Smallville Season 8--warning! Some minor spoilers

[greggbray]

I've posted this elsewhere and was curious as to the general interest or thoughts about this series around here:

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WARNING!! THERE ARE SEASON 8 SPOILERS SPRINKLED THROUGHOUT. READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL!



At the risk of unintentionally inviting some controversy, I wanted to start this topic that talks about the other DCU elements in Smallville.

Smallville is a fairly controversial show with fans---some dig the 'elseworlds' take on a fused 'Silver Age Superboy' with a 'Post Donner & Byrne' influence--some do not. (It doesn't help that some of the scripting is wildly uneven).

Having said that, one area I feel the program has excelled in is bringing DCU characters in. Green Arrow, Cyborg, Black Canary, Impulse (Flash), Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter were all give (IMO, of course) strong introductions, and could easily have some kind of spin off associated with them.

Kara was woefully underused in Season 7, and I feel she's getting the shaft in Season 8. Hopefully she will appear in at least 1 episode to wrap up her story arc a bit. At least send her off on a mission.

Which leads me to the following. It seems to be there could be a few solid spin offs after Smallville wraps up this year.

1.) Green Arrow. Season 6 really brought this character to the forefront, and served as a catalyst for the Smallville Justice League. I enjoy Justin's take on the character (even with the obvious Batman influence), and was pleased he was brought back in 'Siren' during Season 7 to meet Black Canary. He does have a great deal of charisma, and I feel (based upon the Aquaman pilot which, despite being quite good, didn't get picked up) he has a natural leading man presence for the small screen.

2.) The Justice League. I love Bart Allen. He's also someone that's been underused. Both his appearances in the program have been memorable. He has excellent chemistry with his cohorts, and would work quite well in a supporting role. Heck, the actor has a memorable arc in the second season of Veronica Mars. He could certainly pull this off. While I wasn't as big on the actor who portrayed Aquaman ("Fish jokes. All I get are fish jokes."), I think he could grow into the role. With the always excellent Phil Morris in the lead of the team, it feels like the ingredients are there for a solid program. I would like to see Black Canary a bit more before making a definitive judgment (outside of her being better utilized than in Birds of Prey TV series). I also enjoyed Cyborg in the series. True, he's not necessarily a member from the traditional team, but as there are limits imposed by DC/WB as to who can be in the Smallville series (no Batman, no Wonder-Woman) I think they'll need someone to round out the crew. Maybe introduce Hawkgirl in the begining of the first Season, and then we have a show.

3.) Supergirl. With Kara being given such little consideration in Season 8, it's unlikely she'll get to do very much. But Geoff Johns wrote an episode this season about the Legion of Superheroes visiting Clark. This could be excellent, and could also bring Supergirl into the future with the Legion. So, there are two possibilities here:

a.) Supergirl has her own program where she sometimes may meet a familiar face, but ultimately is given her own story line, location, things to do.

b.) Supergirl goes into the future with the Legion of Superheroes for a sci-fi future kind of series. I personally find this scenario less likely, as it would seriously tap into the CW's already failing budget.

or

c.) Supergirl joins the Justice League. Odd, and not likely, as Superman should be there first. Not that this would stop TPTB from tampering with the comics mythology, of course--but given how her character did little to bolster the ratings in Season 7 (so much so that she's been all but dropped for Season 8 ), I highly doubt she'll appear in any kind of spin off, let alone have her own.

So, those seem to be the possibilities.

Villains could include Brainiac, Maxima, and villains not tapped before. I doubt we'll see the return of Zod or Bizarro (no Welling), and highly doubt we'll see Lex Luthor. But there are many DCU villains that could appear.

Thoughts??

[Paul (ral)]

I like Smallville.  A lot.  But it does annoy the hell out of me sometimes.  Some episodes leave me frustrated while others entertain me.  Usually it's more often the latter.

I think Welling is great and in the few episodes where he has had something to do and has been given some good dialogue he has shined.  But more often than not he has only had to stand there, look strong and stare meaningfully while bit players get all the juice.  The talk about spin-offs is fine, but Smallville shouldn't be a springboard for other heroes, it should be a showcase for a young Superman - someone who has had very little comparitive screen exposure in the last 15 years.

The series has really dragged out some story lines further than they should have gone and i feel that with this series being the last (possibly) that things will be wrapped up to quickly giving me an over-all "cheated" feeling.

But I will still watch them all - as I have every other one (more than once in some cases!)

[thecolorsblend]

Bray, you know my views on this show.  Hell, you articulated most of them in your post.    Post-Season 7, a lot of my confidence in this show has been restored and I'm ready for Season 8 to be a strong conclusion to the series.

