Supernatural The Complete First Season (2005 2006/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: C
Could it
actually have been better in the beginning?
Now that Warner has decided to release a Blu-ray version of the debut
season of their CW Network series Supernatural,
I wondered if The Complete First Season
could have had anything going for it that was lost in follow-up seasons. Well, it has its co-stars Jared Padalecki and
Jensen Ackles as The Winchester Brothers, McG as its producer and at least
here, has some slight ambitions to be a hip X-Files, but the goofy McG sensibility took over and anything
promising from this season (very little) evaporated afterwards and the show
never recovered.
The 22
hour-long shows go out of their way to imitate X-Files and any other show they can throw in, but this is rarely
suspenseful, even slightly and is so slow that you could fall asleep until it
gets loud or obnoxious. But it has been
a moderate hit (one that has gone on way too long) and is just a bore. So could playback at least be least somewhat
impressive?
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is shot in Super 35mm film (as it was
for the first three seasons before an unfortunate switch to 4K HD) and these
are all older HD masters where the darker scenes never look as good as the
bright ones and that is annoying. If the
DVD set looks worse, that is really bad, but not much worse than the Second
Season Blu-ray set, so go figure. Where
there (again!) should be a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 or DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for all the
shows on this Blu-ray set, it and the DVD version only have Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes
and that is till a shock for a new show coming out on Blu-ray like this. Guess McG cut back on the sound budget on
this one.
Two new
extras for the Blu-ray have been added: a Paley Festival Panel Discussion by
cast and crew, plus interactive Devils Road Map. Older extras include creator commentary on the
pilot, co-star commentary on the Phantom Traveler episode, Gag Reel, extended
footage on select shows and two making of featurettes.
Yep. This is truly for fans only.
For more
on the show in its follow-up seasons so far issued on disc, try these links:
Two DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5931/Supernatural+-+The+Complete+Secon
Three Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7931/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Com
DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7498/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Com
Four Blu-ray + DVD sets
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8972/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Com
- Nicholas Sheffo
