Five Torches (Out of Five)

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the “The Real Ghostbusters” episode of Supernatural.

Let’s get one thing very clear up front, shall we? It’s impossible to parody something that isn’t either really good or really bad. For parody to work, people have to have a very clear, very specific idea of exactly what’s being parodied.

“The Real Ghostbusters,” tonight’s terrific episode of Supernatural, proved yet again what a fantastic show this is. Why? Because by parodying themselves, they showed just how indelible and original this show really is.

When it comes to humor, the characters, the storylines, and the overall look, there has never been a show on TV quite like Supernatural. All the details are great too, and made for easy humor: Dean’s love for his Impala, Sam’s and Dean’s FBI pseudonym’s, and on and on and on.

The tone of a TV show is often invisible, because it seems so effortless, like it just “happened.” But I believe that creating something that feels genuinely fresh and new is actually an extremely difficult thing to do. This is why most TV feels so hackneyed, like you’ve seen it all before (because you have!).

I also have to give a lot of credit to this specific episode. On the surface, it sounds like this episode would write itself: Sam and Dean go to a “Supernatural” convention — a convention of fans of the series of books-within-the-show based on Sam and Dean’s lives.

How could the writer miss, you say? Oh, please. There were a million different ways they could have screwed up this clever premise.

But again and again, the episode got it exactly right. Mostly it did what I most love about this show: it deftly alternated between perfect humor and genuinely scary or touching moments.

The names of the panels at the Supernatural convention? “Frightened Little Boy: The Secret Life of Dean” and “The Homo-erotic Subtext of Supernatural.”

Hilarious.

Meanwhile, the twist about which ghosts were the real villains was nicely unexpected. And it was truly touching that by the end of the episode, the “fat guy and the dork” get to be the heroes.

Indeed, after the real Dean tells Fake Dean that Dean’s life “sucks,” Fake Dean sets him straight:

No offense, but I’m not sure you get what the story’s about. In real life, [my partner] sells stereo equipment, and I sell copiers. Our lives suck. To be Sam and Dean, to wake up every day and save the world, to have a brother who would die for you … Well, who wouldn’t want that?

In other words, the character of “Dean” is being told by a role-playing fan of his “character” what his life is really all about. That’s some really complicated stuff. But, of course, it makes perfect sense — who better than a Sam and Dean “LARP” player to get to the heart of their story?

Likewise, it makes sense that “super-fan” Becky, who has surely pored over every word in the books, would know and remember some details about the Colt that Sam and Dean have forgotten. A nice, seamless way to add some important exposition for the show’s arc.

My hat is off to the writers of this episode: creator Eric Kripke (who scripted) and Nancy Weiner (who wrote the story).

TV doesn’t get much better than this.

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Four Torches (Out of Five)

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the “Changing Channels” episode of Supernatural.

I find it interesting that Supernatural is about as far from a comedy as you can get on television, and yet when they do a comedic episode, it’s funnier than anything else I watch on TV — even actual comedies.

That was doubly true in this week’s episode, where Sam and Dean are stuck in TV Land courtesy of the Trickster.

First: it was an objectively good idea to approach that powerful being to ask for help in the fight between heaven and hell (although when Xena had the same idea when she teamed up with Callisto, it worked out about as well!).

Of course, the episode’s set-up is just a gimmick to let the show parody various other TV shows: Grey’s Anatomy, sitcoms, even Japanese games shows. And they so didn’t disappoint. From the opening credits, I was laughing hysterically (more than I’ve ever laughed at an episode of 30 Rock, for what it’s worth).

The hilarious “theme song” alone was worth the price of admission!

It’s also nice to know that Kripke and company share my opinion of crime procedural shows — not to mention the Incredible Hulk movies.

And I really, really, really should have seen the Knightrider joke coming!

I’ve said before that I’m impressed by how well this show does “gimmick” episodes (and next week’s, set at a “Supernatural” convention, sounds just as gimmicky, and promising).

But they also managed to tie it into the ongoing storyline. Who knew the Trickster was the Angel Gabriel? Good twist that makes perfect sense.

