‘Supernatural: Season 10’ Blu-ray Review

When looking at TV there aren’t a lot of shows like Supernatural that last as long. You had Buffy the Vampire Slayer for seven seasons, Angel at a shorter-lived five seasons, and I throw in Smallville for comparison at ten seasons, so seeing Supernatural at ten seasons with no sign of slowing down is a nice change. Much like those three other shows, Supernatural stared as a ‘monster of the week’ journey following Sam and Dean Winchester as they fight against the stuff of nightmares but over the years has started to include story arcs that spanned entire seasons.

The Show Itself

This growth has kept the series fresh over the past decade and allowed them to succeed where many others have failed. If I was forced to describe the show for the first decade I would probably go with something like, ‘It’s like a less serious X-Files.’ That’s not to say that the show doesn’t have its serious moments, but it’s more that it’s not afraid to have plenty of fun along the way. They routinely poke fun at themselves and at TV in general and that helps to keep it fresh.

Season 9 was full of very serious episodes and some very big challenges for The Boys. Supernateral: The Complete 10th Season picks that pattern right back up but pretty quickly. Episode 5, “Fan Fiction,” marked the show’s 200th episode and brought something special back for fans. We get a fun episode full of Sam and Dean at their best. This is also a season of revisiting folks from season’s past. We get Sheriff Jody Mills and Sheriff Donna Hanscum, we get Charlie and some more from OZ, and we get Castiel’s vessel’s daughter. All in all, these folks add another dimension to the season.

Supernatural: The Complete 10th Season does a good job giving us the more fun ‘monster-of-the-week’ episodes and creating some engaging season-long stories. The main bad guys for the season would be Crowley’s mother Rowena, the mysterious and powerful Stein family, and the season’s quest to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean. I think the best part about this season is the balance they found with the larger story arcs and how they still fit in the funner episodes. If I’ve had any complaint about the last few seasons it would be that they’ve only focused on the larger arc, but to be fair those arcs have been really good.

Without giving too much away this is a great season and should re-energize the series. If you liked the earlier seasons better this may be the time for you to start watching again but if you’ve like the last couple of seasons best you’ll still be happy. Trust me, Season 10 is very good; the wife and I watched the whole season three or four episodes at a time (stupid work always getting in the way of a good binge watch).

200th episode

The Presentation

Like you would expect of modern Blu-rays, Supernatural‘s visual presentation doesn’t disappoint with all the episodes presented in 1080p format thanks to a strong Mpeg-4 encode. The dark nature of the episodes, since you don’t hunt monsters in the daylight, present plenty of challenges associated with giving good solid blacks and all the shades of grey, but they meet that challenge squarely and head on. The picture is very three-dimensional, and the image is an upgrade from what I’ve seen on television. I was never pulled out of the action by problems with the video or anything like that as the picture remained consistent throughout all the episodes.

The audio for Supernateral: The Complete 10th Season is solid as well. Presented in 5.1 DTS-HD for English and in 2.0 Dolby Digital for Spanish and Portuguese, the sound delivers a good balance and also boasts an upgrade from the television broadcast. While missing the 7.1 of many newer Blu-rays, the 5.1 would be on par with most TV shows. The surround sound does its job with detail and music but never interferes with the dialogue of the center channel. The sound is pretty important to help set some of the creepy scenes, and this show has always done a great job with it.

The Boys and Charlie

Extra Features

What release would be complete without the extra features. One of the things that really helps make this show great is the relationship you can see with all the actors. Extra features give us a great look into those relationships and the ideas and feelings of the people creating the show. This season has some great extra features.

  • A Very Supernatural Special – Cast and producers share favorite memories and monstrosities from Seasons 1-9
  • Supernatural at 2014 Comic-Con – Cast and producers preview season 10
  • Supernatural Theater: Staging the 200th Episode – Go behind the scenes of ‘Fan Fiction,’ featuring Supernatural: The Musical
  • The Winchester Mythology: Battling the Mark and the Blade – Excavate the mythological influences in Season 10
  • Supernatural FANS – The special relationship between the show and its audience
  • Unaired Scenes
  • Gag Reel
  • 3 Episode Audio Commentaries

Season 10 box art

Final Thoughts

Supernatural: The Complete 10th Season was around before the zombies took over TV and filled a specific void. There weren’t many, if any, shows doing what they set out to do. They have managed to stay fresh and fun and exciting for a decade. The 10th Season delivers on the promises and ideas they’ve been developing for the entire series. Like I said earlier, either style of the show you’ve liked you’ll find in this season. And if you haven’t watched Supernatural, you probably should. Netflix and Amazon can get you caught up.

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