Supernatural: The Complete Tenth Season, DVD Review
“After Dean Winchester lost his battle with power-mad angel scribe Metatron last season, he was resurrected by the power of the First Blade and transformed into a demon, cursed with the Mark of Cain. The road to recovering wayward Dean takes brother Sam down sinister paths himself, with consequences that will shake the boys to their core. The Winchesters’ angelic comrade-in-arms Castiel must pick up the pieces in the aftermath of Metatron’s campaign to overtake Heaven. With his divine “grace” failing and rogue angels still loose, Cass faces the ticking clock of his own mortality while all-new and ages-old threats again push our heroes to their human and otherworldly limits. At the same time, the King of Hell, Crowley, must deal with dissension within his own twisted family. Supernatural: The Complete Tenth Season will unleash your inner demon and hold you spellbound.”
I would say that sums it up pretty well, don’t you think? That’s the official Warner Brothers Home Entertainment description for Supernatural Season Ten, which is due to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, September 8th. Season Ten offered challenges for all the main characters and in the end, it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. You know, business as usual for a set of brothers named Winchester. The question though remains – is the season worth it enough to get this year’s DVD set? While that could be debatable for some based on not always consistent twenty-three episodes of the season, the extras certainly make this a very worthwhile set for your collection.
The Extras
The real reason to get the DVD set is the extras and this year they were extraordinary. This being the 10th season, that opened up the door for some great short films that appropriately highlight what the “Supernatural” phenomenon is all about. It goes further than just a TV show, but hey, we “Supernatural” fans already knew that! It’s not very easy though to capture or explain what kind of fandom has evolved from this small cult show, but these extras did a damn good job.
First, written and produced by Jeff Maynard, is a behind the scenes look at the making of the 200th episode, “Fan Fiction,” called Supernatural Theatre: Staging the 200th Episode. Being a classic car enthusiast, I like to see what’s under the hood. That’s why I really loved this segment. It showed footage of the rehearsals run by director Phil Sgriccia and 1st AD Kevin Parks. Everything was still in concept stage and listening to Sgriccia explain the vision to this group of young girls all coming together for the first time is fascinating. He definitely knows how to do team building.
Another fascinating part of the segment is the interviews with composers Christopher Lennertz and Jay Gruska, and the footage of the rehearsals with Gruska as he put together the very unique arrangement of “Carry on Wayward Son.” The composers are usually the silent ones in the process and we rarely if ever get such a candid glimpse of their process, especially when they had the pleasure of composing a set of original songs for an episode. For me it opened my eyes to the number of moving parts that go into any episode, let alone one so extraordinary as the 200th.
The segment had an easy to follow flow covering the episode through various stages of rehearsal, first day of production and production, while still capturing the sentimental tone that the episode itself did so well. It’s a fan pleaser for sure. It is mind boggling what had to go into the prep of tackling the aspects of low budget musical theater. It really shows the passion of those involved and what went into making the episode something extraordinary. As someone who remembers the “Save our Show” campaigns back at the end of season two and early part of season three, it’s remarkable when you see a moment like this come together for SEASON TEN (and counting).
Another very well done segment, and very likely to trigger a tear or two, is simply called “Fans.” It is also written and produced by Jeff Maynard. This hour long piece that takes us through three fan stories and how their passion projects made an impact to Supernatural itself. The first story follows Sandra, a fan artist from Columbia who turned to Supernatural in a time of tragedy and heartache. Among her many projects, she constructed a Supernatural chess set and presented it to Jared Padalecki as a gift. That set to this day remains in the production room for the cast and crew to see. The second story profiles Keeleigh, the fan who went through some long hours of construction to build the ideal set of Castiel wings for her first ever San Diego Comic Con costume. Watching the story of what went into making those wings was every bit as interesting as when she got to show off her elaborate design (wing extension and all) during the Q&A session of the “Supernatural” panel at Comic Con.
Keeleigh’s story, which also resulted in a big bonding moment for her and her dad, mirrored the story of Rick Blevins, a man who rebuilt a 1967 Impala to look exactly like Dean’s baby. He did it for Stefany Torres, and he enlisted the help of his dad to build the car. They spent hours together on the project, a first considering they hadn’t spent much time together previously. Supernatural has brought the whole Blevins family together in a big way, and that story mirrors a lot of the personal stories out there about what this one TV show has done for them. The highlight of this segment though was watching Rick and Stefany take their car to Chicago where it was used for the filming of the back door Supernatural pilot “Bloodlines.” It always brings a big smile to my face when I see a huge payoff to a lengthy passion project.
