TV: Supernatural

This one doesn't actually premiere until Tuesday night, but the WB has made the first episode available for viewing at Yahoo.

Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles -- each with experience as a supporting hunk on the WB (Gilmore Girls and Smallville, respectively) -- star as Sam and Dean Winchester. Twenty-two years ago, their mother was killed by a Mysterious Evil Creature; their father has devoted his life to hunting said Creature, and killing whatever other MECs he might come across in the process. He's trained his sons to follow in his path.

Sam, who was an infant when his mother was killed, wants to lead a normal life; he's left home, found a girlfriend, and is about to enter law school, when Dean shows up and announces that Dad's gone missing on his latest hunting expedition. Sam reluctantly joins his brother and they go off in search of Dad. By the end of the first episode, you will no doubt have guessed, Dad remains missing and Sam's agreed to ditch law school and join the search full-time.

So what we have is a sort of cross between Route 66 and The X-Files, as two handsome young men drive cross-country in their vintage car, fighting demons and ghosts and spirits and whatnot as they search for their father. I assume there will be some sort of ongoing mythology developed as the search continues, and perhaps a principal villain will be added, along the lines of Buffy's annual "Big Bad" (at the moment, the brothers are the show's only regular cast members).

The challenge of doing horror on TV is that you can only go so far in terms of violence and gore on a prime-time network show. Supernatural, at least in its first episode, pulls off the balancing act fairly well, with one or two jump-in-your-seat moments and special effects that are more effective and less cheesy than I'd expected. Ackles and Paderecki are believable as bickering brothers (though the bickering will have to be toned down, or it'll quickly get tiresome), and they are certainly pretty to look at.

The scheduling of the show is odd to me; it follows Gilmore Girls on Tuesday night, which isn't the most natural pairing. I'd have thought it a better fit with Smallville on Thursday night (and Smallville is paired with Everwood, which would fit much better with Gilmore Girls). It's also an extremely competitive timeslot; Tuesday at 9 also hosts House, The Amazing Race, Commander in Chief, and My Name Is Earl. I won't be surprised to see major shuffling of the WB schedule in a few weeks.