Smallville: The Complete Tenth Season

It's hard to believe that it's all over. 'Smallville' seemed like it was going to run forever, but it became clear that the further the show went on the sillier it became. At least it did for me. I felt the series tried too hard near the end of its run to smash every well-known Superman aspect into it. Watching Clark grow up in the first few seasons and his tumultuous relationship with Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) was the best part of the show. It's hard to pinpoint when it became a shadow of its former self, but for me I'd have to say 'Smallville' was never the same when Rosenbaum left.

Wide-eyed high school student Clark Kent has come a long way though. He's moved on from his small town surroundings and taken up a job at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. The tenth season packs in quite a lot of Superman mythology as it builds towards the series finale. Clark and Lois Lane continue the relationship that they started to develop in season nine. Clark struggles with finding out who Superman really is. What becomes tiresome throughout the season, and really the past couple seasons, is Clark's on-again, off-again indecision to become a superhero. He hems and haws as the show meanders its way to the series finale where suddenly all the uncertainty culminates in the conclusion.

Clark's father issues take center stage as well as Clark not only deals with visions of his earthly father giving him advice but also has to deal with the seemingly ungrateful and harsh words from his other-worldly father.

The problem with much of the tenth season is that the first half of the season doesn't actually feel like it's building towards a series-ending climax. Instead it feels like any other season, at least until we hit the last half. Even though we were promised a good helping of Darkseid as Clark's main nemesis of this season, he isn't around enough to make the first half of the season exciting. What we're left with is Clark's pining for Lois and his constant battle with his own patriarchal problems.

With that said, I know that there are die-hard 'Smallville' fans out there that will overlook many of this season's stumbling blocks and simply get excited for the big ending that the show had planned. For a casual fan of the series like me, I felt a little let down. I didn't feel like the tenth season held much suspense or intrigue. I thought that for the most part it felt like any other season of the show. Some of the episodes came across so corny that I was getting a 'Lois and Clark' vibe.

As the show comes to a close, hardcore fans may find themselves shedding a tear or two. That's fine. This show has been around enough to garner that kind of emotional involvement. People fell in love with the series when it first premiered because it was a way we'd never looked at the Man of Steel before. An unsure young kid who's just trying to make it through high school with alien superpowers.

The show tended to falter whenever the writers and showrunners tried to introduce way too much Superman mythology, cramming it into these past couple seasons and losing that personal touch. I've always liked Welling as Clark Kent, even if his performance has never shown much emotional range. It was the other numerous bit parts and side characters that took up way too much screen time.

The tenth season may not have been the absolute best way to send off the show, but considering the direction 'Smallville' had been moving in the past couple seasons, I guess it was as good a series finale as it was going to get.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

This set from Warner is a 4-disc Blu-ray set. They're each a 50GB Blu-ray Disc. They're packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase that slides neatly into an outer cardboard slipcase. It's a region free release.

This set from Warner is a 4-disc Blu-ray set. They're each a 50GB Blu-ray Disc. They're packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase that slides neatly into an outer cardboard slipcase. It's a region free release.

The 1080p image produced for 'Smallville' has always been plagued by inconsistent, and at times downright silly, special effects. I know that this is a series with a limited budget, but some of the special effects just don't translate well into a high definition medium like Blu-ray.

Effects aside, the presentation here is striking. Detail is top-notch whether we're talking close-ups or long-range photography. Colors are bright and bold. Blacks are deep, producing shadows which delineate well, creating a depth that helps the picture's wonderful dimensionality.

As for artifacting, a few scenes produce pretty noticeable banding, but other than that I didn't really catch much of anything else. Noise, aliasing and crushing all were kept at bay. Barring some of the jarringly silly special effects, this season's video presentation is simply a great-looking one.

Here's where you'll notice a huge difference from the other seasons. Warner has been spotty at best when providing lossless audio to its recent television seasons. As recent as the ninth season we got a lackluster 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Here we get a full-fledged DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track. Blu-ray fans have been clamoring for Warner to get with the program and start releasing these season sets with lossless audio and it seems they've finally listened.

The difference is immediately noticeable. The surround sound feels much more present. It feels weightier, like it's producing sound that engulfs you at every turn. The busy Daily Planet offices are full of ambient noise as people mill about getting work done. Dialogue is always clear here and directionality works wonders. The whoosh effects as Clark zooms from one end of the set to the other to save people smoothly pans across the front channels.

LFE is a non-stop assault of deep, thumping bass. Whether it be the pop song-laden soundtrack or the copious amounts of explosions contained in season ten, the sub-woofer is certainly put to work and excels during every action scene. This is the audio presentation 'Smallville' fans have been waiting for.

• Audio Commentaries – Seems a bit lazy to include only two commentaries on a 22-episode season which just so happens to be the very last season of a very popular show. The season premiere, "Lazarus" is given a commentary along with the 19th episode called "Dominion." It's even sadder that the two-hour finale doesn't even have a commentary to accompany it.


• Back in the Jacket: A Smallville Homecoming (HD, 20 min.) – This is a chance for the cast and crew to reminisce about the show and how far they've traveled with it, where their characters have taken them, along with the show's themes and the purposes of the final season.


• The Son Becomes the Father (HD, 17 min.) – This is the daddy issues special feature as we get to see the relationships between Clark and his worldly father Jonathan Kent along with his alien father Jor-El. Also covered here is the relationship between Lex Luthor and his father Lionel.


• Deleted Scenes (SD, 4 min.) – Very short deleted scenes are available for "Shield," "Supergirl," "Beacon," "Scion," and "Abandoned."


• Music Video (SD, 4 min.) – A music video for the song "How Do We Do."

It had a good run, and I get a feeling fans will, overall, be happy with the way the series ended, even if it did meander a lot along the way. While some part of me is sad that the show is gone, it's obvious that it had run its course, and that the last few seasons seemed to be running on fumes. Even then, 'Smallville' stayed somewhat interesting and took its fans along for quite the ride. This last season is recommended for all who loved the show and also for those fans who were jonesing for lossless audio on a Warner television release.