Smallville – The Complete Eighth Season (Blu-ray + DVD/Warner Home Video)
Picture:
B+/B- Sound: B/B- Extras: C+ Episodes: C+
It
doesn’t take a Brainiac to realize when a television series has gone beyond its
prime. Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season has arrived on Warner
Blu-ray and DVD, but on some level leaves reviewers feeling unfilled and
bored. Though this reviewer had
previously viewed all the season’s episodes when they originally aired,
re-watching Season Eight resurfaced
the same old feelings that begged the question; how long will this go on
for? The characters are great and the
basic mythos of the Superman saga is there; but the stripped down storylines,
coupled with Superman characteristics that have been remodeled, ill used, and
basically bastardized have left the waning series weak and empty.
Smallville: The Complete Eighth
Season continues
on the journey to bring Clark Kent up to speed with the Superman we all know
and love faster than a speeding bullet.
The series that has always been extremely liberal (after the first
couple seasons) with its use of Superman characters, events, and everything in
between; continues to outpace the actual happenings (as established by the
comic series) of Clark Kent’s life. In Season Eight Clark Kent (Tom Welling)
takes a job as a bright eyed and bushy tailed reporter for The Daily
Planet. At the Daily Planet Clark has a
chance to reunite with an old acquaintance in the form of Lois Lane (Erica
Durance) and meet some new faces as well; such as Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore)
amongst others.
Not long
after being in Metropolis Clark unwittingly gets a name for himself as the
“Red-Blue Blur” when random good deeds are done across the city; the name
originating for the hero after Jimmy Olsen snapped a quick shot of Clark (clad
in a red jacket and blue shirt) in the act.
This season brings a host of other classic Superman elements to the
surface as Doomsday arrives in the form of Davis Bloom (Sam Witwer) and Cosmic
Boy along with Saturn Girl manage to hit the streets of Metropolis in the
progressively odd reimagining of the Superman Legend. Of course the series does not remain
completely superhero-centric as it remains true to its teen-drama roots with
melodrama focusing on Clark sharing a workspace with Lois, the recently
departed Lana Lang, and the wedding of Chloe and Jimmy Olsen. Nevertheless, the series is fun if nothing
else. The same elements that originally
drew fans in are there, but as the actor’s age and the Superman mythos becomes
more scrambled it becomes much harder to believe or even swallow that the often
garbled plot is actually a tale of The Man of Steel.
The
picture, sound and extras on both the DVD and Blu-ray remain consistent with
previous seasons that were already released.
The picture is presented in a 1080p High Definition 16 X 9, 1.78 X 1
VC-1 Encoded image that is impressively clear, balanced, and colorfully
vibrant. As the primary colors of reds
and blues fly off the screen fans will be instantly impressed with their boldness
and fluidity. The image also has solid
contrast presentation and inky blacks that fans will surely notice from the
very beginning. The Blu-ray is a
definite step up from the basic quality of the DVD presentation that does
little in the area of depth, textures, and clarity; the Blu-ray makes for a
presentation that is not only clean, but highlights the best aspects of the
series as well. The Blu-ray, whereas
great, does have its issues with occasional banding and artifacting here and
there. The sound is presented as a Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound that sounds very much like previous seasons as it
has an insanely clear and prominent dialogue track, but the rear speakers
(though powerful in chaotic sequences) do not immerse the viewer in the soundscape
as it should and overall is lacking. Now
that so many, many other series and films are being released with pristine DTS
and TrueHD tracks it is becoming increasingly difficult to sit back and take
the ‘blah’ sound quality of some of these Warner releases. The DVD fairs even worse as it falls even
flatter with its personal Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Track of mishaps and
lackluster effects.
The
extras on the DVD and Blu-ray are the same as they both contain weak
Commentaries on 2 Key Episodes, Unaired Scenes, an In the Director’s Chair:
Behind the Lens and Calling the Shots with Allison Mack featurette, and finally
Smallville’s Doomsday: The Making of a Monster featurette. The extras are flat out drab, but at least
they exist for some fans to enjoy (as many other series still refuse to put ANY
extras). The commentaries with Miles
Milar, Todd Slavkin, Ken Horton, Al Gough and more are quick to bore as they
feature little discussion of anything the fans want to hear; i.e. lacking any
talk of the characters specially featured in that episode. The featurettes are
short and feel like worthless filler tracks that take the place of more worth
while ventures in Superman history, trivia, and so forth.
Fans of
the series should continue purchasing the Blu-ray over the DVD as it surely
showcases many of the great things Blu-ray has to offer. As previously mentioned, though the series
has gotten somewhat tired and stretched the Superman mythos way beyond its
means, I must say that Smallville
remains a fun series that is a nice “lazy day” viewing if nothing else.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
