Smallville season 8 was everything a comic book fan could want; With guest appearances from the Justice League, Legion of Super Heroes, and the introduction of DC comics mainstays like Zatanna, Toyman, and Doomsday. To those who have kept up with the show, season 8 was the payoff they were waiting for. Too bad there is going to be a season 9.
Season 8 was the perfect ending to the series with Clark having finally dealt with long time foe Lex Luthor. Braniac was defeated and imprisoned in the future, and General Zod was still trapped in the Phantom Zone. Lana had left Smallville and Clark finally began moving closer to Lois. All that stood in his way was the behemoth known as Doomsday, recognized by most comic fans as the monster that killed Superman. Indeed, all the ingredients for a spectacular series finale were in place.
Smallville’s writers had quite the task ahead of themselves with season 8. The previous season saw the introduction Super-girl as well as Bizarro, Brainiac once again rising to give Clark grief, and Lex finally embracing the dark side and confronting Clark about his powers. It also saw the departure of series mainstays Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, and Kristen Kreuk. Many doubted the series would survive after that. With little other choice, the writers decided to move closer to the Superman mythos and bring in even more DC characters. The way Doomsday was written and portrayed is in itself a credit to the series. No one, myself included, thought they could do the character justice. In fact, it’s interesting to note that the character is even more interesting on the show than he is in the comics.
Of course, as has become a tradition of Smallville, the special effects were of cinema quality and continue to out do anything in its genre. Once again going back to Doomsday, the suit is remarkably close to what could be seen in the comic.
Fans of the comics were rewarded with nice little nods. The anti-life equation could be heard in a specific scene featuring Brainiac, Maxima was kept the same as her comic counterpart, Green Arrow continued to grow more antagonistic toward Clark which ultimately leads to his death in the comics.
If there was a negative opinion of the season, it would have to be regarding the final battle between Clark and Doomsday. It was a fight that was built up the entire season, and even previewed during a scene in which Clark’s super strength did little to halt a punch from Doomsday that sent him crashing through a farm house. Surely during the finale these two would finally have it out in grand fashion. If there is one weakness that Smallville has continued to suffer from, it would be its unimpressive action sequences. The Clark Doomsday battle lasted around a minute and twenty seconds. Had this been another episode, it would be a small gripe but considering this was supposed to be the foe that was built up throughout the entire season as being Clark’s own personal doomsday, one could not help but be disappointed by the result.
Everything aside, season 8 ultimately is not the end for Smallville. The CW needs a ratings boost and Smallville is seemingly all they have left. Knowing this, they extended its life past what really should have been its end. Can the show continue its upward trend? A new battle with Zod may prove interesting and the introduction of the JSA may provide some fanboys pleasure if done right but, with Clark finally donning a costume and moving to Metropolis, one has to wonder why the show is even called Smallville. Still, regardless of whether season 9 outperforms it or not, season 8 was one of the best examples of what makes Superman entertaining outside of the pages of a comic.
Heroes has been a show that has had it’s fair share of fans and detractors. After a brilliant first season that was widely received as an excellent piece of television, the writers had quite the task of continuing the trend and keeping viewers interest.
Unfortunately they couldn’t and what resulted was a less than stellar follow up that caused the show to suffer from lackluster plots and little to no character development. Season three was the chance they needed to once again aim high and finish strong. Did the show return to the glory established in it’s first season? Or did it flounder and continue it’s downward trend into mediocrity? Yes and no.
Season three started with yet another alternate future that threatened to become reality should the heroes fail in whatever struggle the writers set up for them latter down the line. This in itself is one of the problems the show has had to face. Every season, there has been a different future and every season, the heroes had to try to prevent that future from taking place. Sure every future was different, but the basic plot was the same. A big bad emerged and their actions threatened to bring about the end of the world. Throughout the season, the heroes would endeavor to prevent the big bad from achieving their goals thus preventing the future that could have been.
Season three’s future had nothing to do with the plot of season three. In this future, heroes were evil, villains were good, and civilians had powers but nowhere in the season did these plot points even threaten to take place. It was like the writers knew we would be expecting them to follow up on it and instead took us in a completely different direction. I assume everyone reading this review knows the characters and their stories so I will be referring to them by name without explaining who they are.
