Synopsis: Clark is committed to his vigilante efforts as The Blur, though struggles with his dual identity, a process complicated by his romance with Lois. Things get quite interesting to make life more complicated still. The greatest villain Krypton has ever seen is reincarnated from genetic samples on Earth, along with an army of his fellow Kandorians, though from a stage before he was driven solely by revenge. Clark is left to decide whether to befriend or obliterate him.
Cast: Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Cassidy Freeman, Aaron Ashmore, Sam Witwer, Justin Hartley
Synopsis: With Lex Luthor seemingly out of the picture, Tess Mercer (Freeman) steps in to take over his empire, including the Daily Planet. Aside from his most popular nemesis being absent, Clark’s adventures begin to more closely resemble those of his comics alter ego. He has a job at the Daily Planet, which he uses to his benefit to save more lives in metropolis, he has the beginnings of a relationship with Lois, and his actions more frequently have him working with Green Arrow and the Justice League.
Cast: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, John Glover, Erica Durance, Aaron Ashmore, Laura Vandervoort
Synopsis: Huge Kryptonian cameos abound in this season. The first episode, understandably given the ending of season 6, features Bizarro (Welling in a dual role, of course), whilst we get our first introduction to Kal-El’s cousin Kara (Vandervoort), whom has no difficulty taking to flight. Through Kara, Clark learns more about his history, including his moth Lara (Helen Slater, whom played the title role in the film of Supergirl). Zor-El, Kara’s father also gets a look in, and Brainiac (James Marsters) returns to cause misery for Clark and his friends. Meanwhile Lana is alive, and though she gets back together with Clark, sh hides a secret agenda to get revenge on Lex. Chloe. Chloe learns to cope with he meteor power, but her relationship with Jimmy suffers. Lois is in full intrepid reporter mode now, with her own desk at the Daily planet. Finally, Lex closes in on Clark’s secret after discovering his father knew about the “Traveller” all along, having been a member of the Veritas society, which also included Dr. Virgil Swan, Oliver Queen’s parents, and the Teagues.
Cast: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley
Synopsis: This season has a typically thrilling opening, with Clark escaping the Phantom Zone, and proceeding to defeat the spirit of Zod, currently inhabiting the body of Lex. He succeeds in defeating Zod without killing his rival, but his escape has released a number of phantoms into our reality, the MacGuffin for the season. We are also introduced to Oliver Stone, The Green Arrow, and find out he is forming a team which he thinks should have “Justice” in the title. In addition, we also meet the Martian Manhunter.
Cast: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, Erica Durance, James Marsters
Synopsis: Starting with a bang, this season starts with both the creation of the Fortress of Solitude, and visiting Kryptonians determined to free one General Zod from the Phantom Zone. After seeing their ship land, Lana becomes obsessed with astronomy and this alien craft, and obsession which draws her closer to Lex. Chloe is now a junior reporter with the Daily Planet, and often plays sidekick to Clark in his various adventures. Once again Lionel’s agenda is a complete mystery, with many acts of good potentially hiding from the world his end game. Early in this season w are also introduced to Milton Fine, whom literally melts into being from the Kryptonian craft.
Cast: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Jensen Ackles, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, Erica Durance, Margot Kidder, Jane Seymour.
Synopsis: Three months after the events of the season 3 finale, Clark returns to Earth as Kal-El, on a mission from Jor-El to collect three Kryptonian stones. He has no memory of being Clark Kent, and is discovered on his return by one Lois Lane (Durance). She is in town to investigate the apparent murder of her cousin Chloe, but sticks around to regularly spend time with her very much alive relative. This season sees Lex and Lionel also after the Kryptonian stones, Lana in a new relationship with Jason (Ackles) whom she met in France but indeed seems to know more than he lets on, and also Chloe finally learns Clark’s secret, and without him actually knowing it, helps him keep it.
Cast: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Sam Jones III, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, Camille Mitchell, Emmanuelle Vaugier
Synopsis: The reimagining of the Superman mythology continues. We see the ups and downs of Clark’s relationships as he struggles to keep his secret. meanwhile, with the discovery of cave paintings that bear similar language to that on the spaceship, more secrets of Clark’s origins are going to become apparent.
A review by Film Nerd.
