The best season yet?
Format: Blu-Ray / Region 1 (US)
Released By: Warner Bros. Home Video
Price: $44.99 (on Amazon)
Availability: Out now
After years of being stuck on awkward auto-pilot since its 100th episode four seasons ago, Smallville's ninth season doesn't always move faster than a speeding bullet but capably leaps over past low points in confident bounds.
Tom Welling looks plenty iconic in Clark Kent's prototype super-suit, which combines the Marlon Brando colours of white S-shield on black with a cut and style lifted right out of The Matrix. Finding a balance between heroic zooming and his blooming romance with Lois Lane (Erica Durance) is the least of his worries, too, given that he's trying to babysit a clone army of Kandorian militants led by the cunning and charismatic Major Zod (Callum Blue). Loyal friends Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) and the Green Arrow himself, Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), continue to assist Clark's mission while falling into a romantic entanglement of their own. Meanwhile, Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman) runs Lex Luthor's corporate and scientific schemes with a delicious twist of moral ambiguity.
Oliver finally becomes more of the mentor and leader we know from the comics, and Hartley really rises to the stronger material. Mack (who directs the excellent episode "Warrior") continues to be the show's secret weapon; she was adorable from the pilot onward, but has grown into a breathtakingly beautiful woman and one of the finest actresses on television. Bold, beautiful Freeman does much honour to Michael Rosenbaum's legacy, while Zod is particularly fascinating thanks to Blue's conflicted portrayal of a man who wants power but really wants order -- his order. Pam Grier (Jackie Brown) shows up as villainous Amanda Waller, and we also get an appearance by Michael McKean (as future Daily Planet editor Perry White) and the lovely Annette O'Toole, who delivers an Emmy-worthy moment as Clark's mother, Martha Kent, in a touching scene with Lois. Several other DC characters appear here and there, as well.
But the season really belongs to handsome Welling and the outrageously gorgeous Durance, and the show's handling of the iconic Clark/Lois romance creates opportunities for humour and heat that its actors embrace with white-hot chemistry. Episodes like "Idol" find a way to make even the Wonder Twins (from the old Superfriends cartoons) viable, while two-parter "Absolute Justice" brings the Justice Society into the mix with a script by famed DC Comics creator Geoff Johns. The season finale hints that Darkseid will be the villain in Season Ten, and promotional clips featuring the Superman costume give hope that Welling will appear as the Man of Steel before the series finale airs.
Video quality far surpasses previous seasons released on Blu-Ray. The image is warm and gorgeously detailed, with vibrant colours and deep blacks. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. chooses once again to provide a compressed 5.1 audio track instead of a lossless Master Audio track that Blu-Ray is capable of supporting. It's good, but not as powerful as it could have been.
Special features include nine minutes of deleted scenes and an awesome but short documentary about Zod featuring Richard Donner and Terence Stamp. "Kandor" and "Idol" get commentaries, with the conversations between Durance and the show's producers on the latter being particularly engaging. From episode quality to video presentation, this is easily Smallville's best season yet on Blu-Ray.
8/10
Written By
