Supernatural - Complete Fourth Season [Blu-ray]

The fourth season of Supernatural provides a great mixture of scares, action and humour effortlessly delivered from it's leads.

Picking up a few months after the end of season 3, Dean wakes up six feet under with no clue how he got there and a strange marking upon his body, Dean reunites with the now reclusive Sam whose developed some extra curricular activities with Ruby since his brother's been gone. They hit the road with a new 'divine' mission to prevent the breaking of 66 seals to release Lucifer himself.

The fair majority of the character development revolves around Dean this season, a refreshing change, as he has been somewhat overshadowed by the recurring story arc of Sam's special powers at times. Ackles give a powerful performance as Dean guilt stricken by his experiences from hell and increasingly worried about his brother.

Padalecki gives a strong showing as Sam, the character is much darker than before and it becomes increasingly clear Dean's absence has had a profound effect on him. Padalecki plays the darker side of Sam well as the season progresses we see his descent into deeper and deeper into darkness and further away from his brother.

The two still retain their on screen chemistry that makes them such a likeable pair, be it humorously bickering, standing side by side or becoming more and more confrontational, the two play off each other very well; as always.

The season offers a variety of great episodes from the absolutely hilarious, like Yellow Fever, creepy old school horror, like Family Remains, to the continuing story arc in Lucifer rising. The episodes play off each other well with more comedic offset by the continuing story or a creepy episode.

Stand out episodes include In the Beginning, Heaven and hell, After school special, On the head of a pin, The monster at the end of this book, Jump the shark and Lucifer rising. From suicidal teddy bears to unknown family ties this season has it all.

Season 4 proves to be a yet another great season, with great performances from both leads, varied and well written stories, impressive direction and a killer cliffhanger for the 5th (and very possibly final) season. Supernatural remains compulsive viewing.

I caught up with the first 4 seasons of Supernatural last year and I couldn't believe what I'd been missing! I had seen odd episodes late at night on ITV over the years and had enjoyed them, but hadn't really been motivated to search out any more if I didn't stumble across them (and with the scheduling here in the early hours of the morning that was always the case!). Believe me, you need to catch up on all of the seasons, this is without doubt one of the best shows on television!

I think that a lot of people have a pre-conceived notion that Supernatural is light weight, teen-oriented fare - not true at all! Although it has to be admitted that the two leads are exceptionally easy on the eye (no point in even attempting to deny it!), they are also great actors playing complex, layered characters on a consistently clever, well-written and entertaining show.

From the initial 'monster of the week' focus at the beginning of season one, the writers have built up the mythology of the show really well to encompass demons, angels, destiny and the apocalypse. The most important aspect of the storyline, however, is the relationship between the two brothers - this is what packs the emotional punch and really makes you care about what happens to these characters. In this, the writers and crew are helped enormously by the great on-screen chemistry between Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki.

Season 4 sees Dean Winchester return from hell and we begin a new story arc involving angels and possibly even God (I'm really hoping that Supernatural doesn't do a Battlestar Gallactica in season 5 and decide to confirm the existence of an all-powerful creator...please writers, think more Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' - or anything! - than Judeo-Christian orthodoxy).

This season can be quite dark in tone, as it involves a shift in the brothers' relationship - they have taken divergent paths and there is a loss of their previous absolute trust in one another. Dean is trying to cope with the trauma of his time in hell and Sam has been changed by failing to save Dean and by having to carry on the fight without him. The writers do really well in developing this theme throughout the season to its dramatic conclusion, and Jensen and Jared are really brilliant in their respective roles. Misha Collins also proves to be an inspired choice in the role of the angel Castiel, and Jim Beaver is as ever great in the role of Bobby Singer.

Just in case you think that all is doom and gloom, however, please rest assured that Supernatural is also one of the funniest shows on TV. The ability to blend shocks, drama and laugh-out-loud comedy (often in the same episode) is one of the real strengths of the show - if you don't believe me, have a look at the clip from season 4 on You Tube involving the suicidal teddy bear, genius!

When I ordered this DVD I was well aware of the problems surrounding the box set i.e. it's lack of features, and DVDs in the wrong order and so forth, but since it was urgent I figured I would buy it anyway and call the Warner Brothers helpline and sort that out later.

It turned out that there was nothing to worry about; after it arrived the first thing I did was place the last DVD containing the special features into the DVD player and lo and behold there they were - including a very gothic documentary about heaven and hell featuring quotes from the Scripture and lots of illustrations by Gore, plus Eric Kripke and other talking heads nattering away.

The gag reel was there too and all the episodes were in the right order.

The point is that clearly the proper box set is out there now since I have just received one, which was ordered on the 26th of December. From now on, if Amazon send you an incorrect box set - send it back - because they have the correct box sets in stock and you shouldn't have to go through Warner Brothers any more. You can refer to this review as proof that you should be able to order the box set now and get the correct DVDs with everything intact, no excuses. If Amazon are continuing to send the faulty box sets out when they have the correct box sets in stock then that is Amazon's responsibility to sort out.