My only quibble: one too many jokes about how they wish they really were on a TV show. We get it: it’s ironic.

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Four and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

I’ll be the one to finally say it: Supernatural, which wraps up its fourth season this Thursday night, is a great and wildly underrated show.

The CW series about two monster-fighting brothers has probably always been better than it’s been given credit for, with solid scripts and good acting, impressive thrills, and cinematography that rivals many feature films.

But this last season, with its backdrop of the battle between the angels and demons and an inner conflict between Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), it’s gone from being “pretty good” to “great.” When measured against the best fantasy-themed television of all time, it might even be approaching Buffy or Xena territory.

And yet, despite an enthusiastic fan base, Supernatural has gone mostly unappreciated in the industry and in the wider pop culture landscape.

Some of this is, no doubt, due to the genre. With a few exceptions (such as The Lord of the Rings), even the most sublime genre projects almost never get the respect they deserve.

And let’s face it: monster or horror-themed projects are often considered the lowest of the low-brow, necessarily exploitative, even within genre circles.

But part of the problem is Supernatural’s own damn fault. The show has always been “good,” but it’s gotten so much better this last season that it’s probably taking some time for the deserved respect and accolades to catch up with it.

From the start, Supernatural was obviously a quality show. But it sure didn’t seem to be breaking any new ground: it was a buffed-off Buffy retread, or a TV knock-off of the recent movie trend of “auteur” horror, or maybe just another excuse for the CW to feature more pretty boys.

The first season’s arc, establishing the major themes of the show, was fine, if unexceptional. But the second, all-too-earnest season spent the whole year promising an “apocalypse” if the gate to hell was opened.

Well, the gate was opened, but the apocalypse never really happened. Sure, there were consequences, but this viewer had the definite sense that the writers had bitten off more than they could chew.

The third season, which Dean lived as if he only had a year to live (because he did!), was much better, and ended with the terrific cliffhanger of Dean in hell. But the season also had a rushed, sometimes muddled quality — no doubt due to the writers’ strike, which required that the filmmakers lop off six episodes mid-way through production.

But then came this latest, glorious season.

Sam and Dean’s involvement in the epic battle between angels and demons is everything that season 2 promised, and more. There is a coherency to the dramatic back-drop (as well as a deserved sense of mystery), and there’s a well-earned sense that the stakes are real, and that they’re sky-high.

Most daring of all, the creators of Supernatural have created a primary dramatic conflict that has been dropped right in the middle of the show’s core: the relationship between Sam and Dean.

The world must be saved, but Sam and Dean have very different ideas on how best to do it. And not only do they both think the other is dead-wrong, they think the other guy is too weak to pull it off anyway!

There’s always been tension between Sam and Dean, but nothing like this.

Imagine how this might have gone over when the showrunners pitched this storyline to the network executives at the CW: “We’re going to take the two beloved characters at the center of our show and make them hate each other — and spend the whole season building to a chilling moment where they beat each other up!”

But by choosing to really “go there,” Supernatural has absolutely hit its artistic apogee. And why wouldn’t it? As much as we care about saving “the world,” what viewers care most about is, of course, Sam and Dean. If the creators wanted to get us to sit up and really pay attention, threatening that relationship is exactly the way to do it.

They’re not the first show to discover the artistic benefits of such an “internal” conflict. Ironically, Buffy and Xena also hit their artistic strides (in the fifth and sixth seasons, and third and fourth seasons, respectively) when, after seasons of cataclysmic external obstacles, the main characters finally had to confront the most difficult challenge of all: what happens when you fundamentally disagree with the person you love?

The problem, of course, comes after these ultimate “interior” conflicts are resolved; both Buffy and Xena struggled, not very successfully, to find story arcs that were as engaging as this –  the genre version of “What do we do now that Sam has slept with Diane?”

Will Supernatural be able to avoid these post-artistic-triumph doldrums? Who knows? But for right now, the Golden Age of Supernatural has arrived. Let’s all enjoy.

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