The Top Twenty Episodes of Supernatural (Part One)

I love this show. It does actually seem to be the one show that never gets dull, and that's down to Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Jensen Ackles (Dean), as well as Eric Kripke, Robert Singer, and, well, basically everyone who works or has worked on the show, such as Misha Collins (Castiel) or Jim Beaver (Bobby).

This list turned out to be one of the most difficult lists I ever decided to do. Namely because I loved so many episodes. At one point I had forty episodes on this list, and I hadn't even focused on Season Five yet.

So I've decided to do the only thing I can do, rather than do a top ten, I've decided to do a top twenty. I've also split the lists, to give you a break. I've also only gone over Seasons one to five. I'll probably do a top ten/twenty of seasons six and seven later, but for now here's the first part of my top twenty episodes of Supernatural.

20. The Magnificent Seven (Season 3, episode 1)

And we start off with Azazel's plan coming to fruition. At the climax of season two, the gates to Hell have been opened and hundreds, if not thousands of demons have been let loose onto the world. And seven of those demons are the original seven sins.

That's right, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Greed, and Sloth have come to Earth and are eager to stretch their legs. Sloth makes a family sit down and never get up, Gluttony makes another hunter drink bleach, while Envy is coincidentally in a shop when one woman kills another over shoes.

I suppose what makes this episode one of my favourites are the Seven Deadly Sins themselves. Unfortuantely we don't really get much personality from all of them, in fact Envy seems to be the only one who has a majority of the lines, while the other six only have a few. We do get some personality, just not a lot, like Pride living up to his name and Lust, who inhabits a female body, wants to get it on with the Tamara. Unfortunately this does not happen.

We also get a last stand finale which I do love. We are also introduced to the demon Ruby (Played here by Katie Cassidy) who saves Sam by killing three of the Sins with her demon killing knife, and in a way that almost ruins it. Rather than the Winchesters, Tamara and Bobby overcoming the Seven Deadly Sins, a McGuffin walks in through the front door. But it's still an enjoyable episode.

19. In My Time of Dying (2.01)

At the end of the first season, Sam and Dean had just rescued their father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) from a horde of demons, only to find that he was possessed by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Azazel. Instead of shooting a kill shot with the Colt (The only gun capable of killing, well, anything), Sam shoots him in the leg, freeing him from Azazel who flees. The Winchester family flee as well, only to be hit by a truck, being driven by a demon.

This episode follows on immediately afterwards, and while Sam and their father John survive the crash, Dean is in a coma and is having an out of body experience. He then finds that he's being hunted by a reaper, a creature that works for THE Grim Reaper Death.

This episode shows what family means to the characters. John gave up his life and the Colt in order to save Dean, selling his soul to Azazel (Played for the first time by Fredric Lehne). It goes to show, no matter what has happened between the Winchesters, family is always important to them.

We also get Dean falling for what he believes is another dying person, Tessa, who is being hunted by the reaper, but then it turns out she IS the reaper. Dean is obviously shocked by this as Tessa explains to him the natural process of things, that there is no other way. And when Dean is ready to pass on, Azazel turns up, takes control of Tessa and returns Dean to his body, leaving him no memory of what has happened. John dies shortly thereafter, leaving the Winchesters heartbroken and wondering why he's dead. They do figure it out but the emotional and desperate situation make this one great episode.

18. Scarecrow (1.11)

The brothers have had a fight and split up, Sam finds Meg (Eventually revealled to be possessed by Azazel's demon daughter) (Nicki Aycox) while Dean comes across a town that love couples but hate him. Dean then finds out that the town sacrifices couples (A man and woman) every year to a Pagan God that has taken the form of a scarecrow.

The scarecrow itself was the main reason why this episode was intriguing. We don't see a lot of it but it the design, background, and what it actually does make it a fantastic monster. The scarecrow, since it's a God, is virtually unstoppable, everything Dean throw at it bounced off like he was firing paper balls at it.

The townsfolk also give a memorable performance, mainly because of the way they treat the sacrifices like spoilt kids while treating Dean like he carries the plague. Like the council in 'Hot Fuzz', they're only thinking of the greater good, but admit that they try to ignore the screams of the sacrifices, indicating that they feel guilty about what they're doing. It was also interesting to see how the brothers act without each other, it's not like they'll do that again in a hurry.

