Smallville - Season 6

I have to admit, as much of a Superman fan as I am, it took me nearly a year before I could really get into “Smallville”, the WB’s weekly series (now a part of the revamped CW) that began in October 2001 and is now heading into its seventh season. It’s not that I wasn’t excited about the series concept – I was. The premise of a young Clark Kent as he matures into the Man of Steel he is destined to become was a definitely exciting concept. The two reasons I couldn’t latch onto “Smallville” at first is because I had already latched onto “Enterprise” (the fifth “Star Trek” incarnation) at that time, and between traveling for my job and caring for my ailing dad I couldn’t find the time to watch the series. I had wound up catching the series’ pilot episode while my dad was in the hospital during one of his many bouts with dehydration due to his strokes and Parkinson’s disease. In the months to come I would catch the occasional episode intermittently during my work travels. It was only in the summer of 2002, when the first season went into reruns that I began to really watch and get into “Smallville”. This followed up with the Canadian DVD release of the first two episodes, and by the time of the second season’s premiere I was hooked.

Flash forward to today. Since moving from Mississippi to Alabama, the only way I’ve been able to catch any episodes of any recent TV series has been solely on DVD. As the series now prepares to enter into its seventh (and possibly final) season, Warner Home Video has issued the sixth season of “Smallville” as a six-disc set across standard DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray formats. Just catching up on everything that I’ve missed over the past year is exciting in and of itself! But whether you’re going into this latest DVD release blindly or just brushing up for the seventh season premiere, this latest set is a nice addition to your “Smallville” and Superman DVD collections.

As if things weren’t already heated up at the end of the fifth season, things went even higher and farther than before. At the end of the fifth season, Clark Kent (Tom Welling) found himself trapped in the mysterious Phantom Zone, as the mysterious Zod wreaked havoc upon Metropolis. Both Lionel Luthor (John Glover) and fledgling Daily Planet reporter Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) found themselves at the mercy of a throng of attackers. Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) found himself the human vessel of Zod, while his new girlfriend Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) vowed to join him on whatever transpired from there. The sixth season premiere, aptly titled “Zod”, in which Clark must find a way out of the Phantom Zone, confront Zod, and save Metropolis from certain disaster. (If you notice very carefully, you’ll be able to spot Zod – it’s none other than Terence Stamp, in footage borrowed from “Superman II” and integrated into the episode!)

But that’s not the first surprise for you right there. In “Sneeze”, as Clark develops a cold and accidentally uses his super-breath whenever he sneezes (oops!), we are introduced to a new cast member to the series: Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), who has his own secret identity as the mysterious Green Arrow. Clearly, as the series matured and developed throughout the season, series creators and producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar sought to integrate more DC Comics elements into the series. In “Wither” we are treated to Clark’s battle with a Poison Ivy-like villainess, while we see romantic couplings occur between Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and Oliver, Lana and Lex, and Chloe and Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen. Aaron Ashmore (the twin brother of “X-Men” star Shawn Ashmore, who had appeared in a few “Smallville” episodes earlier in the series) brings a freshness and sense of humor to Jimmy’s character, providing a fun enjoyable balance to the series.

Of course, throughout the season we learn more about Green Arrow and his involvement with both Clark and Lois. In “Arrow” Oliver and Clark learn of each other’s secret identities and abilities, while “Rage” focuses on what happens when Oliver takes an experimental drug and seemingly becomes invincible. Things culminate in the season’s midway episode, the popular segment “Justice”, as Clark is invited to join Oliver’s super-group which also includes Arthur “AC” Curry (Aquaman), Bart Allen (Impulse), and Victor Stone (Cyborg) to thwart Lex’s mysterious 33.1 project. Sounds like a job for the neophyte Justice League! They’re not the only heroes in town, as the Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris) made a couple of memorable appearances in the season.

While all this is going on, Clark must repeatedly contend with numerous escapees from the Phantom Zone, in “Fallout”, “Static”, and “Combat” (the latter two of which featured WWE wrestlers Dave Batista, Ashley Massaro, and Glenn “Kane” Jacobs as the Phantom Zone villains Clark – and even Lois – squared off against). But the WWE superstars weren’t the only surprise guest stars this season. Lucas Grabeel (of the two “High School Musical” movies) appeared as a teenaged Lex Luthor in “Reunion”, which further explored the rivalry between Lex and Oliver Queen. If you were to define clueless, before Jessica Simpson there was Tori Spelling (of “Beverly Hills 90210”) – she made a memorable guest star turn in “Hydro” as a venomous Daily Planet gossip columnist. And Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, appeared as Chloe’s mysterious mother in “Progeny”, which explored the possibility that Chloe may have also been affected by the meteor shower that brought Clark to Earth two decades before.

Some of the more interesting episodes put unique spins on what we’ve been familiar with. Of course, there was “Justice”, which teased fans about the possibility of the JLA in Clark’s future. In “Noir” Jimmy takes a bump to the head that plunges him into a 1940’s era dream. And then there’s “Labyrinth”, which took both Clark and viewers on a wild ride where nothing in his world was what it appeared. We even see a hint of things to come between Lois and Clark in “Crimson”, where an aphrodisiac lipstick makes Lois fall in love with the first man she sees – none other than her future partner in news (and marriage).

