Supernatural: The Complete First Season

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles star as modern-day Hardy Boys-cum-ghostbusters who take on evil spirits and urban legends with about as much genuine gravitas as a helium balloon in the 22 first season 2005-06 episodes collected in this six-disc boxed set. Both brothers are haunted by their mother's weird death at the hands (or tentacles, or whatever) of some unknown paranormal creature when they were children, and now they have to worry about their Dad as well, who's gone missing from one of his periodic hunts to corner and kill the demon (or whatever). In their travels through small-town Middle America to find Dad, the demon, and some deliverance from their grief, the pair encounter and battle vanishing hitchhikers, malevolent scarecrows, and fiends that show up when little girls at slumber parties inadvertently chant satanic incantations…the usual (not every plot is stolen from The X-Files, but it sure feels like it). DVD extras include a pair of episode commentaries, unaired/extended scenes, two behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a gag reel. Optional. (M. Johanson)