Supernatural, which stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as the monster hunting- demon fighting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, is doing very well on Friday nights much to the relief of fans and viewers. Especially those who had a bad feeling about moving the hit CW Network action series from its standard Thursday night timeslot. The series is doing so well in fact, that TV By The Numbers has it listed in their ‘probable for renewal’ column and says they feel that the CW Network would be nuts not to renew Supernatural for a seventh season.
It wasn’t just the switch to Friday nights that had both fans and viewers wondering how well the long running action series would do. The majority were wondering, with good reason, about where the writers and the new show runner Sera Gamble was going to go with storylines after dealing with something as big as the apocalyptic battle between heaven and hell that was culmination of 5 years of story arc for Sam and Dean. Gamble and the writers decided it was time to go back to the roots of season one and two of Supernatural when it was more about monsters. From there, they are building their storylines out and making them fresh by adding in new twists and turns. So far, as a long time viewer of Supernatural, I am liking the storylines over all and am enjoying the new twists they are adding in with the introduction of ‘Alphas’ and with the civil wars going on both in heaven and hell. I like the interactions between the brothers and the new tensions and intrigues going on with them.
However, the characters and the storylines aren’t the only things involved with Supernatural that are going in new directions based on familiar territory. Last Friday night at 9PM 2.844 million viewers tuned into watch S6.04 Weekend At Bobby’s and the Directorial debut of Supernatural actor Jensen Ackles.
Ackles moved from the familiar territory of being in front of the camera to the task of being behind the camera as the director and from the way the final cut of S6.04 Weekend At Bobby’s played out on screen, it came across as a successful transition for him. It’s interesting to watch an episode with an eye towards what the director’s style might be. Judging from what we saw on S6.04 Weekend At Bobby’s, I came a way with the impression that Jensen Ackles as a director doesn’t go in for a lot of extreme close-ups on just one actor.
He seemed to prefer making sure that any scene containing two characters in close proximity to each other contained good views of both actors.
I noted that he set scenes up so that props that brought out the nature of the characters were used to that effect but not so as to over clutter the scene. The biggest thing I noticed is that Jensen Ackles the director likes directing action scenes and he has an ear for what song worked well with the episode. Unfortunately now I’ve had ‘The Gambler’ stuck in my head for almost a week! Good thing I like Kenny Rogers music.
Besides being impressed with Jensen Ackles’ first time directorial debut, as a viewer I liked the episode over all too.
I liked that the issue of Dean’s descent into too much whining over the past two seasons had been addressed. Not that I don’t think Dean has legitimate issues, just that he needs to resolve them instead of whine about them even if I really do enjoy the way Jensen Ackles plays ‘angsty Dean’. However I didn’t really think Sam deserved the lecture he got. Sam really hasn’t whined all that much this season. Sam has been very different, more aloof and mysterious than he has ever been. Thankfully this time the writers are letting us see him being aloof and mysterious rather than doing it off camera for the character. Jared Padalecki has really showed he can play a familiar character and make him slightly unfamiliar to the viewers.
I liked the continuity of seeing Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) again and that her character has grown along with the story line. Her friendship with Bobby was a natural follow through from season 5. As was the appearance of Rufus (Steven Williams) and how we got to see another side of his character being fleshed out and what his relationship with Bobby is like on different levels.
The things that bothered me about S6.04 Weekend At Bobby’s are as follows:
The sudden revelation that if you burn the bones of the person a demon once was, then that demon dies just like any spirit would. While this is way cool to learn about, where was this information back in season 3 when Sam and Dean were looking for a way to save Dean from going to hell? It leads me to wonder if this really was something they were planning on doing back in season 3 when the first plan for the storyline before the writer’s strike hit was for Sam to actually save Dean from going to hell.
I wish they had given us some clue about the human woman being possessed by the demon Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) tortured and killed. Was she dead? If not, did getting Bobby’s soul out from under the deal with Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard) really a justification for killing an innocent woman in such a horrible way?
Last thing is just a nitpick on my part, but it kind of threw me out of the story a bit when you could see the wire that the signet ring was suspended from when the ring was suppose to be ‘floating in the air’. It just took a way some of the ‘oh that’s cool’ factor for me.
Next up for Supernatural is this week’s episode S6.05 “Live Free or Twi-hard”, which airs on the CW Network at 9PM on Friday night.
DEAN IS TURNED INTO A VAMPIRE — After a group of young girls go missing, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) realize that a group of vampires have taken up residence in the small town. After a fight with two of the bloodsuckers, Dean is bitten and turns into a vampire. Samuel (guest star Mitch Pileggi) tells Dean he can change him back but he’d have to get the blood of the vampire who turned him. Dean infiltrates the nest and runs into the Alpha. Jan Eliasburg directed the episode written by Brett Matthews.
Take a look at some sneak peek images video clip.