I'm cool with the JLA being more active in Season 8 so long as the payoff legitimately leads to Clark creating the costume.  This really is the season where Clark needs to be the focus of the storylines and my fear is that he'll get a little lost in all this Doomsday/Tess/Maxima/JLA/LOSH business.

[greggbray]

"The talk about spin-offs is fine, but Smallville shouldn't be a springboard for other heroes, it should be a showcase for a young Superman "

I agree. Every season, it seems they start out putting Clark on his quest, and somewhere along the line he winds up taking up a lot of background to showcase new characters and arcs.

The Kara storyline started off quite well, as it really put Clark as the focal character.  He had to be her mentor and big brother, and I enjoyed that the story reincorporated earlier seasons to ultimately bring he and Luthor together.  But there were the usual digressions and lesser episodes that had no business being there.

I feel this series could have been boiled down into 5 solid seasons, without all the excess thrown into it.  Seasons 2 -3 are my favorite, Season 7 is quite solid (despite a few missteps), Season 6 is right behind it (though the Lana storyline dragged it down a bit) Season 1 was a bit too episodic and a bit of a prototype, but it was a good launch, Season 5 had an excellent first half (some of the best episodes in the series here) and a weak second half (with the exception of Cyborg), and I like to pretend most of Season 4 never happened (save for Crusade, Run, Transference, Jinx, Onyx, and Commencement).

I do have some fears about this season, but I truly hope they'll put Clark front and center as his storyline wraps up.

[Paul (ral)]

A little more action, with Clark fighting (as he did with Bizarro) would be welcome.  Most of the time you get the feeling that a good fight is going to happen, then all you see is one punch or someone getting thrown against a wall - then a pause as Clark stares into the distance..........

I agree the last season was quite good, but there were some where 3 mins into them that i turned to my fiance and said "ahh for gawd's sake" as I knew it was going to be a contrived "by the numbers" episode.

I hope it does go out with a bang.  No Lana (thankfully) and no Lex (sadly as he was one of the best characters - but probably for the better as the Lex/Clark storyline has been done to death) should mean that some progressive storylines could be in order.

Looking forward to it though.

[shadowbat69]

I watched this show religously for the first 4 seasons, and speratically over season 5. After that I lost all interest in it. I feel this show should have ended 2 seasons ago.

[thecolorsblend]

The CW has finally released the Official description for season premiere "Odyssey":

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE RETURNS TO FIND CLARK AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE FORTRESS; THE NEW CEO OF LUTHORCORP COMES TO TOWN ? The Justice League, lead by the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley), hits the Artic in search of Clark (Tom Welling), who disappeared after the fortress collapsed. The team immediately has a confrontation with the new CEO of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman). Meanwhile, Chloe (Allison Mack) is being held prisoner by a suspicious group who has discovered she has a new power, and Clark has been stripped of his powers by Jor-El. Erica Durance and Aaron Ashmore also star. Kevin Fair directed the episode with the story by Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders and teleplay by Todd Slavkin & Darren Swimmer.

[shadowbat69]

gee. Clark lost his powers again? They should really come up with a new gimmick, like have red kryptonite change him to "bad" Clark. Oh wait, thats been done a couple time already too.

Sorry. PLease continue.....

[greggbray]

I have to tell you, I really enjoyed the first two episodes.  I'm not a fan of how quickly Clark was able to land a job at the Daily Planet--honestly, a throwaway line about letters of recommendation from Senator Kent and Perry White would have sufficed, but other than that, no complaints on this end.

The writing is a bit more mature, the tone is a bit darker, and Clark feel like Superman so far. He sees the good in people (ie, Plastique),  helps others, and joined the planet to be part of where the 'action' is.  He's ready to be the superhero we all know and love.

I suspect this season is going to be about his final steps into having a dual identity, flying, and disguising himself (I predict glasses by the end of the season).   I truly enjoy the Lois and Clark banter, Tess Mercer (Tessmacher and Mercy) Davis Bloome (wasn't expecting to enjoy his character at all, but so far so good), and Plastique.  I look forward to seeing Maxima, the return of Brainiac, Doomsday unleashed, and of course, the Legion of Superheroes episode. 

So far, this points to being a real solid handling of Superman: the early days, this season.  Here's hoping!  Anyone else catch the first two eps?

[Paul (ral)]

All in all I thought episode 1 was good, but a little let down by the ending - it seemed a little anti-climatic.

I am watching episode 2 tonight.

btw, Davis Bloome is the main character in the Star Wars: Force Unleashed video game!