Every season it is as if Smallville has reinvented itself. What started out as mostly a teenage angst filled re-telling of the Superboy story has now matured into an adult drama of merit.
And, yet Smallville has been able to retain all the fun stuff of the comic book original and keep viewers returning to see what is going to happen.
Smallville’s Seventh Season has a great deal of life story material woven into the twenty episodes. The characters are no longer teenagers, and they are going about the business of developing their careers and making permanent or not so lasting relationships. The emotions brought about by disappointments, promotions, heartbreak, new jobs and separations all figure into this year’s time with the Smallville folk.
And along with their maturity comes more menacing, darker twists to all the action. Some of the characters will falter in their resolve, and others will lose their way entirely. All the good stuff is there too. Romance, friendship, respect and professionalism play a part in the lives of the characters, and stories filled with special effects just put icing on the cake.
Clark discovers family he didn’t know existed, and becomes mentor to this long lost refugee from Krypton. He also develops working relationships with or at least knowledge of several others who have super powers equal to his own.
Starting the season we have the Bizarro Clark who enters the story, or rather returns to the story in episode one, and (who didn’t love the Bizarro characters in the comic books?) well this guy is one bad apple. Making things very difficult for the real Clark seems to be his whole reason for being.
Lana (Kristen Kruek) leaves Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) and reunites with Clark (Tom Welling) which will cause some major problems during the rest of year seven. Chloe (Allison Mack) and Lois (Erica Durance) delve deeper in journalism careers revealing some Smallville secrets.
Smallville - The Complete Seventh Season on DVD is a fan or collectors dream set. The episodes are presented on five discs with a sixth devoted entirely to special features. An accompanying booklet illustrated with stills from the episodes gives program notes and a look back at the seven years by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.
Special Features include unaired scenes for most of the episodes, and cast and crew commentary on two key episodes. Disc six has “Supergirl: The last Daughter of Krypton” featurette, “Jimmy on Jimmy” featurette exploring the character of Jimmy Olsen through interviews with several who have played the character in the past and present, “Smallville Legends: Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton” Mobisodes Gallery, and “Smallville: Visions” digital comic book. All this is attractively packaged in a slipcase folder.
From the Season opener to the final episode, this year of Smallville is a roller coaster of action, with regular cast and guest stars such as Dean Caine and James Marsters adding dimension and powerful performances.
Smallville - The Complete Seventh Season is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for an Oct. 13th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story