So, let’s recap, shall we? Things weren’t looking so rosy for Sam and Dean at the end of series 4; thinking they’d totally cracked this demon lark Sam had finally killed pesky mega-devil Lilith, only for everything to go horribly, Satan-releasingly wrong. It turns out her life was the final in the 66 seals that kept Lucifer from walking the earth, and her death meant only one thing. Lucifer was seriously, blinding free, and far from the Winchesters’ problems being over, they’d only just begun.

Angels and Demons

Never a series to keep us from the good stuff, season 5 begins right where we left off, with Sam and Dean in the church as Satan rises. Seemingly unable to escape, they do what every logical demon-hunter does in these scenarios – go and visit the prophet Chuck. But there’s been some serious smiting-action there too, and it isn’t long before the boys have to get back to the matter in hand – defeating Lucifer and claiming back the world for good. But it’s never that easy, is it? Demon-exploding and heartfelt emotions go hand in hand in the glorious Supernatural world, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Sam is still angry at Dean for betraying him for some chick. Will the Winchester wonders work out their differences? Will they track down Lucifer; now inhabiting the body of a recently bereaved young man? Will they discover the vessel by which Michael can finally smite him? There’s only one way to find out…

Peaked too soon?

Series 5 was meant to be the final series of Supernatural, and considering the stakes couldn’t be much higher than Ultimate Battle Between Good And Evil, it might have been wise to end it with this season, and all the glory within it. Still, series 6 has been commissioned, so we can only hope that the fever-pitch they reach in this series continues with future episodes. The glorious thing about Supernatural is its wonderful freedom with its genre; by turns comedic, heartbreaking, bizarre and genuinely frightening, its the first scare-series since Buffy The Vampire Slayer that finds a perfect balance between great drama and pure, unabashed sillyness. Frankly, any programme that can kill off a main character and immediately describe the tragic event as “exploding… like a water balloon of chunky soup.” is OK with us.

A must for anyone who likes their guilty pleasures with a chunky slice of homoerotic meta-comedy, Supernatural Series 5 doesn’t disappoint. A heart pumping scarer with genuinely charismatic male leads? Robert Pattinson, eat your bloodless heart out…