17. No Rest For the Wicked (3.16)

During the season two finale, Sam is also killed. Dean, still suffering from the guilt that his father sacrificed himself for Dean, decides to visit a crossroads demon to make a deal; Dean for Sam. The demon agrees, but only gives Dean one year left to live rather than the ten she normally offers. Dean accepts. Now that year is up and the Hellhounds will be coming. Sam and Dean find that one demon holds Dean's contract, the new Queen of Hell Lilith (Sierra McCormick).

Dean, Sam and Bobby go to take on Lilith and her group of demons, but the episode doesn't quite work out the way they wanted it to. Lilith, under the guise of Ruby, gets the drop on the Winchesters and escapes, but not before she set her Hellhounds on Dean, ripping him apart and sending him to Hell.

Another against the odds episodes, this is one of the episodes where the hero doesn't win, and that's probably the reason why Supernatural continues to entertain people, because it's not just the heroes wins every single time, sometimes the heroes fail, sometimes they win but at a price. And the image of Dean in Hell is one that will stick with you for all time.

16. Sin City (3.04)

Elizabethville has turned from a nice peaceful town into the new Las Vegas. Suspecting demon trouble, the Winchesters head over. Upon arriving they meet Richie, a hunter who Dead has worked with before but will be killed off by the possessed Casey (Sasha Barrese).

Dean works out what happens and manages to trap Casey in a Devil's Trap (A demon holding cell if you will), but she also traps Dean, leaving them trapped together. Casey reveals that she has a partner, so it now becomes a race as to who will get to them first, Sam or the other demon.

Basically it's the chemistry between Dean and Casey that makes this episode great. They're forced to talk to each other to keep themselves occupied, and this actually generates a bond between the two, which is odd for Dean since he keeps saying how working with Ruby is a bad move. In fact, when they're finally rescued by their respective partners, Casey manages to persuade her partner (Father Gill, played by Robert Curtis Brown) not to kill Dean, and Dean tries but fails to persuade Sam not to kill them.

15. The Curious Case of Dean Winchester (5.07)

Now this was a fun episode to watch. A twenty-five year old has died of old age after aging rapidly, and Dean, Sam, and Bobby learn that there's a powerful warlock in town who is gambling years. Though it makes you wonder what the twenty-five year old was gambling for. Bobby gets to him first but, feeling useless since he was confined to a wheelchair (Back in 'Sympathy For the Devil', first episode of season five) he decides to take a risk and try and reclaim his legs. Bobby instead loses and is now dying.

Dean decides to play the warlock, named Patrick (Hal Ozsan) to reclaim Bobby's years (Cashing in twenty-five on the spot for him) and goes on with another twenty-five years at risk. Dean loses and ends up as an old man.

Basically, it's down to two people, Patrick and old Dean (Chad Everett). Of course the episode being written well helps but really it's the chemistry between Bobby, Sam and old Dean and the villain that make this entertaining. Everett really does make you believe it's an aged Dean. Patrick meanwhile isn't your typical villain. He's sure won a lot of games to be over 900 years old, but he's not a monster, if he sees someone desperately needing a new lease on life he will give them the years, he did it twice in the episode. In fact, we feel sympathetic towards him when his girlfriend of a few centuries gets sick of watching loved ones die and loses a game on purpose to Patrick.

14. Wishful Thinking (4.08)

Now THIS was a fun episode to watch. The Winchester's travel to Concrete, Washington to investigate a ghost who apologised for peeping in on a woman who was showering. They later learn that Bigfoot stole alcohol and porn mags from a shop, or rather a little girl's teddy bear who is now huge and alive has come down with depression. It seems people's wishes are coming true, and it's tearing the town apart.

Firstly, this episode was hilarious. To have so many random things happening in one place, Dean even gets beaten up by a kid who wished for super strength so he can take on his bullies. But it's also an episode which tells you to "be careful what you wish for", especially since the thing behind these wishes make them bad.

