December 10, 2008
When it was first announced that Doomsday would be appearing on Smallville, the question on everyone's mind was whether the character would eventually kill Clark. In the Superman comic book series, Doomsday is the one villain who's ever managed to murder the Man of Steel. The death obviously didn't stick, but Superman was gone for months before returning with an unfortunate mullet and enhanced powers.
A new promo has been released for the January 15 return of Smallville, and it shows that Doomsday will stop at nothing to keep Chloe by his side. Will the alien menace end up killing Clark, or will Smallville take the story in an entirely different direction?
December 4, 2008
Smallville fans worried when both Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum decided not to sign up for season 8 of the series. Thankfully, the cast changes didn't affect the overall quality of the show. With dangerous new villains and a renewed focus on Clark's ultimate destiny, the current season of Smallville has been one of the best of the series. Fans are happy and the ratings are sky-high, but will the CW's cash cow live to see season 9?
TV Guide recently interviewed Smallville executive producer Darren Swimmer, who said that issues with "actor availability" may prevent season 9 from happening. Could Tom Welling be ready to hang up his blue shirt and red jacket?
December 1, 2008
Last week I wrote an article asking whether Smallville has jumped the shark, inspiring plenty of fans to speak their minds about the current season of the series. Most agreed that the show still has plenty of life left in it, with some saying that season 8 has fixed many of the problems of previous years. Gone are the slow pace and the Clark and Lana drama, and instead we have Doomsday, Clark embracing his destiny, and an exciting new flirtation between Lois and the future Man of Steel. Even without Michael Rosenbaum around, this season of Smallville has been stellar.
We recently asked fans to vote for the best and worst episodes of season 8, and the results are somewhat surprising. It turns out that many people require more from Smallville than a shirtless Justin Hartley.
November 28, 2008
As reported previously, Smallville fans can expect a bunch of new super-powered heroes when the action-adventure series returns with fresh episodes in January. The episode aptly called “Legion” will reportedly introduce the Legion of Super-Heroes to the Smallville universe, which you can read more about in this previous article. Most recently, however, scribe Geoff Johns hints that he'll also be brining in a new villain in the form of the Persuader.
“He's one of my favorite Legion villains because he's this futuristic assassin, he's dressed like an executioner, and he has one of the coolest weapons, an axe that could slice an atom in half. He can slice Clark, so he can slice anything,” Johns said.
November 26, 2008
I'm really not a fan of the term "jump the shark," which people like to whip out on the Internet every time a television show has a controversial storyline or less than successful plot twist. In my opinion, it's impossible to know if a show has jumped until it's been terrible for at least a couple of seasons. For example, it's safe to say that Heroes fell to its death sometime during the awful season 1 finale, but it's far too early to declare Grey's Anatomy ruined just because Izzie slept with a ghost last week. The shark is jumped only when a series stumbles mightily and never recaptures its former glory.
The only reason I bring up this completely overused term is because I've seen people complaining that Smallville has jumped the shark in recent seasons. Are these people crazy or do they actually have a point?
November 25, 2008
The first half of Smallville's eighth season has been quite the roller-coaster ride. Lex may be incapacitated and hooked up to a bunch of machines, but Davis Bloome (Sam Witwer) has certainly made for a formidable foe in his absence. The paramedic first appeared rather nice and charming, but finally revealed his true self in last week's episode when he morphed into the deadly Doomsday. Does Clark have what it takes to stop a villain as powerful as General Zod's son?
Now that we're about halfway through season 8 of Smallville, it's a perfect time to look back at the first 10 episodes and vote for the best of the bunch. Is this season up to the quality of previous years, or is it doomed to fall short?
November 24, 2008
Thanks to exciting new characters and plenty of awesome action, season 8 of Smallville has been firing on all cylinders. Last week's installment left viewers hanging after Doomsday crashed Chloe and Jimmy's wedding, kidnapping the bride and taking her on the honeymoon from hell. The series won't be back with fresh episodes until January 15, and when it returns it'll feature some new super-powered heroes. The next installment, which is penned by comic book scribe Geoff Johns, will introduce the Legion of Super-Heroes to the Smallville universe. TV Guide recently announced which actors have been cast as the Legionnaires, and if you watch a lot of Canadian television you just might recognize them.