DVD
REVIEW:
SMALLVILLE
(Season 8)
08/23/09
OVERVIEW: Another
Season of Smallville means more exciting new characters,
adventure and conflict, as the longest running “Superman” TV
series continues to deliver great entertainment with the
release of Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season on DVD and
Blu-ray™ on August 25th. Fans will thrill to this
collectible multi-disc set with all 22 episodes of the
eighth Season, plus amazing bonus features, including
unaired scenes, cast & crew commentaries, and several
never-before-seen featurettes including “Smallville’s
Doomsday: The Making of a Monster.”
Smallville was developed for
television by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, and is based on
DC Comics characters. The executive producers for Season
Eight are Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson, Todd Slavkin &
Darren Swimmer, James Marshall, Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins
and Joe Davola. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shuster. The series is from Tollin/Robbins Productions and
Warner Bros. Television. Beginning this fall, Smallville
will air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW Television
Network.
SYNOPSIS: There’s a new
reporter at the Daily Planet: Clark Kent, who shares a
workspace with Lois Lane. There’s a new hero in Metropolis,
too. No one knows who he is. But Jimmy Olsen was on the
scene of one of the do-gooder’s exploits, and he snapped a
blurred photo of the hero in superspeed action – a hero
everyone now calls the Red-Blue Blur.
Red-jacketed, blue-shirted Clark Kent draws closer to his
Superman destiny, and another Kryptonian destiny also takes
shape as Davis Bloome begins to realize he is Doomsday. His
mission on Earth: kill Clark Kent. So many new events (Will
Jimmy and Chloe’s marriage last?), so many new faces (Tess
Mercer, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy among them!), so many
state-of-the-art effects – so don’t miss a single
thrill-packed moment!
Season REVIEW: After
successfully reviving the series in Season 7th, Smallville
continued with its original formula of good writing and in
its 8th Season may have being the clear evidence of that.
With the loss of show creators Alfred Gough and Miles
Millar, as well as Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) and
Kristin Kreuk (Lana) many people, including myself thought
that the show's air time was coming to an end. However
Smallville proofed to have enough fuel to push for a 9th
Season. Most of the credit in Season eight has to go to the
series' writers, which ones more gave us an interesting and
entertaining Season full of character development, new
characters and as always an outstanding Season finally.
In the first episode we finally find out the outcome of
Season's 7 ending chapter, in which Clark was facing Lex in
the fortress of solitude. I found that resolution to be
appropriate, since we knew going into the Season that
Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) was not part of the cast.
However the whole concept of having Tess Mercer as Lex
Luthor's replacement prove to be good. I was little worry
about this move, however it turns to be a good move. During
the entire Season it was hard to determine if Tess Mercer
was Clark's friend or enemy, so it kept the audience
intrigue for the entire Season. It was also nice to see
Kristin Kreuk (Lana) back in some of the episodes. One of
her best episodes is the one in which we get to find out how
and from where Lana created Season's 7 goodbye video for
clark. The Green Arrow became a regular during this Season
and in couple of episodes we get to know more of his
background.
With the absent of Lana, Season eight focused in the
beginning of the romance between Lois and Clark. Like or not
this is a part of our superhero history. I have to admit
that I really enjoys the writer's approach to their
relationship. Let say that it had the prefect combination
and the series didn't turn out to be another "Dawson's
Creek".
One of the things that caught me by surprise in this Season
and that I found to be good was the addition of several of
the DC comics characters. Doomsday, Plastique, Maxima, The
Legion, Zatanna and Tess Mercer who seems to be the
combination of two characters from Superman Eve Teschmacher
and Mercy Graves.
Overall Season eight doesn't have the action and is
not as powerful as the seventh Season, however it has enough
good writing to be good and addictive.
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
AUDIO:
Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround - English
Subtitles - English, Spanish,
French
BONUS FEATURES:
In the Director’s
Chair: Behind the Lens and Calling the Shots with Allison
Mack Featurette - We speak with the veteran
Smallville star about taking the directorial reins after 17
years in front of the camera, and how she made the
transition from actor to director.
Smallville’s
Doomsday: The Making of a Monster Featurette - Fans
go behind-the-scenes for the creation of Superman’s most
notorious foe as Doomsday comes to Smallville.
Cast & Creator
Commentaries.
Unaired Scenes.
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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