(Impala belonging to Stefany Torres, built by Rick Blevins)
The Fans segment features interviews from Mark Sheppard, Eric Kripke, Jeremy Carver, Robert Singer, Adam Glass, Andrew Dabb, Jim Michaels, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, and Jensen Ackles, all who show an adorable affection for the fandom and how they are constantly surprised by what fans do creatively. As a shoutout to the WFB, our writer Bardicvoice, aka Mary Dominak, actually has a mention in the credits! Way to go Mary.
Also in the extras is the ever popular Gag Reel, which clocks in at 7 minutes this year. I always have a favorite bit and this year, let’s just say it’s a little joke about a hammer and a nail. The dialogue is Christmas sweaters though is too priceless for words.
Out of all the extras the weakest segment is “Battling the Mark and the Blade.” It’s a recap of the mytharc for season ten and has interviews from Robbie Thompson, Adam Glass, Jeremy Carver, Robert Singer, Andrew Dabb, Ruth Connell, Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard, Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padalecki. The weakness was certainly not in the production value, just the subject matter. A lot of what was said is obvious to anyone who watched the tenth season, but for those that enjoy a quick little recap, or just interviews with all those creative minds, this is likely the piece for you.
As a bonus, the video of the Supernatural panel at 2014 Comic Con is included among the extras, as well as the special that ran on The CW before the season ten premiere, “A Very Special Supernatural Special.” I got to admit, I do love that Eric Kripke was given a lot of time to speak for that special. I really miss him and his love/enthuiasm for this show. He’s the biggest fan boy of all! As for this year’s Audio Commentaries, the episodes chosen are “The Hunter Games,” “There’s No Place Like Home,” and “The Executioner’s Song.” Those always provide some little known facts about an episode and offer a different persepective from what the initial impression was the first time around.
The Episodes
1. Black
2. Reichenbach
3. Soul Survivor
4. Paper Moon
5. Fan Fiction
6. Ask Jeeves
7. Girls, Girls, Girls
8. Hibbing 911
9. The Things We Left Behind
10. The Hunter Games
11. There’s No Place Like Home
12. About a Boy
13. Halt & Catch Fire
14. The Executioner’s Song
15. The Things They Carried
16. Paint it Black
17. Inside Man
18. Book of the Damned
19. The Werther Project
20. Angel Heart
21. Dark Dynasty
22. The Prisoner
23. Brother’s Keeper
Twenty three in all, and let’s just say that it wasn’t an easy path for any of our main characters. The show certainly liked to ask the question often, “Who is the greater monster?” Did it really matter when it was all done out of love between two brothers?
As many of you know, we at the Winchester Family Business are an opinionated lot. As each episode aired for season ten, we had a whole team of reviewers sharing detailed thoughts and analysis. For a list of the season ten episodes and all the reviews (plus other fun stuff) from the WFB writing team, check out our Season Ten Episode Guide.
SET BASICS
Supernatural Season Ten is available on DVD and Blu-Ray, the latter format being my strong recommendation. This amount of pretty must be enjoyed in the highest quality video possible, and the Full HD format with the Blu-Ray set is rather outstanding.
Also with my Blu-Ray set was a redemption code to get all 23 episodes digitally through Ultraviolet. Considering I didn’t get digital subscriptions of Supernatural this season and have multiple devices, this is a huge bonus to an already great set.
Supernatural: The Complete Tenth Season
Street Date: September 8, 2015
Running Time: Feature: Approx 1012 min /Enhanced Content: Approx 259 min.
DVD
Presented in 16×9 widescreen format
Price: $49.99 SRP
6 DVD-9s
BLU-RAY
4 BD-50s
Ultraviolet Digital Download Offer
1080p Full HD Video, DTS-HD Master
Price: $54.97 SRP
UPDATED:
Deleted scenes from “Fan Fiction”, “Ask Jeeves” “Girls, Girls, Girls.” “The Hunter Games,” “There’s No Place Like Home,” “The Executioner’s Song,” “Book of the Damned” and “Brother’s Keeper”
Audio Commentary:
“The Hunter Games”: Brad Bucker, Eugenie Ross Leming, Curtis Armstrong, John Badham
“There’s No Place Like Home”: Phil Sgriccia, Felicia Day, Robbie Thompson
“The Executioner’s Song”: Phil Sgriccia, Robert Berens, Timothy Omundson
My personal favorite is “The Executioner’s Song.” Tim Omundson is really funny and shares some great info about this episode. As for deleted scenes, there are some interesting ones in “Fan Fiction” and “Brother’s Keeper” involving Dean, Sam, and Castiel in separate scenes. The one with Sam cleaning up the library in “Brother’s Keeper” is particularly interesting!
