Commentary tracks, deleted scenes, extended multi-part featurette on the mythology of the show, gag reel

The Winchester brothers like the Blues Brothers ARE on a mission from God. Dean returns from Hell a changed man. Suddenly he finds he's working for God; An angel named Castiel brings Dean back because he has a mission for him--to stop the seventh seal from being broken and allowing Satan to roam free. Hell was a traumatic place for Dean and while he really doesn't want to talk about it we do discover that he picked up a trick or two in the hot place. ***

The fourth season saw major changes in store for Sam and Dean Winchester. Creator/producer and writer Eric Kripke begins winding up his five year story arc for the Winchester brothers and their constant battle with demons and evil. During the fourth season--one fo the best by the way--Sam and Dean have to stop something that is killing angels, have a close encounter with movie monsters that have come to life and Dean gets to meet his grandfather and grandmother when he gets thrown into the past. ---

Image & Sound:

The Blu-ray looks extremely good with nice detail, clarity and natural looking flesh tones. The show which is shot on digital video has always had a somewhat grainy look (it's deliberate)to add texture and to the creepy quality of the show. The deleted scenes are also presented in high definition and look extremely good as well. Spread over four discs we have just enough head room so that the episodes look terrific. The episodes hover around an average of 17 Mbps. ***

Audio sounds great--dialogue is loud and clear and surround effects are used effectively throughout. ---

The direction is top notch as are the production values (in fact I can only think of one other fantasy/horror series that looks as good as "Supernatural" and that's "Fringe" which also had a strong first season). We get a trio of commentary tracks, a number of very good featurettes including one that focuses on the mythology of the series, a gag reel and deleted scenes. In the commentary track for "In the Beginning" we find out from creator/writer/producer Eric Kripke that while they had figured out that Sam and Dean's mother was going to become a hunter, they hadn't figured out anything else about the episode. As mentioned previoulsy we also get deleted scenes in high def as part of the mix here. ***

This isn't a special feature exactly but you can turn on the recap feature. Why do I say "turn it on"? Because it appears to be (happily) in a default mode of "off". ---

Final Words: