Supernatural Pilot: The X Files meets The O.C. meets Buffy

Within the first ten minutes of the show we see the baby version of Sam react as his mother is immolated on the ceiling of his nursery, while his father saves him and his older brother. Only to be whisked ahead in time about 18 years in the very next scene where we see Sam at college pretty well adjusted, with a girlfriend and probably going to get a full ride next year into law school. When older brother Dean shows up and wants him to come away from all this to find his missing father. On a personal side note, if your famous for playing a character like say oh I don't know, DEAN from Gilmore Girls, then either your character should be called Dean or no one of the main cast should have that name. In the end of the pilot he even refers to his brother as Dean-uh or perhaps Dana Scully.

We find out that the boys have had their share of ghost hunting Buffy-esque missions in the past and Sam is renascent to go look for his Papa because he's got a big interview next Monday and can't miss it. After the promise this will only be a weekend hunt, the boys pull out an arsenal that would make homeland security jump up and take notice and they decide to go and try and save good old dad.

We cut to Jerico, California, where we learn once again that no good deed goes unpunished. This time in the form of having your guts spayed against the inside windows (that's windows plural) of your car.

In the next few scenes we see the boys work on their angst of their collective childhood drama, impersonate federal officers, check out a crime scene and use phony credit cards to buy gas and treats. Not the most promising start for someone who wants to go to law school. Plus the car we saw particulate brain matter scatter in a very Grassy Knoll-esque fashion the night before is perfectly clean and free of any evidence of a struggle, this all seems to culminate with a ghostly game of cat and mouse involving a car and bridge and a very depressed ghost who lost her children in an "accident", we soon find out there is more to this ashen hitchhiker than meets the metaphysical plane, and the hunt is on to find and the boys are on the case to take care of this situation once and for all. A lot of this pilot could have been set in Sunnydale, and plays out very much like a fairly good episode of Buffy.

Steve Railsback from "The Stuntman" and "X-Files" fame plays the grieving husband to the woman in white, his part is short but memorable, if the rest of the series populates itself with such great actors it could be a saving grace.

The resolution, or near reasolution comes with car crashing, ghost hunting and a few borrowed elements from the "Ringu" and "Dark Water" films. Soon the case is solved and we are ready to go back to live a normal life. Unfortunately, when Sam gets home we find his girlfriend is about to end up just like his Mom did in the opening minutes and this leaves him free to go ghost hunting with his wacky brother, James Dean like brother.