It's also sad, because the first wisher, Wes Mondale (Ted Raimi) wished to marry the girl of his dreams, but he's the only one who can stop the wishes, but it will also reverse the wishes, so Wes is a bit reluctant to do so. He realises what he has done when his fiance Hope (Anita Brown) wishes for no-one to come between her and Wes and Sam gets hit by a thunderbolt. Wes reverses what he did, and Hope doesn't recognise him. Wes walks off, alone and miserable, sacrificing his own happiness for the good of everyone else.

I know how that feels. That's probably why I love this episode, it tugs at my heart.

13. The Hookman (1.07)

I'll be blunt, I love the urban legend. And like the scarecrow in 'Scarecrow', the design for the Hookman looks brilliant (If anyone knows how to come by a similar looking hook, please tell me) as was the background to the Hookman.

I loved the humor in this, the horror, the story, everything in this was brilliant. I like how they incorporated other urban legends into this, I liked how the character controlling the Hookman unwittingly sent the Hookman after themselves.

Basically I just loved this episode.

12. Abandon All Hope (5.10)

At the start of this episode, Dean, Sam, Castiel, Bobby, Ellen (Samantha Ferris) and Jo (Alona Tal) are on a high after reclaiming the Colt from Lucifer's main man Crowley (Mark Sheppard) simply gives them the gun, citing that if Lucifer succeeds in killing all of humanity, then demonkind is next on his list, since demons are created from humans and are therefore the next closest thing.

This episode proved to be a kick in the teeth for all the good guys involved.

They discover that Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) is in Missouri, but upon arriving there they find the town is full of reapers (Though only Castiel can see them, who says that they only gather like this for major events like Pompeii). They eventually learn that Lucifer is planning on calling Death to Earth. The town has been overruned by demons and Meg (Returning from Hell) sends quite a few Hellhounds (Invisible man eating beasts) after our group of heroes, fatally wounding Jo.

Basically at the end of it Jo and Ellen are blown up, the townsfolk are dead, Death now works for Lucifer and we learn that the Colt, humanity's only hope, CAN'T kill Lucifer. The episode starts off with our heroes celebrating, it ends with a funeral.

This episode really should be higher on the list, but here will do. The episode is just superb, the action, the sacrifices, the brutal revelation that killing Lucifer won't be as easy as they thought it would. To be honest, it made the finale of season five look rubbish in comparison.

11. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid/Two Minutes to Midnight (5.15/5.21)

Okay I'm cheating here, but I really couldn't decide which one I prefer. We'll go over 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' first. The Apocalypse is in full swing and in Bobby's home town the dead have been rising...and that's it. These zombies are just returning to their normal lives, they're not that hungry at all. At first. Eventually Death (Who raised them) gives them the signal and the zombies begin their rampage, targeting Bobby because of his connection with the Winchesters.

The fact that the dead were rising from their graves, yet not doing anything, is the main reason why this episode was brilliant, it just adds to the shows humor and makes the characters feel that they're the bad guys for wanting to destroy them, including Bobby's late wife. It's also great to see some background of Bobby, who has increasingly been becoming more involved with the Winchesters, especially after John's death. And then the last stand scenario between the undead and the whole town was fantastic, especially since at the end of it the townsfolk get to see what Bobby actually does and see the hero that he really is (Rather than the town drunk).

'Two Minutes to Midnight' meanwhile finds Death planning a storm to end all storms, wiping Chicago off the map. Crowley takes Dean into Chicago to stop him while Sam, Castiel and Bobby go to stop a shipment of the Croatoan virus (A demon virus which makes people cuckoo). Dean finds Death (Julian Richings), expecting a big battle, but ends up having a calm conversation over the Apocalypse, while Death enjoys Chicago's finest pizza.

Here Dean, and the audience are swept off their feet by Richings performance, who makes you feel that he was born for the role. Death essentially insults everyone, saying how insignificant he finds Dean, how Lucifer is a child having a tantrum, he even says how one day he'll even reap God. Heck, the first time we see Death in this (Coming out of pale white car), that entire scene, Death walking down the road with the song 'O Death', was just immense, it makes a chill go down my spine every time. Death gives Dean his ring to help him defeat Lucifer and spares Chicago because he loves the pizza.

