Call it Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The College Years or Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Boys, but the horror series Supernatural delivers some of the most satisfying small-screen scares in recent memory. The premise is deceptively simple: brothers Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki from Gilmore Girls and Jensen Ackles, both appealing) travel the darker corners of the American landscape in search of their father, who's gone missing while hunting the malevolent forces that lead to the death of their mother. In the course of their search, the siblings encounter a host of otherworldly creatures, including vampires, ghosts, and witches, as well as such distinctly American phenomena as the urban-legend favorite the Hook ("Hookman"), monsters from Native American mythology ("Wendigo"), and fearful figures from children's games ("Bloody Mary"). Supernatural's integration of elements from American pop culture and folklore, combined with its skilled cast and crew (creator/co-writer Erik Kripke delivered 2005's Boogeyman, while director/executive producer David Nutter is a veteran of The X-Files and Millennium), and better-than-average attempts at atmosphere and suspense place the series well above the other spookshow programs that arrived on networks at about the same time (Invasion, Night Stalker), and should hold considerable appeal for fans of frightful fare.

Shocked I love it so much

I didn't want to like Supernatural. I have been a Buffy fan forever and Supernatural didn't seem to have the continuity and the lure that I felt Buffy did. I was wrong.

Granted, Supernatural doesn't have the "have to see the next episode" motif like Buffy or 24. The characters do seem a little cardboardish at times and I got tired of hearing about "family," etc., but for some reason I couldn't stop watching.

Like the aforementioned shows (and Vernoica Mars), Supernatural has something I love. Continuity. Even though Sam and Dean continue solving and helping mysteries and murders across the US, they still are after their father and the thing that killed their mother and Jessica. Just when you think they've forgotten about it, BAM, a quick line pulls you right back into the mother-story. Weapons and clues scattered throughout the season come back and rear their heads in the season finale that has me itching for Season II. Great show. I'm shocked I like it this much.

addicted

Wow! This show is just a blast to watch. Maybe you just gotta be a certain type of geek to appreciate these kinds of fantastical good-vs-evil-premised comic-book-type shows (yes I'm also a big fan of Smallville and several of the CW's other fantasy shows).

The Amazon editorial is funny, with it's comparisons, cause I usually describe this show to people as an "X-files version of Charmed", since it's these two regular guys hunting down demons and evil spirits instead of aliens, in a more dramatized and haunting fashion than "the Charmed ones" do.

Of course, being a 20-something American female, my personal 5-star justification would be incomplete if I left out that Jensen Ackles and his character have completely knocked me off my feet... but I digress...

Spoooky

Supernatural is great in bringing back the legends of the early horror films in a whole new light and for the younger generation.