Blu-ray Review: Supernatural: The Complete Twelfth Season

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.

Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester, in addition to Misha Collins as Castiel and Mark A. Sheppard as Crowley. This season returns Kim Rhodes as Sheriff Jody Mills, Samantha Smith shows up as the newly resurrected Mary Winchester, Kathryn Newton as the rebellious Claire Novak, Rick Springfield becomes the new vessel for Lucifer with Mark Pellegrino returning to the role afterwards. Created by Eric Kripke, the twelfth season of the hit series was executive produced by Andrew Dabb, Robert Singer, Phil Sgriccia, Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming and Jeremy Carver.

The Winchester family business adds a little more family in Season Twelve! In the show’s twelfth season, Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles) are reunited with their mother, Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith), newly resurrected by the apocalyptic force known as the Darkness. But Mary Winchester is not the only family appearing this season.  In addition to Lucifer being sprung from Hell, he’s also expecting a son.  Now, the Winchesters – with Castiel’s help – must not only contend with Crowley, Lucifer and his spawn, and the arrival of the conniving British Men of Letters (who’ve come to “complicate” their hunting days), but they’ll also have to relearn what it is to be a family again after all these years.

Sam and Dean get to have a family reunion this season with their mother who has returned from the dead to help in the fight against evil. Lucifer also returns to wreak more havoc on Earth but he also has to deal with Crowley who always has a little devilish fun with the fallen angel. Lucifer also has a child on the way and there’s a big mystery surrounding this supernatural pregnancy and Castiel plays a major role in it. By the way, why does Castiel always look so sad? Anyway, there’s a new group of monster hunters that have entered the picture and the brothers end up forming an uneasy alliance with them that ends up backfiring. This group lives by a certain code and can’t be trusted. Or can they? These are the three continuing story arcs this season but Sam and Dean also have some side battles that includes more vampires, werewolves, ghosts, urban legends, and even Hitler. Did I mention the Colt even shows back up this season? Like the previous season finales, this one ends with another shocking cliffhanger that features an apocalyptic tear in space and time and a super cool cameo.

Okay, the stories for Supernatural continue to be fresh and entertaining after all these years that find Sam and Dean going up against sinister new threats season after season after season and there’s always a little humor, good eating and beer drinking to go along with it. Dean still has a healthy appetite and continues to drink cold beer whenever he’s given the chance. He’s also pretty good with the ladies, too. Sam on the other hand is usually focused and keeps his head in the game. There’s also the FBI gags that have been going on since the series first started and those awesome “rock star” names never get old. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles continue to do an amazing job as Sam and Dean Winchester plus they still get to drive around in that cool ’67 Impala aka “Baby.” I love that freaking car! There’s also Misha Collins and Mark A. Sheppard who have become fan favorite characters in the series and continue to add even more humor to the series. To go along with all of this, Supernatural continues to feature iconic monsters along with some impressive looking special effects. The series uses both practical and visual effects.

The packaging comes with a nice slipcase – the same kind all of the other home video release like this from WBHE come in. The front features the artwork you see up top and the back includes season twelve details, some images and list of special features. There’s also a booklet inside that includes a list of the episodes with synopsis, original airdates, more images, and series credits. All four of the Blu-ray discs also include artwork that features Sam and Dean Winchester. Inserting each disc, the menu screens were simple and easy to navigate. The picture and sound quality for this high-definition release were crisp and clear. I didn’t have any issues with the video and audio.

Bottom line is, Supernatural: The Complete Twelfth Season was another exciting entry into this long running horror series with an attitude and a killer sense of humor. The fact that they can still come up wth original stories after twelve seasons is impressive and they do it really well. I still enjoy following these interesting characters as they go on these dangerous adventures where they take on all kinds of iconic monsters as well as bump into old friends and enemies. Supernatural has always kept this simple formula that has made it such a success with the fans over the years and that’s keeping it story and character driven and letting the special effects serve as a support tool. There’s also some awesome classic rock tunes that fit right in with the storytelling. Supernatural: The Complete Twelfth Season releases on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD) on September 5th and is worth adding to your Supernatural collection. The series may have slowed down just a bit over the years but there’s still plenty of gas in the tank of that old ’67 Chevy Impala.

Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Run Time: 4 Discs / 23 Episodes / 969 Minutes

1. Keep Calm and Carry On
2. Mamma Mia
3. The Foundry
4. American Nightmare
5. The One You’ve Been Waiting For
6. Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox
7. Rock Never Dies
8. LOTUS
9. First Blood
10. Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets
11. Regarding Dean
12. Stuck in the Middle (With You)
13. Family Feud
14. The Raid
15. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
16. Ladies Drink Free
17. The British Invasion
18. The Memory Remains
19. The Future
20. Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes
21. There’s Something About Mary
22. Who We Are
23. All Along the Watchtower

Rated: Not Rated

Blu-ray Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (1.78:1)

Blu-ray Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio for English 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish

Special Features: Good Stuff! The extras feature over four hours of bonus content that includes 3 Mythology featurettes, audio commentaries, the show’s packed Comic-Con panel, deleted scenes, a priceless gag reel and a digital copy of season twelve.

• The Winchester Mythology: Mary Winchester (09:48)
• The Winchester Mythology: Clash of the British Men of Letters (14:58)
• The Winchester Mythology: The Hunters Life (15:41)
• Supernatural 2016 Comic-Con Panel (31:27)
• Audio Commentaries
• Deleted Scenes – The deleted scenes are located on each disc with the episodes.
• Gag Reel (11:10)
• Digital HD Copy