Really, Richings makes this episode, watch it simply because of him.


And there's the first ten of my list, tune in in a couple of days for the top ten.

The Loved Ones (2009)

So. This film exists. Yeah, I saw this tonight so it's still fresh in my mind, and, I still don't really know what to make of it. 'The Loved Ones' follows Brent (Xavier Samuel), who survives a car crash in the intro of the film, but his father does not. Six months later Brent turns down Lola Stone (Robin McLeavy) after she asked him to the prom, since he has a girlfriend, Holly (Victoria Thaine). Lola takes it gentle. And by that I mean her father (John Brumpton) kidnaps him and Brent, Lola, her father and Bright Eyes (Anne Scott-Pendlebury) all have their own little prom. Brent gets tortured for an hour of the film.

Yeah, this is a torture porn film. Apparently film makers don't realise yet that viewers don't want to watch someone get tortured for most of the film. The weird thing though, is that this particular film works. It shouldn't work, but it does, the film manages to remain captivating. This is despite some unnecessary scenes like Lola's father driving with Brent in the back, because apparently the makers think we needed multiple scenes of this, and one scene which tells us that Lola is crazy, despite the fact that we already know that. While the film seemed to lack drive at first, the film really does pick up.

There's also a sub-plot of Brent's friend Jamie (Richard Wilson) goes out with Mia (Jessica McNamee), this involves them going to prom, getting drunk and doing drugs in the car, before being kicked out of prom for Mia's sex drive. I was thinking there must be a point to these characters and these scenes, but there wasn't. They don't help Brent because they don't know what happened, they don't end up accidentally stumbling upon the Stone residence, they just go to prom and that's that. But then again the scenes are welcome, because otherwise the whole film would just be Brent getting tortured, which would quickly put the audience off.

The gore is really effective. There's enough there to gross out the audience, but not on the scale of 'The Human Centipede 2', so it does horrify the audience rather than just sicken them. There were in fact moments where I just couldn't watch the whole clip and had to look away for a few seconds. They even had some psychological horror in the film, the best example being (Along the lines of) "You have ten seconds to piss, or my dad will nail it (His penis) to the chair".

The acting meanwhile, is brilliant, and that's probably why this film is enjoyable. Xavier Samuel was spectacular as Brent, especially since he doesn't utter a line of dialogue past the twenty minute mark, since Lola injects bleach into his voice box (Though I'm pretty sure that would actually kill him). Samuel's expressions, his movements, he portrays a lot of emotions, despite the fact that he can't say a word, it really is stunning. John Brumpton as Daddy Stone also gives a very strong performance, as a man who is willing to do anything to please his daughter, and yet he's also visibly terrified of her as well.

But the true star of this film is Robin McLeavy for her portrayal as Lola. It's so easy to get lost in her performance, you'd forget that she's a fictional character. She can change from creepy to seductive to pure insanity with ease, her character turns out to be more frightening and memorable than originally thought. She has brilliant chemistry with pretty much every single other character she shares the screen with, especially Brumpton, her onscreen father/love. Yes, there's incest. Thankfully nothing happened, but this doesn't deter the fact that Robin effectively makes this film.

So initial feelings of this film, to be honest, I had no idea what to think of it. I was probably leaning more towards not liking this film, but now that I wrote this review, I've gained some respect for it. While the acting is great, Robin is the cream of the crop, she is the main reason to watch this. The film itself is pretty good, even if it is torture porn. It keeps you captivated, the characters are actually likable and the film has a brilliant flow. Watch this simply for Robin McLeavy, it's not the best film in the world, but it certainly has one of the best villains in it. Don't watch it though if you're going prom, you might get paranoid.

Flood (2007)

Hmm. Let me tell you about one of my favourite books. In 2002 Richard Doyle had his story 'Flood' published. In 'Flood' a storm coincides with a high tide which sends a huge tidal wave towards London. Along the way an oil refinery blows up, and with the oil on top of the water, London is not only submerged, but set on fire as well. There are (Pretty much) no main characters as the story swaps between normal citizens and government figures trying to work out what to do, effectively every single person in the capital are the main characters, sure, there are some characters who are mentioned more often than others, but London itself is the main character.

What follows is a realistic approach to how London would deal with what is effectively a disaster on Biblical proportions. Richard Doyle had interviewed and questioned loads of people and organisations, gathered loads of information and thought hard on what people, including important politicians, would do. The acknowledgements at the back of the book include DEFRA, the Cabinet Office, the British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence, and the Department of Health. And it really does show.

The film,does the exact opposite. The first major flaw in this film is that London doesn't get set on fire. London being set on fire, added more suspense to the story, it made a terrible situation even more dangerous. I understand that it isn't in your budget, but that was the main thing I was looking forward to.

Apart from that the film story is still relatively the same, a flood comes along at Spring high tide and submerges London. The problem is, rather than focus on the community as a whole, it only focuses on a small cast. We have Rob Morrison (Robert Carlyle), Samantha Morrison (Jessalyn Gilseg, a.k.a Claire's hot mom from 'Heroes'), Leonard Morrison (Tom Courtenay), Deputy Prime Minister Campbell (David Suchet), and Police Commissioner Patricia Nash (Joanne Whalley). And they're all as wooden as the tree which was used to make the pages for the book.

Yeah, the acting isn't really that good, which is bizarre since we have great acting talents like Carlyle and Suchet, who in all fairness were the strongest in this, but that's not saying much. Hell, even Tom 'Bane' Hardy is in this!. But even if they were at their A game, they couldn't save this TV film, since everyone else gave little to no effort. Courtenay was the main offender here, where in literally every single scene he drained the energy from it.

The other characters meanwhile just keep intruding on the film. The two subways worker (One of whom is Tom Hardy) apparently weren't worth being radioed about the evacuation, and only served as a means of getting main characters out, while Nash's...um...assistant only serves to pop up every once in a while to say whether Nash's kids have been found. In fact, Nash seems to have too much control over the situation. She may be a police commissioner, but surely one of the military figures in the room have more authority than her.

Not only that, but Nash doesn't seem to register that organising things take time, as shown when she asks where the American Chinook helicopters were. Now, in all fairness, in the book the President of America does consider cutting the UK loose and focus on saving his own economy. Well, with the city of London under water the global economy will take a bit of a pounding. But then again US, as well as French and German military do assist in helping search and rescue. In this, there's no sign of them.

But that's not all. Rather than show us Nash taking full control of the situation, it shows she's more concerned with finding her kids. Understandable but you do have the capital of Britain flooded. But what really frustrates me is when Nash's assistant tells her that her kids have been found. We then get the following line:
Nash: I haven't lost my kids.
Leonard: They're all that matter.
Oh yeah! Her kids are all that matter. It's not like you have the heart of Britain's economy submerged and a death toll most likely in the hundreds of thousands. Oh no, as long as you have your kids, everything is all right. Bitch.

A bit of a spoiler segment here. If you don't know this already, London has the Thames Barrier. It is a beautiful and brilliant piece of engineering, and is designed to prevent London from flooding in the case of high tides or storms. In the book/film, global warming has caused the sea level to rise and therefore the Thames Barrier is overwhelmed. In the book, really the only way for London to recover (Apart from the fire, rain puts that out) is simply for the waters to recede. In the film, apparently just raising the Thames Barrier cures everything. And because the military are impatient, they want to blow it up. The Thames Barrier cost £534million in 1984, and would help to defend London against future flood risks, and the military want to blow it up. And all because they couldn't wait two minutes. We even get this line at one point:
Deputy Prime Minister: Major General, your aircraft are to remain on the ground at the present time.
Someone. presumably the Major General: Deputy Prime Minister, get me a reason to delay this.
Um, how about he's the Deputy Prime Minister you idiot?
And how come the room at the Barrier where you open the gates have to be sealed? Which means that whoever goes in there has to sacrifice themselves?

