Starkville’s House of El Podcast

You’ve all read Tim’s reviews of episodes from Crimson to Phantom.

So what were Tim’s thoughts on the whole season? Was it the best season of Smallville yet, or was it the worst?

Another season of Smallville has come and gone, and the time has come for me to review the season as a whole. This is something new that I’m doing. Just reviewing my thoughts on the season as a whole and how it contributes to the Smallville series as a whole, as every season is a chapter in the story of Clark Kent’s up-and-coming years as a hero. This review will be a little different from my reviews of separate episode, as I’ll be discussing why this season stood above the others.

First off, let me say how much I loved this season. I thought it was very strong, the strongest yet. Smallville co-creator Al Gough has been quoted as saying that ever since the show left the high school atmosphere, the show has gotten stronger. I couldn’t agree more, as since the end of season four; the show has been able to delve more into the mythology of Superman and of the DC Comics world. That has certainly been true for season six.

This has been a great year for Smallville. It was the show’s first year on the new CW network, and its sixth year in running. I thought it made the transition nicely into the new network, and when Zod first aired on the CW, I couldn’t have been more excited.

I think one thing that this season of Smallville has had was you had no idea what was going on with certain plots and certain characters. The story line that sticks out to me in regards to Ol’ Man Luthor himself. In the previous season, it was revealed early on that Lionel could be used as a conduit for Jor-El, but the big reveal near the end of last year was through that the conduit of Jor-El, Lionel was privy to Clark’s secret. At the beginning of this year, we really didn’t know what was going on. It seemed as though Lionel was still good, but still some things he was doing behind the scenes, like reading and writing Kryptonian as if it was native English without informing Clark of it, working with Lex on 33.1, threatening Lana with Clark’s death etc. just didn’t’ jive well with that. At the end of the season, we were able to see that Lionel was in fact good, and was protecting Clark. He has been literally downloaded with all of his Jor-El’s knowledge. So Lionel’s plot this season, as it was last year awesome. This has been said by creators, crew, cast and fans alike, and the truly great thing about Lionel’s character is you never know quite what he is up to. And just when you think you know, you don’t. I hope that trend continues into season seven.

Another thing this season has been gifted with was the amalgamation of the Smallville universe with the Superman mythology. I think it’s something the writers of Smallville have always kind of toyed with over the series’ run. In season one, it was all about the core characters that we all know (Clark, Lana, Lex, Pete and the Kents), and then in season two, it was Jor-El, and then in season three we had the great Perry White, several doctors who were from the comics (Dr. Teng and Dr. Foster respectively) and infamous crime lord Morgan Edge, and in season four we had Lois Lane, Mr. Mxy and the Flash, and in season five, we had Cyborg, Aquaman, and Brainiac, and the D. Then finally in season six, it seems, was where they felt it was time for Clark to be a part of this superhero-supervillain world. This year, Zod, the Phantom Zone, the Green Arrow, the Martian Manhunter, the Justice League, and Bizarro were introduced.

What I like about Smallville is they don’t blindly throw in these classic iconic characters. They intelligently place them so they fit within the story and world of Smallville, so that the appearances do not feel forced.

For example, the Green Arrow (or Queen Industries anyway) was mentioned in the pilot episode of Smallville. Then they subsequently were able to insert him flawlessly into the series, by saying he was a one-time school rival of Lex’s. Throughout the course of the first half of the season, they were able to explain why Green Arrow (GA) was the way he was. Also, they were able to flesh out his character by giving him several episodes almost devoted to the character but not excluding the main characters of the show (episodes such as Arrow, Reunion, and Rage). GA was also tied to the Smallville mythos by making him a friend of Clark’s and a love interest to Lois, contributing a bit to the Clark and Lois interest. I thought the character’s seven-episode arc was played out wonderfully, and made us desire more of this wonderful character.

I think Green Arrow was played wonderfully on screen due in part to the actor: Justin Hartley. Justin Hartley brought so much charisma to this role. He also played well against the other actors, esp. Tom Welling as Clark. He was also able to add more to the mythology of Smallville through his appearances on the show, which further attached him to the show.

The other superhero appearance we were treated to this season was the Martian Manhunter, who I was glad to see on the show. When I heard he was on the show, I was excited because I am a big fan of the Manhunter, but I was wondering how he would be flawlessly tied into the show’s continuity and mythos as the other DC Comics characters have been woven in. Though I was pleased with Martian Manhunter’s appearance in Static and Labyrinth, I wondered why he was there and how he was able to subdue the phantom near the end of the episode. Then in the season finale it was revealed he was some sort of guardian angel for Clark and was given instructions by Jor-El to watch over Clark and protect him when necessary. This made the character of the Manhunter much more interesting in the show.

These superhero appearances not only deepened the mythology of the show, but also helped the character of Clark Kent along on his journey to be the hero that we all know he will be. Seeing other people with abilities fighting for the good of mankind, it kind of lessens the load on Clark Kent a bit, as he sees that he is not the only one fighting the war against villains. The culmination of this superhero dynamic shown in Smallville this year was during Justice. GA, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg converged to take down a facility where Lex was conducting experiments on meteor-infected people, said to have strange abilities in a project code named 33.1.