My Reflections on Season Ten
When a show has been around as long as Supernatural, it’s natural for it to follow an evolution that goes far beyond the original themes and intent. Heck, Supernatural has been through numerous re-inventions, including one that happened in the middle of season one! Season ten though was really an extension of season nine, which all in all was one of the weakest (if not the weakest) seasons of the series. The good news was for season ten it didn’t have to work that hard to surpass the quality of the previous season.
It is hard for any series these days, let alone one that’s been around a decade, to sustain the 23 episode a season model. Inconsistency again plagued Supernatural this season, but all in all each episode offered some entertainment value and has managed to keep fans happy, long time and recent ones. Season ten did have it’s controversies (still bitter about Charlie!), but it had some real highlights as well. As much as we love Castiel and Crowley, who got their own individual adventures this season, the core of the show, Sam and Dean, is what remains the true strength and heart of the series. The brothers stayed together for most of their saga and even though they both did a very skilled tap dance around the issue of the Mark of Cain on Dean’s arm, their struggle to overcome this very dark curse played out well during the last part of the season. The brothers are stronger together and season ten managed to reinforce this well known fact, much to this fan girls’ enjoyment.
Yes, it’s not the show it once was (something that was so well mocked in the 200th episode), but as evidenced from the extras honoring the fans behind this series, Supernatural manages to inspire in ways that goes beyond a simple TV show. Season ten was a milestone and a testament to how this crazy little idea of Eric Kripke’s has managed to defy odds and stand the test of time. This DVD set celebrates that spirit and will make you feel proud to be part of the SPN Family.

Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Honestly for the most part I really enjoyed S10 but your review of the DVD (which I have pre ordered from Amazon) makes me really look forward to all the extras. Can’t wait and so looking forward to S11+++.
Post edit: I just watched one of the deleted scenes…who edits this show? They left a scene out that would have made the finale so much more gut wrenching.
The Sam one right? Those are often deleted because of time. I wish they had found a way to work it in.
I wonder if this will be posted online soon? I don’t have a dvd player so I don’t buy dvd’s. I’d love to see this deleted scene. Why is it always Jared’s scenes that seem to be getting cut? Humph.
Hey I could not play the videos…can you look into that
its showing error loading media and file could not be played…
What browser are you using? I can play the videos on Safari, Firefox, and IE 11, not to mention my iPhone. If I recall, that error happens with older IE browsers like IE9. Let me know what you’re trying to play it on. It’s a third party player, so we’re subject to their quirks with various browsers. Thanks!
Hey Alice thanks… I was playing it in OPera Browser.. BUt i have been able to play it in Mozilla… Initially I was thinking it is not playing because of the Region as I am from India.. But thanks for sharing…:)
My contribution to “Fans” is my one videographer credit: I shot the footage of Jim Beaver meeting his wooden Bobby chess piece avatar. That was a fun moment!
Can’t wait to get it for region 2 code…but I think I have to wait until next year:(
Apologies, but in putting all this together I missed some important info on the deleted scenes and audio commentaries. I updated the article, but here it is too if you don’t want to go looking for it.
Deleted scenes from “Fan Fiction”, “Ask Jeeves” “Girls, Girls, Girls.” “The Hunter Games,” “There’s No Place Like Home,” “The Executioner’s Song,” “Book of the Damned” and “Brother’s Keeper”
Audio Commentary:
“The Hunter Games”: Brad Bucker, Eugenie Ross Leming, Curtis Armstrong, John Badham
“There’s No Place Like Home”: Phil Sgriccia, Felicia Day, Robbie Thompson
“The Executioner’s Song”: Phil Sgriccia, Robert Berens, Timothy Omundson
My personal favorite is “The Executioner’s Song.” Tim Omundson is really funny and shares some great info about this episode (he’s a Cas fan!). As for deleted scenes, there are some interesting ones in “Fan Fiction” and “Brother’s Keeper” involving Dean, Sam, and Castiel in separate scenes. The one with Sam cleaning up the library in “Brother’s Keeper” is particularly interesting!