DVD Review: Supernatural: The Complete Fifth Season

Review by Craig Byrne

The fifth season of Supernatural hits DVD tomorrow (September 7), and just in time, we’ve been able to get a copy to review to let you know what it’s like.

For starters, if you’re already a fan of Supernatural, you’ll probably be buying this anyway, because you’re invested in the lives of Sam and Dean (and Bobby and Cas and company). As a new fan, it didn’t seem as easy of a “jumping-on point” as Season 4 was, but it still seems to work.

This season features a coming Apocalypse, the rise of the Devil, and vessels for angels and demons. It’s a continuing quest that, while good, I think sometimes took a few too many detours.

By Season 5, the show started to become very self-referential. There are times when I like it, but I think they took the whole idea of published writings of the brothers a little too far. The farthest they took it, while still a good episode, was an episode that takes place at a Supernatural convention. Really. Oddly enough, though, that was one of my favorite episodes of the season.

Another referential favorite that I enjoyed, “Changing Channels,” pokes fun at other TV series such as CSI: Miami and even the show’s competition, Grey’s Anatomy. I was half expecting a reference to their dad in the Grey’s bit.

Mark Pellegrino has a recurring role in the season as Lucifer and does a good job of it. Sam and Dean are again joined by Castiel (Misha Collins) who has joined the show as a series regular.

The entire season leads into “Swan Song,” a terrific finale that really should have been the final episode of the series. Peppered with flashbacks to times past, it felt like it had a complete, although bittersweet, ending. If the series had ended with the lamp light cutting out, outside of Dean’s new life, I would have been completely satisfied. But in this day and age of even decent ratings keeping a show going as long as it possibly can, Supernatural has more to come. I’m torn on this. Season 6 sounds like it’s going to be good, but there was such a feeling of finality to “Swan Song” I think I would have been satisfied if it ended there. As a final episode, it could be considered one of the best (even though some of the possession stuff was confusing)… I think it’ll be hard to top when Supernatural actually does end.

Extras on the DVD set include the Ghostfacers webisode series, which I admit just isn’t my kind of humor… I found it pretty dumb. Also surprisingly unfunny was the gag reel. I’m glad the set had it, but nothing on there was particularly laugh-out-loud hilarious. Other extras include an unaired scene from “The Real Ghostbusters;” commentary on “The End” with Eric Kripke, Robert Singer, and Ben Edlund; and Bobby’s “Supernatural: Apocalypse Survival Guides.” Previous Supernatural DVD sets seemed to have a lot more by way of extra content – or at least better extra content.

In the end, this isn’t the set I’d recommend to a Supernatural newcomer but if you’re a weekly fan of the show you’ll surely not want to miss it. It’s great to have all of the episodes at ready disposal, and they look great.

Order your copy of Supernatural: The Complete Fifth Season on Amazon.com and support this site! The set is also available in the Blu-ray format. Take a look at our Supernatural image gallery!