And now, the effects. For a TV movie, they're not bad effects, though you do get the odd helicopter which doesn't look right. The water effects themselves vary from scene to scene. The opening storm scene in Scotland where we see a village submerged is a prime example for when it's bad, since it doesn't look real at all. When we get sky shots of the tidal wave racing through London, it does in fact look really good. The problem is we don't really see any major consequences. Most of what we see occurs at the Thames Barrier or underground. We might see the odd street get flooded, but we don't really see any major destruction occur. Unlike the book where we get told what people are experiencing while London is flooding and burning. If we're told about any tragedy or calamity, I don't recall it, in which case I'd blame the bland acting and insipid dialogue for boring me to death. There are also some really bad green screen effects.

For what the film is, in all honesty, isn't that bad. It's still pretty enjoyable, though I'm not entirely sure why. But for an adaptation, it's stupid. The characters we follow in the film aren't taken from the novel at all, the acting is half arsed, the dialogue is even worse, and the film just ends. It pretty much just ends, we get no aftermath or conclusion, it just ends. The effects were pretty much the only saving grace, but it was just mediocre at best.

Ted (2012)

Seth McFarlane, better known for his work behind 'Family Guy', 'American Dad' and'The Cleveland Show', tackles his first motion picture. Apart from voice acting or starring in them of course. The introduction to 'Ted' shows a young boy called John being given a teddy bear for Christmas. One night he wishes that his teddy bear was alive, and that's what he gets. The film then fastforwards twenty odd years where John has grown into Mark Wahlberg, is going out with Lori (Mila Kunis), and still has Ted (voiced by Seth McFarlane) for a roommate.

Firstly, yes it is funny. There is definitely a hint of the same humor from 'Family Guy', 'American Dad', and 'The Cleveland Show', especially 'Family Guy' as you get the cutaway gags, which is both good, and bad at the same time. It's good mainly because fans of McFarlane's will get into the film with ease. It's bad, because 'Ted' could then be classed as a carbon copy, good lord his animated shows are already being called carbon copies. It doesn't really help when the same actors and actresses from those shows have been called in, like Mila Kunis (Family Guy), Patrick Stewart (American Dad), Patrick Warburton (Family Guy), and Alex Borstein (Family Guy).

This being a live action film, I thought McFarlane was going to take a risk, try something completely different, make 'Ted' its own entity, and in a way he does succeed that, but not by much. And while the jokes are still funny, some do just fall flat or take too long to reach the punchline. Don't get me wrong, I still think this is one of the funniest films of the year, but I would understand if some find it falls flat. The Thunder Song itself is both really funny but overused thanks to the trailers.

The film does also take a risk at criticising other films, like 'Superman Returns' and 'Jack and Jill', saying the latter is "unwatchable", thankfully the film is good enough to criticise other films.That being said, there will be some jokes which some will probably find highly offensive, so watch if you dare.

Storywise, it's damn interesting, you can't deny that. But you can't help but feel that they're trying to cram so much into the film, which would explain why the film is nearly two hours long, and unfortunately you feel this. If you get my drift. Basically, it's bum numbing. We have the introducion of course, to both the childhood and adult life, Lori feeling that Ted is a bad influence, Ted moving out, John and Lori breaking up, the quest to get them back together, it's can be long winded.

The acting, was really good. Mila Kunis is, as always, a gem, the supporting cast were great too and we had brilliant cameos from Sam Jones and Ryan Reynolds. Mark Wahlberg, I admit I never really liked him. I thought he was one of the most overrated actors of all time, mainly due to the Italian Job remake (Yes, I don't like it), and not even 'The Departed' changed my mind that much. Here though, I may actually start liking the guy. I truly enjoyed Whalberg's performance in this. Giovanni Ribsi was an unexpected surprise, and he played his part wonderfully.

The special effects meanwhile, were brilliant. The motion capture used on Ted was superb and he really did look like he was a living breathing character, he looks like he is actually there, it looks like the characters are actually interacting with him. I think there are one or two moments where that skill is lost, but despite that it's still really good.


So overall, it has its flaws. But, it's still a hugely enjoyable film. The acting is great, the story is well thought out, most of the jokes are actually funny (Which is something most other comedies lack), it really is a must see. In all honesty, I do think it's a marmite film from what other people have said, but the majority of people do seem to love it rather than hate it, and I for one love it.