Review for Smallville: Season Nine

I never enjoyed Smallville. To me it was always too close to Dawson's Creek and though I respect the ability and the skill the creators had in recreating the story of Clark Kent and Superman after a few episodes I just got swamped down by the mundanity of what was essentially him not doing anything, but falling in love. The main problem I had (which is my main problem with Superman in general) is that he simply has no villains to fight. Batman has Catwoman, Joker, Riddler, Penguin and so on and so on and yet when I think of Superman I go… Lex Luthor and… erm… erm… I mean even diehard Superman fans have to admit that though Superman is a great characters his opponents are few and far between. However the one that everyone will always remember because of the wonderful performance by Terence Stamp in Superman 2 and I have to admit when I heard those words I had goosebumps upon Callum Blue's declaration:

'You will kneel before Zod!'

No way! I mean as Ace in the holes go, this is the equivalent of Gordon showing Batman the Joker card at the end of Batman Begins.

This series of Smallville is certainly a lot darker than I remember and it feels that finally the creators have begun to play to the fanboys who know the whole history of Superman and his connection to the Justice Society of America. This plot point that goes through a number of episodes could have been awful; in fact I was almost counting on it being just that. Instead it was a great way to introduce new characters such as Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Stargirl and Doctor Mid-Nite. This should have all been awful and corny, but it wasn't and the two part episode Absolute Justice is possibly one of the best episodes of a fantasy television show that I have seen in a long time.

Along with the full season the extras include featurettes on the above episode and the evolution of the Zod character as well as deleted scenes. It would have been nice to have had some commentaries and maybe some more extras, but this is fine as they will no doubt release a full boxset when the series finally comes to an end.

Smallville Season Nine is not the show I dismissed years ago. In fact I doubt it's the show that anyone remembers, but it is certainly one of the best examples of television fantasy drama that there is and with the next season being touted as the final one, you know that Superman will go out in style rather than a whimper.