Supernatural: "Pilot" Review

March 20, 2008 - We recently (finally!) began reviewing new episodes of Supernatural, only for the show to begin a strike-influenced break between new episodes soon after. Fans are eager to see more original episodes, but in the meantime, we've decided to go back and begin reviewing the older episodes, starting with the series pilot. Look for a new "flashback" review every week, unless there's a new episode to review instead of course…

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I didn't think too much about the new show Supernatural a few years ago when I heard it was going to be on The WB. In fact, the reason I watched the pilot back then was because I didn't change the channel immediately after Gilmore Girls. But I did end up watching that pilot episode and was hooked right away on the Winchester brothers, who try to save people from the evil they find in the world, while also looking for their missing father. It's a fairly simple setup, but what elevates this story is the relationship between brothers Dean and Sam as well as the mysteries in their family's history.

The first episode begins quite heartbreakingly. Seeing the happy Winchester family – mother, father, and two small boys – who have no idea that evil forces are about to change their lives forever is poignant. It is also genuinely scary when the boys' mother Mary -- and later Sam's girlfriend Jessica -- end up pinned to the ceiling on fire. It's an image that will haunt the characters, as well as the viewers.

The show wastes no time setting up the mythology that will fuel the majority of the first two seasons. Within the opening five minutes of the episode, Mary is killed trying to protect baby Sam from a mysterious figure and we see the beginning of the change in John Winchester from happy, regular-guy father, to hardened fighter-of-evil. Even though he is used sparingly throughout the series, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is always effective as John. He may or may not be the best father, but his motivation is clear: the night his wife was killed, he became a soldier.

As the episode gets going a lot of exposition needs to be delivered and I credit the writing as well as the acting ability of Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki that the scenes still feel natural, for the most part. There is some irony in the fact that Sam "ran away" to go to college and live a normal life. It nicely sets the tone that this family is very off-kilter... If finding out that John gave nine year old Sam a .45 when he thought there was a monster in the closet didn't already clue you in to that fact.

Ackles and Padalecki are instantly convincing as brothers, whether it is their sibling bickering, or the conflict between Sam's desire for a regular existence outside of being a hunter and Dean's dedication to their father's way of life. There's a good scene that fleshes out the differences between the brothers when Sam confesses that he can't remember their mother and Dean, clearly still hurt by the memories of the life he lost, is angry at Sam for his apparent flippant attitude toward their father's quest to avenge her murder. Both actors also do well at balancing the seriousness of what they are investigating with the adrenaline rush it gives them. Dean is just more honest about the fact that what they do is exciting. Although, granted, what they do is usually illegal, so Sam's disapproval is justified.

Director David Nutter, who among other things directed some of the very best episodes of The X-Files, does an excellent job of setting up the atmosphere and tone of the series. The episode is also well paced, even with the amount of exposition that is required. You don't quite notice all the backstory you have absorbed until it is drawn upon later. Another basic element of Supernatural is established here with the mystery of the week element and the idea that the show will investigate various American urban legends. A series with a weekly horror story is intriguing, and the investigators being brothers, and on the wrong side of the law, makes it different from other programs on television. Unless, of course, the brothers from Prison Break get into ghost hunting.