Product Description
-------------------
Twenty-six years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother
to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently,
their her raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the
paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back
roads of America ... and he taught them how to kill it. This
haunting series follows the Winchester brothers as they
crisscross the lonely and mysterious back roads of the country in
their '67 Chevy Impala, hunting down every evil supernatural
force they encounter along the way. At the end of the fourth
season, Sam unwittingly broke the final seal – that held Lucifer
captive in Hell. Now, Lucifer is free, the Apocalypse is here and
angels prepare for a spectacular final battle. Against a
landscape of celestial violence, natural disasters and a rising
human death toll, Sam and Dean, with the help of fallen angel
Castiel, must find a way to achieve the impossible: Kill the
Devil.
.com
----
How's this for a story arc: the Gates of Hell are opened,
unleashing both Lucifer himself and the Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse, and bringing to an end civilization as we know it.
That's what awaits fans of Supernatural in its fifth and most
epic season to date. The stumbles in plot or character that are
typical to most long-running series are largely missing from this
season (though some might consider the stunt casting of Paris
Hilton as a pagan goddess in "Hammer of the Gods" as such);
instead, there's a solid, complex, and entirely satisfying run of
episodes, and even a pair of series highlights in "Changing
Channels" and "The Real Ghostbusters." The former finds heroes
Sam and Dean (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki) trapped in a
TV-influenced netherworld populated by perverse small-screen
archetypes, while the latter is a clever bit of meta-fiction
involving a real ghost at a Supernatural fan convention, complete
with Winchester brothers look-alikes. The other 20 episodes
bounce between stand-alone adventures and the larger story at
hand, which finds the brothers racing to collect the rings of the
Four Horsemen, which will return Lucifer to his prison. This is
fantasy storytelling for television at its best--broad in
and heavy with special effects, but never forgetting that the
core of the show is the relationship between Sam and Dean and
their joint quest to rid the world of evil. Both are well
represented here in a season that brings the show's main story
line to its fitting and satisfying conclusion.
Fans should also be pleased with most of the extras on the
six-disc set for Season 5. The most ambitious feature is the
Apocalypse Survival Guide, hosted by Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver).
Presented as a tour through Bobby's house, the guide gives
viewers a detailed lowdown on the major players in the war
against Satan, including the Horsemen, various demons, and the
Man in Red himself. Navigating one's way through the interactive
videos can be a challenge, as the layout requires viewers to
constantly restart the disc in order to review certain videos,
but for sheer informational content, it's hard to beat. Also
present is a commentary track by series creator Eric Kripke (who
left the series at the end of this season) and writer Ben Edlund
on "The End," which required such elaborate sets that the show
earned its own back lot; said location also gets a once-over, as
does an unaired scene from "The Real Ghostbusters." Best of all
is perhaps the entire web series Ghostfacers, which pokes
much-needed fun at the reality show Ghost Hunters in addition to
providing some minor es. --Paul Gaita