are leaning, it's like ghosts and oddities are the bottom feeders and a waste of time, while demons are the top tier priorities.
I have no problem with demons, especially since they played a key role from the very first episode. But if the writers are going to make them the primary focus of the show, ditch the "Supernatural" title and call it "Demonatural" instead...
Although my review was fairly critical of the negative aspects I saw, that's not to say there weren't any highlights.
The cast did a great job. Padalecki and Ackles really expanded their acting scopes, and both of them managed to incorporate a broader range of emotions than what we've seen with them up until now. They also solidified their on-screen personas so perfectly, I no longer see them as actors, but as Sam and Dean Winchester.
Jim Beaver is always a welcome face and he does an absolutely fantastic job. His acting skills are so seamless, he easily demonstrates that his character of Bobby is not only a perfect surrogate father for the boys, but also a skilled and wily hunter who is smart enough to stay alive. Even if an episode was subpar, it was always made better with Beaver's appearance.
I also want to mention Katie Cassity and Lauren Cohan (Ruby and Bela respectively) both did a good job in their roles. As actresses, they accomplished their goals in a convincing manner. They were not responsible for how they looked, dressed, or their attitudes. That was decision making outside the show's fiction by the writers, and I already voiced my complaint about them. But within the show's mythos, they were good choices to play those specific characters. I just wished they had worked out better.
There were other strong points as to sound, production value, and action, but my gripes aside, they are the same things I praise in my Season 1 review, and I don't want to be redundant here by repeating them.
Overall I'd rate Season 3 a C-. It had a couple great episodes, but most of the rest could have (and should have) been better. It wasn't a total wash, but I expected more from a show that has already demonstrated innovation at raising the bar of horror.
Now the big question: Is it worth it for you to dish out the cash on a DVD set that is marked the same price as the prior seasons (just with fewer episodes), and an aforementioned laundry list of complaints? Honestly, that's a question you'll have to weigh yourself.
From my own standpoint, I bought the set because first and foremost I'm a Supernatural fan. I love the show, I love the characters, and something new---even flawed, is better than nothing. I wanted to have it in my DVD library to maintain the story and continuity, and I also wanted to support the show financially since I'm not yet ready to give up. I'd like to think Season 3 was a temporary glitch, and Season 4 will fix the mistakes and be better than ever.
And for these reasons, Season 3 still has value. At least to me.
Description of Supernatural: The Complete Third Season
The yellow-eyed demon is vanquished, but at a terrible price. The battle that brought him down released hundreds of demons from Hell into an unsuspecting world. And it cost Sam his life. But a grief-stricken Dean made a deal with the Crossroad Demon ? his soul for Sam's resurrection. Now Dean has just one year to live. One year to fight the unholy, the twisted, the ghoulish. One year to say farewell to Sam. And one year for Sam to search desperately for some way to save his brother. Mind-bending adventure awaits as the Winchester brothers continue their astonishing odyssey into the supernatural...and their personal odyssey into destiny.Bestsellers in DVD
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