Smallville Season 8 DVD Review
One thing I always strive for at SHoE is not halfway doing anything. Okay, almost not. In the case of the season eight DVD I really wanted to take everything into consideration while preparing my review for the site. This included watching everything on the new collection that makes up what a great season this was. And despite UPS hurling said collection at my door, shattering the case and the first two discs of the set (like it was a personal vendetta) I made up for what I lost with the BluRay version and carried on.
Check out my thoughts on Smallville The Complete Eighth Season DVD after the jump.
Packaging:
Let’s start off with the first thing anyone is going to see when they look at this one, the box. It’s no secret that Warner Bros has had fun changing the design of our favorite Superman show over the years. The first four seasons were bulky sets with invidual plastic trays for each disc; they then upgraded to a sleeker design when Smallville wrapped it’s fifth season on the CW in 2006. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 all featured a bi-fold design that, when opened, featured a large (epic) image from one particular episode of each season. Season 5 featured Lex/Zod atop LuthorCorp Tower while Metropolis burned below, season 6 had the Justice League walking away from the iconic blast, and season 7 depicted Lex and Clark’s final confrontation in the Fotress of Solitude from that season’s finale. While I loved the images, I kind of felt like it might ruin the show for people who didn’t tune in until the DVD came out. I for one would have been VERY angry if I’d never seen season seven, bought the set to catch up on, and saw one of the last images of the year plastered across the set.
Season eight brings, yet again, a new look for the DVD’s, meeting somewhere in the middle of 1-4 and 5-7. A plastic case insert rests inside the box, and features indivdual trays for the discs yet again (and the crowds rejoice: no more “easy scratch edition” cases!) The plastic lining is clear, and a faint image can be seen of our season 8 cast in the background in the bullpen of the Daily Planet. As always, there is a booklet accompanying the set with a message from our new showrunners, Kelly, Brian, Todd, and Darren, that talks about the challenges of taking the reigns on Smallville in the midst of losing Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, John Glover, and Al and Miles. The booklet also offers a brief synopsis of all 22 episodes of the season, and which episodes/discs contain special features like audio commentaries, unaired scenes, and documentaries.
Content:
I think the episodes of this season speak for itself. It was a high charged change for the show, moving away from the barn and into the streets of Metropolis for Clark Kent aka the Red-Blue Blur. There are new faces and new trials and tribulations, all leading to a climactic battle with Doomsday in the end, and the loss of fan favorite Jimmy Olsen. All 22 episodes are featured, covering the season that aired from September 2008 – May 2009. One thing I love about the DVD’s is the unaired or deleted scenes. Sometimes they’re just fun little moments, but sometimes they are great dialogue that delves deeper into the mythology of the show, and I love that they are able to be seen and get some recognition. Deleted scenes included are from the episode Plastique, Instinct, Legion, Power, Requiem, Turbulence, Hex, Eternal, Beast, and Injustice, and are some great insights into some already fantastic episodes.
There are two episode commentaries this go around, one for Instinct featuring Cassidy Freeman, director Marizee Almas, and Executive Producer Brian Peterson. This one was of the best episodes of the season in my opinion and I’m very glad they devoted one of the features to it. The other was for a huge episode for Smallville in general, Legion, which was written by DC favorite Geoff Johns, who also is featured in the commentary alongside executive producer Todd Slavkin and supervising producer Tim Scanlan. The Legion commentary alone was, without a doubt, worth the purchase of this set. Hearing Johns describe the Legion, what he wanted to do, and where they wanted to go was incredible and a great listen for fans of Superman and Smallville alike.
Two documentaries grace this set, one on the evolution of Doomsday and what it took to bring him into the series, and another behind the scenes look at Allison Mack’s directorial debut with the episode, Power. This was a great look at the cast and crew and makes me wish there had been one for John Schneider, Tom Welling, and Michael Rosenbaum from previous seasons when they directed. The documentaries are great and having two this year was really a treat, though I would have liked to maybe seen a documentary focusing on lots of the DC characters from this year like Maxima and the Justice League, instead of just Doomsday.