This season also introduced so many new faces that it was impossible to keep track of them all, let alone care. They were basically walking plot devices, powers with faces to associate them with. Not only did they introduce well over ten characters in the first half of the season, it killed off the majority of them before transitioning into a new volume.( the show is separated into “volumes”, not seasons)
As if that wasn’t bad enough, characters acted the complete opposite of what had previously been established in the first two seasons. Why exactly did Sylar want to be a hero after pretty much stating in season one that he wanted enough power to destroy everything? The writers tried to explain it off as his powers involved something known as the “hunger” within him telling him to feed on other being’s powers and if he learned to control it, he was really just a misunderstood guy. Well unfortunately, season two showed him without powers and he was possibly even more devious and no, the “hunger” was never once brought up. This led to the show’s audience who had previously thought of Sylar as one of the best new villains on TV, turning on him and begging for the writers to put him out of his misery. This is the most extreme example of the bipolar nature of the characters this season but there were others. Why was Mohinder, the smartest character on the show, suddenly such an idiot? How did Angela Petrelli turn from a futurist, into someone who probably couldn’t even tell me the meaning of the word?
Let’s go back for a minute to the introduction of new characters, of which the one that made the most impact was the Big Bad for the first half of the season, Arthur Petrelli( or as fans like to refer to him, Papa Petrelli). Arthur had previously been thought to be dead little was known about him except that he belonged to the previous generations heroes. I will give the writers credit for initially making this character seem like the BA they probably expected him to be.
What better way to establish a new villain than having him off the one from the previous season with relative ease while at the same time, giving him a group of dangerous new villains to challenge our heroes with. Unfortunately his charm wore off the moment his plans started taking shape. Why? Because for the life of me, I couldn’t tell what his plan was. We saw snippets of it; Returning Nathan to a seat of power within the government, stealing as many powers as he could, messing with Sylar’s head( and ours as well). If his plan was to keep the audience guessing then mission accomplished because the writers chose to kill him off in an attempt to salvage Sylar and return him to his former glory.
Let’s move on to the second half of the season before I turn you off the show completely( if the writers didn’t do it already). Known as “Volume 4”, the second half of season 3 was an improvement over what came before but is that really saying much? Volume 4 was a new chance to start over. The executive producer and part time writer Jeph Loeb was taken off the show and it was given a new direction.
With the fallout from Volume 3, Nathan decides someone has to take charge of the growing population of super powered beings with his solution being, lock them up and worry about what to do with them later. A new character named Danko is introduced as a hunter of the heroes. Without any powers, it would seem like a waste. After all, how could a powerless human pose a threat to beings with god-like abilities? Luckily the writers learned from their earlier mistakes and decided to make the character believable rather than a villain taken out of a Saturday morning cartoon. With a shoot first ask questions later mentality and the US government backing him up, Danko ‘s threat to the heroes was kept realistic and enticed viewers into wanting to see how much further he could push the main characters.
Of course Sylar was still searching for who he was but rather than trying to be a hero, he was searching for closure to what was plaguing him in the form of his true father’s identity. Not a great arc but still better than flip flopping between good and evil.
Volume four was full of revelations and betrayals as a key character was laid to rest, a family was torn asunder, and another was reunited. However it was not without its flaws. The introduction of new characters only to be discarded a few episodes later still was often an issue. This happened twice in Sylar’s arc alone, with his father and his apprentice both adding little to the overall plot. Even with the brilliant John Glover portraying him, Sylar’s father is mainly forgettable due to little explanation of who he is and what his goals truly are.
However if there is a selling point to Heroes, it’s the special effects which go above and beyond standard television and how ironic that in a show that seems to be driven by such, the break out character and arguably the best reason to watch is someone that requires none. The character of Noah Bennet was for the bulk of the show, the lone human in a sea of titans, using only his intelligence and natural talents to get by. The season saw him continue to grow from a man trying desperately to maintain order to losing everything he ever fought to protect, coming out of the season darker than ever.
With season four looming, Heroes is in a position to start from a clean slate, with a villain who appears to have been pulled straight from “Carnivale,” a new set of power players calling the shots, and the main cast determined to live ordinary lives. Will the show survive its slumping ratings? Hopefully.
As I have stated, it is far from perfect but if you turn your brain off for an hour, you may be surprised. It is a soap opera for comic book readers and sci-fi fans alike. For better or for worse, I would recommend the show to anyone looking for a bit of escapism and nonsensical drama.
