Awesome Bedtime Stories: A Review of Supernatural Season Three, Episode Five

November is one of those all important Sweeps month's for network television and it's the time when those networks trot out what they believe are their very best episode offerings of the television season to impress the viewers and the advertisers as well. Last night, the CW Network offered up the Supernatural season three episode Bedtime Stories and I don't know about the advertisers, but this viewer was definitely impressed!

From start to finish, Bedtimes stories, written by Cathryn Humphries and directed by Mike Rohl was a well crafted, tightly honed episode that had all the elements of Supernatural at its best. First and foremost it was about the Winchester brothers.

From the first sequence of them seen together barreling down a dark highway in the Impala arguing about Dean's deal with the demon and Dean's adamant refusal to allow Sam to do anything about it, to the final sequence of Sam coldly gunning down the crossroads demon who did the deal, this time around played with perfect continuity of the demon's personality by Sandra McCoy, it was all about the bond of brotherhood and love that binds the Winchester boys together in their dark and dangerous, lonely world of hunting the supernatural.

Sam and Dean Winchester were, in this episode, once again the perfect blend of humor, angst and intelligence that sets them above the pack in the world of television action heroes. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles were given top notch material to work with that gave them a chance to bring forth one of the most powerful things that makes Supernatural so worth watching - the incredible working chemistry these two super talented young actors have with each other. When Padalecki and Ackles are allowed to mesh their talents together to bring the bonds of brotherhood between Sam and Dean Winchester to life as they were in Bedtime Stories, it ignites the small screen with an intensity of storytelling, both verbal and nonverbal, that has the ability to put similar 'big screen' performances to shame.

These two gifted young actors, along with the help of the writers and directors of Supernatural, consistently and effortlessly move beyond the obvious of being two hot looking young guys and bring real depth of humanity to their characters. They make you believe in the banter and the bonds of Sam and Dean without sacrificing the characters to the realms of being overly sappy or to being too 'macho' detached. Kudos to the writers and producers of Supernatural and to Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles for not forgetting how important this is to the success of Supernatural and that it is what makes the show stand out above the rest of its genre.

Being Supernatural at its best, Bedtime Stories also held the perfect elements of a good old fashioned scary movie...the right amounts of suspense and humor with a minimal need for gore. Bedtimes Stories offered the viewers a clever twist on some very familiar fairytales by taking those fairytales back to their darker and more sinister roots and creating a very human story of what can happen when an innocent and 'silent victim' finds a way to channel their anger and rage at not being heard. I was particularly impressed with the writer's choice to have Sam Winchester be the one most familiar with the fairytales both in their original and more gruesome form and their later more sanitized and romanticized 'Disney' versions. After expressing his familiarity with the story of Cinderella, Dean asks Sam in incredulity at this knowledge of fairytales 'Can you be more gay?'

What I saw in this and what impressed me the most was the writer's giving us, in guise of brotherly banter, the perfect example of the innocence of Sam Winchester. This appeared to be the perfect reminder of the childlike side of this young man, which in turn makes it all the more heart wrenching when the viewers must watch this innocence being sacrificed. It makes the possible darkening of Sam's soul all the more insidious. This is the kind of storytelling that to me makes Supernatural at its best. As a viewer, I also found this episode to be an allegory of sorts for the current issue of Dean and his deal with the demon for his soul in trade for Sam'sw life. There might never be a 'fairytale' ending for Dean and Sam in all of this since their world is far more like Grimm's then

Supernatural at its best also includes excellent guest stars and Bedtime Stories had that. I am a huge admirer of actor Christopher Cousins' work and it was a pleasure to see him in this episode of Supernatural. Cousins always brings nuance to any character he plays, no matter what the genre or type of role he is cast in. His turn in Bedtime Stories not only as a caring physician but as a loving and devoted parent who is forced to see the truth about the situation his daughter is in and the terrible role her stepmother had played in that was well done. Christopher Cousins always has great chemistry with other actors and this was no exception.

Sandra McCoy took on a small but pivotal and challenging role in Bedtime Stories there is no doubt about it. Even though the crossroad demon is played by a different actress each time, the challenge of the role, as I see it, is to keep the basic personality of the demon intact. Sandra McCoy rose to that challenge and worked well within the role.

The bigger challenge for McCoy though might possibly have been having the audience move past the fact that she and Jared Padalecki, who worked opposite her in these scenes in his role as Sam Winchester, are a real life couple and see her as the demon Sam hated with a passion and had no compunction about killing for her part in what was going to happen to his brother Dean whom Sam loves and doesn't want to lose.

I as a viewer felt that both McCoy and Padalecki worked effortlessly together to create the animosity between Sam and the crossroad demon. These scenes were very well played out by both of these talented actors, and especially by Sandra McCoy. Not many women so petite looking can effectively pull off not being intimidated in the least by a six foot four man with a gun pointed at her. Sandra McCoy made it look easy.

My last guest star kudos goes to the frog. She was quite the trouper even if she didn't get any kissing scenes with Jensen Ackles. Apparently Dean doesn't have any dying wishes to kiss a frog just to see if she turns into a hot, sexy looking princess he can have a royal good time with.

I guess at the end of it all, other than from a purely feminine standpoint in which I think Dean could have been shown sleeping shirtless, to me Bedtime Stories had no flaws. The writers, directors and actors did everything right and created what has, for now, become my favorite episode of Supernatural for season 3. Right after it was over, I went back and re-watched Bedtime Stories from beginning to end and then took time to review certain favorite scenes. I haven't done that with a Supernatural episode since the first airing of 'What Is and What Should Never Be' back in Season two. Brotherhood is back where it belongs, great storytelling is back and I have to say with complete happiness that once more Supernatural rocks!

Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester; two brother's whose 'family business' is traveling the highways and back roads of American cities hunting down and getting rid of 'supernatural threats' and airs on the CW Network on Thursday nights at 9PM EST. In next week's episode Red Skies in the Morning, the Winchester boys, Sam and Dean encounter a ghost ship and the beautiful but untrustworthy mercenary Bela, played with great delight by the lovely Lauren Cohan, shows up again to complicate things further for them.