Official synopsis
Season Eleven plunges Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) into extreme peril as they face The Darkness, a sinister new menace unleashed upon the Earth. They continue their monster-hunting missions, battling the usual werewolves, black-eyed demons and even a vengeful ghost in a stuffed bunny costume, but with a sharp new focus: destroy The Darkness. Needing all the help they can get, the brothers turn to fallen angel Castiel (Misha Collins); the King of Hell, Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard) and even an unassuming God (Rob Benedict)– only to come face to face with Lucifer and Crowley’s power-hungry witch-mother Rowena (Ruth Connell). Strap yourself in for the Winchesters’ darkest adventures yet as they journey between Heaven and Hell in all 23 electrifying episodes of the epic suspense thriller.
This season of Supernatural is an absolute doozy. The main arc of the story involves the Winchesters trying to prevent the Darkness, a woman named Amara and also God’s angry sister, from destroying the world, which includes heaven and everything else. The main story acts as a beautiful wrapper for the season, something that when not focused on during some episodes, still sprinkles its presence into independent story mixes. Successful shows like this know how to keep the story going even when the story isn’t necessarily being focused on. It’s a very X-Files-esque move and a reason why the X-Files was popular for nearly a decade (before they made the boring reboot — gosh, it was a sleeper), which is the same case with Supernatural (though much better and longer — kind of dirty).
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The second part of its success is how strong the main storyline is, so it can keep the interest of the season going. Amara’s (Emily Swallow), aka the Darkness, emergence into the role as main antagonist pushes the typical good versus evil conflict up a few notches. Her story and presence complicates the usual formula set forth by the previous 10 seasons of the show and forces characters that typically would not help each other out, rather who usually are put against each other, now are forced to find a way to help the overall cause of stopping the Darkness. As simple as that may sound, making sense through the writing process and changing up things to fit when it comes to creating reasoning for good and bad characters to cooperate is a difficult process. You can’t simple say that they’re helping each other because of X. You have to say they’re doing it because of XYZ and explain how they got to XYZ quickly. There are so many elements of previously established dichotomy between the characters that have to be considered when creating a temporary partnership between typical antagonist and protagonist. I’m sure the writing team had to go back and draw out why Crowley would help Dean/Sam and what might possibly be at stake in that partnership, personally and overall. The writing in season eleven is impressively complicated, featuring a lot of twists and turns, all affecting the main antagonist’s story, but the writers and creators pull it off brilliantly, as everything comes out nearly flawless. That must have been a helluva outline when they were planning out everything.
The last part of this season that helps space out the main story, possibly giving the viewer a bit of a breather, are the individual episodes that take a break from heavy main story content. These episodes, especially in eleven, are hilarious, terrifying and sometimes deeper than expected. For example, there is a great episode where ghosts, who are freaking out because the Darkness is arising, start occupying a small town’s costume shop. When students of a local high school put on costumes, they go on a killing spree. It’s gruesome, creepy (especially when you see the costume with the bunny head) and twisted/funny.
The opposite end of that spectrum are the episodes that get a bit personal and endearing. For example, there is an episode that treats a mystery like a road trip for the Winchester boys, where there is a lot of back and forth in their own personal lives going on, including a vision of Sam seeing his father again, and a light, yet terrifying mystery surrounding it all. That particular episode features a heavy amount of GoPro camera work, which gives way to a lot of close-ups that help to reinforce the personal nature of the content. It’s a bit awkward to see, as it is a weird departure from the usual film quality work and shot sequencing known in the series, but it’s respectfully intentional visual storytelling that changes up the usual walkthrough you would expect from outside storylines of Supernatural.
One of the more fascinating episodes of the season, which starts out funny as hell, is a story surrounding Sam’s imaginary friend from his childhood. It puts together a story where imaginary friends are being murdered, so the Winchesters are contacted to come help unravel the reasoning of why. What comes out of this episode, which again starts out kind of funny and twisted, is another personal tale that gives a bit more dimension to the Winchesters childhood, especially Sam’s. I will say that episode kind of ended on a whimper, but it was still a nice departure and deeper than it should have been.
In true reviewing fashion I won’t reveal how this season ends, nor will I tell you of mystery players that get involved (halfway through the season, prepare thyself), but I will say that after 11 years on the air (12 now, officially) Supernatural is still going strong. Stories, characters and overall flow of the show have avoided getting stale, which is tough for eleven seasons of a similar product year-in and year-out. Heck, even The X-Files struggled around season seven (out of nine) to find fresh content and did its best to stretch out established characters, even secondary ones, into more interesting pieces of stories then they were. Sadly, The X-Files failed hard in that process.
Having said that, for whatever reason, Supernatural hasn’t hit that wall yet. In fact, it’s safe to say that the show is constantly keeping the world of the Winchesters fresh, even though the content seems, at least from a far, to be restrictive and sometimes repetitive. In the end, though, it’s an amazing show that has gotten better with age, which is no small feat. Good writing, acting and belief in the product is what makes this happen. If you need proof of this, season eleven is the perfect example. It features a great main story and some creative independents that still keep a finger pressed to the main body. Again, it’s impressive.
Equally as good as the season, well maybe not equally, but close, are the special features, which are abundant for a television show release on Blu-ray.
Here’s what you’re getting:
· On the Set with Supernatural: The Real Fan Contest
· Jensen Ackles on Directing “The Bad Seed”
· Digital Magic: Enhancing the sets with VFX
· The Winchester Mythology: The Darkness
· 2015 Comic-Con Panel
· 3 Audio Commentaries
· Deleted Scenes
· Gag Reel
The last ‘on the set’ was gold. This one is just as good. You have a lot of good things going with this list, especially when it comes to the VFX shots. This season produced a lot of demanding VFX material and for a television show it did a great job with pulling them off. Budgets on television shows not featuring kingdoms, dragons and epic fights on HBO tend to be restrictive, so it’s good to see a CW show get some VFX love.
The rest of the features are pretty darn solid. You get a lot of good stuff including a the comic-con panel from 2015 and a great gag reel.
Anyway, let’s wrap this up.