But as Clark’s future began to take shape, so did the dramatic turn of events that led Lex and Lana to the altar in “Promise” and set forth a tragic turn of events that led to the end of the season (and would continue into the new season). As a result, Lana finds out the truth of why she married Lex, while he and Clark (now head-deep into their explosive rivalry) must work together to escape from certain death in “Nemesis”. Everything came to a head in the season finale “Phantom”, which led to the shocking arrival of a Clark Kent from another dimension (can we all say “Bizarro”?)

All 22 episodes of the series’ sixth season are presented in their original broadcast aspect ratio in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, which makes the visual presentation of each episode look as stellar as their original HD broadcasts. Sound-wise, the series’ DVD presentation has finally graduated from ordinary Dolby 2.0 surround sound to full-fledged Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, the first time since the Canadian single-disc release from 2002. While other then-current series were treated to wonderful 5.1 tracks, it always seemed a travesty to give “Smallville” a lousy 2.0 track. All I can say is this: for a series such as this, it’s about time this incarnation of the Man of Steel (to be) got a 5.1 track!

In terms of extras, we are given the requisite series of behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and online content that further explore the “Smallville” mythology. As opposed to the previous sets, the majority of the extra features (sans deleted scenes) are included on Discs 1 and 2 (where they had been mostly on Discs 5 and 6 in previous sets). First off, on Disc 1, is “Smallville: Big Fans”, a 30-minute look at the many fans from around the world who are devoted to the series. Fans are shown at home having “Smallville” parties, attending conventions, meeting the stars, writing their own original fan fiction, and developing their own fan websites. Among those profiled is Craig Byrne, the webmaster of Kryptonsite.com and the editor of the monthly “Smallville” magazine from Titan Books, who regularly keeps up with the latest information and reviews of episodes, and who over the years has emerged as one of the top fans of the series. John Glover, Erica Durance, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar, among others, are also profiled. This feature is the result of an online search for the ultimate series fan, and it’s fun at times to see how this series has grown on Superman fans and become the success it is.

Also on Disc 1 is “Green Arrow: The History of the Emerald Archer”, which is a look at the creation of the character in the 1940’s as a second string hero, his evolvement over the decades, and his updated revision for “Smallville”. A number of comic-book writers and artists are profiled, including Dennis O’Neil (who with the late artist Neal Adams took Green Arrow to new heights in the 1970’s), as well as Gough and Millar. Now this is one feature that I could have done completely without, and this is where I have a serious problem with it, so forgive me if I shift into explosive mode here – will somebody please tell me what in the hell is Kevin Smith doing in this profile? Doesn’t this bottom-feeding piece of scum have anything worth living to do with his time? For some reason he and others around him think he’s the cat’s meow, but let’s face it, he can’t write, act, direct, or do anything without having to continually stick his face and his crap agenda of subversion in front of everyone and say “How do you like me now?” He needs to get out of the business, go back to his mother’s basement, and resume smoking his crack, or for that matter get a real haircut and job like the majority of America. As my dad would say, give him a bath, a shave, a haircut, and a new suit and send him home to mama. Whoever decided to interview this twerp for the DVD ought to be flogged alongside him – and that’s just for starters. At the very least someone should have the smarts to either cut the feature off the disc entirely or cut all of that useless Smith footage out of the featurette to make it flow better. (Okay, enough of rant mode, back to the review.)

Disc 2 contains three more unique features. First off is “Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles”, which is a six-part collection of computer-animated tales (or “mobisodes”, as they should be properly called) that graced the small screens of cell phone users everywhere but can now be enjoyed in all their glory. Next is “The Making of Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles”, which looks behind the scenes at how each of the mobisodes were created. Finally there is a collection of five “Smallville Content Wraps”, which are an animated series of comic books that explored the events in between the sixth season’s episodes. Like the “Chloe Chronicles” and the “Vengeance Chronicles” before them, these mobisodes and content wraps are wonderful additions to the “Smallville” family.

The remainder of the DVD set contains numerous deleted scenes from “Sneeze”, “Wither”, “Arrow”, “Fallout”, “Hydro”, “Labyrinth”, “Crimson”, “Freak”, “Combat”, “Progeny”, “Nemesis”, and “Phantom”. All of these deleted scenes are presented in Dolby 2.0 surround sound and anamorphic widescreen format and can be viewed in tandem with each respective episode on each disc. These additional scenes, cut from each of the episodes for time or story constraints, lift the curtain back on more of the worlds of Smallville and Metropolis and are a nice touch to round out this set. Finally, on Disc 6, there is a lone trailer for the direct-to-DVD release of “Superman: Doomsday”.

As an added bonus, for Best Buy customers Warner Home Video has thrown in a bonus book covering the series' sixth season, which is packaged in select copies of the set. A copy of this bonus book was unavailable for review.

Surprisingly, there are no audio commentaries on this latest set. This is definitely a change of pace, as we’ve had some commentaries from writers, producers, directors, and stars on past sets over the years. I guess having only two commentaries per set seemed like a bit of a short shrift, when other sets like “Battlestar Galactica” and “Heroes” have a generous amount of audio commentaries included on their respective sets.

With the sole exception of the Green Arrow retrospective featurette on Disc 1, the sixth season of “Smallville” on DVD could have been a winner, had it been left off the set or edited. This is the only major blemish on what is otherwise a good season set to get you ready for the upcoming seventh season on the CW.

Next time, if all goes well, I’m hoping to have my review of “Superman: Doomsday” for you. See you then!