TV Review: Supernatural 8.4, "Bitten"

"Is it just me, or are you getting a 'workplace romance' vibe from those two...?"

Well now, that's more like it. Supernatural has always, well during the first few seasons of the show anyway, been heralded as an inventive and thoroughly creative TV drama, combining elements of horror with humour and drama. Some of its episodes over the years have boasted such innovation that it really gave the show a fanatical cult following to rival the likes of Alias and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode, hidden behind a misleadingly mundane title, is sure to polarise fans of the series; it's definitely a case of 'you either love it of you hate it' and fortunately, I loved it. It's explored the whole found-footage craze before and I admit, though they were comical and tonally astute for the show, I never particularly cared for the 'Ghostfacers' or their episodes. The first episode they popped up in was great but mainly due to the actual horror story involved. Bitten seems very much like the offspring of the mentioned phenomena alongside influences of Chronicle, The Blair Witch Project intermingled with the show's own self-referential charm. Sam and Dean sit this one out and join the audience on the sofa as they watch the story of three co-eds via a series of camera footage documenting the grisly consequences of a werewolf bite. No, it doesn't add much to the mythology of the show but it's a well-told story which deserves to be told due to its elegant narrative and due to the fact that the people affected in Supernatural's bizarre world deserve to have their side of the story told. In a cutesy twist, the opening credits unravel at the end of the episode, displaying the backward nature of the episode. As one might expect with such a unique episode, a lot of the interest rides high on the performances and the characters involved. Brian is an underrated technophile who's best friends with the tall and handsome Michael. Michael's girlfriend, Kate, secretly crushed on by Brian, completes our trio. In Lord Of The Flies terms, Brian is Piggy, or at least that's who he sees himself as, but yearns to be Ralph. In the end, he turns out to be Roger, the psychotic, detached one. The characters are, at first, likable and the audience is interested in their plight - I liked the idea that Michael was turning into a werewolf and that it was done from a found-footage point of view. This style of film-making is hardly groundbreaking nowadays but the staff at Supernatural found a special way of doing it; an enjoyable one at that. Sam and Dean did make appearances within the film and it was 'awesome' to see them viewed from such a perspective. During the diner scene, I wonder if the director was making a point at how easy it was to hear the brothers discuss their case, in full earshot of those around them - perhaps a sign that this job has become such an innate way of living that they forget they inhabit a totally unique world that only they are part of. In the end, people will wonder what it was all about - what was the point of such an episode? I agree that it adds little to the plot of this season but it wouldn't be the show we adore without these creative little excursions and I believe the show-runners can be forgiven due to the genius nature of the episode. The final scene with Sam and Dean foreshadowed future episodes as well. Dean, up til now, has been a machine since leaving Purgatory and has slayed everything in his path but his decision, and Sam's too, to let Kate go was vital. Whatever Dean did in Purgatory, he must know that he let a vampire, Benny, loose in his world. There will be consequences and this is obviously playing on his conscience - it's a grey area, one that Supernatural has explored many times before, so it'll be interesting to see what spin the creators put on this one.