Early on co-creator Al Gough said that this would be the season to tie up old plotholes not been previously secured. The writed definitely fulfilled that purpose this season. One plotline left out in the open in season four is Lex’s secret project code named 33.1. When it was first introduced in season four the writers obviously scrapped it for an unknown reason. Subsequently for another unknown reason they brought it back for this year and it worked. If you look at the earlier part of the season you see this plot (or project) has been percolating in Smallville for a few years, so it has this kind of foreboding feeling to it. This wrapping up of old Smallville plotlines, I do believe, is something that will continue in the coming year.

Let’s talk about how this season moved our characters in the directions that we all know that they will go. Clark made some drastic character changes this season by deciding to take the initiative to stop the Phantom Zoners and Lex’s 33.1 project knowing he might possibly be the only one to stop it. The appearance of fellow heroes such as the Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter may have lightened the load a bit, but it has not stopped his hero-initiative that he seemed to develop over the course of this year. I think that progression into the hero we all know he will become will continue to the next year.

The character I think that drastically changed the most (although Clark is up there) is Lex. Throughout the series previous to this year we have seen Lex get progressively darker and we saw that in snippets. I believe this year we got to see the dark Lex Luthor that we know from the comic books. Throughout each episode this season Lex got darker than perhaps we’d ever seen him. His “love” for Lana didn’t help matters much either, as that seemed to push him to use his darkness to help keep Lana with him. He was even (unpurposefuly of course) pushed by Lionel to go to that place. I also believe that the darkness of Lex Luthor will be something that will continue to progress downward and Michael Rosenbaum will continue to play it all the more better for us fans.

This season was also a good year for Lana a character, while well-loved in the Superman universe, was well-hated by Smallville fans. This year I actually liked Lana (and I’m an unusually Chloe fan). She seemed to be on the offensive with everything. This season she seemed to me to actually be worthy of Clark’s love over the years. In past seasons I did not believe it as much but in this season I believed it. Also, this season, Lana knew the darkness of the Luthors and became entangled in their much-complicated web. It was also the season where she discovered for herself the secret of Clark Kent, which I think was a long time due. As in the past 2 seasons she learned of things relating to Clark (Clark’s true name, his weakness, and his home planet) and it finally culminated this season. In the finale Clark revealed the entire truth about himself to Lana. I think that was a very interesting move as it will be intriguing to see how their relationship will change due to this knowledge and also the relationships of those around them. I hope she changes into the dear friend of Superman/Clark Kent we all know Lana to be.

Another character that moved in the right direction was the character of Lois Lane. Lois I felt, this season more than any other season, was more the Lois Lane in the comic books I have always loved reading about and the attributes that has made this character likeable over the many years she’s been around. Don’t get me wrong, she’s had that likeability factor in past seasons, but in this season it seemed like she was chasing a story, and getting in trouble while doing so. This is very much like the Lois Lane that I know constantly. I think Lois had a good year.

ANother character whose charcater story was moved in a positive direction was, as always, the character of Chloe Sullivan. Tjis season was very interesting for her, as it was the season that finally revealed Chloe’s back-story with her mother, Moira, which was something that has been hinted at since season two, but never really fully explored. I am glad to hear how it was explained in the episode, Progeny, where we met Chloe’s mom, as played by Lynda Carter. But another interesting thing that they did for Chloe was they gave her some meteor-powers as what we call a meteor-freak. I thought this was a very interesting move, and it gave Chloe an extra-dynamic, and in the finale we got to see what her power is: healing tears. It’ll be interesting to see where this plays out in the next season.

Also, this season marked the first onscreen appearance of Jimmy Olsen on Smallville. Jimmy has been mentioned in seasons past (season two’s Heat, and season four’s Unsafe) This this was the first time he was introduced onscreen I thought it worked magnificently. Aaron Ashmore played this role to perfection. A lot of people don’t like Jimmy, but I think he’s a fresh addition to the show and on the rare occasion Jimmy, Clark, and Chloe work together, there’s a threesome dynamic that prevailed so much of season one. It was a nice breath of fresh air. Like any DC Comics character introduced into Smallville, he was flawlessly woven into the mythology of the show. It felt like as though he belonged there. It shall be very interesting to see how the character develops in Smallville’s near future . Also, it gave an interesting aspect to Chloe’s character, seeing her with a boyfriend that had no special abilities but was just a normal average Joe (or Jimmy). It’ll be interesting to see where their relationship progresses in the next season

One weakness, tho, I think that went through the season but didn’t at all take away from the overall strength of the season was the lack of effects that were on the show due to lack of budget. We would see very little of Clark’s power-usage, but as I said it diddn’t take away from the season at all. Because just when we thought they’d reached their limit to what they could do, they would pull episodes such as Justice, Freak, Combat, Prorotype and Phantom.

There were many high points this season for me. As each episode this season seemed to be leading up to another episode and all together building up to that way-awesome finale. There were so many good episodes and almost every episode had some sort of point to the greater story-arcs of the season. I truly enjoyed almost every episode this season.

All in all, a very powerful year in the saga of Smallville. Its final two episodes are a great launch pad for the seventh season. I cannot wait to see where this next season takes us. I hope you have loved this season of Smallville as much as I did.

TOP FIVE FAVORITE EPISODES:

Justice
Zod
Phantom
Labyrinth
Crimson

WORST EPISODE:
Noir
RATING: 10/10

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under News, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.