Smallville

[Level]

Clark does everything.. there's gonna be no point of being Superman if they go on like this. : P

But I still love this show.. and it survived the loss of my favs characters, the Luthors imho.

[Slade]

OK I recently finished watching series 8 on T4 and am currently watching series 9 on E4. Just some thoughts regarding season 8. As someone that wanted Lois and Clarke to get together for sometime it was incredibly frustrating seeing Clark make the same mistakes that he did with Lana i.e. too afraid to get involved with Lois romantically because he was fearful of getting hurt. Kind of ironic as he is pretty much invincible bar the odd kryptonite.

I hated how they brought Lana back - Just as Clarke and Lois were finally about to get it on. I hated the way he appeared to forget about Lois and she was effectively sidelined for several episodes. I've never liked Lana and as a character have found her quite boring and I don't particularly rate the actress. I was rolling my eyes in one of the episodes where a member of the trio that came from the future said she was destined for greatness - Yeah right! I'm glad she's gone now and hopefully she will never come back.

I used to really like Lex as a bad guy but I'm not too bothered he won't be coming back. Oliver is supposed to be one of the good guys but I didn't have too much of a problem with him killing Lex. Let's face it Lex has caused a lot of pain and suffering over the years and he would have continued to do so, so you could argue Oliver did the world a favour. The only issue I had was him framing someone else for the murder even though that person wasn't entirely innocent.

At first I liked Tess and thought she was quite intriguing but now I think in her own way she's just as bad as Lex. OK not as bad but she has been pretty ruthless and cold-blooded.

I was gutted that they killed Jimmy off and thought the funeral was really sad. As a character I really liked him and although I was quite pleased with the portrayal of Oliver during the whole thing - visibly upset, subsequently falling into deep depression and appearing to go off the rails - I was extremely disappointed with the way some of the other characters were written. Whilst Chloe was distraught during the funeral she seemed to move on pretty quickly and has hardly mentioned Jimmy in season 9 but perhaps that was because she fell out of love with him. Also Clarke didn't seem bothered at all and you could argue he's the person who would feel the most guilty about Jimmy's death as he had the power to prevent it but wanted to save Davis. Also no reaction whatsoever from Lois regarding Jimmy, again very disappointing.

I'm still enjoying Smallville despite this being the 9th season. I'm loving all the Clarke/Lois scenes and long may they continue - Every episode if need be. And I'm really looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops. I'm hoping their bond will be so strong eventually that even a love stricken Lana won't be able to break them up.

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

I've just started Season 8 on DVD, and I'm glad to see my belief that the show gets better every season is holding up. YMMV, of course.

Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan are working on a Superman reboot movie, and I would really love it if they made it a continuation of Smallville. Since they're not going with the Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh continuity, why not go with Smallville's continuity? Especially since Erica Durance is arguably the best Lois yet, and Michael Rosenbaum was a great Lex Luthor. And maybe they can bring back Michael McKean, Annette O'Toole, James Marsters, Ryan Harder etc.

[Red Ranger 1]

I watched Season 8 when it came out on DVD.I'll watch Season 9 when it comes out, which will probably be about October going by previous years.I think the show's suffered a bit from going on too long, getting Dougie Howser MD syndrome:What started as the story of Clark Kent before he becomes Superman has ended up the story of a Clark Kent who really should be Superman but for some reason isn't.Although I hear they do address that soon.Haven't heard much about Season 9.

I liked Lana so I didn't really mind that they brought her back, she deserved more than the abrupt and rather rubbish exit she got in Season 7.Her last episode was actually one of my favourites of the season and the Legion episode was pretty good as well.It was possibly a mistake to have her return come right as they were starting to push the Clark/Lois angle though, especially since they then wrote Lois out for four episodes.Might have been better to either play the Clark/Lana relationship differently or not push Clark and Lois together so much until afterwards.Given that Clark didn't tell Lana his secret until about five years after he should have done, it's frustrating to think we may now have to sit through him doing the same with Lois, especially since she's also proved to him and us that she'd be okay with it, after the number of times she's found out and then got amnesia.(Although I have to admit a part of me does still want something to happen between Clark and Chloe.It's probably too late for that though.)

I think Lex had pretty much run his course by the end of Season 6 and I hope he stays dead.Not that it makes any difference because they've basically replaced him with Tess, who seems to have lost the subtlety of her early appearances when you could believe she was doing the wrong thing for what she thought was the right reason and just become another evil sociopath.The problems with these characters is they make Clark seem impotent and a dangerous idealist, not only is he incapable of bringing the true villains to justice, he ends up protecting them from the consequences of their actions(saving Tess from the gang of mutants she'd used and then murdered for instance), thus making him indirectly responsible for every other death they cause.Doesn't help that Chloe seems to be following his lead.In fact it was that philosophy that got Jimmy killed.That was a pretty shocking moment even though I knew it was coming.Have to admit I was never really sold on Chloe and Jimmy as a couple, which is ironic given that he seemed to be brought in solely to be her boyfriend, but I did like him as a character and I'd have liked him to stick around as an ally to the other characters.Quite like Oliver, even though the characters does scream "They won't let us use Batman so we've got this guy instead."It is a bit frustrating that they keep having Clark make self-righteous rants at him that are morally correct but also incredibly naive.