This is a season of television that delivered on the promise of the debut season. It starts to step away from the “freak of the week” episodic nature, though that is still there to a degree, but it leaves way for many more character driven episodes. It gets in-depth into the difficulty Clark has keeping his secret from his nearest and dearest friends. So much so, that the series also addresses one of my major irritations of the first season… Best friend Pete is given a much bigger role, being the first friend to actually know the secret. His reactions are also portrayed authentically, with him showing resentment at being kept in the dark, acceptance, then fear at the responsibility he now has to keep the secret. As he now knows, he joins both Clark and his parents much more on his various endeavours.
Unfortunately, in the interest of romantic tension, one of my other irritations became more prominent. The writers were consistently inventing excuses to keep Clark and Lana apart, despite many incidences that would draw them much closely together. As such, the same repetition I hated with the freak of the week element was introduced in the Clark/Lana back and forth. This did however give the Chloe character a lot of room to shine. She gave some of the clearly most amazing performances of the season, especially when giving full vent to her feelings for Clark.
Once again, the complaints I have made are small. This overall was a very entertaining twenty-three episodes. As the season draws to a close, many secrets of Clark’s past, though perhaps intimately familiar to the target audience, become apparent to Clark. Respect is given to the Superman films of the past in this process. Christopher Reeve, perhaps responsible for the most iconic Superman portrayal to date, guest stars in one episode, and is the first one so far to utter the names “Krypton” and “Kal-el”. Then Terence Stamp provides his voice for Jor-El, having himself been General Zod in Superman and Superman II.
Despite the season ending on a depressingly dark note, I will certainly keep tuning in for Season 3. I am well behind in my viewing though, the tenth and final season’s finale airs in a weeks time!!
Cast: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Sam Jones III, Eric Johnson, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider
Synopsis: The first season of a series that will this year see its tenth and final year. It is a reimagining of the Superman mythology, following the story of a young Clark Kent as he learns to deal with his new powers. To complicate matters, weird occurrences are par for the course in Smallville, largely as a result of the “meteor rocks” that fell on the town the same day Clark himself arrived.
A review by Film Nerd.
As promised in an earlier post, I am fulfilling my intention to start reviewing DVD/Blu-ray sets of television series in addition to my regular movie and convention reviews. Given Smallville is coming to a close, I have started viewing the series from the original episode. In its original run, I quite enjoyed it, but other life factors got in the way of me keeping up with it. Hence the DVDs, I can now watch it at my leisure.
Marathoning a series has its positives and its negatives. It is time efficient, and cliff-hangers are no longer a concern. However, for shows that are just getting their start, and where there season and series-spanning story arcs are just being established, shows like this can get a bit “episodic”. By this I mean that each episode is a contained story, and yet the formula can get very familiar. In the case of Smallville Season 1, it was the repetition is in what way are the “meteor rocks” involved. The concept that fragments of krypton fell all over Smallville when Jor-El arrives is itself logical and a clever conceit on which to build a series. I did get a bit sick of hearing the term meteor rocks, which we all identify as kryptonite, irritated me a little. Also, in this season there was an abundance of hinting gags at Clark Kent’s destiny. By themselves, quite enjoyable, but in a long run of episodes a bit repetitive.
The are perhaps my only complaints however, as take these away and this is a superior television series, which succeeds in rebooting and updating the Superman mythology. The characters are all well written and performed, with no one character being cookie-cutter good or evil. Even Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) , future arch-nemesis of our hero, is here presented as a young man seeking to do good despite the darkness of his upbringing and past. Clark himself (Tom Welling), though always well-intentioned, is clearly frustrated at the secret identity clause of his life, and is prone to making mistakes. Kristin Kreuk’s Lana Lang was also refreshing, not your classic Mean Girls style Queen Bee, but a girl who is popular perhaps because she is not at all nasty. Even rival to Clark’s affection for Lana, Whitney (Eric Johnson), though classic Jock to start with, is sympathetically portrayed and by the season finale quite difficult to dislike. Best friends roles go to Pete Ross (Sam Jones III) and Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). Chloe is a well-developed character, given a larger role given her investigations of the meteor rocks, however Pete Ross is a little underwritten and does not get much screen time. Finally Clark’s parents (Annette O’Toole, John Schneider) are really well-played, providing a moral compass while also not entirely sure how to respond to each new situation themselves.
The effects are generally quite good, though the CGI is on occasion a bit obvious. This is forgivable given budgets and timeframes to complete episodes for television. Most importantly, the stories themselves are often well told, and have an emotional impact and also raising some good moral dilemmas along the way.
