Smallville - The Complete Seventh Season
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 Not a bad season for a show that has been going on this long I have long had a conflicted reaction to SMALLVILLE. On the one hand I really like a lot of the main characters -- the reconception of Lex Luthor and the invention of the character of Chloe Sullivan are two major contributions to the Superman mythology -- and there are in each season at least a few exceptionally good episodes. On the other hand, SMALLVILLE narratively remains one of the most timid shows on TV, barely moving the overall story along from one season to the next. Fans of LOST became unhappy with the series both in Season Two and at the very beginning of Season Three because the show seemed to go into something of a holding pattern. Instead of moving the story along, it seemed to be standing still (luckily LOST dramatically picked up the pace in the last 16 episodes of Season Three and all of Season Four). But compared to SMALLVILLE, even at its slowest LOST seemed to be moving along at a jacket rabbit pace. Both shows seem slow compared to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which has moved its story along at a refreshingly brisk pace. So, all in all, not much happened in Season Seven of SMALLVILLE, much like all previous seasons. The goal of the show seems to be to stretch it out as long as possible, not to make the best show that they can. Four or five episodes can pass with virtually nothing of significance having happened, and then you get an exception one like "Descent," in which Lex kills his own father Lionel, and Lex is transformed into something approximating the utterly evil Lex Luthor of traditional Superman. But the timidity of the writers/producers dominates the show. Only at the end of the season do we finally see what appears to be the genuine end of the Lana/Clark romance. Lois was introduced seasons ago, yet it is hard to imagine her and Clark having much chemistry (that will be the great challenge for Season Eight, making the eventual romance between the two of them seem not merely possible but plausible). They seem more than anything like non-kissing cousins. New plot wrinkles were introduced in Season Seven, like Clark's cousin Kara arriving and the emergence of the Veritas organization, but these mainly seemed to be ways of postponing the real story. And what is that? How a mild-mannered farm boy (as Lois puts it) can be transformed into the world's greatest super hero. In Season Six we seemed to be moving a bit in that direction with Oliver Queen urging to use his abilities for some greater purpose, but in Season Seven Clark seems to have regressed. He seems -- to be blunt -- to be clueless about what he should be doing with his life. The biggest story surrounding Season Seven really is about what it portends for Season Eight. There is absolutely no question, the changes from Season Seven to Eight will be enormous. Michael Rosenbaum (Lex) and Kristin Kreuk (Lana) both will be more or less leaving the show. Lex should be present in at least the first episode of Season Eight, but while both are supposed to return in guest roles, neither is expected to play a major role next season. Also gone is John Glover as Lionel Luthor. It could have been worse. After these three major characters were acknowledged by the studio to be leaving, Allison Mack's agent demanded a substantial raise, since Chloe would be the only major remaining character besides Clark from Season One. After a few days of posturing and an enormous outcry of outrage by fans, it was announced that Chloe would indeed returning (I hope her raise was a good one -- she deserves it). This good news was tempered with reports that Laura Vandervoort, who had been excellent in Season Seven as Kara (aka Supergirl), might not be returning in Season Eight. I hope they bring her back. This show has lost an exceptional number of familiar faces in recent years. They ought to try and keep any good, new one. There are rumors that Oliver Queen aka The Green Arrow might be back for at least part of Season Eight. But my major concerns with Season Eight return to questions of narrative. Speed it up, guys! They really need this season to deal with two major issues and then bring the series to an end. First, they really need to make this particular Clark and this particular Lois believable as a romantically destined couple. Second, they need to give Clark the backbone to face up to the significance of his having the powers that he does and what that entails. In other words, Clark needs to become heroic on a truly super level. As far as the romance goes, there have been other shows that have successfully replaced one epic romantic couple with another. The love of Buffy's life was Angel, but her romance with Spike was engrossing in its own way. And while for three years the great romantic couple on THE O.C. was Ryan and Marissa (though I personally preferred Summer and Seth), Season Four made us forget all about R&M by unexpectedly pairing Ryan with Taylor, a character he had had absolutely no romantic vibes with in Season Three. The show needs to hit the ground running in Season Eight pushing the whole Lois and Clark thing. We have to believe that they might have a future together by the time the series ends. Right now it takes a heck of a lot of imagination to imagine them together.  Possibly Smallvilles weakest season The decline of Smallville begins. This season had some much potential to be quite possibly one of the strongest seasons, but it went in the wrong direction. First problem is the character of Jimmy Olsen, GET RID OF HIM Lets run down the episodes 1. Bizarro : Great opening episode. Catches everyone up, good battle, classic Smallville 2. Kara: Good episode: Introduces Kara 3. Firece: Terrible episode, Freaks of the week. uses Kara too much in only her second epidoe 4. Cure: Good episode, Dean Cain as the bad guy, Clark vs Clark, who could ask for anything more 5. Action: Avg. episode, Clark kind of flies in this one 6. Lara: Decent epidoe, Learn about Kara and Clarks past, but it seemed rushed 7. Wrath: Lana get powers, Weak episode, extremly RUSHED. Seems like it was written in a day 8. Blue: Decent episode, start of a good stroyline that goes for a few episodes 9. Gemini: Great episode, some classic Smallville 10. Persona: One of the best episodes of the season. Lana/Clark Relationship, Bizarro returns. Great 11. Siren: Oliver Queen returns, but only 1 episode. Decent episode 12. Fracture: Trippy episode, But good 13. Hero: Pete Ross returns. Not so great episode 14. Traverler: Start of Veritas here, good episode but choppy in parts 15. Veritas: Should have been the finale, because things start to crumble here 16. Decent: Great episode, but the role of a major character dies too early in the episode, not enough build up 17. Sleeper: Worst episode of the season, Jimmy Olsen enough said 18. Apocolyse: Good, but takes away some of the Smallville background 19. Quest: Decent, but that is it 20. Artic: Good episode, but not a strong finale That is my thoughts on the episodes for Season 7. As you can tell kind of 50/50. I dont want to ruin much, but many characters even get ruined this season. And characters start to dwindle out of the show as well, which is what made the show start to lose its Umph! So please reply back if you like. But Smallville is still a great show. Hope Season 8 can bring back the heart of the show!!!! Put Lois and Clark together!  