I've heard that

Chloe isn't going to be in Season 10 much

which is disappointing and makes me even more certain Lois needs to find out Clark's secret or else the character interaction is going to be very limited.(Unless she already knows.Like I said, I don't know much about Season 9.)

[Slade]

So much in season 9:

-Zod

-The Kandorians

-Watchtower

-Checkmate

-The Red queen

-The book of Rao

Despite all the above which was fundamental to the overall plotline, one of the things that made it for me was the Clarke/Lois stuff. One of my favourite episodes was Valentines Day where Clark had fairy dust (kryptonite) sprinkled over him and he hypnotised Lois causing her to move in with him, give up her job, become a housewife, decide that she and Clark were getting married and announcing their engagement to the world.

Clark's mum revealed as the Red queen was a surprise as I had no idea she had any connection to Checkmate. Similarly I had no idea that Tess was actually an agent for Checkmate too.

I actually quite liked Zod as a bad guy and thought he proved to be quite a formidable opponent. Not necessarily his fighting ability but the way he was able to manipulate the Kandorians.

It's funny because in season 8 it was mentioned previously Clark's and Chloe's unwillingness to sufficiently deal with people who were perceived as a real threat resulting in the deaths of innocents. But yet again Clark saved Zod rather than finish him off which eventually led to Faora's death. I was really disappointed as I really liked her and thought she was shaping up to be a good character and I would have liked to have seen a lot more of her. With Chloe it was a little more of a grey area this time. It has been proven time and time again that Tess has ruined lives and Chloe had to two opportunities to allow her to die. First when Clark was under the influence of Kryptonite and second when she promised to resuscitate Tess after removing the tracking device implanted in her. I do suppose that's the main difference between them. Chloe is honourable and had it been the other way round I'm not so sure if Tess would have kept her word. In saying that perhaps it was a wise move by Chloe on both counts as Clark wouldn't have been able to live with himself and Tess might turn out to be useful in the future.

I quite liked the portrayal of Oliver throughout that season. When he eventually picked himself up after Jimmy's death I liked the way he tried to help his friends. I also quite liked him and Chloe together. If you think about it, it made sense as there was nobody else to pair them with and both characters were felling lonely.

The 10th and final season starts tomorrow on E4 and I'm expecting to see what should have happened several years ago and really look forward to seeing how things develop between Clark and Louis now that she now knows his secret. It will be interesting to see how she confronts him about not telling her and that there were other people close to Clark that have known for several years...

[Miranda]

due to Channel 4's complete mucking around with the schedule, I've lost track of Smallville, I used to really love it.BUT I am making the effort with season 10 as its the final one

[Zetti]

^ I cannot wait

[Red Ranger 1]

Looking back at my post of nearly a year ago and getting a bit of deja vu...Been about six months since I saw Season 9, I'll watch Season 10 when it comes out on DVD.(Gave up on waiting for them to turn up on Channel 4, if they want to stick it on the digital channels then they lost a viewer.)So struggling to remember it...

I remember liking the first Metallo episode, which I think was an early season highpoint.The character worked well as a misguided villain so I'm not sure resurrecting him as a fugitive anti-hero entirely worked.The Justice Society two-parter worked well too, although Chloe seemed to spend the first episode acting like a cow without any real comeback...

Liked Clark and Lois as a couple, shame he repeated the same "I can't tell her my secret because... because" routine but it looks like that's over now.I really liked Chloe and Oliver as well and I was disappointed that most of the relationship seemed to play out off-screen:It was like they had a moment, weren't seen for about three episodes, then they're suddenly friends with benefits.It's a shame that

Chloe's apparently going to have a reduced role in Season 10, meaning less chance of it being developed

.

Clark dropping the pretence and getting physical with Tess was a real "See, Clark, that's how you do it" moment.Otherwise, I'd rather they left her dead, with her sins finally having found her out, but apparently she's going to be given a shot at redemption.Zod was a decent villain too.(Who didn't cheer at "Kneel before Zod"?Cheesy but right.)His final downfall, with the Kandorians overhearing his confession and Clark jumping off a building to get the blue kryptonite away from him, was a real moment to cheer.Martha as the Red Queen was a bit "What the heck?":A complete shock and a complete anti-climax simultaneously.That episode didn't really work for me, although I was glad to see Checkmate shut down and the hateful Grier getting her comeuppance.

I understand they're going to use Darkseid in Season 10, practically the only major Superman villain not to appear.At this rate he'll be left fighting Encantadora and Dominus when he grows up.Actually, when is he going to be Superman?Astonished the show has actually finished, every year since Season 4 was meant to be the last one...

[Miranda]

When is he going to fly? I will have to rely totally on Red's summaries, as I've lost touch with what is going on. Lois and Chloe swapping partners?

[pembie]

Clark's not flying yet I expect it will happen in the season 10 finale I hope anyway