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- TV Series: Supernatural
- Episode: Changing Channels
- Starring: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins
- Written By: Jeremy Carver, Nancy Weiner
- Directed By: Charles Beeson
- Network: CW
- Series:
Supernatural: Changing Channels Review
"I wish I were in a television show" By
Stephen Lackey
November 07, 2009
Supernatural Review
© CW/Bob Trate
John Ritter (Threes Company) and Pam Dawber (Mork & Mindy) starred in a film in 1992 called Stay Tuned. In that film, the two stars played a husband and wife that are literally sucked into their satellite dish and they are forced through the channels finding themselves in spoofs of various genres of television shows. There’s also the Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street) film Shocker where Peter Berg played a high school student who eventually must fight a villain through several channels of television. These are only a few examples of movies that have utilized the gimmick that this week’s episode of Supernatural is built on. Normally such a well worn gimmick would really be a problem in a show that’s generally as good as Supernatural, but the writers did such a great job of using this tool that it doesn’t matter how many times it has been done before. Also, Supernatural spoofs some very modern shows making the jokes much more contemporary than the previous examples.
The Trixter is back this week and he’s really having a good time. Sam has an idea to actually try and have a conversation with this demigod but what he gets is tossed into TV. Sam and Dean find themselves in shows such as ER, CSI, and some other older and completely hilarious shows. There are tons of jokes and situations in this episode that are laugh out loud funny. As you might expect, there are a few “meta” jokes too since Sam and Dean are actually in a television show. This is not completely new territory since Sam and Dean have already been in books on the show.
This is also another one of those fantastic episodes that starts out as a standalone story and eventually works its way around to being central to the bigger story. The revelations in this episode are game changing in terms of what the story is about. What previously felt like an epic struggle comes off more as a family spat by the closing credits of this installment. The parallels between Sam and Dean and their family struggle truly run parallel to that of the angels. Sam has always sort of been a character that is meant for bigger things. Just when things get as big as you think they can get his importance to the balance of the world grows larger. The more interesting and less explored part of this struggle comes with Dean’s involvement. This season has brought Dean more to the forefront of the mythology and the last few episodes have truly leveled him and Sam.
Every time Supernatural has been previewed some scenes from this episode have always been included in the video montage and it makes sense why they were included: this is a stellar installment of the show. This episode demonstrates clearly why the last couple of episodes were a little weaker than the show can be. This is a Supernatural story of the week done to near perfection. It’s funny, it’s dynamic, it still manages to include important mythology elements, and there’s a great quiet sort of ending that has nice impact. The redone opening credits are ingenious and gut busting. This is the best episode of the season and one of the best single story episodes of the show period.
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Ine of the single best episodes of the entire series? I don't know if I'd go that far but it was a very good episode.
And I'm pretty sure that was Grey's Anatomy (with Dr McSexy) which was spoofed, not ER. Not that it makes a huge amount of difference.
Kara S