The real thing that always bothers me about these sets, is the lack of features. In years past we had gag reels that always made for fun to watch, but I think some things should go deeper than that. It’s no secret that Smallville knows how to put out a trailer or TV spot for upcoming episodes, like the 2009 promo for Legion:
Or the one for Bride, which was particularly epic:
I’m a big fan in these trailers being on the DVD alongside their corresponding episodes, but I’m afraid that’s something we’ll never get to see. One other feature I think that would have been great was the Smallville panel from last months San Deigo Comic Con, which was the first that was attended by Tom Welling, but that might have been too close to the release of the DVD to put together.
In Closing:
A+. Smallvile always knocks it out of the park and there’s even more reasons to love this DVD as it’s one of the strongest seasons of the show. As far as the BluRay goes, the Audio and Video are spectactular and I strongly suggest watching episodes like Legion and Abyss in full resolution for some amazing eye candy. I love that Warner Bros gets these out towards the end of the summer to increase awareness for the upcoming season, and this is no different. Smallville season 9 airs September 25th on The CW so order your Complete Eighth Season today on DVD or BluRay today!
I totally concur with Derek, I ordered the Blu-ray of the eighth season and I was really happy with it, they were a couple of things that I was disappointed by, not that I despised anything on the set because I didn’t. I wish they would have been more to The “Doomsday” documentary. I thought the ones on “Green Arrow”, “Lois Lane”, “Kara”, and “The Jimmy Olsen” Roundtable were better. I still hold “The Green Arrow” documentary as “The Gold Standard” of a retrospective on a Smallville home video package but I digress. I will say this in my Amazon.com review as well, I really think this in my top three favorite seasons along with Season 1 and Season 4. Sorry, Derek I know you love Season 3, but I just feel you have great episodes like “Relic”, “Memoria”, “Hereafter”, and then you have episodes like “Velocity” that totally sours my opinion on Season 3. I’m sorry at least “Spirit” was meant to be funny. But back to Season 8, Derek you and Steve mentioned on SHoE, that nothing since Season 6 in previous seasons has moved to one major story arc from the beginning of the season to the end of the season and that is what made Season 8 so good, which is something I hope Brian and Kelly do again in Season 9 because I think it makes the series better when that is done. But at the same time episodes like “Committed”, “Bulletproof”, and even “Stiletto” episodes that didn’t have really move the Season 8 arc forward were really good at being harbingers of story points and even arcs that won’t be tied up until the end of Season 8 and or until Season 9 and even until after the series ends. Such as Dan Turpin, Inter-gang, Bruno Mannhiem, Jimmy’s family, The J-Chlo relationship, and of course the beginning of the Clois relationship. Really good episodes and really great season. Go Buy The DVD or The Blu-ray!
I was many of the fans who got Season 8 on the day that it came out and not disappointed that I did. Was nice to see all the episodes altogether and helped to remember was happened in the season to get ready for the upcoming 9th season.
The two documentaries were nice and the deleted scenes were interesting to watch as well but at the same time understand why most of them were taken out of their particualr episodes.
Of course a more indepth documantry about Doomsday, from the comic to when he debued on Smallville, would’ve been nice although talking about this version of the character was still worth watching. A completely seperate documantry that could’ve been done was briefly talking about the other DC characters that showed up this season.
Having more than just TWO commantries was another thing that could’ve been added. I mean, the episodes Odyssey, Bride and Doomsday would’ve been nice to get some insight into with a commentary track to them.
Overall, this season was something I enjoyed and was a good addition to my Smallville DVD collection. Hopefully Season 9 will continue with the great work.
Looks like quite a few xbox fans here, I am a fan also and love to play games… my gf says I play way too much, but man it’s so amusing. I’ve been playing modern warfare and halo for half a year and can’t quit! What would you guys recommend? Anyhow, looks like a nice site, is this wordpress? I’ve made a couple pages myself and it’s not easy. Cheers for taking time to post this up.