A return to form Anyone who bothered to read my reviews pertaining to Smallville in the past, will no doubt be expecting this review to pin point the moments within this season that had failed to meet my expectations. While I will certainly touch on such subject matters, overall the seventh season has managed to rekindle that fire that I had once thought I lost. Now most people(including me)will argue that Smallville probably should have wrapped things up a few seasons ago. Throughout the course of the past six seasons, I was most agitated over how the writers would find Clark excuse after excuse on why he shouldn't leave Smallville. Unfortunately, the seventh season is no stranger to that rule. Just when we think there couldn't possibly be anything else in Smallville for Clark to cling to, we find that Kara(Supergirl)has joined the cast. And it just so happens that Jor-El's first assignment for Clark is for him to look after Kara whom just so happens to be residing in Smallville(surprise, surprise). Nagging issues aside, let's get to the good stuff. While it was certainly entertaining to see the return of Brainiac, I think most people will agree with me when I say that it was watching Lex Luthor FINALLY achieve #1 villain status that was by far the season's single highlight. It's just too bad that this will be Michael Rosenbaum's last season. Another actor, or should I say actress, to part ways this season will be Kristen Kreuk(ala Lana Lang). Now I'm not overjoyed by any means, but I certainly won't be shedding a tear over the loss of this character. Because quite frankly, the writers seemed to run out of ideas for Lana after season three(maybe two?). She was on/off again so many times with Clark that I lost count. One season she's a witch, and another she's marrying Lex. It was all rather confusing(or dare I say ridiculous?). This season's most pressing issue is that Lex may have the means to control Clark with a device that could lead to humanity's destruction. But those concerns fall by the wayside when Brainiac kidnaps Kara and attacks Lana. So it's understandable that a Clark hell bent on revenge would allow the dangers that Lex posses fall by the wayside. With season eight "supposedly" being Smallville's last, the most prevalent questions will(hopefully)be answered. The most notable being, "How will those that know Clark as he is now, still manage to confuse him for Superman?" I mean, does he go around "frenching" everyone with that amnesia kiss of his? Either way, I'm looking forward to season eight. I just hope the writers are able to wrap up the loose ends in this alternate tale of Superman. Finally, a Season That's Almost as Good as the First 3! "some spoilers" Smallville season 7 has it's flaws like any other season but the writing is almost good as the first 3 seasons. Well once the season picks up anyway. In the beginning of the season is where I had some problems with it. I mean if I remember correctly Lana faked her death by using a clone of herself that Lex had. If Lex had the technology to clone, why wouldn't he just try to clone Clark and try to uncover his secrets. So yes, the writers are so obsessed with trying to do new things with her that they actually cloned her! lol. I also had problems with how she hates secrets yet she had...a secret room this season that she used to spy on Lex and that she didn't tell Clark about. Close to the end of the season though, they finally learn to not shove her in our faces and we actually get episodes without her. Her being over-used was never the only problem with the show though of course. Another problem is that Clark defeats big comic book villians in the show....before he's even Superman! Zod for example and 2 others that I won't mention if you haven't seen this season. One spoiler I will give away though that I had a problem with is Lois falling for new boss in the beginning of the season. Then when he dies and it's in the papers the writers don't even give her a reaction to it. She doesn't even mention his death once. I forgot to mention one problem I had with the season towards the end though. The problem is....that the writers have either read too much Dan Brown or have seen the DaVinci Code movie too many times. There's some corny stuff with a secret group who hold the secrets to Clark who they refer to as "the Traveler". While DaVinci Code like music plays Lex trys to uncover all the mysteries of the group. But hey at least they didn't give us a secret group that worships Lana; oh wait there is a secret group and the writers belong to it. Now on to the good things about the season. Kara/Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort) is introduced and she's pretty hot. I think she's used in smart and engaging ways through-out the season. She's so good that I wouldn't mind a spin-off series with her. The death of a main character is well done as well even if comes it sudden. The episode is at least done right is one of the best I've ever seen from the show. Tom Welling even does some of his best work in the episode when he finally tells off someone that I've been waiting for him to tell off for a long time. No...it's not Lana lol. We also finally get the return of Pete in an episode which is also one of the better ones in awhile. There's also one where Clark's mom and Kara's father make an appearance. That may sound lame but even that episode turnt out to be pretty good. The return of Brainiac (James Marsters) is another strong point in the season. There's even some other good moments that I can think of that I don't want to give away. I will say though that it's about time that there's been an almost solid season. I even liked that Clark and Lois started to get closer this season friendship wise and that there was more of her and less Lana. | |||||||||||||
