Caffeinated Clint
Much of the appeal of the season might actually lie with Justin Hartley, playing the Green Arrow, whose charismatic and confident performance showed Welling, as Clark, up in quite a few instances.
Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley
“Smallville” has been a bit of a pot-boiler of a series. It started out not unlike any other monster-of-the-week drama – something “The X-Files” did well, but most others fail miserably because they become that same old same old formula wears quickly – but once it moved away from merely exploiting the Superman name and actually both utilising it and attempting to do something different with the property, the series started to find its feet.
Whether it was the injection of the soapy like love-triangle between Clark, Lana and Lex that did it, or whether it were the seemingly more frequent visitors from other comic heroes (the ‘Justice League’ episode was terrific!), or maybe just the fact that Clark’s always getting one step closer to asking mum to sew him a cape…. It seems a lot more gripping now than it did when it first premiered in. The writing also seems to have improved – seems as the show became more and more popular, the folks behind it started pouring more into it. The fans reignited their passion, if you will.
Though the show seems to be slowly running out of steam – it’s hard a couple of strong seasons so it’s not uncommon for a show to have exhausted all or most of it’s opportunities by now; especially considering this is the sixth season – there’s still a bit of fun to be had in this latest season.
Clark (Tom Welling) is trying to round up all the villains that have escaped from the Phantom Zone; Lana (Kristen Kreuk) is preparing for her marriage to the devious Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) – and slowly discovering secrets about her bald beau; Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore) makes his entrance and develops a relationship with fellow Daily Planet reporter Chloe (Alison Mack); and a few ‘Super Friends – including Martin Manhunter (Phil Morris) and The Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) – stop by Metropolis.
I wasn’t as intrigued in this latest season – some of the character arc’s were a bit off (is Lionel good or bad?), and there’s a couple of episodes that are more reminiscent to preachy After School Specials than Superman – as it was the previous one (I think John Schneider was such a great part of the show too, and his character Jonathan Kent is sorely missed, so that doesn’t help), but it still kept me interested. Much of the appeal of the season might actually lie with Justin Hartley, playing the Green Arrow, whose charismatic and confident performance showed Welling, as Clark, up in quite a few instances.
Extras-wise, there’s some real goodies on here : a featurette on the fans (filmed at the San Diego Comic Con); a comprehensive documentary on ‘The Green Arrow’ narrated by Skywalker/The Joker himself, Mark Hammil; a multi-part animated ‘Green Arrow’ series (that looks like SIMS); and deleted scenes for most of the episodes. Most were hoping the WB would attached the unaired “Aquaman” pilot – which ironically starred Justin Hartley, who plays The Green Arrow here – to this set, but it’s nowhere to be found. Maybe next time ‘round?
Rating : 
Reviewer : Clint Morris
