Smallville: The Complete Tenth Season (2010 – 2011/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B Extras: C Episodes: C+
Smallville has been slowly coming to an end
for years now; the creators stretching out storylines and introducing
characters that have no place being in the ‘pre-Superman’ universe of Clark
Kent. This is not to say the series was
not enjoyable, but after a while Smallville
limped along as it awkwardly steered clear of just saying we had reached
the point of no return (i.e., Superman has arrived).
The Tenth
Season does not reveal much new for the world of Smallville and acts more like a continuing soap opera of
ridiculousness. There are tons of double
crosses, returns from the dead, parallel universes, clones, secrets and every
other ‘soap opera-esc’ plot twist. Clark still goes undercover in Metropolis as ‘The Blur,’
while concurrently trying to lead a normal life with Lois, friends, and family.
The main
focus of this season is the impending doom of earth faces as Darkseid arrives. It starts off slow as Darkseid’s minions wreak
havoc, but soon progresses to a point of utter chaos. Other story arches involve Green Arrow’s
secret identity, the Vigilante Registration Act, the shooting of Martha Kent,
serial killers loose in Metropolis and much more.
I had
lost interest in Smallville a while
ago now, but was excited to see how it all came to an end. The season could have been much better but it
completely missed an opportunity to transition the wide eyed Clark Kent into the
Man of Steel we all know and love. Season 10 dragged like the last several
seasons, introducing new storylines that mattered little to the progression of
the series; especially at the end. The
series finale was a somewhat appropriate, but mostly a cop out and did not give
the sense of satisfaction I was expecting.
The
technical features on the Smallville
Season 10 Blu-ray are well done as always, though not perfect. The picture again is presented in a 1080p
High Definition 1.78 X 1 Anamorphic Widescreen VC-1 Encoded image that is
clean/clear, well balanced, and colorfully vibrant as the primary colors
explode off the screen. The colors are awesome and the inky blacks are
just as powerful. Again the detailed, sharp image is admirable and
delivers a reliable Blu-ray experience. At
first, the sound played once again like it was a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but
Warner has decided to use DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 here, but it is
still adequate at best and a far cry from what a superhero series should be and
especially on Blu-ray. The dialogue is
crisp as it projects from the front, existing as the shining moment for the
audio track; but as the action picked up this season I was disappointed at the
lack of surrounds overall and the dialogue is too much towards the front
channels.
The
extras include a few featurettes, commentary tracks, a music video, and finally
some deleted scenes. The deleted scenes
and featurettes are adequate, but not all to revealing. The commentary tracks are enjoyable/well
done, though I would have liked to hear where they thought the series was going
or if the ever had the intention to go forward (beyond Smallville) and dive in the Lois
and Clark territory.
A good
series that had its time, now let’s see what is next for the Man of Steel.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
