Season two of Supernatural ended with a large number of demons escaping from Devil’s Gate and Dean Winchester with a year to live before he is to be dragged off into hell. Not surprisingly, both of these events play a major factor in season three.
Demonic activity, in general, is more prevalent this season. Sure, there are still lots of regular supernatural problems (changelings, vampires, ghosts, etc), but demons seem to be just about everywhere this season.
The other big deal for season three is the quest to save Dean’s soul. Both Dean and Sam have a hard time accepting Dean’s fate and the two spend much of the season looking for a way to get Dean out of his contract. Of course, it doesn’t help that they don’t even know who holds Dean’s contract, let alone how to void it.
Season three sees a number of new major characters introduced. The three big ones are Ruby, Bella and Lilith. First up, there’s Ruby. Ruby shows up in the season premiere wielding a nifty demon-killing knife which she immediately puts to good use. It is soon revealed that Ruby is, herself, a demon. Despite this, she claims to want to help Sam and Dean.
The Winchester brothers also have more than a few run-ins with Bela Talbot. Bela is a thief. She knows all about the supernatural, and she uses that knowledge to acquire rare occult artefacts to sell on the black market. Her relationship with the Winchester brothers is soured by her frequent attempts to steal from them.
There’s also the big baddie of season three: Lilith. Lilith is another demon, and she has leadership aspirations. Sam is prophesied as the leader of a demon army so, naturally, Lilith sees him as a threat. Lilith actually only shows up in two episodes (12 and 16), and in episode 12 we only catch a glimpse of her, but she’s the driving force behind many of the problems the Winchester brothers face in season three.
Lilith could easily have been a clichéd villain. Not only does she have the standard desire to take over the world, but she’s also a creepy kid (well, technically she’s a demon; She just likes to possess the bodies of small girls). Remember when creepy kids used to actually be an uncommon and naturally spooky agent of evil? Yeah, me neither. Fortunately, in this case, Lilith comes off as genuinely creepy. We only really get to see her in the season finale but when do see her, she’s on vacation. If her vacation doesn’t creep you out at least a little, you are made of sterner stuff than I.
As with a lot of shows last year, Supernatural ended up with a shortened season due to the strike. There are twelve episodes that were filmed before the strike, and four that were filmed afterwards. For the pre-strike episodes, it’s feels like any other season with the only difference being that episode twelve seemed like it was written to serve as a season finale in the event that the rest of the season had been lost to the strike.
There are only four post-strike episodes, and that is a bit of an issue. There’s one really hilarious stand-alone episode, “Ghostfacers!”, and then two episodes that build to the finale and then the finale itself. It’s actually less of a problem when watching on DVD than it was when it aired however as there’s no break in the build-up from the first twelve episodes.
Even though the strike messed up the natural flow of season three a little bit, it still does an excellent job of telling its story of the Winchesters’ quest to save Dean’s soul and thwart Lilith.
The video is presented in 1.77:1 and the audio is in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. The show both looks and sounds good on DVD.
I would have loved to see some audio commentaries, or more A Closer Look featurettes, but there’s still a decent number of extras to be had.
A Closer Look – In these featurettes, a director, writer, producer or other member of the show talks for a few minutes about some aspect of a specific episode. It is kind of like getting a DVD commentary in 3 minutes. Very interesting, but sadly only 7 of the 16 episodes have this extra.
Ghostfacers! Confessionals – The Ghostfacers! do interviews for their own fictional DVD release. Quite amusing stuff that also gives a bit more depth to the characters from the Ghostfacers! episode.
From Legends to Reality: Supernatural Effects – A 23-minute featurette on Supernatural‘s special effects. Deals with combining visual effects, special effects and make-up effects. It covers the special effects process from coming up with the initial concept all the way until the finalized effect.
Gag Reel – At just under 8 minutes, it’s a bit longer than the standard gag reel. There are the standard line flubs but most of the footage is of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles goofing around.
Impala Featurette – A 5-minute bit on the various cars (stunt and otherwise) that are used as Dean’s Impala on the show.
Recaps – When you watch the episode, you can choose whether or not you watch the little recap as well. It’s good to have the choice; if you haven’t watched the show in a while, the recap is a good refresher, but if you are watching a bunch of episodes at once, you don’t need to see the same moments recapped again and again. There are a couple minor issues however. If you go into the episodes list and choose a specific episode, you can also say whether or not you want to watch the recap. If you choose to play all episodes, you don’t get a choice; the recaps are just turned off. The recaps normally start with “THEN” flashing on the screen and the episode itself starts with “NOW.” The odd thing is, if you watch with the recap off, you still get the “NOW.” Without the recap though, the “NOW” feels totally out of place. Admittedly, it’s a minor quibble, but “NOW” should be tied to the recap, not the episode.
Despite the writer’s strike costing the third season of Supernatural about a quarter of its episodes, this is still an excellent season. Sure, the extras could be a little meatier, but this one is still definitely worth picking up.
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Warner Home Video presents Supernatural: The Complete Third Season. Starring: Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padalecki. Running time: 651 minutes. Rating: NR. Released on DVD: September 2, 2008. Available at Amazon.
